What happened to Deltrian? He's just left floating in the void without a Navigator so does he just die? Starve to death? We don't know, he vanishes from the story. I enjoyed the first of this trilogy immensely, then did not care for the second (so much so, in fact, that I apparently didn't even bother noting I'd finished it), so I was quite happily surprised that I LOVED the third book. I am still shuddering with rage and sadness a little (finished the book less than 12 hours ago), the echo of the emotional connection I felt to Uzaz and Cyrion in their final confrontation was truly a literary delicacy. Throughout the trilogy, we are offered perspective on the actions of the tenth through the eyes of those humans they rely on to do the things that hulking, armoured murderers either can't or just plain won't do. Septimus and Octavia are slaves of Talos - the former his artificer and pilot, the latter the navigator for the ship tenth company travel in, The Covenant of Blood. Septimus has been enslaved for a number of years before we meet him, whereas Octavia is captured during the course of the first novel, so we get the viewpoint of someone who has already come to terms with their position in life and someone who is forced to. The reactions of Septimus and Octavia to the things the Night Lords do are a large part of the character building, helping to provide much needed perspective on what would otherwise just be a collection of stories about evil beings doing evil things. The presence of Septimus and Octavia in what is a persistently dangerous environment really gives the reader someone to root for too - even if you aren't swayed to the side of their captors by the grey morality of the universe, you still hope the two slaves will make it out alright, as they have had no choice in their fates. Crafting a narrative which is asking the reader to be on the side of characters who revel in acts of terror and slaughter takes some skill, and it's laudable that Dembski-Bowden pulls it off with such apparent ease. Talos, the 'Soul Hunter' is the main character of the tale. Talos is a haunted individual. Haunted by the former greatness of his Legion, by the former greatness of a cause now long abandoned, and haunted by the ideal of the noble warrior that he truly believes the Night Lords once were and could be.

I felt that Talos was doing some things without much explanation as to why he was doing those things. He makes some pretty big decisions without seeming to put much thought into them. All five of these books regard the omnibus and are solid 10/10 essential reads for any self respecting night lord interested in current lore: Mr. Abnett has created a cadre of characters in the Gaunt's series that I have grown to be very fond of. It took a few books, but once I was in, I was in, and EVERY one of their deaths breaks my heart, but it makes the series excellent. Mr. Dembski-Bowden achieved that same level of amazing character pathos in a shorter amount of time with First Claw and the slaves. The night lords series is a master peace. It delves into the dark heart of the 8th legion and its primarch in 3 novels we are shown the beginning of the legion, its terrorizing glory at its height and its fall into total darkness meany not willing to bend knee to chaos even as they fight amongst each other and the loyalists as there numbers and strength dwindle.

Are clichés wrong? Are they instead a shorthand way of conveying information? If you shove as many as you can into a book, does it make the occasional subversion more interesting?

The Night Lords - traitors and killers who use fear as a weapon - face threats from within and without as they struggle to rebuild their Legion and continue to fight the Long War.This is part of the brilliance of Aaron's writing- Talos spends so much of the series truly believing his fanciful notion that the Night Lords were noble, that they were true warriors, even if their methods of forcing compliance and submission were rather more brutal than even what the Space Wolves or World Eaters would do. This is made all the more believable by seeing Talos through the eyes of two slaves, Septimus-the 7th and Octavia-the 8th. Through the eyes of these two mortals, both of whom, in their own way, show their unwavering devotion to Talos throughout the tale, we see the true greatness within Talos as an individual. Talos' greatness, both as a warrior and even, dare I say it, as a man, is made all the more apparent by its contrast with the rest of the members of his Claw, the warband he's attached to, and the rest of the Legion as a whole. Savage weapons - not strictly a night lords book but may as well be ,contains the first fight between Curze and the Lion and which is pretty intense , free audiobook can be found here Why on earth are Eldar involved all of a sudden ? (hint: they were also involved in Lord of the Night)

The long night - who doesn't love a book about sevatar?, this book details his imprisonment on a dark angels ship and currently is the last entries we know of sevatar alive , free audiobook can be found here Prince of Crows - another Sevatar book and it delivers some of the greatest lines and interactions between the first captain and the Night Haunter The Night Lords were once among the most potent forces of the Imperium, Space Marines who used fear itself as their weapon. Now, cast adrift from the Emperor's light and hunted as heretics after their monstrous betrayal, the Night Lords clad themselves in symbols of death and fight the Long War, bringing pain and terror to all who worship the corpse-god of Terra. The epilogue also bothered me. How is Lucoryphus alive? But I can't say what bothered me exactly about the last part it just...it bothered me.Unfortunately, this makes character work difficult. When almost all your POVs are ancient immortal superhuman evil space knights who relish inflicting terror and pain and act as though they have any fair claim to moral righteousness whatsoever, it's hard to have much variety. Dembski-Bowden tries, to his credit, but most of the Night Lords are kinda interchangeable, with only one or two quirks or changes in appearance to distinguish them. The omnibus edition of this gripping science fiction series. Driven by their hatred of the False Emperor, the Night Lords stalk the shadows of the galaxy, eternally seeking revenge for the death of their primarch. Guided by the visions of the prophet Talos, a warband from this sinister Legion struggles to survive in a constant war against the forces of the Imperium. But when they come into conflict with fellow renegades and are hunted by the Eldar of Craftworld Ulthwe, the Night Lords find themselves returning to the scene of their greatest defeat and drawn into a battle they cannot possibly win. Night Lords: The Omnibus (Night Lords #1-3) by Aaron Dembski-Bowden – eBook Details Child of the Night - details the events and actions of the legions most well known librarian Zharost, Free audiobook here Yet another point is Talos’ ambivalence towards his human slaves, the evolution of his emotions over time and the complexity of their relationships. They too, just like another Apothecary who is a former Red Corsair Space Marine, develop a sense of belonging and become part of the brotherhood, of this dwindling band of survivors. ADB is a man who knows how to write a damned good story. His ability to make a damned good story is because the man knows how to make damned interesting and sympathetic characters.

The Eldar. There are not a lot of Eldar left yet apparently the Eldar of Ulthwe have no problems to send hundreds of "weak" Eldar to their useless and nonsensical deaths. It makes zero sense, especially when their lemming rush is followed by stronger Eldar who actually can cause some casualties to the Night Lords. But even that is a waste, because they have a SuPeR hErO who carves through the Night Lords like a knife through butter. WHY not just send her immediately? Such an enormous and useless waste of Eldar lives when one super-Eldar can just shred through them all. It was so bad it took me out of the story. we are granted a front row seat to watch a legion of psychopaths and depraved murderers and are surprised by mercy's granted ,love found ,loyalty ,brotherhood and the pain a primarch's sons bear for his vindication.The Night Lords are cruel, demanding and vicious, but in the context of a universe where there is only war, perhaps no more so than any other entity. The fact that they recognize the cruelty inherent in their lives and the lives around them perhaps make them more sympathetic as characters than the factions that matter-of-fact accept the situations and horrors that people find themselves in.