Only In Death

Dan Abnett

2007

The Tanith First-and-Only, with their Colonel-Commissar Gaunt, find themselves on the war torn fortress world of Jago.

In ages past, some long-forgotten race had converted the planet to a never-ending series of fortifications and the Ghosts found themselves commanded to hold the stronghold of Hinzerhaus as a flank of the Guard's assault on the forces holding the planet for Chaos.

A piece of cake for the Ghosts, really.

But this is the forty-first millennium where nothing can be assumed and as the Ghosts occupy the ancient remnants of Hinzerhaus they find that ancient ghosts awake and plans made in the safety of the Guard's central headquarters had a way of falling apart on the ground.

The Ghosts found themselves in the heat of the fire once more with the enemy in their midst before they knew they were even under attack. But it was the immaterial threats that ground down the spirits of the Ghosts as they fought for the honour of the Emperor, the honour of the regiment, their friends and colleagues, and their lives.

---

This could all-so-easily have been a by-the-numbers book (rather like Border Princes in the Torchwood universe) but this is well into the annals of the Ghosts and Abnett clearly enjoys writing stories set in this milieu. You truly get a good feel for the world of Jago and the crushing claustrophobia of the Hinzerhaus emplacement and in particular the feelings of confusion of all the troopers as they come to terms with the prospect of defeat and death in such an alien place.

---