Product Description

In the War-torn future of the 41st millennium, the Sabbat Worlds Crusade has begun. With the massed ranks of the Imperial Guard hard-pressed by the evil forces of Chaos, mankind must prevail - whatever the cost in lives. Commisar Ibram Gaunt has vowed to lead the men of the Tanith First-and-Only safely through this campaign, but they must evade the treacherous scheming of rival regiments just as much as the lethal firepower of the enemy.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #353900 in Books
• Published on: 2004-05-03
• Original language: English
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 288 pages

Review
Dan Abnett combines the pace and action to keep you turning pager after page... - Enigma A writer with a strong sense of plot and pacing. - SFX

About the Author
Dan Abnett lives and works in Maidstone, Kent, in England. Well known for his comic work, he has written everything from the Mr Men to the X-Men in the last decade, and received particular acclaim for his five year run on The Legion for DC Comics. He is currently writing Majestic for Wildstorm, and Sinister Dexter and The VCs for 2000 AD. His work for the Black Library includes the popular strips Lone Wolves, Titan and Darkblade, the best-selling Gaunt's Ghosts novels, and the acclaimed Inquisitor Eisenhorn trilogy.

Customer Reviews

'.......mankind teeters on the brink of extinction.'
This book being the first of the series defines Gaunts Ghosts, where they came from, who they are, and why they are here.

Colonel Commissar Gaunt has been detailed to take command of volunteer regiments from the Imperial Planet Tanith. This is Taniths first and only contribution to mankinds crusades. During the process of taking command of these new men the planet is assaulted by a chaos death fleet. Gaunt has to decide whether to save as many units as he can and flee the planet or stand, fight and die at the hands of a superior force.

Gaunts Ghosts are an elite regiment of the Emperors Imperial Guard. Mankinds first line of defence against the horrors of the universe. Dan Abnetts series of books follows this unit and it's characters through their many deployments and battles during Warmaster Macaroths crusade to release the Sabbat worlds from the grip of the chaos abomination.

IMHO Dan Abnett has done a fabulous job of bringing these characters from the tabletop wargame Warhammer 40,000 alive and is a credit to this genre. This series of books must be read in the correct order for you to achieve the most enjoyment, buy them and I promise you wont be sorry.

First and Only
I've never really played warhammer 40,000, although I've dabbled, I thought it was an interesting enough premise to carry along into a book, a futuristic war with some really cool technology, and looking at other reviews it seemed the Gaunt's Ghosts series was the best place to start.

This book is based upon the trials and tribulations of the Tanith First and only regiment in the Imperial army who fight for the emperor to keep the evil Chaos race at bay. Who, with their legendary leader Gaunt, must prove themselves, not only against evil, but also against those in the guard who look upon the Tanith as an undisciplined expendable rabble.

Now to begin with I must admit I was a little (being an understatement) confused by a LOT of the story. However, I found that eventually, if you can just go with it for a while everything will be explained, and it's WEEEEELL worth it!

I've never been a sci-fi reader, usually keeping to the "tame" (in comparison to this series) fantasy novels of David Eddings and Pratchett etc. however I was gripped by the un-censored action in this book. If someone's shot in the head then damn, Dan is gonna make this as vivid as possible for you, make you feel like your in the book.

First and Only is a great book, and while it'll take you a while to get to grips with all the characters involved (there's so many names!) you'll care for them by the time you finish the book, and be hurrying to order the next one in the series "Ghostmaker".

Heroes rise from the Nameless Hordes !!
When I first started reading Warhammer and 40K, I avoided this series of books like an Ork Boyz Bloodbowl Jock Strap. Not for any logical reason, other than lots of books had been published in the series and I wanted to start on smaller series of books and one-offs to see if the Warhammer universe literature was something that I wanted to get into - not that long series scare me after 80 odd Deathlands books !! So after a year or so of reading the odd Warhammer book, and luckily finding most of the set - bit battered around the edges in a local charity shop - I thought I let Gaunt Ghosts loose on my visual and imaginary senses !!

Right from the start of this book your thrown into the heavy hitting and extremely heavy casualty action of the Warhammer 40K world. There is no slow introduction to the characters in a `Full Metal Jacket' boot-camp like way, you just have to learn their personalities as the story goes along. Though in defence of Abnett, the second book highlights in short stories a lot more of each of the Ghosts characteristics, the fall of Tanith and construction of the Tanith First and Only regiments.

Abnett's vision of the dark human 40k world is gritty and full of deceit, double-crossing, Chaos hordes, Quasi-religious nutters (both good and bad), regimental in-fighting and hidden agendas. The gist of the story basically is about a `Vermillion' classed message that comes into the hands of Gaunt, and how Gaunt tries to keep the data crystal from the hands of the agents of Dravere, whilst fighting off the despicable Chaos armies with his newly founded and acquired regiment of tattooed, bag-piped infantry.

In my own opinion, the only real downside to an otherwise extremely entertaining book was that Abnett in the first hundred or so pages, seems to introduce about 100 different characters - though some of them only tend to last half a page or so - reminding me the book `Fifteen Hours'. The story really only concerns about a dozen characters, but many people may get confused trying to picture characters and animals with no description other than a name, or a mysterious movement. But then imagination takes over and it is easily over-looked ! I'd also like to have read more about the Iron Men / Chaos Iron man hybrid battling each other. Some of the later books in the series also have maps, and a map would have been a bonus.

I would certainly say that whilst the book entertaining and a good read, I would also say that it probably is not one of the first books you should try to read in the 40K universe. If you like the writing of Sandy Mitchell's Cain series, then you should enjoy these.

Enjoyable, and will certainly leave you looking on the shelves for `Ghostmaker'. 5 out of 5.