The Purging of Kadillus - the review

The third of the Space Marines Battles book I have read is the Purging of Kadillus by Gav Thorpe. Helsreach was great, I thought that Rynns World was OK and no matter how many times I try and read the White Scars book I end up failing so it was with mixed emotions that I delved into the Dark Angels in detail.

Of course being a good Son of Russ I distrust the boys in green, I've heard rumours from the Long Fangs that all of them didn't make it out of the Great Heresy with clean souls unlike us who never faltered in our support of the All Father.

A very brief (don't want to give anything away) synopsis of the book is that the Dark Angels Third Company led by Belial fend off an Ork invasion ordered by the Maggie Thatcher of 40K Ghazghkull. Of course being a Space Marines battles book the odds are stacked against the Dark Angels.

So what did I like about it? The fact that its a Dark Angels book that has nothing to do with the fallen. You see the Dark Angels as you would any other chapter, defenders of the Imperium, the Emperor's finest and that's it. I also really like that its a book about Space Marines, Guard and Orks and it would be easy to see it recreated on the table top.

What I didn't like it and its something creeping into Black Library books is a lack of imagination when it comes to names. There are millions of worlds in the Imperium and the worlds are spread across light years, do we really need another character called Uriel? Surprisingly from me after my thoughts on Prospero Burns I thought it was a little simple which I suppose its going to be, there can't really be much character development in a single battle.

My final point and its just for Graham if he is reading, the start of the book contains an attack on a 'cough' Squats 'cough' world. (Just pretend Demiurge are Squats mate).

6/10 not a masterpiece but enjoyable.