Ravenor: The Omnibus

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It is one more than four saken,' he replied. 'It is a level of grief behind which is no furthestmost.' Eisenhorn was spectacular. Ravenor is better. This sprawling omnibus tells a suitably epic story, across not only the primary setting of the Scarus Sector), but across the galaxy spanning Imperium of Man and, in a rare move for 40k fiction, time itself. The characters are all fleshed out and distinct, with the most notable being the titular Inquisitor himself, Gideon Ravenor, a massively powerful psychic and intellectual who is physically confined to a mobile life support system (think Davros meets Charles Xavier). Abnett also brings life to a particularly nasty, but not simply evil, collection of villains.

Dan Abnett's Eisenhorn trilogy was well-written and popular. Another book in the series was a no brainer. What we got instead was a focus shift to Eisenhorn's interrogator, Gideon Ravenor. After The Atrocity on Thracia Primaris (capital letters, not to be confused with any other atrocity), Ravenor was reduced to pulp. By all rights, he should be dead, but his psyker powers and hatred sustained him long enough for Martian tech priests to entomb him in a mobile coffin. He spent some time studying w/ the Eldar in secret, and was eventually promoted to full Inquisitor by people who had no idea Ravenor associated with the filthy xenos.

Ravenor Returned - The team has figured out where the narcotics are coming from, and the consequences are dire indeed, yet the danger is minimal compared to the real threat. What's the real threat? Computers. Yes, in the grim dark future of the 41st millenium, computers that haven't been lovingly annointed with sacred oils and prayed over are evil. The complete story of Gideon Ravenor's greatest triumphs – and greatest failures – brings together a cast of compelling characters thrust into a mission that tests them all to their limits. None of them are quite what they seem, and all of them have a story to be told. And some of those stories are brutal and end very, very messily...

This sprawling collection is probably best read in one full sweep, as the stories are interconnected and the dramatic tension builds through the earlier novels. Even though the three main Ravenor books are separated by short stories, it's not jarring to have those pauses. Especially not when the former introduces some important plot points. Ravenor - After successfully executing the heretic Zygmunt Molotch, Ravenor and his team head for Eustis Majoris to investigate narcotics. Kids, don't do drugs! Thank Xenu I read this in omnibus form, because the ending is no ending at all. If I didn't have easy access to the sequels, the sudden stop would make me throw the book out the window. Thorn Wishes Talon is a bridge story. The title is a reference to Eisenhorn's code language, Glossia. The story sets up the major tension for the next 2 books: what Ravenor does (or does not do) could trigger the summoning of a daemon that will kill billions. It also sets a fight, Eisenhorn vs Ravenor, that we have yet to see. Maud Plyton, a cop guilty of the high crime of working in the same police department with someone who, once upon a time, asked a question.I like to think of Gideon as a good guy. He isn’t perfect, but he is perhaps the closest to a hero between the 6 books and several short stories I’ve read so far in this series. Even considering Eisenhorn. Nonetheless, I think that at times the intricate and for the most part enjoyable plot denied us a chance to get to know these characters better. With the exceptions of Kara Swole and Ravenor himself, most of his team didn't grow nor change throughout the series. Not to say they weren't interesting, but even something like falling in love (with a ridiculously stereotyped and yet still awesome warrior-woman in one case) or nearly losing everyone you cared about did not affect the tough and grim band. Setting A substantial portion of this book takes place on a non-Earth planetary body: - humans in a futuristic society That said, Abnett’s plotting and writing become tighter with every book: the Ravenor novels outshine the Eisenhorn ones, and each Ravenor novel improves over the last one. His weakness remains characterisation: there’s just too many expendables (and on the baddies’ side, expended) with little more than a name, vest, and weapon attached, no real conflict or character development among hired guns and a superhuman hard boiled detective. The last two novels in this collection are by far the best in Abnett’s Inquisitor trilogy or trilogies so far. Two characters (Carl Thonius and Patience Kys) have actual arcs and conflicts. Everyone has secrets. There are strong interesting locations. Sholto Unwerth is a comic relief that works AND one you end up actually caring about. And the novel directly works with the series’ main concept, Ravenor’s physical vulnerability, but stops short of making something significant of it, i.e. a palpable change in Ravenor’s character after going through the Hero’s Journey underworld of facing the world as a literal naked lump of flesh. (Ravenor’s main arc is the same as Eisenhorn’s and by now familiar and expectable, and with far less surrounding introspection and doubts by Ravenor to give it the same significance: a faithful Inquisitor’s slow descent into “radicalism” = the ends justify the means, using the enemy’s tools (or even the enemy) to fend off a greater evil.) As always, you can linger on imperfections, like the number of times "voluptuous" is used as a descriptor. But it's a trilogy and change that managed to combine character and setting with a consistent plot thread. Abnett repeatedly puts together exciting and varied setpieces, at a circus, at a meat market, at a bank, at a church. It's the time taken to have fun.

Patrik Belknap, a retired Imperial Guard medic will who will assist anyone, anywhere, regardless of their ability to pay.

Table of Contents

I don’t know what to say. I just finished the whole omnibus and… it made me sad. I won’t spoiler it. But, it sort of drove home what people have said of Warhammer lore : there are seldom good guys or happy endings. In the war-torn future of the 41st Millennium, the Inquisition fights a secret war against the darkest enemies of mankind – the alien, the heretic and the daemon. When Inquisitor Gideon Ravenor and his band of lethal operatives are drawn into a conspiracy to spread the taint of Chaos across a sector, their investigations take them into the gravest peril through space and even time. Wherever they go, and whatever dangers they face, they will never give up until their mission succeeds. I also like the way he creates little details that bring us into his story - fictional types of clothing, varieties of alcohol, drugs of choice, etc. They blend together to give his settings a real verisimilitude and his characters some life.