| Title | : | The Inquisition War (The Inquisition War #1-3) |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 1844161382 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9781844161386 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 768 |
| Publication | : | First published July 1, 2004 |
The Inquisition War (The Inquisition War #1-3) Reviews
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Beautifully insane and masterfully written by an author with enough confidence and skill to unhinge his brain and let the daemonic possession flow through him and onto the page... and into you the reader.
Apparently this set of early Warhammer 40k books (and novellas) come from a slightly different angle than later 40k books. I can’t comment on that as these are the only 40k books I’ve read. To be honest, the 40k universe described here is so real and so overwhelming that I am reluctant to read Warhammer 40k books from other authors less they seem weak by comparison.
The main character of the inquisitor is a ruthless murderer, not because he is psychotic or cruel, nor because he places no value on human life. He is ruthless because he has no choice: in this dangerous universe, where human existence hangs on a delicate thread, we need people like the inquisitor to protect us. It is a tribute to the skill of the author that what appeared monstrous as I began to read the first novella soon began to seem logical and necessary.
If there was something that wasn’t quite perfect it was that the psychotic worlds the books moved through were so interesting (to this reader, and I suspect the author) that the characters occasionally took a backseat in order for us to marvel at the universe they inhabit. Having written that, in this omnibus format there are a lot of pages to read, and so taking the foot off the gas for the plot on occasion is probably a good thing. That’s not to say that they were cardboard cut-out characters that did not transform and did nothing but be a viewpoint for the authors. They had very different motivations, all felt constantly under threat, and not all of them made it... -
Seems like the notes of a badly railroaded and deus-exed warhammer roleplaying game. This is one to skip.
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Intuitions of great brass-bound, hex-stamped alien tomes, brittle with age, infested Azul. Sensations of arcane incunabula and palimpsests and chained libers. Of ranks of daemonic codices and opuscules – the very words of which might melt the eye to keep the brain from imbibing what was writ. Impressions of labyrinthine ebon passageways and inky halls and chambers and cubicles wherein books themselves were luminous, phosphorescent. Impressions of a maze so extensive that an ignorant wanderer might well leave his bones there. Of terrible immaterial guardians of these macabre archives. Could those brooding presences be chained, tamed daemons, embodiments of formulae inscribed within certain volumes locked in arabesque cages?
In the preface, Watson writes about the difficulty of producing believable fiction on the basis of a set of game rules; his answer was "to go completely over the top in style and also in content - to be lurid and brooding and hyperbolic and generally crazy, although in an elegant, ornate way where a dark beauty pervades the atmosphere." This manifests itself in the range of insane settings Watson imagines, such as cities that look like coral brains and gargantuan alien ruins sculpted from sand, and the gruesome events that befall the characters, who are forced to eat the tentacles of some kind of immaterial psychic squid, or have their eye gouged out to reach a state of enlightenment.
More importantly, though, this lurid hyperbole take the form of a sheer linguistic joy in the absurd ripeness of the prose (which mirrors the richness of the "spiced foetal lambkin stuffed with truffles" on which the Inquisitor dines). This produces a kind of glorious aesthetic and affective derangement which Watson may well be right in saying is the only way the calculated madness of the Warhammer 40,000 setting could be made palpable. At times, Watson approaches
the thesaurus-assisted stream-of-consciousness of R. L. Fanthorpe, with some of the same problems. Fanthorpe would famously get so carried away with the digressions he introduced in order to meet wordcount that he would end up without enough space left to conclude the narrative; something similar happens in the last book in the trilogy collected here, which is made up almost entirely of an extended digression. But what a digression! An extended adventure in the criminal underworld of a planet of bizarre religious fanatics, ending with a largely incomprehensible apocalypse.
The narrative doesn't make a great deal of sense and the characters are fairly thin, but then they are both subordinate, in the end, to the pleasures of the text, a grand guignol that appeals to the memories I have of the fourteen-year-old-boy who took the Warhammer 40,000 universe a little bit too seriously.Which was worse? The vile actions undertaken by his body – or the dreams?
He dreamed of luscious lethal daemonettes. He dreamed of poisonous fiends which were half human and half scorpion. He dreamed of ostrich-horses with voluptuous legs and lashing blue tongues, upon which daemonettes rode.
It seemed that soon those daemonettes and fiends might try to rip their way into the world through his very own flesh – which was his own no more. They might tear a gateway open in his bowels. They might emerge through his anus and then expand to full-size.
How his mind fought against this hideous prospect -
This book is difficult. I like it because it harks back to a bygone era of Warhammer 40,000 where the game was more squad based skirmishes than full scale battles. Namely, Rogue Trader. Being a gamer from the early nineties (when this book was written) I can understand where the author's coming from, and smile wryly at the peculiar goings-on a references. Someone reading this without the advantage of having been there would not have a clue what the author was prattling on about.
Even so, this now replaced/retconned version of the grim dark far future is difficult to really get into. I find myself feeling awkward when I read Jaq's internal monologue because of the uncomfortable way he seems to think it. Certain characters (such as the Space Marines and the Custodes) are so very different from how they are now that it seems as if the writer has almost no knowledge of the 40k universe.
Of course, that's not true. Ian Watson was a gamer himself at the time of his writing the books, so he knew what he was talking about. But compared to the later writings (even those dealing with the subject of Inquisitors, such as Dan Abnett's marvellous Eisenhorn and Ravenor trilogies) set in ostensibly the same universe, it is clunky, confusing, and out of place. This isn't helped by the authors writing, which includes unnecessarily obscure words and references that most casual readers (particularly of sci-fi) will be left confused by. His character interaction seems stilted and unnatural - even for the grim darkness of the far future - and makes it incredibly hard to relate or even care about most of the characters - except for the Squat, Grimm, who talks almost normally!
I've not read anything else by Ian Watson, and I can't say this book inspires me to do so out of anything other than an idle sense of curiosity. I want to see if all his books are this uncomfortable.
In short, I wouldn't recommend this book unless you're a staunch die-hard Warhammer 40,000 fan, or an old school gamer who has fond memories of Rogue Trader. -
What a long, strange journey this trilogy is. A very different take on the setting in terms of style, I really appreciated the raw adult and mystical tone rather than the stock military scifi prose that probably dominates much of the franchise now. It could be quite adventurous in its inclusion of the strange, the taboo and the real. In a nutshell: a Flash Gordon style romp through the criminally overlooked 1981 movie "Galaxy of Terror"... one where the hero is a jaded and nearly broken Bruce Wayne at the start.
It's not perfect though. At times it was not very fun or engaging, mostly in large chunks of the mid-to-late second book. I wonder how much of that was just the sudden focus of the Eldar with their stereotypical space elf plot points or how much of it was fatigue from the arbitrary, seemingly unfocused directions the protagonists' journey makes. Quite often I felt, "ok so now we're going here and doing this because we have to I guess..." But it picked up again in Chaos Child. And after the amazing vista we are treated to at the Battle of Genost, the climax of Jaq Draco's arc comes to bear, however disturbing and seemingly unfulfilling it may be; it certainly fits the tone of the series and packs a powerful punch while leaving us hungry for more (which sadly, will never come).
I would recommend the first book of the three, Draco as well as the Eisenhorn series as excellent primers to the setting, though the different approaches in each make for fascinating comparison. It's certainly a rare thing for franchise fiction to ever have someone of Ian Watson's level grace it. His masterful balancing of the impersonal and the intimate adds so much more gloom and terror to what is essentially supposed to be gloomiest and most terrifying of scifi settings. -
This book is quite difficult, especially if this is one of the first of your books set in the Warhammer 40k universe. There are some parts in which Watson goes over the top, yet he manages to do so while keeping a specific atmosphere. The narrative is quite awkward, the characters are thin and the interaction between them could have been better, yet the action and events make up for most of it.
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This is my first foray into the Warhammer 40K universe and I really enjoyed it!
The world is amazing - I LOVE it and really wish I had created it lol.
Watson's writing is gorgeous, although I did find his narrative to be a little disjointed and fragmented. But wow - it's great stuff.
The third part of the trilogy/omnibus was the weakest for me, although it still had really cool lore.
I understand that this trilogy is considered 'old school' amongst 40K aficionado's so I am interested to see what the newer books are like. I will certainly be spending more time in the 40Kverse. -
Being a big fan of Warhammer 40,000 Inquisition stories and fluff, I realize that this is some of the earlier fiction of the setting which is still appealing but lacks the development that is found in the later Inquisition-related works (such as the Eisenhorn and Ravenor series). With this is mind, I still give kudos to Ian Watson for spinning an intriguing (though depressing) story that lives up to the bleak Warhammer 40K universe.
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Not quite as bonkers as his previous Space Marine, and not quite as much of a piss-take, either. Watson seems more willing to explore the 40k universe here, revelling in the richness and madness to considerable effect. The schoolboy humour is still evident, but is not detrimental. Like Space Marine, this must surely be a must-read for any Black Library fan.
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The most interesting piece in Games Workshop's vast, clanking archives. It isn't canon: Watson does too much in this, messes with the profitable
stasis of the last years of the 41st millennium too much. The nearest thing to Illuminatus! or Snow Crash. -
Ian Watson’s “the inquisition war is from a different time. Warhammer 4OK as we know it today had not quite settled into the mold, quite a few things where still in flux or would be changed shortly or a bit later after these books had been published. Reading this book today leaves one who is familiar with the current lore on space marines, the imperium and universe at times confused and other times frustrated and bewildered. I won’t beat around the bush with this, I hated these three books. I Intensely disliked the main character, found most side characters to be equally annoying and or pointless, the plot was a bloated mess that has had little to no impact on the lore of warhammer 40K and it is quite badly written to the point of boring.
The main character is an inquisitor named Jaq Draco who along with his team which consists of a navigator, a squat and an imperial assasin, is sent to a planet currently under going a purging of genestealer cultists. Their mission to make sure the inquisitor in charge is on the level, not showing any signs of overzealous action which might indicate taint by chaos, for Jaq Draco is part of the ordo malleus out to check for the most vile of threats to the imperium, chaos demons and those that are in league with them. So far so good but the problems with the book start really quickly. In short there is a secret plot which involves a segment of the inquisition who plan to infect every world of the imperium with a fabricated warp entity called the Hydra which in time will infect every human and when sparked unite all of mankind in a single mind entity thus driving off chaos as it would not find willing minds to tempt anymore. The first thing any modern reader of warhammer will remark is, Hydra? Is this an Alpha legion plan? But no, this is a time before those guys where brought into the lore. Secondly, why have we never heard of this idea later? Well neither does the main character. In fact this whole plot of the hydra plan and a secret segment of the inquisition working on this gets pushed to the back and by second half of book two it is barely remembered anymore. The rest of this first book is is dedicated to Jaq and his team first traveling to the eye of terror to find the place where this hydra entity came from and afterwards infiltrating the imperial palace on terra to talk to the emperor and find out if he authorized this insane plan. Any modern reader would raise his or her eyebrows at this, as it would make Jaq Draco one of the few persons to speak to emperor in 10,000 years but he does and learns nothing besides that the emperor is basically a sort of mind collective or a subconscious mind at odds with itself?
That for book one and two things really stood out for me as eyesores, first of all distance. I’m sorry but even a high level inquisitor with a state of the art ship like his would not be able to cross the galaxy as easily and quickly as Jaq Draco does nor would it be that easy to enter either the palace or the eye of terror as he did. Secondly I got the feeling that the main characters act like they are playing a role game, you know like the role playing game that launched warhammer 40k in the first place, rogue trader. Their dynamics and the way the plot developed feels as role playing game fan fiction than a proper story plot. In particular the casualness of their interaction is at odds with their profile of inquisitor and imperial assassin, the love plot between them is exceedingly so.
The second book takes us a hundred years in the future and having been placed in stasis the main trio of inquisitor, assasin and navigator is cast back into the galaxy, their squad team mate had been separated from them but no worries they find him again on the first planet they set down (once again do we even acknowledge how vast the universe is?) This second book adds a twist to the whole hydra plot, you see there are these illuminated people, who had been possessed by a demon and freed from this hellish embrace now dedicated themselves to fighting it. These have realized that the hydra plot is insane, will most likely cause a fith chaos god to be born and want to stop it. They want to stop it by finding the secret immortal sons of the emperor and unite them to become at time of chaos rapture to unite into a new psychic being, the numen to take over from the rotting corpse that is the emperor in his throne. So yeah….. the problem here is that the persona of the emperor has changed quite a bit since this book; in short the emperor has become more and more otherworldly and less human so to have plot where he fathered children with random women across the galaxy? It is not compatible anymore. Secondly names as Horus and Rogal Dorn are dropped and used as companions of the emperor not the gene enhanced and designed primarchs of the legions. It almost feels as if the idea of sons of emperor stuck but was merged with these erstwhile companions. In the same vein of having become less human, the space marines make their intro in the story and these too feel way to human and are not treated as the gene altered human originated persons they are today, in particular references to lingering remembrance to sexuality is weird.
The main focus of the story diverts away from the inquistor himself and towards the eldar and harlequins who, unbeknownst to their supposed human allies the illuminati, want to set up the whole sons of the emperor thing to assure mutually assured destruction of both the sane galaxy and chaos to deny chaos its final victory. This adds yet another plot and complexity to the story which it already had plenty off but added for good measure is another inquisitor whom we met in book one and was connected to the hydra plot but has been mind swiped or something yet harbours hatred for Jaq Draco. Finally there is the harlequin man, a human illuminati who was taken under the wings of the eldar and is connected to all of it adding yet another layer of complexity. So what do the main characters do then? Why infiltrate the webway portals of the eldar, make it to their most secret place, the black library and steal the book of fate and end of the universe off course. This is such a casual disregard of the momentous nature of their actions in this wider universe that it baffles and once again I am remembered of role playing game fan fiction and can’t take this story serious anymore.
The third book brings us a shake up of the party as the assassin was killed by the casual introduction of an eldar phoenix lord that lets them enter their most precious place in the whole of existence anyways. She is replaced by a captain of the imperial fist space marines, Lex. Lex as I said does not feel like the space marines as we know them today, for starters it seems he is shorter and less imposing then we would picture them today. He can hide as a tall yet not exceedingly imposing human. His motivations are strange and I don’t buy them especially since that after the events of book two Jaq Draco is no longer concerned about the hydra plot, the sons of the emperor plot or anything else, he is motivated with finding the heart of the webway portal system where supposedly time can be reversed to bring back his dead lover, the imperial assassin Mehlindi. If the plot had been way over the top, now the plot is ludicrously mundane. Added to the mix are chaos space marines of the thousand sons who interfere and then watch but don’t act anymore? What are they doing? Yeah Tzeentch is unpredictable but he is not some passive actor. Why is that space marine captain going along with this, get my lover back plot? To make it worse a new character is introduced, a thief that kinda looks like Mehlindi so they capture her and use rare drugs to transform her body to look like Mehlindi so when they reach the heart of the webway they can use here body to put Mehlindi soul in…… What is this story??? Remember the hydra plot? The sons of the emperor? The whole imperium is at stake?
I don’t care about spoilers here, basically they pull it off yet Mehlindi, still thinking she is in a fight with the phoenix lord kills Jaq and is killed herself. The squat and the imperial fist make it back to the imperium while Jaq merges with a super entity of illumination at the hear of the webway…… what??
In short this book is a mess, the plot is overbloated, the characters act like a role playing game group not as persona’s in their own world, the style of writing is often bizarre with the following line standing out like the most ridiculous example “the universe is like a sparrows fart”…… what? Besides that Ian Watson has this tendency to interject the sounds of guns in the text so we have TUB TUB TUB and RAARKpopWOOSHtudCRUMP to enjoy. Like honestly what is that supposed to sound like? Almost everything relating to the wider universe, the nature of the emperor, the numen, the hydra plot, space marines, squats has radically changes since this book. It is lore wise dead end that has been buried and there is little to no point to these three books anymore.
I would be remiss however if I did not admit that some parts of the lore where good. The inside of the imperial palace is good, the queing to eternity, the mad inefficient bureaucracy, the squalor in the rotting hart of the imperium is really good. Likewise in the second and third book the segments of the eldar where good and fun to read. Finally in the third book, the setting of the desert planet who sun goes super nova makes for some harrowing and haunting scenes of human desperation in the uncaring universe, which is what warhammer 40K is all about. The bundle starts off with the Mehlindi character in a short story where she infiltrated a genestealer cult which was enjoyable yet it does not come close to redeeming this book. Only if your really interested in finding out what warhammer 40K was like in the late 80ties and early 90ties and what crossroads it had taken could this be remotly interesting but then you would still have to suffer hundreds of pages of badly written story and dialogue. -
This is one of the first (if not the very first) WH40K series. This is also one of the most mature, almost high-brow, WH40K books I've come across. Ian Watson writes using sometimes very obscure adjectives and adverbs that might considerably slow down your reading speed, but succeeds in casting the world of WH40K in an even more dark and disturbing light than usual. That being said, this is still an action-packed and fun novel that you'll want to read when you should be doing your errands.
The story is told as a narration (in the third person) by Inquisitor Jaq Draco. This is a story about him and his personal trials. Even though major Universe-altering subjects are brought up in this series, keep in mind that the story is really only about Draco. His character reminds me in some ways of Abnett's Eisenhorn, but being much more melancholy and doubting of his ideals. Both Draco, his companions (Meh'Lindi, Grimm, and Lex), and the antagonists are extremely compelling characters that each hide their own secrets but are easy to fall in love with. They are, in my opinion, the best part of this series.
Ian Watson's view of the WH40K universe differs in many aspects from that of most other authors, and while it upsets many die-hard 40K fans, you have to keep in mind that these books were written when the universe was really underdeveloped (especially when compared to the present). His version is even darker than most, and the near-total despair and miserableness he portrays casts the universe in a very grim light. Grotesque piercings, tattoos, and scars seem nearly universal in these books, with every character having severe bodily alterations. Personally, I don't like this vision as much as those of Abnett and King, who tend to make the WH40K universe a lot more livable.
Draco is the first book of the trilogy. Here, you are introduced to most of the cast of characters as well as the beginnings of the extremely bizarre and complicated Hydra Conspiracy. Jaq and Co. doggedly follow the mysterious Harlequin Man, eventually becoming wrapped up in a plot within the Inquisition itself that threatens the very future of mankind. This is the only WH40K novel that I know of that actually gives the reader a peak into the very heart of the Imperium. In the Emperor's palace on Terra, you get a rather disturbing glimpse of the Emperor himself as an almost Wizard of Oz type character.
The second book of the series, Harlequin, delves into some of the most obscure aspects of the WH40K universe. Probably the first book to provide a good look at the Eldar, HARLEQUIN gives some detail to the ancient enigmatic race. A significant part of the book takes place within the Eldar interdimensional Webways, where the heroes face unstoppable-seeming adversaries as they travel to discover the mysterious Black Library. Also, some of the inner workings of the Inquisition are uncovered, revealing the shadowiness of the galaxy's secret police.
The concluding volume of the series diverges significantly from the first two. In Chaos Child, the primary focus switches to Jaq's obsessions and away from the overall plot presented in the previous volumes of the Hydra conspiracy and such. This is the book that has disappointed the most people, who feel that Watson should have done a better job of concluding all the various plot threads previously introduced. Instead, it turns out the entire story is about Jaq Draco, and only Jaq Draco. Events that impact the entire galaxy are left for others to relate, as Watson follows his intentions and focuses on the story of Draco's fate and his trials with Chaos. To me, this last book is the best and most important of the trilogy.
The Inquisition War is a non-stop, action-packed thrill ride that will keep you on the edge of your seat with brutal battles and intriguing riddles. Death and brutality are widespread throughout the books, with entire worlds being destroyed and characters coming and going quite frequently. Nearly every aspect of the WH40K universe is somehow involved in the tale, with Eldar, Tyranids, Space Marines, Imperial guardsmen, Titans, and all sorts of chaos beasts and demons playing roles throughout. Ian Watson has received a lot of criticism from fans of WH40K because of his somewhat lofty writing style and his slightly altered view of the WH40K universe, but I'd recommend giving him a try. -
Along with
Space Marine, the three books of the Inquisition War trilogy - Draco, Harlequin, and Chaos Child - are some of the earliest examples of official published Warhammer 40k fiction. All are by Ian Watson, already a well-known sci-fi author. Unlike today's Black Library writers, Watson was given near-complete freedom and the result is . . . interesting. Thankfully, there is little of the weird scat fetish that marred Space Marine (seriously, WTF was that about), but still plenty of reeling madness that can actually be
kind of funny in the way
this Beksinski painting is kind of funny with its cartoony heads.
That being said, the trilogy as a whole has some serious pacing problems. Draco, for instance, features a trip into the Eye of Terror and breaking into the Emperor's throne room, two enormous undertakings worthy of their own books yet are handled much too quickly and casually. Maybe Watson was aiming for a tragicomic jaunt through the 40k universe, except I barely even remember what happened in Harlequin even though I just read it several days ago, while Chaos Child is mostly Draco idling on a single planet and naval-gazing (isn't there an Inquisition war going on . . . ?), so I don’t see why Watson couldn't spread these events out across the entire trilogy. *goes to Harlequin's GR page* Oh right, they broke into the Eldar's Black Library, yet another huge accomplishment that should have been given way more attention than just another little adventure surrounded by mostly forgettable filler.
Also, Watson's treatment of female character is gross. They are constantly being sexualized, either grotesquely (i.e. that fat housewife in "Warped Stars") or as fanservice. Lots of one-handed typing going on when depicting Meh'Lindi in particular. (Compare that to the
Ciaphas Cain series, which was also a straight male author writing a straight male protagonist with a hot girlfriend, yet didn't constantly drool over her and also featured a wide variety of other women with different roles and personalities.) Then . So glad Black Library has grown up since then.
This omnibus also includes the short stories "The Alien Beast Within" (a prequel about Meh'Lindi first getting her genestealer implants) and "Warped Stars," which features Grimm during the period between Harlequin and Chaos Child. -
This book is intensely, intensely disturbing. Written in the early history of the evolution of the Warhammer 40K universe it shows just how appalingly grim and more than anything else, hopeless, the universe is. As you read, ou realize that the characters are insane and that they are unreliable narrators. It's absolutely breathtaking in it's depth of depravity and lunacy. This is not for the faint of heart. Reading this is the start of a deep and existential crisis of faith (for Imperium lovers that is!). It's psychotic!
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A rather confusing narrative about a universe that I know little about. I don't play tabletop RPGs like Warhammer or D&D, so I don't know how close this novel follows the mythos of the established story. It's not as disturbing as anything Alejandro Jodorowsky has written in his Incal-verse graphic novels, but it comes close. Also, the characters are thoroughly unlikable and quite detestable. I will need to read more about the Warhammer 40k universe to fully understand this story...
May the Force be with you! -
This craptacular pulp was bought at the library, because I've been curious about the Warhammer series and...and it has this blurb:
'A ceaseless flow of ideas' - J.G. Ballard
Well, then. -
The prose is hard to follow at times but the characters are interesting from the get go. Sadly the plot loses steam in the third book/act which acts more like a drawn out closure, but overall a good story in the 40K universe.
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Not sure how this book series received low marks but I was impressed by it. I've always had penchant for Imperial Commissars & Inquisitors in the WH40K universe.
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Well, my English vocabulary has certainly broadened.
But good grief, the sheer amount of needlessly complicated words and sentence structures got old really fast, and contributed to the amount of time it took me to forge my way through the whole book. The characters and plot would've been just as interesting without the elaborate prose.
With that out of the way, the story certainly is captivating, the main personae multi-faceted and deep, and it doesn't limit itself to standard notions about the 40K universe. At least those are undeniable positives. -
Quick impressions: The stories do explore some interesting ideas, and they provide a look at the depths of the Inquisition, but the execution and telling of the stories leave a lot to be desired. It is a pity really. This book is mainly for the seriously hardcore fans of Warhammer 40,000, though I think even a few of them might agree with my assessment. For casual readers of this series, this is a book to skip.
(Full review posted on my blog) -
It dragged a little by the end and something about the language didn't gel well with me, but the series was also a wealth of knowledge about the Warhammer 40K universe. It brought social and cultural aspects to the various demographics so for that I'm grateful. Essentially 800 pages of imaginative technology, not a book for everyone though.
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Writing style was hard to follow.
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very good
