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majorrawne's review against another edition
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
arthurbdd's review against another edition
4.0
Essentially a short story collection, though enhanced by each story being novella-length and therefore having more time to establish itself. Full review: https://fakegeekboy.wordpress.com/2019/04/11/wickedly-fun-and-damnably-entertaining/
trackofwords's review against another edition
4.0
One of the first batch of releases published by Black Library under the Warhammer Horror label, the Wicked and the Damned is a portmanteau story – a collection of three loosely linked novellas, by David Annandale, Phil Kelly and Josh Reynolds. On the mist-shrouded cemetery world of Silence, three strangers – a commissar, an officer and a priest – are brought together seemingly by random, surrounded by the dead with only each other and the sinister mortuary-servitors for company. Confused and unsettled, to try and understand what’s going on and why they’ve been gathered together they each tell the story of what they remember last, and what led them to Silence.
All three are told in direct, no-nonsense first person, with a distinct and honest voice coming through for each one which really draws you into these characters and their stories. That individuality, along with each author’s writing style and narrative choice, provides an enjoyable variety across the book to balance out the unrelenting darkness while maintaining a sense that these stories do work together. They’re all familiarly 40k, but go deeper into the visceral, genuinely unpleasant nature of the setting than usual, showing a little more of the gore, the dirt and, yes, the horror of the Imperium than most Black Library books reveal. Overall this is a clever concept, which might not have quite the depth of narrative and character development of a standard novel but which trades that for variety and invention to provide an interesting introduction to what Warhammer Horror can be.
Read the full review at https://www.trackofwords.com/2019/05/29/the-wicked-and-the-damned-david-annandale-phil-kelly-and-josh-reynolds/
All three are told in direct, no-nonsense first person, with a distinct and honest voice coming through for each one which really draws you into these characters and their stories. That individuality, along with each author’s writing style and narrative choice, provides an enjoyable variety across the book to balance out the unrelenting darkness while maintaining a sense that these stories do work together. They’re all familiarly 40k, but go deeper into the visceral, genuinely unpleasant nature of the setting than usual, showing a little more of the gore, the dirt and, yes, the horror of the Imperium than most Black Library books reveal. Overall this is a clever concept, which might not have quite the depth of narrative and character development of a standard novel but which trades that for variety and invention to provide an interesting introduction to what Warhammer Horror can be.
Read the full review at https://www.trackofwords.com/2019/05/29/the-wicked-and-the-damned-david-annandale-phil-kelly-and-josh-reynolds/
commissarmatt's review against another edition
4.0
pretty good most of the way through, though the last third and ending fall flat
academianut's review against another edition
3.0
Three stories, interconnected briefly - the first had a nice style akin to Poe's telltale heart, but the ruthlessness of the character felt gratuitous, same with the violence of the second story, though it did set it up for a chilling haunting-type tale. But it was edge third that really caught me, an everyman in the grimdark world of 40k, swept up in a profession he does not feel fit for and a duty so distant from him that still again and again imposes its destiny... This was the most real and haunting character, struggling with the flaws and failings and human needs for security and love and the madness that comes when you're just a cog in a relentless machine. This story was worth the book, for me.
emperorxzee's review
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
kimsly's review
adventurous
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
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