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Title: Farsight
Series: Warhammer 40K: Tau
Author: Phil Kelly
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: SF
Pages: 124
Words: 39K
I read this novella as a buddy read with Dave and Markus. We did our conversing via Whatsapp and it worked out quite well for me. I installed it on my computer instead of just using my phone, so it became an instant messenger. Which allowed me to tickety tack away whenever a thought crossed my mind. It also allowed the other two to discuss various Warhammer 40K books and storylines well beyond my knowledge. It was quite enjoyable, just watching others who knew a subject well to be able to talk about it.
This was definitely NOT a place to start if you have no knowledge of the Warhammer 40,000 Universe. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that it isn’t a good place to start for anyone, even those who might be familiar with the Empire of Man. The Tau are aliens and Farsight is a very historical figure. But if you don’t know that going in, as was the case with me, you are forced to wonder why we spend all this time with this apparently random character. If you have a grasp of the history, I’m sure this was a very exciting story.
For me, I was confused completely on my first read through. I complained a lot to Dave and Markus and Markus started talking history. That helped build a framework for me when I read through this again. Without that framework, I’m not sure that even a second read would have been enough.
Overall, while I didn’t dislike this story, I was so at sea for most of it, that it put a real damper on my enthusiasm to read further Tau novels. I’ll read them, but my expectations are quite tempered.
★★★☆☆
From the Publishers:
The oxide deserts of Arkunasha are red with spilt blood. The orks of Waaagh! Dok have invaded en masse, and the besieged tau settlers are on the edge of extinction. When the famous general O’Shoh arrives to shatter the greenskins at the head of a high-tech army of battlesuits, the tau expect an easy victory, but the battle-hungry orks outnumber the tau four hundred to one, and the planet’s vicious rust storms have a devilish appetite of their own. Can the rising star of the fire caste solve the riddle of Arkunasha’s haunted past before Dok Toofjaw’s monstrous cyborgs conquer the planet completely?
It’s one of Commander Farsight’s defining battles – and features some audacious action sequences, including a vicious duel in a medical chamber that will make you look at Farsight in a whole different way. The story also has all sorts of hints to the origins of Farsight’s famous companions, “the Eight”…
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