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Title:
The Tau Empire
Series: Warhammer 40K: Tau
#5
Author: Braden Campbell
Rating: 3
of 5 Stars
Genre: SF
Pages:
399
Words: 139K
Publish: 2016
Holy
smokes, it has been TWO YEARS since I read the novella Farsight.
Where does the time go? I bring this up because Farsight is
the anchoring novella to this collection of stories centered around
the Tau. I did decide to skip reading it again, so that definitely
helped me move things along.
One thing I have appreciated about reading the Commander Farsight novels (Farsight, Crisis of Faith, Blade of Damocles, Empire of Lies) is that he is a pretty positive and upbeat character. He really believes in the Greater Good and that he and the Tau can make the universe a better place. That is very unusual in the Warhammer 40,000 literary univerise and to be honest, I kind of took it for granted. Then I read this book and realized I shouldn’t.
Most of the stories here involve other Tau besides Farsight. He is the lead for Farsight and is also featured in Fire and Ice but more as a side character. The other stories deal with other Tau who have orbited Farsight’s sphere of influence in the previously mentioned Tau books. They are much more aligned to the grim darkness of the far future in WH40K. That’s not necessarily a pleasant thing at all.
Peter Fehervari in particular seems to absolutely relish writing stories about death and decay and the collapse of the mind, will and emotions of the characters in his stories. It’s not that everyone dies (as in a Russian story) but that everyone gets broken, very broken, in some manner. It might be their body or their mind or their emotional psyche. After reading these couple of short stories by him, I think I’ll avoid his full novels and collections. I suspect they would be too much for me to handle.
The other two authors, Campbell and Smillie were decent enough but once again, the stories were grim.
I am realizing that much like my foray into Cthulhu’ic Cosmic Horror, I need to limit my reading time in the WH40K universe. I also have to be mindful of which faction I am reading about. I know I enjoy reading about the Necrons (terminator like aliens millions of years old) and to this point, the Tau. What I most enjoy though are the ordinary people in the Empire of Man which I’ve read through the likes of Commissar Gaunt & his Ghosts and Commissar Ciaphus Cain, Hero of the Imperium. I need to seek out some Astra Militarum books (that’s the fancy way of saying the plain old soldiers in WH40K speak) and hope there’s some hope in them :-D I’m not holding out much hope though. Hahahahahahaa.
★★★☆☆
From the Publisher:
It is the manifest destiny of the Tau Empire to rule the stars. Guided by the principle of the Greater Good and driven by the orders of the mysterious ethereals, they conquer worlds, by words or force, and defend them by the might of the fire caste, noble warriors armed with advanced weaponry and powerful battlesuits. 'Shas'o' contains ten tales of the Tau Empire at war, featuring mighty battlesuits battling Imperial tanks, fire warrior snipers duelling with Space Marines and stories of some of the tau's greatest heroes, including Farsight, Shadowsun and Aun'Shi.
ToC:
Farsight – Phil Kelly
Fire and Ice – Peter Fehervari
Aun’Shi – Braden Campbell
A Sanctuary of Wyrms – Peter Fehervari
Commander Shadow – Braden Campbell
Out Caste – Peter Fehervari
Shadowsun: The Last of Kiru’s Line – Braden Campbell
The Patient Hunter – Joe Parrino
The Kauyon – Andy Smillie
The Tau’va – Andy Smillie
