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Title:
Fifteen Hours
Series: Warhammer 40K: Astra
Militarum
Author: Mitchel Scanlon
Rating:
3 of 5 Stars
Genre: SF
Pages:
190
Words: 70K
Publish: 2005
Most
Warhammer 40,000 books start with a couple of paragraphs about how
terrible life is. I’ve included the relevant part for this review:
“To be a man in such times is to be one amongst untold billions. It is to live in the cruellest and most bloody regime imaginable. These are the tales of those times. Forget the power of technology and science, for so much has been forgotten, never to be re-learned. Forget the promise of progress and understanding, for in the grim dark future there is only war. There is no peace amongst the stars, only an eternity of carnage and slaughter, and the laughter of thirsting gods.”
The first two sentences are most apropos. We follow Larn, a 17 year old who is forcibly recruited from his farmworld planet and is given just enough training to know which end of the laspistol to point at the enemy. He is never going to see his family again. He will never return to his world. Even if he survives the coming decades, he will only be allowed to retire on a new planet that the Empire of Man wants to colonize. Due to a clerical error, Larn and his entire detachments of farmboys crashland on the wrong planet in the middle of a warzone between Humanity and the Orks. Almost every new recruit is killed either in the crash or the resultant attack by the orks. Larn survives, only to find out that the expected life span of a new soldier on Broucheroc is 15 hours, hence the title of the book.
We follow Larn as he survives several ork attacks, shelling by his own side and then he is sent out on a recon mission that night with his little 5man company and some glory hound lieutenant. He is shot but survives to dawn, which means he lasted longer than 15hours. Then he dies.
Interspersed through this are little vignettes from other side characters, from a cook to the cleric who made the initial mistake to the General who is leading the defense of Broucheroc. It becomes obvious to us the reader that every character is in their own personal hell and only death will release them from it.
War is hell and the Imperium of Man is nothing but war, forever until it ceases to exist. This book shows us that in stark detail.
★★★☆☆
From https://wh40k.lexicanum.com/
After four months of basic training and seven weeks of Planetary transportation, seventeen year old Guardsman Arvin Larn of 6th Company, Jumael 14th Volunteers, embarks on his first campaign fighting against a rebel uprising. However, due to an error in communication, Trooper Larn finds himself fighting on the wrong planet in the wrong war zone at the city of Broucheroc; a city contested for over a decade by the small Imperial force of the 902nd Vardan Rifles Regiment against millions of Orks. Unfortunately, Larn is running out of time. The life expectancy of a replacement guardsman at the front lines is calculated at fifteen hours. Larn must rely upon all of his ability, his luck, and his faith in the Emperor to survive against the odds if he wishes to see the next day.
As the book begins, a mortally wounded guardsman in no-man's land questions his fate, wondering if it has been 15 hours and resolving to wait and find out. The scene shifts to Jumael, where a farmers son named Arvin Larn is caught in the imperial draft. During basic training, Larn meets the extremely tough sergeant Ferres. He convinces Larn that the imperial guard is a deadly environment, but he might just make a guardsmen out of him yet. During initial deployment, an administrative error causes Larn's company to land in no-man's land on the wrong planet where they are promptly attacked by Orks. Larn finds himself the only survivor of his company in the besieged city of Broucheroc, now attached to 902nd Vardan Rifles. He learns that the Vardan Rifles have fought on Broucheroc for a decade and that 3 Vardan Regiments were killed in this time. Over several hours of pitched battle, Larn learns several dangers of the front and that his life expectancy is a mere 15 hours. He overcomes several threats including gretchin snipers, artillery bombardment, and the largest massed attack on Broucheroc yet. As night falls Larn's squad is sent on a night recon mission in which they get caught in a firefight. As Larn runs for the trenches, he is hit by a bullet and it is revealed that he is the guardsman from the beginning. As the sun rises Larn dies happy to know he beat the 15 hours.
