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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.
