I can understand why first Eisenhorn book is said to be best starting point for Warhammer 40K books. It feels familiar if you know Blade Runner or Dune or Star Wars. It didn’t hide sources of inspiration that well. Second book in Eisenhorn series does feel like its own thing. I might not have got into it if I had not listened first book and if it didn’t feel so familiar.
I don’t remember if Eisenhorn was portrayed as walking disaster almost as dangerous to his friends as his enemies in first book. These books are his version of the story and he sees himself as cool inquisitor but other characters’ reactions tell they don’t see him as cool as he sees himself. He runs into situations he barely survives. People around him are not as lucky as he is. He doesn’t get into fight every time he turns around like in first book but he still gets into trouble many times. This doesn’t feel as much Blade Runner as first book but Eisenhorn gets hurt and survives more based on his luck than his skills like Deckard does in Blade Runner.
After first book I hoped there was less action and more everything else. Book delivers so well I started to wish action starts soon after Eisenhorn had recovered his injuries from beginning of the book for some time. Now action make more sense than in first book where it felt coming after certain number of pages. Over all the book feel tighter than first book. There were times when the series was becoming one of my favorite scifi series but it didn’t reach the heights of my favorite series.
Warhammer 40K universe is something lesser writers can’t make work. I am surprised how much I have liked these two books and how well they have made the world work. I think it is because Dan Abnett doesn’t make these too serious. I hope the humor was intentional because these books don’t work as well when they get serious like this one at the end. There are two more Eisenhorn books to go. After that there are three Ravenor books and two Bequin books. Not sure if I binge all those in one go. So far these have been entertaining.