Normally I avoid books in so-called shared universes, such as Star Wars, Star Trek etc. The common wisdom is that, while there may be some great books floating around amongst the countless novels written for these settings, they are few and far between and get lost amongst the dross. However, for a while now, the SF blogosphere has been abuzz with the news that the quality of books set in the Warhammer 40,000 universe (a setting initially designed for a tabletop RPG) is very high. The praise was high enough for me to decide to test the waters, particularly since the setting itself is such a rich, imaginative and grim one (dystopic doesn't even begin to describe it).

Perhaps this wasn't the best place to start. Deus Encarmine is the first in a two part series, both mercifully short in length. The basic plot is interesting enough, but oh the writing, the awful, plodding, clunky prose that falls with painful thuds into the mind. The narrative unfolds with all the subtlety of a train-wreck, and as for the characterisation, well, lets just say that for a long time I was wondering if the author was going to interrupt his overly-long, unexciting fight scenes, to bother with any characterisation, and then when he did, I immediately wished that he hadn't bothered!

How do the fire-fights unfold? A bunch of good guys and a bunch of bad guys square up and charge at each other shooting. The good guys realise they are outnumbered and out-gunned. They continue shooting while they extort each other to do more (have I mentioned the stilted dialogue?). They redouble their efforts (how they do this I'm not certain, pulling the triggers more rapidly, maybe?) The bad guys gloat at their coming victory. Something unexpected happens. Good guys win. Rinse and repeat. Realistic combat this is not.

About halfway through an actual plot starts to take shape. There is no subtlety in this - in fact it unfolds precisely in the manner the blurb at the back of the book tells us its going to unfold. To be fair, there are some unexpected moments towards the end of the book and it does help to build up some anticipation for the next book. One actually starts to feel some kind of sympathy with the main character and the impossible situation he finds himself in and by the time the book ends I actually did feel a certain sense of suspense over how things would resolve themselves. I'm glad I held out to the end of the book (I was helped by its short length) and since I have the second part I will be reading it at some point down the line to see how it all ends.

Just not any time soon. ( )