Warmaster Slaydo is dead. The man wrangled as many different bureaucracies, and herded as many cats as he could, in order to raise a crusade to take back the Sabbat Worlds from the forces of Chaos. He slew the Archenemy @ Balhaut, but was mortally wounded in the process. As he lay dying, Slaydo promoted one of his favorite subordinates, Ibram Gaunt, and ordered him to raise an Imperial Guard unit of his own. What should've been a mopping up action @ Balhaut was bungled by the new warmaster, Maca...

3 1/2 stars. I very much enjoyed the ride, but this definitely has the feel of a first novel. The breakneck speed of the plot generally works but it is all tied together a little too neatly and with slightly too many telegraphed twists and deus ex machina moments. I found the generic chaos baddies a little bit too generic. And some of the set pieces fall rather flat due to the somewhat breathless tone of the writing (the confrontation with the Absalom's captain and the scene with Gaunt and the w...

Abnett is still grasping for his style and talent in the first two stories of this omnibus, but the third is already among his best.

I should've read these books twenty years ago.I've often thought, bad as it sounds, that I like books more than I actually like reading. Much as I might enjoy a book, I'm always counting how many pages left and how soon it'll be until I can finish it, shelve it and enthusiastically start the next one - my favourite aspect of the whole endeavour. I leave large gaps (sometimes years) in-between reading books in a series, even those I rate 5 stars. I juggle many, many series at once. I jump about,

It’s bemusing that this book gets listed as an introduction to the Warhammer 40K universe, even on the Black Library’s website. Because… …it’s not really, unless that newbie is already primed for some schlocky sci-fi with tinder dry characterisations.The Founding includes Abnett’s earliest works in 2000, with the Sharpe inspired Colonel-Commissar Gaunt leading an Imperial Guard regiment on the Sabbat Crusades. Don’t worry too much about the terminology, there’s better books to introduce you to W...

One of the best Warhammer 40k novel series in existence!

An omnibus of military SF.These works are military SF. Bad things happen in them. Good characters get killed. But they have very dramatic plots, and many vividly drawn characters. Filled with honor and friendship and valor. Ibram Gaunt is a deeply developed character, and at any time, a dozen or so Ghosts are major characters. He does a massively multi-POV that lets in him get in a large scope of the battles they are in.(One trick he has is to develop a character in a short scene. Sometimes this...

Lots of action, Military Sci-fiNot much on extended charcter descriptions, most development is done through the action and the way the characters act throughout action sequences.Can be somewhat confusing if you aren't familiar with the Warhammer 40k universe.

The achievements, the losses, the relationships gained and lost. Abnett has this series on lockdown! A fantastic read through the challenges and triumphs of an imperial guard regiment and its commissar. Patiently waiting for my orders for the other omnibus books to arrive!

06/04/10: Finished "First and Only" number 1 of the 3 books in this Omnibus.Dan Abnett writes some good action scenes; although some of the actual warfare, weapons and tactics seem a bit out of place in a SF setting (it opens with a set piece that's more or less out of WW I trench warfare, complete with poison gas...)Very little about the Warhammer 40K background, setting and tech level is explained - which mostly doesn't matter to the story, but is a bit frustrating as a Warhammer uninitiated r...

Intense, vivid, detailed, pure-play, big on story structure. Characters, ensemble, three books together, great map. Dense words, not one wasted. Memorable. Mozart effect. I got smarter, and out of breath. I had the best time! Next!

So, here I am back to the world of Warhammer 40K. This time, my victims were the Imperial Guard sweethearts: Gaunts' Ghosts.In an overall, Dan Abnett is a great amazing writer. I'm not a fan of eternal battles but Dan puts into his writing humanity. And that, I confess, saves the day. He doesn't describe a battle to the boring detail of how many soldiers go to the front, how many bullets are lost, how many tanks go meeting their creator. No. Dan writes about people, for people. You feel what the...

If you are a Warhammer 40k fan, then basically anythig Dan Abnett writes should be automatically added to your library. Gaunt's Ghosts, in particular, is an excellent series, better than any other in Warhammer, from my point of view. When it comes to fiction, I have come to be in the habbit of judging extended series based on how many characters from it I remember the names and personalities of-in short, how many the author makes me give a damn about. For this.....the list is enormous. By the

I read this book not as a warhammer fan, but as a spouse to one. Keep that in mind as you read this review.[return][return]Gaunt's Ghosts, for those unfamiliar is about a regiment of Imperial Guard, led by a colonel commissar. What makes this band special is that the night they were commissioned, their commander saved them from the destruction of their homeworld. Viewed as homeless, barbaric and useless, this band is the underdog, striving through each war to win a new planet for themselves, usu...

*copy from Netgalley in exchange for a review*Gaunt’s Ghosts is one of the flagship series of the Warhammer 40,000 novel-verse. There’s fifteen or so of them now, chronicling the adventures of the titular Ghosts, a regiment of guardsmen, regular humans, trying to make their way in a universe filled with demons, super-human cyborg warriors, psychotic orcs, condescending, murderous space-elves and all sorts of other creatures with attitudes that range from grudging tolerance to apocalyptic hostili...

I'm gonna review this one as whole, so I don't have to go and click for all the 3 books from the founding. First and Third books are masterpiece. Necropolis is my second favorite book in the series, second only to Traitor General - which is from The Lost series.

First & Only was the book that got me interested in writing in general and sci-fi particularly. It was an amazing (and brilliantly graphic) portrayal of war in a sci-fi setting. I absolutely loved Colm Corbec, and the fight through the tunnels underneath Menazoid Epsilon was incredibly harrowing and nerve-wracking, even now after having read it twenty times! Ghostmaker was just as superb, collecting the original awesome short stories together; my personal favourite is the original "pilot" story

Excellent. You really empathise with the characters. They're all friends - even the bad guys :) The humour is just right alongside the 'trench' warfare. Will definitely read again. Dan is a charismatic writer - will keep an eye out for his books on other subjects to see if he retains it.

This series of which I have read 17 novels regards the exploits of a military officer in the far future. He attempts to hold together the last remains of the population of a ravaged world, honing them as a military force and forwarding the constant fight against the enemies of man kind. The setting of this series deviates from both reality and other fiction novels so much that its full description could take an hour or more. Needless to say I found the complexity of the world to be delightful an...

Sharpe's Rifles in Space.Another one I didn't expect to read, but got it from a friend. I enjoyed my read as previously stated, it reminded me a lot of Cornwall's Sharpe's Rifles series although a bit more confusing. Abnett throws in a lot of names and eventually you get a sense of the core cast as the red shirts die off: Gaunt (obviously) a political commissar turned military commander; Colonel Cobnec, his easy going XO; Major Rawne, who hates his commanders guts, Mad Larkins the sniper, Mkoll