# Imperial Glory by Richard Williams - Advanced Review [Bane of Kings]



## Bane_of_Kings (Oct 28, 2009)

*Imperial Glory: Richard Williams*
_An Imperial Guard Novel_​
_“The Brimlock Eleventh fight to claim the planet Voor for themselves. There’s just one problem... A big, fat and green problem, standing in their way.”_ 
~The Founding Fields​
*Note:* _This is an advanced review for Black Library Publishers. See this novel in stores in August 2011._ 

Don’t you just love Imperial Guard Novels? They’ve recently, or rather, since Cadian Blood by Aaron-Dembski-Bowden, taken a rise in quality, at least in my opinion, with the novels that followed it. Redemptation Corps by Rob Sanders was pretty awesome, as well as Dead Men Walking by Steve Lyons. Now, we have the latest Imperial Guard Novel, written by the author of Relentless, which is now Out of Print, and focuses on the Brimlock Eleventh Regiment of Imperial Guard, bog-standard, human troops sent out to the sea of stars to fight against the nightmares of aliens and heretics that threaten the Imperium of Man.

Imperial Glory has, like most of its ilk, a simple plot that doesn’t require much effort to follow. It takes a Regiment of Imperial Guard, in this case – as mentioned earlier, the Brimlock Eleventh – and throws them headlong into action against a feral greenskin tribe on one of the many worlds within the Imperium. There is much at stake here for the 11th, for they are a battered group of Guardsmen and about to collapse. This looks set to be their final battle, in which – should they win, they will claim the planet for their own. However, this final battle may very well be their last.

Having got that out of the way, Imperial Glory, as mentioned earlier, continues the style of the majority of the Imperial Guard series. A random regiment against an alien or renegade faction over a random planet, the battle coming to a conclusion in one novel – which doesn’t look as though it will be expanded in the future.

However, I couldn’t help but enjoy the latest novel in this multi-author series. Although I’ve had problems with a few novels in the past (Not mentioning any names), this one is defiantly, or at least – I found to be one of the better ones. The characters are well varied, a bit stereotypical – for example, you get the Commissar whom everyone loves to hate, being one of them. His name’s Reeve. Commissar Reeve, to you.

But he’s far from the star of the show, seemingly coming across as the author’s attempt to build tension in the regiment, setting this aside as a nice little subplot. Other characters have a starring role in this novel as well, and in some ways, have more page-time. Take, for example, one of the Lieutenants who goes by the name of Carson, who is merely the second of the Lieutenants under command of Major Stanhope, another one of the characters who the novel is focused on. If you get confused by the personality switches, there’s a Structure Chart at the beginning of the novel which shows ‘who commands what’, in the Brimlock Eleventh. It doesn’t show everybody, with characters like Rit ‘Mouse’ Chaffey, ‘Red’, and the man Blanks, who again adds another subplot in this novel, who doesn’t remember a thing about the Thirteenth which he originally hailed from, and his real name – John Stones. 

And that itself, seems rather odd – after all, although “John” was the first name of Grammaticus, who was portrayed brilliantly in Legion by Dan Abnett, it didn’t really look out of place in the forty-first millennium, (or rather, the thirty-first, as it would have been in the run-up to the Horus Heresy. Note, if you read my very early (about a year or so ago, and not on The Founding Fields), review on Legion, you may perhaps recall that I mentioned John as an ‘oddity’ of some sort, and everyday names that are common shouldn’t suit the setting of the far future. My opinion on this matter has changed since then, as I believe it counter-balances the situation of Grammaticus very well. John Stones on the other hand, although not seemingly out of place with the names in the Regiment (with people in this novel who share surnames at least with people that I’ve met), but it does seem out of place in the universe as a whole, especially where the ranks of people with names like Marneus Calgar and Njal the Stormcaller exist. (They don’t feature in this novel, though). 

As expected, I’m not going to mention every character in this novel, but the ones that I’ve mentioned above have a pretty important part to play. 

With so many characters, one may be mislead into thinking that this novel drops the standard on the battle side of things, but no – I found the action to be pretty enjoyable. Although there are quite a lot grammatical and punctuation errors, my copy is an advanced copy so I presume they will be fixed by the release date. This still put me off, however. 

Moving on from the characters, the novel itself paces rather well, starting off with action to draw you in, and the occasional break in between, allowing you to really get a feel for what the battles are like for the every-day Imperial Guardsmen, who aren’t genetically enhanced like the Angels of Death, the Space Marines – who don’t feature in this novel, being it a series focusing on the Imperial Guard (well, it is obvious. However, saying that, Cadian Blood does have some astartes in it.) 

The description is fairly neat, decently sized paragraphs and long chapters that are typical of most Black Library novels on the market. 

In conclusion, although not one of Black Library’s best novels, Imperial Glory is far from its worst, sitting in the middle ground here. Nonetheless, as you’ve gathered from this review, I enjoyed it, and I hope that you will do as well. 

*Rating: 7/10*

*Should you buy this book? Yes *

You can read the original post here: http://www.thefoundingfields.com/2011/07/imperial-glory-by-richard-williams.html


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## Brother Lucian (Apr 22, 2011)

A fairly mediocre book imo, with way too many guard cliches pasted into it. 6/10.


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## Doelago (Nov 29, 2009)

Who would you recommend the book for? I mean "Should you buy this book? Yes" is a bit vague in my opinion, since you gave it a score of 7. I mean, I would understand if you gave it a 9 or more that yes, you fucking should buy it, but a 7 is a bit more "meh, you might want to skip it, but if your like this or that, like this or that, then you should buy it."

Now I am just sounding weird cause its so late.


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## Brother Lucian (Apr 22, 2011)

Doelago said:


> Who would you recommend the book for? I mean "Should you buy this book? Yes" is a bit vague in my opinion, since you gave it a score of 7. I mean, I would understand if you gave it a 9 or more that yes, you fucking should buy it, but a 7 is a bit more "meh, you might want to skip it, but if your like this or that, like this or that, then you should buy it."
> 
> Now I am just sounding weird cause its so late.


I would only recommend it for completionists that must have every BL publication.


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## Haskanael (Jul 5, 2011)

Brother Lucian said:


> I would only recommend it for completionists that must have every BL publication.


Is it that bad?


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## Brother Lucian (Apr 22, 2011)

Haskanael said:


> Is it that bad?


Just a mediocre book.


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## Brother Emund (Apr 17, 2009)

I actually enjoyed the book and finished it in 2 days. Yes, it is a bit corny in places, but I liked it. I even had a little tear in my eye at the end! The only bit that peeved me were: 

the death of the Valkyrie pilot. I kept thinking that he had not died and was going to pop up later on. I waited and waited and nothing happened. The 2 captured Guards. I thought they were in for a whole lot of hurt... but nothing happened. Finally 'Trouble'. Last seen being lead away by the Orks.... nothing... happened


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## darkreever (Apr 3, 2008)

Doelago said:


> Who would you recommend the book for? I mean "Should you buy this book? Yes" is a bit vague in my opinion, since you gave it a score of 7. I mean, I would understand if you gave it a 9 or more that yes, you fucking should buy it, but a 7 is a bit more "meh, you might want to skip it, but if your like this or that, like this or that, then you should buy it."


It actually depends on the scale a person is using. For some, like myself, a 5/10 means the object being scored is neither good nor bad, while a 7/10 means the thing being scored is pretty good. (There are some flaws or bad parts, but overall its good and leaves you walking away more than satisfied.)

However I do echo the sentiment of who you would recommend the book for.


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## Brother Emund (Apr 17, 2009)

darkreever said:


> However I do echo the sentiment of who you would recommend the book for.


I think I would recommend it to someone, if they are going on holiday and want to waste some time reading by the pool. It's not too serious, lots of action, the Guard getting a kicking, Orks coming out better (for a change), heroics etc, etc... 6/10


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## Khorne's Fist (Jul 18, 2008)

I finished _Imperial Glory_ this morning, and while it's not a BL classic, it is enjoyable. I thought the way the flash backs were handled worked well, and the characters were as believable as they can be considering the setting. For anyone who has served in the military some of the banter and characters will be recognisable, as pretty much every unit I served in had similar. It also show the darker side of the commisariat in all it's brutal glory.

It also handled the orks very well, giving an insight into how new hatchlings develop into clans when there are no mature orks around to influence them. We see some of them showing an aptitude towards being weird boyz or pain boyz without knowing what they are.

If you're a fan of IG novels or want a bit more insight to ork culture, this won't let you down.It's enjoyable even if you're not. 7/10 for me as well.


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## Yllib Enaz (Jul 15, 2010)

I've just read this one and really enjoyed it. Probably the most enjoyable Black Library book I have read this year or last. I would give it a 7/10 as well, but there really arent any Black Library books I have read I would give more than an 8 to in any event.


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## Unknown Primarch (Feb 25, 2008)

Brother Emund said:


> I actually enjoyed the book and finished it in 2 days. Yes, it is a bit corny in places, but I liked it. I even had a little tear in my eye at the end! The only bit that peeved me were:
> 
> the death of the Valkyrie pilot. I kept thinking that he had not died and was going to pop up later on. I waited and waited and nothing happened. The 2 captured Guards. I thought they were in for a whole lot of hurt... but nothing happened. Finally 'Trouble'. Last seen being lead away by the Orks.... nothing... happened


me too mate, its the only book ive ever been thoroughly shocked, saddened and damn right felt for the characters out of any book. it was like watching a epic film where everyone goes out in a blaze of glory and you actually felt for the characters. recommend to anyone.


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## Hachiko (Jan 26, 2011)

I really can't give enough kudos to Richard Williams for this book.
Sadly, it seems that Imperial Guard books are going the way of the dinosaur. It used to seem that they were a testing ground for new authors. I don't know if flagging sales is part of the reason, or more of a plan that centers on Space Marines first and foremost (hey, go where the money is), and books that are slated to be series of three or so titles.
Personally, I love the 'rank and file', human aspect of the IG books. And even though I've only read this and Orphans of the Kraken by Williams, I really hope to see more titles from him (will read Reiksguard soon).
Imperial Glory was emotional and exciting. I can see how some might see the ending as corny, believe me. But for those that it works for, it works well. Stanhope and Carson were great characters, and I even enjoyed the portions with Commissar Reeve (especially the flashback with him and Blanks).
In the top 3 of IG books (along with Cadian Blood and Gunheads). The only thing I didn't like was the cover, the face of the centered guard was a little too much of a Judge Dredd rip-off (and the cover has nothing to do with Mr. Williams writing).
For a BL book: 8.5/10


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