Rating: 
Summary: More a Story Collection Than A Novel
Review: Unlike most sequels, this book easily stands alone. Portions predate the first novel and the characters are well fleshed out, without relying on information from the previous book.It is essentially a collection of short stories, linked together as flashbacks from a current situation. One story for each for the main players of the "inner circle" of Ghosts, and then a "finale" that finishes up the situation from which the flashbacks take place. The format is both a strength and a weakness. It makes it possible to read a "chunk" at a time and put it down while reading something else without getting lost, and as observed above, reading the previous work is not necessary to the understanding of this one. However, some of the same expositionary material is repeated (thankfully not verbatim) in several stories. (My personal opinion is that they were written seperately before being linked together.) Having a working knowledge of the Warhammer 40,000 universe will greatly add to the enjoyment of this novel, but is not absolutely necessary. The quality of writing would have earned a "4" had it not been for the repetitive exposition. All-in-all a solidly entertaining bit of fluff.
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