Runo Knows...Fifteen Hours
Fifteen Hours is a novel about an Imperial Guardsmen in the Warhammer 40,000 universe, written by Mitchel Scanlon.
Fifteen hours refers to what is the average lifespan of a new Imperial guardsman. Thanks to a mix-up in the Administratum, Larn (the main character) and his company are routed to Boucheroc, the wrong city on the wrong planet. The city itself is under siege by an enormous force of orks.
The book is very short - only 245 pages - and follows Larn as he's called up, through basic training, and into his time on planet. It's broken up occasionally be a side vignette, explaining how the administrative error occurred, or life as an orphan in Boucheroc, or something like that.
The book starts off with the "flash forward" device, something that I find kind of a bit annoying. And given the brutal and pessimistic nature of the Warhammer 40,000 universe, you know it won't end well. Characters die left and right, and in short order, the book ends.
It's not a BAD book - just short, and feels even more "filled out" thanks to the vignettes (giving the impression that they were needed to make the book long enough for publication). As an introduction to the Imperial Guard or the universe, it gives a bit of color and trivia to it, but that's about it; there's nothing really that feels special about it.
Fifteen hours refers to what is the average lifespan of a new Imperial guardsman. Thanks to a mix-up in the Administratum, Larn (the main character) and his company are routed to Boucheroc, the wrong city on the wrong planet. The city itself is under siege by an enormous force of orks.
The book is very short - only 245 pages - and follows Larn as he's called up, through basic training, and into his time on planet. It's broken up occasionally be a side vignette, explaining how the administrative error occurred, or life as an orphan in Boucheroc, or something like that.
The book starts off with the "flash forward" device, something that I find kind of a bit annoying. And given the brutal and pessimistic nature of the Warhammer 40,000 universe, you know it won't end well. Characters die left and right, and in short order, the book ends.
It's not a BAD book - just short, and feels even more "filled out" thanks to the vignettes (giving the impression that they were needed to make the book long enough for publication). As an introduction to the Imperial Guard or the universe, it gives a bit of color and trivia to it, but that's about it; there's nothing really that feels special about it.