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Trooper - Blood Relative
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24th
April 05 |
Rogue
Trooper - Blood Relative
James Swallow
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this book from Amazon.co.uk
What to Expect:
An action filled war romp, perhaps seeing the Genetic Infantryman finally
meeting his match..?
Review by Richmond
Clements
If you’ve
been paying attention, then the name James Swallow should not be an unknown one
to you. He is the author of the Dredd novel Eclipse which, checking back on the
review, I seemed to have quite enjoyed and a few of the Big Finish Audios, including
the splendid ‘Jihad’.
The opening sequence
of Blood Relative is great fun. It reminded me of one of the pre-credit mini adventures
in a Bond movie, and serves as an introduction to Rogue and his talking equipment,
while at the same time letting us know the adventure is set squarely in a continuity,
taking place as it does a few weeks after the fall of Dix-I.
But before you
groan in horror at the mention of the ‘C’ word, fear not. While there
are references to various past Rogue adventures, like the Glasshouse for example,
we’re not in the territory of Star Trek or Doctor Who novels here, where
continuity bogs down the characters every step. Here it’s firmly in the
background; nice for the fans, but not distracting for a casual reader. Though
Swallow does, rather naughtily, mention other conflict zones... like Arrarat.
As if there’s not enough for us to do trying to fit the Volgan war into
the Dredd timeline!
Enough of this
though. Back to the book.
After a strong
opening, we enter the meat of the story, with Rogue intercepting a Nort propaganda
transmission, and deciding to act upon what he sees. At this point, I had the
book figured out. I knew what was going to happen next and indeed what the big
climax was going to be. But a very short time later I was to be proved wrong.
What I thought was to be the main narrative was in fact, merely the introduction
to it, and when it gets going, it’s great stuff.
I don’t
think it’s a spoiler to tell you that there’s no Traitor General in
sight in this book, but there is a pleasingly mad scientist instead. Mad doesn’t
really do it justice... ‘mental’ would be a better word I think. I
found myself thinking while reading, ‘Surely this storyline has been done
before?’ Now I’m not saying it has. I for one can’t remember
reading something quite like this (elements, though, are familiar), but it is
such an obvious plot for a Rogue story that I’m surprised it’s gone
so long untouched.
The story rolls
along nicely, with Swallow doing a brilliant job at fleshing out Rogue, not an
easy task with this the most flimsy of characters. He even gets a chance to examine
Gunnar, Helm and Bagman, and their individual attitudes towards Rogue, which makes
for some interesting reading, and shows that Swallow is not just a journeyman
author, but some-one with an understanding on the strip, its history and what
makes it tick. All this and one of the best lines of dialogue ever, worthy indeed
of Mr Gerry Finley Day himself: ‘Nien! Stack! Aieeeeee!’ (I may be
paraphrasing here).
The book only
falls once, and that’s in the finale, where Rogue, bereft of equipment,
manages to gather it back again in a fashion that’s just too illogical and
convenient for my liking.
That said it’s
still a very good read.
And it’s
to the credit of Black Flame that, this far into their run, the novels has managed
to maintain a consistently high entertainment level.
Buy
this book from Amazon.co.uk
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