Book Review: Emperor's Mercy by Henry Zou

Book Review: Emperor's Mercy by Henry Zou

Emperor's Mercy is the latest novel dealing with the Inquisition and its efforts to stem the forces that threaten the stability of The Empire of Man in the Warhammer 40,000 Game / World Setting

Subtitled a Bastions War novel, the cover art is also used in the latest release for The Dark Heresy RPG, Dark Heresy: Ascension the artwork is by Raymond Swanland


This is a story of Inquisitor Obodiah Roth of the Ordo Hereticus and his main acolyte Bastiel Silverstein, who is a Hunter / Marksman extraordinaire.  They are members of the Inquisition working to safeguard the Imperium of Man.

The novel open up with Chaos Raiders hammering an Imperial world over running it within a short span of time. This is a great opening to a WH40K novel and raised high hopes for the rest of the novel. Then the newest member of the Inquisition is introduced and compared to most Inquisitors introduced till this point, is a bit of a fop. Seemingly more interested in his fighting gear and its appearance than in prepping for an insertion into a Chaos Invaded Imperial World, he seems more generic than of Ordo Hereticus.

The book cuts to their arrival on the world of Cantica and the follow on investigations and deductions of the inquest Inquisitor Roth conducts there and on several follow on worlds.

There are some decent fight scenes, some good new wargear pieces that a writer or gamer in the overall WH40K setting could pull from, but the main character could have died about half way through and then his hunter could have taken over and made a difference and it would have improved the novel.

I recommend it for RPG players for data and ideas to source from. The opening portion where he gets a handwritten note via clockwork pigeon sent via courier ship showcases some of the ideas Henry Zou comes up with. I just do not care for Obodiah Roth the same way I do about Gregor Eisenhorn or Gideon Ravenor elicits in me.

In Final Opinion:
It reads a lot like a series of game sessions. The main character could be pulled from Dark Heresy and this is a series of 1-1 gaming sessions, with the NPC of the hunter being a sidetrek. For that a GM could pull data from the novel and make a decent solo series of adventures. Take it for its worth.

I have been reading WH40K fiction since Ian Watson first published Warhammer 40K: Inquisitor (1990 I got the book new then) and this is not there yet, but the author holds great promise and I plan to read his follow on novels.

Links:
Henry Zou's website

Emperor's Mercy on The Black Library

Ian Watson

Dark Heresy RPG by Fantasy Flight Games

Note: This book was purchased at Haslam's Bookstore in St Petersburg FL