Necromunda Omibus 1 [Paid] March 2011

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Necromunda Omibus 1 - Survival Instinct, Salvation, Junktion, Status Deadzone

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Classic novels Survival Instinct, Salvation and Junktion return with a host of short stories in this Necromunda omnibus.

• Survival Instinct by Andy Chambers
• Salvation by C.S. Goto
• Junktion by Matthew Farrer
• A World Above by Alex Hammond
• The Day of Thirst by Tully R. Summers
• Badlands Skelter's Downhive Monster Show by Matthew Farrer
• Mark of a Warrior by Richard Williams
• The Daemon...

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Review - Survival Instinct: This is really Wicked for the Underhive and since it was published 5 years after Wicked, it really could be an influence. I really didn't like Wicked, couldn't even get though it, as I really don't care for the world of Oz and really just wanted my wicked witch to be wicked & not troubled, but I did like Survival Instinct. I do love all things Necromunda, but didn't really care where Mad Donna came from. Still don't really and can't understand GW's infatuation with people fleeing the spire into the Underhive, but I did like the story here. I did find it weird that there was a ekranoplan on the sump (Google it, it's weird vehicle). The author must have seen a picture of it and just decided that a contraption that weird needed to be in the story. Really good description of The Sump at the end that was practically worth the price of admission alone. Nice to see some of our old standbys of Escher, Delaque, the Goliath Dog Soldiers gang, Pit Slaves and Guiders.

 

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Review - Salvation: This book has pretty much everything Necromunda in it. It has members from all houses except Van Saar, and they all play prominent roles. It even has Ratskins. There are even glimpses of the Spire and how nobility live as well as displays of Wyrd powers, unfortunately, they aren't from any rule-set I have seen. The only real flaw I found with the book is the Delaque catspaw was overly elaborate and didn't seem well laid out for the reader. This made it harder to believe. Still a very good read and very good introduction to Necromounda.

 

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Review- A world Above: This Story illustrates well the brutality of the Underhive. It is the story of a Ran Lo Spyrer hunt of Eschers, where the question of who is really hunting who has to be asked several times. It is told mostly from the perspective of the Escher gang, which works very well. This is an awesome look into the Underhive.

 

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Review - The Day of Thirst: This is a Goliath vs Escher (Chaos Cult?) story. It's really good if pretty disturbing. It's all told in the second person which is very cool, if had to follow since very little besides Choose-Your-Own-Adventure style books story is told this way. It's a Goliath telling the story of the last encounter with these Escher to a new recruit. Hard to tell more without giving away too much, but it is very worth the 10 or so pages of reading.

 

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Review - Badlands Skelter's Downhive Monster Show: This is kinda a Cawdor vs Scavvies story, but the Scavvies are very different than what you would expect from the rule book. They are carnies that seem to take a lot better care of themselves than the rules in the book imply. The thing that makes them seem like Scavvies is they have a spear gun toting Scalie, which leads to a wonderfully descriptive scene of spear gun's use. It also depicts nicely the problems of religious zealotry over actual skill. So far, my favorite story.

 

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Review- Mark of a Warrior: A Goliath initiation story. A wannabe is sent into an abandoned mine to hunt a Millisaur armed with a stubgun & a knife. It has an amusing examination of all the stupid bits and bobbles that one will wear to get the look. Also a nice subtle self reference in the G40K stubgun. It really is a nice examination of one gang's initiation process and one wannabe's overconfident view being slapped in the face by reality.

 

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Review - The Daemon Bottle: A half-breed Ratskin gets caught between Scavvies and Guilders. At first I thought this was going to be some sort of commentary on drinking, since the main character is a typical settlement dwelling drunk Ratskin. It may still be, but if it is the message is much subtler than I expected. The actual Daemon Bottle was different than I was expecting and the final resolution was very interesting with a nice twist.

 

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Review - Rites of Passage: An Orlock initiation story (gone wrong) with a Spyrer, & Cawdor hate, & a sprinkling of Wyrd for flavor. This one is a more multilayered tragedy than the average Necro story. A group of Orlock juve wannabes are sent out to duke it out with some Cawdor juves when thinks go tragically wrong. Badness ensues and only one survives, sorta.

 

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Review - The Lake: I liked this one a lot. It's story where a guilder pits a down on their luck Orlock gang against a Goliath gang with ultimately disastrous consequences for everyone (there's a nice amount of build up to this point). A dome is cracked open in a hive quake and it is found to contain an abundant number of spiders which are too temping a target to pass up. It was fun to see the author bring back a gang he used in a former story (the Goliath from The Day of Thirst), even if they were only a minor antagonist. Until this story I had thought wood would be far too rare to really make into the story, but some of the boats are made out of fungus wood, which is a source I had formerly not considered. Over all it was a good story with a very nice, mysteries of the 40k universe twist in it.

 

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Review - Sisters: This is an Escher story (unsurprisingly). A particularly heartbreaking one. An Escher leader who feels like she is loosing her grip on her gang after the recent loss of a close friend goes out to hunt a zombie with a ratkskin. Nice twist in this one. Shows the lengths that gang leaders will got to protect their postion in the gang and the community.

 

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Review - Rat in the Walls: Basically part 2 of "A World Above." Tells the Story of What happened to Liz once she got uphive. Hits the classic trope of cleaning up a thug to fit into high society for nefarious purposes. An awesome sequel.

 

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Junktion: I really wanted to like this more, since it's Necromunda, but I really couldn't figure out the motivations of the main character. All his coworkers and friends are dying around him and yet he does nothing. In the end it was implied that he was the type of guy who kept his down and did his job, but that really should have been established in the beginning. One thing that it did that was interesting was name EVERYTHING. Every alley, every town, every neighborhood, every landmark had a name. Perhaps if less attention were paid to naming things, no matter how interesting, it would have been a better story. Still it was fun to read about Cawdor, Goliath, Escher, & Orlock.