Necromunda FleshWorks 2006-02-28

Overall I enjoyed the story and the characters but the descriptions were sometimes lacking. For example Jester regularly rides a 'green bike'...and that's about as far as the description goes for that piece of gear ! When there are descriptions of the Underhive, I get the impression it is more like neo-Tokyo than the dilapidated slum city that we know. It felt too pristine. Or maybe it just wasn't grimey enough in it's description! It felt totally different to the Underhive portrayed in Survival Instinct, for example. Anyway, aside from feeling a bit removed from the Hive Primus Underhive, the story is great and there are enough juicy characters to keep you interested in reading it.

This was the first Necromunda novel I read, so I was thrilled to get more information about the world. It had a good mystery to keep me going but, spoilers aside, the ending didn't really feel it justified all of the suspense, IMHO. Also, I felt like the Delaque came off less like a gang than an organization of professional assassins (e.g. the Officio Assassinorum). The little quotes from their strategic text were cool, though.

I really liked this book. Delaque centric, so heavy on the spycraft. Despite this, it had the greatest representation of the other houses of any of the fiction so far. The only house that wasn't involved at all was Cawdor. Orlock were the main house after Delaque and their gang were the main antagonist. There was also a Goliath gang and Escher. Although there was no Van Saar gang, the house still played a big roll in the book and their workings were explored. My only disappointment was that the book ended like it was a first in a series. The story definitely ended, but it really felt like it was purposefully setting up for a sequel or series I have not read the last two books in the omnibus, but they don't look like part II & III.