Ravenor Rogue by Dan Abnett

The ending of "Ravenor Returned" left Gideon Ravenor and his allies alive, having not quite prevented a horrible event from happening on Eustis Majoris. Now, the Inquisition is asking him to back down from his current activities and to help with the cleanup on Eustis Majoris. But Ravenor thinks that running down Zygmunt Moloch is more important, and has tracked him to Tancred, where the Inquisition has a HQ. He's convinced that Molotch is on the world, but the Inqusition isn't so sure.

Even so, they argue, other Inquisitors can track down the Heretic. And while Ravenor is meeting with other, high-level members of the Inquisition, members of his team are also meeting with members of other Inquisitorial teams. Harlon Nayl, for example, meets Angharad Esw Swedyr, of the Carthaen clans and wielder of the sword Evisorex. She is attracted to Nayl because he survived a cut from her aunt's sword Barbarisater. She even tells him there is a term for someone who survived such a wound, "spared by the genius".

But this comes in handy when the rest of her team goes after Molotch and all get killed in a trap set by the Heretic Molotch, and her Inquisitor Ballack is the only one to survive. Then, Nayl recieves a message from Angharad saying, 'Spared by the Genius', and he sneaks her on board their (Ravenor's) ship.

Ravenor knows this, and is equally glad for Nayl and jealous of him, because Nayl can have a relationship and he cannot. But now, Ravenor, accompanied by Ballack, really goes rogue to bring down Molotch. To find him, he will even do things that an Inquisitor is forbidden from doing, like consult a witch house that owns an artifact called a three-sided door, or tripartite or triportal. One of the servants of the house is assigned to them to open the door or doors it will take to find their answer.

But Molotch and his men have prepared a trap for Ravenor, and in the end, Ravenor gets most of his people away, but is trapped in the depths of the house as it is about to fall into an endless valley in the bottom of the ocean. With no other way to escape, he and those left behind with him enter the tripartite, hoping that they can use it to take them home- or at least close to home. But Ravenor is dying from wounds sustained by inimical lifeforms on one world, and his attempt to bring them home doesn't exactly help, stranding them on a world 1000 light years out from the place he was attempting to send them. But at least there is a medic who might be able to save him from his wounds. But can he trust her to treat what's left of his body, which looks like a sack with a blob that used to be his face on top?

Back with the others, who think Ravenor dead, his student Carl Thonious has taken over the investigation. But so much has changed. Kara Swole, who knew about his secret and the dangerous warp-demon inside him has had her memory wiped by him. But even if she can't remember exactly what he has become, she knows something is terribly wrong, leading her to attack him. Imprisoned by the people she once trusted, she is locked in a hold, where there is a door behind which something... taunts her. Terrified out of her mind, she tries to survive in a world gone mad.

Zygmunt Moloch wanted to unleash Slyte, but when the demon that formerly lived inside the body of Carl Thonious threatens his life and those of his men, can he team up with those who are chasing him to save the universe and send the demon back to the warp? And what will be the fallout for those who survive the entire thing?

That big storm I mentioned in the last review? Finally breaks. And it is composed of the finest grade of 100% bad shit for everyone involved. Bad stuff happens all over in this book, and no one is immune, not even Ravenor himself. Here, the group of characters is broken in two by Ravenor's trip to the Witch House, and later, after some of them escape, the story continues for the two groups along with what Molotch is doing himself.

Betrayal happens, although fair warning is given of it in the beginning of the book, and we finally get to see what Slyte really is (and it's very gross and stomach-lurch inducing). But we also see that even Molotch, who is dedicated to bringing Slyte out and inflicting him on humanity, is unprepared for the results of his work. And no matter how enamoured he is of the warp, there's stuff even he can't deal with. Slyte is number one on that list, and he actually works with the heroes to deal with it before it can overwhelm them all. And mind you, this isn't just a "saving his own life" kind of thing, because afterwards, he gives up completely.

It's a good book, horrific and suspenseful, especially when Ravenor seems to be dead, not once but twice. Seeing the gradual erosion of Cal Thonious' personality evokes more than horror, since we knew him as he was before, but also his power allows him to conceal the changes from his former friends by messing with their minds and memories. He pleads with Kara not to turn him in to Ravenor, saying that perhaps he can undo what has been done to him, but when he so easily mucks with her memory, you know that this is a fight that's already been lost.

The ending battle is appropriate and what this story has been leading up to all along. But the ending for Ravenor is somewhat in doubt. Even if he is cleared of the charges of going rogue, he's still going to have to deal with how he didn't notice the real threat that was sitting under his nose all this time (Cal Thonious), so it's unclear how much of a career he has left with the Inquisition. No, closure isn't always a cue for what ails you, but the ending leaves a curiously unfinished feeling to this series that I hope Dan Abnett will return to someday, if only in passing to let us know what became of the characters. Recommended, if disturbing to read.