Blood Royal

by Will McDermott and Gordon Rennie

B(lack) L(ibrary) Publishing, Games Workshop Ltd

Nottingham, Great Britain, Paperback, 254 Pages, $6.99

This novel is set in the Grim and Gritty backdrop of the Games Workshop Planet of Necromunda. Necromunda is world of Hives, huge buildings each having a population in the billions. Each Hive has a Spire inhabited by the privileged few, the Hive proper inhabited by the billions who do the productive work and the UnderHive inhabited by violent gangs, misfits and Bounty Hunters. At all levels in a Hive, competition is fierce and survival difficult. Maintaining one’s place is hard. Some fall from the Spire to the UnderHive. Some choose the UnderHive.

Our story concerns a Royal Son of Helmawr, ruler of Hive Primus and thus all of Necromunda. This Mutant Vampiric son descends into the UnderHive bringing Death and Chaos in his wake. Kal Jerico, another son of Helmawr, who has chosen the life of a Bounty Hunter in the UnderHive, is hired to capture the Mutant Vampire intruder. The Ruler wants his son and heir back alive, but factions in the Spire want him dead. The situation is further complicated by Helmawr’s growing dementia.

The novel is rife with complicated interactions between gangs, intruders from the Spire, competing Bounty Hunters, criminal syndicates and a plethora of others. Within the Spire, factions contend for supremacy. Nothing is simple. Even our Bounty Hunter Kal Jerico and his two partners, Scabs and Yolanda are in conflict. Loyalty is rare. Most seek profit and devil take the hindmost.

Kal is your stock likeable villain out for profit and a good time. Scabs is your stock staunch and loyal henchman. He does what he is told and cares not for profit. He just wants to be with his friends. Their conflict makes him uncomfortable. Yolanda is more complicated, being a former gang leader who burned out and left the gang. She just wants a smooth, profitable, bounty hunting life. She is continually furious because Cal’s casual style often endangers them and costs them their fees.

The Vampire and his pursuers are laying waste to UnderHive. Kal and his friends want them gone. To that end, they gather a motley collection of Gangers and Bounty Hunters to eject the interlopers. After conferring with another royal relative, Kal realizes that the fate of the entire hive (and indeed the planet) may rest on the outcome of their efforts. Desperately they work and fight.

This story is well written and gripping. I recommend it. – Gary Swaty.