Perfection

Perfection, an audio drama from those wonderful people at Black Library; this time we are welcomed with the words of Nick Kyme who writes about those colourful, chaotic characters of the Slaaneshi Space Marines. The warped warriors of chaos have beseiged the world of Vardask and things look pretty bleak for the planet's inhabitants when they are joined by the Hellhounds, a warband of the World Eaters chaos space marines.

Khorne and Slannesh make uneasy bedfellows though and before long the the Champions of the Slaaneshi Incarnadine Host begin to die in mysterious circumstances, provoking a hostility between chapters that threatens to become a battle on a scale not seen since Horus turned traitor. Things aren't as clear cut as it seems though, the killings are not done in any style favoured by the blood God and the murderer looks to achieve a level of "perfection" that is at odds with a follower of Khorne.

This audio drama is very different to what I expected, it's very much a Warhammer 40k murder mystery and one that keeps the reader guessing most of the way through not just about "who did it" but why they did too. The author really shows his talents here, each of the suspected killers are given plenty of motive and opportunity while each is evil enough to carry out such an act. These characters are so well brought to life, each with their own little foibles and depraved personalities and each different enough to be memorable.

I am familiar with chaos armies (having played with an army of Khorne for some time) however I'm not really clued up on anything Slannesh related and listening to this story was a good introduction to this twisted host. The pace is a little uneven in places, which is understandable given that it's a murder mystery, while the action scenes are dramatic, fluid and very well choreographed. This includes some descriptive narrative, very gory and quite horrific in places and it's got to be one of the most blood-thirsty episodes i've yet witnessed in the Warhammer 40k universe. This may put as few people off but personally I loved every minute.

The voice acting is incredible as is the narration and this is topped off by some really effective sound effects which begs the question - just how did you get such realistic screams Black Library?

Overall Perfection falls just short of it's namesake, a very polished audio drama that manages to offer something genuinely different and above all highly entertaining.