The Siege of Vraks — Hundred men; charge again; die again

A picture of my copy of SoV

The Siege of Vraks (or SoV) is the first WK40k novel I’ve read. A book by Steve Lyons, it follows the Death Korps of Krieg in their attempts to liberate a world fallen to evil forces.

I won’t get into the complexities of 40k too much here, as it’d span pages upon pages just to get you up to date; I’ll keep it relatively simple (as simple as 40k can be made)!

— the galaxy is in an all-encompassing and never-ending war with several factions both internal and external

— the world of Vraks has fallen to an enemy faction (one worshiping Chaos, an immaterial demon-infested realm)

— the Death Korps of Krieg hail from a planet bombed into nuclear oblivion and are trained specifically in siege warfare

Got all that? Good! The war will be over soon.

It lasts for almost two decades, and the millions upon millions of Krieg soldiers will climb over their own dead to liberate (or annihilate) Vraks. The book spans multiple perspectives from the war’s start to its end and covers everything from assassination attempts to meat grinders and all in between.

My only personal copmplaint with the book is that the frequent perspective-hopping can get somewhat disorientating at times (especially considering the innumerable and faceless Krieg are the focal point).

The near-twenty year war spans so many aspects, includes so many interesting points, and has a lot of great page-turners in it. I’d recommend it to anyone looking for a good WK40k book (and even to anyone looking to get into the world of 40k without the extra disposable income a game or tabletop setup would inevitable cost).