After 2020’s excellent audio drama Dredge Runners, Alec Worley returns to the ratling/ogryn duo of Baggit and Clodde for a full-length Warhammer Crime novel in The Wraithbone Phoenix, a fun crime caper that’s deceptively dark beneath the surface. Baggit and Clodde are hiding out in a reclamation yard, trying to avoid the unwelcome attention caused by a hefty bounty on their heads, and the ire of their yard’s stuck-up steward. When word reaches Baggit of a wrecked Imperial starship beached in a neighbouring yard, with a legendary artefact hidden somewhere within its bones, he realises his prayers might just have been answered. If he and Clodde can retrieve it, the Wraithbone Phoenix could get them out from under the bounty and set them up for life, not to mention offer Baggit the chance of a little tasty revenge. The problem is, they’re far from the only ones hunting for the Phoenix.
Where previous Warhammer Crime novels have been more along the lines of procedurals, this is very much a caper. Baggit and Clodde aren’t really hardened criminals – more rebellious outlaws – but they don’t exactly follow the Lex Alecto either, and the story involves them stealing, burgling, lying, conning and sometimes fighting their way in and out of increasing danger. It’s certainly not a comedy, but the mismatched duo of ratling and ogryn provide plenty of fun, not least in Clodde’s propensity for spouting distinctly un-ogryn-like philosophical musings, much to Baggit’s frustration. They make for a brilliant central pairing, and combined with the occasional transcription of a bleakly amusing Imperial propaganda voxcast they certainly contribute to an overall tone that’s a little more knowing and satirical than other Warhammer Crime stories.
It’s not all fun though – this is 40k, after all – as Worley explores the appalling ways abhumans like Baggit and Clodde are treated by regular humans, neatly encapsulating the Imperium’s belligerent intolerance of anything different. For all the inherent humour in the way the two characters interact with each other, there’s a powerful seam of anger beneath the surface of their every move. Baggit in particular carries a lot of past trauma around with him from his life in the Guard, while even solid and cheerful Clodde has his moments of darkness, and one of the recurring themes is the balance between using their pain and anger, and being consumed by it. Add to that the disparate collection of ne’er-do-wells out to hunt down Baggit and Clodde and/or the Phoenix, none of whom live particularly healthy, balanced lives, and you’ve got a darkly fascinating cross-section of the wildly diverse varieties of grimness infusing life in the Imperium.
While this shares some common DNA with the rest of the Warhammer Crime range, it definitely has a tone and feel all of its own, and the non-law enforcement perspective (there’s hardly an enforcer in sight) sheds an interestingly different light on Varangantua. It’s quite a bit longer than the previous novels in the series too (nearly 100 pages longer than Bloodlines, for example), and while it takes a little while to get up to speed with a lot of POV characters to introduce early on, once things really get going it becomes hard to put down – pacy, inventive and constantly compelling. If you can, definitely listen to Dredge Runners first as that gives a great introduction to Worley’s take on Warhammer Crime and a primer for Baggit and Clodde’s voices (although this isn’t exactly a sequel, narratively, so it’s not essential). Even taken in isolation though, this is a great example of why ‘domestic 40k’ – exploring the setting away from the big battlefields – is so effective. Let’s hope it’s only the first of many Baggit and Clodde novels to come!
Massive thanks to Alec Worley and Black Library for sending me a review copy of The Wraithbone Phoenix in exchange for my honest opinions!
See also: my interview with Alec Worley discussing Dredge Runners.
Check out all of the Alec Worley interviews and reviews on Track of Words.
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