I recently listened to the Eye of Night audio drama, written by Gav Thorpe for the Warhammer 40,000 Black Library. It's a pretty short production, consisting of three files that total about 60 minutes in total. It's a proper audio drama, like an actual radio play, and it's a lot of fun to hear. I remember listening to a Star Wars radio drama as a kid, and I recently heard some portions of the BBC Lord of the Rings drama, so it was fun to dive into a modern implementation. Aside from the great production quality, the story's good too, so this is my review. This review contains minor spoilers.
In Eye of Night, Guilliman summons Inquisitor Greyfax and commissions her to go find a powerful artefact known as the eye of night. She requests a fleet and an army, and he gives her a ship and 5 Grey Knights.
In theory, just 5 Grey Knights ought to make up for the lack of an army of ordinary humans, but in a lot of fiction that ends up being the very presumption that leads to disaster. So I figured there can only be two ways for this to go. Either the 5 Grey Knights will die horrible deaths to an unforeseen horror, or they'll heroically prove just what a transhuman is worth.
I won't spoil which path this story takes.
Inquisitor Greyfax's journey takes her to a chunk of a destroyed planet, where conveniently the planet's atmosphere still lingers. She makes some pretty exciting discoveries there, which leads her further into the Eye of Terror itself.
In the Eye of Terror, she meets a crone who appears to have an agenda opposing Abaddon. Of course, being opposed to Abaddon the Despoiler, the chaos space marine who has fought 13 unholy crusades against the Emperor, doesn't mean the crone is an ally to Imperium. Greyfax knows this all too well, and it's not in her nature to bargain with the impure. In fact, Inquisitor Greyfax has the reputation of being a radical even among the Inquisitorial ranks. She doesn't work with the enemy. She cleanses.
The central theme of the book, I think, is conviction. Inquisitor Greyfax lives her life according to her very strong beliefs and faith. It's unthinkable for her to compromise and collaborate with forces of Chaos. This comes up a lot during the story, and it ends on her regret for having done so.
Few of us are holy Inquisitors travelling the stars in search of an ancient artefact, but most of us, I imagine, can identify with the question of personal boundaries, changes of ethos, and feeling like we've betrayed something we once held precious. The story in't likely to inspire deep emotions about your ethical choices over the course of your life, but it's an important hook into the emotions of the main character. We can sympathize with Greyfax, radical though she may be, because we've all had to examine our own self-imposed limitations at one point or another. Sometimes you make the right choice, other times you do something you wish you hadn't. Greyfax's experiences may or may not influence your personal philosophy, but she's an entertaining and sympathetic hero. I wish I hadn't missed out on owning her model, because Agents of the Imperium are a great all-purpose faction in Warhammer 40,000 10th edition and I'd have loved to include her in an army. More importantly though, Greyfax's story is also the Imperium's current story. The Imperium is xenophobic and ultra-conservative. But Guilliman himself is only alive because of xeno technology, and Belisarius Cawl dabbles with xeno technology and collaborators. Maybe it's time for the Imperium to change? Then again, maybe not, because it's a wargame first and foremost, so we all need our enemies. But then again, again, it's a game and any army can fight any other army for any given reason. The fiction doesn't have to lean on xenophobia and staunch conservatism to encourage war. Any reason is good enough for a toy soldier to kill another toy soldier.
Eye of Night is an audio drama, with voice actors for each different role and sound effects throughout. I love sound design, and it was almost hard for me to focus on the story sometimes because I was so enamoured by the excellent effects. The daemonic screams and atmospheric ambience of some of the ever-shifting "realities" of the Warp is beautifully done, and the occasional subtle effects on the voices is perfectly effective. The only thing I maybe would add would be a Jonathan Hartman score, but I guess I have the soundtracks to Bolter and Hammer and Angels of Death and Inquisitor and Black Talon for that.
This was a quick and enjoyable Warhammer audio drama, and it felt very much like an episode of weekly scifi you might otherwise see on TV. If you're looking for a quick and easy Warhammer story, try this one out.
All images in this post copyright Games Workshop.