Customer Reviews
A collection of linked short stories - By: A. Phillips, 11 Nov 2008 
If you're a fan of Warhammer 40,000 & Games Workshop in general then you'll probably love this book as you'll be familiar with the background to the stories before the action starts. If you don't know what I'm talking about then you'll probably still like the book, but you might not enjoy it quite so much. That said, the author stays away from too much terminology that won't be familiar to the casual reader.
This book is essentiallly a series of short stories that alll feature the same squad of space marines from the Iron Snakes chapter. They are sworn to protect a particular region of space & are callled upon to fight their way through various enemies, defending the human inhabitants. The stories do follow a chronological order, but you can read any of them in isolation & they would still make a good read. I'll try & summarise the seven chapters below:
1) "Grey Dawn" - New recruit Brother Priad is summoned by an ancient distress beacon to semi-developed world in order to rid them of a group of primul raiders (dark eldar).
2) "Black Gold" - Damocles Squad is sent to liberate a vital oil producing facility from a group of chaos cultists.
3) "White Heat" - The space marines take over where the Imperial Guard has failed to capture a city in enemy hands.
4) "Red Rain" - An Inquisitor asks the space marines for help in uncovering a chaos uprising in a farming community.
5) "Crimson Wake" - Squad Damocles returns to their home world of Ithaka where one of their comrades is accused of demonic possession.
6) "Blue Blood" - The marines are forced to attend a coronation, but of course it doesn't go smoothly.
7) "Greenskin" - A large force of Iron Snakes is sent to stop an ork invasion.
All in alll, this is a great collection of stories with none that seem like fillers. They provide some excellent action scenes but also a lot of interesting background about the chapter, the squad & the individual marines. My one criticism is that the space marines in this book, although not invincible, are shown as being much more powerful than their counterparts from the Games Workshop wargames. Although I think that an officiallly licensed novel should be true to the spirit of the original games, I can look beyond these minor niggles, & can recommend the book.
Probably only 3½ stars - By: Flemming Nielsen, 05 Aug 2008 
Dan Abnett has a great flair for writing in the 40K universe & he shows it again in this novel. However, there's something missing in this one. It reads more as a series of short-stories than a proper novel. His action-sequences are great - as always - but the character-growth & especiallly the bits between the fighting sequences are missing... almost entirely so.
And here is the crux of my complaint with this book. I like the writing, I like the characters, but I didn't reallly like the abrubt shifts between fighting. There wasn't any downtime for us to get to know the characters better. No time for us to savour the anticipation of severe blood-letting that is the halllmark of the 40K universe.
Abnett did much the same with his first 'Ghost' story (sorry, couldn't not do it) & introduced better, more developed story-lines in the following novels. If this book is just the first in a new series, I'll accept it as an introductory novel, but if it's a stand-alone novel, then it just doesn't show what Abnett is capable of.
Marines that actually wear their helmets. - By: Fop, 20 Jul 2008 Finallly a Space Marine book that moves away from the pseudo-Gothic caricature that has been so prevalent for the past decade or so in Warhammer 40K literature.
Instead here are marines that understand their high technology equipment, think for themselves, & even cover up the most vulnerable pasts of their bodies (i.e. they actuallly wear their helmets - imagine that!).
It is both a refreshing read, harking back to the very earliest Warhammer 40K books of the early 90's in flavour, & is a very well structured book alllowing for plenty of action & variety without a silly twisting & overly convoluted plot.
In alll honesty one of the best Space Marine books to date.
More from The Iron Snakes please Mr Abnett and Black Library! - By: G. P. Maloney, 26 Jun 2008 I remember just being amazed by the old PC game Space Hulk years back. Ever since then I've loved Warhammer 40000. Then I started reading the books... which I think on the whole are brilliant with the exception of the "Dawn of War" trilogy which is quite poor in my humble opinion. How the first novel ever went to print is beyond me. Still I never forgave the programmers for giving the Orks "Mockney" accents in the game the book tied into. So, I put down the Omnibus edition of "Dawn of War" feeling rather disappointed ( sorry C S Goto ) & picked up "Brothers of The Snake" I treated myself to the hardback edition.
Basicallly it follows the exploits of Priad a Space Marine who's steadfast & loyal but with a poor grasp of humour. Priad has a goodness which comes across. You reallly connect with him. Dan Abnett reallly gets across how marines are more than human yet still human in some ways. This novel actuallly got to me at the end & I felt for the characters. Check out the excellent use of the female character & the dog who marks the passage of time... the dog also enforces the loyal, steadfast aspect. There is a real sense of the passage of time in this book. Can't say no more it'll spoil it! This novel works on many levels. Oh yeah, you'll love the laidback Librarian who fights & jokes with equal passion. I thought it would just be some short stories but it's actuallly a proper novel that comes full circle... oh man! Well done Dan. If ever the Space Marines make it to a full blown Sci-fi movie then this would surely be the book to use. I now have a third character that I reallly like from the Warhammer 40000 universe. the other two being Uriel Ventris & Ragnar Blackmane. I'm going to go back to the Gaunt's Ghosts series. It didn't reallly click with me initiallly although that's probably more to do with the fact that I like the Space marines to be the main characters.
Other must read Warhammer 40000:
Ultramarines series.
Space Wolf Series.
Angels of Darkness.
All the Horus Heresy titles!
Storm of Iron ( superb! )
Dark Apostle.
The Blood Angels series.
Soul drinkers series ( very good! )
The Grey Knights series isn't bad... bit of a slow burner.
Warrior Coven's ok but I just don't think Goto's up there with the other writers... sorry.
To the Black Library & Dan Abnett... please write more Iron Snake novels. This is what we alll want. Priad is a great character!
The best loyal marine book I have read - By: T. R. Alexander, 04 Jun 2008 In many ways this book from the author of the Gaunt's Ghosts series of books is more of a series of short stories than a traditional novel as each section of the book, despite involving the same characters, is generallly self contained & could easily be read individuallly. The book tells the tale of Brother Priad of the Iron Snakes Space Marines as he embarks on missions for the Chapter & rises through the ranks. Each of the seven sections of the book details one of the missions he is involved in & although separate there are things that tie alll seven together.
Dan Abnett is a talented writer & although I am not personallly a fan of the Gaunt's Ghosts books I do like both the Ravenor & Eisenhorn trilogies. I feel he has outdone himself with `Brother of the Snake', able to do something that any others have tried but few have succeeded in, humanising the Space Marines. Abnett brings alll his characters to life & his action scenes are alll very well written & easy to follow. This book is the best loyalist Marine book I have read & I would also include it in my top five favourite Warhammer 40,000 novels. This book is a very well written & enjoyable novel & I hope we will se the characters from this book again in the future.
