The Ascension of Balthasar / By: C Z Dunn / Release Date: October / Available From: The Black Library

The Dark Angels are a mainstay of the Warhammer 40,000 franchise. They are elusive monk-like space knights who seek to atone for sins committed thousands of years ago. Secretive and vengeful, The Ascension of Balthasar is a typical Dark Angels tale, filled with deception, lies and violence, in which a squad of these warriors seek out an ancient foe, and get embroiled in a conflict that changes the nature of the team forever.

Dunn has filled this adventure with serious and gritty characters and layered on as much gothic grimness as humanly possible, whilst at the same time lending a cinematic bent to the story. You can easily imagine this as a short action movie, and it’s a tale filled with rockets, explosions and hellish brutes. The production standards on the audio are as strong as ever; the voice acting is superb, with a wide and varied cast of brilliant British vocal talent. Despite being a clear tie-in to a new Games Workshop product, The Ascension of Balthasar builds on its source of inspiration to create something that’s a lot of fun.

The boxed set also comes with an additional disc filled with extras. In addition to the usual trailers (for other audios), some wallpapers and some setting material, it also comes with the full audio script, which is a nice touch.

This is a must-have for 40K fans, and will also appeal to those who fancy a nicely action packed romp.