The Oubliette

This book I find very well written, since the first page you can dive deep into the storyline. I also liked the cover very well. It is nice designed in the color and in the design itself. The writing style is very good and very pleasant and fluently to read. The book has been very clearly structured and the plot is traceable and very interesting. The characters  look very authentic and traceable to me. The author succeeds in writing very detailing about the scenery, characters, surroundings and emotions. This story is fascinating and consistent at the same time and keeps the tension until the end.

For transparency purposes, I was granted a free review copy of this book, and while I am grateful for the opportunity, it will not colour my review beyond the fact that I have taken a bit more time to collect my thoughts.

This was my first foray into Warhammer Horror, a label of the Black Library that I had previously overlooked as I had wrongly assumed that all of the titles in the series would be set in Warhammer Fantasy or Age Of Sigmar; and as I am only mortal, I tend to stick to the Warhammer 40,000 & Horus Heresy titles, simply out of lack of infinite reading time. So I was pleasantly surprised to discover that The Oubliette was set in the grim darkness of the 41st millennium.

I went into this book expecting horror, as it was my first Warhammer Horror title I didn’t know where Black Library would be pitching the level of horror/adult content given that a significant portion of Games Workshop’s player base is young adult. Considering the general darkness of the setting, it would have been tricky to amp up the body horror without becoming excessive in the gore and violence. J.C. Stearns paints a different kind of horror, a more psychological horror.

In Black Library’s fiction have often been presented with villains, sometimes even as a main character. It is a rare to see the protagonists slow slide from an act of desperation, through post-act rationalisation, to Machiavellian cruelty; starting a heroine, and ending the very villains she set out to defeat. Much like Walter White in Breaking Bad, Governor Ashielle’s decent into villainy is paced and believable, with every evil deed seemingly the only logical choice in the moment. The writing style mimics Ashielle’s fall, slower and more considered in the beginning, moving almost in real time; becoming faster and looser, with bigger and bigger time jumps, as her first step into darkness turns into a ever more frantic tumble downwards.

I saw a couple of the twists and turns coming, but was still caught off guard by others. It was also nice to see so many female characters, and not just female for the sake of being female; once again Black Library is ahead of their miniature producing counterparts in representation. Flavour wise it felt no less a Warhammer 40,000 book for being a horror story, and no less a horror story for being set in a science fiction setting.

OK WH40k Story Fails to Scare.

The Oubliette tells the story of Ashielle Matkosen who has just taken over the Lord governorship in the wake of her father's and brother's suspicious deaths. One night after a failed assassination attempt she finds herself beneath her family home in the titular Oubliette. She then discovers an ancient, secret evil that is all too happy to help her seek revenge.

JC Stearns shows a lot of potential as he wrestles with one of the emerging themes of the Warhammet Horror line which is human wickedness vs chaos evil. Unfortunately the villains in the story are just a little too cartoonishly evil to be compelling or interesting. Ashielle herself is an assured, confident character, which works well for part of the story but ends up failing her by the end.

The biggest flaw I see is that nothing about this story feels different than your run of the mill WH40k story. I'm not sure what really earned this the moniker of horror.

Read more herr: https://www.wh40kbookclub.com/horror-heresy-the-oubliette-review/

The Oubliette is the latest novel to hit the Warhammer 40,000 and Warhammer Horror series. Written by J.C. Sterns, this is a graphic tale of what can go wrong, when a planet is left to its own devices for too long. Or perhaps it’s a tale of politics and temptation. You be the judge.

Ceocan has long run smoothly and efficiently. They meet their quota, and as such are essentially left to their own devices. But with the death of the Lord Governor, that is all at risk. But as with any tale of politics, will it be noticed before it is too late?

Ashielle just lost her father and eldest brother. She hadn’t expected to take on the role of Lord Governor, but thanks to that unfortunate series of events (which she has great suspicions about), she must do exactly that.

Ashielle will have to play the politics game in order to keep her planet afloat. But when danger strikes too close to her heart, a new darkness seeps in. And with it, the temptation to use it.

“Make your offering of flesh and blood. Of life. And the darkness shall descend where you command, leaving only whom you wish.”

Warnings: The Oubliette is a horror novel through and through. As such, it does contain some more graphic details. Most of them involve graphic details of death or gore.

The Oubliette was a mesmerizing read. This is a book that I simply couldn’t put down, or get out of my head. Even when I wasn’t reading it, I found myself wondering what was going to happen next. What turn of fate was in store for Ashielle. Or what drastic action she would take next.

I’m quickly learning that the horror novels coming out of Warhammer are my favorites. The chilling tones add an extra layer to this world, making them all the more thrilling and captivating. The Oubliette is no exception. As a happy side note, The Oubliette also features my favorite cover thus far.

This was honestly a chilling read, from start to finish. It had so many twists and turns. Some of them were predictable, but many were not. I actually suspect that the predictable elements were thrown in with intent – to trick us into a false sense of security. Or perhaps this story made me as paranoid as some of the characters within.

It was thrilling trying to figure out what was going to happen, and what the intent of the ‘other’ was in this novel. I love novels such as this, where much of the truth is intentionally obfuscated. The addition of the politics and scheming really enhanced the sense of dread, something I hadn’t anticipated, by very much appreciated.

I really enjoyed reading The Oubliette, and find myself eagerly looking forward to seeing what the next novel will be from Warhammer Horror. I’m also going to be adding J.C. Sterns to my list of authors to keep an eye on.

"Abandon hope. Do not trust to faith. Sacrifices burn on pyres of madness, rotting corpses stir in unquiet graves. Daemonic abominations leer with rictus grins and stare into the eyes of the accursed. And the Ruinous Gods, with indifference, look on."

As I'd never explored anything from the Warhammer 40,000 universe before, yet heard so much about it from a long-time friend of mine, I was eager to experience a bit of it for myself when I saw the opportunity arise. 'The Oubliette' by J.C. Sterns was just such opportunity.

The cover depicts a seemingly large, dark hand.. clutching what seems to be a fallen being of fair hair and skin dressed in formal attire.. reaching for a pendant or something they have dropped which is about to slip away. The novel, listed under Warhammer horror, opens with the funeral for a highly regarded governor of the populace of a planet called Ceocan. It's viewed from the perspective of his daughter, who in what is perhaps some strange twist of fate, has found herself inheriting his role due to the death of both him and her eldest brother.

A younger sibling has also returned for the funeral. Having been sent away as an 'extra heir,' upon his arrival we find him to be an arbitrator, this world's version of an officer in charge of investigating incidents of just such magnitude. Though in this case, as a conflict of interest, it's not something he'd be able to become involved with despite his sister's certainty there was foul play afoot.

Normally, I lose interest with a lot of political intrigue, but the aristocrats amongst the Ceocan community are complex creatures. I enjoyed watching the battle even in what were essentially parliament style meetings between the various speakers of both the great and small houses. It was fascinating to watch them dance and duel verbally, utilizing not only their words.. but their social weight.. the volumes of their voices.. and the maneuvering of others around them.

It put me in mind of the great Senate meetings in Star Wars actually and since the original Warhammer Fantasy Battle tabletop game originated within years of the first Star Wars film, it's not unreasonable to think the creator may have taken some inspiration from it. Though, it could just as easily have been inspired by the Senates of Rome or some other real ancient ruling body.

"At the apex of the facade, the Emperor of Mankind stood in profile, His noble gaze cast to the east. In the middle of the night on Reunification Day, His gaze into the night sky lined up with the direction of Holy Terra, His graven visage seeing the distant star that mortal eyes could never discern in the blackness. Behind Him, the great aquila spread its bronze wings."

Though the violent crescendos throughout the story are brief, they are absolute. They are crisply detailed making the visuals unavoidable and lending themselves to the memory for some time.
While the supernatural horrors contained in the telling are highly imaginative, the ties that bind are a bit of rather brutal fun for the reader, so long as we're not overly squeamish.

There's a great deal of conflict, both inner and external. Enemies and friends alike, faced with unenviable choices of realignment or action, sometimes to a surprising result. Loyalties tested, mettle tested, even hands being forced by circumstance to choose pragmatism or failure at some crucial junction.

"Her father had had a saying: When conspiracy goes abroad, coincidence is the mask it wears, and she was beginning to see the wisdom in it."

This is an excellent story.. full of all the darkness and light that can be at war within.. elegantly crafted in the style of some of the most timeless 'classic' horror novels I've ever read. I'd highly recommend it to any horror buff who isn't just looking for a jump scare, but rather a slow dawning realization of the state of one's moral compass.

Part of the growing Warhammer Horror range, The Oubliette is JC Stearns’ debut Black Library novel, a grim tale of bitter political rivalry on an isolated Imperial world. With her father and older brother dead in suspicious circumstances, Ashielle Matkosen takes up the mantle of Governor of Ceocan, trying to process her grief even as she fights to establish her reign with political enemies all around. When those enemies threaten her life, as well as her position, in desperation Ashielle turns to an ancient presence she encounters in the darkness under the palace; a creature with the power to protect her, but whose assistance comes with a high cost.

It’s essentially a morality tale – demonstrating how easily determination can turn to desperation, how one bad decision, though made with the best of intentions, can lead to damnation. Of course this is 40k and Black Library, so damnation comes in the guise of a very real, tangible evil. It’s not outright scary, certainly not in terms of jump scares or excessively graphic gore, the horror elements more about the slow descent into darkness and the underlying ghastliness of 40k. The overarching plot is excellent, it just all feels a little rushed, and could really have benefited from a longer word count to give characters more space to develop in order for arcs, relationships and individual moments to have greater impact. It’s all good…there’s just always a sense that it could have been even better in a longer format.