'The second book in the Warped Galaxies series. An exciting new series of sci-fi books for middle-grade readers from Black Library. Brave champions and the forces of the Imperium battle alien beasts and mechanical tyrants across the gulf of space.
'Having crash landed on a remote ice planet, Zelia Lor and her friends Talen, Mekki and the super-intelligent alien-ape Fleapit must do whatever they can to survive. A distress beacon offers some hope of rescue, but what else lurks in the ice and snow, watching them with hungry eyes…?'
The last volume of the Warped Galaxies series saw our band of misfit heroes come together in the destruction of a Necron invasion, only to end up lost and alone on a distant, frozen world. It's here that the story continues, with the three children and their Jokaero companion trying desperately to survive in these frozen wastelands. With dwindling food reserves, power running out, and Flea-Pit slowly succumbing to the cold, things look more desperate than ever.
Talen has taken it upon himself to try and find more food for them, and has set out into the strange mushroom forest to hunt for anything he can. When his hunt goes wrong he ends up falling into a deep chasm, dislocating his shoulder in the process, and requiring rescuing. Whilst his friends are able to find him and get him out, they also come face to face with a deadly Ambull, a large, insect-like alien. However, when they notice that the Ambull is wounded, covered in vicious claw marks it raises the question of what could possibly hurt such a monstrous creature?
Unfortunately, the kids get an answer to their question when their camp falls under attack from a Genestealer, one of the deadliest xeno races in the galaxy. Running for their lives, the teens and Flea-Pit must find a way to escape the deadly alien before it catches them and rips them to pieces.
There was a palpable sense of danger from the Necrons in the first volume of Warped Galaxies, due in large part to the huge levels of destruction that readers got to see when they tore their way through a hive-world, their advanced technology reducing everything to burnt wreckage. But once on the frozen planet and left facing a lone Hunter I couldn't help but feel that things weren't as bad, even though this lone Necron was still a threat. Our heroes were able to use their ingenuity and tech to defeat the mechanised alien, but here things feel so much more desperate.
A single alien shouldn't be so scary, so much of a threat, but this single Genestealer, nicknamed Scarface, is genuinely frightening. It tears through the kids defences like they're nothing, ripping metal bulkheads apart like they're nothing, and is able to use tactics to get around traps and defences. It feels so much deadlier and unpredictable than the Necrons ever did, and that level of tension makes this book a lot more enjoyable than the first.
Our group is able to find an abandoned ship in order to hide in, trying to stay a few steps ahead of the alien monster, but this just makes things worse, as the book suddenly feels more like Alien, with the kids being stalked through darkened corridors and hallways by a vicious killer. These latter segments of the book were the best in the series yet, and were pretty scary for a book designed chiefly for kids.
The book isn't just about running and trying to stay alive, however, as we get some great moments of character development, and it really has started to feel like the three teens have started to come together to become a team. Zelia and Mekki have know each other for a while, but Talen has generally felt like an outside presence for much of the books, and butts heads with the others more than once, so it's nice to see him actually having some nice moments of interaction with the others. Yes, there's still disagreements and some sniping going on between them, but you can tell that the three of them have started to care for each other, and its the small moments of kindness that really stand out as some of the best characterisations, and are really worthwhile.
Despite being sidelined for much of the book thanks to suffering badly from the cold Flea-Pit still manages to come across as the most interesting character, and the moment he literally pulls Talen out of harms way, before getting to gun down dozens of aliens is definitely a big hero moment for him. I just hope that this isn't a pattern that is going to continue. Whilst I love him coming in and doing awesome stuff, I don't like him just not being around for the first half of the book, something that has happened twice now. Hopefully he will get to integrate into the main group more going forward, especially now that we've got to see some more of his backstory too.
Claws of the Genestealer shows that the first book in the series wasn't just a fluke, that this is a series that really, really works, and that Warhammer 40,000 for kids can be engaging and exciting for all ages. I'm eager to see what happens next in the series.
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