 Howdy today we are looking at the first book in the Eisenhorn trilogy. It's called Xenos and it's was Suggested by my patron brother Santotis and anyone who's familiar with the name brother Santotis is probably seeing where this is going This is the introduction song. It's not very good, but it's not too long so the Eisenhorn novels take place in the Warhammer 40k universe and if you're not familiar with that it's basically just a really expansive universe that originally started as a tabletop game and then since then it's expanded into, you know, video games and books and stuff like that and I I'll come right out and say that I am not that familiar with Warhammer or Warhammer 40k. I have heard some stuff about the lore and it does sound like a pretty interesting setting and I Mean it's it's not that I have a purposely avoided it or anything It's just not something that I've gone out of my way to look at so far But I will say that all that said This book is pretty great so it follows this guy named Gregor Eisenhorn who is a member of the Inquisition and my understanding is that the humanity lives in this gigantic empire spanning like thousands or millions of worlds and they're ruled by this god emperor guy who humans Well, they worship him as a god and the Inquisition You know, they sort out heresies and such but they also protect humans from like demons and aliens that wish them harm so they are Not exactly good guys. They do a lot of nasty stuff, but they do overall protect humanity and Gregor Eisenhorn is a member of that and It's difficult to really give away that much or to talk about it without giving away too much because this is very much a Mystery story like it starts off with Gregor chasing after someone Criminal that he's been in pursuit of for a while actually and then he catches him But he realizes okay, there's something much bigger going on There's a much bigger threat that I need to deal with and most of the rest of the book is him Investigating leads and going after that and running into trouble. So in a lot of ways, it's kind of like any other new what noir Detective story where you have this hard-boiled dude who's willing to do anything it takes to get the job done and he's Not quite in over his head But he is in a very dangerous situation and he's just trying to figure out the truth of things The only difference is that there's aliens and psychic powers and a lot of weird stuff Like I'll come right out and say it As I said, I'm not that familiar with Warhammer's lore and this book does not do a great job of getting you caught up Like there are parts where I could follow along just fine. There are parts where I could Almost kind of sort of follow along and there were one or two very small bits where I was totally lost And I want to emphasize that those bits where I was lost were they were very small you know like if you are Even a little bit more familiar with Warhammer lore than I am you'd probably get through this just fine And if you're a fan of Warhammer then yeah, you'd understand everything It's just for me personally and for anyone else who's not really that into the franchise Yeah, there's gonna be some growing pains that will make it harder to get in there I just mixed up my metaphors, but whatever and Honestly, I'm willing to look past any issues I had with getting into the setting because the story and characters are really really solid like I Really liked Eisenhorn as a protagonist He was pretty great because one it's told from his first-person perspective and at first I wasn't sure how I felt about that but as it goes on he spends more and more time talking directly to the audience and He has a nice sense of humor He had a couple of good lines that got a laugh out of me and he has this I'm not sure how to put it but Like I said, it's not uncommon for the protagonist of this type of story to be some hardened badass Who does whatever it takes to get the job done and that occasionally means making some morally great decisions? Eisenhorn is like fully aware that he does some pretty nasty stuff But he does straight up justify it to himself and to the audience by saying it's for the greater good like very early on he leaves someone to die when he could have saved her and Because he needed to go after the bad guy and he straight up says to the audience if you think less of me for doing that That just means you couldn't be an inquisitor like you don't have what it takes I have what it takes to save humanity and you don't and it's uh, it's pretty interesting actually like you he knows He's not the most morally upstanding guy, but he still does what needs to be done it's it's an interesting way of looking at the character and Maybe it'll change as the series goes on because there are more of these But in this book it was just I mean it immediately got me into him and then even after that He is like an intelligent guy because you know, obviously he's essentially a detective who has to follow leads and stuff So you'd have to be at least somewhat intelligent to do that And while he is a badass who gets out of fights and or gets into fights But fights his way out of them at a couple of points You never he's not so much of a badass that you ever feel like he's not in any danger Like you know the entire time that if he makes one wrong move He could be killed because while he is dangerous and while he's badass and powerful There are horrible horrible things in this universe that could tear him apart Without even thinking about it. The other characters are fun, too Like there's this anti this person with like anti psychic powers called elizabeth or elizabeth which Again, that's one of those bits that I didn't 100% understand But I'll all roll with it and then there's a most who is eyes and horns Well, I guess his sidekick essentially and he was kind of fun, too I don't I don't have much to say about him, but he added things to the story He never felt like he was useless. He was actually contributing to solving the mystery and stuff So I liked him and most the other characters they sort of came and went but they serve their purpose well and As for the story it's well, it's a pretty good mystery You know it makes sense how there really is this big thread out there And you aren't sure exactly what it is at first But as it goes on you realize more and more the gravity of the situation and you're like, oh, yeah they got a they got a nip this in the bud before it gets really bad and By the end without giving anything away It does leave itself open for a sequel, but it does more or less wrap things up in this one little package So I liked that I like not having to Commit myself to a whole series because you know that I just have a whole lot of other stuff that I need to be reading right now now I gave this book four stars on Goodreads and I had to think about that for a while part of me really wants to give it five stars, but After thinking on it some I don't think it quite connected with me on that level because as I said What it sets out to do? You know be a mystery in this sci-fi universe where we follow this Essentially a grizzled old detective like I mean I hate to keep referring to him by that But he does fit into the archetype pretty well, but yeah it's essentially that sort of mystery and that it does that Amazingly well, and if you're a fan of Warhammer that probably just adds more flavor to it But the thing is that's not really my favorite type of story like I don't hate it It just doesn't immediately grab me and so something like this just While it while it succeeds at what it sets out to do it does it amazingly like you Could hardly find a single mystery story of this type That does this better. It's just not really my cup of tea and the fact that it's in the Warhammer universe Which I'm just not that familiar with and like again. I don't have anything against it. I've just I'm not familiar with it I haven't I Wouldn't even know where to start if I wanted to play the game. I don't really know anyone who's into stuff like that so I'm just not that familiar with it And so the setting couldn't quite grab me like I mean I felt that it was a really big and very strange setting so There's that I guess but it just never quite clicked with me the way that it probably would if you know about Warhammer and so for this book I would recommend it to If you're looking for a mystery thriller type thing 100% yeah, you probably love the hell out of this one If you're a Warhammer fan You might I don't know it depends. I don't know But if you're a Warhammer fan who is looking for that type mystery thing this will probably Blow you away like you will be so impressed by this because this is I believe it's a first of a trilogy or four books I'm actually I don't remember 100% but if the rest of the trilogy is like this then It's a great trilogy Huge huge huge thanks to everybody who watched this far and especially to my patrons whose names are here and my $10 up guys are Oppo Savalainen Ava Tumor brother Santotis Christopher Quinten Deanna Dayhem Mbis Emily Miller Evan Stigal Joel Karkat Kitsune Madison Lewis Bennett nature boy NB star Reeze e-Rowla sad martigan tobacco crow tombini vacuous Silas and they victims you are all Really great because without you well quite frankly I wouldn't be able to do this and if you want your name up here And if you want stuff like early access to my videos then consider becoming a patron You know it's all it takes a dollar a month And if you can't do that then just sharing this video around liking on it commenting on it You know all that stuff that helps too. Anyways, thanks for watching. See you next time. Bye