I’m glad I did too, because all three books were incredibly fun reads. Plus, I was fan ofAbnett’s comic book work especially on the Marvel cosmic titles he co-wrote with Andy Lanning, like “Guardians of the Galaxy” and “Nova.” So I picked up the “Eisenhorn” Omnibus which is composed of a trilogy of novels “Xenos,” “Malleus,” and “Hereticus” and two short stories that bridge the gaps between the novels. The trilogy was described as part detective story and part interplanetary epic, which was music to this crime fiction fan’s ears. I looked for a good place to start and came across the “Eisenhorn” trilogy of novels by Dan Abnett. So with that in mind I decided to give the novels of the Black Library, the publishing arm of Games Workshop, a chance. I don’t think it would look as cool played out on my dining room table with little pained metal figures, but I thought the right writer could tell some really awesome and really fun stories. Here was a world that mixed Lovecraftian horror, with fantasy, and the sci-fi elements of properties like “Dune,” “Starship Troopers,” and “Star Wars.” It then gave everything a noirish gray hued twist and added a heavy metal-Frank Frazetta visual aesthetic for spice.

Recently though I took another look at the concept and was blown away.

So that memory made me sort of set aside the concepts of Games Workshop’s “Warhammer 40,000” as not really my thing. Watching them was interesting, but not super exciting. I have a vague memory of hanging out with some friends in elementary school as they rolled some dice and moved around some painted science fiction themed miniatures on a pool table.

Eisenhorn book series