Product Description

Basic Training: Four Months. Planetary Transportation: Seven Weeks. Life Expectancy...Fifteen Hours. the stalwart troops of the Imperial Guard are the first line of defence against the nemerous foes of the Imperium. Their heroisn and courage is renowned across the galaxy and their armoured might has crushed countless rebellions and invasions. This action packed novel tells the story of a lone guardsman and his baptism of fire in a combat zone where the average expected lifespan is a mere fifteen hours. Fighting hand-to-hand against the barbarous orks, he must draw upon all of his training if he is to live to see another dawn. The horrors of war are only too real in this harrowing tale of carnage and valour!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #154288 in Books
• Published on: 2005-07-12
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 256 pages

About the Author
Mitchel Scanlon is a hot new talent residing in the sheep-infested valleys of Derbyshire. His first break was with the Black Library's Warhammer Comic and the character Hellbrandt Grimm. He is currently the writer of Hellbrandt Grimm, Lillana Falcone and Of Ancient Blood and has had fiction published in Infernol magazine.

Customer Reviews

Fifteen Hours is not enough
From the first sentence: "The sky was dark, and he knew he was dying" Mitchel Scanlon's first Black Library novel, Fifteen Hours, sweeps the reader up in a darkly evocative and almost sublimely grim tale of the recently conscripted Imperial Guardsmen Arvin Larn. It is clear that due to his attention to detail and the novel's seamless transition from the pastoral agri-planet of Jumal IV to the war-torn streets and trenches of the city of Broucheroc that Scanlon has a firm grasp of both the facts and the nuance of the bleak and violent future of humanity. He shows this knowledge in both in the far-distant future universe of Warhammer 40,000 in general and it's foremost military machine, the Imperium of Mankind's Imperial Guard in particular.

Scanlon further punctuates the first person experiences of Trooper Larn with the occasional interlude where we are presented with insights into the characters and personalities of the Imperium that caused Trooper Larn to come to be at this hell-hole of a planet where he doesn't belong and in a war he has no part. We see through eyes and hear the thoughts everything from an Administratum Scribe to the Grand Marshall of a planetary army. Through these interludes we gain a further insight and the very real sense of an ominous future.

This is not a novel for the feint of heart. Mitchel Scanlon is almost aggressive in his realistic portrayal of the dark and at times hopeless life of a lowly infantryman of the Imperial Guard. He is, without a doubt, the first author of the Warhammer 40k universe that may actually present the universe as too grim, if such a thing can be said and it is clear he is no fan of the officer ranks. At times, this reality he confronts you with is so surprising that it will hit you in face and leave you jarred for a chapter or two. However, there is a method to Scanlon's madness, his sensuously morbid portrayal of the universe makes those rare moments of Pyrrhic victory, of laugh-out-loud levity, and even of hope feel all the more powerful and moving. I don't mind telling you, its one hell of an experience.

This is a Guardsman not a Marine... (or Rambo!)
Imperial Guard... ATTACK!!!

Wow.. I've read this book in two days. For me it's fast 'cause I don't have much time unless you count the trips to work and so...

This is Mr. Scanlon first book. I think he did an exclent work. I've read the reviews and most of all agreed this is a fast turning book. It's catching and it's not for the feint. I've read some parts that make me feel I was in that battlefield.
It remind me some stories about WW I in the trenches. It add some good perpective about the guardsman life and the connection between them and their superiors.

There is one part that blow me away and made me tremble..

"From the corners of his eye Larn caught gimpses of the others around him. He saw Bulaven, a lasgun in his hands taken from other Guardsman. He saw Davir. Scholar. Zeebers. He saw Chalker, his expression cool and detached, working the slide of his shotgun to send round after round into the enemy. He saw Vladek. Medical Oficer Svenk. The cook, Trooper Skench, a laspistol blazing in his one remaining hand as he stood besides others. He saw their faces. Scholar drawn yet steadfast. Bulaven dutiful, Zeebers nervous, Davir spiting obscene and angry oaths at the advancing orks. He saw steely determination and a refual to go easily to death. AS he saw it, Larn felt a feelting shame that he had doubted these men when he had first met them. Whatever their manner they were all wahat a Guardsman should be. Brave. Resolute. Unbending in the gace of the enemy. These were the men on which the Imperium had been built. The men who had fought its every battle. Won its every victory. Today, they were hoepelessly outnumbered.
Today it was their final stand.
(page 227)

After reading this book, and before as well I prefer the guardsman stories than to Marines stories.

Other reviewer said this was a teeneger writing or something. I agree. It's not like Dan Abnett or Ian Watson. But I guess this "teenager" writing made this book even greater. The common soldier is not a writer or poet. I guess that made us see almost from the eyes of the main character. It was good also 'cause the pages were turning even faster.

Overall.. If you want to read about a common guardsman and not a hero like Rambo I would reccomend this book.
You won't see here a man who have kill 1001 orks while drinking beer.

A must read for warhammer40,000 fans
from the first sentince this book pulls you in and you do not want to put it down. it feels like you are there in the trench with them.
I could not put this book down i read it in two days. it would have been less but work got in the way.
This book is a must for a new reader of warhammer 40,000 or loyal fan.