Backcloth for a Crown Additional (An Eisenhorn Short Story)

Hello, everyone. Thank you for joining in for another Sunday mini-review.

Today we’ll be reviewing the third of the short stories from Eisenhorn - The Omnibus, "Backcloth for a Crown Additional”. Please feel free to check out my reviews for the other stories in the Eisenhorn series if you haven’t already. Otherwise, let’s dive right in.

STATS

Title: “Backcloth for a Crown Additional”

Series: Eisenhorn

Author(s): Dan Abnett

Genre: Science Fiction (Space Opera)

First Printing: 2002

Publisher: Black Library (Games Workshop Publishing)

SPOILER WARNING

Both minor and heavy spoilers for “Backcloth for a Crown Additional” will be provided throughout this review. I will try to keep the first paragraph of each section as spoiler-free as possible and will confine heavy spoilers to clearly labeled sections.

Minor spoilers for the Eisenhorn novels and the short story “Regia Occulta” will be provided during this review.

TIMELINE

“Backcloth for a Crown Additional” is set in the year 355.M41. This puts it between the events (or at least the start) of Malleus (345.M41) and the events of Hereticus (386.M41).

STORY (HEAVY SPOILERS)

Eisenhorn receives a message that a friend of his, Lord Aen Froigre, has died unexpectedly. Suspecting foul play, Froigre’s widow requests Eisenhorn’s assistance. Eisenhorn needs the summons, traveling to Froigre’s estate with Alizebeth Bequin and one one his security men, Felippe Gabon, in tow.

Eisenhorn’s investigation initally turns up neither evidence nor any suspects. However, Aemos is able to provide him with a connection. A carnival had been hired to provide entertainment at a party on Froigre’s estate the night Froigre died, and a string of strange deaths was also tied to places the carnival had been.

Eisenhorn, Bequin, and Gabon travel to the carnival. As they wander amongst the various entertainments, Eisenhorn detects Warp influence inside the trailer of a hololith vendor. He accosts the bewildered vendor, who admits to using a strange reagent he didn't know the origin of to develop his images. Eisenhorn storms the trailer, but the dæmonic reagent defends itself with Warp sorcery. In the ensuing chaos, the vendor is vaporized, but Eisenhorn is successful in destroying the reagent.

RATING: 7.5 / 10

Much like “Regia Occulta”, “Backcloth for a Crown Additional” is a simple, small, stakes story the serves to build character. We get to see what Eisenhorn is like after Malleus begins his slide into Radicalism - more specifically, in a situation where the fate of the Imperium isn’t hanging over him. The story starts with a mystery and builds towards a final confrontation

PLOT

One thing the that I think is noteworthy about this story is that the mystery is better handled than in most of the Eisenhorn stories. There’s no twist reveal built on information that audience doesn't have. It’s possible to figure out what the final confrontation is going to be before it actually happens. I don’t think this is such a huge improvement that it necessarily makes it better than “Regia Occulta”. It was just a nice touch in a solid action story.

CHARACTER

As in “Regia Occulta”, Eisenhorn’s decision to help out despite the lack of any obvious threat to the Imperium shoes confirms that, while he is very much a morally gray anti-hero, emphasis should be put on “hero”. He’s lending his services to his friend’s widow purely because he wants to help.

I think that Bequin’s inclusion in this story was a great addition. There’s not a lot of time in the novels dedicated in the novels to properly exploring their dynamic, so it’s nice to see a story where focus can be out on them interacting. Similarly, while the novels primarily focus on Bequin’s abilities as a blank, this story fleshes out the investigative skills she has developed over more than a century of serving under Eisenhorn in the field.

WORLDBUILDING

Something I'm going to get into when the Hereticus review rolls around in the value of small stakes for the environmental worldbuilding.

Warhammer 40K, by virtue of being a grimdark setting, is an overall terrible place to live. The majority of the humanity population is miserable and barely surviving even when their homes aren’t turned into a warzone or bled dry to sustain a war elsewhere. Even the places that seems nice to live on the surface usually have some sort of oppressive system or corruption lurking below the surface.

With the visit to the carnival, “Backcloth for a Crown Additional” reminds the audience that there's more to this galaxy than just cartoonish misery. So called “Civilized Worlds”, like the world where Eisenhorn keeps his estate and where this story is set, aren't all that different fork our own. They're not narratively interesting places (not unless something sinister is happening in the background, as was the case here). Still, they are a valuable inclusion to this setting because they contrast the more miserable places. Eisenhorn’s visits to hive cities and alien wastelands and dying industrial complexes feel a lot more impactful when there are mundane and peaceful places like this where he could be instead.

IMAGE OF THE FUTURE

“Backcloth for a Crown Additional” is another story that I highly recommend and that I’m glad was included in Eisenhorn - The Omnibus. Check it out for yourself if you ever get the chance.

We now have just one more story left in the omnibus, that being “The Keeler Image”. My plan to do this one as a Sunday mini-review. However, I want to try something experimental first.

I recently finished an indie novel, Dot Monster Re:Volution. It’s the sort of thing that I’d normally do with a one-off review on a Friday. However, since I’ve developed a large enough Friday backlog as it is, I want to instead trying breaking it down into bite-sized chunks and distributing these chunks across consecutive weeks. Thus, the Sundays from October 5th through November 9th will be occupied by a 6-part series of shorter posts.

Once that’s done with, we’ll be reviewing the Chapter 16 bonus chapter of Fourth Wing on November 16th. “The Keeler Image” review will therefore come on November 23rd.

On the Tales of the Five Worlds side of things, the full novella of “The Unbottled Idol” is now available. If you’d like to read a free story that blends Eisenhorn with Jujutsu Kaisen, I encourage you to check it out. We’ve also just started a new short story, “Honor to the God Boy”, set within the same universe. Part 1 of this new story is already out, while Part 2 releases on Tuesday.

Mehdi likes scavenging with a human pack, even if they have poor noses and aren’t very bright. What more could a hyena want, when he earns sausages every time he finds funny herbs and powders? But when Mehdi catches the scent of a god of chaos, he has to make a hard choice to save his humans.

Whatever you’re here for, thanks for stopping by. Please remember to subscribe if you’d like a weekly newsletter with the latest post links and to share this review if you enjoyed it. Take care, everyone, and have a good week.