We actually finished this trilogy over the course of the end of 2020 and the first part of 2021. The Ravenor books are the sequel trilogy to the Eisenhorn novels that were my first delve into full-length audiobooks. This set of stories follow Eisenhorn's protégé, Gideon Ravenor, and his quest to take down a heretic from the elite Cognitae group.
As per usual, Dan Abnett is a fantastic writer for the world of Warhammer 40K. And, again, Toby Longworth is a fantastic narrator for these audio versions. My husband also got a hold of the short-story collection: The Definitive Casebook of Gregor Eisenhorn, which includes the novella The Magos and has by far one of my favourite characters in it: the magos biologis Valentin Drusher. The Casebook is a bunch of background stories that feed into the Eisenhorn books and the Ravenor trilogy.
Where do I even start? I guess, first big change between them is that the Ravenor trilogy takes place over a shorter time frame than the other. Eisenhorn's novels span decades to come to a resolution, whereas the Ravenor storyline is only just a year, maybe slightly more. Second, Eisenhorn's novels were more memoir and detective novel-ish, whereas the Ravenor ones are more like a crime/police novel... I'm not sure how to quite explain it, but they've got a different feel to them for sure.
I really like that some the characters from Eisenhorn's band of followers switch over to Ravenor's retinue after the events in Hereticus. It definitely helped me get more engaged right off the hop to have familiar names and personalities present. Ravenor is by no means an easy protagonist to connect with due to his mental and bodily state after the catastrophic events on Thracian Primaris in the previous trilogy. His mental powers could come off as invasive to some, but it is how he operates to get his job done. And unless the reader is able to picture spectral forms on a mental astral plane by just the written word, then some of the descriptions in the book could be difficult to grasp as well.
The Ravenor books also have a lot more to do with chaos demons than Eisenhorn's trilogy. The whole main plot revolves around the sale of a 'drug' called flects that allow the user to look into the realm of chaos and experience a type of high, albeit it with a really nasty downward spiral side effect. The drug is what wraps Ravenor up in the desperate hunt for the leader of a cell of Cognitae members. This of course gets Ravenor and his band into perilous danger again and again.
I enjoyed that there was a sub-plot of a love story in these ones, and it didn't involve the main character. And it was actually two love stories. Not really something to expect from a 40K novel. However, I will say that neither of them took away from the main story and they did add a little bit of levity without being overdone or in your face. It helped me sympathize with some of the characters more and made the ending of the trilogy more heart-wrenching too. I liked it. Give me a bit of tragedy with my joy.
EDIT: I totally forgot to include the hilarious parts about Wystan Frauka. Wystan is Ravenor's 'untouchable', a person with with psychic abilities do not work on or around. Untouchables make the people around them very uncomfortable and frightened because they are blank. Anyway, Wystan loves pornographic novels and chain-smoking. Almost every scene he is in is hilarious because he is ALWAYS reading the smutty novels on his data-slate and even takes to reading them to their comatose teammate Zael to keep him "entertained".
While I liked the Ravenor trilogy, I still like the Eisenhorn ones better. It was nice to catch up and carry on with some of the characters stories, but after journeying with Gregor, you can tell some of them are starting to feel a little worn out by the time they join Ravenor. That's all well and good, and everyone is entitled to feel haggard after a life of aiding an Inquisitor, but it shows in the way the books end. Which is why I will always like the first trilogy better. Sorry, Ravenor fans.
We did listen to The Magos after we finished Ravenor's books and it was fun. Very different from the other novels in this storyline. We also plan to listen to the Bequin trilogy as well sometime. The first and second novels are out -- the second one having been published only just this year. The third one is forthcoming, so we might wait to binge all three in a row. They take place MUCH later in the overall timeline, so I'm curious to see how that goes.
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