Book Review: The Bleeding Chalice

Awhile back I purchased the Soul Drinker Omnibus by Ben Counter.  I bought it at the time because I wanted a fairly long read for a good price and the local Border's happened to be going out of business at the time.  This led me to purchase the book.  I reviewed the first book in the omnibus several weeks back.  You can find it here.

I just finished the second book of the series, The Bleeding Chalice.  In this book Librarian Sarpedon, leader of the now renegade Soul Drinkers, is looking for the key to saving his chapter from mutation.  Due to the multitude of mutations occurring throughout the chapter, it can't replenish its ranks because of tainted gene seed.  Thus, it's a race against the clock as the Soul Drinkers flee Inquisition forces led by new character Thaddeus, a moraled inquisitor leading a company of Sisters of Battle.  The Soul Drinkers plunge into a sector of space controlled by daemonspawned mutant named Teuteract who spreads death and disease over entire systems of planets. 

The action is decent and the connection to the characters has grown since the first book.  Though I wouldn't rate this collection of works amongst the better Black Library writers like Dan Abnett, it is entertaining and I find it to be a step up from it's predecessor Soul Drinker.  I give this one a solid B+. 

The final installment of the omnibus is called Crimson Tears.  I hope to have it read in the next few weeks and another review  ready for you.