Path Of The Warrior by Gav Thorpe.
The strict discipline of the craftworld can relate sometimes in a book that revolves around them but this trap is successfully dodged by Gav Thorpe. We begin with an Eldar feeling the urge to change their path and it goes from there into the endlessly entrapping world of the Warrior Aspect path to the shrine of the Striking Scorpions.
This book really shows off the potential of the Eldar world with the way it describes life and death on the Craftworld of Alaitoc. This novel shows the point of view from various roles including the pathway of the Autarch. There are well described battles and higher drama type moments. In novels before this I have found the Eldar to be very stagnant and vanilla with nothing that stands them apart really, unlike the Dark Eldar they don't make you feel that their world is full of various dangers, such as conniving politics of the Archons or the dangerous beings that inhabit the Eternal City. But this book stops that feeling completely with showing a different type of danger than is apparent with the other factions, different but by no means lesser. Gav Thorpe has really brought the interest to the Craftworld Eldars and has showed what can be possible with them. One slightly negative view from my opinion is it does contain a slow build up to the real content of the story. The beginnings of the main character does strike me as a bit whiny and narcissistic, but if you persevere with the story it makes up for the set up with the rest of the content. In the category of the Eldar centric novels I would say that this is a must read if you really want to understand the Craftworld life and well worth the cost and time to enjoy it.
Top image used under creative commons Warhammer wiki
bottom image book cover of the version used in the review
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