Bingo. The only bloat I found was in a couple of fight scenes. Not at all bad, just the only bits that didn't feel especially poignant or portentous.
Moreover:
Also, Chapter 19, in the storage locker, I might have to go on record and say that was one of the most grim bits of fiction done by BL. Bloody heck, Gav.
That being:
Spoiler: When they're trapped with the human cultist, she's about to kill her own daughter rather than surrender to Khaine and fight (not realising that even that isn't escaping the doom of the asur...), and instead the Manyia... well. It's grim as... well, it's grim as fuck.
Very well told though. There's only been a couple of times in BL fiction that I've been on the cusp of putting the book down and not looking back (Guy's Skarsnik's opening is one), but this was remarkably different.
It was... bleak. It got the feeling, the horror, the disgust and unwinnable awfulness of 40k just right. Enough to get right to the core, but not enough to stop me reading.
I'm glad it doesn't happen too often, as I could see total emotional fatigue setting in.
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More, and it's a thing only Gav & Chris Wraight's work has managed (that I recall offhand, [Malekith/Caledor and now Path of Heaven]), it's one of the things that truly moves me. Those three to tears, this one to something much less articulatable.
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Hell of a book this. Really enjoyed it, I'd be super keen for more. Especially after Andy Chambers' work in the Path of the Dark Eldar series.
Get Gav & Andy collaborating on some of these stories. And get Phil Kelly (and whoever else helped on thar DE Codex) to really flesh out the days of the ancient Eldar.
(Not that I wouldn't trust Gav to do it alone - that'd be terrific. But I wouldn't want to burn him out, and also I'd be happy to throw money at lots of it - so more hands...)