Double Eagle

Warhammer 40,000

By: Dan Abnett

Narrated by: Toby Longworth

Length: 10 hrs and 16 mins

Publisher's summary

A Sabbat Worlds novel.

The war on Enothis is almost lost. Chaos forces harry the defenders on land and in the skies. Can the ace pilots of the Phantine XX turn the tide and bring the Imperium victory?

Listen to it because:

It takes the famous Sabbat Worlds Crusade to the skies, with fast-paced aeronautical action, memorable characters and compelling emotional arcs from Dan 'Master of War' Abnett.

The story:

High-speed air combat in the war-torn Sabbat Worlds!

When the elite fighter pilots of the Phantine XX arrive on the beleaguered world of Enothis, they know it is a desperate hour. The forces of Chaos are closing in, and their final push could well wipe out all human life on the planet. Thousands of refugees flee the dark armies, and the infamous Chaos fighter pilot Khrel Kas Obarkon is always hunting the skies for more prey....

And so it falls to the brave men and women of the Phantine fighter corps. Can they hold off the Chaos advance until reinforcements arrive? In the high-speed, white-knuckle terror of aerial combat, can they defeat an enemy possessed by daemons?

Written by Dan Abnett. Running time 10 hours and 17 minutes. Narrated by Toby Longworth.

©2019 Dan Abnett (P)2019 Games Workshop Limited

Pleasantly surprised

I'm a big fan of WWII era aviation history and reading about the air combat that took place all around the world at the time, so cue my surprise when I discovered that Double Eagle read a lot more like WWII air combat stories than Top Gun.

Pacing.

Black Library novels have a really bad habit of being all over the place with pacing. But this book nails the pacing dead on. I was listening on the edge of my seat for much of the story. It rolls in and out of air battle scenes effortlessly and in a way that feels realistic for the situation at hand. The descriptions of action taking place in a 3D environment were very well crafted and it was easy to see things happening in my head as they took place. Kudo's to Dan Abnett on achieving this feat because it's not always easy to describe things that are happening when there's a whole other plane (no pun intended) to describe throughout the action.

The characters were all believable and had very human motivations and goals. Some were true patriots, some were there for the thrill, some were true aviation professionals, some were whiny bastards you wanted to slap and some were egotistical pricks. Basically just like any flight deck in any country in the world. But very few of them stayed that way through the entire novel. Most had changed by the end, which was enjoyable to see.

The only negative thing I could say about this book is that it spends 99% of the time with the "good guys" of the story and a very weird 1% of the time with the "bad guys" of the novel. Honestly, that 1% spent from the bad guys was completely unnecessary and could have been cut. If I had been the editor, that's exactly what I would have done. Let the bad guys be these nameless and faceless horrors that our hero's are fighting against. No need to cut to the bad guys for their pointless thoughts.

Other than that, I'd place this in the top five of the dozens of Black Library / 40K books I've read. Of all the ones on my list, this one I can see myself reading again in another couple of years or so when I start to forget parts of the story. It was definitely worth the purchase.

Kudos yet again to Toby Longworth for another outstanding narration. If my life were interesting enough to be narrated one day, then I'd want you to narrate it.

Amazing

This is a very good book to listen too . I would definitely recommend this book to anyone

Engaging!

Loved this, especially as someone new to war hammer 40k. Also, incredible narration. Highly recommend!

Aerial combat and character development at its finest

Dan and Toby are a fearsome duo. Double eagle is a another of my favorites from them

still one of the best

easily my 7th or 8th time with this book, one of my favs of all-time

It's the Battle of Britain in space and I love it

First and foremost, I must give credit to the voice over by Toby Longworth. Having listened to several of the Black Library books he narrated, I must say I am once again impressed by his work. He does a wide range of unique voices and accents that really flush out each of the characters. The emotion he infuses into each line spoken really brings the characters to life.a¹

Refreshing new take on warhammer 40k

Aerial combat is an interesting niche in 40k but Abnett, true to form, does it plenty of justice.
A gripping tale with intense action and interesting characters.

Toby Longworth, is as always, a brilliant narrator.

I would even recommend this book for people who are new to the franchise, it's a standalone story which does not presume much prior knowledge on part of the audience.

I would love for this to continue, I need more

Warhammer needs more aviation focused books like this absolutely amazing I have a longing for more.

a unique war story

just simply amazing and honestly very true to aviation. the author did his homework. this was a treat to listen to.

Just a good Story

I did not think this book would be as good as it was, but it is well written and benefits from have Toby Longworth as a narrator. It’s appeal comes from the fact that if you remove all references to the imperium, it’s still a good war story. Give it a listen.