There's a lot of love out there for Aaron Dembski-Bowden, and I think it's well-founded.
Before I recognized his name, I picked up A D-B's The First Heretic (for the Word Bearers) and really enjoyed it.
To be accurate, I also really liked the Word Bearers series by Anthony Reynolds. I am a sucker for guys who know the value of a good book.
So with all the good press, I picked up Blood Reaver hopeful for a good read. I wasn't disappointed.
I haven't read the first novel in the Night Lords series, but I didn't struggle too badly to fill in the missing information.
A D-B tells a good tale. His voice is a bit different than other Black Library authors. He makes jokes across the narration, outside of the characters' internal monologues. I don't remember any other BL book cracking wise so often. I suppose some readers will find it off-putting, given all the flaying that happens during the course of the story. (Seriously, a lot of folks lose their skin.)
If you've read some of the feedback about the novel across the interwebs, you'll find people complaining about how nice the Chaos Marines are, especially toward their slaves. It's true: unlike the Word Bearers--who tend to pluck-out the eyes of their slaves, as I recall--the Night Lords sort of "adopt" some of their slaves. Some slaves even get handy little number-based names, and nearly free reign across the ship.
There is perhaps something there to mine in the future. I can imagine the still-reluctant slaves not taking too kindly to the masters' favorites.
I don't mind that the Night Lords aren't always super killy, or super Chaosy. Sometimes, even possessed killers just need to kick back and play some Parcheesi.
I am surprised that, for all the talk of treachery and such, we don't see more backstabbing going on. Maybe that's book three.
The book ends with a great space battle. I love me some space ships. I love the way they move, the way the ships become characters themselves (in particular in this book), the names of ships. I love naming ships! I seem to always work in the name for a ship in my 40K fiction because it's so much fun. The battle is momentous and wonderful, tactical and desperate.
(I need to learn Battlefleet Gothic.)
When you're reading the book, it's a good time. Afterward, the first two-thirds or so seem to fade away as so much time wasting. The last third is the real good stuff, and while the difference between the novel's chunks aren't as oppressive or obvious as, say, the difference between the chunks of Lord of the Flies (seriously, the first two-thirds are drudgery, and then kids start dieing and it's awesome), it makes me wonder about what could have been.
I'll give it four flayed carcasses out of five. Because when Night Lords aren't flaying, they're threatening flaying.