A Black Templars Short Novel: Guided by a vision, the High Marshal of the Black Templars journeys to a world left in ruins for millennia, in search of a holy relic.
An heir of Sigismund has been reborn. The Shrine Worlds Crusades are over. The Rubicon Primaris has been crossed. Chastised by Guilliman, the Primarch Returned, and guided by a vision from the holy God-Emperor Himself, High Marshal Helbrecht is called to the ruinworld of Hevaran. Forged in the fires of the Scouring, Hevaran is sacred in its desolation, condemned never to rebuild… Yet hidden upon its barren surface is a sacred relic. Questing to reclaim it with but a few select souls to aid him, Helbrecht must trust in his skill, his wrath, and his faith as an ancient enemy returns to test him as never before.
I’ve not read any 40K until now, though did play it when it first came out (Space Marines vs Genestealers). I read it mostly for research on the Black Templars and it was an interesting read, though it felt more like an elaborated gaming session as the book didn’t have any of the depth I am used to with the likes of Iain M Banks, Peter F Hamilton, Alastair Reynolds and Adrian Tchaikovsky. All-in-all it was like a holiday book – short and simple without much need to focus. The dialogue seemed two-dimensional and made the Black Templars true religious zealots with a one-track mind — purge anything that’s not aligned with the will of their god-emperor. War may be everything but I didn’t feel any compassion for these fanatics whose only goal seemed to be to rain death on infidels based on their final judgement. I know, that’s a Black Templar … but even in a short novel I’m sure we could go a little further… ?
One funny thing is that in the Audiobook, the chapter titles that display in the app look like they’ve been translated by AI as they’re just wrong – most of them. It seems like a fundamental error in something to esteemed as 40K from the Black Library but it did make me wonder how relevant the book was or if the Audiobooks are rushed out.
- The Shiftness of Saints (= The Swiftness of Saints)
- The Blessed Feel (= The Blessed Few)
- Face Adamant (= Faith Adamant)
- Test if Faith (= Tests of Faith)
- Moving World (= Ruin World)
- Disparity (= Plains of Despair)
- Gardens of Books (= Gardens of Bones)
- On the Wings of Flake (= On the Wings of Flame)
- The Faith (= Through Fire and Faith)
- From the Breathe of Death (= From the Brink of Death)
- War of Ghost (= A War of Ghosts)
- The Words of Angels (= The Wrath of Angels)
- Caged (= Sanctity’s Cage)
- As a Bilk so Below (= As Above so Below)
- Underworld (= Undervault)
- Inheritous (= Inheritance)
I’ll be reading more as I’m doing research into 40K but I’ll probably switch to other shelves that explore different aspects of the universe and blend with the codexes and Wikis for other info. I’ve got a lot to catch up on!
