the Apocalypse turns out to be a pretty good read.

rumor is that Josh wrote this book in a month. if so that's an impressive feat. he knows his stuff, the story moves around briskly, and divides well into four or five sub narratives. everything makes sense and there's some genuine tension as to what's going to happen to characters. plot is strong, and so is the general theme. it all goes well with the standard warhammer trappings.

characterization is the weak point, and would have gained the most from more time. the good guys are fairly flat, especially the imperial fists, the Raven, and the sisters of battle. the white scars come off well.

it should surprise no one who's read Reynolds fabius bile books that his strong suite is traitor space Marines. the word bearers are fantasticly characterized, full.of passion, and have the most realized motivations and interactions.

narration was solid. reeds always good, but I question two of the choices. the lead human comes off a bit weaker than I think he was written. and the second word bearers comes off a bit more craven.

anyways a solid B rating.

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A good look at primaris

A good mix of characters, a good story and a good insight at how primaris work in the universe. I was hesitant about the primaris, but this novel made em reconsider my position.

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when you start you cannot

I'll have to say this is one of the better performances I've heard so far. The storyline has you engrossed in the characters and their views passing moments of the story. A great book to listen and sitting down or while driving.

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kept me engaged

i thought the plot was good and even the villians likable in their own way. i wish there was some additional resolution at the end...

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enjoyable

I enjoyed the narration and the book would recommend it to anyone.
to listen to

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An Epic Tale written on loose-leaf notebook paper

Reynolds captured characters in a way that is engaging and cuts to the essence of them in a way that is understandable in the setting and the background of the universe in which they are in. They were adequately three dimensional, nobody was playing-against-the-type in a way that was jarring, their foibles and virtues were not magnified in a way that was off-putting, and they were all believable for the universe of the setting. The down-side to the story was the setting itself which I feel came up a bit short of the plot devices that were used. The Cardinal World didn't feel very fleshed out for the plot threads that were used that were more than adequately engaging and that is its only failing. It is not hard to immerse yourself in the characters and the plot, but the world-stage itself is not immersive.

Individual plot points are engaging; there is a competent mystery occurring, the plotting and duplicity is engaging if a bit predictable, the differences between the legions and the backgrounds of their warriors as well as the denizens of the Cardinal World and their various backgrounds are well thought out and makes the reader want to know more about them. The characters themselves are interesting enough that I want to know more about them, I'd like to see them in other stories and experience their continued adventures. Reynolds manages to make the Astartes seem unique and reasonably different from one another based on the background and culture of their parent chapters (legions) where many other authors tend to merge the rather generic archetypes into one another and create tons of the same character, just in different colored armors.

Reed is a decent narrator, but other than how generic the Cardinal World feels, his performance would be the only other thing that could be considered weak in the narrative. Since Black Library has worked with other narrators with a far greater range of characterization and vocalization he can, perhaps unfairly, be considered weaker in this regard but he doesn't serve to excessively take one out of the story nor diminish interest. At the end of the day, not everyone can be Jonathan Keeble or Toby Longworth.

Better than expected

Due to the name, and the fact that it came out around the time tbe simmilar boardgame did, I expected non-stop action from start to finish.
Instead I've got a story with lots insight into the Imperial Faith, interaction between space marines and primaris marines... and actual Word Bearers who I did not find annoying.

Flat and weak ending

Performance was awesome. Narrator did an excellent job doing unrecognizable voices for each character. The only flaw is the lame ending written by the author, very unfulfilling and stops the story abruptly. No interesting hints of where or if another book happens.

Great story from start to finish.

It is well paced and well written. Story shows both sides of the conflict effectively where one could sympathize with either faction. Also shows the transition from the old Marines to the new Primaris Marines effectively too. See fighting in the void and on land too. Great game of wits, wills and brawn between the two factions. One minor nitpick and minor spoiler alter I will post below














*********************************Potental/ minor spoiler alter**************************************




The ending is heart braking as they pull one last emotional sucker punch. Don't ruin the story, but by goodness there are really are no happy endings in 40k. I wish they didn't do that, but like I said, that's 40k. Don't get attached to anyone. Still well worth the read.

One of the best stand-aloners I've read in a while

Truly one of the best 40k books I've read. Great dual-purpose novel; part stand-alone space marine book, part lore fill-in. Definitely starting to see a pattern in all the current lore books, without spoiling anything...