Warhammer 40,000: Hive by Dan Abnett

On June 29, 2026 By The Unseen LibraryIn Audiobook, Extended Universe, Five-Star Books, Science Fiction, Tie-in Novel, WarhammerLeave a comment

Publisher: Black Library (Audiobook – 16 May 2026)

Series: Warhammer 40,000

Length: 24 hours and 25 minutes

My Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

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The highly inventive and compelling Dan Abnett once again impresses with his latest addictive entry in the gritty Warhammer 40,000 universe, Hive, an exceptional novel that really puts the grim into grimdark fiction.

Dan Abnett is an author I have mentioned multiple times in this blog, primarily because he is one of the best and most prolific writers of Warhammer fiction. Abnett’s impressive work is a pillar of the extended Warhammer 40,000 universe, especially with his entries in the Horus Heresy range, as well as his own various unique series, several of which are amongst some of my very favourite pieces of Warhammer 40,000 fiction. This includes his outstanding Eisenhorn novels (Xenos, Malleus and Hereticus), his long-running Gaunt’s Ghosts books (First and Only, Ghostmaker, Necropolis, Honour Guard, The Guns of Tanith, Straight Silver and Sabbat Martyr), as well as gripping titles like Titanicus, Double Eagle, and Interceptor City. Due to these exceptional books, Abnett has quickly become one of my favourite authors, and I was very excited when he recently announced and then released a brand-new Warhammer 40,000 novel. This novel is the wonderfully lengthy Hive, a two-part novel released simultaneously, which comes together as a single complex tale of life and death in one of the infamous Warhammer 40,000 hive cities, vast metropolises burrowing into the ground and filled with billions of teaming humans. I’m reviewing both Hive novels as one in this review, primarily because the audiobook format combined them, and it acted as one extended Warhammer 40,000 narrative.

In the hive city of Sacramentus, known simply as the Hive, toil, duty and austerity are the way of life, as its people work in the Hive’s oppressive darkness. However, after years of war with the planet’s other major city, Sacramentus is entering a period of instability and change. The planet’s governor, the Domne, has been deposed and executed by the Adeptus Arbites, and a new Domne has been named. However, this new Domne is an off-planet administrator sent by the wider Imperium of Man to rule, and the Hive does not appreciate outsiders.

As preparations begin for the Domne’s coronation, unrest besets Sacramentus. Many of the Hive’s citizens, from its lowest worker to its highest noble, speak of revolution and anarchy, while unusual murders and the destructive emergence of unstable psykers create their own havoc. With the city on edge, many look to take advantage, with gangs, revolutionaries, terrorists and tired workers all determined to make their mark, no matter the cost.

Soon, protests and deadly riots are unleashed upon the Hive’s streets, and the city’s new ruler attempts to maintain control from the forces arrayed against her. However, there is far more to this atmosphere of dissent and revolution than anyone realises. A dark and dangerous threat lies just beneath the surface of the Hive, hidden and waiting to unleash its full wrath on everything it encounters. Can the beleaguered citizens of Sacramentus pull together and fight the malevolent forces coming for it, or is the city’s precious light about to go out for good?

Well damn, that was a very impressive read. Dan Abnett continues to showcase why he is one of the very best authors of Warhammer fiction, with the highly intricate and deeply addictive Hive. A powerful and multilayered novel filled with a multitude of compelling character stories, Hive was one of Abnett’s most epic projects yet, with the author’s inventive flair and ability to craft large, unique worlds, perfectly showcased. A particularly dark and intense novel that gets a very easy five-star rating, Hive is guaranteed to hook you all the way to the bitter end.

Abnett creates a very ambitious and intricate narrative for Hive, which takes the reader on a twisty and complex journey through the eyes of so many characters. Starting off on an interesting note that helps to establish some aspects of the unique setting, Abnett quickly splits the story into multiple different character storylines. Introducing a substantial number of different perspective characters in the early going of the book (with some of these scenes introducing other characters who would get their own perspective sections in the book later), you are soon embroiled in a series of different personal stories. This mass of alternating storylines paints an elaborate picture of the main setting, with different people at the various levels of hive society all showcasing their separate opinions and grudges. While this large array of characters and multiple distinctive storylines can be a little overwhelming at the start of Hive, Abnett is able to forge it into a comprehensive and addictive narrative very early on. You are soon engrossed in several separate tales of revolution, revolt and secret activity, while other characters find themselves investigating mysterious events or occurrences.

I was enthralled with Hive’s narrative quite early on, especially as there were several different schemes for control or power happening simultaneously, with multiple complex characters being drawn into these plans at different levels. Abnett painted a compelling picture of the city as a roiling powder keg at this point, with the authority characters largely unaware of the various plans being laid against them. At around the halfway point of Hive, events kick off in a dramatic fashion, with Sacramentus engulfed in a chaotic riot as key characters start to enact their separate plans. You soon have an interesting split of storylines between those involved in setting off the alternating riots, those investigating and trying to stop them, and those who are simply caught in the middle. Abnett makes sure to drop some hints about certain hidden forces behind much of the unfolding disorder, although there are multiple clever red herrings and false leads that keep the reader guessing at what the true evil is for quite a while. There are also some reductions in the number of character perspectives, with a couple of surprising deaths earlier than expected. These sudden twisty ends are quite effective to the plot, and it helps to prepare the reader for just how grim and fatal things are going to get in the final stretch of the novel.

I don’t want to go into too much detail about how the final third of Hive unfolds, because it is better if you go into it blind. I will say that things get very dark very quickly, and you will not be prepared for some of the shocking surprises. Abnett does an excellent job blending several character perspectives together into combined story arcs as you near the end, although other character plotlines do remain nicely separated to tell their own story amongst the growing carnage. The author also slowly but effectively starts revealing the true danger behind the events of the book, and there are some amazing and devastating moments when the inevitable truth about what is happening emerges. People familiar with Warhammer 40,000 lore will probably be able to identify the main antagonists early, thanks to some hints from the author, although these readers will still be unready for how bad things get. I liked how Abnett played up the deliberate ignorance normal members of this universe had regarding this threat, and the protagonists’ failure to recognise what’s around them deliciously adds to the gripping tension of the plot. Everything leads up to a highly brutal conclusion, with a further narrowing of perspectives as you near the end. I felt that the eventual ending for Hive was quite fitting and really helped to hammer home some of the key fundamental elements of the Warhammer 40,000 universe. Most readers will come away from Hive shaken, and I may never forgive Abnett for how he toyed with my emotions in this novel.

Abnett has always been one of my favourite authors of Warhammer fiction, and Hive was a particularly impressive example of his writing style, especially as it is essentially a scaled-up version of one of his multiple-character novels like Titanicus or Double Eagle. A dark and atmospheric novel that makes full use of its epic city setting (and I do mean epic), Hive came together exceedingly well, as Abnett provides the perfect balance of excitement, intrigue and character growth. Once again making excellent use of multiple personal stories, Abnett is easily sets up multiple characters and independent storylines, while also telling a cohesive and powerful overall narrative. While a lot of perspective characters are introduced in very short order at the start of the novel, these multiple storylines all prove to be quite engrossing, and you really get invested in all the hard-hitting and personal tales. There is a certain amount of tragedy and dark inevitability to many of these storylines, and I enjoyed the even grimmer theme that Hive had, especially towards the end. The compelling range of different story elements, including focuses on politics, crime, unlikely romance and personal crusades, allowed for quite a varied tale, although as this is a Warhammer book, everything eventually devolves into dark action. The build-up to the more intense parts of the novel was also extremely well-done, and by the time things kick off, you are ready to see the full chaotic events unfold. The growing sense of tension and dread that Abnett was able to install in the book was just insane, especially in the second half of the book, and I honestly was on the edge of my seat at so many points in this incredible novel.

Probably the most impressive part of Hive was the incredibly detailed and elaborate city setting that Abnett created. The hive city of Sacramentus is a mind-boggling enormous setting that the author quicky and effectively introduces through the eyes of multiple characters. You soon have a great idea of the various zones and levels of the city, including its seat of government, its outer layers where herds of domesticated animals roam, a lower level where mushrooms are harvested, large gang-controlled sectors, and various levels of factories and mines, including the infamous Neg, where disgruntled workers and guilds argue about the state of the city. While these locations all serve as excellent and detailed backgrounds to the plot, the thing that really impressed me was the joint culture and society that the introduced for the entire city. There is a shared sense of self and civic identity that all the characters had within Hive, and you are soon introduced to their ideas of the city being the entire world, and anything outside is effectively alien. This mindset and the history behind it become a key part of Hive’s plot, as it serves as motivation for some figures, while other storylines require outsider characters to understand and overcome the differences.

Abnett further enhanced the uniqueness of the city’s culture by having all the Sacramentus-born characters consistently use distinctive terms, forms of address and slang in all their conversations. This seemingly simple yet highly effective use of language further enhanced the isolated and unique position that Sacramentus held within the wider Warhammer 40,000 universe, while also helping to draw me even more into the plot. Be warned that this does make comprehension of certain early conversations a little difficult, although readers are easily able to follow along thanks to context clues and some explanations given to outsider characters. However, I think that feelings of uniqueness and civic continuance this gave the plot more than makes up for any initial confusion the reader might have. I know it’s a bit cliché to say, but elements like this helps to the whole of Sacramentus feel like its own distinctive character within Hive, and you really get invested in the fate of the city and its entire population. Abnett clearly put so much work into developing this vast urban setting, and the joy readers have exploring it, as well as the impact its complexity and distinctiveness has on the overall story, cannot be emphasised enough.

In addition to having its own fantastic setting, Hive serves as an awesome inclusion in the Warhammer franchise. While seemingly separate, the author quickly establishes that Sacramentus is part of the Warhammer 40,000 universe, with clever inclusions about technology, culture and certain other outside elements. Despite this, Abnett makes It very clear just how insulated the enclosed city is from the rest of the Imperium of Man. Certain intruding elements, such as the Adeptus Arbites and the new ruler, are greatly resented and mistrusted as a result, and it was intriguing to see well established lore elements like the Arbites and other official Imperium organisations trying to operate in the city, especially as it added drama and difficulties to the plot.

However, it was way that Abnett worked the ignorance and lack of understanding about the wider universe into the plot of Hive that was the author’s masterstroke. Due to Sacramentus’s isolation, and the habit of the Imperium authorities to limit information about potential threats to its citizens, even planetary governors who are unlikely to encounter them, the protagonists of Hive are painfully slow at recognising the threats coming for them, which causes even more problems in the long run. Anyone with basic knowledge of the Warhammer 40,000 universe will be incredibly frustrated at characters’ inability to pick up on certain clues, which perfectly adds to the book’s tension. As such, Hive becomes an impactful read for established fans of the franchise, many of whom will be yelling at these characters multiple times in the book about what they are truly facing (I know I did). However, thanks to Abnett’s writing style, and the isolated and unique setting, Hive also works well as an introductory book to readers interested in checking out the Warhammer 40,000 universe. Indeed, Hive is perfect for those readers who want to see just how dark and complex a novel in this franchise can be, and you will become a huge fan of the author and Warhammer in general after reading Hive.

Another major highlight of Hive is the amazing array of great characters that Abnett loaded into his book as he once again attempts to showcase the human side of the Warhammer 40,000 universe. Abnett has always excelled at bringing multiple perspective characters to life within his novels, and Hive is the biggest example of this. The sheer number of point-of-view protagonists in this book is very impressive, if a little overwhelming at times. However, Abnett always excels at bringing the reader back to these characters with little effort, and you are soon caught up in their individual storylines. Each of these character-driven narratives is extremely well established, and you quickly get all the relevant details of these characters and their motivations. Most of their storylines are nicely self-contained and come together into full narrative threads, and there are some excellent developments as the characters rise to the occasion. However, readers are advised not to get too attached to any character, as Abnett was brutal when it came to removing certain key characters at surprising moments.

Character highlights for me in Hive include the new ruler of the planet, who finds her attempts to rule the unfamiliar city sabotaged at every level, while her loyal and likeable staff attempt to keep her alive. There was also an excellent mismatched buddy cop storyline set up between a local detective and off-world member of the elite Adeptus Arbites, who attempt to uncover secrets at the lowest level of Sacramentus with their different approaches and backgrounds. There were also several revolutionary characters with differing motivations, including members of the manipulated masses, infiltrators from outside the city, and gangsters with designs for power, each of whom have their own clever narrative threads in the book. I liked how the reader felt a sympathy for most of these revolutionaries, considering the typical circumstances of life in the Warhammer 40,000 universe, and there is a level of tragedy to their stories.

Abnett also adds an excellent and heartfelt love story into the mix, with two young women from different levels of the city’s society meeting early and spending much of the book exploring their relationship amongst the turmoil engulfing the city. This unlikely romance added a certain level of extra tension and tragedy to Hive, and you spend much of the book rooting for the mismatched pair. Finally, there was a great narrative around multiple retired members of an army regiment, who, after a reunion at the start of Hive, find themselves scattered across the city encountering different levels of the crisis. Not only did this allow some additional connection within the plot, as each of these characters tried to stay in contact with each other, but there were some great storylines about trauma and comradery thrown into their perspective chapters, as they encountered new horrors while dealing with the ghosts of their last war. I’m honestly only scratching the surface of Hive’s awesome characters here, as Abnett dreamed up a wonderfully complex cast whose alternating personal tales added some excellent additional drama and tragedy to the already outstanding narrative.

As with most Warhammer novels I’ve had the pleasure of reading, I ended up enjoying Hive on audiobook. The Warhammer audiobooks are always such good fun, as they enhance the over-the-top elements of the books and universe in all the best ways, and the crazy characters, awesome action and intense themes always come out so clearly. The audiobook for Hive was particularly good, as it allowed you to really immerse yourself in Abnett’s outstanding setting, and enjoy the fantastic figures featured throughout. Coming in with a runtime of over 24 hours, this is one of the longest Warhammer 40,000 audiobooks I have ever listened to, although most listeners are guaranteed to power through to see how everything ends. I did think that some of the early confusion about the identity of the multiple recurring characters is enhanced in this format, as the audiobook limits a reader’s ability to go back and remind yourself who a new character is and where you’ve previously seen them. However, I felt that this was only a minor problem, especially as the audiobook quickly moves you around the characters and you can distinguish their unique story arcs quite easily.

One of the major reasons the Hive audiobook works is due to the narration of the legendary Toby Longworth. Longworth (one of my favourite audiobook narrators), has long been associated with Abnett’s novels, having lent his voice to nearly all the author’s Warhammer entries. As such, Longworth is probably the narrator that best understand Abnett’s style, and does an exceptional job presenting the book’s ideas, setting and characters with his voice work. Not only is Longworth’s base narration voice quite epic and provides some extra gravitas to proceedings, but he also does an amazing job voicing the various characters. All the extensive cast are given voices that fit their personalities, vocations and origins, including accents for the various off-world characters, which allows the listener to distinguish easily between all the key protagonists. Combine this with some excellent sound effects to reflect voices coming through communication devices or projectors, and the entire listening experience of Hive is just exceptional, and I honestly couldn’t turn this audiobook off at times. As such, this format is very heavily recommended, and it is one of the top audiobooks I have listened to this year.

Dan Abnett continues to showcase just how powerful, complex and heartbreaking stories in the Warhammer 40,000 universe can be with the exceptional Hive. Featuring a captivating, character-driven plot set in a unique and highly detailed setting, Hive was a deeply compelling read from the very beginning. Loaded with intrigue, surprises and inevitable carnage, Hive was Abnett at his very best, and this is already one of my absolute favourite books of 2026.

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Feet of Clay by Terry Pratchett

On June 29, 2026 By The Unseen LibraryIn Audiobook, Comedy/Satire, Extended Universe, Fantasy, Five-Star Books, Murder Mystery, Throwback ThursdayLeave a comment

Publisher: Gollancz/Penguin Random (Audiobook – 6 June 1996)

Series: Discworld – Book 19/City Watch – Book Three

Length: 12 hours and 20 minutes

My Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

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Even after many, many re-reads, the awesome fantasy satire novel Feet of Clay remains one of my favourite Discworld novels by the late, great Terry Pratchett, with its intricate crime fiction narrative, compelling characters, and even a cool new audiobook version.

I’ve done a lot of Discworld re-reading recently as I have been checking out several of the best books in the series on their new audiobook formats, which featured cool new narrators. This new format has proven particularly awesome for books like Mort, Pyramids, Moving Pictures and Small Gods, as well as for entries in my favourite Discworld subseries, the City Watch books.

While I have a lot of love for all the books in Terry Pratchett’s Discworld, my absolute favourites come from the City Watch subseries. Following the unlikely members of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch, a rag-tag team of guards who go from losers to an effective police force, the City Watch books features an exceptional combination of fantasy and crime fiction elements, wrapped up in Pratchett’s usual satirical humour. The first two books in this series, Guards! Guards! and Men at Arms are quite exceptional, and it was a very easy decision to also check out the epic third novel in the series, Feet of Clay.

After several unlikely but successful investigations, things are looking up for the Ankh-Morpork City Watch. No longer a home for the dregs of society, the City Watch is now a respected crime-fighting unit. Led by Commander Sam Vimes, the Watch’s enthusiastic, if unusual, members are determined to bring some law and order to the city of Ankh-Morpork, whether it wants it or not.

However, even with their new resources and members, the Watch find themselves troubled by a series of brutal murders occurring throughout the city. All the victims were bludgeoned to death, but there is no evidence of anyone alive, or undead, having been at the crime scene. At the same time, the Patrician of Ankh-Morpork has been poisoned by unknown methods and is only barely clinging to life. If the Patrician dies, sanity in the city will be the next to fall.

To solve both cases, Vimes and his watchmen will need to investigate an overlooked underclass in the city, the golems, whose ancient secrets and desires may lie at the heart of the killings. But with desperate conspiracies, unlikely noble heirs and a new deranged king coming to light, can the City Watch uncover the figures pulling the strings in the darkness of Ankh-Morpork before it’s too late?

Wow, how is this book still so damn good? Feet of Clay was another outstanding read from Terry Pratchett, who once again deeply impresses with his exceptional writing, unmatched humour, and deeply relatable characters. This third City Watch book is probably some of Pratchett’s very best work, and it gets an extremely easy five-star rating from me.

I absolutely love the great narrative that Pratchett came up with for Feet of Clay, which I personally thinks has one of the author’s best crime fiction narratives behind it, as the complex characters humorously manoeuvre around the gritty streets of Ankh-Morpork. This book features a fun start that perfectly sets the scene for several of the key characters, including protagonist Sam Vimes’s daily routine of assassins and high society. You are also quickly thrust into the Watch’s new case involving two elderly academics bludgeoned to death. These initial investigations, as well as some other great sequences, set the scene for much of the rest of the book, with the narrative becoming even more hectic when Vimes discovers that the Patrician has been poisoned by unknown conspirators.

Afte the initial set-up, the rest of the story flows by extremely fast, with several character-driven storylines that flow together perfectly. The primary focus is on the two seemingly separate investigations into the murders and the poisonings, with Captain Carrot and Vimes taking control of each case. Both these major storylines go in some very interesting directions, with Vimes desperately trying to work out how the poisonings happened, while Carrot and Angua begin investigating the city’s golems, one of whom seems responsible for the murders. At the same time, Pratchett also provides some fantastic character-based storylines around several of the supporting Watch characters. This includes the unusual proclivities of the Watch’s new dwarf officer Corporal Cheery Littlebottom, Corporal Nobby Nobbs’s unbelievable reveal as a potential noble, one golem’s journey towards self-determination, and Angua’s continued feelings of alienation at being a werewolf.

All these storylines cross over perfectly in the final third of Feet of Clay, as the protagonists finally put together the subtle clues for the main two cases. While the reveal about who or what is behind the murders is fantastic in its own way, I must highlight the extremely well-hidden poisoning method that Pratchett devised for this plot, which is just so damn devious and cleverly set-up by the author. This leads to an excellent, action-focused collection of sequences that eventually pull together into an intense confrontation.

Pratchett wraps this up perfectly, with some amazing final reveals about who was ultimately pulling all the strings. While the mastermind of the conspiracy isn’t too surprising (especially if you listen to one of the audiobook versions), the way that Vimes works out their identity is so much fun thanks to some ironically hidden clues, and I love the big reveal scene between Vimes and the main antagonist. Pratchett also wraps up the remaining storylines perfectly, providing some great final touches to each of the characters’ respective arcs, and ensuring that the readers come away extremely satisfied. I honestly cannot emphasise enough just how addictive and clever this narrative was, and every single aspect of this plot was perfectly set up and utilised by Pratchett as he wove his fantasy, crime fiction magic.

I’ve always felt that Feet of Clay was one of Pratchett’s best-written novels, as he manages to expertly balance a range of competing storylines inside this highly entertaining, hybrid novel. As with all his City Watch books, the way that Pratchett manages to blend fantasy and crime fiction elements with his usual brilliant humour is just incredible, and I love how well this mixture of elements works to tell an effective narrative. I must particularly commend the great mystery in Feet of Clay, which is just so damn intricate with all its clues and mixture of compelling character storylines. Feet of Clay easily has some of Pratchett’s best mystery writing in its plot, and there is an outstanding amount of complexity built into both cases, with the truly elaborate poisoning arc being a particular highlight. The sheer amount of cleverly crafted and often humorous clues that the author scatters throughout the book is so damn awesome, and it is so much fun to pull them all together.

The book’s outstanding crime fiction elements are perfectly enhanced by the background fantasy elements of the setting, with the protagonists forced to investigate the crimes in the context of a chaotic city populated with different species. Compared to previous books, the investigation in Feet of Clay is much more like a modern police procedural, with classic forensic concepts enhanced with fantasy elements like scent tracking done by a werewolf and crime scene photos drawn by imps. The protagonists also need to deal with various fantasy creatures, such as golems, vampires, dwarfs and a very angry gnome, and understanding their motivations becomes a key part of the plot. Pratchett also uses these fantasy elements to address and lightly satirise contemporary social trends. For example, one dwarf’s attempt to find herself leads to a complex, nuanced and thought-provoking discussion on gender identity, which can still be readily applied to modern discourses on transgendered rights and modern gender norms. Another storyline focusing on golems gaining free will is also highly relevant, especially when you consider artificial intelligence. Throw in the general chaos and disorder of the city, which results in additional fun conflicts and incidents (Vimes’s one-sided battle against the Assassins Guild is particularly amusing), as well as a focus on the changes that have occurred to Ankh-Morpork thanks to the actions of the Patrician and the Watch, and you really have to appreciate just how fell the inherent fantasy elements of Feet of Clay enhances the plot.

While both the mystery and fantasy elements of Feet of Clay are very compelling, what really turns this into a five-star read is the clever humour that Pratchett adds to his books. There are various layers to the humour in this novel, although much of it lies in classic fantasy or murder mystery scenarios going in particularly absurd directions, or being artfully dissected by self-aware protagonists who find the situation and its real-world historical precedent very absurd. There are also the brilliant footnotes that seek to enhance the story and showcase just how ridiculous the Discworld is by providing additional details about the universe and the people within it. Finally, you have humour driven by the outrageous characters scattered throughout the plot, with ultra-sarcastic figures rubbing shoulders with entertaining parodies of terrible people. The more direct humour drawn from the storylines of several of these characters, such as Corporal Nobbs’s foray into the upper class, and Sergeant Colon unfortunate agricultural experiences, blends well with the rest of the complex novel, and ensures that there are entertaining moments, no matter where in Feet in Clay you are.

This great combination of humour, fantasy elements and a crime fiction narrative helps to make Feet of Clay one of the more appealing novels in all the Discworld series, and so many different readers will end up getting a lot out of it. As such, Feet of Clay works incredibly well as a standalone novel, with new readers easily able to enjoy this book without any prior knowledge of the Discworld or previous City Watch books, especially as Pratchett covers any relevant history or characters quite effectively. However, I do feel that to get the best experience with Feet of Clay, readers would benefit from checking out Guards! Guards! and Men at Arms first. The continuing storylines, history of the city and character arcs all come into play extremely well in Feet of Clay and you get a much more complete experience viewing all City Watch novels in order.

As with all of Pratchett’s novels, one of the real joys of Feet of Clay is the complex and comedic characters the author weaved such incredible, entertaining, and often extremely heartwarming tales around. Featuring a great combination of the well-established cast of the previous City Watch books, as well as a couple of awesome new figures, Pratchett did an exceptional job diving into the cast of his novel and the resulting depth to their characters was so damn impressive.

At the centre of Feet of Clay lies main character Commander Samuel Vimes, the recently ennobled and married commander of the City Watch. Transformed from a drunken and hated figure to the leader of a respected police organisation, Vimes has been forced to up his game, especially as he now finds himself being targeted by the elites of the city which he does with some comedic vigour. Feet of Clay is probably the book where Pratchett twists the focus of the City Watch fully towards Vimes. The definite centre of the plot, Pratchett really dives into Vimes’s obsessive nature, his simmering anger at the upper classes, and his determination to bring justice to everyone equally. Vimes dogged, yet cynical, approach to investigation and crime solving comes face to face with a particularly dastardly plot in Feet of Clay, and there are some wonderful sequences as he tries to puzzle out the poisoning. Pratchett also provides some extra detail about Vimes’ poor upbringing and the history of his family, which really showcases his motivations to a great degree. All this allows for a much more complicated figure then we saw in previous books, and it was an interesting change of pace for this central character that Pratchett would expand on in later books.

In addition to Vimes, there are some interesting focuses on Captain Carrot and Constable Angua, who led the investigation into the murders in the city, and Pratchett wraps some compelling elements around them. Carrot remains the charismatic and skilled leader of men for much of the story, with a continued focus on his love for the city and ability to charm anyone he encounters. However, Pratchett does attempt to break his seemingly perfect facade in this novel by having him struggle to come to terms with Cheery Littlebottom’s identity issues. The author also continues to shift away from Carrot as a perspective character, instead allowing his many appearances to be mainly told from the view of other, more cynical members of the cast. This gives his actions and motivations a little more mystery and allows the reader to wonder just how perfect he really is. For Feet of Clay, most of this narration was done by Angua, the Watch’s werewolf officer and Carrot’s love interest. Angua proves to be a very practical and sarcastic personality foil to the upbeat Carrot, which helps to humanise both to a degree. Pratchett also adds in a compelling underlying storyline of Angua struggling with how others perceive her as a werewolf, and her certainty that her relationship with Carrot can’t last.

While Carrot and Angua represent the more serious side of the Watch, Pratchett continues to have fun by focusing on the always amusing and comedic duo of Sergeant Fred Colon and Corporal Nobby Nobbs. Their narrative in Feet of Clay is particularly good, especially for Nobby, who finds himself elevated to nobility status when it is discovered he is the long-lost descendant of the Earl of Ankh. Suddenly forced to hobnob with other nobs, Nobby has some fantastic reactions and interactions, especially going from despair at being a penniless noble, to trying to fit in with the city’s elite. While this seems like a mostly comedic storyline to undercut the tension of Feet of Clay’s serious crimes it fits into the main narrative in some clever ways, although Nobby’s reaction when he finds this out is so damn funny and perfectly reflects his own mentality and his knowledge of Vimes’ reactions.

Sergeant Colon, on the other hand, is somewhat less used in Feet of Clay, although Pratchett has fun satirising the ‘policeman three days away from retirement’ trope through him. Keen to get out of the Watch because his wife wants him to buy a farm (another subtle and fun joke from Pratchett), Colon inevitably runs into insane trouble in the second half of the book, and it was fun to see the craziness of the other storylines literally stampede over him. I have loved these two characters since their first appearance in Guards! Guards! and this is one of their funniest books (although their next appearance in Jingo is also peak comedy).

While these recurring characters are awesome, special mention needs to go to the new members of the Watch that Pratchett introduces in Feet of Clay, who have major impacts on the plot. The most significant of this is the new dwarf forensic officer, Corporal Cheery Littlebottom (a very traditional dwarf name). Cheery serves as a compelling outsider figure, with Pratchett moving her across both investigations. However, it’s her characterisation as a female dwarf who wants to acknowledge her gender rather than act like a male dwarf, as is tradition, that really sets Cheery up as a standout character. Naturally working in aspects of identity and overcoming established mindsets are a big part of Cheery’s character, and it was wonderful to see her gain confidence and skill as a Watch officer. Pratchett did such an excellent job of handling these complex cultural elements through Cheery, and it’s amazing how significant Cheery’s actions are in the larger Discworld narrative, as well as how relevant they are today.

Other characters I need to mention as I finally wrap up this section include the mysterious golem Dorfl. A voiceless and dutiful figure that is part of the city’s exploited golem underclass, Dorfl has a compelling connection to the murders in Feet of Clay and serves as an unlikely witness and suspect. Pratchett writes a particularly compelling motivation around Dorfl’s actions in this novel, which cleverly ties into discussion about self-determination and artificial intelligence. I also had a lot of fun with Dorfl’s later scenes, especially as he becomes the city’s most unexpected and dramatic revolutionary. Other highlights for me include Lord Vetinari, who takes his role as a poison victim with his usual special interest. Throw in an ancient vampire with a love of terrible puns, an extremely angry gnome, and other compelling characters dragged into the narrative’s web, and the cast of Feet of Clay was one of Pratchett’s strongest, especially with all the emotional impact they add to the plot.

As with all the other Discworld novels I have reviewed, I have enjoyed Feet of Clay on various formats over the years, but my favourite is once again its audiobook version. The various audiobook releases are always the absolute best ways to enjoy a Discworld novel, and the fantastic humour, compelling characters and entertaining locations that Pratchett comes up with, always come across in impressive fashion when read out. This is especially true for Feet of Clay, which, like many of the series, has had several different audiobook versions over the years. This includes the classic version released back in 1997, featuring narration by one of my favourite audiobook narrators, the legendary Nigel Planer. I have raved about Planer in several previous reviews, including for Guards! Guards! and Men at Arms, and few narrators can capture Pratchett’s style and comedic charm with their voices like Planer did. His work narrating Feet of Clay was particularly impressive, especially with his portrayal of all the cool characters, including an over-the-top vampire, the new dwarf member of the watch, and more. The Planer narration of this novel is probably the definitive Feet of Clay audiobook, and I have been in love with this version since I was a child.

I also need to highlight the new audiobook released a couple of years ago. Featuring the very impressive cast of Jon Culshaw, Peter Serafinowicz and Bill Nighy, this more recent Feet of Clay release was also very exceptional, building off the great work these three narrators did with their Guards! Guards! and Men at Arms audiobooks. Coming in with a runtime of 12 hours and 20 minutes, this Feet of Clay audiobook is a bit longer than the Planer release (which had a runtime of 9 hours and 38 minutes), although listeners are still in for an exceptional time. Much of this is down to British radio and television personality Jon Culshaw, who once again made this audiobook his own with his take on the story and his characters. His gritty and entertaining voices for the cast are very fitting, and like Planer, he excels at showcasing their complicated personalities, as well as the overall humour of the book. I am once again very impressed with just how excellent Culshaw was for the City Watch books, and he is my favourite narrator from these new Discworld audiobooks.

As with all books in this new collection of Discworld audiobook’s, Culshaw’s main narration was perfectly backed up by recuring voices of Bill Nighy and Peter Serafinowicz. These performances were once again perfect, and I especially loved Nighy’s excellent work with the vital, comedic footnotes. Serafinowicz’s role in Feet of Clay is also very fun, as he brings the fan-favourite character of Death to life. While Death only has a few scenes in Feet of Clay, Serafinowicz makes the most of his appearances, and hearing the actor’s deep Death voice suddenly appear amongst the general narration really increases the impact of the character. Both Bill Nighy and Peter Serafinowicz’s inclusions were extremely fun, and I felt that they were combined with Culshaw’s main narration in a very impressive way. These three brilliant British talents ensured that the new version of Feet of Clay was particularly impressive and while my heart will always belong to the original audiobook with Nigel Planer, this new multi-cast audiobook will likely inspire a new generation of Discworld fans.

With an incredible and winning combination of charm, mystery and comedic brilliance, Feet of Clay was another exceptional and classic read in Terry Pratchett’s Discworld. Providing an ultra-addictive story that also perfectly adds in some great new characters, Feet of Clay is one of the very best Discworld books, and one of my personal favourites. An exceptional read I will recommend until the day I die!

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Pretenders to the Throne of God by Adrian Tchaikovsky

On June 24, 2026 By The Unseen LibraryIn Audiobook, Fantasy, Five-Star BooksLeave a comment

Publisher: Head of Zeus (Audiobook – 12 February 2026)

Series: The Tyrant Philosophers – Book Four

Length: 20 hours and 1 minute

My Rating: 5 out 5 stars

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The legendary Adrian Tchaikovsky continues to showcase his incredible writing skill with his deeply impressive novel, Pretenders to the Throne of God, an outstanding read that perfectly continues one of his very best series.

Over the last few years, I have fully fallen in love with the writings of Adrian Tchaikvosky, who is honestly one of the best current writers of fantasy and science fiction. Known for his Shadows of the Apt, Children of Time, Echoes of the Fall and Final Architecture series, as well as several awesome standalone novels, Tchaikovsky has a truly outstanding catalogue of works to his name, and there are some true classics captured there. I personally have had the pleasure of reading several of his latest great books, with entries like Service Model (one of my favourite books of 2024), Alien Clay, the novella Orges and the Warhammer 40,000 novel, Day of Ascension (one of my favourite Warhammer 40,000 novels) and the awesome fantasy novel Guns of the Dawn (which I only recently finished), proving to be quite amazing.

While I have had an exceptional time with many of Tchaikovsky’s novels, my favourites are the awesome novels of his Tyrant Philosophers series. This gripping, brilliant and highly amusing series is set in a cool fantasy world filled with magic, gods and demons, all of which are being consumed by the Palleseen, an anti-religious empire of perfection-seeking fanatics who have been conquering the world through elaborate military and diplomatic action. The first three books in the series have been quite exceptional, including City of Last Chances and House of Open Wounds (one of my favourite books and audiobooks of 2023), Days of Shattered Faith (one of my favourite books and audiobooks of 2025), as well as the cool novella Lives of Bitter Rain. I really love these elaborate and highly entertaining novels, which made me very excited for the fourth book in the series Pretenders to the Throne of God, one of my most anticipated books of 2026, which very much lived up to all my expectations.

Plot Synopsis:

Arthur C. Clarke winner and Sunday Times bestseller returns to a world steeped in magic – and the Tyrant Philosophers’ campaign to bring reason, logic and ‘perfection’ to it.

Eres Ffenegh – “the City on the Back of a Crab” – is the next state slated for conquest by the Palleseen, but its citizens won’t give up sovereignty easily, and the siege has now dragged into the harsh Eresi winter. The defenders – both locals and Pal renegades – hold an uneasy alliance against the enemy at the gates, while the Pal army is constantly looking over its shoulder for the next self-destructive dictate of their government back home.

Within the city, Devil Jack is the apprentice to the notorious conjurer and bawd known as the Widow, a good man driven to bargaining with hell to get back what he’s lost. Meanwhile Kiffel ea Leachan is the city’s champion, a child of privilege who’s just lost everything to the invaders. We follow the ups and downs of both as they try to survive the siege and make their own destinies in a world that’s cut them loose.

Outside the city, the Pals have been desperately waiting for reinforcements so they can finally take the city, but when new soldiers finally march in with the winter it’s the worst kind of help, enough to damn the entire army.

Tchaikovsky continues to showcase why he is one of the world’s leading authors of unique fantasy fiction with his latest Tyrant Philosophers novel. A wonderful and complex character-driven read, Pretenders to the Throne of God was an outstanding novel that perfectly tells its own story, while also continuing the epic overarching series narrative. Clever, incredibly moving, and featuring some subtle but effective satire, Pretenders to the Throne of God is an exceptional novel that gets a full five-star rating from me.

Even after reading all the previous books in the Tyrant Philosophers series, I honestly was so impressed by how Tchaikovsky pulled this latest distinctive story together. Pretenders to the Throne of God once again sees the bureaucratic, yet effective, armies of the insidious Palleseen trying to recapture the city of Eres Ffenegh. However, between the city’s unique defences, determined citizens, and a group of former Palleseen soldiers sworn to two cults, the Palleseen assault has mostly halted, awaiting the arrival of fresh reinforcements. Told through multiple chapters, each of which generally focus on one point-of-view character who is witnessing the events of the siege unfold from their perspective, Tchaikovsky effectively introduces the setting and the key players in the siege, and you soon get a sense of the chaotic nature of the conflict and the volatile figures on both sides. These initial chapters do a good job of setting up a variety of book-wide story elements, including early introductions to figures who will have a bigger impact later in the plot as side figures in other characters perspective chapters.

The plot of Pretenders to the Throne of God quickly gets into overdrive when unexpected and uncomfortably undead Palleseen reinforcements arrive outside the city. Despite reservations and restrictions, the besiegers make use of their new troops and swiftly gain ground, causing the defenders to make some desperate decisions. Tchaikovsky makes sure to expand on all his character storylines as this plot continues, including in several compelling ‘mosaic’ chapters, which generally surround big events and split the focus across multiple characters as they try to deal with new developments. There are some great character-focused moments built into this part of the plot, with various members of the cast dealing with their own issues or chasing their own desires. This includes the continued torment of Devil Jack, internal politics of the besieged city, the machinations of a leading Palleseen officer, the struggles of isolated Palleseen specialists, and various people discovering how far they’ll go to get back what they have lost.

Everything leads up to a particularly intense and complex final third of Pretenders to the Throne of God, focused on the final days of the siege. Without giving too much away, things inevitably go to hell for all the major characters, as desperation, determination and deceit guide them to their destinies. I love how so many characters take the final steps towards being the people they want or think they should be, and there are some amazing moments built into this final bit of narrative. Tchaikovsky has an even-handed approach to tragedy and happy endings here, with various characters encountering either an ironic conclusion to their story or their ideal fate. The author ensures that the main standalone story of Pretenders to the Throne of God is nicely wrapped up by the end, with all the major character storylines finalised one way or another. At the same time, certain storylines from previous entries in the series are cleverly continued, with various threads remaining for the final upcoming Tyrant Philosopher novel to finalise. All this ensures that readers come out of Pretenders to the Throne of God extremely satisfied, while also remaining curious enough to instantly get the next book when it comes out.

Tchaikovsky ended up using a similar writing style to the previous entries in the Tyrant Philosophers series, which I think works extremely well to convey his elaborate and entertaining narrative. Relying heavily on multiple perspective changes to tell his layered story, Tchaikovsky embarks on providing a deep and personal story, set around a large collection of compelling supporting characters. The author excels at creating elaborate and complex backgrounds for the various protagonists which are worked into the larger plot extremely well, especially as each character has their own unique motivations and damage. All these varied story elements are well woven together into one complex story, and it was fascinating to see all the different figures react to the continually changing events.

Tchaikovsky cleverly altered the tone of Pretenders to the Throne of God multiple times within the course of the story. While there is an easy, compelling and cynical humour to much of this novel, especially when the various characters provide their realistic and sarcastic commentary on events, at times Pretenders to the Throne of God can get quite dark and moody. Much of this is down to Pretenders to the Throne of God being a gritty siege novel, and the desperation of the characters fighting on both sides is heavily evident during the plot. Into this potent mix, Tchaikovsky adds in some intense action sequences, as well as an overlay of intrigue, betrayal and hidden motivations, all of which is quite awesome to see. There is even a moving love story right at the heart of the plot, which, while unique and twisted, adds some real emotional heft to the novel. All this ensures that Pretenders to the Throne of God has an extremely unique feel to it, even compared to the other Tyrant Philosophers novels, and I loved how well the compelling fantasy elements fit with the very human narrative.

Pretenders to the Throne of God works well as both its own distinctive standalone narrative and as a continuation of elements and character-focused storylines from the previous books in the series. Due to how it initially focuses on several central characters stuck in a new setting in the established world, readers can easily come into Pretenders to the Throne of God without any real pre-knowledge of the other Tyrant Philosophers books. However, as the story eventually grows to focus on several major characters from the previous novels, existing Tyrant Philosophers readers will end up appreciating the plot of Pretenders to the Throne of God a little more, as you are a little more familiar with the events that forged them. Much of this prior character history is cleverly reintroduced throughout the course of Pretenders to the Throne of God, so new readers can also appreciate the continued personal arcs and storylines very easily. The author also features references to events from the previous books throughout Pretenders to the Throne of God, and readers will find it fascinating to see how certain decisions or plots from the recurring characters, such as religious conversion in House of Open Wounds, wider rebellion against the Palleseen and the continued tragedy of a certain former priest, continue to be explored here.

One of the big highlights of Pretenders to the Throne of God is the elaborate setting for his compelling narrative. While the book is set in the same fantasy world as the other Tyrant Philosophers novels, much of the action occurs around the newly introduced and besieged city of Eres Ffenegh. An ancient city of gods and the sea located on top of the body of a long-dead crab god, Eres Ffenegh is currently under attack from the Palleseen, with various factions within the city, both new and old, struggle to work together to defend it. Tchaikovsky excelled at introducing the various unique elements of Eres Ffenegh with some deep dives into its history and culture, all of which bleeds into the plot. In many ways Eres Ffenegh felt like its distinctive character of the book, with an understanding of its people, their mindset, and the city’s relationship to the rest of the world, vital to appreciating the full plot of Pretenders to the Throne of God. Tchaikovsky cleared had fun developing the many quirky and unique features of Eres Ffenegh, and this ended up being a particularly compelling fantasy setting, which added a lot to the wider book.

I also must highlight Tchaikovsky’s excellent continued use of the villainous Palleseen, who serve as the series’ main antagonistic group. Ideological zealots often bound by their own rules and processes as they slowly and greedily try to take over the world, all the books in this series are dedicated to examining their methods and serves as a humorous critique of militarisation and empire building. Pretenders to the Throne of God once again features the Palleseen as an occupying force as they attempt to reconquer Eres Ffenegh. However, thanks to the events of the previous novels, many of the foreign magic and occult practices they co-opted as weapons, such as necromancy and demonology, are at risk of being designated as imperfect, with potential dire consequences for the Palleseen soldiers who specialise in them. It has been very fun to see the slow decline of the mighty and insatiable Palleseen over the last few books, and the continued symptoms of their unsustainable growth and continually narrowing definition of perfection has been a fantastic ongoing storyline. Tchaikovsky works these elements into the plot of Pretenders to the Throne of God perfectly, especially when it comes to the various Palleseen characters, who come to fear their own side more than their opponents in the siege. Not only does this add to the drama for half the cast but it also serves as an insightful critique of militaristic and fascist governments and how they always turn on each other. I look forward to seeing how the various storylines about the Palleseen come to an end in the final Tyrant Philosophers’ novel, and it has been a real treat to see how Tchaikovsky has utilised them.

Another key aspect of Pretenders to the Throne of God that I need to highlight are the incredible characters featured throughout this story. Tchaikovsky loads this novel with an outstanding array of complex or damaged characters who are the true highlight of the plot thanks to their collective dark histories and layered motivations. The sheer range of different characters in this novel is very impressive, with a combination of local inhabitants of the city, newcomers determined to defend it for their own reasons, the invading Palleseen, and others who have their own complex motivations for being there, which Tchaikovsky explores in detail.

Some highlights of the cast include Kiffe lea Leachan, Eres Ffenegh’s current champion, who finds herself at a moral crossroads when her magical sword that allowed her to be a great fighter is destroyed. Disgraced and caught up in despair, Kiffe is forced to fight between her natural meekness and determination to regain the thing that made her special by any means necessary. Kiffe is well matched by Nieve a Galeaff, a fixer for one of the city’s leaders, who not only serves as a cynical buffer to the more naïve Kiffe but provides one of the more interesting perspectives of the Eres Ffenegh’s defenders, as she tries to hold the city together. Other highlights include the damaged or insane leaders of the two former Palleseen religious cults that have taken up residence in Eres Ffenegh. This includes the Mouth of the Sea; one cult’s conflicted second in command who will be very familiar to fans of the second Tyrant Philosopher’s novel. There is also the quite entertaining Abellaime, better known as The Widow. A dangerous conjurer, Abellaime serves as a dark temptress for many characters in the city, while also manipulating events for her own designs, and in many ways is a more dangerous villain than the Palleseen.

In addition to the defenders of Eres Ffenegh, Tchaikovsky spends a good chunk of the novel focused on the Palleseen army besieging the army, especially the members of an officer’s club known as the Heretics. Made up of several specialists with controversial fields of study, the Heretics prove to be fun characters as they reluctantly fight for an empire that is likely to brand them imperfect and expendable any day. Their alternating perspective of the novel, as well as their weariness and damage from previous wars, make the associated Heretics quite fascinating to follow, and their storyline was one of the more intense and interesting in the book. However, my favourite Palleseen character had to be Fellow-Archivist Dantell, the second in command of the regiment and a self-serving schemer who serves as one of the main antagonists of the book. Known as ‘the Stoat’ for her sneaky and backstabbing behaviour, Dantell was a highly entertaining figure who attempts to outthink and manipulate every other character in the book, with mixed effects. A wonderfully sinister schemer who perfectly showcases the larger issues of the Palleseen in her actions and personality, Tchaikovsky clearly enjoyed writing Dantell, and I felt she had one of the more amusing storylines in the book.

While all these characters are amazing and intricate in their own ways, the best and most emotionally compelling character in Pretenders to the Throne of God had to be that of Devil Jack. The closest thing this series has to a main character, Jack has appeared in all four novels so far with a different name or occupation each time, starting off as a priest to a selfish fallen god. Much of the series has focussed on his struggle to escape his past and find a better life. This latest novel sees Jack at his very lowest, having lost his demon lover and one chance of happiness in the previous novel. Determined to do the impossible and bring her back, Jack apprentices himself to the Widow to learn all about conjuring and demonology, while the Widow attempts to corrupt him in turn. Tchaikovsky writes an impressive narrative about Jack’s despair and desperation in Pretenders to the Throne of God, as he attempts to hold onto his humanity while trying to recover his lost love. You really get drawn into his emotionally charged inner battle, and Tchaikovsky writes some fascinating scenes and interactions with the other characters, such as the unlikely friendship he forms with Kiffe. I personally loved the scene where he meets his former god once again, with the two continuing to influence each other in entertaining and complex ways. This was one of the most heartfelt appearances of Jack in the series yet, and he was the perfect highpoint Pretenders to the Throne of God’s other exceptional characters.

As with most big fantasy novels, I ended up listening to the audiobook version of Pretenders to the Throne of God, which turned out to be an awesome way to enjoy this incredible book. Coming in with a decent runtime of 20 hours, the Pretenders to the Throne of God audiobook is a bit of a longer listen, however, it is worth it, as this format really helps to capture the elaborate nature of Tchaikovsky’s narrative, as well as the multiple complicated characters within. Hearing the story read out really helps me absorb more of the book’s impressive detail, and I found myself more easily dropping into the besieged city and witnessing the various interactions between the characters.

Much of the impact associated with Pretenders to the Throne of God’s audiobook is due to the excellent voice work of David Thorpe, who has previously narrated the other Tyrant Philosophers audiobooks. Thorpe has a real knack for bringing Tchaikovsky’s unique style and characters to life with his voice work, especially as he constantly matches the tone of the various scenes perfectly. Not only does Thorpe always land the book’s subtle humour and sarcastic observations in every scene, but the more serious and tragic moments are given the solemnity and emotional depth they deserve. Thorpe also has an incredible array of voices for the various characters of Pretenders of the Throne of God, and I loved some of the fun and unique tones he attributed to some of the more supernatural creatures in the plot. I personally appreciated how Thorpe brought back several voices from the previous entries in the series, and it was great to get this continuity. At the same time, the various new voices were also extremely good, with the tones always matching the personalities of their respective characters. Thorpe also showcased a real talent for pronouncing the over-the-top names, titles and other unique words that Tchaikovsky invented for his fantasy world, and I loved how authentic the Pretenders to the Throne of God audiobook felt, as it was clear that Thorpe was really putting in the effort. All this makes for quite an exceptional listen, and I loved every single second I spent listening to Pretenders to the Throne of God.

Thanks to his captivating and layered narrative, great characters, and wonderful storytelling, Adrian Tchaikovsky once again impresses with Pretenders to the Throne of God. An exceptional continuation to the Tyrant Philosophers series, Pretenders to the Throne of God was so damn good, and I honestly couldn’t get enough of this outstanding read. One of my favourite novels of the year so far, Pretenders to the Throne of God comes very highly recommended, and I cannot wait to read more from Tchaikovsky this year, especially with his next novel, Green City Wars, nearly here.

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Operation Bounce House by Matt Dinniman

On May 31, 2026 By The Unseen LibraryIn Audiobook, Five-Star Books, Science FictionLeave a comment

Publisher: Penguin Random House Audio (Audiobook – 10 February 2026)

Series: Standalone

Length: 10 hours and 49 minutes

My Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

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The always inventive and uniquely funny Matt Dinniman kicks off a big year with the epic and outstanding read, Operation Bounce House, an incredible and heartfelt novel with one of the most distinctive plots of 2026.

In the last year, I have become one of the many readers/reviewers that has irrevocably fallen in love with the writings of Matt Dinniman. A clever and hilarious author, Dinniman has gained attention from the world thanks to his intriguing contributions to the LitRPG franchise, producing some very compelling and over-the-top books. This includes his most famous body of work, the beloved Dungeon Crawler Carl series, which has attracted a diehard group of fans thanks to its addictive overarching plot, complex characters and bonkers humour. I personally read the entire Dungeon Crawler Carl collection in one straight go last year, with the then seven books in the series, including Dungeon Crawler Carl, Carl’s Doomsday Scenario, The Dungeon Anarchist’s Cookbook, The Gate of the Feral Gods, The Butcher’s Masquerade, The Eye of the Bedlam Bride and This Inevitable Ruin, all getting very easy five star ratings from me. Due to how unbelievably addictive the Dungeon Crawler Carl books are, I just had to check out Dinniman’s latest read, the standalone novel Operation Bounce House. Due to both my experiences with Dinniman and its very cool sounding plot, Operation Bounce House ended up being one of my most anticipated releases of early 2026, and boy did it not disappoint.

In the far future, humanity has expanded out amongst the stars, with massive ships sent to colonise remote planets. Many planets were found and settled, but few experienced the hardships of New Sonora, where tragedy forced the colonists to adapt through minor changes to their genetics. Now, after years of isolation, New Sonora is on the brink of opening its public transport gate back to Earth. However, this attempt at reconnection will cause hell to reign down upon the peaceful planet.

Young New Sonoran native Oliver Lewis has only ever wanted to live peacefully on his family farm, where his biggest problems are his uncertain love life, his sister’s plans to move to Earth, and the slow decline of his family’s aging fleet of ‘honeybee’ agricultural robots. However, the craziness of a futuristic Earth comes abruptly crashing down on him when a deadly mech descends on his farm, remotely piloted by a petulant child trying to kill him.

As more mechs land on New Sonora, it becomes clear that something disastrous is befalling the planet. Instead of New Sonora’s promised independence, the governments of Earth and their proxy, the Apex Corporation, have declared that New Sonora is home to anti-Earth terrorists, and have initiated a plan to wipe out the entire population in a shameless landgrab. Worse, the Apex Corporation has decided to maximise their profits by starting the online hit Operation Bounce House, in which bored Earth gamers are given the opportunity to design and remotely pilot their own armed mechs to massacre the supposed terrorists on New Sonora, all from from the comfort and safety of their own home.

Oliver and his friends decide to fight back. Utilising a hidden defence protocol left behind by his grandfather, the fleet of honeybee robots are converted into deadly war machines, armed with impromptu but effective weaponry. But even with these new weapons, can the remaining New Sonorans survive the relentless wave of mechs coming for them, or do they have to find another way to bring the pain to their long-lost cousins from Earth?

Operation Bounce House was another exceptional novel from Matt Dinniman, who takes a break from his Dungeon Crawler Carl books with a unique and heartfelt standalone novel. Exciting, well-written and extremely clever, Operation Bounce House was an inescapably addictive read that I absolutely absorbed, and which gets an easy five-star rating from me.

Operation Bounce House honestly has one of the more unique science fiction plots of 2026, as Dinniman sets up a powerful narrative of survival, sacrifice and friendship. Starting with a quick introduction to the protagonist and main point-of-view character, Oliver Lewis, and his sassy farm robot Roger, the plot quickly gets explosive when the two encounter a remotely piloted mech on the outskirts of their land, which serves as a harbinger for a larger force of mechs coming for the planet. Perfectly utilising a single protagonist perspective to tell the main story, the reader is soon very much enmeshed in the resulting story of survival and the fun interactions between Oliver and Roger. These opening sequences do an excellent job of setting up the larger story of Operation Bounce House, and you get addicted fairly on, especially once Dinniman started expanding the world building and introducing more characters.

After this effective introduction, Dinniman starts to the throw the readers into the action, including an extended sequence to a nearby town. A lot of these initial action sequences are quite bleak and really showcase the stakes of the war and the innocence of the protagonists. Dinniman cleverly cuts these sequences with some deeper dives into the history of future Earth and New Sonora, all of which is relevant for later revelations in the plot. Many of these deeper dives include transcripts of an in-universe documentary series, The Rhythm Mafia Tapes, which are scattered throughout the plot and provide humanising shots of the main characters and the world that is being destroyed.

The plot of Operation Bounce House eventually devolves into a relentless and bloody siege, with the protagonist and other surviving New Sonoran locals defending the Lewis farm from waves of oncoming mechs. However, their unique strategies escalate the situation beyond their control, with all of Earth and the Apex Corporation focused on them. This results in even more carnage, tragedy and hopelessness, and you are unbelievably hooked the entire way through the second half of the book. I don’t want to go into too much detail about the conclusion of Operation Bounce House, but I will say it is crazy, and nothing goes the way you’d expect. The big finale sequence is the perfect way for the protagonists to respond to the war around them, and it was one of my favourite parts of the entire book. Dinniman also lays down several impressive swerves and revelations, many of which perfectly tie back to story and worldbuilding elements he cleverly laid down earlier in the plot, and you are constantly left guessing about where this bloody standalone story will go next. Readers are guaranteed to come away from Operation Bounce House very satisfied with its ending, and I honestly wished for a longer story.

Dinniman presented another outstanding narrative in Operation Bounce House, and I really enjoyed how this powerful story came together. Most readers are probably coming into this novel as fans of Dinniman’s Dungeon Crawler Carl books, and as one of those people I can guarantee that if you loved the author’s previous works, you’re going to love Operation Bounce House. This new novel has a similar style in some places to the Dungeon Crawler Carl books, especially when it comes to the over-the-top story elements and outstanding character work. Dinniman also once again showcasing his exceptional abilities at worldbuilding, and I was very impressed by how quickly and effectively Dinniman introduced the setting and brought you into the crazy scenario, loaded with dark action, complex tragedy and some incredible personal history. There are so many compelling details featured within this setting, and I loved how well the author utilised these details and history in the larger narrative. Dinniman makes sure to feature some similar themes his readers may be familiar with, including his love of RPGs, his anti-corporation messaging and his focus on the uncertainty around artificial intelligence, all of which are taken to fun new extremes in this novel. The book also works as a dark parody of the current streaming culture, with interesting comparisons between crass online personalities and humble farmers, there are a range of clever messages thrown into the story about the future of modern society.

While there are some notable similarities to the author’s previous work here, I do think that Operation Bounce House also serves as an evolution of the author’s writing ability, and I really appreciate him branching out into something more straightforwardly science fiction. I was very impressed with how well Operation Bounce House works as a standalone story, as there was a lot of detail expertly crammed into this read. In many ways Operation Bounce House was a somewhat more grounded and personal story than the Dungeon Crawler Carl books. Thanks to a smaller cast and the carnage focused on the protagonist’s local area, there is a lot more emotion, and I appreciated the focus on family, friends and local community. Dinniman also provided some more subdued humour for most of the book, which I think helped to raise the impact of the stakes at time. There are still of course a ton of funny moments in this book though, especially when it comes to fighting back against the mech controllers in unique ways, and things do get very out of hand at times. Dinniman also ensures that the action is extremely unique, especially considering the context of the conflict, and his depictions of overpowered mechs attacking older robots and lightly armed people were realistic, brutal and intense.

One of the most impressive things about Operation Bounce House was the complex and deeply moving character storylines that Dinniman was able to work into this standalone narrative. Featuring a well-written cast of colonists defending their homes against insane gamers, you really get absorbed into their powerful story of loss, despair and family. The story is primarily told through the eyes of main protagonist, Oliver Lewis, a young man who is forced to transform from a farmer worried about everyone leaving him behind, to a traumatised resistance leader trying to save the last sparks of his planet. Thanks to powerful first-person perspective, you fully witness Oliver’s growth into a reluctant leader throughout the book, while experiencing his sadness and loss. Dinniman does an excellent job writing Oliver as an everyman character, and while he steps up, he isn’t as overpowered or strategic as some of Dinniman’s other protagonists, allowing for a more relatable story. I deeply enjoyed the compelling and full narrative that Dinniman wrote around Oliver in this book, which was loaded with love of family and friends, and he worked well as a main character for this plot.

The rest of the natives of New Sonora serve as a wonderful supporting cast, with all of them having a great out-of-their-depth edge to them. Most of the main cast are Oliver’s friends who find themselves the unlikely faces of a revolution. Featuring several excellent characters, each with their own distinctive arc, whose relationship with Oliver and each other defines them in the chaos to come. Standouts include Sam Amboya, Oliver’s best friend and one of the main comic reliefs in the plot. A dedicated friend and soon-to-be parent, Sam is one of the emotional hearts of the story, whose survival you become very invested in. I also really enjoyed Oliver’s sister, Lulu, who serves as an interesting and more worldly foil to her brother. A sassy and confident figure, Lulu has some interesting scenes around her, including her fame in an adult vocation that works surprisingly well in building her up as an independent and charismatic woman. These great New Sonoran characters, and more, prove to be excellent focusses for the plot, who the reader can really get behind. The Rhythm Mafia Tape interludes provide some great snapshots and help to build up the defenders as real people. Dinniman perfectly matches these likeable farmers with some very over-the-top antagonists, primarily the Earth based mech pilots participating in Operation Bounce House, as well as some shady corporate overlords. Dinniman clearly had fun introducing a range of sadistic gamer characters and corporate managers, who while exaggerated, seem like a natural progression for some current trends. These antagonists contrast in very entertaining ways to the New Sonoran defenders, and it was amusing to see many of them get their just-deserts thanks to the unique tactics of the protagonists.

While all these human characters are amazing, I honestly found that one of the best figures in the book was a robot, which is typical for a Dinniman novel. This character is Roger (short for Roger-Roger), the Oliver family hive queen, an AI robot used to manage the farm and the other honeybee robots. Roger serves various roles in this novel, including a key deliver of exposition about the larger setting, as well as a great comedic figure due to his role as a strict tutor and disciplinarian for the adult Oliver and Lulu (and their friends). However, when the mechs invade, he starts following a hidden “perimeter defence protocol”, turning him into the control nodule for the protagonist’s entire defence network. Dinniman writes some intriguing narratives around Roger, as the new protocols allow him to expand his learning capacity and overcome his coded limitations to make him a truly terrifying weapon. Roger’s history, and the fear that future Earth has for AI, also serves as a fascinating central narrative thread for Operation Bounce House, and it proves interesting to see Roger transform from a simple farm robot to a major threat to all humanity. Despite this, there are some heartwarming personality traits attached to Roger, and he honestly proves to be one of the more loveable figures in the novel, especially when seen through the protagonist’s eyes. All this allows for quite a powerful and personal narrative, with Dinniman once again showing his aptitude for creating distinctive and complex characters.

While I was lucky enough to receive a physical copy of Operation Bounce House, I just had to listen to the audiobook version of it, especially after loving the Dungeon Crawler Carl series on this format. Unsurprisingly, the Operation Bounce House audiobook was also extremely awesome, and listening to the plot really enhanced the unique scenario, elaborate plot and crazy characters. I ended up powering through Operation Bounce House’s near 11-hour runtime in a very short amount of time (it’s a great book for a road trip), and there was frankly not a single second that I wasn’t enjoying this great audiobook experience.

Part of the reason that this audiobook was so damn fun was the incredible narration that accompanied it, with two outstanding and familiar voice actors coming along for the ride. The primary narrator for Operation Bounce House was Travis Baldree, who Dinniman fans would be familiar with due to his appearances in two of the Dungeon Crawler Carl audiobooks, including The Eye of the Bedlam Bride where he had one of the series’ funniest lines: “I need a baby seal”. Baldree continues his exceptional work in Operation Bounce House, successfully voicing the tense plot perfectly, ensuring that the story moved along at a tight clip while also expertly enhancing the book’s tight humour. Baldree also does an outstanding job with the various characters, with a compelling range of voices attributed to the entire cast. My personal favourite was probably the amazing tone he gave to Roger, which helped showcase his robot nature while also still containing some excellent emotion and humour. I also enjoyed how his various human main characters had a good rural rasp to their voice, that fit nicely with the agricultural nature of their world, and Baldree unsurprisingly did justice to the various Latino characters featured in the plot.

On top of Baldree’s outstanding central narration, we also get the legendary Jeff Hays, the voice of the Dungeon Crawler Carl audiobooks, voicing several secondary characters. Hays, who is just so damn good, has a ton of fun with these characters, including one of the main antagonists, who he gifts a particularly entertaining and arrogant voice, which was just perfect. The combination of voices coming out of this impressive narration team was so damn amazing, and they really turned this audiobook into something special. This is frankly the absolute best way to enjoy Operation Bounce House, and I cannot recommend it enough.

Matt Dinniman has fun showcasing a new, unhinged narrative with the wonderfully powerful Operation Bounce House. An outstanding standalone science fiction novel that perfectly showcases Dinniman’s ability to craft elaborate universes and intense character arcs, Operation Bounce House was just incredible, and I still cannot get over some of the clever twists and intense action. A deeply impressive read, and an outstanding novel to check out before Dinniman’s new Dungeon Crawler Carl novel, A Parade of Horribles, which I am currently reading as I write this review.

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Warhammer 40,000: Chem Dog by Callum Davis

On May 18, 2026May 18, 2026 By The Unseen LibraryIn Audiobook, Extended Universe, Science Fiction, Tie-in Novel, WarhammerLeave a comment

Publisher: Black Library (Audiobook – 27 March 2026)

Series: Warhammer 40,000

Length: 9 hours and 28 minutes

My Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

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The Warhammer 40,000 universe continues to grow with an outstanding debut novel from new author Callum Davis, Chem Dog, a cool and intense read with a great plot behind it.

Readers of this blog will know that I have so much love for the awesome Warhammer 40,000 franchise, which produces so many amazing and unique books each year. Part of the reason this works so well is that the Black Library makes use of an intriguing collection of new and established authors to tell tales of this complex and grim dark universe. This includes a range of first-time authors, many of whom have a compelling Warhammer 40,000 book as their debut novel. I have had a blast reading several of these debuts over the years, and the latest one I want to highlight is the impressive Chem Dog by Callum Davis. The very first full novel from Davis, Chem Dog is a follow up to his previous short story, Those Without Mercy, and tells a gripping story of war, mistrust and unlikely camaraderie amid a brutal campaign.

Upon the vital, war-torn planet of Kruxx, disaster has struck the Imperium of Man. Under attack by ruthless ork invaders, Kruxx’s most heavily defended fortress, the Bastion Ajaxus, has fallen. Overwhelmed by hordes of brutish aliens, the defenders have been brutally cut down, and the bastion reforged into a crude but deadly ork fort. To ensure victory on Kruxx, the remaining Imperial soldiers need to retake the bastion at any cost, but the fate of the war may lay in the hands of the most unlikely of soldiers, the Savlar Chem-Dogs.

The refuse of an infamous prison world, the Savlar Chem-Dogs are a notorious and unreliable penal legion. Killers and thieves given the chance to die on the field of battle, the Chem-Dogs are an unlikely group of defenders for humanity whose only incentive to stay in the fight is the promise of loot taken from the bodies of the fallen.

Few know how imperfect the Chem-Dogs are more than Commissar Bastun Hasp, a relentless rule follower, dedicated to lethally enforcing order with his bolt pistol. However, ordered to join the likely fatal assault on Bastion Ajaxus and recover vital intelligence from its occupied halls, Hasp begins to feel doubt for the first time in his career, especially as his only backup are a squad of Chem-Dogs he previously sentenced to death. Forced to cross over deadly enemy-infested territory and join a bloody siege, can Hasp keep the Chem-Dogs loyal long enough to complete his mission, or will a far more sinister threat claim all their lives?

Chem Dog was an awesome new Warhammer 40,000 entry that quickly grabs your attention and keeps you hooked with its compelling narrative, entertaining characters and great action sequences. A powerful and intense first full novel from new author Callum Davis, Chem Dog was an easy book to fall in love with and is a must read for all Warhammer fans.

Davis crafts together a very entertaining action and adventure narrative for Chem Dog that brings in some interesting character moments and overarching Warhammer intrigue to create a captivating and exciting read. Starting off with an intense extended battle sequence with some short-lived characters that shows the helpless and grimdark nature of the Warhammer 40,000 universe perfectly, the story soon switches to the main protagonist, Commissar Bastun Hasp, as he is given his mission to journey to a besieged former Imperial citadel. Chem Dog quickly expands on some story points introduced in the preceding short story Those Without Mercy, with several characters from this previous entry returning to accompany Hasp to the citadel.

Much of the resulting first half of Chem Dog is an exciting and brutal adventure arc, as Hasp and the Savlars travel across the hostile Kruxx terrain, fighting against deserters and rampaging ork bands. This does an excellent job of setting up the desperate nature of the plot, as well as showcasing the unstable main characters as they attempt to work together. After some great action set pieces and locations, several of which showcase just how expendable members of the main cast truly are, the book evolves into an intrigue-laden siege story, as the protagonists arrived at the Bastion Ajaxus and find themselves drawn into the big assault on the citadel, which quickly goes to hell in one particularly amazing extended sequence.

The second half of Chem Dog soon turns into one continuous and bloody affair, as the protagonists and some contentious allies are forced to fight throughout the enemy fortress in some unique ways. Davis loads in some excellent action scenes here, while overlaying a level of mystery and mistrust over proceedings, especially as nothing goes the way they expect. Things get progressively darker as the story continues, with the last major sequence seeing some very interesting antagonists, including a unique take on the threat of the orks. The big finale of the story is brutal and features some not unexpected betrayals and revelations, as well as some genuinely tragic loss. I rather enjoyed how the story came together, although I will admit I was a little disappointed by the somewhat abrupt ending to the book. I think that Davis could have expanded on a few points and allowed for a more satisfying conclusion, however, it does leave some elements open for a potential sequel, which I would be very interested in checking out.

I felt that Davis did an excellent job writing his first full-length Warhammer novel, structuring his story and telling it in an effective manner. While there were some issues with the ending, for the most part Chem Dog was a particularly powerful read that combined clever character work with some intriguing dives into the Warhammer 40,000 universe. Effectively told from several alternating perspectives, the structure draws the reader into the overarching quest as well as the unashamedly criminal protagonists. Taking some inspirations from The Dirty Dozen (although not as directly as Gav Thorpe’s Last Chancers series), this was a brutal read that covered compelling elements of trust, loyalty and intrigue, especially in the last half. I was quite impressed by how Davis was able to capture the gritty nature of the continuous conflict the protagonists found themselves in, with the exhaustion and anger of the characters on full display. The real highlight of the book has to be the various battle sequences that Davis loaded into the plot, with the protagonists caught up in a ton of intense and well-written action scenes. I had such an easy time envisioning the very realistic and intense fights that emerged, as this is clearly a part of the writing process that Davis really excels at.

Unsurprisingly, considering this is Davis’s first novel, Chem Dog works well as a standalone read, written in way that made it open to a wide range of readers. While elements of the author’s previous short story are referenced by the characters, it is done in a way that lets the reader know what previously happened, so you won’t be lost if you hadn’t read it first. Davis’s style also allows readers with less familiarity with the Warhammer 40,000 universe to come in and read Chem Dog, and it would serve as an interesting entry novel for potential fans, especially for those who enjoy criminal antics and grim, military aesthetics with their science fiction plots.

Chem Dog naturally will appeal more to established fans of the universe, especially those who want to see the notorious Savlar Chem Dogs in action. The author expertly captured the resourcefulness, resentment and looter mentality of these unlikely soldiers, and it was entertaining to see them in action, especially when compared to other traditional Imperial Guard regiments. This excellent portrayal of the Chem Dogs and other human troops, as well as the Commissars commanding them, was a great highlight of the plot, and it more than made up for some certain eccentric portrayals of the orks that Davis slipped in. As such, I felt that Chem Dog was a particularly awesome Warhammer 40,000 novel, which is guaranteed to grab the imagination or a huge range of readers.

On top of the excellent writing, I need to highlight the amazing characters. The most prominent of these is the relentless Commissar Bastun Hasp, who is reluctantly forced to lead these criminal soldiers into battle. Serving as the primary narrator and protagonist for the book, much of the book’s drama is based around Hasp’s inner conflict in leading the Savlars. Initially shown to be implacable in his disdain for Chem Dogs under his command, Hasp’s growing respect for them causes him some major issues, as his harsh commissar mentality and training requires him to see them as unredeemable. This inner conflict is perfectly enhanced by Hasp receiving comparable contempt from other officers and commissars for leading a group of criminals, as well as Hasp’s secret reliance on the battle chems that the Savlars are forced to breath. This great inner conflict results in some powerful moments for Hasp throughout the book, and he proved to be an excellent and compelling central character for the plot.

While Hasp serves as the main protagonist of the story, Davis does ensure that the various other members of the squad are shown in some detail. While a generally expendable group of characters, you do get quite invested in the group of criminal misfits that Hasp leads, and it was fun to see them influence and get influenced by their commissar throughout the course of the plot. While there are a bunch of fun Salvar members in Chem Dog, the main one you follow is the squad leader, Rastus, who serves as a great secondary protagonist and point-of-view character. Rastus’s more straightforward, if criminally minded, narrative worked well alongside Hasp’s conflict-laden thoughts, and it was entertaining to see Rastus act as a bridge between the Commissar and his opportunistic squad. Davis has fun with the rest of this group of killers, although my favourite had to be the extremely loyal ogryn (the universe’s equivalent of an ogre) Grukkur, who serves as a dim-witted enforcer for Hasp. Grukkur was a wonderfully over the top and simple figure, and I felt he rounded out the cast nicely, providing both comic value and insane moments in combat. Throw in some other human solider with uncertain motives and a particularly fanatical extra commissar, and Chem Dog is loaded with some amazing drama and character conflicts, that allows for quite an addictive read.

As is my habit with most Warhammer novels I check out, I ended up getting the audiobook version of Chem Dog, which is easily the best way to enjoy the elaborate and varied tales of the Warhammer 40,000 universe. Chem Dog was a particularly good audiobook, as it easily presented its intense action narrative and unique characters, and ensured that listeners could easily power through its nine-and-a-half-hour-long runtime. A big reason that Chem Dog was such an epic listen was thanks to the vocal talents of narrator Richard Reed. One of more versatile narrators who lends their voice to the Warhammer franchise, Reed has previously impressed me on several previous outstanding audiobooks, including The Infinite and the Divine by Robert Rath, Lords of Excess by Rich McCormick (another great debut), Grim Repast by Marc Collins, just to name a few. Reed does another outstanding job here in Chem Dog, with a range of awesome voices and a great overall tone that moves this slick action narrative along at a quick pace. I loved the various over-the-top, yet fitting, voices that Reed came up with for several of the characters, including the stringent commissars, the unruly criminal soldiers and even a booming ogryn voice, that was particularly fun. All this results in an exceptional listen, which allowed me to power through Chem Dog in no time at all, and I cannot recommend this format enough, especially with one of the best Warhammer narrators voicing it.

The future of Warhammer 40,000 fiction continues to look bright, as Callum Davis produced an outstanding read with his debut novel. An exciting and intense novel, loaded with action and compelling characters, Chem Dog was an amazing read that provides some fantastic look at a unique faction in the grim dark universe. A sharp, well-written novel that you can easily get addicted to, Chem Dog was a very impressive debut, and I hope to see more from Davis in the future, especially if he revisits the protagonists from this novel again.

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Warhammer 40,000: Renegades: Harrowmaster by Mike Brooks

On April 20, 2026 By The Unseen LibraryIn Audiobook, Extended Universe, Five-Star Books, Science Fiction, Tie-in Novel, Warhammer1 Comment

Publisher: Black Library (Audiobook – 29 October 2022)

Series: Warhammer 40,000: Renegades – Book 1

Length: 11 hours

My Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

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One of the leading authors of Warhammer 40,000 fiction, the highly entertaining Mike Brooks, dives into the minds of humanity’s most complex traitors with the outstanding and particularly gripping novel, Renegades: Harrowmaster.

Mike Brooks is an author who I have really grown to appreciate in recent years thanks to his ability to pull together complex and highly addictive Warhammer 40,000 narratives from across the expansive franchise. Brooks’s great contributions to Warhammer 40,000 fiction include some deep dives into several iconic characters, such as Huron Blackheart: Master of the Maelstrom, Lelith Hesperax: Queen of Knives and The Lion: Son of the Forest, as well as his absolutely hilarious ork focused novels with Warboss, Brutal Kunnin and Da Big Dakka, as well as his short story contributions to Da Red Gobbo Collection. All these amazing novels were quite exceptional reads, and it has really made me appreciate Brooks’s ability to dive into the entire Warhammer universe and bring its various characters and factions to life. As such, when in the mood for more Warhammer 40,000 fiction, it was a very easy choice to check out his 2023 release, Harrowmaster, which has been on my to-read list for a while. The first book in the Renegades sub-series that focuses on traitor Space Marines, Harrowmaster proved to be an epic and noteworthy first entry in this series, especially as Brooks choice to focus on the deeply intriguing Alpha Legion.

In the far future of the 41^st millennium, there are many renegades and traitors assaulting the faltering Imperium of Man, but few are as dangerous or as insidious as the notorious traitor Space Marines of the Alpha Legion. Masters of deceit, espionage and achieving victory through alternate tactics, the Alpha Legion have long haunted humanity with their spies and schemes. But despite all their careful planning, even the Alpha Legion are unprepared when a new dangerous enemy is thrown against them.

Attempting to exploit the chaos caused by the opening of the Great Rift, the Alpha Legion warband known as The Serpent’s Teeth are the first of their legion to encounter Primaris Marines, a new breed of Space Marines that have been enhanced into something far more dangerous than anything the renegades have encountered before. Now forced to contend with even more deadly threats from the hated Imperium, the members of the Alpha Legion gather to decide whether to hide from this new enemy or adapt to face it.

Into this uncertainty enters Solomon Akurra, the new leader of the Serpent’s Teeth. Determined to lead a decisive war against the Imperium, Solomon claims the title of Harrowmaster and works to bind the various Alpha Legion bands to his cause. Through deceit, lies and superior tactics, Solomon soon leads his men to victory, but that is only the start of the war to come. With shadowy forces from the Imperium hunting him, and his own allies waiting to see if he fails, can Solomon survive all his enemies, as well as the hidden blades at his neck, to achieve his goal? Only the most adaptable can become Harrowmaster, and the galaxy is unprepared for the carnage to come.

Harrowmaster was an exceptional Warhammer 40,000 novel from Brooks, and it is one that I wish I had read a lot sooner. Perfectly blending action and intrigue with a fascinating dive into one of the franchise’s most notorious factions, Harrowmaster was a deeply impressive read that I couldn’t turn away from. A very easy five-star read, this is one of my new favourites from Brooks due to its complex story and great characters.

I loved the very fun and captivating narrative that Brooks came up with for Harrowmaster, especially as it featured a lot of awesome moving parts that really came together perfectly. Starting off with an excellent introduction that showcases the Alpha Legion’s tactics of manipulation, the villainous protagonists soon encounter a deadly new threat that forces them onto the backfoot. From there the story takes on a bit of a lore-heavy focus, with Solomon Akurra, gathering different Alpha Legion factions and manipulating them into a single host. This interesting focus on the Alpha Legion in this part of the book is well balanced by the appearance of a fun Inquisitor character, Kayzen Hart, who serves as an alternate protagonist for the plot, providing some excellent additional intrigue.

Following some great action sequences, the plot evolves into a complex game of cat and mouse, with the various characters trying gain advantage and achieve their varied goals. For Solomon Akurra, this involves moulding his forces together into an effective and cohesive force, while using his Legion’s talents for deception and infiltration to their advantage. At the same time, Inquisitor Hart finds himself not only trying to capture Solomon but also locked in a deadly battle of wits against a rival inquisitor. The central plotlines of Harrowmaster cleverly force these two characters into greater danger, with both Solomon and Hart losing everything and being forced into some truly desperate action to get what they want. This leads up to a great big confrontation sequence towards the end of the novel, which wraps up a lot of ongoing storylines. There are some great twists here, including one that was particularly clever, and it was so much fun seeing it unfold. Everything comes together very nicely, with some fitting final scenes that really highlight the underlying betrayals and battles of intrigue that categorised this novel. Brooks ended this novel on a fun note that hints of more chaotic adventures to come.

Harrowmaster proved to be another exceptional read from Brooks, who honestly has one of the most readable and entertaining writing styles of all the current Warhammer 40,000 writers. Presenting an intricate action narrative that expertly blends interesting character stories with some compelling dives into Warhammer lore, Harrowmaster will appeal to a wide range of readers. Brooks does an excellent job breaking the story down across several interesting characters, which allows the reader to see various parts of the overarching and multilayered narrative. I personally loved the combination of Alpha Legion action and deception that went alongside the inquisitor focussed shenanigans of Kayzen Hart’s storyline, and the high level on intrigue and alternating moves from the participants was a lot of fun. Throw in some over-the-top action sequences which have an excellent flow to them, and Harrowmaster had a lot to recommend it, especially as it was easy to get caught up in the story.

One of the things I liked most about Harrowmaster was the way in which Brooks ensured it was open to new readers unfamiliar with the franchise, while also providing interesting details for Warhammer 40,000 fans. The author ensures there is plenty of context and information for new readers to get involved in this universe, enough so that Harrowmaster would be a good introductory novel for new readers. At the same time, Brooks also features a nuanced and layered look at the always awesome Alpha Legion, which established Warhammer readers will appreciate. I personally enjoyed how cleverly Brooks dove into the disparate nature of the Alpha Legion, including their various philosophies and different way of interacting with the Imperium. The focus on how they fight war through infiltration, deceit and spies was particularly awesome, and it was fascinating to see how they adapt and react to new threats, such as encountering Primaris Space Marines for the first time. At the same time, Brooks also has fun showcasing other unique parts of the Warhammer universe here, such as the internally warring Inquisitors, who always make for entertaining narratives. As such, I would honestly recommend Harrowmaster to readers of various experiences with Warhammer fiction, with everyone guaranteed to have an amazing time with this clever read.

I must also take this time to highlight some of the excellent characters contained within Harrowmaster, with Brooks focusing his narrative on some interesting figures. This naturally includes the main character, Solomon Akurra, a veteran Alpha Legion member who seeks the title of Harrowmaster. A clever and ambitious figure, Solomon proves to be an entertaining character to follow, with his schemes and plans allowing for some excellent story moments. Despite being a member of an apparently villainous faction (very hard to judge with the Alpha Legion), Solomon proves to be an extremely likeable character, and you get really invested in seeing him succeed, even if his plans are quite destructive. I felt a lot of Solomon’s likeability came from the entertaining friendship he had with his human sorceress comrade Tulaava Dyne. A particularly sassy and dangerous figure in her own right, Tulaava served as a good foil to the more serious Solomon, and their partnership was a fantastic centre for Harrowmaster’s plot, especially when considering the unlikely loyalty that sprung up between them.

The other awesome main character for Harrowmaster was Inquisitor Kayzen Hart, whose obsession with hunting down the Alpha Legion, especially Solomon, resulted in some of the more compelling storylines of the entire book. A radical Inquisitor, Kayzen attempts to understand and use his own target’s methods against them more much of the book, which has mixed results as he engages in a system-wide battle of wits against Solomon. However, Kayzen’s methods put him at odds with his fellow Inquisitor Nessa Karnis, an old comrade who is just as obsessed with defeating the Alpha Legion. However, the conflict between Kayzen’s radical methods and Nessa’s puritanical philosophies sees them fighting each other, and I loved how their conflict matched the infighting amongst the Alpha Legion. Throw in a fantastic array of other over-the-top Alpha Legion members, each with different specialities and beliefs that Solomon is forced to manipulate, as well as the steadfast loyalist Space Marines of the Silver Templars, whose attempts to outthink the Alpha Legion lead to some of the book’s more exciting moments, and I have a lot of love for the characters in Harrowmaster, especially as Brooks weaves some intense and impressive storylines around them.

Unsurprisingly, I decided to check out Harrowmaster on audiobook, which is my go-to format for all things Warhammer due to how much more awesome the over-the-top stories become when read out loud. This was the case with Harrowmaster, as its elaborate narrative of intrigue and action really came to life when read out, allowing me to absolutely power through its 11-hour long runtime. A lot of this is due to the outstanding voice work of narrator Theo Solomon, whose work I preciously enjoyed in Leviathan by Darius Hinks. Solomon perfectly captured the various characters contained within Harrowmaster with his narration, especially the main character Solomon Akurra, with the fitting voice for this protagonist forming the basis for much of the audiobook. The rest of the cast was also voiced extremely well by Solomon, and I loved the fun array of voices that went to the complex and often outrageous cast, with some excellent choices for the crazed Chaos Space Marines, as well as the feuding inquisitors. I honestly had such a great time listening to the Harrowmaster audiobook, and it is easily the best way to enjoy this incredible read.

Mike Brooks continues to showcase why he is one of the best current authors of Warhammer 40,000 fiction with his fantastic Renegades novel, Harrowmaster. An exceptional read that perfectly showcases the iconic Alpha Legion, while also telling its own outrageous story of deceit, intrigue and chaotic action, Harrowmaster was so damn good, especially on audiobook. I honestly cannot recommend Harrowmaster enough, and I am actually reading the recently released sequel to it, Ghost Legion, at this very moment.

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Warhammer 40,000: The Greater Good by Sandy Mitchell

On March 29, 2026 By The Unseen LibraryIn Audiobook, Extended Universe, Science Fiction, Throwback Thursday, Tie-in Novel, WarhammerLeave a comment

Publisher: Black Library (Audiobook – 1 January 2013)

Series: Ciaphas Cain – Book Nine

Length: 9 hours and 50 minutes

My Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

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Continue to follow the legendary and complex Commissar Ciaphas Cain into death and danger, with another amazing book in Sandy Mitchell’s awesome Warhammer 40,000 series, The Greater Good.

After recently reviewing the eighth book in Sandy Mitchell’s iconic Ciaphas Cain series, The Last Ditch, I just had to continue following the fun adventures of the Imperium’s most charismatic yet cowardly commissar, Ciaphas Cain. As such, the moment I finished The Last Ditch, I immediately read the ninth book in the series, The Greater Good, which had a very interesting scenario behind it that builds on several previous storylines from the series.

Commissar Ciaphas Cain, legendary hero of the Imperium of Man and self-declared fraud, is once again thrust into mortal danger when he is assigned to bolster the defences of the human planet of Quadravidia, against the high-tech attacks of the Tau. Amid the expected brutal fighting against the advanced aliens, Cain is surprised when the Tau not only recognise him amongst the fighting but also single him out to request an unexpected ceasefire right on the cusp of a Tau victory.

Expecting the worst from this unlikely turn of events, Cain is unsurprised when the Tau reveal that an even greater threat is moving towards the sector, a hive fleet of Tyranids. With neither side capable of fighting both each other and the ravenous Tyranids, the Imperium and the Tau agree to an uneasy truce, with both sides agreeing to coordinate their offensive against the incoming hive fleet.

Accompanied by a Tau ambassador, Cain, his trusty aid Jurgen, and the Imperial fleet journey to the vital Forge World of Fecundia, a potential target for the incoming Tyranids. Using Fecundia as a base of operations, the Imperium are hopeful the Tyrands will focus their attack on the Tau controlled planets. However, the chances of Cain remaining out of the fight are always slim, and the commissar soon discovers the existence of a secret facility hidden on the planet, one guaranteed to draw the Tyranids to Fecundia.

Caught between an invading fleet of ravening aliens, and the troubled politics of Fecundia, Cain must rally the defenders for another deadly battle. However, the secrets lurking within the hidden facility look set to doom them all, and Cain must discover just how far the rot goes in Fecundia, before the entire world is devoured.

The Greater Good was another excellent and highly entertaining Warhammer 40,000 novel from Sandy Mitchell that combines excellent and action-packed storytelling, with a fantastic and humorous protagonist. Featuring an outstanding story, The Greater Good was a ton of fun from start to finish, and it served as an amazing continuation of one of the best Warhammer 40,000 series out there.

I quite enjoyed the plot of The Greater Good, although it did go in some different directions to what I was expecting. From the cover and the official plot synopsis, I assumed this novel was going to feature humans and Tau fighting side by side on the initial planet the book is set, after temporarily setting aside their differences. Instead, the plot is primarily set on a secondary planet of Fecundia, with the only Tau being a controversial ambassador providing some interesting alternative insights. While this was still a fun and exciting narrative, it did run the risk of being a bit too similar to some of the previous Ciaphas Cain novels that focused on Tyranid invasions.

I felt that Mitchell compensated well for this change in direction, by drawing together an interesting read about infiltration, isolated battles and the Imperium’s research in the Tyranids as they attempt to find ways to defeat them. Revisiting key story elements from the previous two Ciaphas Cain novels, the protagonist soon finds himself trapped amid a series of controversial and dangerous experiments that begin to attract the Tyranid hive fleet. After a series of exciting set pieces, including a great extended sequence with the protagonist trapped in an alien filled desert, you reach the final third of the book which primarily takes place in the secret research centre. Unsurprisingly, things go wrong, and Cain and Jurgen are forced into a seemingly hopeless situation as they fight enemies on all sides. There were some good twists here, especially around potential betrayals, and while the culprit is easy to predict, there is an excellent amount of uncertainty and red herrings to keep you guessing. The entire story comes together in an awesome way, filled with Mitchell’s usual excellent fight sequences and humour, and this proved to be a compelling and satisfying addition to the larger series.

Long-term fans of this Warhammer 40,000 series will know that Mitchell has a set format for the Ciaphas Cain books that blends clever character-driven humour with the usual grim action and lore of the universe. This was also the case for The Greater Good, which features the usual chronicle style told from the protagonist’s perspective, bolstered by funny external commentary from a fictional editor, who also adds in some entertaining in-universe texts for some additional context. While this style and certain narrative elements are very familiar, especially if you read a few of these books in a row, The Greater Good was still an awesome novel, and Mitchell did make it stand out by adding in some intrigue with Tyranid infiltrators, as well as some curious looks at diplomacy between the Imperium and the Tau. I quite enjoyed seeing the conflicts that emerged between the various factions of this impromptu alliance, especially as Cain and the Imperial Guard had more issues with their Adeptus Mechanicus and Space Marine allies than the Tau. Add to that Mitchell’s usually impressive humour and wonderful action set pieces, and The Greater Good was an overall outstanding novel that I quickly powered through.

While most of the Ciaphas Cain books work well as standalone reads that are very accessible to new readers, The Greater Good stood out as it had more of a connection to the previous entries in the series. There were a lot of heavy references to the events of For the Emperor, The Emperor’s Finest and The Last Ditch, with key plot elements and some returning characters coming into the play during The Greater Good’s narrative. As someone who enjoyed all the previous books, it was nice to see the consequences and aftermath of these prior adventures be utilised in this entry’s plot, and I think that long-term fans will really appreciate it. These references also helped to dispel some of the usual issues this series has with reusing descriptions and thoughts from the previous books. While much of the plot is geared towards established fans, new readers can still easily follow The Greater Good’s plot without too much issue, as Mitchell does an excellent job of recapping these previous adventures. As such, The Greater Good proves to be an amazing overall entry in the Ciaphas Cain series, especially as it remains accessible and enjoyable to readers of varying experiences.

As always, I must give a shoutout to the outstanding cast of this novel, especially as there is an interesting array of unique characters contained within. This includes a great mix of familiar and new characters, with much of the action focused on the titular Commissar Ciaphas Cain, who remains the usual complex rogue we’re so familiar with. It is always fun to see Cain struggle with his imposter syndrome and supposed cowardice, and Mitchell ensures that the protagonist is the main source of the book’s humour thanks to his self-centred narration and hilarious insights into the usual grimdark universe. Cain’s aide Jurgen remains an excellent source of additional entertainment, while Inquisitor Amberly Vail is once again perfect as the overarching editor of the story, providing her sarcastic insights and corrections to Cain’s actions and conclusions. Throw in a captivating combination of new or minor characters, including a frustrated general, a calculating Tau ambassador, some returning Space Marines and a cunning Tech Priest with her own agenda, and the cast of The Greater Good is exceptional and drives the story into some fascinating places.

After hyping up the audiobook versions of all the previous Ciaphas Cain entries, I doubt anyone will be too surprised that I decided to check out The Greater Good on this format. All Warhammer 40,000 novels are damn awesome on audiobook, and The Greater Good is a particularly epic example of this. Coming in with a runtime just short of 10 hours, The Greater Good audiobook is an amazing listen that is easy to get addicted to, especially as the excellent use of several outstanding narrators really helps to enhance and highlight Mitchell’s unique writing style.

The Greater Good audiobook features an impressive six separate narrators, all of whom will be quite well known by Warhammer audiobook enthusiasts. As with the rest of the series, most of the work is done by returning narrators Stephen Perring and Penelope Rawlins, both of whom have a key role in this production. Perring serves as the entertaining and flippant voice of Cain as he recounts this adventure in his own words, while Rawlins is the voice of Inquisitor Vail as she provides her editorial notes throughout the plot and introduces other intermissions. These two have long proven themselves to be perfect main narrators for the Ciaphas Cain books, and they fulfilled their roles in The Greater Good extremely well, full grasping the complexity of their respective characters. The other four narrators for this audiobook, Matthew Hunt, Andrew James Spooner, John Banks and Tara Rawson, have minor but entertaining roles in this audiobook, providing voices for the various in-universe history texts and other books/messages that appear at various parts of the book, which allows for some additional comedy. This mixed narration comes together extremely well throughout the entirety of The Greater Good, resulting in a particularly epic listen. As such, I would once again recommend that potential readers of this Ciaphas Cain novel check out the audiobook version, as there is frankly no better way to enjoy The Greater Good.

With yet another clever, exciting and hilarious take on the epic Warhammer 40,000 universe, the ninth Ciaphas Cain novel, The Greater Good, was an outstanding addition to the series that I had a wonderful time listening to. Utilising his tried and tested writing style, Sandy Mitchell produces another compelling and entertaining read that proves to be highly addictive and a lot of fun to get through. I really enjoyed this excellent entry in the Ciaphas Cain series, and I am hoping to finish off this series by the end of the year.

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Warhammer 40,000: The Last Ditch by Sandy Mitchell

On March 20, 2026 By The Unseen LibraryIn Audiobook, Extended Universe, Science Fiction, Throwback Thursday, Tie-in Novel, Warhammer1 Comment

Publisher: Black Library (Audiobook – 1 February 2012)

Series: Ciaphas Cain – Book Eight

Length: 9 hours and 29 minutes

My Rating: 4.75 out of 5 stars

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The mighty hero of the Imperium returns for another rip-roaring and highly entertaining Warhammer 40,000 adventure, with The Last Ditch by Sandy Mitchell, a wonderful Ciaphas Cain novel that proves exceptionally hard to put down.

I have been in a real Warhammer 40,000 mood lately, so I decided to continue my exploration of the franchise by diving back into one of its best and most hilarious series with another Ciaphas Cain novel by Sandy Mitchell. The Ciaphas Cain series are particularly awesome Warhammer 40,000 novels that follow the adventures of the legendary human hero Commissar Ciaphas Cain as he faces down the many horrors the grimdark Warhammer universe has to offer. However, what sets the series apart from other series in the franchise is the fantastic tongue-in-cheek way in which the supposed hero of the series sees himself as a substantial coward concerned more with his own survival, and whose heroic exploits are down more to luck and chance. This results in a fantastic collection of books, each one of which throws the protagonist into danger despite his best efforts, often resulting in a series of hilarious and over-the-top adventures. I have had an outstanding team reading the previous entries in the series, including For the Emperor, Caves of Ice, The Traitor’s Hand, Death or Glory, Duty Calls, Cain’s Last Stand and The Emperor’s Finest, and I have been eager to read the eighth novel in the series, The Last Ditch for some time.

Commissar Ciaphas Cain, famed hero of the Imperium of Man, is at the height of his legendary career, fighting back the many enemies of humanity despite his best attempts to stay out of battle. However, despite his reputation usually landing him in the most challenging of conflicts, Cain’s next mission seems to be relatively straightforward. Once again accompanied by the Valhallan 597^th regiment of Imperial Guard, Cain is tasked with eradicating a simple ork infestation on the frozen planet of Nusquam Fundumentibus. However, not even Cain’s most pessimistic musings of the future can prepare him for the horrors to come.

Travelling aboard a disreputable freighter, Cain and his soldiers are forced to make a deadly crashlanding on Nusquam Fundumentibus, right into the middle of an ork horde. Engaged in a desperate fight for their lives against the greenskins, the Imperial Guard are blind to other threats hiding on the planet, threats that are far more insidious than a group of rampaging orks.

As the conflict continues and several isolated communities on the planet start to go dark, Cain soon becomes aware that something apart from the orks are stalking the citizens of Nusquam Fundumentibus. Something ancient and malevolent lies hidden beneath the ice of the planet, and the new war has finally woken them up. Outnumbered and outmatched, the Imperial Guard need to pull a desperate and no doubt suicidal plan to survive. Luckily, they have a bonified hero to lead the charge, even if he’d rather be anywhere else in the galaxy.

The always outstanding Ciaphas Cain series continues in impressive form, as Sandy Mitchell adds further depth to some of the more entertaining and gripping novels in the Warhammer 40,000 franchise. Combining intense action with the protagonist’s unique insights into the grimdark Warhammer universe, The Last Ditch was a brilliant addition to the series that I couldn’t get enough of.

Mitchell once again came up with an outstanding narrative for The Last Ditch that grabs your attention early on and keeps you hooked to the very end. I must admit that I was a little apprehensive about reading The Last Ditch, as it looked like Mitchell was going to rehash the similar ice-world story found in Caves of Ice. However, this book has a very different narrative, while still maintaining all the familiar story elements that make this series to dependable to read. Starting off on a different footing with a fun transport arc that ends in deadly tears, The Last Ditch has an explosive first third (literally), which provided a lot of initial drama and risk.

The Last Ditch’s story quickly dives into even more awesome action, as the protagonist is reluctantly forced into action against the orks, while other dangerous threats lurk beneath the surface. I liked how Mitchell did a good job building up tension in advance of the reveal about the true antagonists of the novel, with the reader knowing that something worse was coming thanks to Cain’s prescient narration from the future, and the author used this time to expand on his new setting. The eventual sequence revealing this enemy had a great horror vibe to it as Cain explored tight quarters underground, and it led naturally into an extended campaign. The rest of the book is a good mixture of connected action scenes, as Cain and the other characters slowly work out just how desperate the situation is and attempt to take steps to address it. This works well as an overarching narrative, and you really appreciate the scope of the situation and the protagonist’s continued accidental heroics as he tries to run away.

All this perfectly leads up to a final big sequence, where the desperate protagonists are forced into a particularly brutal fight with little hope of survival. Unsurprisingly, this requires Cain to engage in another suicide mission, which leads to some of the best action scenes in the entire book. This entire last section of The Last Ditch is a particularly awesome thrill ride which I powered through so very quickly to see how everything came to an end. Readers come away very satisfied from The Last Ditch, which honestly was one of the stronger books in this cool series, and I really enjoyed how Mitchell continues to entertain with his amazing and entertaining Warhammer 40,000 premise.

Mitchell maintains pretty much the same writing style for The Last Ditch he has previously utilised in the other Ciaphas Cain books, which allows for a very impressive light read. It is told primarily in a chronicle/journal format written by an older Cain, which recounts the events of this adventure through the narrow focus of the protagonist’s unreliable memory. This allows for a fun and self-centred take on events that examines Cain’s reluctant action while also loading up the story with some entertaining humour that provides a great satirical look at the usually grimdark Warhammer 40,000 universe. This main narrative of action, adventure and supposedly cowardly behaviour is cleverly interspersed with a range of entertaining footnotes, commentary and in-universe texts that have been provided by the account’s patient, if sarcastic, editor, Inquisitor Amberly Vail. This combination of narrative elements not only cleverly provides readers with and informative and light-hearted look at events taking place outside of Cain’s selfish storytelling, but it also pumps up both the humour and the stakes of the plot, especially as you become aware of the planet-wide impacts of the central adventure.

As with all the books in the series, The Last Ditch does work well as a standalone novel that readers can enjoy without any previous knowledge of the other Ciaphas Cain books, or indeed the wider Warhammer 40,000 universe. While this novel is set in the middle of Cain’s personal chronology and makes mentions of several previous adventures, readers should have no trouble following along, with the point of these references made clear quickly through the writing and context. Established fans of the series will also have a lot of fun with this book, especially as Mitchell continues Cain’s adventures with the Valhallan 597^th, and there are a lot of entertaining familiar beats with this newer entry. Like many of the previous books, The Last Ditch does have some repetition issues, with Mitchell reusing a lot of basic story ideas and phrases in Cain and Vail’s descriptions that returning readers will notice. However, I felt that this entry was distinctive enough, especially with a more horror vibe to it, that any readers can come in and easily enjoy it. This allows The Last Ditch to remain an awesome addition to the overall series, and it’s one I personally had an outstanding time getting through.

I also must once again highlight some of the great character work in this novel, especially when it comes to the main character of Commissar Ciaphas Cain. A complex figure and self-professed coward, Cain spends most of the book trying to come up with ways to avoid combat and survive the inevitable danger his reputation and own bad lack force him to participate in. With a very cynical and self-deprecating writing style, Mitchell always tries to emulate classic, comedic and craven military figures like Flashman or Blackadder with his depictions of Cain. However, despite the protagonist’s best efforts to showcase himself as a dishonourable coward, his resultant heroic actions and Inquisitor Vail’s notes help to show the reader that his is somewhat lying to both us and himself, as he continues to be an inspirational figure. This allows for quite a complex and relatively light-hearted read, as you are constantly wondering just how honest the protagonist is being with his observations and descriptions of his actions. This all blends well with Cain’s witty and sarcastic humour, which lightly lampoons the usually serious Warhammer 40,000 universe and ensures that you are constantly entertained as you follow Commissar Cain into danger once again.

The rest of the cast of this novel are also a ton of fun, especially as many fan favourite characters from the previous novels are well utilised here. This includes Cain’s faithful aide, Jurgen, who continues to toe the line between gormless soldier and ultra-effective sidekick, and is a very entertaining inclusion in any of these books. Inquisitor Amberly Vail once again has a big impact, despite her actual appearance in the novel being quite negligible, and her no-nonsense overarching commentary allows for quite an amusing read. The returning members of the Valhallan 597^th regiment were a welcome inclusion, and it is always cool to see the close relationship that Cain has with these soldiers after so many adventures. Throw in a young gung-ho commissar that Cain is forced to school, and a planetary governor trying to stay in control of her planet amongst the chaos of war, and the cast of The Last Ditch was pretty exceptional and continues Mitchell’s habit of showcasing entertaining and complex supporting characters.

I have long extolled the impressive virtues of the audiobook format when it comes to Warhammer 40,000 fiction, as it is just so much fun having the over-the-top stories read out loud. Some of the very best Warhammer books in this format are the Ciaphas Cain audiobooks, due to their elaborate casts and the fantastic way their narrators capture the unique style of the series. This is particularly true for The Last Ditch, which was another absolute joy to listen to, as its amazing narrators perfectly captured both the humour and complex action. Coming in with a decent run time of nine and a half hours, listeners can absolutely fly through The Last Ditch audiobook, which once again features all the awesome elements that the rest of the series had. This includes the use of several different narrators, with the incredible vocal talents of Stephen Perring, Penelope Rawlins, Emma Gregory, Toby Longworth and Andrew James Spooner, all adding a lot to the impact of this fun and fantastic story.

Perring is particularly awesome as he voices the main plot of The Last Ditch from the perspective of Cain. Voicing the protagonist’s conflicted memories of the events, Perring perfectly captures the complex personality of the main character, while also providing a fun take on the action and adventure occurring around the protagonist. Perring has a great range of different voices for this part of the book, with each of the characters getting a very fitting tone that showcases their separate personalities, including many recurring voices the narrator used in previous audiobooks in the series. Perring is once again supported by Penelope Rawlins, who voices the character of Inquisitor Amberley Vail as she edits Cain’s memoirs. Rawlins really dives into the sarcastic character of Inquisitor Vail in these supporting parts of the book, providing a calm, indulgently humorous voice that fits the fun feel of the series. Rawlins’s interruptions and inclusions as Vail complement Perring’s narration extremely well, adding some great humour to the plot without ruining the flow of the main story. These two narrators work together extremely well to bring out much of the book’s humour, and I love how they both have kept coming back to this series to ensure some excellent continuity.

While Perring and Rawlins do the main narration, the additional narrators each have a fun supporting role in proceedings. Emma Gregory probably gets the most use of the three as she once again voices the memoirs of an ambitious officer in Cain’s regiment, retelling events in a particularly bombastic way. Gregory deliberately over-acts her part of the audiobook to show off the brash personality of the memoir’s author, and you have to love the pomp and self-importance that Gregory adds to her voice work in these scenes. The other two, Longworth and Spooner, both of whom are well-established narrators of Warhammer fiction in their own right, have a lot of fun with more minor supporting roles in The Last Ditch, and their cool, if short, inclusions added some fun variety to the experience. The overall result was another excellent listen that really enhances the fun and impact of the story and the larger franchise. I honestly think that the Ciaphas Cain series has some of the best audiobooks, and The Last Ditch perfectly showcased how well these books come across in this fun format.

With all the fun action, humour and great focus on a fantastically flawed protagonist fans have come to know and love, Sandy Mitchell continues his exceptional Ciaphas Cain Warhammer 40,000 series with The Last Ditch. A wonderful and deeply entertaining read, The Last Ditch was a joy to read from start to finish and I had such a brilliant time with it. Indeed, I enjoyed The Last Ditch so much that I immediately dove into the next book in the series, The Greater Good, the second I finished it.

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The Feeding by Anthony Ryan

On January 11, 2026 By The Unseen LibraryIn Audiobook, Five-Star Books, Horror, Science Fiction1 Comment

Publisher: Orbit/Blackstone Publishing (Audiobook – 14 October 2025)

Series: Standalone/Book One

Length: 10 hours and 13 minutes

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

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Acclaimed fantasy author Anthony Ryan continues to explore the horror genre with the fantastic post-apocalyptic vampire novel, The Feeding, an awesome and deeply addictive read that you won’t be able to read fast enough.

Anthony Ryan is an author I’ve talked a lot about in recent weeks, primarily because his outstanding fantasy novel, Born of an Iron Storm. The impressive second novel in the author’s Age of Wrath series, Born of an Iron Storm was one of my favourite books, audiobooks and sequels of 2025, and I am currently very excited for the third and final entry in the series, currently titled Upon a Forge of Battle, which is coming out later this year. However, before we get to that I need to also highlight Ryan’s second book of 2025, the awesome horror novel The Feeding. Released here in Australia under the pen-name A. J. Ryan, The Feeding is Ryan’s second major horror release after Red River Seven in 2023. This new horror novel had a great plot behind it, as a desperate protagonist attempts to survive a twisted landscape filled with dangerous monsters.

Plot Synopsis:

Layla has spent her entire life in the Redoubt, one of the last bastions of humanity in a ravaged world. She’s never been beyond the Redoubt’s walls; only Crossers, with their special training and survival skills, are permitted to venture into the shadow-haunted wastelands.

When Layla’s father falls ill, she knows she needs to find a cure. But no such medicine can be found within the Redoubt. Instead, her only chance is to pass a series of gruelling trials to become a Crosser, and then to strike out into the wilderness.

Where the feeders are.

Internationally bestselling fantasy author Anthony Ryan – writing as A. J. Ryan – delivers a nerve-shredding horror novel where humans are no longer top of the food chain.

The Feeding was another extremely awesome novel from Ryan that I ended up powering through in no time at all. A clever and intense vampire horror novel, The Feeding effortlessly keeps your attention with its impressive worldbuilding and fast-paced story. I had such an incredible time with this book, and I deeply enjoyed seeing what Ryan could do in the horror space.

The plot of The Feeding was a great, grungy post-apocalyptic read that was a very interesting change of pace from the sprawling fantasy epics I’m used to from Ryan. Featuring a much more fast-paced story, Ryan quickly and effectively introduces you to The Feeding’s protagonist, Layla, and the dark world she inhabits. A lowly scavenger in the dying walled city of Redoubt, Layla finds herself desperate enough to become a Crosser, the city’s elite runners who leave Redoubt to trade in the wasteland, to find medicine for her dying father. This leads to an excellent extended early section of the book where the protagonist needs to go through a compelling Selection process, featuring several trials designed to whittle down the applicants and ensure only true survivors can go over the wall. This early sequence does an excellent job of hammering home just how dangerous the world outside of Redoubt is, as well as giving some intriguing insights into what the feeders, this universe’s vampire substitute, are capable of. This first part of the book really sets the tone for the rest of the novel, and I was frankly hooked on The Feeding the second we got to Selection.

I felt that the second half of The Feeding, which takes place primarily beyond the walls, lives up to the expectations Ryan sets up in the first part of the book. The protagonist and an interesting band of supporting characters enter the desolate wasteland and soon encounter all manner of horrors from wild feeders, even wilder humans, and the general abandonment of the outside world. Ryan also starts working in an excellent overarching narrative threat that stalks the protagonists from a distance. While you can easily guess at who or what this threat is, as well as a certain supporting character’s connections to it, the full impact and intensity of this looming danger keep hitting the protagonists hard and fast. There are some brutal losses as the plot continues, and you are constantly on edge as everything closes in and the stakes keep on rising.

Everything leads up to an intense finale, as after another dark confrontation the protagonist finds herself at her most desperate. Forced to rely on an unlikely ally, Layla attempts the impossible and soon finds herself stuck in the middle of someone else’s dark tale. The raw intensity of the plot really grabs your attention at this point, and you are so very eager to see how the book will continue. Ryan also throws in some interesting additional worldbuilding as the novel heads towards the conclusion, which provides some answers to the questions you’ve built up throughout The Feeding, while also ensuring you’re even more curious about what else is out in the wasteland. After a gritty final confrontation, as well as some last-minute tragedy, Ryan ends The Feeding on a mostly hopeful and heartfelt note, which includes an excellent family moment bonding over a classic. This proved to be an excellent end to The Feeding’s standalone narrative, although Ryan does leave the story open for a potential sequel going forward, which I personally would be curious to see.

Ryan pulls together a tight, complex and character-driven narrative in The Feeding that I think worked extremely well. Grabbing the reader’s attention early, Ryan does an excellent job painting the post-apocalyptic scene, and I loved the complex world of walled cities and vampire-infested wastelands that emerged. The combined tension of mass human desperation and the dark overwhelming threat of feeders surrounding the city ensures that the reader knows how deadly this version of the world is from the beginning, which ensures you are really invested in the protagonist’s personal journey. The feeders themselves prove to be outstanding vampiric antagonists for much of the plot, especially with the combination of feral beast gamma feeders and more intelligent betas and alphas, providing some variation in the threat they posed. Ryan crafts together some outstanding and scary sequences involving the feeders as the novel continues, and your pulse is guaranteed to race every time they appear, especially once the death toll starts to rise. Combine that with Ryan’s proven ability to write good action scenes, of which there are some fantastic moments, as well as some excellent and compelling supporting characters (try not to get too attached though), and this really was a fantastically written novel. I was honestly really impressed with how Ryan transitioned from his usual fantasy style to this powerful and moving horror novel, while also retaining his typical imagination and intense storytelling ability.

As has become my habit with all the previous Anthony Ryan novels I’ve enjoyed, I ended up listening to The Feeding on audiobook, which I’ve always found compliments the author’s writing style and worldbuilding extremely well. This proved to once again be the case for The Feeding, with the format really enhancing the tension and fast-paced sequences loaded into this great horror story. It helped that they got another very skilled narrator in the form of Devon Sorvari, who took on the role of the one perspective protagonist extremely well. While it did take me a chapter or two to completely appreciate Sorvari’s narration style, once I got into her groove, I begun to really appreciate her take on the story and the intriguing characters. Sorvari perfectly captures the damaged and determined spirit of the main character Layla throughout The Feeding, and the alternate accents and voices she brings for the rest of the cast also work really well. Sorvari also keeps the pace of The Feeding constantly going, and the way she can enhance the tension of the audiobook through her voice work ensures you are constantly on the edge of your seat as you listen to it. Thanks to this excellent narration, I got through the audiobooks roughly 10-hour runtime extremely quickly, and this proved to be a particularly amazing audiobook to listen to.

Anthony Ryan continues to greatly impress with his captivating and highly entertaining horror novel The Feeding. Featuring an outstanding vampire-focused narrative in a complex post-apocalyptic world, The Feeding was a very fun and emotionally charged read, that I couldn’t get enough of. I had such a brilliant time with The Feeding, and it comes very highly recommend as a result. I will be seeking out more of Ryan’s dives into the horror genre going forward, and I cannot wait to see what other creepy tales he has planned.

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Cold War by Jonathan Maberry

On December 31, 2025 By The Unseen LibraryIn Audiobook, Five-Star Books, Horror, LGBT+, Science Fiction3 Comments

Publisher: Blackstone Audio (Audiobook – 14 October 2025)

Series: NecroTek – Book Two

Length: 19 hours and 33 minutes

My Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

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The insanity and complex storytelling of Jonathan Maberry’s incredible NecroTek series continues in 2025 with the impressive and deeply intense sequel Cold War.

2025 has been a pretty awesome year for fans of Jonathan Maberry, as we have not only gotten the new Joe Ledger/Rogue Team International novel, Burn to Shine, but Maberry also continued his excellent NecroTek series. Released in collaboration with the iconic Weird Tales magazine, the series started last year with the amazing novel, NecroTek (one of my favourite books and audiobooks of 2024), this series saw Maberry combine compelling science fiction elements with his love for Lovecraftian horror, when, in the near future, a space station of scientists and soldiers is transported across the galaxy and forced to fight eldritch horrors. As the book continued, several of the human characters to become the titular NecroTeks, undead pilots of gigantic alien war machines, who are forced to risk the destruction of their souls to fight back against the monsters coming for them. Due to how powerful, compelling, and occasionally scary this novel got, I have been keen for the sequel, Cold War, for quite some time, and I made sure to check it out the amazing audiobook version of it a few weeks ago.

Plot Synopsis:

In NecroTek, Asphodel space station was accidentally teleported to the far side of the galaxy, where they became embroiled in a never-ending war against ancient cosmic horrors.

But there is much more to the story …

On Earth, scientists uncover an alien spacecraft buried for millions of years beneath Antarctic ice. Inside are terrible secrets and a creature desperate to escape.

Soon the scientists studying the Artifact begin to have terrifying dreams, driving many of them to madness and acts of shocking violence. Dr. Evie Cronin and her team struggle to find answers, fully aware that they may only be found out among the stars. Their investigation brings them to the orbit of Jupiter moments before the WarpLine gun misfires. Destiny is a vicious and devious thing.

On Asphodel Station, the newly created ghost-driven NecroTek fighting machines are engaged in a desperate battle for survival against the deadly shoggoth fleets. But a new and far more dangerous race of creatures is poised to attack, both with their own fleets and with nightmares forced into the minds of the dwindling human defenders.

The group of scientists from Antarctica and the survivors on Asphodel are pitted against an unstoppable enemy. If they fail, Asphodel Station will fall, and the Outer Gods will be free to wage a war of conquest across the galaxy—to Earth itself.

Jonathan Maberry once again delivers an impressive read with his outstanding and complex Cold War. Featuring an intense, character driven story that takes its protagonists to hell and back, Cold War was a powerful, horror-laden science fiction novel that refuses to let you go. I loved this book so much, and it gets a very easy five-star rating from me, and I have recently featured it on my recent favourite sequels and audiobooks lists of 2025.

Maberry produced a very exciting and captivating narrative for Cold War that goes in a very different direction than I would have expected after NecroTek, but which works as a very effective and expansive sequel. Initially showcasing the events in the aftermath of NecroTek and the first big battle for Asphodel Station, the reader is quickly and effectively reintroduced to the key characters from the first book and given an update on how they have continued to adapt to being transferred across the universe. The early chapters of Cold War also take the reader back in time a few years before the events of the first book, when a group of scientists uncover an ancient alien artifact in the Antarctic snow, keeping it secret from the world and all the protagonists of the first book.

Cold War’s narrative soon develops an interesting and noticeably uneven split in the storylines. While a good chunk of Cold War continues to showcase the figures on Asphodel and their multiple struggles, including the slow reveal of a new terrifying group of antagonists, much more focus is given to the Antarctic research plot line, with longer chapters dedicated to this part of the book. While this move away from the established plot is surprising, I personally thought it was very clever, as it allowed Maberry to further expand both the cast and the lore around the threats humanity was facing, while also bringing the story back to Earth. The cool exploration and first-contact scientific elements of this Antarctic storyline were also deeply compelling, and I got extremely absorbed in this part of Cold War’s narrative as the book continued. While there was more of a focus on the Earth-based narrative, the story around Asphodel was still very impressive, with some complex character development, multiple ultra-exciting sequences of space combat, and a growing sense of dread as dark forces stalk the protagonists.

The final third of Cold War sees the book’s two separate storylines come together in very direct way, which allows many of the unique characters developed in both NecroTek and Cold War to come together. While the transition to this part of the book is quite sudden, it allows for a very exciting end run of the book, as Maberry pumps up the action, and takes the protagonists through hell and back. Maberry brings out all his best horror writing as the now combined cast are forced to contend with a terrifying array of monsters and eldritch creatures, including another zombie substitute (Maberry loves his zombies). All the storylines from the first half pay off in this final part of Cold War, and while there aren’t too many surprises, you’re constantly on your feet as you wait to see who’s going to survive and which side characters are going to get killed off. The author leaves Cold War on a very interesting note, and I’m already extremely curious to see where he takes the NecroTek series going forward.

Maberry utilised his distinctive and well-honed thriller writing style in Cold War, which combined nicely with the science fiction story and the overarching horror vibes to create a brilliantly intense and fast-paced read. Once again breaking the story up into a series of short and sharp alternating perspective subchapters, Maberry constantly jumps Cold War’s story between multiple key protagonists, as well as some antagonists, to produce a wonderfully layered and powerful narrative that constantly has multiple awesome interlocking storylines on the go. This quick-paced style works well to enhance both the book’s horror and science fiction elements, and the constant jumps also increase the tension of the plot and produce some excellent action sequences, including some truly unique and ultra-impressive space combat sequences. There were also some new delightfully terrifying horrors determined to kill the protagonists both in their dreams and real life cleverly introduced in this novel, and Maberry did an amazing job building them up as a threat the entire book. Maberry also effectively splits his book into two separate narratives for much of Cold War’s runtime, with alternating chapters diving between the events in the present at Asphodel Station and the prequel storyline in Antarctica. This cool split really changed the feel and focus of Cold War compared to NecroTek, and while Maberry allowed both storylines to run mostly independently, they also worked well to support each other. All these great writing techniques and narrative choices allowed Cold War to really stand out as a sequel, and I liked how much stronger Cold War turned out as a result.

While Cold War does work extremely well as a sequel, with the author’s excellent storytelling choices and alternating timelines really adding a lot to the story from NecroTek, it does mean that this book is probably not as accessible to new readers as some of Maberry’s other works. Maberry does do his usual excellent job of recapping key events in the text as the book continues, so new readers do get a pretty good idea of what happened and who the key figures are. However, the full emotional impacts of events, as well as the significance of some of the revelations coming to light in Cold War’s big prequel narrative in Antarctica really aren’t going to hit readers as hard if they haven’t read the first book. Indeed, Cold War might be best read by established fans of Maberry, who will appreciate the author’s continued utilisation of Lovecraftian elements, as Maberry continues to showcase his love for the classic horrors with some fun science fiction twists. Experienced Maberry readers will also be more used to the author’s extreme content, as Cold War is as dark and disturbingly over-the-top as many of his books, with some very adult horror moments. Readers should also be on the lookout for easter eggs to some of Maberry’s works, including a fun reference to the antagonist of the Joe Ledger novel Dogs of War. As such, this is very much a book for those readers familiar with the author, although I think new fans would be in for an excellent time.

As with most of Maberry’s writing, one of Cold War’s big strengths is its excellent contingent of complex and often highly damaged characters, whose unique interactions and experiences during these terrifying times frame the book’s captivating narrative. Cold War contains an interesting mixture of returning figures from NecroTek and a new batch of protagonists who end up taking over a good part of the plot. This includes Professor Evie Cronin, the leader of the expedition who discovers the alien artifact in Antarctica. Evie serves as a great new major protagonist for the series, and Maberry’s choice to set much of Cold War’s narrative around her, ensures that the NecroTek books continue to have a strong scientific basis to their narratives. The author really tries to capture the shock, excitement and fear that would accompany the discovery of an alien ship through Evie’s experiences in Cold War, and she serves as a relatable and likeable major focus for much of the book’s plot. Maberry also works in a nice romance angle between Evie and shooter Jenny Spears, that serves as a big emotional part of Cold War’s plot, and which added to the stakes and impact of some of the high-tension sequences. Of the remaining new characters introduced in Cold War, my favourite was probably Dr Torquil Brollachan, a government scientist who takes over the investigation of the alien artifact. A complex and guarded figure, Dr Brollachan serves as an interesting foil to Evie and his secret motivations and dangerous priorities turns him into a bit of a Dr Frankenstein figure at times (an apt comparison that Dr Brollachan would appreciate), resulting in some fantastic reveals in the second part of the book.

While these new characters are impactful and have some very compelling storylines around them, their inclusion does mean that the cast introduced in NecroTek don’t get as much time to shine as they previously did. Still Maberry keeps many of their storylines going, and all of them serve as a key part of the book’s plot. This includes the main character from the first book, Dr Lars Soren, whose steady presence continues to be a great part of Cold War, and I enjoyed how Maberry further explored his cosmic philosophy ideas in the interludes. The continued inclusion of the dead characters brought back as NecroTeks was also very compelling, with their experiences, including that of Bianca Petrescu, providing some complex existential elements to the plot. I also liked how Maberry choice to focus a lot more on pilot character Lieutenant Commander Veronica Roland, better known as Calisto, who was forced to step up and lead the human pilots defending Asphodel Station. Calisto’s struggle to become a leader, as well as the distinctive and beautifully written fighter combat sequences, are another amazing highlight, and I appreciated how well her scenes were written in this sequel. Throw in the entertaining Irish necromancer, Lady Jessica, who spends much of the book recovering from the events of NecroTek, and the cast of Cold War was a very awesome part of this book, and I personally cannot wait to see where all their captivating and haunting personal stories go from here.

Like I have with all the other Maberry novels I have had the pleasure of reading, I ended up enjoying Cold War on audiobook, which I find is the best way to enjoy the author’s thrilling narratives. I always find that Maberry’s dark tales and intricate and exciting writing style always translate nicely to the audiobook format, and they tend to be some of the best listens each year. Indeed, as I mentioned above, Cold War was one of my favourite audiobooks of 2025, and I ended up powering through this new audiobook’s 19-and-a-half-hour-long runtime. Much of Cold War’s epic success on audiobook once again lies in the narration of Maberry’s long-time audiobook collaborator, Ray Porter. Porter, who is one of my favourite audiobook narrators, always perfectly matches the dark and sinister tones of Maberry’s writing, and I really love the sense of menace and intensity he brings to audiobooks like Cold War, as he conveys the underlying threat and fear Maberry weaves into his tales. Porter also expertly delivers all the book’s awesome action, great humour, and other deeper emotions, to the listener and there is always a great synchronisation between Porter’s narration and the intent of Maberry’s writing. Porter also has an outstanding array of distinctive voices for the book’s characters, and I love how he always manages to bring the best out of Cold War’s complex casts. All these voices, including for the various new characters introduced in this sequel, were extremely fitting for their respective cast member, and I appreciate how effectively Porter portrays each figure’s emotions. Porter also does an exceptional job voicing the sinister monsters and other eldritch figures haunting the protagonists, and the impressive array of creepy voices really emphasises the dark nature of Cold War’s story to the listener. All this results in quite an exceptional listen, and it’s one that I cannot recommend enough. Honestly, I don’t think it’s going to be possible for me to ever not enjoy a Maberry novel on audiobook, especially if Porter is narrating, and there is a reason these epic listens always top my best audiobook lists each year.

Maberry’s outstanding NecroTek series continues in extremely strong fashion with the extremely captivating Cold War. Cleverly expanding on the story from the first novel, NecroTek, Cold War effortlessly kept up the terrifying tension as multiple compelling characters continue to experience the dark horrors the universe has in store for them. I had an exceptional time with Cold War, and I have no problem letting you know that this book will be appearing in my favourite novels of 2025 later this week. I’m also extremely excited as a Maberry fan for 2026, as not only do we have the new Joe Ledger book, Red Empire, coming out in March, but the NecroTek series will also thankfully be continuing, with a third novel, Ghosts of the Void, tentatively set for release towards the end of the year.

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