Publisher: Black Library (Audiobook – 27 July 2024)
Series: Warhammer 40,000
Length: 5 hours and 59 minutes
My Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
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One of the rising stars of Warhammer fiction, Mike Brooks, presents another exciting, character-focused narrative within the grimdark Warhammer 40,000 universe with awesome novel, Lelith Hesperax: Queen of Knives.
Those familiar with the franchise will know that Warhammer 40,000 fiction is on fire at the moment. There are some very talented authors out there writing exciting and compelling adventures based on the game’s various factions, and readers are finding out just how fun and complex stories written in this universe can be. Out of all the fantastic authors writing Warhammer fiction in recent years, one of the most impressive is Mike Brooks, who is shaping up to be one of the franchise’s big writers. A talented fantasy and science fiction author, Brooks has been producing some excellent books in recent years that either focus on unique Warhammer 40,000 characters or one of the game’s non-human factions. Books like Huron Blackheart: Master of the Maelstrom, The Lion: Son of the Forest (one of my favourite books and audiobooks of 2023), Brutal Kunnin, Warboss and Da Big Dakka (one of my favourite books and audiobooks from the first half of 2024), have been extremely epic, and I am always down for more stuff from Brooks as a result. As such, I made sure to grab a copy of his other 2024 Warhammer 40,000 novel, Lelith Hesperax: Queen of Knives, which was another interesting and memorable addition to the canon.
In the far future, the fallen and capricious drukhari heal and hold back the grim prospect of death by inflicting pain on others. The dark streets of their city, Commorragh, run red with blood as millions of prisoners are killed in their gladiatorial arenas to slake their citizens’ bloodlust and need for suffering. To survive in this brutal city, a drukhari needs to be smart, deceitful or a natural killer, and no killer is more revered in Commorragh than Lelith Hesperax.
A legendary gladiator, Lelith Hesperax has long reigned as the Grand Succubus of the most powerful Wych Cult in Commorragh, her blades having carved through thousands of challengers, potential rivals and alien captives. But after years of fighting for herself, Lelith has found a new cause to draw blood for. Abandoning Commorragh, Lelith now fights against daemonic hordes alongside the nomadic cultists of the Ynnead, who seek a different way to survive as a species. However, while she’s been away, new rivals strike at Lelith’s holdings back at Commorragh.
Warned by the mysterious Harlequins of a rising threat against her, Lelith returns to Commorragh to find that much has changed. Her Cult of Strife is no longer feared or respected, and many of the city’s inhabitants openly plot against her and her followers. Shocked at how far her status has fallen in her absence, Lelith knows that the only person capable of causing this much disruption to her empire is the undisputed ruler of Commorragh, Asdrubael Vect. Forced to contend against the schemes of a master manipulator, Lelith believes that the only way to survive is to remind the city just how dangerous she is. But with Vect’s web of manipulation surrounding her, can even Lelith cut herself free, especially when her opponent forces her to fight against the only person in Commorragh she doesn’t want to kill?
Mike Brooks continues to showcase just how good he is at bringing the various complex figures of the Warhammer 40,000 universe to life with this exciting new read. Expertly capturing the legendary drukhari killer, Lelith Hesperax: Queen of Knives was an awesome and captivating read I had a lot of fun getting through.
This latest book from Brooks is a quick but very intense and well-written read that successfully gets into the head of an iconic drukhari character from the games. Told exclusively from the perspective of the main character, Lelith Hesperax, Queen of Knives moves at an extremely fast pace; after a fast introduction to set up how much Lelith’s life has changed since leaving to work with the cultists of the Ynnead, you are thrust into the action when a bored Lelith is warned about a rising threat back in Commorragh. This effectively brings the reader back to the main setting, which is for the best, as Commorragh is a particularly awesome location for any Warhammer 40,000 novel. The protagonist is soon embroiled in a sinister array of intrigue, as it becomes clear that the undisputed leader of the drukhari, Asdrubael Vect, is working against her, and is using a figure from Lelith’s past, Morghana Nathrax, as his catspaw.
Forced on the backfoot in a fight for the first time in her life, Lelith attempts to find a way to counter the moves of her shadowy opponent, while also trying to avoid a fight with Morghana. This results in some excellent action set pieces and moments of intrigue, as Lelith gets back to her dread drukhari roots. The fight sequences surrounding the protagonists are sharp, exciting, and necessarily brutal, and I appreciated how well Brooks balanced the action with overlying intrigue and plotting. The author also spends a good chunk of time diving into the protagonist’s personality and past, and a few well-placed flashbacks help to provide additional emotional attachment and show Lelith’s complicated relationship with Morghana. Everything leads up to the inevitable confrontation, which goes in some very interesting and emotionally charged directions. While I felt that Brooks could have added in another layer of intrigue to the protagonist’s final ploy to make the book really stand out, the conclusion of the book was generally pretty satisfying, and Queen of Knives turned out to be an excellent standalone read.
Due to the book being deliberately focused on one iconic protagonist, Queen of Knives does by necessity have a character-driven plot, which revolves around some fantastic figures. Naturally the most prominent of these is the book’s sole perspective character, Lelith Hesperax, who proved to be quite an awesome protagonist to follow. Brooks chooses to jump readers right into the midst of Lelith’s current adventure at the start of Queen of Knives rather than immediately focusing on her backstory, which I think worked from a narrative perspective, as it brought readers quickly into the plot. There is a useful drip feed of information about her past and her nature as the book continues, enough that reader’s unfamiliar with the protagonist can easily enjoy Queen of Knives, while also allowing Brooks to control the audience’s understanding of the protagonist’s motivations and feelings. Readers soon come to appreciate that Lelith is a complex figure, torn between her love of violence and glory and the new path of redemption she finds herself on with the cult of Ynnead. As such, Queen of Knives proves to be a key chapter in Lelith’s story, as she returns to her old ways, only to discover a new side to her life and a potential romance. I loved seeing Brooks’ examination of the protagonist’s various complex layers, and it made for quite a moving book as a result.
The main protagonist is well balanced by several great supporting characters, each of whom have their own unique impact on the narrative. The two I really want to focus on include new character Morghana Nathrax, a figure from Lelith’s past who develops a real love-hate relationship with the protagonist. Morghana’s well-balanced admiration and hatred of Lelith ensures that conflict is inevitable between them, even though Lelith wants to keep her alive, and Brooks writes quite a complex relationship between them. However, my favourite supporting character is the main antagonist of Queen of Knives, the notorious ruler of Commorragh, Asdrubael Vect. Vect is a particularly awesome figure in the Warhammer 40,000 canon, so it was cool to see him utilised here in Queen of Knives. Even though Vect only appears in one sequence at the end of the novel, Brooks does an outstanding job building him up as a brilliantly devious figure, effortlessly manipulating all the drukhari in the city, including Lelith and her followers. You really come to appreciate the fear that all Commorragh has for Vect as the book continues, and his one appearance ensures that you understand why he commands such fear. I really loved how well Brooks built up these characters, and it made for some awesome reading as a result.
I felt that Queen of Knives was a great Warhammer 40,000 novel, especially as Brooks expertly explores and utilises so many cool lore elements throughout his story. It proves to be a deeply compelling look at the iconic and always enticing drukhari faction. The drukhari, or the dark eldar, as older fans may know them, are the Warhammer 40,000 universe’s resident space elf murder pirates, and have a long history in the game. Despite that, there isn’t a lot of fiction out there about them, with Brooks’s other 2024 novel, Da Big Dakka, being the only recent book to strongly feature their perspective that I can recall, and even then, more focus was given to the ork characters in that book. As such, it was a real pleasure to have a novel completely dedicated to the drukhari, and Brooks does an outstanding job diving into the faction’s culture, mentality and other vital lore elements. This includes a fantastic look at the iconic dark city of Commorragh, one of the most dangerous places in the Warhammer 40,000 canon. A noted seat of deceit, bloodshed and easy death, Commorragh did not disappoint as a background setting from Queen of Knives, and Brooks ensures it plays a key part in the story. Throw in some other interesting, if relatively brief, looks at the other Aeldari sub-factions (particularly the Ynnari), and there is a lot of interesting lore here for Warhammer 40,000 fans to appreciate. As such, Queen of Knives is probably best enjoyed by those who already have an established connection to the franchise, although thanks to Brooks’s excellent writing, a new reader could probably come in and enjoy Queen of Knives without too much context.
As with most things Warhammer that I enjoy, I made sure to grab a copy of Queen of Knives on audiobook, which proved to be as epic as always. The fast-paced plot, intense action and unique characters of Queen of Knives unsurprisingly came across extremely well in the audiobook format, and I really got absorbed into the story as a result, especially when it came to the elaborate depictions of the sinister city of Commorragh. Coming in with a runtime of six hours, Queen of Knives is a relatively short Warhammer audiobook to get through, and I managed to knock it off quickly once I got stuck into it. I really enjoyed how Queen of Knives came together, and I particularly enjoyed the narrator Antonia Beamish. Beamish, whose work I previously enjoyed on the Warhammer Horror audiobook Sepulturum, was really impressive with her narration of Queen of Knives, and I liked her take on the main protagonist. You really get a sense of the predatory nature of the various drukhari characters that Beamish voices throughout this audiobook, and I felt that these figures were all given fitting and impressive voices. This great voice work helped ensure that the audiobook was once again the best way to enjoy this excellent book, and you are guaranteed to have a lot of fun listening to Queen of Knives.
Overall, Lelith Hesperax: Queen of Knives was another amazing book from Mike Brooks, who once again showcases his ability to write complex Warhammer 40,000 fiction. Combining a compelling and intrigue laden narrative with great character work and a particularly distinctive Warhammer 40,000 setting, Queen of Knives was so much fun, and I really powered through it. A highly recommended read, I look forward to seeing what Brooks will write next.
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