Helbrecht Knight of the Throne

Warhammer 40,000

By: Marc Collins

Narrated by: Christopher Kent

Length: 6 hrs and 22 mins

Publisher's summary

A Black Templars Short Novel

Guided by a vision, the High Marshal of the Black Templars journeys to a world left in ruins for millennia, in search of a holy relic.

Listen to it because

High Marshal Helbrecht is back in the action after his meeting with Roboute Guilliman, doing what he does best—questing for a sacred relic with a handful of his best troops.

The story

An heir of Sigismund has been reborn.

The Shrine Worlds Crusades are over. The Rubicon Primaris has been crossed.

Chastised by Guilliman, the Primarch Returned, and guided by a vision from the holy God-Emperor Himself, High Marshal Helbrecht is called to the ruinworld of Hevaran. Forged in the fires of the Scouring, Hevaran is sacred in its desolation, condemned never to rebuild… Yet hidden upon its barren surface is a sacred relic. Questing to reclaim it with but a few select souls to aid him, Helbrecht must trust in his skill, his wrath, and his faith as an ancient enemy returns to test him as never before.

©2022 Games Workshop Limited (P)2022 Games Workshop Limited

a good read, would recommend!

a shorter story, but would definitely recommend for any Templar fan! gives you some insights into the chapter, where the chapter is going after the introduction of primaris Marines, and into the high Marshall himself.

love the fluff and filler

but damn, not a lot to really add. we go from zealots to calm zealots who follow the signs they already followed. kinda like when gw took away our codex and put us into the main book only to go back to a stand alone book.. almost feels like the writer was told what they could say and couldn't say and what needed to be said. and the rest of prayer and descriptive scene setting

Amazing book

I enjoyed the novel, the reader was engaging and excellent at keeping you drawn in to the story. Will definitely listen to this more than once!

The Black Templars are slowly growing on me.

The story was a good listen and I liked how it ended.

Will probably listen too again.

Great listen for Black Templar fans!

As a long time Black Templar (and thus a big Helbrect fan) we struggle to find content dedicated to us in a sea of Ultramarine or Chaos lore floating around so this was already an oasis in the Black Library desert. Helbrect is in my opinion handled very well in this and even shows more maturity and how our beloved High Marshal handles doubt, living up to his station, and his personal thoughts as he navigates post-rubicon life. All of which give him more depth than just "zealous righteous dude leads other zealous righteous dudes". Some of it (for my own personal tastes) starts to drag on or become very stale near the middle of the book where I think the exposition helped alot in shaping the world of Heveran especially for those not too familiar with the 40k setting however, I think some parts dragged on too long with the same general descriptions (i.e the coarse rough stony environment being desolate and barren...we get it after the first 3 descriptions of the planet). However, the characters are all phenomenal each with their own distinct personalities and ways they live, exist and fight alongside Helbrect, including how they all want to help him reach his full potential. Fight scenes are visceral yet at times again, sounding re-used from other chapters but it's the little bit of bolter-porn esque cool stuff that keeps it 40k. All in all, a great addition for any Black Templar fan and is enjoyable if you struggle past some of the longer, dryer sections. Would recommend!

Decent

Decent 40k book. Standard stuff. If you enjoy black templars, bolters, and the crushing of heretics You’ll enjoy this book.

I'd have preferred a full-length novel

An interesting and largely enjoyable exploration of what drives High Marshal Helbrecht ever onwards, but it didn't quite have the depth to keep me fully gripped throughout. Brilliant for Black Templars fans though, and plenty for casual 40k readers to enjoy too,

Beautifully written

Fantastic book and wonderfully narated. The story ended too soon. Would like a sequel!!

Good, not great (certainly not at all bad)

Technically written well, with interesting ideas on how to use Helbrecht and the Black Templars as characters. However, these ideas and motifs aren't developed enough. The characters and setting are straight as Rogal Dorn's sense of propriety, and unfortunately end up as somewhat flat and boring archetypes. It ends up all being a fairly standard (but good) bolter porn story of good guys fighting bad guys in a narrative straight line. Not quite doing Helbrecht's character justice, but it could have been far worse. I contrast this with the Astorath and Sigismund novels, which had much better scenes and more developed plotlines (albeit this book did much, much better at using the eponymous Helbrecht as a character to be developed than poor Astorath).

In hindsight, I would not have spent a Credit on this, but still am glad I listened to it regardless due to how much I love the Black Templars. It was an enjoyable listen, for the most part. Grimauldus sounds far, far too old and wizened, but I don't blame the narrator for not knowing in fluff he's more of a younger firebrand than Helbrecht.

I love my Templars

I like anything Black Templar related. Good story, one part made me sad. No Pity! No Remorse! No Fear!