Urdesh: The Serpent and the Saint

Warhammer 40,000

De: Matthew Farrer

Narrado por: Harry Myers

A Warhammer 40,000 Audio

War rages across the surface of Urdesh as the Iron Snakes Space Marines attempt to hold the planet against a tide of Chaos forces.

Listen to it because: Urdesh is a brutal world, the fires of its forge-cities mixing with the many volcanoes and an endless expanse of battle wreckage littering the plains. When the reincarnation of Saint Sabbat herself appears on the blasted battlefields of Urdesh, powerful forces race to secure that which may decide the ultimate fate of the world and the crusade at large.

The story: the mighty world of Urdesh is burning. The smoke of war mingles with that of her many volcanoes; the wreckage of battle litters her forge-cities and chokes her fertile seas. Until the warriors of the Imperium can free Urdesh from the grip of the Anarch, the future of the entire Sabbat Worlds Crusade will hang in the balance.

Across these ashen battlefields strides Brother-Captain Priad and the warriors of Damocles Squad. They must keep safe one of the Imperium’s greatest weapons: the Beati, the reincarnated Saint Sabbat herself, whose very presence on Urdesh inspires the Imperial armies on to glory. But the enemy has plans for the Saint too, and against the malice of the Anarch and the trickery of the warp, the Iron Snakes may truly need a miracle to prevail....

Written by Matthew Farrer. Narrated by Harry Myers.

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

Iron Snakes of Ithaka!

Great to see more Iron Snakes novels, although Brothers of the Snake was a bit better, so start with that if you want to get an Iron Snakes novel!

decent story

a decent story hurt by a very oddly quick ending. the biggest issue with this book is that the author uses chapters like the return key. right in the middle of action he will start a new chapter which will pick up exactly where the last chapter ended for no reason. one chapter was just a sentence long. it almost feels like he was paid by the chapter and just threw them in for more money.

sadly the iron snakes aren't as well written as in their short story collection. they almost seem to be added on to a story that really doesn't have enough going on and feels partially like it was written just to set up a sequel.

Matthew Farrer is Black Library’s secret weapon

Some of the best action scenes that I’ve read in a BL novel; it moves at a frantic pace from fantastic set-piece to fantastic set-piece, and it’s always more than welcome to see non-Imperial perspectives in a 40k novel.

Sabbat worlds written in a new style

Matthew Farrer takes a good stab at Annette sabbat worlds.
A fairly traditional space marine novel.
But with a very welcome underwater fight scene.
The saint also makes an appearance with some anime level power flexes.

must read gaunt's ghosts first

A these characters are from that series and really should read books 1-8 first.
It was a decent book there was nothing really special

Pretty good

The narrator is good, and his female voice acting is passable. The Snakes are cool, the enemies frightening.

The bolter porn is pretty boring. Least interesting part of the story. Looking forward to part two.

really good writer

This is what books can be in the hands of talented writers you aren't writing for pre-teens.

blah

The His narration was OK but the overall story was just boring. Is the space brains and the regular humans aren't developed at all. Space Marines aren't the easiest things to write but there is almost nothing too is nothing to these characters. I was very disappointed

Degradation of what came before

Blood pact used to fight the same strength levels as the imperial guard but with a summoning bent to there psyker support. Now they're just a bunch of mass recruited cultists who can't even put the weapon in the correct direction. I'm guessing this is why the old imperial armor books got deconnoised.
> The author doesn't seem to know that the war master can't directly order space Marines or the imperial Navy, or the forces of Mars or other forces. He can make requests or ask for there advisement but not order. This was done so a second Horis heresy could not happen. So no Macorrov isn't unique that's what made him normal. Efficiency sacrificed for protection against the great enemy.
> Having the saint use so much of the emperor's power publicly and during the sabat crusade not only undermines the previous series but makes the enemy dumber for falling into the trap at the previous end of the Gaunts Ghost series.
> Pacing was good once you get past the start. Narrator did a good job. For those who care toxic equity is on full display in the story dragging it down. The ending would only be good if you never read a pre 2020 40k book l. Yes that includes the stone egals radio drama. "A light in the dark to lift our hearts" age of sigmar crap

Eh

This story is all over the place with all of its story archs which makes it hard to follow in this format. Lets go over and do a single chapter about this one dude who has minimal impact on the main story line. I don't care what this one random chaos marine is thinking for 5 min who then dies in the next chapter. What does that have to do with the price of milk? The story does make sense but it could have been written and put together better with a bit more backstory to bring people up to speed if you haven't read everything regarding this crusade up to this point.