Ahriman: Sorcerer

Ahriman: Warhammer 40,000, Book 2

By: John French

Narrated by: Mark Elstob

Length: 10 hrs and 35 mins

Publisher's summary

Book two in the Ahriman series.

Ahriman, greatest sorcerer of the Thousand Sons and architect of the Rubric that laid his Legion low, continues to walk the path towards salvation, or damnation. Searching for a cure for his Legion, he is forced to consider - was the great ritual somehow flawed from the very beginning?

Listen to it because:

This is the second part in the tale of one of Warhammer 40,000's most notorious villains. The Ahriman series explores the motivations of this dark sorcerer in greater depth than ever before. Horus Heresy fans will also find plenty to enjoy as the story harks back to events of this great civil war, particularly the fate of the lost Book of Magnus.

The story:

Ahriman, greatest sorcerer of the Thousand Sons and architect of the Rubric that laid his Legion low, continues to walk the path towards salvation, or damnation. Searching for a cure for his Legion, he is forced to consider - was the great ritual somehow flawed from the very beginning? The answer may lie within the mysterious artefact known as the Athenaeum of Kalimakus, a grimoire of forgotten knowledge that is reputed to contain the exact words of the lost Book of Magnus...or, perhaps, even a transcription of the primarch’s deepest and most secret thoughts.

Written by John French. Audiobook narrated by Mark Elstob.

©2021 Games Workshop Limited (P)2021 Games Workshop Limited

What a rollercoaster!

One of my favorite Warhammer books, the center of the novel is frustrating to watch plan upon plan fall to ruin but trust me- the end is well worth it!

Questions piled on questions.

The voices performed by the narrator are a little different from the first book, mainly on Cadin. The story grows more and more complex to a point be the end I had to stop and think about what just happened and what it meant for the earliest parts of the story. absolutely fantastic job by Mr. French

amazing work! as usual.

I really want Mark Elstob to know that I think he's a fantastic narrator and I'm very grateful to have his voice in this series.

Two thumbs up!

This was a great buy. Mark did a great performance. I really can't wait to listen to the next one in the series.

Good read

The story is great the voice actor was alright but the is just overall preference.

All is dust

The story was pretty good but the only downside I noticed was that when there was a scene change there was not indication of the change. This did cause for some story whiplash but I adapted to this feeling after a few times. The higher pitched characters did fall a bit flat for me but the story made me not notice.

#MagnusDidNothingWrong

Fantastic

Always love anything to do with Ahriman and with one was absolutely no exception.

Definitely not a fan of the narrator

there's hundreds if not thousands of hours of WH40k audio content to listen to go get an example of how to voice certain types of characters in this universe or how to pronounce certain words and this guy so far (and I'm not even an hour in) has missed the mark on both especially the Space Wolves and Ahriman who is one of the most famous characters in the setting

The final chapters were...

Once again, a well done story. Ahriman is a very interesting character.

The narrations and voice acting were amazing. While I PERSONALLY still do not agree with the voice chosen for Ahriman himself, Mark Elstob simply did a fantastic job. Every character has as a unique a voice as one man can try to give, allowing you to easily tell who is speaking regardless of how you feel about the voice itself. And the small handful of points where he transitions from one voice to another mid-sentence were expertly done.

If I have to give a major criticism, it would be with the final segments. To me it felt like it was all a grand "All according to plan" moment with little to no explanation OF said plan or how it was set up to that point. Maybe I missed some things, but as events unfolded I was wondering how Ahriman devised his schemes? How did he know what to set up for things to go the way he wanted? The only point I can think of in his defense here is earlier on in the book where he explains the Psyker ability to look into the future and how it works. So, yes, he COULD see how events might unfold and plan accordingly; but I personally would have liked more detail. More hints as to what he might be seeing and scheming. I would have LOVED to revel in the feeling of all the pieces falling into place by being able to think back and realize when they were set up to begin with.

All is dust

I know the narrator has got a lot of heat in the past and I personally left a bad review on the Avenging Son novel. HOWEVER compared to the first Ahriman novel and the Avenging Son he has improved considerably. His space marine voices are much better, of course the ones from the first novel stayed the same for consistency but the new ones were on point. John French does a great job there some clichés that I found a little disengaging but overall still a great job. There are some plot points that tend to get over looked if you are used to the bolter porn straight forward type of story telling. For example a big reveal at the end is casually mentioned by a character (which only adds to it) and once you stop and think about it, it flips the whole storyline upside down and adds a ton of potential that has me waiting for the next one to see where the author takes it.

The beginning is kind of a love it leave it sort of style of writing, there are a bunch of moving parts that need to get into place for the end to make sense and is a slow burn. Once it got going I was fully engaged and stayed that way for a while.