Belisarius Cawl: The Great Work

Warhammer 40,000

By: Guy Haley

Narrated by: John Banks

Length: 11 hrs and 6 mins

Publisher's summary

An Adeptus Mechanicus novel.

In the wake of the Great Rift, Belisarius Cawl turns his attention to the abandoned world of Sotha. Once home to the Scythes of the Emperor, it also hides a long-buried secret...and an ancient evil.

Listen to it because:

Cawl is one of the most fascinating characters in the Dark Imperium, and Guy Haley gets right into his memory circuits as he seeks ancient secrets that will blow your mind.

The story: 

Belisarius Cawl, Archmagos Dominus of the Adeptus Mechanicus, is the most brilliant mind alive. For 10,000 years he has furthered the cause of mankind, working under the aegis of the Emperor and Lord Commander Roboute Guilliman to prevent the inexorable march of the alien and the traitor. Many call him heretic, but all must recognise the magnitude of his achievements, for who else but he was entrusted to create a new generation of Space Marines? 

Who else but the great Belisarius Cawl could even accomplish such a task? Now, in the wake of the Great Rift and the Indomitus Crusade, his ambitions bring him to the long-dead world of Sotha, once home to the Scythes of the Emperor, now a barren wasteland devoured by the vile Tyranids. Accompanied by Tetrarch Felix and his elite warriors, it is here that Cawl believes the lynchpin of his mysterious Great Work lies. But uncovering it is a near impossible task, one in which the Archmagos must overcome an ancient evil that threatens to extinguish the last hope of humanity.

Written by Guy Haley. Total running time 11 hours and 11 minutes. Performed by John Banks.

©2019 Games Workshop Limited (P)2019 Games Workshop Limited

Adequate

Cawl has been a controversial figure in the lore since he appeared in Gathering Storm. There are some interesting developments to his background in this story that help to justify some of his deeds(looking at you Primaris). That said Cawl feels so powerful and knowledgeable that there isn't ever any real danger to him or those around him. As a result, most of the tension in the book focuses on Cawl's relationship with a Primaris he personally helped create, the remaining Scythes of the Emperor, and Cawl's own past. Most of the lore here is accurate if not always respected given Cawl's literally a desu ex machina.

Masterful

Touching, genius, and insightful. A great work in of itself. It was a bit hard to follow at points due to jumps, however I am positive this was intentional and merely another layer to the masterpiece. Even if you don't follow the Adeptus Mechanicus, even if you can't stand Primaris, even if you are tired of the old Marines, please read this. I will absolutely be adding a physical copy to my collection. Well done, very well done.

So much Lore!

1st, the narrator performed well, there were hardly any strange pronunciations of things from the Warhammer universe.

2nd, considering this book deals with a secondary successor chapter, the most boring aliens in all of Warhammer 40K, and the fairly repetitive Tyrranids, this book does very very well.

Belisarius is really fleshed out in this novel, pardon the pun.If the book is read from the perspective of Belisarius being the axis of the story, then the reader can have a really good time.

This book accomplishes the nearly impossible by making I actually care about some random successor chapter of the Ultramarines and the most boring alien faction in Warhammer 40K, the Necrons.

The setting for the story spans from before the great crusade to the very recent moments within the sundered imperium.

"Bang, Bang, Bang, Bang, Bang"...Time-Jump!

"Bang, Bang, Bang, Bang, Bang, Bang." Just starting to get into the story?? here's a time jump! idk, figure it out! "bang, bang, bang", oh something cool is happening! NOW YOU'RE 10,000 YEARS IN THE PAST! "Bang, Bang, Bang, Bang, Bang"

You want the truth ! ??

“You can’t handle.....” ok here it is. In short
“ I NEED MORE”
I wasn’t to sure about this character ( I thought it was someone else so the first listen my characters were wrong in my head, but trust the process and plow threw it.) now he’s one of my favorite characters !!! I’m 1 year into the mythos of WH40k, so who is this guy? I’m into bad ass space marines! until I found Eisenhorn !- but this lovable weirdo “Cawl”- reminds me of a dark version of rick from rick and morty - witty , fun, but not silly - he’s always one step ahead of everyone and his eye on the goal! Master manipulator -I need more - possibly the most flexible Character ever made. Because he gets to “download personalities” that he thinks will best suit his Mission. He’s likable . And he’s modular ( mostly machine exterior ) so he can armor up when he needs. This is a fun one !!!

loved a book about my favorite warhammer character

cawl is my favorite. he is was got me into the game. and i just love to get in his head.

A disappointingly convoluted story.

The story attempts to be a multi-threaded non-linear revelation... instead it is a confusing and dull clunking slog of forgetful info and boring chatacters... other than Cawl.

Really enjoyed the story, good narration too.

Well developed characters as the story progresses. Hard to follow if you don't pay attention during the time jumps back and forth, but with some attention it all links up pretty well while still leaving room for fun speculation.

So good... it's practically heresy.

5 stars all around, can't wait to go through it again. this a must listen if you are a fan of 40k.

better second time around

can be a struggle to finish it the first time. worthwhile in the end though. ended up liking the different approach to story telling and completion.

Yet more revelations........

fantastic story, brilliant voice performance and a superb way to develope the characters and law.

By far some of the finest character develppment.

John Banks amazing Guy haley genius!

Stunning from beginning to end! And what an end total surprise! Loved the characterisation of one of the most enigmatic prime movers of the dark imperium staging now an iconic character up there with Eisenhorn and Gaunt... Cawl is a revelation in Haleys hands and in this audiobook thank the gods for John Bank's skills... The man is superb

For the Machine God

I've been listening to The Horus Heresy for past two months and decide to take a break and listen to something different. I love Cawl, he is incredibly funny for a Member of the Mechanicum

Definitely a great book, but would suggest getting to know the Heresy or other 40k books before listen to this one

Brilliant story

This has to be one of the best 40k books I've read outside of the Gaunts ghosts series.
Performance was and the story was even better, I enjoyed the humour Cawls character brought to the story and the back story it creates
Highly recommended 👌

It was okay..!

It was okay, I hoped for something more insightful to the workings of Cawl and was not totally disappointed.

If you like stories of the Mechanicum then you'll possibly enjoy your way through this book..

A brilliant book covering covering many species

I really liked it bellisarius Cole is superb I love the different species in the book necrons prenatrones so on

Great story relevant to current developments in the lore

My favourite 40k novel so far. Sure, it is an action story set in a universe that knows little other than war, but the story and dialogue is well-written and there were some really cool passages. I was surprised how much I like the character of Belisarius Cawl and I think this book provides some useful background to current events in 40k, like the Indomitus Crusade.

The narration is also very good!

Great listen

Good voice actors an intriguing storyline full of unknown bits of lore, what's not to love

Captivating!

Such an excellent book, as usual Guy Haley doesn’t disappoint. Surprisingly now Belisarius Cawl has now become one of my favorite characters within 40k

I'm intriguing insight into an intriguing characte

took me a few chapters to wrap my hear around the jumping from time line to time line but when I did it was an amazing story and really opened my eyes to a unique character, would definitely reccomend