Pariah

Bequin: Warhammer 40,000, Book 1

By: Dan Abnett

Narrated by: Helen Keeley

Length: 10 hrs and 27 mins

Publisher's Summary

Book one in the Bequin series.

Listen to it because:

It's an intriguing and evocative story that shows characters you know and love through new (yet strangely familiar) eyes, forging a stunning mystery that will leave you astonished.

The story:

In the city of Queen Mab, nothing is quite as it seems. Pariah, spy and Inquisitorial agent Alizebeth Bequin is all of these things and yet none of them. An enigma, even to herself, she is caught between Inquisitors Gregor Eisenhorn and Gideon Ravenor, former allies now enemies who are playing a shadow game against a mysterious and deadly foe. Coveted by the archenemy, pursued by the Inquisition, Bequin becomes embroiled in a dark plot of which she knows not her role or purpose. Helped by a disparate group of allies, she must unravel the secrets of her life and past if she is to survive a coming battle in which the line between friends and foes is fatally blurred.

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

Whistle like kettles, wheeeee!

Overall? The book gets logarithmically better in general, and it's a genuine treat for long time fans of the Eisenhorn and Ravenor trilogies. Abnett's artful ability to craft the silhouette of a character and lay trails of bread crumbs, all from the point of view of a competent but inexperienced new female pov protagonist, is not only entirely believable but positively delicious by the end of the novel.

Performance? Helen Keeley had me rolling on the floor at some moments, had me stifling exclamations of pure joy and awe at hours of the night when I should've been sleeping, and in between those moments gave a solid performance of the text.

Story? Not a chance in hell I'll spoil any of it, but if you can march through the first half of the book you will be mightily rewarded in the second half. Abnett's ability to chew scenery is second to none, his ability to foreshadow has only deepened over the years, and he remains unrivaled in his ability to weave irl history into Warhammer 40k in the most believable and subtle ways.

Abnett, you sick son of a....

This book.... This book put me through so much grief! Dan Abnett seriously ups his already formidable game on this one. The book is beautifully written but absolutely make sure you are COMPLETELY caught up with all seven previous books. If not then this book will have nowhere near the impact that is intended. His use of first person perspective is perfect, but I have to say he is almost cruel in his approach. Since we the audience knows more than the character it leads to moments of absurd stress, excitement, and insight. There was more than a couple moments where I was literally screaming at the main character or just screaming my rage. I cannot recommend this book enough to fans of the series.

Great performance, listen to first 6 books before!

To get the most out of this one, you should listen to the Eisenhorn Trilogy, the Ravenor Trilogy, and perhaps The Magos.

The voice acting in this one is superb, and the story and writing is gripping.

Subpar

The narrator gets some words wrong and doesn't have enough voice variation between characters always. The writing does not do much to help her, because it's pretty bad in comparison to other 40k novels.

This book feels like it's in a different genre from some if the other Inquisition, Horus Heresy, Sisters of Battle, etc. novels. That in itself wouldn't be a bad thing, but this story just goes nowhere fast. It's tough to follow along sometimes, and it doesn't sell me on anything.

In the first couple hours some things happen, but there's no reason for me to care. Even if there was, what happens is only interesting until it gets ruined by becoming something not interesting. I realize that probably doesn't make much sense, but I hope you have the sense to skip this as an audiobook. Buy the print version.

monotone and with 40% filler

what waste .... ..... ..... ..... ...... ...... ....... ........ ....... ........ ....... and then she sipper a glass of water. who cares.

really good

this was really good I cant wait to listen to tje other 2 there was even a squats reference

Good book, bad narration

Narration was very monotone, had nowhere near the emotion and energy that the previous books had. This unfortunately makes distinguishing characters very hard most of the time. Overall better to just read this yourself if you are able.

good but slow

I like it alot but the pace was slow. When it gets going then it becomes awesome.

Refreshing entry into the inquisition series!

I really enjoyed this book. Been a long time fan with Dan's inquisitor series, and following up with what Ravenor and Eisenhorn are up to through Bequin's eyes is a refreshing change.

The story will keep you riveted and the voice performance is exciting.

Keeley is Fantastic

But the material is just...so...slow. Abnett always does a lot of detail, and detail is great, but not when you're drowning in it. There's an interesting story in here but it could have been told in about 2/3 the words.

This is book nr 8. Reading order:

Eisenhorn 1-3
Ravenor 1-3
Eisenhorn 4
Then this one

edit* I read this book before knowing that it is part of a larger series, so have that in mind for the review below. Would probably have enjoyed it more if I read it after the others.

*no spoilers

A good beginning and end...but the middle is a lot of faffing about.

In the beginning there are fairly heavy handed seeds about a twist that you from that point expect...but it takes ages to come to fruition.

The information towards the end is interesting, but it's a lot of running around before you get there. It was a slog.
To get the most out of the information at the end you probably should have a decent 40k lore knowledge base.
I will probably read the next, but I am not in a rush.

I might also add that this book is very much a first step in a series.

Outstanding

Helen Keeley is up there with Keeble and Longworth. UNREAL. Really really enjoyed the performance.

Worth a listen

Pariah is quite good, the author obviously put in an enormous amount of effort. He built an entirely new world with its own names, social system, gods and history which is where I struggle. It is difficult to keep the many many characters straight and much of it is ambiguous at best. It’s difficult to follow. As well it would be nice for Beta to be her own rescuer for once, she is tough and capable but still needs to be saved over and over. The narrator is perfect, it was a difficult read with all this strange names and foreign concepts and she did it beautifully.

Even better than Eisenhorn?!

Make sure to have read Eisenhorn recently to get all the twists! Highly recommended 5*

An excellent follow-up to Eisenhorn and Ravenor

A very well crafted tale. The narrator struggles with male voices but excels as Bequin.

superb!!!

fantastic return to the Eisenhorn & Ravenor series.
very different from the regular 40k fare but has oodles of (fully realised) characters, masses of details about the 'reality' of life in the imperium away from the battlefield.

Dan Abnett is a brilliant writer of sci-fi fiction and has a wonderful sandbox area of the universe to build and play in.

Simply put its outstanding

Over the short term I have been reading BL books I have heard much said of Eisenstein and Ravenor and having tried and failed to engage with those books I was reluctant to start pariah, I am so glad I did, the story is excellent the narration outstanding and as soon I finished I started straight into pentinent

Outstanding, loved it.

What a great book/performance, Believe it or not this is my first Black Library audible book that's narrated by a Woman, Helen Keely does a magnificent job doing this and shes worlds apart from the bad narration by Martyn Ellis in The Thousand Sons, a book so bad i had to return it.

I immediately thought this sounded like the Eisenhorn novels in its narration, And was confused at first but I haven't read the Ravenor series.

When I heard the last sentence i spat my coffee over my work laptop.

Just purchased book 2, but reading the Ravenor Series first.

Abnett, you sly dog, keep it up fella .

Absolute class.

What a fantastic listen. I don't recall ever being slapped round the face by revelation after revelation quite so much before.

Begining of the End

Awesome start to the final trilogy in the inquisition series! highly recommend! lots of Easter eggs and winks to the fans of the entire series without being off putting to new readers/listeners, highly recommend reading in order however (starting with Eisenhorn, then Ravenor and finally Bequin).