Pilgrims of Fire

Adepta Sororitas: Warhammer 40,000

By: Justin D Hill

Narrated by: Gabrielle Nellis-Pain

Length: 11 hrs and 18 mins

Publisher's summary

An Adepta Sororitas Novel

Sister Helewise is determined to stay alive until her death might serve a higher purpose – as the God-Emperor wills it. When she joins the cursed Fleet Quintus, her faith will be tested in ways she could never have imagined.

LISTEN TO IT BECAUSE

Follow one of the most pious orders of the Adepta Sororitas as they join the Indomitus Crusade aboard Fleet Quintus – ominously referred to as the ‘Cursed Fleet.’

THE STORY

Of all the devout warriors in the Adepta Sororitas, none are as renowned or battle-hungry as those of the Order of Our Martyred Lady. Yet while others seek glory in their own martyrdom, Sister Helewise is determined to stay alive, so that her death might serve a greater purpose when the God-Emperor wills it.

Assigned to Fleet Quintus of the Indomitus Crusade, Helewise and her sisters follow an ancient route of pilgrimage to rediscover and liberate the shrine world of Cion, once a sacred bastion of their order. In retracing the steps of Saint Katherine herself, their faith will be tested to the extreme as they attempt to uncover what became of their sisters stationed in the daemon-infested sectors beyond the Cicatrix Maledictum.

As their mission lurches from disaster to disaster and the Emperor’s voice grows ever quieter, the Sisters of Battle must trust in bolter, blade, and their own unbreakable bonds to drive back the darkness of Imperium Nihilus.

©2023 Games Workshop Limited (P)2023 Games Workshop Limited

A whole lot to say very little

Like many people looking at this book, I am a big fan of AS content, and have enjoyed the other books immensely.

But if you’re looking for/expecting something like James Swallow’s series that follows Miriya and Verity, this is not that.

The narration performance is fantastic, albeit a bit small in the range of voices, but I think that more so has to do with the writing than her. She does a great job of making things feel grand and theatrical.

But as far as the actual story goes, it feels very shallow in both character and plot. The sisters of battle characters are almost indistinguishable because they all feel like robots that wander around spouting pre-recorded Adepta sororitas catch phrases and platitudes.

It’s always interesting to hear the details and intricacies of battles and tactics and the absurd amount of weaponry within 40k books. But it feels like this book could have been 2 hours shorter and you would miss nothing. An entire chapter just describing a pilgrim precession was mind numbingly dull.

The most interesting part of the book were the penal legion of astra militarum. The Chem Dogs were a fascinating, raunchy, and funny bunch. And a great glimpse into something we don’t get much of in 40k books.

There are also some time jumps, and the book does not do a very good job of distinguishing who and where and when, and only adds to making things feel drawn out, dull, and long winded.

Overall, I only recommend this book if you’re a huge fan of the Adepta Sororitas. If you love every bit of war-hymns and reading out purity seals and white haired bob cuts, this is for you. It oozes sisters of battle, and there are a lot of cool and interesting bits of lore about how penitent engines and such are made.

But if you’re not that hyped about them, you can pass on this.

Justin Hills faith and fury

Justin D Hill is one of my favorite Black Library authors. This novel doesn't disappoint, action and an amazing story. The characters are well written and life like. This is a must listen/read for any fan of 40k, sisters of battle or great military action.

Great sisters book.

Good look at the personality and views of the SoB. Though some of the plot gets a bit silly.

Good Lore

I really enjoyed this book. Having read or listened to many Adepta Sororitas books I can say that the feel for the chapter and the 40K universe is alive and well in this rendition. Good characters and details.

Should've either been a lot longer or shorter

I listened to this book because I wanted some more lore for this faction. I have listened to well over 30 warhammer40k audiobooks so far on audible. Some better than others, some not so much. But, this is the only one that left me feeling meh. Maybe I missed something, maybe its better read than listened to due to paragraph breaks. However, I frequently lost track of who was in which story group and when/where said group was. I also just wasn't really able to get invested in the main characters, if I did, they dissapeared long enough for me to think they were gone and not care anymore. However, there were some side characters that I really liked tho, The Maid and the penal legionares shouldve had more time. Tho the legionares did get a fair amount. I think this book either needed to be shorter, or to add a couple hours to it that purely was used to make transitions smoother, flesh out the characters more, and to jump between the stories more often so that you dont forget they exist. That being said, onto some good things, the auther did a VERY good job portraying the Sisters of Battle, unapologetically over zealous, excellent job with that. Same to the Voice actress, she did a VERY good job portraying them as well, could use a bit more vocal range for different characters but more than made up for it with full sending voice acting whenever they got to raving about the God emperor for whatever was happening. I will be interested to see books from this author in the future as outside of those gripes, they did a very good job. Those gripes did kill it for me tho. Now onto some small very light spoiler gripes, nothing bad but you have been warned regardless. There are two more gripes I have that I believe, if improved, could make books from this author an easy 5 star for future books along side fixing my previous points. Some times when a fight happened, we would get one major character dualing an opponent. This dual would be done really well, but then the combat would just be over by fast forwarding to the end. So then later on a fight happened and I started losing focus, thinking this would happen again, and then it didn't. The first time this happened, there was only one enemy worth the time, the one in the dual, so fair. But after that it was annoying. Second, was seeing someone get put into a penetant engine. I was very excited when this came up as I know very little about it. I very much would've liked to see more of this and felt like it was a bit short. That being said, what we did get was amazing. This is already long enough so I'll end it with this. If the auther ever ends up reading this review, I believe that you can make some really, really great books in time. No one gets it perfect every time. While I didnt enjoy this one, I will be interested to see stuff from you later as your skills improve.

Justin D Hill truly gets the 40k universe

Justin D Hill whatever he is writing truly brings it to life. The Sisters Of Battle are amazingly lifelike in this and it seems that he took a page out from Danie Ware's playbook on using song to show their faith in the God Emperor. It was a wonderful story that showed how faith in the 40K universe is a power in it's own right. I'm also happy that the Savlar Chem-Dogs finally got some time to shine. Lastly the narrator Gabrielle Nellis-Pain did a fantastic job, SOB story's I always want Emma Gregory to narrate but she gave Emma a run for he money (Great Job).

Very good listen

Very enjoyable and a nice listen overall. Good lord and perspective given. Story comes around and ends nicely, recommended for a solid option of book.

Slow start, great finish!

I am an ADB fan and while this is not one of his novels, it is still pretty damn good. Worth the buy for sure.

Probably better to read than audiobook

There are at least three different tales that take place at different times and seem to be barely related until maybe at the end? I got it as an audiobook to listen to while cleaning and working out as I have with other 40k stories. But it jumps back and forth so much and there are other micro stories that just end with no closure. This might be a good one if you're giving it all your attention when reading it, but don't audible it if you plan on listening while doing activities. Voice actress/reader is awesome though. I hope they use her for other audiobooks/audible