Skitarius: Warhammer 40,000

Adeptus Mechanicus, Book 1

By: Rob Sanders

Narrated by: Toby Longworth

Length: 6 hrs and 35 mins

Publisher's Summary

The skitarii are the soldiers of the Machine God, the tireless legions of the Adeptus Mechanicus. Holy warriors, they carry the word of the Omnissiah across the galaxy, destroying the impure machines of aliens and renegades and spearheading the Quest for Knowledge.

A discovery of ancient technology sends a skitarii legion, commanded by Alpha Primus Haldron-44 Stroika, into battle on a forge world overrun by Chaos. When a cataclysm cuts him off from his tech-priest overseers, Stroika must rally his forces and battle both corrupt machines and Chaos Space Marines if he is to achieve victory.

©2015 Games Workshop Limited (P)2015 Games Workshop Limited

Great Political Intrigue, Poor Show Piece for Adeptus Mechanicus

Right off the bat I read this book so I could familiarize myself with the Skitarii of the Adeptus Mechanicus. Instead what I got was a passable political intrigue storyline and a great focus on a Skitarii named Stroika.

The problem is every other character is bland. Stroika has a great backstory of being a normal human being with tattoos marking what augments he wanted and where. The rest of the Skitarii Princeps don’t get enough character development except for one Rust Stalker who actively looks for loopholes in his commands so he can kill more.

The narrator is as good as always(he has done a lot of Black Library’s catalogue) and does great robot voices.

The Rogue One of 40k books

Beep boop the robots are going to war. At a glance an Ad Mech book may seem unappealing but I've got to say this book was more emotional than some of the space marine books I've listened too over the years mainly because its very easy to forget that these are people, sure they've got some extra bits, but they're still people at the core and surprisingly emotional for cyborgs. All in all, great read.

-Soft Spoilers-

This book really reminds me of Rogue One in a good way as it follows a similar-ish plot line of find thing, debate the use of said thing, use thing to get other thing, die, sacrifice allows allies to win the war. While that sort of spoils things and is kind of simplified I felt that I had a better connection with the main character, a skitarii commander who cares about his men and gets redeployed with a magos who doesn't care about the risk to his men's lives. Books like this are few and far between and if you've got a spare credit or are looking for something to read pick this up.

storyline not on par with the excellent narrator

As far as Warhammer 40k stories go, this just did'nt live up to my expectations. As always, Toby Longworths narration was top notch, but I found myself hardly listening as the first book drew to a close. Hopefully the second book in the series will be better.

Paper thin characters

Pap are thin characters and a weak storyline are only saved by an excellent reader.

Good

Greatly enjoyed, listened through to the end during my shift. Looking forward to book 2.

Machines are people too.

For a quick listen I found it rather insightful. I loved the main character and I loved how the book highlighted upon the human aspects of the followers of the machine cult.

Fast paced action

Different than Eisenhorn. Less of the team building and character development in Eisenhorn but it is FULL of battles and mayhem. It quenched my thirst for destruction.

A great story about the Tech God and his followers

An amazing story about a Warhammer 40k chapter that has little written about it. The Tech God and his machine followers have always been an interest to me. Thank you for such an awesome universe!

Hail the Machine God

What a read. Fantastic voice work. Amazing story. Tragic and inspiring all the same. Truly an epic depiction of the horrors of 40k, as well as an insightful look into the inner workings of the Mechanicus.

excellent performance of a decent book

Longworth did an excellent job, he presents a variety of voices that allow the characters to be unique, and even tells some story with their voices.

While I enjoyed the character building of the main character, he was truly the only character that was developed in the story, and even that was hidden behind the arcanum and a veritable lexicon of the Adeptus Mechanicus. I am a fan of admech, but specialized verbiage and a heavy world-building do not a story make.

Worth examining for a fan of admech, or someone interested in learning a little more of the general organization, however Belisarius Cawl provides a more interesting admech story

brilliant audio book.

So glad that the black library has come here. look forward to future bombs coming out.

Mediocre story and bad voice acting

One could argue that the lack of emotion would be fitting in a mechanicus audiobook but even tho i find it fitting storywise it’s very boring to listen to in my own opinion.
Storyline is very meh and i did not find this book too good. But then again that’s just my own opinion, hope you enjoy it if you decide to listen :)

Good insights into the Omnissiah

great narrative in an exciting and relatively fast paced book. A good recommendation for Mechanicus players.

Sensational

A great listen very well read a great plot twist another fantastic 40k book

great story

toby longworth gives this book life and all the characters and descriptions are supremely 40k great tome for anyone who likes the admec

Brilliant

Loved every minute of this story, a great start to this series. Can't wait till the next one

epic ending!

great story and well read and the ending will want you hanging and begging for more!

robust story

a good audio book and would recommend to anyone in the hobby. thought the ending had a little too much escalation

An excellent book

I simply loved this first book in the Adeptus Mechanicus series. If you love the WH40K universe you will love this.