The Warmaster

By: Dan Abnett

Narrated by: James Cameron Stewart

Length: 14 hrs and 17 mins

Publisher's Summary

After the success of their desperate mission to Salvation's Reach, Colonel Commissar Gaunt and the Tanith First race to the strategically vital forge world of Urdesh, besieged by the brutal armies of Anarch Sek. However, there may be more at stake than just a planet. The Imperial forces have made an attempt to divide and conquer their enemy, but with Warmaster Macaroth himself commanding the Urdesh campaign, it is possible that the Archenemy assault has a different purpose to decapitate the Imperial command structure with a single blow. Has the Warmaster allowed himself to become an unwitting target? And can Gaunt's Ghosts possibly defend him against the assembled killers and war machines of Chaos?

©2017 Games Workshop Limited (P)2017 Games Workshop Limited

Outstanding

The ghosts series is amazing. This is another example of how good the novels from the 40k universe can be. I really hope that convert the other books in the series so I can buy them all.

Some character voices are unbearable, good overall

Some characters voiced by the narrator are absolutely unbearable. Specifically the child Yoncy Criid when she is crying or whining the narrators voice gets so high pitched and shrill I cannot stand it. I still to this day do not know what happened during any scene where he uses this voice as I had to skip through them.

Outside of that the performance is well done. The voice acting is emotional and there is a vast variety of voices and the inflection and tone changes based on content which is very nice.

I had to deduct some points for the story as it feels incomplete. I cant go as far as to say its a short story as it is plenty long enough but it feels like there was a lot of padding added in some places to make it long enough and this book is just being used to set up the coming ones.

Worth the time and credit for sure, but beware the shrilling voice of the crying little girl.

Not a fan of these later books.

Audibles jump from the early books to these way later books seem to highlight a bit of change to the series. The first couple really got me interested, soldiers doing soldier things. And this one just lectured about and brought in heavy political views. I don't mind having powerful females in books/movies or anything and there is plenty of examples in 30k-40k. One of my favorites is the ship captain of Angrons ship it was literally like 30 - 50 books ago so I can't remember her name but speaking down to Angron of all people and making it believable... good Lord. I really enjoyed her character and command which says alot and puts a spot light on the issue of certain portrayal of female characters. The whole character part, make her real, make her believable, dont just throw in 20 thin "powerul" females to check off boxes. I do hate being treated like an idiot and pandered to for 10 minutes with a full breakdown of patriarchy. There is alot of strong female characters I enjoy, but sometimes it's just seems like it's shoveled on you and the whole Mulan surprise, I mean it wouldn't have been bad but why stop the story and break it down. Yeah I can say I didn't see it coming but did that really need to be the case? Could you not have explored a different way of delivering the politics of Felix's homeworld without a complete info dump complete with diagrams, PowerPoints, and laser pens? Maybe not pander for a significant length of time just after the surprise to ruin it. The last few books as well had a weird quality too them, I might relisten to the first one to compare but these seem to be like almost highlight compositions. Where is the thick of the fighting, the trenches the death, the chaos? There is a small bit in these last couple but it really seems like it's just 5-10 people in the whole regiment. The best way to describe it is that it feels like a soap opera in 40k audiobook form where I came for... you know... 40k. The Horus Heresy had a bit of it too between primarchs in certain books but this is like, way out there. I will probably listen to the next one in the series since it's the last on audible but that's it, I wish they had more of the series to bridge the gap a bit but going from those earlier books like I said dozens of times to these way later ones is pretty pretty jarring. I would say a pass on this one and the last one unless you just want to complete the Gaunts audiobooks for completions sake.

what the feth!

I have read all of the ghosts books. Multiple times. I love the story and the characters. This is my first audio book of the series and it was excellently performed. I have waited 2 years for this...I am thoroughly disappointed. I will read it when my paper copy comes in, however, it feels like half a book.

Great story, terrible voice acting

the story is excellent however the voice acting is bad enough to make you cringe and ruin any sense of immersion

Silly willy

It was okay, not the strongest of the series but about 2/3 in it finally picks up and is less punishing for the audience.

It's easier to get gripped on for a new comer

It's easier to get gripped on for a new comer than the previous one. It was well written and well performed. Sub plots were run parallel to the main plot pretty well without detracting anything from the main sorry. It also come with more action than Salvation's Reach. It still has too many characters to keep track off, though.

Awesome!

Excellent! Voice-work was exemplary, perfectly captured the myriad moments, accents and moods of Dan Abnett’s dark millennium.

Powerful reading, great story

It’s been years since I’ve read this series. It’s great it’s coming out on audible and I can relive them. My only problem to that they are coming out at bookends first two then the last three and I completely fethed up the order listening to them. Ah well once they are all out - I’ll restart at the beginning.

Good.

Good story, as expected. Narration is mostly good except some voices, especially female, are annoying.

Amazing as always

great stuff as always. Action and characters you love and hate. And love to hate. big surprises and some real shifts that keep the ongoing series feeling fresh. please don't make us wait so long for the next one. I'm getting old. I might die soon. I want to read the end of the story

Only half a story...

A short story was cut out of the main novel and the main novel is really just a set up for the next novel. Some twists and reveals but little conclusion.

Worst book in the series

This book is pure filler. It's an obvious setup for the next book and lacks a lot of the story that makes the other novels such an enjoyable read. There's little action and what there is, has been done before. I could almost believe that this wasn't written by Dan Abnett, which is a shame because after 2 decades of reading his novels this one is the only bad book I've come across and it just so happens to be in my favourite series.

boring.

didn't enjoy the story and the V.A was a wrong choice. have to put in 15 words for some daft reason.

Great book

Great book but the Audible recording cuts off a few lines of important dialogue off the end of 'The Warmaster' chapter.

Sets the scene well for the next book

This in my opinion isn’t one of the best books in the series, but even if it’s filling a gap and setting the scene for the last book I still enjoyed the character progression. Some good bits of drama and a few surprises. Didn’t enjoy some of the voices - lots of the women sound pretty much the same, or they have very jarring accents. Doesn’t take away from the overall story or narration though.

Great Story hindered by a poor performance

I enjoyed the story thoroughly in book for and audio however the Narrator ruined it slightly for me. Very stilted delivery, dodgy voice choices for some characters as well as the pronunciation of some names. Would have benefited if James McPherson was able to reprise is narration role for this audiobook

FOR TANITH! FOR THE WARMASTER!

Brilliant, I loved every second, Some fantastic twists and turns and really highlights certain characters in a way not done before! Cridd quickly became a favorite of mine and the gut wrenching twists in the tale pay off years of waiting

Good story but needs 2nd part

Decent story but ends just as it gets going. Good narration but voice acting of women grates a little

Stilted reading, great story

A stop start performance but once you get used to it it's easy to enjoy a story that throws the Ghosts straight back into the thick of the action and raising the stakes for the régiment. A great return to form.