War of Secrets

Space Marine Conquests: Warhammer 40,000, Book 3

By: Phill Kelly

Narrated by: John Banks

Length: 9 hrs and 48 mins

Publisher's Summary

A Space Marine Conquests novel

Supporting the Dark Angels as they battle trauma-scarred T'au, Lieutenant Farren and his Primaris Marines discover their allies have many secrets they'll do anything to conceal....

Listen to it because we've all been dying to know what happens when the Primaris Space Marines and Dark Angels finally meet - and now that story is finally here.

The story: Lieutenant Xedro Farren is a Primaris Marine, stronger and more adept than even the Space Marines his brotherhood is sent to fight alongside. As the Dark Angels and the Primaris Marines fight a trauma-scarred force of T’au hellbent on destroying their former allies, the true quarry becomes clear - the shadowy instigator of a psychic curse that could plunge a string of Imperial planets into madness. As worlds burn in the fires of battle, an unthinkable pact is struck, with the Primaris Marines peeling back layer after layer of deceit to find the appalling truth. Can Farren hope to emerge from this web of lies without losing his honour - or come to that, his life?

©2020 Games Workshop Limited (P)2020 Games Workshop Limited

Hot Garbage

I thought “Crusade” was the worst WH40K novel ever written, but “War of Secrets” certainly gives it a solid challenge for the title.

Like Crusade this story reads like a commercial for the new miniatures, with a disjointed, barely coherent storyline thrown in. The Space Marines act like idiots on a regular basis.

Worse is Phill Kelly’s technical writing ability. A sophomore in high school could do better. He routinely uses adjectives and metaphors that make no sense in the context. I kept thinking English must be his second language and no one bothered to check the manuscript before it went to publication.

It doesn’t help that John Banks does the narration, easily the worst narrator working for the BL. He has about three voices he routinely uses.

Better then Indomitus worth the credit

The story was good and I was able to finish it in about two days once I started I just couldn't stop listening it was that interesting good info about the Tau empire and the Primaris Marines and the Dark Angels and how far there willing to go to keep their secrets if you got a credit use it on this you won't regret it I know I didn't

A gift from the Library

A lot of people would say that 40k's canon has some smudges and stains here and there. That's fair, but homeboy Phil Kelly takes them and slops it all together to create something fun and compelling. John Banks kills it as per the usual.

Missed the mark.

John Banks does an outstanding job again. Phill Kelly not so much. The way the 1st is portrayed and their treatment of Primaris Marines is not accurate if you've read ANY other Dark Angels book. It feels the Phill Kelly is describing a different legion, not Dark Angels. I won't share more and spoil it.

boring

this book follows a simple unimaginative story arc. some of the fighting scenes are tedious and the outcomes are so obvious it's not even worth reading about. The overall story had no imagination it was just typical and not that entertaining. a bleak book with a bleak ending

A deeper story than I had expected.

Here I found a knew level of secrecy about the hypocrisy of the Dark Angels chapter. I also enjoyed the Tau point of view scenes. I wish for a follow up with even more of the Tau and the Dark Angels. Epic potential for more.

Just Bad

The story line is just plain awful. I believe this one has me completely done with any of the Warhammer books.

Very bad

This is by far the worst warhammer book i have read. I am not usually critical about the quality of this kind of book. Sometimes i just want some simple reading. But this was just terrible. Incoherrent story. Full of flaws and bad writing. This writer makes spacemarines into blithering idiots pretty much throughout the whole book.

Easily the worst 40k book ever

Terrible waste of a credit and hours of my life. Badly written, full of plot holes and contradictions and then a nonsensical ending that resolves nothing. Truly terrible.

The only book I ever returned to Audible

This is appalling. I was incredibly excited for GW to connect the lore gap between Primaris Marines and the 1st Legion, and this effort made me walk away from the whole genre for a few months. The story is jarring, forced and makes no sense with the established canon for either the Dark Angels or Space Marines in general. Incredibly disappointing.

A conversation between Guilliman and an advisor

Advisor: I recognise the dire need to supply every chapter with trained Primaris recruits, but I recommend only telling the Dark Angels how to make their own primaris.
G: Explain.
Advisor: The Dark Angels, while perfectly loyal due to their xenocidal and anti-chaos campaigns, are a chapter that highly value their privacy.
G: Nah, I'll just inject a contigent of primaris, who have external loyalties to Cawl and I, within the most secretive and reclusive chapter there is. What could possibly go wrong?

na just naf.

couldn't finish it. 3 hours from the end I threw in the towel. no grounding of whats going on meandering seemingly pointless storyline. and so little exposition to make me care about any of the characters. na. just bugger it. had enough. Next!

utterly terrible

whoever wrote this clearly hates the DA and has a lady-boner for primaris. 2nd only book in all ive ever read / listened to that i couldn't get all the way
through. Avoid like the plague.

Well paced and interesting

A decent book, well delivered. The story flowed well overall and had a mix of strategy, intrigue and action.
I do confess to losing the thread at points, as there was so much happening, and it may have been best to shave a little of the interwoven plots out, to avoid the risk of the story becoming jumbled, but all in all a very good listen.
I would say one of the stronger WH40k Dark Angel listens / reads out there.

Intriguing but.....

I am not a great reader of Dark Angels books as I have found the heresy books involving them laborious but I was looking forward to a 40k story particularly with Tau and Primaris featuring, it was enjoyable but could have been better, the narration as alway by John Banks was the saving grace

Moustache-twirling rubbish

The book has excellent potential - some strong characters and a good set-up for conflict that starts well and with Bank's practiced voicing gets you right into the heart of the story.

And then it loses its way - badly. Characters you invest in disappear and don't resurface until the final act, retuning only to provide a weak coda to the shattered storyline. The major plot twist is not an inspired one, and Kelly realises this as he starts introducing the Tau as a diversion in the hope you will forget what he set out to do.

By the end you've gone from a decent thriller to one of the worst, most confusing books published by BL. At several points I had to restart the chapter, convinced as I was that I'd skipped a few. By the end the dialogue has almost disappeared, and what little remains is as stiff and hackneyed as the most uninspiring fan-fiction. You can tell the author has given up when even the characters can't be bothered to speak. As for the ending - bloody hell - you may as well have the Dark Angels twirling their mustaches and covering the lower half of their faces with their cloaks. Throw in a tech-priest tied to a railway track and you might actually redeem the wasted hours..

If you're in the market for a good Dark Angels book (and a great book in general) pick up Luther: First of the Fallen and see how much Kelly has missed out on.

Surprising revelations

Drawing threads all the way back to Dawn of War: Dark Crusade came as a much welcome surprise.

Brilliant rendition of an average plot

Banks masterfully crafts a veil of voices over an otherwise very average dark angels novel

the best so far

i can’t be bothered to write reviews so in short this was the best book i listened to so far the story is ace and the primaris marines are brilliant with the Belisarius engine

Great narrator and a great storey

The storey is captivating, the characters are awesome and very well told and overall a very good listen/read