Warlord: Fury of the Godmachine

Warhammer 40,000

By: David Annandale

Narrated by: John Banks

Length: 8 hrs and 59 mins

Publisher's summary

The Battle Titans of the Adeptus Titanicus are towering war engines, striding to war as holy effigies of the Omnissiah. Greatest of all are the mighty Warlord Titans, their weapons bringing righteous death to alien and heretic alike. Still reeling from a near disastrous battle against tyranids, the Pallidus Morr demi-legio is assigned to a new warzone, a nearby forge world which has fallen under the sway of Chaos.

Here their battered war-machines must fight alongside another Titan Legion, the Imperial Hunters. As city after city falls before the relentless tread of Chaos war machines, the Imperium's only chance of victory lies in the two legios putting aside their differences and fighting as one.

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

Engaging

So, for how much of a fan of Warhammer 40k I am, I can also admit the premise is dumb. Having said that, I have found this book to be more engaging than a bunch of others in the same universe. Having the perspective of the priest on the ground is what sealed the deal for me. I've read Titanicus, so the demi-legio offered not much new, but the perspective of the priest and his faith made this story very engaging.

Titan action- not much else.

The narrator does a great job narrating voices, their inflections, and intended tones. The story itself is just kind of there. The big robots fight, people shout "for the emperor!" and the like, chaos does evil stuff. Basic, but listenable.

The only draw is titans

The story is simple and straightforward, the lack of twists is almost a twist in its own. It's predictable, and the only surprises are things the author chooses to forego, rather than the opposite.

The enemy groups don't really have any character, and aren't foes to defeat, but rather just faceless obstacles to be overcome. No propert antagonists, just faceless forces of nature.

There are several times that I wondered over travel times between battles, and journeys that should take days are seemingly done in a small handful of hours.

It is however reasonably exciting in the first half, until the pattern has settled. But it eventually does; another after another desperate battle, where practically faceless, and wholly uncharacterized characters are sacrificed to defeat completely faceless and equally uncharacterized enemies.

It has plenty of titans, and that is rare enough that the book is readable anyhow. Just don't expect any kind of quality.

I have no problems with the narration though. It doesn't do anything special, but it keeps the characters reasonably separate, and I see no reason to complain.

Good Titan Action

While I wouldn't qualify this as an excellent book it was still well written and had good action sequences of Titans blowing each other apart. Which is what I was looking for. So I was well satisfied.

Hey it’s not Bolter Porn

I really like the story. It’s nice when you can get a story about Titans.

Worthy of Titanicus

We have long awaited more novels in the spirit of Titanicus. This one surely does not disappoint.

5/5 - Across the Board, Incredible Story

This story start to finish was thrilling, and made you care about the characters while filling the plot with danger, twists, tactical genius and titan battles.

There could have been more titan battles, but to be honest the build-up and the execution of the story was masterful.

Closer to a novela than a full story, but they effectively cut out the fluff - and made it thrilling from beginning to end!

Unsatisfying

Unfortunately, like many of it's like 40k novels that focus on scale and violence on a grimdark scale, it has a deeply unsatisfying ending.

Fantatic Story, with great characters.

The story was really well written, giving alot of depth to the Titans and answering some questions about there functions and pilots. Delves into the politics of nobles and the burdens that come with Pride. Each character I got invested in, they were interesting and unlike many a Warhammer story it didn't feel like plot armor was largely in play. Overall I absolutely recommend even if you care little for the lore of the Titans as it deals with much more than just them.

Good, compelling story

Good story, good characters for the most part. Gets some of the surface level lore regarding the Titans wrong, which is weird considering how in depth it gets on the history of the Pallidus Mor at times. It does accomplish the rare feat of making the reader care about the non titan storylines in a book that is ostensibly only about titans. I’d recommend it.