Anyone familiar with David Annandale’s writing for Black Library will know he likes to tell big stories. There’s not much bigger in 40k than a Warlord Titan…except lots of Warlord Titans, which you’ll find in David’s novel Warlord: Fury of the God-Machine. The legios of Pallidus Mor and the Imperial Hunters couldn’t be much less alike in philosophy or approach to warfare, but on Khania they forge an uncomfortable alliance against the tyranid hordes. When rebellion arises on nearby Katara they’re forced further still into uneasy cooperation, exposing dangerous cracks even as Chaos rises and a world falls.
Things open a little disjointedly, with lots of names – of both characters and Titans – quickly introduced all at once, but things soon settle down as the action beds in. The opening scenes of the story actually take place in the e-short Gates of the Devourer, so check that out first if you can. It soon becomes clear that this isn’t all going to be Titans blowing stuff up, with the main characters all quite nicely drawn, including the leading princeps of both legios and a few more grounded characters like Confessor Ornastas, fiercely defending his flock, and Captain Deyers of the Kataran Spears armoured regiment. Some of the standout scenes occur away from the God-machines, with perhaps the highlight of the whole book taking place across an emotionally-charged dining table – demonstrating Annandale’s ability to pull back from the grandiose and focus in on the underlying political tensions (see also The Binary Succession).
It wouldn’t be a Titans novel without masses of EPIC action, though, and Annandale doesn’t disappoint, pitting the loyalist legios against the Iron Skulls, a legio of Traitor Titans. An entire novel of nothing but Titans blowing chunks out of each other would perhaps be overkill even for a 40k story, but there’s enough variation here to provide a bit of balance, and the conflict is as much between the Pallidus Mor and Imperial Hunters as anything else. Those scenes away from the Titans give just enough breathing room for the gargantuan, explosive action scenes to not completely dominate – the sheer scale of the battles, and generally just the events taking place, ramp up as the story continues, to the point where it’s a bit like sensory overload…but (mostly) in a good way. Subtle this ain’t, and some may tire of the ever-increasing scale of the ensuing madness, but there’s no denying the power of what takes place.
This is unashamedly grandiose, an appropriately OTT story that’s sort of daft, and occasionally a little contrived narratively…but at the same time hugely satisfying. For the most part Annandale’s style gels nicely with the story he’s telling, going heavy on the dizzying scale of these battles taking place on almost another plane of existence, so far beyond ‘normal’ human warriors. His tendency to go for lots of very short, snappy sentences does detract a little, but thankfully it’s mostly restricted to the action scenes and the rest of his writing flows much more smoothly. It’s as epic as you’d expect, but in the grim, stoic Pallidus Mor there’s a perspective on everything which strips away the ‘glory’ of this sort of bonkers conflict, and gives it all an appropriately dark, brooding sense of 40k style. It’s probably not going to be for everyone, and it’s certainly not perfect, but it’s undeniably powerful.
Check out Warlord: Fury of the God-Machine on Amazon, or as an audiobook on Audible; anything you buy via these links will help support Track of Words.