Originally released as a companion piece to the audio drama Blood in the Machine, Andy Smillie’s short story Of Gods and Men is a tight, compact tale of the final moments of a crippled God-Machine and its princeps. Out in the wastes of Armageddon, the Imperator Titan Validus is dying. As his life – and that of his Titan – nears its inevitable end, Princeps Niall Cathalan muses on the nature of power, even as he desperately attempts to prevent the desecration of Validus’ corpse by the orks that brought him low.
This is a very short story indeed, so there’s little scope for deep character development, but as a glimpse into the dying mind of someone accustomed to wielding the incredible power of a God-Machine it has considerable impact. It’s not a grand depiction of a Titan in action, but rather a close-up examination of the strange relationship between man and machine at the heart of these constructs, with an overarching conceit that’s super dark and achingly 40k. It won’t be for everyone with its laser-tight focus, fragmented structure and variety of tenses, but as a concise and evocative examination of the build-up to and aftermath of a single devastating moment, it punches above its weight.
Click here to buy Of Gods and Men in the Servants of the Machine-God anthology.