Guy Haley’s Blackstone Fortress short story Man of Iron focuses on the intriguing character of UR-025, and offers a short but entertaining insight into what goes on behind the blank facade of this ‘Imperial Robot’. We’re first introduced to UR-025 through the eyes of Rein the ratling, before the robot joins with a party of Adeptus Mechanicus tech-priests and heads into the Fortress in search of archeotech. Once within the shifting halls of the Fortress the priests are reliant upon UR-025 for both directions and protection, all the while unaware of its real reasons for choosing to accompany them.
It’s really interesting to get inside the head (so to speak) of a character who’s entirely non-human and also very much not one of the usual 40k archetypes, as it provides an outsider’s perspective that’s strangely rational and – unexpectedly – relatable. UR-025 doesn’t think much of the Adeptus Mechanicus, or indeed humanity as a whole, and while Haley avoids revealing what UR-025’s real purpose is, there’s more than enough here to get a feel for the character. There’s not a huge amount of plot to get stuck into, but if you like a bit of unusual (and intriguing) 40k lore then you’ll have plenty to enjoy here.
This was released as part of the 2018 Black Library Advent Calendar – click here to see the main page for the Advent Calendar, with links to all of the reviews.
