Tag Archives: Mechanicum

Mechanicum – Graham McNeill

Graham McNeill’s Horus Heresy novel Mechanicum is book nine in the series, and McNeill’s third contribution, but it’s a book of firsts as well – the first proper look at Mars and the Mechanicum (ever, really, but certainly in the Heresy series), the first depiction of Imperial Knights in Black Library fiction, and the first female-led Heresy novel. Young scribe Dalia Cythera is whisked off to Mars by Adept Koriel Zeth, who puts her innate understanding of technology to use working on a ground-breaking project. Meanwhile tensions are mounting between rival factions on Mars, even bringing the Titan Legions into conflict.

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Warhammer 40,000 Legends Issue Eleven – Mechanicum by Graham McNeill

For issue eleven of Hachette’s Warhammer 40,000 Legends Collection it’s back to the Horus Heresy with Mechanicum by Graham McNeill, the third Heresy book to be included so far. While it’s not the first in that series to be included in the collection, it is the first to tackle one of the most iconic, but least-represented factions in 40k – the Mechanicum, or in 40k terminology what became the Adeptus Mechanicus. Since its publication back in 2008 we’ve seen a raft of new stories featuring this faction, in both 40k and the Heresy, but at the time it was the first real opportunity we’d had to delve into the history and character of Mars and its denizens.

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QUICK REVIEW: Into Exile – Aaron Dembski-Bowden

Day three of Black Library’s 2016 Advent Calendar takes us back to the Horus Heresy with Into Exile by Aaron Dembski-Bowden, in which technoarchaologist Arkhan Land finds himself caught up in the rebellion on Mars. With the red planet burning around him and enemies keen to either capture or kill him, Land has to abandon his home and put his faith in the Imperial Fists to see him safely off the surface. His flight is not unopposed however, as a hunter is on his trail, and even his vaunted intellect can’t protect him.
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QUICK REVIEW: Myriad – Rob Sanders

Day five of Black Library’s 2016 Summer of Reading campaign sees a return to the Horus Heresy with Rob Sanders’ Myriad, which follows on from his 2015 novella Cybernetica. Mars is overrun by the twisted machines of the Dark Mechanicum, yet small cells of loyalists remain in hiding, doing what they can to fight back. Kallistra Lennox, formerly a princeps of the Collegia Titanica, leads a mission to sabotage a corrupted Warlord Titan, but returns to the rebels’ hidden base bearing something which might change the face of the war for Mars completely.
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Cybernetica – Rob Sanders

[This review was originally written after the release of the Limited Edition version of Cybernetica, although it’s now available in standard formats as well.]

While most recent Horus Heresy releases have moved the story forward chronologically, for the latest Limited Edition novella, Rob Sanders’ Cybernetica, Black Library have taken us back to an earlier point in the timeline. Set on Mars just as the Heresy begins, we follow a Raven Guard known as The Carrion, sent to train as a Techmarine after he was grievously wounded and left unable to follow his legion’s way of war. Alongside brothers from other legions he finds himself fighting to survive against the might of the Mechanicum, while on Terra, Rogal Dorn looks for a way to deal with the escalating situation on Mars.

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QUICK REVIEW : The Kaban Project – Graham McNeill

A prequel to the novel Mechanicum, available as a standalone ebook after previously being released in both Collected Visions and Shadows of Treachery, Graham McNeill’s The Kaban Project is a tale of loyalty and what it means to be human, even amongst the ranks of the Mechanicum. It features Adept Third Class Pallas Ravachol, a low-ranking tech priest on Mars who accidentally strikes up a friendship of sorts with an artificial construct that he fears has broken the Emperor’s ban on the creation of artificial intelligence.

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QUICK REVIEW : Vorax – Matthew Farrer

On the tenth day of Christmas Black Library gave to us…a Horus Heresy short story by Matthew Farrer. With Vorax, Farrer continues his look at all things technological, after his contributions to the Sabbat Worlds/Sabbat Crusade anthologies. This takes place on the Ring of Iron, a Mechanicum facility orbiting Mars, during the Imperial Fists’ blockade of the red planet. An adept of the Dark Mechanicum hunts loyalists through the Ring, unaware that he himself has become prey for something lurking in the shadows.

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