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The Gothic War #1
Execution Hour
Science fiction novel set in Games Workshop's Warhammer 40,000 universe.
288 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published July 19, 2001
7 people are currently reading
359 people want to read
About the author
Gordon Rennie
391 books34 followersFreelance writer for over 20 years – When he’s not being ungainfully employed as a BAFTA-nominated video games scriptwriter, he keeps himself busy writing comics, novels, screenplays and Doctor Who audio plays. Comics work includes Predator, Judge Dredd, Rogue Trooper, Missionary Man, Necronauts, Caballistics Inc and Absalom, and Dept. of Monsterology for Renegade.
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
April 24, 2020
Still a damn good read with a nice spread of Naval action and on the ground battles. Over the top as ever, and probably sometimes hard to visualise if you are not a Warhammer 40k fan (especially the ships designs are only ever hinted at), but fun stuff.
Made me realise I never got around to reading the Sequel, Shadow Point, and it seems hard to get for a reasonable price.
Made me realise I never got around to reading the Sequel, Shadow Point, and it seems hard to get for a reasonable price.
June 18, 2012
Со времен Ереси Хоруса Империум Человечества не знал космических баталий, настолько масштабных и беспощадных, как это случилось во время войны за Готический Сектор. В ходе кровопролитных боёв Силы Хаоса отжимали планету за планетой, и никто даже не подозревал, что самое жуткое еще впереди. Владыка Хаоса Абаддон создал на базе древних знаний гигантский механизм “Убийцу Планет”, с помощью которых он планировал подмять под себя весь Сектор. Много лет назад Абаддон обещал Воителю, что Вселенная будет гореть, и Вселенная горела: планеты плавились и разваливались на части, миллиарды людей превращались в раскаленный газ.
В центре романа – история имперского крейсера “Лорд Солар Махариус” и его самоотверженного экипажа. Потомственного капитана Леотена Семпера, смелого и амбициозного старпома и фехтовальщика Хито Уланти, непоколебимого комиссара и отчаянного борца с любой нечистью Кобы Киогена, а также бывшего зека и старшины-самозванца Максима Борусы. После победы в поединке с приверженным Хаосу капитаном “Тлетворного” Хендриком Морроу и удачного десанта на борт изменников с “Беллерофонта” команда “Махариуса” становится легендой Сектора и получает новое ответственное задание – обеспечить до прибытия флота Абаддона эвакуацию самых ценных обитателей колонии Белатрис. А в это время на поверхности Белатриса прокуратор Джамаль Бизантан и преданные ему арбитры ведут отчаянную борьбу с поднявшими восстание хаоситами, возглавляемыми диверсантом и провокатором Хонзаном Безликим.
Твердое и уверенное имперское чтиво. С яркими эпизодами, сочными деталями и хорошей пропагандистской моралью. Если ты предал Бога-Императора – обязательно сдохнешь как собака страниц через двадцать. Если же руки по локоть в крови некрещеных младенцев, но идеалы Империума все еще стучат в твоем сердце – у тебя будет шанс не только на искупление всех грехов, но и на хорошую карьеру во флоте.
У книги только два минуса, но они заметно портят всю малину. Первый минус – явные и неприкрытые параллели с мифологией Star Wars (Дарт Вейдер – Абаддон, Звезда Смерти – Убийца Планет). Второй минус – еще более халтурное отношение к сочинению названий планет и звездолетов. Если на существование крейсер “Граф Орлок” я еще могу смотреть сквозь пальцы, то вот Максим Боруса и его подруга Таняра с планеты Лубянка – это уже откровенный моветон.
В центре романа – история имперского крейсера “Лорд Солар Махариус” и его самоотверженного экипажа. Потомственного капитана Леотена Семпера, смелого и амбициозного старпома и фехтовальщика Хито Уланти, непоколебимого комиссара и отчаянного борца с любой нечистью Кобы Киогена, а также бывшего зека и старшины-самозванца Максима Борусы. После победы в поединке с приверженным Хаосу капитаном “Тлетворного” Хендриком Морроу и удачного десанта на борт изменников с “Беллерофонта” команда “Махариуса” становится легендой Сектора и получает новое ответственное задание – обеспечить до прибытия флота Абаддона эвакуацию самых ценных обитателей колонии Белатрис. А в это время на поверхности Белатриса прокуратор Джамаль Бизантан и преданные ему арбитры ведут отчаянную борьбу с поднявшими восстание хаоситами, возглавляемыми диверсантом и провокатором Хонзаном Безликим.
Твердое и уверенное имперское чтиво. С яркими эпизодами, сочными деталями и хорошей пропагандистской моралью. Если ты предал Бога-Императора – обязательно сдохнешь как собака страниц через двадцать. Если же руки по локоть в крови некрещеных младенцев, но идеалы Империума все еще стучат в твоем сердце – у тебя будет шанс не только на искупление всех грехов, но и на хорошую карьеру во флоте.
У книги только два минуса, но они заметно портят всю малину. Первый минус – явные и неприкрытые параллели с мифологией Star Wars (Дарт Вейдер – Абаддон, Звезда Смерти – Убийца Планет). Второй минус – еще более халтурное отношение к сочинению названий планет и звездолетов. Если на существование крейсер “Граф Орлок” я еще могу смотреть сквозь пальцы, то вот Максим Боруса и его подруга Таняра с планеты Лубянка – это уже откровенный моветон.
January 17, 2025
Execution Hour is my second stop this year, while I take a short break from reading classical literature and also the first book I read from the Gothic War storyline. I feel like these old school 90s-2000s 40k books really grasp what the universe is about and are truly touching upon its grimdark nature.
A problem I had with the book is the sheer number of the characters, I sometimes had a difficult time remembering who is who exactly after not reading the book for some days, however in the final chapters every storyline was well finished. Even in the grim darkness of the far future there is lot of space for heroism and self sacrifice.
Another difficulty (for me, and probably for other people who are new to the series) was that since it's a navy book I had a hard time picturing the vast amount of ship types, which are mentioned in the book, so this partly took away from the experience, since I have never seen these on pictures or anywhere.
The story is mainly about the ship Lord Solar Macharius or just Macharius and it's crew and it tells the events of the first days of the Gothic war. I really loved the dynamic between the captain, Leoten Semper and his first officer, from the whole story their interactions were my favorite. In the second half of the book the duo has to part ways, the first officer has to take control over the Macharius while Semper has other duties to attend to and this really allowed both characters to flesh out their personalities without overshadowing one another.
The one part of the book which was not all that exciting for me was the Contagion and Virulent duo hunting for the Macharius, this plotline seemed a bit pointless, but I guess they served as a quasi prologue and epilogue to the story.
Overall rating: 3,5/5 - Fun and quick read; good introduction to the Gothic War and I would say it also encapsulates really well what the whole franchise is about these days.
A problem I had with the book is the sheer number of the characters, I sometimes had a difficult time remembering who is who exactly after not reading the book for some days, however in the final chapters every storyline was well finished. Even in the grim darkness of the far future there is lot of space for heroism and self sacrifice.
Another difficulty (for me, and probably for other people who are new to the series) was that since it's a navy book I had a hard time picturing the vast amount of ship types, which are mentioned in the book, so this partly took away from the experience, since I have never seen these on pictures or anywhere.
The story is mainly about the ship Lord Solar Macharius or just Macharius and it's crew and it tells the events of the first days of the Gothic war. I really loved the dynamic between the captain, Leoten Semper and his first officer, from the whole story their interactions were my favorite. In the second half of the book the duo has to part ways, the first officer has to take control over the Macharius while Semper has other duties to attend to and this really allowed both characters to flesh out their personalities without overshadowing one another.
The one part of the book which was not all that exciting for me was the Contagion and Virulent duo hunting for the Macharius, this plotline seemed a bit pointless, but I guess they served as a quasi prologue and epilogue to the story.
Overall rating: 3,5/5 - Fun and quick read; good introduction to the Gothic War and I would say it also encapsulates really well what the whole franchise is about these days.
February 3, 2015
When it comes to Black Library, there are a few key novels which are signified as being massive game changers for the franchise and fan favourites. Ian Watson’s Space Marine, Dan Abnett’s First and Only, and Graham McNeill’s Storm of Iron are the traditional ones, but the Gothic War duology is sadly forgotten these days. While likely down to a lack of reprints until recently, the sad truth is that it’s one of the best novels of its kind and covers a subject so often skipped by many authors: Naval life and battle. True, many books do feature this to a fair degree, but so few are exclusively set on warships, and both Execution Hour and Shadow Point are perfect examples of how to truly nail this.
Set during Abaddon’s Twelfth Black Crusade, the series follows the crew of the Lord Solar Macharius as they are deployed to help turn the tide in a slowly losing battle against the traitor fleets. Despite being outnumbered and outgunned on countless occasions, the vessel and her captain, Leoten Semper, keep winning battles time and time again. However, as the ever traitorous Eldar offer an alliance against Chaos and the Planet Killer continues on its ponderous course towards heavily inhabited worlds, can even the most staunch of Imperial commanders hope to turn the tide?
Usually when it comes to an omnibus this would be broken down into a novel by novel analysis, as with the Soul Drinkers saga, but both books share many of the same qualities. As such this is going to be a more general discussion of the series on the whole.
Now, being a classic Black Library story this is far more Trollslayer than it is The First Heretic. Everything present in here isn’t so much focused on characterisation as it is action and much of the story focuses far more upon the battles, running events and personal stories than it is about deep character examination or internal feuding. While many points in the story will stop to briefly examine the histories behind certain characters or even set up fights between one another, these are kept more to the background in favour of the combat. While this would usually be a detrimental failing of a book, it instead works in its favour, largely thanks to the style it is presented in. Being more famous for his writing on comics than novels to many, Rennie’s series here is heavily broken up into very loosely connected but largely independent tales. The first several parts of Execution Hour are effectively skirmishes, more isolated than part of some running story and you could easily see this as a part of some omnibus or running trilogy such as the early Constantine trade. It’s better suited to light or short bursts of reading to be sure, but it’s hardly a failing in of itself.
While the stories are much smaller in scale, they help to give a very quick impression of the crew, the combat and Rennie’s very visual forms of storytelling and punchy descriptions help to bring the story to real life. While it might lack the slow speeds or precision descriptions of ship to ship combat found in Ben Counter’s works, and often forgets the ranges which enemy ships engage one another in Warhammer, it retains the energy and speed to keep the reader engrossed. No one quite depicts a strike cruiser rushing an enemy formation or barrages of missiles striking their target quite like what’s found here.
In addition to this the setting is far grimier and willing to show a far less perfect Imperium than many later novels. While writers would later fully embrace the idea of biased storytelling influencing how the Imperium was shown, the technology here is far more run down and it reflects more of the idealised fascist society you’d expect in Starship Troopers than anything else. This actually makes the work seem all the more alive despite its occasionally cartoonish trappings, and while Chaos is still shown as the big enemy it’s far more villainous than you’d expect to find in later stories.
Perhaps the biggest thing of note however is the early appearance of Abaddon the Despoiler. While only briefly showing up in the book, Abaddon here is very much the classic villain in every sense but very intelligent and very powerful. Enigmatic to the last, he shows up here as more the dark lord than semi-reasonable hero of Dembski-Bowden’s works, and there is rarely a moment where he does not outshine the story. While very little of his background is gone into, what little we get is truly memorable.
Unfortunately if there is a serious point to criticise, it’s that there isn’t enough of an impact when it comes to the villains. While Abaddon remains his perpetually awesome brooding self and the early battle against an old vessel once allied with the Macharius are both memorable, there’s no single antagonist to help keep the tale going. Even the traitor astartes planning to use a world’s destruction to his own ends and a manipulative Imperial servant don’t stand out, and the story feels a little more empty without that looming foe. Shadow Point is more ambitious, but this same flaw seems to largely apply, and it’s more a general war you’re invested in over any single antagonist. Atop of this, while the combat is frantic and remains furiously detailed, sometimes it can seem oddly short. Despite the scale of the vessels involved, too often even the vast capital ships seem like they’re written as frigates with their speed and style of combat. Those more used to what was shown in Dark Mechanicus or Xenos will definitely be thrown off by this.
At the end of the day, The Gothic War omnibus is different, a little more pulp than high literature in many respects, but far from bad in any way. If you’re after some bite-sized reading which is broken down into multiple running tales and desire some high grade bolter porn, this is definitely one well worth looking into. Despite the trade’s high price tag, it’s well worth a purchase.
Set during Abaddon’s Twelfth Black Crusade, the series follows the crew of the Lord Solar Macharius as they are deployed to help turn the tide in a slowly losing battle against the traitor fleets. Despite being outnumbered and outgunned on countless occasions, the vessel and her captain, Leoten Semper, keep winning battles time and time again. However, as the ever traitorous Eldar offer an alliance against Chaos and the Planet Killer continues on its ponderous course towards heavily inhabited worlds, can even the most staunch of Imperial commanders hope to turn the tide?
Usually when it comes to an omnibus this would be broken down into a novel by novel analysis, as with the Soul Drinkers saga, but both books share many of the same qualities. As such this is going to be a more general discussion of the series on the whole.
Now, being a classic Black Library story this is far more Trollslayer than it is The First Heretic. Everything present in here isn’t so much focused on characterisation as it is action and much of the story focuses far more upon the battles, running events and personal stories than it is about deep character examination or internal feuding. While many points in the story will stop to briefly examine the histories behind certain characters or even set up fights between one another, these are kept more to the background in favour of the combat. While this would usually be a detrimental failing of a book, it instead works in its favour, largely thanks to the style it is presented in. Being more famous for his writing on comics than novels to many, Rennie’s series here is heavily broken up into very loosely connected but largely independent tales. The first several parts of Execution Hour are effectively skirmishes, more isolated than part of some running story and you could easily see this as a part of some omnibus or running trilogy such as the early Constantine trade. It’s better suited to light or short bursts of reading to be sure, but it’s hardly a failing in of itself.
While the stories are much smaller in scale, they help to give a very quick impression of the crew, the combat and Rennie’s very visual forms of storytelling and punchy descriptions help to bring the story to real life. While it might lack the slow speeds or precision descriptions of ship to ship combat found in Ben Counter’s works, and often forgets the ranges which enemy ships engage one another in Warhammer, it retains the energy and speed to keep the reader engrossed. No one quite depicts a strike cruiser rushing an enemy formation or barrages of missiles striking their target quite like what’s found here.
In addition to this the setting is far grimier and willing to show a far less perfect Imperium than many later novels. While writers would later fully embrace the idea of biased storytelling influencing how the Imperium was shown, the technology here is far more run down and it reflects more of the idealised fascist society you’d expect in Starship Troopers than anything else. This actually makes the work seem all the more alive despite its occasionally cartoonish trappings, and while Chaos is still shown as the big enemy it’s far more villainous than you’d expect to find in later stories.
Perhaps the biggest thing of note however is the early appearance of Abaddon the Despoiler. While only briefly showing up in the book, Abaddon here is very much the classic villain in every sense but very intelligent and very powerful. Enigmatic to the last, he shows up here as more the dark lord than semi-reasonable hero of Dembski-Bowden’s works, and there is rarely a moment where he does not outshine the story. While very little of his background is gone into, what little we get is truly memorable.
Unfortunately if there is a serious point to criticise, it’s that there isn’t enough of an impact when it comes to the villains. While Abaddon remains his perpetually awesome brooding self and the early battle against an old vessel once allied with the Macharius are both memorable, there’s no single antagonist to help keep the tale going. Even the traitor astartes planning to use a world’s destruction to his own ends and a manipulative Imperial servant don’t stand out, and the story feels a little more empty without that looming foe. Shadow Point is more ambitious, but this same flaw seems to largely apply, and it’s more a general war you’re invested in over any single antagonist. Atop of this, while the combat is frantic and remains furiously detailed, sometimes it can seem oddly short. Despite the scale of the vessels involved, too often even the vast capital ships seem like they’re written as frigates with their speed and style of combat. Those more used to what was shown in Dark Mechanicus or Xenos will definitely be thrown off by this.
At the end of the day, The Gothic War omnibus is different, a little more pulp than high literature in many respects, but far from bad in any way. If you’re after some bite-sized reading which is broken down into multiple running tales and desire some high grade bolter porn, this is definitely one well worth looking into. Despite the trade’s high price tag, it’s well worth a purchase.
November 5, 2021
A fantastic book that immerses you in Battlefleet Gothic. The characters are interesting, the plot is intriguing, and it has a great pace. It is a book that I could not put down and I have read multiple times.
March 18, 2018
Liked it just fine for the fluff it gives. But strangely not enough space battles for a series based on Battlefleet Gothic.
February 26, 2011
So for my birthday last year my wife bought me all of the available Print on Demand books from the Black Library. It has taken me a while (like nine months) but I have finally got to this one.
The Gothic War book, which is made up of the books Execution Hour and Shadowpoint are like many of the print on demand books in that they are old and out of print. Unlike some of the old Black Library books, these hold up pretty well as the years have past (at least Exection Hour has). There are no Landraiders that have Dreadnaught carrying capacity (I'm looking at you Crusade for Armageddon). I think this mainly has to do with the fact that it is mainly fleet-based combat, and not a single Space Marine in the book.
It starts out with a couple of short stories that don't really have much to do with the main plot line other than give us an antagonist and a bit of foreshadowing. We meet Leoten Semper, the captain of one of Battlefleet Gothics ships, the Lord Solar Macharius. In the first couple of stories he seems newly appointed, but by the main story, it seems as if either quite a bit of time has passed (I'm not sure how long the Gothic War lasted) or that just the pressure of fighting against during the 12th Black Crusade has forged the crew into a tight knit family.
As we get into the main story, Abbadon is using his new super weapon, the Planet Killer to, well, kill planets pretty indescriminatly throughout the Gothic sector. He now sets his sights on Belatis and heads off in that direction. Astropaths on the soon-to-be doomed world feel the disturbance in the force... er warp and this alerts the Imperium and they start to evacuate the planet and the Macharius is one of the ships sent to protect the evacuation fleet.
Overall this was a very enjoyable book. It is nice to read something that isn't just Astartes or Imperial Guard. The space combat, while not exactly realistic, was fun and it just seemed to be a breath of fresh air. The author did a good job creating some pretty memorable characters in the form of the Flag Lieutenant Ulanti, Commisar Kyogen, and Petty Officer Borusa aboard the Macharius.
There were a few things I didn't like so much. In the first story, we see the Macharius fight a Chaos ship that will eventually cause the Macharius to be targeted for destruction. In the second story, we see some of the "long-game" that Chaos is willing to go to to destroy their enemies, and then in the main story, after a lot of foreshadowing, it just sort of fell flat.
Other than that, I really enjoyed this book. I am really looking forward to the next book as I believe it goes into some detail about how Abbadon captures two of the Blackstone fortresses in the Gothic sector. I give it three Dauntless class cruisers out of five.
The Gothic War book, which is made up of the books Execution Hour and Shadowpoint are like many of the print on demand books in that they are old and out of print. Unlike some of the old Black Library books, these hold up pretty well as the years have past (at least Exection Hour has). There are no Landraiders that have Dreadnaught carrying capacity (I'm looking at you Crusade for Armageddon). I think this mainly has to do with the fact that it is mainly fleet-based combat, and not a single Space Marine in the book.
It starts out with a couple of short stories that don't really have much to do with the main plot line other than give us an antagonist and a bit of foreshadowing. We meet Leoten Semper, the captain of one of Battlefleet Gothics ships, the Lord Solar Macharius. In the first couple of stories he seems newly appointed, but by the main story, it seems as if either quite a bit of time has passed (I'm not sure how long the Gothic War lasted) or that just the pressure of fighting against during the 12th Black Crusade has forged the crew into a tight knit family.
As we get into the main story, Abbadon is using his new super weapon, the Planet Killer to, well, kill planets pretty indescriminatly throughout the Gothic sector. He now sets his sights on Belatis and heads off in that direction. Astropaths on the soon-to-be doomed world feel the disturbance in the force... er warp and this alerts the Imperium and they start to evacuate the planet and the Macharius is one of the ships sent to protect the evacuation fleet.
Overall this was a very enjoyable book. It is nice to read something that isn't just Astartes or Imperial Guard. The space combat, while not exactly realistic, was fun and it just seemed to be a breath of fresh air. The author did a good job creating some pretty memorable characters in the form of the Flag Lieutenant Ulanti, Commisar Kyogen, and Petty Officer Borusa aboard the Macharius.
There were a few things I didn't like so much. In the first story, we see the Macharius fight a Chaos ship that will eventually cause the Macharius to be targeted for destruction. In the second story, we see some of the "long-game" that Chaos is willing to go to to destroy their enemies, and then in the main story, after a lot of foreshadowing, it just sort of fell flat.
Other than that, I really enjoyed this book. I am really looking forward to the next book as I believe it goes into some detail about how Abbadon captures two of the Blackstone fortresses in the Gothic sector. I give it three Dauntless class cruisers out of five.
July 20, 2016
I picked up this gem of a book at a used book store along with Shadow Point, and both books are excellent. I was surprised at the quality of the writing, the interesting characters and the plot pacing. These books are by far two of the better Warhammer 40,000 novels that I have read--and I have read over 100 Warhammer 40,000 novels to date (most are not very good, but I love the genre and the unique dystopian setting in which the stories take place).
December 18, 2014
Didn't finish, and didn't love it. I think Gordon Rennie is a great comics writer, and perhaps COULD BE a great novel author, but this felt EXTREMELY rushed (well, the first two short stories didn't; they were fine and enjoyable), badly edited, and just kind of dull. Stuff happens, but ... he hadn't really gotten a handle on how to tell the story he wanted, I don't think. Curious to check out the sequel. Perhaps it will "flow" better for me.
May 15, 2011
Very exciting and well-written book. Keeps you thinking and brings out imagination through its clear descpritive text
November 28, 2011
One of the best Warhammer 40K novels with a good blend of all the different military arms of the Imperium coming to battle the forces of Chaos.
July 9, 2013
If you enjoy sci-fi and space battles outside the general Star Trek and Star Wars universes, then this is definitely a book for you
August 29, 2013
До космооперы не дотягивает, но неплохо. Время убить можно. Пока только погружаюсь во вселенную 40000
May 3, 2014
Fast paced , fun and IN SPAAACE !
April 2, 2021
Love space battles, and 40K always delivers on a grand scale! Speaking of, GW really needs to bring back Battlefleet Gothic to the tabletop!!!
March 25, 2016
Warhammer 40K. IN SPACE.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews