Pilgrims of Fire

Adepta Sororitas

by Justin D. Hill

An Adepta Sororitas Novel

Sister Helewise is determined to stay alive until her death might serve a higher purpose – as the God-Emperor wills it. When she joins the cursed Fleet Quintus, her faith will be tested in ways she could never have imagined.

READ IT BECAUSE
Follow one of the most pious orders of the Adepta Sororitas as they join the Indomitus Crusade aboard Fleet Quintus – ominously referred to as the ‘Cursed Fleet.’

THE STORY
Of all the devout warriors in the Adepta Sororitas, none are as renowned or battle-hungry as those of the Order of Our Martyred Lady. Yet while others seek glory in their own martyrdom, Sister Helewise is determined to stay alive, so that her death might serve a greater purpose when the God-Emperor wills it.

Assigned to Fleet Quintus of the Indomitus Crusade, Helewise and her sisters follow an ancient route of pilgrimage to rediscover and liberate the shrine world of Cion, once a sacred bastion of their order. In retracing the steps of Saint Katherine herself, their faith will be tested to the extreme as they attempt to uncover what became of their sisters stationed in the daemon-infested sectors beyond the Cicatrix Maledictum.

As their mission lurches from disaster to disaster and the Emperor’s voice grows ever quieter, the Sisters of Battle must trust in bolter, blade, and their own unbreakable bonds to drive back the darkness of Imperium Nihilus.

Genres: 40k, Science Fiction, Audiobook, War, Fiction, Space Opera, Fantasy

366 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 13, 2023

About the author

Justin is a long-time Astra Militarum player with a trophy cabinet of painting and gaming awards. He now leads his Imperial Fists into the hell of the Horus Heresy.

Reviews

[Juliano Dutra · Rating 2 out of 5]

1.5. The sad news of the death of Martin Amis reminded me how beneficial it would be for the Black Library authors to read "The War Against Cliché" and keep the book on their bedside table.
This book has NOTHING new on the topic of "adepta sororitas" that you haven't seen in another book already written on the topic. Whether in their relationship with the members of the "imperial guard", personalities, and even the plot of the book.
You don't need to innovate with writing techniques, but it is tiring to read another book with ZERO effort to bring something new to the reader.

[Alex · Rating 1 out of 5]

Without question the worst and weakest 40k novel I have read in years. Even Wrath of the Lost had the cool depiction of the Flesh Tearers homeworld Cretacia. This book however suffered from:

-Wooden, cookie-cutter characters who had no real development or motivations or even personal stories. The one potentially interesting plot being the protagonist Helewise coming from a world lost to Chaos and encountering a cultist leader from her fallen homeworld went nowhere beyond the initial scene and the question of why the Sisters on said homeworld saved her during an uprising but left her mother to be murdered is forgotten about. Especially egregious as in one scene Helewise asks another Sister about it, and the narrative is very obvious that the Sister is lying when she says she doesn't know why the Sisters were on Helewise's homeworld, and then it is forgotten about completely.

-A patchy narrative that reminded me of the days of "bolter porn" stories that had no interesting occurrences or gripping plotlines, just jumping from action scene to quickly sped through scenes of characters having pointless conversations that drove the story nowhere. The chapters jump back and forth between the 'now' of Battle Group Quintus and the 'then' of Holy Cion with no real rhythm until the characters come together. Plot elements are abandoned, the Nurgle plague in the prologue has little to no impact on the story, the loss of the flagship Pax Imperialis felt random and no actual objective beyond cross the rift was ever given to the characters.

-Inconsistency on one character's age. The maid-of-all-work Branwen seemed to be depicted as a small child at the start yet by the final few chapters was a full Sister of Battle, only a single paragraph noting the years that passed on Cion, which came after she was given power armor. The Sisters there would have had to survive on a Daemon sieged world for at least 15 or so years for Branwen to be old enough to actually fit in a suit of power armor, which feels unlikely.

-Antagonists are standard Chaos worshippers with no personality or uniqueness. The Crimson Slaughter make a brief appearance but show none of their unique traits and really could have been any random warband. The Daemon Gloranthax had no personality and the novel never explained why it chose to manifest on Cion and fight the Order of the Martyred Lady.

-The standard 'Sister of Battle falls short in her own mind and becomes Redemptia' plot that happens in every single SoB focused novel of course happens here. Seriously I can't think of a single Sisters novel where this doesn't happen. But here the reasoning is even stupider than usual as Lizbet does it to get out of the pressures of being a leader and needing to inspire others, which just felt like pathetic weakness that should have earned her a bolt round to the head.

I don't know how this novel turned out so poorly. Justin Hill's Minka Lesk novels have been quite good, so it's sad to see him produce such a bad book, one that I genuinely regret buying. Hopefully his next book will be better.

[J · Rating 4 out of 5]

‘Better to die in battle,’ the trooper said, ‘than to be put down like a rabid dog.’

[Christian · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was just awesome. I felt like I was watching a war movie with all the black humor; the ups and the downs. There were so many stand up and cheer moments. I hope we see these characters again. Just wow. Wow. It had the best, driest, most grim, most bleak lines. Oh, wow.

[Max Falcon · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is my first Adepta Sororitas novel and even being interested it was a nice surprise! Nothing shocking story wise but really well told and a great glimpse showing how such a faction buries into the imperium and becomes integral, for better and much worse.

[Derek Field · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is overall a good read, but I found the dual narrative difficult to follow at first. The Sororitas are portrayed in all their excellence here, and should make fans of that faction quite happy.

I was very interested in learning some new things too! such as about the Chem Dogs, and how Penitent Engines are populated.

[Connor · Rating 2 out of 5]

Uninspired writing, and choppy. Occasional excitement but for a battle sisters novel, the penal legionnaires supply the most engaging content.

[Tadhg Daly · Rating 3 out of 5]

I agree with some of the other reviews that the constantly shifting POV makes it a little difficult to read. The book definitely takes a little bit to really get you invested.

Despite being a book dedicated to the sisters the penal legion story line ended up being the highlight for most of this story and honestly felt like it should have been its own book in order to give more space for the sisters.

For the actual parts with the sisters I honestly wish they gave Helewise more of the conflict and character building that Lizbet had, not to hate on Lizbet if theres ever a sequel Id like to see more of her as a repentia, but it just felt like for being the “main” sister of this story there wasn’t much to make me really attached to her. I felt like a lot more could have been done with the rivalry between her and Lanette but Lanette sort of fell into obscurity later in the book. The storyline with Branwen was very interesting but also felt like it jumped forward to much and left out some details that could have made for stronger story telling from the sisters perspective.

I really enjoyed the combat in this book and I want to say it is some of my favorite written combat for a 40k book. To be honest I went in with low expectations as this isn’t one of the “core” books people recommend when getting into reading Warhammer books but its still a solid read if you’re looking for something different

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book is called a pilgrim and that’s what we get, a story of the sisters setting off and travelling the dark routes in the Warhammer universe where there is only war.

But more than that we do get more stories on the faith of the sisters, it’s something I’ve seen developed recently, that of faith being less of an uncertainty and more of a real and tangible force.

The story of Morwen was gripping and I almost wish the book focused more on her but then we’d miss out on the main plot line with Helewise.

The action is well written as is typical for the author who really excels in grandiose spectacle with shifting points of view while not allowing the scenes to drag. In and out. Satisfying. Special mention should be given to the void scenes, much like the Morwen sections id equally like to read an entire book set on a starship like the daughter of the emperor.

Over all I rate it high, it’s an enjoyable standalone book with characters that I’d be pleased to return to.

[Nicholas Dell'orto · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nuns with Flamethrowers, not much plot but I'm a fiend for the universe

[Hannah Louise · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was not the ending which I expected, from the state in which the battle sisters and the chem dogs were in at the time I did NOT expect for the rest of the battle fleet to come in absolute CLUTCH and wipe out what was left of the heretics mostly on the land meaning the MAIN battle sisters survived. Although bless Brewens’ soul she did not live through this.

The battle sisters are BADASS one of the most dedicated set of characters which I have read before. They are so devoted to their religion and the emperor that they will sacrifice their life and prepare for their own death when walking into battle.

Many felt their death was close and Sister Superior Helewise previously had wanted her death to mean something so that when she served the emperor her death it would be a worthy one. In the battle on Holy Cion this became true; she prepared herself to serve to battle to her death if it meant cleansing of the traitors.

The fact we had now and then perspectives which originally I did not understand that the “then” were perspectives of previous battle sisters who had survived on holy cion for years keeping the heretics at bay. I did NOT expect the current battle sisters and those considered trapped on Holy Cion to join together in their fight for their live.

I have never read a warhammer book before but this was truly great. Confusing in the first 150 pages but then things start linking and your understanding gets easier. 0-150 is lore building and understanding of the characters history and then you move into their main objection which is to cleanse the land which saint Katherine wanted to (Holy Cion)

[Andreas Esposito · Rating 4 out of 5]

It felt like it took a little while to really get the story moving in an engaging way, but the second half of the book was great!

[Essie Blake · Rating 4 out of 5]

So, full disclosure: my husband is a huge 40k fan. He's been into it since 5th Edition, and has been trying for years to get me into it. When he told me about the Sisters of Battle, it piqued my interest. Nuns with guns? Awesome! Sign me up!

While visiting family in Wichita, my husband and I found a Warhammer store. I asked the staff about the books, primarily, where should I start? I know there's something like 30 million books, most of them being about the Horus Heresy, and I wasn't sure where to begin. A really nice member of the staff asked me what faction I liked, and recommended this one to me. So this is my very first taste of 40k lore.

And I loved it.

The battles were especially well written. I found myself enjoying the epic fights more than any other scenes in the book, although that's not to say I didn't enjoy its quieter moments. But the battles, with all their chaos and gore, were a lot of fun to read.

One drawback - my only critique - was that the book introduced characters and scenarios that the author expected me to already understand, such as locations, bits of history, and the workings of other factions, with very little explanation. The Chem Dogs especially. I got that they were a penal order, so I could put two and two together about where they came from and why they fought, but for brand-spankin' new 40k fans, it doesn't do much to flesh out back stories or history. It just assumes - correctly, I might add - that the target audience is well-versed in the complexities of 40k lore. There were moments in the book where I wanted to put it down and Google some of the characters or events, however, I didn't want that to potentially spoil the ride so I refrained. But overall, the pacing was good, the characters well written, and the battles intense. And? It left me wanting to know MORE, and left me feeling excited to dig into more books released by the Black Library. Games Workshop got me hook, line, and sinker with this!

Although this was my very first 40k book, I doubt it will be my last. This was a very good introduction to my favorite faction.

[Panty]

A really good story that shows the prespective of the sisters.

[Valtier · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed the story, but but but ... however I read better stories about the Adepta Sororitas. This one was suppose to be about Helewise, but it felt it was more about other characters than her.

If you want to read a book about the Adepta Sororitas, if you haven't read any yet, rather pick up the Sisters of Battle Omnibus by James Swallow or the Rose at War by Danie Ware

I read the audiobook Gabriele Nellis Pain did a good job and I really enjoyed listening to her voice.

[Marvin · Rating 1 out of 5]

Mit Abstand das schlechteste 40k Buch, das ich gelesen habe. Alle Charaktere bleiben blass, die Dialoge wiederholen sich so oft und könnten mit ChatGPT geschrieben worden sein. Die Geschichte ist langweilig, voller Löcher und selbst für „Bolter porn“ schlecht. Die Adepta Sororitas haben super viel Potential, aber das hier vergeudet es völlig.

Der Gott-Imperator beschützt - auch vor schlechten Büchern.

[Ridel · Rating 2 out of 5]

Lost in the Dark

Pilgrims of Fire is an aimless mess that is undermined by a trio of major problems: no clear direction, bad pacing, and a failure to grasp the nature of the Adepta Sororitas. The first is nearly impossible to forgive… bolter porn has a simple formula: world at risk, send a squad of Space Marines, overcome grave odds and deliver a pyrrhic victory. It won’t win literary awards but it’ll be damn entertaining.

Yet Pilgrims of Fire fails miserably to set up the stakes - it’s non-obvious where the pilgrimage is headed, and in fact, it’s difficult to even know when the story takes place. The Indomitius Crusade is a hundred-year long endeavour and this novel doesn’t even try to express the when or the why. You barely know the worlds being fought over, much less empathize with the rationale as presented.

Into this mess comes poor pacing - there are three independent plotlines, one about a penal legion that actually outshines the Sisters in its vivid description of prison culture turned into an army, as well as sideplots describing the Imperial Navy. Each plotline has its own set of characters, introductory segments and combined with the short page count, it’s halfway through the book before the plot takes off. The author needed to focus on a story about the Adepta Sororitas.

Which leads to the final major problem: the Sisters are written like another Space Marine chapter. They dispatch daemons as if they were Grey Knights, and one actually solos a Traitor Astartes in melee. What uniqueness there is to their order of battle never comes up, since the army-wide battles are poorly visualized. When their faith comes up, it’s in mocking parody — ex: when the fleet is low on supplies, prayer is used to sustain the crusade.

Not Recommended with reservations. There’s not a lot about the Sisters so beggars can’t be choosers, but this novel is a poor representation of the Sororitas.

The following is in spoiler tags, and I say so since some Goodreads clients may not respect it. You’ve been warned:

Not focusing on the Sisters is perhaps too strong a statement. There was an attempt to discuss Helewise’s background, but all the foreshadowing for that subplot strangely got dropped and never came to a conclusion. I assume it was cut for page count reasons. Similiarly, there’s a Sister Repentia in the making but so little time was spent on her “flaws” that her decision to repent seemed entirely random. This is just weak writing.

On the other hand, a lot of the bad pacing and poor direction is rooted in the author’s attempt to be clever. He weaves the story of Branwen of Cion into the events of Fleet Quintus, but the big twist is that Branwen’s storyline is actually before the formation of the Great Rift. So for great swathes of the book, nobody is worried about Cion’s survival (including the reader, who is reading Branwen’s actions as if it were present day), and when it is clear that the Great Rift will destroy all civilization on Cion, you end up wonder why anyone is hurrying to liberate something that fell apart 100 years ago.

Of course, due to warp time effects, it ends up that they do liberate the planet. So now the journey feels aimless and unnecessary, and when we get there, we get a thematically disconnected happy ending.

Brutal.

[iris ☀︎ · Rating 3 out of 5]

why do they always end with becoming a sister repentia

Real review of Pilgrims of Fire - 3.5 / 5 !

One thing about me is the way I will eat up an Adepta Sororitas novel even if it's not the greatest addition to the lore. At first, I really struggled to get into "Pilgrims of Fire", the plot was just kind of boring and nothing 'unique' really happened (in quotes, because it's a Warhammer book, there's going to be fighting). The initial fight with the Fang Takers doesn't really add anything to the plot and those details are never relevant again, so it was just kind of a bore to get through. Once they went through The Warp and began to undertake the pilgrimage of Saint Katherine, though, I got more and more invested and really enjoyed what was happening.

Along with the Sisters, I really enjoyed reading about the Chem Dogs penal legion that was on this mission with them. I wasn't really familiar with this legion before this but I thought they were really interesting characters and really liked seeing their role in the story play out. While this is an Adepta Sororitas story, this feels like just as much of a story about them and I really enjoyed that!

I do wish there had been a little more of the "Then" chapters just because there's so little with Branwen and we're expected to just accept that she was blessed by the Saint, but even then I still found the overall arc to be a little interesting. I just wish there was more with her / those Sisters to have more of a connection to for later in the story. I also wish there was more reasoning behind Lizbet taking the Oath of Repentance just because her reasoning given seems very... silly for such a serious thing. In a way, that goes back to wanting more "Then" chapters because we see very little of her reasoning.

Overall, I liked this enough because I love the Sisters of Battle, but I wish it was better.

[Michael Morar · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to love this book, I had expectations. In a canon dominated by male Space Marines, I looked forward to a story featuring the Sisters of Battle, the Warhammer 40K universe’s very definition of strong female characters.

In some ways, “Pilgrims of fire” delivered. Sister Helewise and her sisters embody the peak of human strength, physical and mental. They have trained their bodies to peak human strength without genetic augmentation. Their discipline, ingenuity, and resolve in the face of hopeless odds are beyond anything humans are capable of, exceeding anything I’ve read of their Astarte brothers.

In other ways, this was problematic. Accompanying the Adeptus Sororitas’ strength they reinforce problematic traits. Their blind faith, unquestioning service to the ‘God Emperor screams ‘patriarchy’. The sisters punish themselves and each other for events outside of their control or culpability - this is victim blaming.

Their sisterhood is intentionally based on catholic nuns. But I yet sought for, and was denied, something of the strong feminine, Clarissa Pinkola Estes’ “Wild woman” archetype within this oppressive framework. I waited for the characters from Steven Pressfield’s brilliant ‘Last of the Amazons’, but they did not come. I read between the lines for the tension and balance between male and female energy, but couldn’t find it. What a tale this could have been.

Black Library books are geared toward fans of table-top gamers. Warhammer 40K’s core demographic is 12-40 year old males. Perhaps the publishers feel their core demographic does not need nuance or the feminist viewpoint. I disagree, this group needs it the most.

[Hailey Laun · Rating 3 out of 5]

There were parts that I both enjoyed and didn't across the book.

The beginning was hard to follow, with the bouncing POVs and in-depth fighting. I wish we got to see more from Helewise and Branwen. The more important characters didn't get enough of a spotlight to me. For an Adepta Soroitas book, there was a lot of Chem Dogs (which is fine, but not what I was expecting). There were so many named characters and so little time, I didn't truly feel connected to them.

The plot didn't feel committed enough to the Pilgramige. There were times where they would explain what happened after the fact, instead of showing the pilgrimage in real time through the eyes of the sisters. The scenes not committed to battle weren't as detailed. The battle scenes were plenty and they were full of detail. Also there were plot holes. Brining up Helewise's past with Lanete and her home planet, just for it to go nowhere. Those intuned to chaos feeling a cold shiver, like something could happen, but it's nothing. I will also say that there were times where it felt more of a "how many names can I drop" exposition dump instead of really building the world around the characters

[Cat Face Gargoyle Vesta · Rating 3 out of 5]

If there's one thing I love, it's some zealotry. The fake kind, anyway, and as a Sororitas novel, I got what I came for, even if the sisters were pretty flat in terms of characterization. Very few stood out with personalities of their own, most everyone outside of the penal squad (who aren't even sisters) were more interesting than the main characters.

The chapters devoted to recounting the past were the most interesting, and they were spaced out and sparsely detailed when they could have ramped up tension and anticipation for the final encounter.

Lacked polish, but I still had a good time.

[Joe · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not quite as poor as some other reviews make it out to be, definitely not for the uninitiated in this universe though. The book requires a lot of background knowledge of the subject and doesn't quite fully flesh out the characters the way it could do but will still be enjoyable for fans of the game or universe as a whole.

[Alberto · Rating 1 out of 5]

Demasiados personajes, muchos de ellos indistinguibles unos de otros. Saltos de escena cada 2-3 párrafos. La parte del peregrinaje está corta y se siente mocha. Y lo único bueno (para otros, no para mi) es lo que llamaría en inglés bolter porn. Parece escrito por un amateur para su página de Wattpad.

[Nathan S · Rating 3 out of 5]

Started poorly but really picked up once the story got going. Lots of good character development outside of some slightly too long battle descriptions... But that's fairly common in 40k books so I wasn't surprised. Learned a lot about the sisters in general which was nice, rounding out the faction's vibe.

[Alexandre · Rating 2 out of 5]

It isn't bad just avg, the best part isn't about the Adapta Sororitas. You can only have so much to say about the SOB ... They kinda all sound the same, there's a very limited number of options of what can happen. It is like a cake mix... Follow the recipe and you'll have a cake ... not a great cake but an ok cake. That's not the baker's fault ... They have to use the kit. I really like cake !

[Skywatcher Adept · Rating 3 out of 5]

“Silence! Your mother is dead and you are a princess no longer!”
- Sister Lanete's first words to little Helewise entering Sororitas abbey

from Pilgrims of Fire by Justin D. Hill

[Acaer · Rating 3 out of 5]

6/10

[Anastas Kuyumdzhiev · Rating 1 out of 5]

Счупена история, а не се изисква много.
Просто е написано зле, структурирано зле, кулминира зле.
+1 звезда щото просто няма как да няма брутални неща. Pov да си в penitent engine - топ, космически катедрали - бенгър.

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