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Warmachine
Dark Convergence
Artificer General Sebastian Nemo has faced myriad dangers while serving his king and kingdom, but none so fascinating and sinister as the Convergence of Cyriss.
In the wake of an unprovoked attack on the Cygnaran town of Calbeck, Nemo and his forces hasten to confront the strange clockwork soldiers and machinery led by a young warcaster prodigy named Aurora, Numen of Aerogenesis. Nemo soon learns of the Convergence’s plans to transform Caen and its people to suit their enigmatic goddess, who favors machines over the living.
Amid this clash Nemo must withstand the temptation of the Convergence’s message to those who, like himself, are fascinated by technology. Aurora proves to be a different sort of enemy than he has faced before—something of a kindred spirit, albeit one bent on destroying all he holds dear.
In the wake of an unprovoked attack on the Cygnaran town of Calbeck, Nemo and his forces hasten to confront the strange clockwork soldiers and machinery led by a young warcaster prodigy named Aurora, Numen of Aerogenesis. Nemo soon learns of the Convergence’s plans to transform Caen and its people to suit their enigmatic goddess, who favors machines over the living.
Amid this clash Nemo must withstand the temptation of the Convergence’s message to those who, like himself, are fascinated by technology. Aurora proves to be a different sort of enemy than he has faced before—something of a kindred spirit, albeit one bent on destroying all he holds dear.
Kindle Edition
First published May 22, 2013
3 people are currently reading
75 people want to read
About the author
Dave Gross
199 books138 followersDave Gross is the author of ten novels, notably the adventures of Radovan and the Count, including Prince of Wolves, Master of Devils, Queen of Thorns, and King of Chaos. Formerly the editor of such magazines as Dragon, Star Wars Insider, and Amazing Stories, Dave has also written novels for the Forgotten Realms and Iron Kingdoms settings. For more tales of Radovan and the Count, including free short stories, check out http://paizo.com/pathfinder/tales.
For more on Dave's current and upcoming projects and events, go to .
For more on Dave's current and upcoming projects and events, go to .
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
August 12, 2013
(crossposted from Lost Hemisphere's forums - http://losthemisphere.com)
Let me start by confirming what you already know – I’m not a literary critic. Heck, I’m not even particularly well read when it comes to knocking titles off the “Top 100 Sci-fi/Fantasy novels you should read” list. Accordingly, there are SPOILERS below, and much will, I’m sure, make more sense once you’ve actually read the book yourself.
I do enjoy my stories, regardless of the medium. I’ve been involved in gaming as we understand it since 1986, having been introduced to D&D by my then-stepfather. The construction of the gaming narrative has been a significant part of what I enjoy about gaming, even down to constructing storylines in my head when playing Warhammer Quest back in 1990… damn, I feel old now…
Long story short, fluff and backstory are a huge part of gaming for me. A game faction could have the most amazeballs models ever… but if I can’t get into the backstory, I can’t get into the faction. Accordingly, I was very excited about the launch of Skull Island Expeditions. The prospect of canon fiction ranging across the length and breadth of Privateer Press’ Iron Kingdoms filled me with warm fuzzy feelings. Whether or not we were to get answers to long-standing mysteries of the background fluff wasn’t the point – we were promised vignettes showcasing personalities, highlighting events that have heretofore been largely unknown. Every story we’re given gives us more of a feeling for personalities, which can further enrich our own gaming experience as we build narratives in our heads.
Dark Convergence, by Dave Gross, picks up after the end of Gross’ novella The Devil’s Pay, in which mercenaries under the employ of the Cygnaran nation discover that a new and frightening threat – the Convergence of Cyriss – have not only been developing within Cygnar’s borders, but have gone so far as to capture the town of Calbeck, erecting a mysterious structure that’s surely engaged in shenanigans, and everyone’s favourite grumpy old man warcaster – Sebastian Nemo – can’t be having with any of that.
Now, I’ll confess, while I enjoyed The Devil’s Pay, it wasn’t my favourite of the launch novellas from Skull Island Expeditions. I enjoyed it well enough, but in the end felt that the ensemble cast would have been better served from a full length novel. With that in mind, I picked up Dark Convergence with admittedly average expectations, but this time I was well and truly hooked within the first chapter. I had a lot more difficulty putting the iPad down at night (cos, ya know, e-book) with Dark Convergence than I’ve had for quite some time.
The story of Dark Convergence is a tale of two Warcasters.
On the one hand, Artificer General Sebastian Nemo. Hero of Cygnar, the genius behind much of the voltaic technology employed by his nation’s military. Old soldier, Mentor, a man who has sacrificed even his marriage and relationship with his daughter on the altar of patriotic duty.
On the other hand, Aurora, Numen of Aerogenesis. Young, headstrong; a brilliant inventor in her own right, and the sole offspring of the nominal head of the Convergence of Cyriss. Entitled, demanding, and frustrated at every turn by her inability to maneuver politically within the circles of power.
This is where Gross’ writing starts to play with your head. Nemo’s old, having served his nation for decades. He’s tired of war and the constant sacrifice it demands, but will keep on fighting because it’s his duty. By comparison, Aurora’s a mere stripling. She has been raised not by her mother, but by the Convergence, such that more than anything else she yearns to sacrifice her physical form and to assume a clockwork body, but like a petulant teenager she’s thwarted at every turn by her mother. These are two very different characters… who are both gifted inventors, both dedicated to their causes, both struggling at times to deal with subordinates who forget that they’re subordinate, and on a deeper level, both so damn lonely.
A big part of the reason I enjoyed Dark Convergence as much as I did was that as the story flicked back and forth between perspectives – first Nemo, then Aurora – I lost track of just who I was supposed to be rooting for. Okay, we know the setting, Cygnar are the default good guys, but at the same time I’ll be damned if I didn’t feel for Aurora and want her to win – to earn the approval of the Iron Mother and finally undergo the Animus Corpus procedure, to thumb her nose at the duplicitous priest Septimus, to grow and be the person that her attendant Sabina seems to think she can be.
That’s another point right there – the supporting cast. It’s been said that any hero is only as good as his villains, but in a case where both antagonist and protagonist can be potentially viewed as the heroes of the piece, I’d say that shifts to any hero only being as good as their supporting cast. While Sabina fills the role of doting mother figure, Septimus and his assistant Bogdan work to undermine Aurora, while poor old Prefect Pollux just wants to get his soldiers back. In the other camp Storm Chaser Caitlin Finch plays the daughter caring for her stubborn grandfather in his dotage. Blackburn is the old comrade in arms, and then there’s Mags Jernigan, cancer survivor and amputee, who through no fault of her own keeps reminding Nemo of his own failings and reinforcing his sense of loss.
It’s the depth of interaction between each that appealed to me, I think. The words between the lines, things unsaid. Had things been a little different, would Mags and Nemo have been a couple? The implication’s certainly there, and it only serves to underscore events later in the text. What of Aurora and Sabina? That Aurora has to essentially pull rank when she’s up to something stupid speaks volumes of the depth of Sabina’s devotion, despite her being a subordinate Clockwork Angel.
This brings to mind a third point I wanted to address – the Shower Scene.
Early in the book, there’s a scene where Aurora returns to her aerie and proceeds to remove her armour and have a shower/steam bath, during which she holds court with some of her officers. One podcast I recently enjoyed referred to the scene as unnecessary fan service. I don’t see it the same way; rather, I think it’s an important moment in establishing the terms of the relationships between Aurora and her subordinates, and the nature of the Convergence. It is, after all, the first time we meet Septimus, Bogdan and Pollux in the text.
To my mind it parallels Nemo’s breakfast with Mags Jernigan. In that moment we see Nemo let his guard down somewhat, we see him interact with someone he sees on some levels as an equal. It’s established that on some levels he feels that he’s failed Mags, and at the same time we see him circumnavigating an interrogation. It’s a brief moment when we get to see Nemo at work as a person rather than as the Artificer General.
Back in the Convergence camp, we have Aurora, who’s been raised since infancy believing in the tenets of the Convergence, utterly convinced of the fallibility of flesh and the need for clockwork perfection. She throws her weight around and has her officers ushered in despite Sabina’s well-intentioned and soft-spoken objections; she observes Bogdan almost completely derailed by her nakedness, she makes mental notes on Pollux’s reaction, and Septimus could care less. Not only does this show us as readers that Aurora is potentially working with a different set of behavioural codes to most, but it also gives us a barometer for the Animus Corpus procedure. Septimus has been in a clockwork vessel for decades (centuries?) – the flesh no longer has any appeal for him whatsoever. Bogdan is, well, all too fleshy entirely, and so reacts as many men would when confronted by a superior sans ... everything.
Pollux is the one to note, since despite his being in a clockwork body, he’s still taken aback, albeit briefly. Not only does this mean that the detachment from a normal human body will eventually result in complete disinterest in matters carnal, as with Septimus, but it also underscores the nature of the Clockwork soldiers of the Convergence of Cyriss. Per Pollux’s reaction, despite being hardwired into metal bodies, the troops of the Convergence are still human.
This may, in fact, be one of the oddest concepts to embrace when reading about the Convergence’s army, hence I appreciate the Shower Scene. Despite their appearance as automatons, each and every trooper is powered by a living human soul, that has undergone the Animus Corpus procedure and been divorced from flesh and encased in steel. It’s easy to forget this and think of the Convergence as a bunch of robots with the occasional human in their midst, but with this scene Gross establishes the real nature of the Reductors, Clockwork Angels, Reciprocators and more. I think there’s a lot more going on with the Shower Scene than mere titillation… and yes, I’m aware that I’ve now written several paragraphs about a naked woman and a handful of unwitting voyeurs.
The back-and-forth continues throughout Dark Convergence, keeping the story fresh. It’s a technique I first encountered with Tad Williams’ Otherland series, but where Williams stumbled and left me verging on contempt by engaging me with one group of characters and then switching to characters I simply didn’t care about but had to wade through in order to maintain the flow of the story, Gross succeeds. The story changes gears and perspectives without misstep, and while part of me laments the break from internecine politics and Aurora trying to dodge her mother-hen bodyguard, I’m at the same time sucked into action with Nemo, Finch, and even the Jimmies, three storm smiths who may nor may not be named Jimmy.
In the end we see the story escalate from what would be maybe a 15 point game of Warmachine, to a donnybrook including the Prime Axiom and multiple Battle Engines on both sides of the fight; it’s not only a good opportunity to read about the war machines (hah) of the Convergence in action, to aid in perhaps developing your own narrative as you play games, but with a little concerted effort I could see someone building a story-based campaign out of the events of Dark Convergence. Action! Danger! Allusions of romance! Treachery! Death! A Circle Orboros cameo and a cup of tea! Bonus points to whichever homebrew game campaign designer can work in Nemo’s teapot.
Dark Convergence was the first full length novel from Skull Island Expeditions, and if it’s any indication of the level of things to come, it bodes well for the future of the imprint. As for the author, Dave Gross is now on my radar, and I’m breaching through game systems to read his Pathfinder novels, starting with Prince of Wolves. Stay tuned, I’m sure I’ll have a good ramble about that one once I’m done too.
FWOOSH!
Let me start by confirming what you already know – I’m not a literary critic. Heck, I’m not even particularly well read when it comes to knocking titles off the “Top 100 Sci-fi/Fantasy novels you should read” list. Accordingly, there are SPOILERS below, and much will, I’m sure, make more sense once you’ve actually read the book yourself.
I do enjoy my stories, regardless of the medium. I’ve been involved in gaming as we understand it since 1986, having been introduced to D&D by my then-stepfather. The construction of the gaming narrative has been a significant part of what I enjoy about gaming, even down to constructing storylines in my head when playing Warhammer Quest back in 1990… damn, I feel old now…
Long story short, fluff and backstory are a huge part of gaming for me. A game faction could have the most amazeballs models ever… but if I can’t get into the backstory, I can’t get into the faction. Accordingly, I was very excited about the launch of Skull Island Expeditions. The prospect of canon fiction ranging across the length and breadth of Privateer Press’ Iron Kingdoms filled me with warm fuzzy feelings. Whether or not we were to get answers to long-standing mysteries of the background fluff wasn’t the point – we were promised vignettes showcasing personalities, highlighting events that have heretofore been largely unknown. Every story we’re given gives us more of a feeling for personalities, which can further enrich our own gaming experience as we build narratives in our heads.
Dark Convergence, by Dave Gross, picks up after the end of Gross’ novella The Devil’s Pay, in which mercenaries under the employ of the Cygnaran nation discover that a new and frightening threat – the Convergence of Cyriss – have not only been developing within Cygnar’s borders, but have gone so far as to capture the town of Calbeck, erecting a mysterious structure that’s surely engaged in shenanigans, and everyone’s favourite grumpy old man warcaster – Sebastian Nemo – can’t be having with any of that.
Now, I’ll confess, while I enjoyed The Devil’s Pay, it wasn’t my favourite of the launch novellas from Skull Island Expeditions. I enjoyed it well enough, but in the end felt that the ensemble cast would have been better served from a full length novel. With that in mind, I picked up Dark Convergence with admittedly average expectations, but this time I was well and truly hooked within the first chapter. I had a lot more difficulty putting the iPad down at night (cos, ya know, e-book) with Dark Convergence than I’ve had for quite some time.
The story of Dark Convergence is a tale of two Warcasters.
On the one hand, Artificer General Sebastian Nemo. Hero of Cygnar, the genius behind much of the voltaic technology employed by his nation’s military. Old soldier, Mentor, a man who has sacrificed even his marriage and relationship with his daughter on the altar of patriotic duty.
On the other hand, Aurora, Numen of Aerogenesis. Young, headstrong; a brilliant inventor in her own right, and the sole offspring of the nominal head of the Convergence of Cyriss. Entitled, demanding, and frustrated at every turn by her inability to maneuver politically within the circles of power.
This is where Gross’ writing starts to play with your head. Nemo’s old, having served his nation for decades. He’s tired of war and the constant sacrifice it demands, but will keep on fighting because it’s his duty. By comparison, Aurora’s a mere stripling. She has been raised not by her mother, but by the Convergence, such that more than anything else she yearns to sacrifice her physical form and to assume a clockwork body, but like a petulant teenager she’s thwarted at every turn by her mother. These are two very different characters… who are both gifted inventors, both dedicated to their causes, both struggling at times to deal with subordinates who forget that they’re subordinate, and on a deeper level, both so damn lonely.
A big part of the reason I enjoyed Dark Convergence as much as I did was that as the story flicked back and forth between perspectives – first Nemo, then Aurora – I lost track of just who I was supposed to be rooting for. Okay, we know the setting, Cygnar are the default good guys, but at the same time I’ll be damned if I didn’t feel for Aurora and want her to win – to earn the approval of the Iron Mother and finally undergo the Animus Corpus procedure, to thumb her nose at the duplicitous priest Septimus, to grow and be the person that her attendant Sabina seems to think she can be.
That’s another point right there – the supporting cast. It’s been said that any hero is only as good as his villains, but in a case where both antagonist and protagonist can be potentially viewed as the heroes of the piece, I’d say that shifts to any hero only being as good as their supporting cast. While Sabina fills the role of doting mother figure, Septimus and his assistant Bogdan work to undermine Aurora, while poor old Prefect Pollux just wants to get his soldiers back. In the other camp Storm Chaser Caitlin Finch plays the daughter caring for her stubborn grandfather in his dotage. Blackburn is the old comrade in arms, and then there’s Mags Jernigan, cancer survivor and amputee, who through no fault of her own keeps reminding Nemo of his own failings and reinforcing his sense of loss.
It’s the depth of interaction between each that appealed to me, I think. The words between the lines, things unsaid. Had things been a little different, would Mags and Nemo have been a couple? The implication’s certainly there, and it only serves to underscore events later in the text. What of Aurora and Sabina? That Aurora has to essentially pull rank when she’s up to something stupid speaks volumes of the depth of Sabina’s devotion, despite her being a subordinate Clockwork Angel.
This brings to mind a third point I wanted to address – the Shower Scene.
Early in the book, there’s a scene where Aurora returns to her aerie and proceeds to remove her armour and have a shower/steam bath, during which she holds court with some of her officers. One podcast I recently enjoyed referred to the scene as unnecessary fan service. I don’t see it the same way; rather, I think it’s an important moment in establishing the terms of the relationships between Aurora and her subordinates, and the nature of the Convergence. It is, after all, the first time we meet Septimus, Bogdan and Pollux in the text.
To my mind it parallels Nemo’s breakfast with Mags Jernigan. In that moment we see Nemo let his guard down somewhat, we see him interact with someone he sees on some levels as an equal. It’s established that on some levels he feels that he’s failed Mags, and at the same time we see him circumnavigating an interrogation. It’s a brief moment when we get to see Nemo at work as a person rather than as the Artificer General.
Back in the Convergence camp, we have Aurora, who’s been raised since infancy believing in the tenets of the Convergence, utterly convinced of the fallibility of flesh and the need for clockwork perfection. She throws her weight around and has her officers ushered in despite Sabina’s well-intentioned and soft-spoken objections; she observes Bogdan almost completely derailed by her nakedness, she makes mental notes on Pollux’s reaction, and Septimus could care less. Not only does this show us as readers that Aurora is potentially working with a different set of behavioural codes to most, but it also gives us a barometer for the Animus Corpus procedure. Septimus has been in a clockwork vessel for decades (centuries?) – the flesh no longer has any appeal for him whatsoever. Bogdan is, well, all too fleshy entirely, and so reacts as many men would when confronted by a superior sans ... everything.
Pollux is the one to note, since despite his being in a clockwork body, he’s still taken aback, albeit briefly. Not only does this mean that the detachment from a normal human body will eventually result in complete disinterest in matters carnal, as with Septimus, but it also underscores the nature of the Clockwork soldiers of the Convergence of Cyriss. Per Pollux’s reaction, despite being hardwired into metal bodies, the troops of the Convergence are still human.
This may, in fact, be one of the oddest concepts to embrace when reading about the Convergence’s army, hence I appreciate the Shower Scene. Despite their appearance as automatons, each and every trooper is powered by a living human soul, that has undergone the Animus Corpus procedure and been divorced from flesh and encased in steel. It’s easy to forget this and think of the Convergence as a bunch of robots with the occasional human in their midst, but with this scene Gross establishes the real nature of the Reductors, Clockwork Angels, Reciprocators and more. I think there’s a lot more going on with the Shower Scene than mere titillation… and yes, I’m aware that I’ve now written several paragraphs about a naked woman and a handful of unwitting voyeurs.
The back-and-forth continues throughout Dark Convergence, keeping the story fresh. It’s a technique I first encountered with Tad Williams’ Otherland series, but where Williams stumbled and left me verging on contempt by engaging me with one group of characters and then switching to characters I simply didn’t care about but had to wade through in order to maintain the flow of the story, Gross succeeds. The story changes gears and perspectives without misstep, and while part of me laments the break from internecine politics and Aurora trying to dodge her mother-hen bodyguard, I’m at the same time sucked into action with Nemo, Finch, and even the Jimmies, three storm smiths who may nor may not be named Jimmy.
In the end we see the story escalate from what would be maybe a 15 point game of Warmachine, to a donnybrook including the Prime Axiom and multiple Battle Engines on both sides of the fight; it’s not only a good opportunity to read about the war machines (hah) of the Convergence in action, to aid in perhaps developing your own narrative as you play games, but with a little concerted effort I could see someone building a story-based campaign out of the events of Dark Convergence. Action! Danger! Allusions of romance! Treachery! Death! A Circle Orboros cameo and a cup of tea! Bonus points to whichever homebrew game campaign designer can work in Nemo’s teapot.
Dark Convergence was the first full length novel from Skull Island Expeditions, and if it’s any indication of the level of things to come, it bodes well for the future of the imprint. As for the author, Dave Gross is now on my radar, and I’m breaching through game systems to read his Pathfinder novels, starting with Prince of Wolves. Stay tuned, I’m sure I’ll have a good ramble about that one once I’m done too.
FWOOSH!
May 27, 2013
Dark Convergence is a great first novel for the Iron Kingdoms setting. The characters are dynamic and the alternating perspectives gives a great view into the thoughts and actions of Sebastian Nemo and Aurora. The Convergence of Cyriss is spetacularly introduced in this novel and it is very obvious that Dave Gross paid extra special attention to the source material. Fans of Warmachine will love this book. Fans of Scifi/Fantasy will love this book.
June 25, 2013
Fun book with excellently described battles. Fun if you're a warmachine or iron kingdoms fan, but people may struggle if not familiar with the world. Still really enjoyed the book and loved have a perspective from both sides of the battles.
July 25, 2014
A solid good read. There was a surprising amount of characterization for such a short action filled book. This kind of book is never going to win awards as literature but it was fun and I enjoyed it.
December 31, 2025
It was fairly interesting. From a Warmachines game perspective, I didn't know anything about the Convergence faction and now I do. The story is ok, let's see what comes next.
May 28, 2014
Though I really liked how the writer fleshed the two main characters, out (heck, I even bought a Nemo figure after reading this), the logical bumps and the unnecessarily long battle scenes drag down the book from being excellent. BE ADVISED - some parts may contain SPOILERS!
Some thing that bothered me:
- To a borderline village's relief Nemo brings Thunderhead, the one-of-a-kind warjack, one of the most precious military machine of Cygnar, which only sees war in the greatest of encounters.
- Nemo gets to know way too much about the Convergence. With such knowledge and his fervour to defend the homeland, all of the Cyriss temples are going to be torn down across Cygnar in no time - and that would been the end of the Great Work for the Convergence.
- The things about Mags are way too predictable.
- Even after the sabotage I fail to see the reason behind Nemo's sudden and violent attack. He could have no real idea what Aurora wants to do in the village, and his forces were greatly outnumbered.
This is not a definite negative trait, but despite the glossary you must be well versed in the Iron Kingdoms and Warmachine lore to fully enjoy and understand the book.
But there were also things I really liked:
- Some subtle humour
- Insightful details about one of the greatest warcaster of Cygnar, and his apprentice
- Story in general fits well into the setting of the Iron Kingdoms.
- Great details about the Convergence, their influence upon Caen, and how they differ from other sci-fi universes' cardboard "evil-robot-factions"
All in all, I didn't regret reading this one. Though not flawless, it is an enjoyable read to dive into the Warmachine lore.
Some thing that bothered me:
- To a borderline village's relief Nemo brings Thunderhead, the one-of-a-kind warjack, one of the most precious military machine of Cygnar, which only sees war in the greatest of encounters.
- Nemo gets to know way too much about the Convergence. With such knowledge and his fervour to defend the homeland, all of the Cyriss temples are going to be torn down across Cygnar in no time - and that would been the end of the Great Work for the Convergence.
- The things about Mags are way too predictable.
- Even after the sabotage I fail to see the reason behind Nemo's sudden and violent attack. He could have no real idea what Aurora wants to do in the village, and his forces were greatly outnumbered.
This is not a definite negative trait, but despite the glossary you must be well versed in the Iron Kingdoms and Warmachine lore to fully enjoy and understand the book.
But there were also things I really liked:
- Some subtle humour
- Insightful details about one of the greatest warcaster of Cygnar, and his apprentice
- Story in general fits well into the setting of the Iron Kingdoms.
- Great details about the Convergence, their influence upon Caen, and how they differ from other sci-fi universes' cardboard "evil-robot-factions"
All in all, I didn't regret reading this one. Though not flawless, it is an enjoyable read to dive into the Warmachine lore.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 10, 2013
Tried to like this, especially since I fell in love with Into the Fire, another of the Iron Kingdoms books. This one however reads like really awful Warhammer 40 k fiction. I really hope the rest of the books are better cause this one stinks.
August 2, 2015
A wonderful book in the Warmachine world that gives the player and reader some more information on the Cyriss in this magic/steampunk setting. More than just a story about combat, it also is about temptation, loss, and getting older.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews