Hand of Abaddon

Dawn of Fire #8

by Nick Kyme

Dawn of Fire Book 8

As the Indomitus Crusade rages on, Inquisitor Rostov discovers vital intelligence that could reveal the plan of the notorious Hand of Abaddon, and hastily gathers together those loyal to his cause.

READ IT BECAUSE
The dark schemes of the Hand of Abaddon near fruition. Can the already stretched forces of the Imperium manage to hunt down and prevent this new threat?

THE STORY
Defending the Anaxian Line, Ultramarines Lieutenant Ferren Areios uncovers a dread vision that has ties to the mission of an old ally. Meanwhile, Magda Kesh campaigns alongside the 84th Mordian. Though she refutes her fate as something more than a mere soldier, is she truly touched by the Emperor?

Despite a fractious alliance, the Hand’s scheme is reaching culmination. Amidst the infighting, Tharador Yheng yearns to be free of her master Tenebrus’ shadow and claim her destiny. But another acolyte has embarked on his own path, the Red Corsair Graeyl Herek. Both vie for the favour of the Dark Gods, and the means to harness an ancient evil that could reshape the war between the Imperium and Chaos.

Genres: 40k, Science Fiction, Audiobook

480 pages, Paperback

First published September 21, 2024

About the author

Nick Kyme (b. 1977) writes mostly for Black Library. His credits include the popular Salamanders series and several audio dramas.

Reviews

[Lukas Deicke · Rating 3 out of 5]

A mediocre book at it's worst and a Solid read at it's best.

[Jack Neighbour · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really struggled with this. Feel like the dawn of fire story line has lost some gravitas and some peril. Also dislike the way the ultramarines are written in this.

[Jay · Rating 3 out of 5]

A lot of pieces moved around the board for the series finale

[Miles Taylor · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had a hard time getting into this one. Very meh.

[Matt Tyrrell-Byrne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Took longer than I expected to get through, at times a bit of a slog. I dunno.

Feels like it’s been written to force the conclusion of several storylines that were set up earlier in the series since it’s being stopped with the next book.

Some of the story arcs were good and interesting, others felt clunky and a lot of the action felt wooden, a lot of “Star Trek red shirt” moments (ie introduce a person or thing and immediately have them die).

Could just be me, I don’t seem to be a big fan of Kyme’s work!

[Delta · Rating 3 out of 5]

This feels like a "Avengers Part 1" of the Warhammer Literary Universe. This is a book where threads and characters come together and stuff begins to happen, but unfortunately, the book struggles due to multiple reasons, first of which is that to have this 8 books in is just too late. There's too many pieces on the board and too many disconnected threads setup without enough care, so almost 80% of the book feels like just having people do some stuff to have them finally go to the one place they're all needed to be at the end, often the stuff they do to get there has _very_ little weight and feels like filler in a book that's already overstuffed with exposition and setup for things to come. Even the author seems to have recognized this to some degree and tried to cut down the cast one way or another, but unfortunately often it ends up taking stuff away from characters that made them interesting in the first place (Rostov without his retinue is in the end just another very generic Inquisitor)

There is some interesting stuff here and some revelations and developments we've waited on for a while and that's what the 3 stars are for, but I cannot in good faith go higher than this because even spending a sizeable book bringing all the threads together, a lot of it still feels disjointed and due to the overbooking a lot of plotlines still feel very remote to a big picture that should have been set up much stronger three if not four books earlier in this series.

So yeah, if you've followed Dawn of Fire up to this point, obviously you will read this and I'm not saying you shouldn't. But it's also not the leadup to a grand Siege of Terra-like finale that will make me go "You have to read this now!"

[Nazzadan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Giving this a slight rating bump for actually moving the Dawn of Fire plot along after a few entries in a row of nothing at all happening (even though Sea of Souls is the best in the series). This entry suffers the most from too many concurrent storylines but does it's best to consolidate it down to just a few strands going into the upcoming final book in the series.

I just truly do not care about the Ultramarines in this series and they take up a large chunk of this book, all of the other Unnumbered Sons that joined different chapters throughout the series have been so much more interesting. Areios and Co. are exactly what the mental image is of a boring space marine, contrasted by the very well written and exciting Red Corsairs subplot. Nick is apparently much better at writing Chaos Space Marines, would have loved a full book of that.

It was very cool to see the Votann kin show up in a book, Rostov continues to be a great character, Kesh's story is going in fun places.

[Jayme · Rating 3 out of 5]

Feels like a third act in an action movie which is always the least interesting for me. Low on the characterisation, low on the intrigue, low on the world building - all “time to save the world”

Love the continued use of “theoretical/practical” by the Ultramarines. Didn’t necessarily love how quickly it broke into long action sequences though. Typically prefer to build to it and preferably only have 1-2, maybe 3 action sequences max., otherwise it gets away from me.

Sure it gets the story going unlike Sea of Souls, for example, but I really do just prefer a solid story, no matter how relevant to the overall plot, than I do a continuation of the story.

Didn't do it for me, but as always I enjoyed my time in the world and enjoyed seeing the characters established early on continued here.

[Gary · Rating 4 out of 5]

The cost for power and glory

Another great entry in the dawn of fire series. This here story does a great job of setting up the next and final entry in the dawn of fire series as well as bringing lots of plot threads together from previous entries.

Great action set pieces with explosive confrontations , Though i found the ultramarines a bit flat character wise, Nick does a great job of showing how brutally efficient space marines can be.

I did enjoy the soft introduction of the Votun. They literally demand a full-on book to themselves, which i hope we het to see soon.

Especially liked Kesh and Syrienal, and of course the many varied and wonderful backstabbing hands of abaddon, which I'm sure we are going to see more of soon.

Bring on the finale!

[Laurence · Rating 3 out of 5]

As the penultimate book of a nine-book cycle, you already know if you're going to read this or not. And while some volumes of the series may be almost standalone in nature (such as 'The Iron Kingdom', and 'Sea of Souls' in particular), this one is full-on buried in metaplot, to the degree where someone unfamiliar with previous events would be entirely lost.

Big events happen in the pages, yet perhaps too much - major characters are introduced and killed soon thereafter, leaving one to wonder how this will all wrap up in the final volume. Maybe the series was intended to be longer and more things had to be stuffed into this book, a timeline pushed forward, or else this was done for 'shock value'. Either way, it leaves the volume as a whole rather overwhelming, too much at once.

[FrancescoA · Rating 4 out of 5]

Premise: the Dawn of Fire series, for me, started with a bang, but then ended up in a confusing and boring mess, especially after book 4. So much that I skipped entirely books 5 and 6.
Things however got better with 7, and this book, #8, keeps the positive trend up.

Without spoilers, I found the story compelling and all the different subplots interesting, although some more than others. In the end, It seems this book closed some story threads and set all pieces ready for a big finale.

The next book will be the last of the series, so I hope it will keep the positive trend of the last two books and deliver a proper satisfactory ending.

[Blazej · Rating 3 out of 5]

The shadowy council which guides Games Workshop's lore department is unpredictable when it comes to guessing where major plot points will be resolved. Sometimes we get a book or a series which immediately becomes one of the milestones for the setting. Other times, as is the case with Hand of Abaddon, the payoff for a story device built up over many novels is delivered unexpectedly in a 'weird' book full of what feels like C-tier characters hurriedly field-promoted to poster heroes of their factions.
There are welcome explorations and interesting insights about the 'current' state of 41k but overall, it's a meandering tale which often feels like a collection of short stories.

[CJ · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best black library book that I have read recently.
This book is way better than the end and the death which is too slow and bloated.
It might not be written with the same eloquence as a masterpiece like Saturnine but the pacing is excellent and the action set piece is grim and haunting.
The best part is that it actually moves the overall plot of 40k forward with possibly far reaching consequences in the next book.
The reforging of Anathame alone is enough reason to read this one.

[JorgVonRiminsk · Rating 1 out of 5]

The weakest entry in the series. It is not only a bad book (events before page 300 can be summarized in 20 pages and even there it is deus ex machina moving things), it also drives the entire Dawn of Fire series in a weird spot. Instead of focusing on the "epic scale" events relevant for the Indomitus era the story seems to be turningia a tiny sorcery adventure rather irrelevant for the WH40K universe. Let`s cross our fingers for the last book.

[Alberto · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lo mejor de todo acá es ver cómo se unen distintas líneas narrativas y personajes que parecen al principio inconexos en una historia que no deja de sorprender. Me hubiera gustado tener más tiempo para explorar la psicología de algunos personajes importantes pero a veces sentí que iba demasiado rápido. A pesar de eso, súper buena lectura.

[Vaclav Kubicek · Rating 4 out of 5]

Solid addition to the Dawn of Fire series. I didn't enjoy some of the storylines too much (Herek, Yheng), but others were great (Magda Kesh). I was very curious about Leagues of Votan. I hoped this faction will by somehow interesting. But I'm rather disappointed so far. I'm looking forward to the final book.

[Tom Fishwick · Rating 4 out of 5]

I did like that a load of the disparate threads of the Dawn of Fire came together and that we saw some of the Leagues of Voltan.
The problem with the Hand of Abaddon is that they seem to alternate between the epic gang of villains and being a bunch of minor gangsters arguing in their local pub. I also have no idea what the Herek plotline was about.

[Charles · Rating 4 out of 5]

Finally Some Progress

Excellent addition to the series, really moving the story forward and the introduction of the squats was fantastic. Looking forward to the rest of the series.

[Christian Hamilton · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not amazing. Not bad. Brings all of the characters together for what will ultimately be a huge showdown, I’m sure. There was a pretty cool scene involving Kesh, and a bit of good character development for Rostov.

Definitely read it to setup the finale.

[Christian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh, wow. What a fun read! I’m sure the last in the series is going to be epic.

[Anthony Dias · Rating 3 out of 5]

The editors at Black Library are slacking. Kyme can write a good yarn but this is substandard for a flagship series.

[Christopher · Rating 5 out of 5]

Full of Daring do, plot twists, three dimensional character and epic world building! :D

[Ben Secker · Rating 5 out of 5]

Everything is starting to come together! Outstanding book. Can't wait for the finale!

[Ken Rodriguez · Rating 4 out of 5]

First hate, then devotion, then fire. Ave Imperator.

[Ridel · Rating 2 out of 5]

Without spoiling -- the author doesn't understand that actions should lead to consequences. Victories should be deserved. This book is just filled with writer fiat.