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Space Marine Battles #Novella
The Eternal Crusader
Fresh from The Ghouls Stars Crusade, High Marshal Helbrecht gathers together as many of his Black Templars as he can and sets out to Armageddon, where Ghazghkhull's second invasion is underway. Given overall command of the void warfare around the beleaguered world, Helbrecht prepares to bring the battle to the greenskins as they arrive in the Armageddon system.
Read it because
See what drives one of the Imperium's most famed heroes! Fresh from a failed crusade (his first as leader of the Black Templars), High Marshal Helbrecht is determined not to repeat his mistakes. Willing to do anything, he'll push his Space Marines (and himself) to their limits to make sure he beats the orks at Armageddon.
128 pages, Kindle Edition
First published August 18, 2014
8 people are currently reading
169 people want to read
About the author
Guy Haley
288 books718 followersGuy Haley is the author of over 50 novels and novellas. His original fiction includes Crash, Champion of Mars, and the Richards and Klein, Dreaming Cities, and the Gates of the World series (as K M McKinley). However, he is best known as a prolific contributor to Games Workshop's Black Library imprint.
When not writing, he'll be out doing something dangerous in the wild, learning languages or gaming.
When not writing, he'll be out doing something dangerous in the wild, learning languages or gaming.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
December 23, 2015
Following in the footsteps of any great man is always a daunting task, no matter the field. To have your works directly compared with another, critically acclaimed success, is always going to be an uphill battle, and it’s always going to risk leaving potentially good works in the shadow of something greater. This always has to be the fear of many authors handling the Third War for Armageddon these days, given the runaway success of Helsreach and then the Yarrick series. Both have rightfully been lauded for their deep narrative and perfectly executed themes, and they’re so entwined into Armageddon’s key figures that they’re impossible to avoid. This is, sadly, at work here with The Eternal Crusader, but perhaps not quite in the way you would expect.
The story here follows the leader of the venerated Black Templars as they sally forth for another crusade. Fuming over his failure to find and annihilate an enigmatic alien race lurking among the Ghoul Stars, High Marshall Helbrecht celebrates news of the Ork WAAAGH! approaching Armageddon. Hungering to perform an act in the Emperor’s service to mitigate their failure, the venerated Battle Barge sails to war once more, but this time against a threat greater than any would expect.
As anyone who has read Helsreach could tell you, this is sadly intrinsically tied into Aaron Dembski-Bowden’s works. With Helbrecht playing a role key to Grimaldus’ stories, the novella needed to reflect that as much as possible, navigating about or working around these scenes as much as possible. This is a difficult task to be sure, and sadly Guy Haley chose a way which, really, only enhanced this problem. Rather than skipping over certain scenes present in Helsreach or working around certain themes, the novella unfortunately focuses upon them. The meeting between great generals featuring the famous stare-down between Yarrick and a Fire Angel Captain, the closing moments of the book with the Eternal Crusader speeding away to hunt after the Warboss of the WAAAGH! and quite a few other moments are replicated. The problem is, there isn’t enough room to really substantiate upon what was shown before, so rather than depicting an interesting alternative view, it sadly repeats certain scenes with slightly different running commentary. The few bits it could expand upon to great effect, notably the losses taken by the Celestial Lions in orbit, are sadly skimmed over and lack impact. The most we see is a few paragraph description of one mentioned event, and that’s about it.
Now, repeating certain events from Helsreach would be fine, but the problem is that the novella then needs to reflect upon Helbrecht’s other actions during the war. Again however, rather than skimming over them or mentioning them, it instead focuses upon this conflict. The rend result is reading about a famous raid on an ork held Space Hulk promptly followed by a few month time skip and then the departure from Armageddon. Now, this might seem like less of an issue to others who don’t remember a very old battle report from over ten years ago (unlike this reviewer) but it leads into the problem that there’s no single narrative. The novella sadly is left jumping back and forth between events, and it doesn’t seem like there’s enough of a cohesive focus upon events, with the consequences and impact of one scene failing to lead into later events. As such, while still entertaining to read as bolter porn, it can leave those with knowledge of the other material The Eternal Crusader ties itself into hungering for something more. Thankfully however, between events, the novella does offer some entertaining moments of character drama.
Much of the story’s opening act focuses upon establishing the Eternal Crusader as an ancient warrior. Guy Haley has a talent for bringing the age and personalities of vehicles to life, and that’s in full force here, as he spends several pages building up the power and grandeur of the ancient warship. You’re given a sense of its warlike nature, its hunger for war and builds the image of the ship as an elder questing knight hunting for new foes. It’s easily one of his best moments since Baneblade’s prologue, and it’s quickly followed up by the introduction to Helbrecht himself. While certainly a different interpretation from the version of the character seen in Helsreach, what we get is nevertheless engaging. While a truly mighty warrior, he presented less like Dante, Calgar or the others, but instead as someone new to his post and looking to cement his new position as head of the Black Templars. While hardly glory seeking or arrogant, he instead is presented as someone not yet fully attuned to his role and still feeling more like a Marshal than the leader of a chapter, something not helped by the failure of his first crusade. While none of his warriors met their end and no ships were claimed by the void, the illusive nature of the xenos species he hunts is galling to him, made all the worse by the countless bodies of Imperial citizens he finds there.
The whole section is grandiose, detailed and overt when it needs to be, yet leaves certain sections purely down to the reader’s imagination. It’s a careful balance rarely found outside of the works of Graham McNeill or one or two others, where the narrative is bombastic and loud enough to be distinctively 40k, but at the same time it’s underplayed and direct when it needs to be. These sections crop in several times in the book, between major events, and it’s during these bits that there’s some real value to be found. You can see that Guy Haley, were he not quite so heavily tied down to replicating other events, could produce a truly outstanding Black Templars novel detailing their nature and some further aspects of their lore. Well, almost anyway. What’s likely to infuriate anyone who truly cares for these moments is when the recent lore keeps creeping in. We repeatedly have Black Templars venerating psykers (even when they’re engaged in hedonistic orgies, like the Eternal Crusader’s navigator) and an entire section focuses upon their lack of a Librarius thanks to an old mistake. It’s hard not to sigh and shake your head in these moments, as they undermine the truly best bits of the novella.
As you might have guessed, it seems that for every step forwards the novella takes each chapter, there’s another step backwards to be made. It’s hardly bereft of positive or fun elements, and it is a sign of Haley’s skill as a writer under the right circumstances, but there are few points where you can read it without stumbling over one problem or another. If you want some great flavour text or for a few great scenes which build upon the character of the Black Templars, this one is recommended, but it’s sadly not worth a full price purchase.
The story here follows the leader of the venerated Black Templars as they sally forth for another crusade. Fuming over his failure to find and annihilate an enigmatic alien race lurking among the Ghoul Stars, High Marshall Helbrecht celebrates news of the Ork WAAAGH! approaching Armageddon. Hungering to perform an act in the Emperor’s service to mitigate their failure, the venerated Battle Barge sails to war once more, but this time against a threat greater than any would expect.
As anyone who has read Helsreach could tell you, this is sadly intrinsically tied into Aaron Dembski-Bowden’s works. With Helbrecht playing a role key to Grimaldus’ stories, the novella needed to reflect that as much as possible, navigating about or working around these scenes as much as possible. This is a difficult task to be sure, and sadly Guy Haley chose a way which, really, only enhanced this problem. Rather than skipping over certain scenes present in Helsreach or working around certain themes, the novella unfortunately focuses upon them. The meeting between great generals featuring the famous stare-down between Yarrick and a Fire Angel Captain, the closing moments of the book with the Eternal Crusader speeding away to hunt after the Warboss of the WAAAGH! and quite a few other moments are replicated. The problem is, there isn’t enough room to really substantiate upon what was shown before, so rather than depicting an interesting alternative view, it sadly repeats certain scenes with slightly different running commentary. The few bits it could expand upon to great effect, notably the losses taken by the Celestial Lions in orbit, are sadly skimmed over and lack impact. The most we see is a few paragraph description of one mentioned event, and that’s about it.
Now, repeating certain events from Helsreach would be fine, but the problem is that the novella then needs to reflect upon Helbrecht’s other actions during the war. Again however, rather than skimming over them or mentioning them, it instead focuses upon this conflict. The rend result is reading about a famous raid on an ork held Space Hulk promptly followed by a few month time skip and then the departure from Armageddon. Now, this might seem like less of an issue to others who don’t remember a very old battle report from over ten years ago (unlike this reviewer) but it leads into the problem that there’s no single narrative. The novella sadly is left jumping back and forth between events, and it doesn’t seem like there’s enough of a cohesive focus upon events, with the consequences and impact of one scene failing to lead into later events. As such, while still entertaining to read as bolter porn, it can leave those with knowledge of the other material The Eternal Crusader ties itself into hungering for something more. Thankfully however, between events, the novella does offer some entertaining moments of character drama.
Much of the story’s opening act focuses upon establishing the Eternal Crusader as an ancient warrior. Guy Haley has a talent for bringing the age and personalities of vehicles to life, and that’s in full force here, as he spends several pages building up the power and grandeur of the ancient warship. You’re given a sense of its warlike nature, its hunger for war and builds the image of the ship as an elder questing knight hunting for new foes. It’s easily one of his best moments since Baneblade’s prologue, and it’s quickly followed up by the introduction to Helbrecht himself. While certainly a different interpretation from the version of the character seen in Helsreach, what we get is nevertheless engaging. While a truly mighty warrior, he presented less like Dante, Calgar or the others, but instead as someone new to his post and looking to cement his new position as head of the Black Templars. While hardly glory seeking or arrogant, he instead is presented as someone not yet fully attuned to his role and still feeling more like a Marshal than the leader of a chapter, something not helped by the failure of his first crusade. While none of his warriors met their end and no ships were claimed by the void, the illusive nature of the xenos species he hunts is galling to him, made all the worse by the countless bodies of Imperial citizens he finds there.
The whole section is grandiose, detailed and overt when it needs to be, yet leaves certain sections purely down to the reader’s imagination. It’s a careful balance rarely found outside of the works of Graham McNeill or one or two others, where the narrative is bombastic and loud enough to be distinctively 40k, but at the same time it’s underplayed and direct when it needs to be. These sections crop in several times in the book, between major events, and it’s during these bits that there’s some real value to be found. You can see that Guy Haley, were he not quite so heavily tied down to replicating other events, could produce a truly outstanding Black Templars novel detailing their nature and some further aspects of their lore. Well, almost anyway. What’s likely to infuriate anyone who truly cares for these moments is when the recent lore keeps creeping in. We repeatedly have Black Templars venerating psykers (even when they’re engaged in hedonistic orgies, like the Eternal Crusader’s navigator) and an entire section focuses upon their lack of a Librarius thanks to an old mistake. It’s hard not to sigh and shake your head in these moments, as they undermine the truly best bits of the novella.
As you might have guessed, it seems that for every step forwards the novella takes each chapter, there’s another step backwards to be made. It’s hardly bereft of positive or fun elements, and it is a sign of Haley’s skill as a writer under the right circumstances, but there are few points where you can read it without stumbling over one problem or another. If you want some great flavour text or for a few great scenes which build upon the character of the Black Templars, this one is recommended, but it’s sadly not worth a full price purchase.
September 14, 2021
Really dislike this novella. IMO it only serves to weaken and undermine all the previous work on the characters and events from Helsreach and the BT as a chapter. Reads like an assignment rather than a project that the author wanted to do. Avoid!
August 27, 2022
Quite boring.
October 27, 2025
An interesting and gripping look at the Black Templars through the eyes of their lord and master (particularly enjoyed the scenes from Helsreach retold through Helbrecht's eyes ...)
September 6, 2014
You can read the full review over at my blog:
http://sonsofcorax.wordpress.com/2014...
I started reading Guy Haley’s novels back in 2012 and I quickly became a fan. His Richards and Klein Investigations duology has a bit of a rough start but it really gets better as it goes on and since then he has done quite a fair bit of work for Black Library’s Warhammer 40,000 and Warhammer Fantasy settings, as well as two original novels for Solaris Books. He has been quite prolific undoubtedly, and I have to say that his particular style of SF really appeals to me. It is descriptive and technical, veering almost into the Hard SF subgenre, and him bringing something like that to Warhammer 40,000 is just amazing.
Last year Guy published three novels with Black Library, but I got the chance to read only one of them unfortunately. Right now I’m in the middle of catching up to a lot of the Black Library stuff that I have missed in the last year and a half, and when I found that Guy had written a Black Templars novella, I got really excited. More when I saw that it was about the Third War For Armageddon. The Eternal Crusader tells the tale of how newly-christened High Marshal Helbrecht of the Black Templars arrives at Armageddon and how he carries out his duty towards the Imperium in the arena of siege warfare. It is one of my new favourite novellas from Black Library, and in a nutshell, Guy totally captures the nature of the Black Templars and Helbrecht’s place in the grand scheme of things.
The novella begins in the Ghoul Stars as the Black Templars’ campaign of extermination of the xenos known as the cythor fiends comes to a close. It has been a costly campaign for the Black Templars and this opening scene with Helbrecht sets the tone for the rest of the novella in terms of the character’s portrayal and his driving motivations. Helbrecht’s interactions with everyone around him, especially with the newly-promoted Reclusiarch Grimaldus contribute to that as well. Helbrecht is the main focus of the novella, and almost all of the action takes place aboard the Eternal Crusader, flagship of the Chapter and a relic from the days of the Horus Heresy/Great Crusade, so there is a certain permanence and consistency to the novella that I loved. There are lots of things to like here, and almost nothing to not like.
The heavy focus on Helbrecht means that the reader gets the spend the most time with him, learning more about him as first he calls to a close the extermination campaign, and then goes to attend the Imperial war council on Armageddon. He is always direct and confident in what he does, which is what endeared him to me so much. Sure, he has his own doubts, doubts related to the Ghoul Stars campaign, but I think that Guy Haley managed it all really well so that it doesn’t come across as Helbrecht being incompetent or anything. Rather the reverse in fact, I dare say.
For me, the only negative about The Eternal Crusader was that the story moved too fast. We get the start of the Third Armageddon War, and then events come to a close in short order. There are whole sections essentially missing, owing to the format of the story. In that, I believe that The Eternal Crusader would have been better off as a novel instead of a novella because it is quite suggestive in places that Guy wanted to take things in a certain direction but had to curtail any and all plans because he only had so much room to work with here. The end comes far too quickly, and it is basically a touchstone for one of the more important bits of lore relating to the campaign at hand, Helbrecht and Commissar Yarrick.
Or the other small fact that some of the events are dealt with in a far too perfunctory manner and that certain things weren’t internally consistent such as a particular conversation between Helbrecht and his Emperor’s Champion Bayard about the latter’s duty and fate. Seemed somewhat incongruous to me, given what happens to Bayward towards the end.
http://sonsofcorax.wordpress.com/2014...
I started reading Guy Haley’s novels back in 2012 and I quickly became a fan. His Richards and Klein Investigations duology has a bit of a rough start but it really gets better as it goes on and since then he has done quite a fair bit of work for Black Library’s Warhammer 40,000 and Warhammer Fantasy settings, as well as two original novels for Solaris Books. He has been quite prolific undoubtedly, and I have to say that his particular style of SF really appeals to me. It is descriptive and technical, veering almost into the Hard SF subgenre, and him bringing something like that to Warhammer 40,000 is just amazing.
Last year Guy published three novels with Black Library, but I got the chance to read only one of them unfortunately. Right now I’m in the middle of catching up to a lot of the Black Library stuff that I have missed in the last year and a half, and when I found that Guy had written a Black Templars novella, I got really excited. More when I saw that it was about the Third War For Armageddon. The Eternal Crusader tells the tale of how newly-christened High Marshal Helbrecht of the Black Templars arrives at Armageddon and how he carries out his duty towards the Imperium in the arena of siege warfare. It is one of my new favourite novellas from Black Library, and in a nutshell, Guy totally captures the nature of the Black Templars and Helbrecht’s place in the grand scheme of things.
The novella begins in the Ghoul Stars as the Black Templars’ campaign of extermination of the xenos known as the cythor fiends comes to a close. It has been a costly campaign for the Black Templars and this opening scene with Helbrecht sets the tone for the rest of the novella in terms of the character’s portrayal and his driving motivations. Helbrecht’s interactions with everyone around him, especially with the newly-promoted Reclusiarch Grimaldus contribute to that as well. Helbrecht is the main focus of the novella, and almost all of the action takes place aboard the Eternal Crusader, flagship of the Chapter and a relic from the days of the Horus Heresy/Great Crusade, so there is a certain permanence and consistency to the novella that I loved. There are lots of things to like here, and almost nothing to not like.
The heavy focus on Helbrecht means that the reader gets the spend the most time with him, learning more about him as first he calls to a close the extermination campaign, and then goes to attend the Imperial war council on Armageddon. He is always direct and confident in what he does, which is what endeared him to me so much. Sure, he has his own doubts, doubts related to the Ghoul Stars campaign, but I think that Guy Haley managed it all really well so that it doesn’t come across as Helbrecht being incompetent or anything. Rather the reverse in fact, I dare say.
For me, the only negative about The Eternal Crusader was that the story moved too fast. We get the start of the Third Armageddon War, and then events come to a close in short order. There are whole sections essentially missing, owing to the format of the story. In that, I believe that The Eternal Crusader would have been better off as a novel instead of a novella because it is quite suggestive in places that Guy wanted to take things in a certain direction but had to curtail any and all plans because he only had so much room to work with here. The end comes far too quickly, and it is basically a touchstone for one of the more important bits of lore relating to the campaign at hand, Helbrecht and Commissar Yarrick.
Or the other small fact that some of the events are dealt with in a far too perfunctory manner and that certain things weren’t internally consistent such as a particular conversation between Helbrecht and his Emperor’s Champion Bayard about the latter’s duty and fate. Seemed somewhat incongruous to me, given what happens to Bayward towards the end.
November 5, 2015
I started reading Guy Haley’s novels back in 2012 and I quickly became a fan. His Richards and Klein Investigations duology has a bit of a rough start but it really gets better as it goes on and since then he has done quite a fair bit of work for Black Library’s Warhammer 40,000 and Warhammer Fantasy settings, as well as two original novels for Solaris Books. He has been quite prolific undoubtedly, and I have to
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews