Kharn: Eater of Worlds: Warhammer 40,000

Warhammer 40,000

by Anthony Reynolds

A Chaos Space Marines Novel

The Horus Heresy is over. The World Eaters are leaderless and their greatest hero is in a coma. Poised on the brink of destruction, the Legion needs Khârn—but will his awakening save them or spell their doom?

Listen because...Khârn is one of the most iconic figures in the Warhammer 40,000 setting, the epitome of Khorne's mortal servants. In this story, you can witness his transition from the World Eaters Captain of the Horus Heresy to the blood-mad betrayer feared across the 41st Millennium.

The the Horus Heresy is over. The traitor Legions have scattered, fleeing the wrath of a vengeful Imperium. The World Eaters are leaderless, their primarch missing and their greatest hero, Khârn, locked in a coma. The surviving Legionaries have turned upon themselves, their Butcher's Nails driving them to ever-greater acts of berserk savagery. Poised on the brink of destruction, the Legion needs direction. It needs someone to rally around. It needs Khârn—but will his awakening save them, or doom them entirely?

Written by Anthony Reynolds. Read by Richard Reed.

Genres: 40k, Science Fiction, Fiction, Audiobook, Military Science Fiction

Audible Audio

First published April 5, 2016

About the author

Anthony Reynolds was a Games Developer and manager at Games Workshop in the UK. Since then he's written freelance for a number of companies, including Black Library Publishing, Mantic Games, THQ, Bandai-Namco, Behaviour Interactive, and River Horse Games. He currently lives in California.

Librarian note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Anthony^Reynolds

Reviews

[Abhinav · Rating 5 out of 5]

You can read the full review over at my blog:

http://sonsofcorax.wordpress.com/2015...

Anthony Reynolds has been writing for Black Library for quite a good while now. I first came across him with his Word Bearers novels, which proved to be a most fascinating and weird read, and then continued on with some of his other work as he branched out of writing Word Bearers for 40K and delivered some occasional Horus Heresy stuff as well. I haven’t checked out his Warhammer Fantasy stuff however outside of a novella he did a few years back, The Questing Knight, which proved to be a good decent read. But, he hasn’t had a full novel published in a while, I don’t think, which was slightly disappointing as I consider him to be one of the better writers writing for Black Library.

And then came Khârn: Eater of Worlds, a post-Horus Heresy novel that looks at how the XIIth Legiones Astartes, the World Eaters, are degrading down into warbands, how the Legion has changed in the aftermath of the failed Siege of Terra, and the other changes affecting it now that Angron has gone and become a mighty Daemon Prince of Khorne, leaving them all behind to do whatever it is they will. Anthony writes a pretty typical World Eaters novel, with all the gory violence you’d expect from it, and it also presents some intriguing characters, especially Khârn himself, the most infamous World Eater character ever, and also a major lore character. Suffice to say, I loved this novel.

The Horus Heresy introduced Khârn to us as a simple officer, Captain of the Eighth Assault Company and equerry to Primarch Angron, being the only one who could head off his gene-father’s darker moods. It was an interesting look at a character who for years has borne the title of Betrayer, Khârn the Betrayer, most famous for annihilating a force of fellow World Eaters and Emperor’s Children single-handedly on the world of Skalathrax soon after the Horus Heresy. He is a mainstay of Khornate lore in M41, and has been so for years, but for a long time, we didn’t get a chance to see how he became that crazed berserker who was the most exalted of Khorne’s mortal-ish followers.

When Khârn: Eater of Worlds starts off, we meet a stricken World Eaters legion that is being hounded across the void by Imperial Space Marines. Angron is gone off on his own, leaving the Legion behind, and the World Eaters are bereft of any strong leadership since Khârn fell on Terra and though his body lives, he is in a coma out of which the few remaining Legion apothecaries have not been able to rouse him. The Legion needs supplies, it needs some fresh blood to replace its decimate ranks. And so it is that that the Legion fleet arrives on a world near the Eye of Terror, a world that can serve as the base for it to grow again, only to find that the remnants of the Emperor’s Children have already laid claim to it.

Goes without saying that there’s going to be a batter here, one of the most brutal such battles in the Scouring era, and that though the novel might start off with Khârn in a coma, by the end he is most definitely going to be alive and kicking and hungering for some Emperor’s Children blood.

Anthony Reynolds established quite a few elements of the Word Bearers’ culture in his Word Bearers trilogy. He gave them an identity that was unique among all of the other Chaos Space Marine Legions, building on existing background and creating new one. In Khârn: Eater of Worlds, he doesn’t quite go the same route, but he shows very well how the Legion is changing from that of Nails-crazed berserkers with a tenuous grip on their lucidity to a Legion of blood-crazed warriors. Many among the Legion have already fallen to the service of Khorne, Lord of Blood and Skulls, but a few still cling to the old ways. Many have given up the white and blue of the Legion and have taken to dabbing their armour completely with blood to signify their new allegiance. Many among the fractured Legion want to leave the unity of the fleet behind and go their own way since there is no one at the top to restore order, no Angron and no Khârn.

[Josh · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like this book, but feel like there's little there plot wise. I realise this is setting the scene for the rebirth of the legion, and the reawakening of Khârn, but it's still pretty bare bones. The plot has essentially 3 points: the first half of the book, Khârn is unconscious, and appears set to stay that way. Then he awakens, then there is a relatively short battle with the emperor's children. And that's it. Characters are developed in fair detail, but little of substance is done with them. I feel like material is stretched, and more should've been included rather than saved for future books.

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this book. Kharn is a great character and Reynolds really captures the struggle of the World Eaters. One slightly disappointing aspect is the little bit of the title character that is in the book. Since it is named after him I expected him to be front and center throughout the action but he doesn't appear to maybe midway through. Dreagher and many of the mortals really help to carry the story and evoke a clear understanding about these Eaters of Worlds.

[DarkChaplain · Rating 3 out of 5]

For what it is, it's great.... but it's definitely not a complete story. Character arcs don't pay off, setup is never scored on, big mysteries and B-plots are just abandoned by the time the end hits.

This isn't a case of some elements simply falling by the wayside for the benefit of the main plot. It's a factor for almost every single character. There are conflicts built up all throughout which would naturally come back around in the second half of the novel... if it had a second half, and didn't end at the midpoint of the narrative curve.

It is blatantly obvious that this short novel wasn't intended to stand as an individual piece, but is the victim of canned plans for a direct sequel. This is even more clear to fans of the background material this novel works towards: The Battle of Skalathrax. That's the pivotal moment where Khârn becomes the "Betrayer" - something that is foreshadowed in this novel too, with everything working towards his betrayal of the Legion. It's just one more major plot direction that gets cut off by the book's end, being left for the sequel to deal with.

Eater of Worlds stands as a shining (or bloody) example of what can happen when a carefully plotted novel with many intriguing character dynamics, twists and buildup never receives the follow-up it was clearly planned around. It's what happens when a prospective trilogy gets axed after book one, despite that entry's strengths and clear successes.

Sadly, this isn't something that Black Library has been particularly good about during that timeframe; David Guymer's Iron Hands trilogy still stands unfinished, for instance, and Warhammer Fantasy had multiple series shortened or axed not long before Khârn: Eater of Worlds dropped.

As it stands, I struggle to fault the author for the state of Khârn, rather than his publisher.

[Simon · Rating 2 out of 5]

This isn't actually a novel, it is at best a fluff piece of lore you'd expect in a legion sourcebook. There's no beginning/middle/end, there's no real character development, it basically just sets up a fight, then has the fight, then it just stops.

So add a couple of stars if this is your legion, but as a novel reading experience, it was sadly deeply lacking.

[James Owens · Rating 3 out of 5]

“Kharn’s eyes opened and the blood began to flow.”
Solid world Eaters story, it was a little slow for the beginning espionage for it being about World Eaters but once Kharn woke up then it got good. Kharn is literally like Doom Slayer on steroids best 40K character in my opinion.

[Miles Taylor · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not much going on in this story, but fun for what it was.

[Taylor L · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was alright. In terms of plot, it felt like about 1/3rd of a whole book. It interestingly fleshes out the interactions of different traitors well after the Assault on Terra, but there's not much else here.

[Daniel · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was glad to get ahold of this book and devour it. Chaos Space Marine novels are not rare, but there are not many to choose from. Kharn the Betrayer is the leader of the World Eaters. He is barely alive after the Battle of Terra and his chapter, a pack of bloodthirsty maniacs for the most part, are aimless, leader less and at the mercy of the Butcher's Nails, the implants the Primary Angron demanded they all receive. These implants make an already unsteady and unpredictable Space Marine a raving engine of destruction.
There is only one problem. Kharn is in a coma and will not be awoken. The leaders of the rabble have little to no control of their warriors, and the beast of less aggression tries to control the killing monster. The World Eaters need a war, and it takes the 3rd Legion, the Emperor's Children to bring them one. Traitor Legion versus Traitor Legion. Ah, isn't life grand?
This book is a quick read but is action packed and the characters are solid and interesting, even though they are not good and certainly not heroes. I find myself rooting for them though because I realized just how terrible existence for them is, and I also was thrilled when they were let loose to unleash their rage and bloodshed. Great book about a chapter that is not easy to write about. It you like 40k, you should read this book.

Danny

[Michael Dodd · Rating 4 out of 5]

On the twenty-fifth day of Christmas, Black Library gave to us…a World Eaters novel from Anthony Reynolds. Released on Christmas Day as the final part of the 2014 advent calendar, Khârn : Eater of Worlds is set post-Heresy, looking at the fractured and damaged remnants of the World Eaters legion in the aftermath of the Siege of Terra. Their primarch is gone, the chain of command ravaged, and rival factions are forming and threatening to rip the legion apart; the only one who might be able unify the legion is Khârn, but he lies unresponsive in a coma after being pulled from the battlefield on Terra.

Read the rest of the review at http://trackofwords.wordpress.com/201...

[Paul Sparks · Rating 5 out of 5]

not a lot of Kharn

But what there is very good as is the whole book, good to see legion III being scolded and just verbally

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

World Eaters carnage with enough meat in the viscera to make it an enjoyable romp.

[Callum Shephard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Of all the characters brought into the spotlight over the past few years, few have changed more than Khârn the Betrayer. Defined for many years as the epitome of berserker rages and blood fueled madness, both he and the World Eaters were sadly defined only by obsessive screaming and skull taking. As with Abaddon the Despoiler however, this has recently taken a change for the better, more thoroughly fleshing out his character. Along with Aaron Dembski-Bowden’s Betrayer, fans have received Chosen of Khorne and Khârn: The Eightfold Path to help flesh out the legion, and Eater of Worlds easily slides to help fill in the gaps between these tales.

Following their flight from Terra, the World Eaters legion is crumbling in upon itself. Isolated amid the time-warped reality of the Eye of Terror, more of their number are falling prey to the Butcher’s Nails with every passing day. Already several warbands have broken off from them, with others threatening to leave, and the legion itself commanded by blood-thirsty maniacs. To the few who still retain their sanity, it is obvious that the XII is on the brink of fracturing, totally and utterly, and needs unity. To Draeger, one of the few to still bare the cerulean and white of their colours, the answer to this dilemma lies comatose within his warship…

The first thing to praise immediately is the novella’s length. Something which has all too often hamstrung certain tales is the ultra-short nature of many previous Black Library stories, and sticking to that size would have crippled Eater of Worlds. Thankfully, as a result of this foresight, what fans get is more of a short novel, two-hundred-and-twenty-two pages long and fully fleshing out the road leading to Skalathrax. As a result, rather than a rushed tale focusing purely upon a few primary characters, what readers are given is a sizable cast worthy of any Horus Heresy installment and more time to really focus upon its ideas over immediate conflict.

The novella makes it clear from the very start that the World Eaters are only inches away from the blood frenzied warbands of M41. While largely still deploring Chaos, many of their number have fallen into praying to the Blood Father, and many more are losing themselves to war. Confined aboard their vessels, sudden, manic outbreaks of violence are rife among the warriors. This is depicted with an atmosphere of quiet resigned dread, even acceptance among their number. Much of the opening half of the book focuses purely upon a pair of leaders tracking down a homicidal astartes, the impact of his actions and the breakdown of even the most basic signs of trust which once existed. Rather than just rushing into things, it takes tips from Betrayer to use violence only as it is truly needed rather than turning into pure bolter porn. This said, as we see everything from legion serfs to former Centurions reflecting upon their bloody nature, it avoid’s Betrayer’s mistake of turning them into a broken joke of a legion. Even on the brink of annihilation here, time is taken to still show that they are exceptionally capable fighters without going utterly nuts with it.

Many of the more memorable moments of the book stem from two aspects. The first is that, while still ultimately a Warhammer tale, there are some surprisingly effective horror tropes at work here. While having nowhere near the impact of Joe Parrino’s stories, Reynolds is the one other author to try to tell a horror story with the astartes, and manages to get it right. This is largely thanks to the aspects found among the human crewmen, especially the medicae Skoral, who find themselves on the receiving end of violent outbursts more than once. At these points, the tale emulates some of the better aspects of slasher films or Alien in these moments, and it helps make their hostile nature all the more clear. Even if these are the legionaries serving as the tale’s protagonists, it makes it very evident just what kind of monsters they truly are while still giving you reasons to root for them. It further helps to better emphasise the losses and strain following Terra, all the while cranking up the tension among the characters.

Speaking of the characters themselves, Eater of Worlds takes an unusual angle with Khârn. He’s on the cover, he’s in the title, but in this we never see into his mind. Instead we see him through the eyes of others, often legionaries, as he is gradually built up narratively into a living legend. Rather than following examples in recent years, what we have here seems to follow an older approach Black Library once took with its big name characters. By using competent, capable paragons of certain forces as viewpoint characters, it boosts the heroes on the tabletop to new heights. They are incredibly proficient in the art of killing yet Khârn is a league above them, and through this the reader is helped to gain a better impression of something which is less human and more a living avatar of war. We only get bits and pieces about the Betrayer himself, yet it’s presented in enough of a way to keep you invested rather than feeling cheated of any interesting tidbits.

As ever however, for every strength there is a failing of some kind, and Eater of Worlds has its fair share. The most prolific among these is that, while boasting a wide and varied ensemble of characters, the novella struggles to balance them out. Each has an interesting history to them and background information, and yet all too often many are pushed far into the background. Atop of this, without some true introductions and limitations on easing the reader into detailing who is who, the characters sadly start to blur together. While Skoral, Brond, Galerius, Dreagher, and Khârn himself obviously, all stand out, the others can be hard to keep up with at times. This unfortunately hurts the tale badly as it lays the groundwork for a potentially outstanding series, but it’s so crammed in here that even the focus characters simply aren’t given enough of a chance to shine. They instead seem too much like archetypes and representations of ideas, not characters in of themselves.

A further problem also stems from the novella’s pacing. While building up to a later event and using violence surprisingly sparingly, there are some surprisingly dense scenes of dead air during the first half. The fact the World Eaters are doomed is rammed home again and again, that without something to unite them they are as good as dead, but there isn’t enough drive to it. The initial hunt helps to emphasise this to a point, but following that too many scenes seem as if they are a diversion. An interesting diversion to be sure, but it becomes an increasingly repetitive one before the end.

Then of course there’s the problem of the story’s structure. Much of it seems to rely upon the reader already having some considerable awareness of the setting, the events of the heresy and what will follow. It’s the middle of a tale, following on from Terra but stopping right before Skalathrax in some truly frustrating sequel baiting, and unless you are familiar with events it can be hard to keep up. Furthermore, the novella also ties in heavily to Chosen of Khorne, with many of the same characters and even themes emerging. It seems to have been written at least in part to serve as a prequel, and without that grounding some of the meaning behind a few twists might be lost on readers. This is, of course, not to mention the fact that the aforementioned sequel baiting leaves the tale very open ended. We do not see the fates of many characters and there are still plenty of plot threads left dangling. It’s enough to set up something solid for a series, and makes me truly hope we are getting one, but as a stand alone story it just lacks the closure a casual reader would want.

Also there’s the cover. Honestly, this might seem like a petty gripe, but after Chosen of Khorne the image of him on the cover looks cartoonish. Khârn’s hardly the exemplar of subtlety yet we’ve seen far better with him done many times before, and it’s only made worse when compared with the wonderfully illustrated legionaries adorning the book’s back.

For all this good and bad however, Khârn: Eater of Worlds proves itself to be an entertaining book which remains a cut above the usual bolter porn. Fans of Chaos Space Marines will definitely get a kick out of this story and it provides far more content than the average hard back short story Black Library wheels out. While primarily presenting the potential for a running series, it nevertheless does enough to keep you wanting to read until the end and helps to flesh out the universe that little bit more. As something to help bridge the gap between the Horus Heresy and the Black Legion series, you could easily do far worse than this.

[Jacob Bennike · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a rather short book but it’s one of the best BL novels that I have read when it comes to the storytelling of space marine combat. It’s also one of the best showcases of post heresy life aboard chaos space marine ships, told in a way that is grim dark in its truest form and not in the “herp derp chaos is so evil that it makes no sense that they are still around” way that sometimes happens when BL and GW forgets that there are no good guys in their stories.

You will like this book if you like the world eaters or the emperors children, and probably if you’ve liked anyone of the Horus heresy books. You can probably skip it if you’re into the more modern 40K lore, because it’s really just a good story about Kharn.

[Caleb Helsel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Starts off pretty slow, although it does provide some good context and lore for who the World Eaters are and the ordeal that is their existence. Once Kharn shows up the book becomes significantly better. Last 3rd of the book is really gripping and the final battle of Skalathrax against the Emperor’s Children is great. The Emperor’s Children were great antagonists who were very good foils for the World Eaters, being the opposite of them in character in every way. I will say that for newer 40K fans, this book suffers much of the same problems of other 40K books where names are dropped and you are expected to know who they are without context. My assumption is that the print version has a Dramatis Personae, but the audiobook does not, which makes it difficult to keep track of who is who.

[Matthew Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very much a bridging story, so you need to at least read something like "Betrayer" for this to really impact; but it continues a very strong and exciting depiction of the year 30,000 World Eaters, and Kharn in particular, which I worry may have almost become too great to satisfactorily (and tragically) 'drag down' to the 'burn, maim, kill' one-dimension of the Warhammer (year) 40,000 'on board' depiction.

[Lemuel CyroN Salubo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Post-Horus Heresy look at the World Eaters, not always viewed at the perspective of the titular character, but different influential viewpoints in the World Eaters legion. Kharn coming back form the brink of death is not too surprising, wondering if Siege of Terra will respect the lore here or could there be retcons.

Not too bad of a novel, though after finishing it now, it feels like not much has happened over the course of those 247 pages.

[Askur · Rating 4 out of 5]

Could've been better. Still a good read, though, but it needed way more than what we were given. Feels like the begging of something, maybe a series. It scratches the surface of Khârn character but does not goes that deep

readable, the author is a really good writer and should've been given more pages ‼️

[Max Falcon · Rating 3 out of 5]

A really fun story even if it is ultimately just to set up Kharns earned title. The cast is fun and it's nice to see this early post heresy world eater faction slowly then quickly fall apart.
Main issue isn't even one with the work itself, more that it doesn't fully end since it's a set up for a bigger war we don't get to see here, leading to a rather abrupt ending.

[Michael T Bradley · Rating 2 out of 5]

Decent enough, but I personally find the Word Eaters fairly dull. Also a little odd that it presents itself as being a story about Kharn, yet he's mostly doing Emperor LARPING for the first half of the book.

Then the third act shows that the World Eaters are the dumbest legion out there, and it's pretty silly.

Oh, well. It definitely didn't overstay its welcome.

[Dawie · Rating 5 out of 5]

To summ it up...Khârnage...For such a short Warhammer novel, collosal events take place. This was my first Khân experience and hopefully not my last. Blood for the Blood god! It was also refreshing to read some warhammer from the Chaos side of things. I have not come accross many of these yet.

[Alex Lazar]

Rating: 4.5/5 stars

Thoughts:
A fun deep dive into the dynamics between members within the World Eaters. While short, I found Eater of Worlds provides a surprising look into Kharn and his role as leader of the 12th legion.

[Bea O · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun characters and engaging writing, but confusing story format. The build up to Kharn coming back only for the book to end quite abruptly makes this feel like the sequel or prequel to something else rather than its own standalone novel.

[Attila · Rating 4 out of 5]

The best Kharn/World Eaters and one of the best chaos space marines stories of all time :)

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent and very satisfying read.

[Vaclav · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reading felt similar to watching a super hero movie. Bland characterization, an interesting premise, and superb action scenes.

[Luke Burris · Rating 2 out of 5]

Set in the expansive 40K universe and featuring a character referenced in other books, sadly this title is undone by poor writing and sentence structure.

[Joanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5

[Robert Edwards · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was definitely a bloody good book! I can't give it 5 stars though unfortunately as it wasn't anywhere near as epic as betrayer but they set the bar pretty high with that book.

[Sunlogix · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very little Kharn in this book.