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Shield of Baal #Novella
Devourer
As war rolls across the Cryptus System, Blood Angels Sergeant Jatiel and his squad are far from the fighting, standing sentinel over a dead world. Across the galaxy another threat rises as the necron overlord Anrakyr the Traveller seeks to awaken a tomb world – a goal that will ultimately lead him into the heart of the battle for the Cryptus shieldworlds and a desperate alliance with the sons of Sanguinius.
The battle for the Cryptus systems reaches its climax as Xenos both newly spawned and incomprehensibly ancient clash. In this warzone, even the most bitter of rivalries are set aside in the face of utter destruction. The necrons make great antagonists, but here we have one of only a handful of titles where we see war from the perspective of these ancient warriors.
The battle for the Cryptus systems reaches its climax as Xenos both newly spawned and incomprehensibly ancient clash. In this warzone, even the most bitter of rivalries are set aside in the face of utter destruction. The necrons make great antagonists, but here we have one of only a handful of titles where we see war from the perspective of these ancient warriors.
128 pages, Hardcover
First published December 19, 2014
About the author
Joe Parrino
28 books17 followersJoe Parrino is the author of the audio drama The Shape of the Hunt and the short stories 'Witness', 'The Patient Hunter', 'In Service to Shadows' and 'No Worse Sin'. He lives, writes and works in the American Pacific Northwest. When not writing, Joe can be found skulking through the rain-lashed forests of the region. Like the elusive sasquatch, he enjoys reading, writing, pestering friends, traveling and other assorted activities.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
August 30, 2015
I was getting into this Warhammer 40K novella, when I came to the end. Except it was not really the end. Aggh. Now I have to see if there is a follow up to this story. The 40K authors have many books and I will have to search to find the right one. Otherwise, I enjoyed this story, which spent most of the time showing events from the alien's point of view, and the humans had a small role in the story. A different take for sure, but fun to read.
January 7, 2015
Fantastic novella! Written from the perspective of the Necrons and full of lore from this seldom well explained Warhammer 40k faction. I loved the detail he put into "fleshing" out these living machines. A great addition to 40k fluff, I would gladly read more from this author!
April 6, 2015
This novella recounts a Necron vs. Necron vs. Tyranids complex with Space Marines kind of thrown in. The scale changes from epic to tactical throughout the story. It is entertaining as far as bolter porn is concerned and it features Anrakyr the Traveler, a prominent Necron character.
November 4, 2020
Oh I do so love that Anrakyr and his travels.
May 11, 2015
The problem going into this story is that, right from the word go you can tell it’s completely the wrong type of tale for this format. Novellas have been hit and miss in the pass with Black Library, and it’s not hard to see where those misses stemmed from. The unsuccessful ones overburdened themselves, trying to tell too vast a story with too many characters and perspectives at once, without streamlining itself. Daenyathos, Masque of Vyle, and the more renowned ones all did this, following a single straight forwards event rather than anything too vastly broad. The only one which has gotten away with this so far is Eater of Worlds, and even that was only thanks to an extended length and primarily focusing upon two groups of characters. Devourer though? You have three major parties, several major ambitions, and entire war and at the same time trying to present a completely alien perspective. Mashed together and compressed as they are, what we’re let with is an overstuffed and overburdened tale which would have been far better suited to a full novel, or ditching two of the major protagonists.
The story ties into Games Workshop’s Shield of Baal event, and serves as an infamously similar moment where a Necron Dynasty allied itself with the Blood Angels during a war with the Tyranids. Having traveled to the Cryptus System as it is beset by the a tendril of Hive Fleet Leviathan, Anrakyr the Traveller seeks to awaken another Tomb Complex and add its warriors to his cause. Even as the slumbering immortals awaken, Anrakyr finds himself fighting a three way war between himself, the Tyranids and a band of Blood Angels tasked with defending this world. War, as ever, has a habit of making the strangest of bedfellows…
The bulk of the story revolves around Anrakyr as he tries to hold the world, Cryptek Valnyr as she is awoken from within her tomb, and the rest surrounding Sergeant Jatiel of the Blood Angels. The reason I say “the rest” is that Jatiel’s tale is sadly tacked onto the story, contributing little to the tale itself until the final couple of paragraphs. The fact is that this story could have been done completely without the astartes and it would have been all the stronger. It’s somewhat unfortunate as this is one of the few tales involving them where their every last characteristic isn’t defined by their primarch and twin curses, but there’s really little actually to them. Removing them and replacing their arc would have strengthened the tale considerably by focusing purely upon the necrons for a number of reasons, chiefly to help develop the ideas behind them.
What proves to be relentlessly frustrating throughout the entire tale is how the necrons themselves waver on the edge of being truly interesting. We have two completely separate Dyansties meeting one another for the first time, one awakening for the first time in millennia and the other combating what should be entirely new threats. Yet for all this we only catch brief shades of what could be a stronger tale. There’s interesting moments to be sure where the story throws up some solid questions. After awakening a number of necrons wonder how many of their people have survived and if the Webway is even intact, while others accompanying Anrakyr have been noted to have traversed the galaxy for countless centuries before he began his personal crusade. Atop of this, there are shades and moments where we start to see where the more differing ideas and concepts which might help to truly better depict the race from an inwards perspective (well, to do so without them treating the scenery as a gourmet dish anyway) but then the book starts to make mistakes. It starts calling the Tyranids just as “Tyranids” when there’s no actual reason for them to do so, and it’s the same with the astartes. Well, no, not even that as “astartes” might have some weight rather than just Space Marines over and over again. This basic element does a lot to rob the story of any feeling that these are alien ancient robots rather than dressed up humans, and it only gets worse from there.
Both of the necron protagonists have little actual opportunity to (no pun intended) become fleshed out, often boiling down to a few general characteristics. Anrakyr is arrogant, almost spiteful at times and driven, but he’s very two dimensional here and it honestly seems that his accompanying necron advisers are the more interesting characters. It’s only made worse when his dialogue and thoughts can be sadly cliched at times, with his clipped statements and repeatedly commenting upon the repugnant nature of organic beings hardly helping. Valnyr is little better, as despite her prominent role within the Tomb Complex she never impresses upon the reader as being a figure in control or a position of power. With more time, more pages and spacing there might have been a chance to properly depict this between her alarmed awakening and the horror of discovering that flayers are among them, but it’s so squashed in that she just seems powerless. Rather than character moments, we just get a constant chase with no moment to really let up on the action or explore things.
Even the action here is very mixed from the start. Some moments are good, but others are surprisingly poor. The big failing often tends to be trying to depict massive armies acting or fighting at once, as a lot of the bigger bits tend to be skipped over or described in very general details. Parrino has always succeeded when it comes to smaller focus tales like an Inquisitorial strike group, a lone Librarian or even duels, and a full blown planetary invasion just doesn’t come across well here. The scale of Leviathan’s invasion is never delivered with much impact from Anrakyr’s perspective, and a lot of elements here seem all too conveniently tied up or added via sudden suggestions by side characters.
It needs to be stressed that there was a good story in here, but it was buried beneath overstuffed storytelling, a demand for action, and a non-ending which seems to just tie into another book. It would be fantastic to see this author be given a real chance to map out and cover the necrons in a book where they were the sole focus, but for this one it’s not worth your time really. Perhaps consider it if you’re die hard necron fan and you want a few good ideas or concepts, but otherwise skip this one.
The story ties into Games Workshop’s Shield of Baal event, and serves as an infamously similar moment where a Necron Dynasty allied itself with the Blood Angels during a war with the Tyranids. Having traveled to the Cryptus System as it is beset by the a tendril of Hive Fleet Leviathan, Anrakyr the Traveller seeks to awaken another Tomb Complex and add its warriors to his cause. Even as the slumbering immortals awaken, Anrakyr finds himself fighting a three way war between himself, the Tyranids and a band of Blood Angels tasked with defending this world. War, as ever, has a habit of making the strangest of bedfellows…
The bulk of the story revolves around Anrakyr as he tries to hold the world, Cryptek Valnyr as she is awoken from within her tomb, and the rest surrounding Sergeant Jatiel of the Blood Angels. The reason I say “the rest” is that Jatiel’s tale is sadly tacked onto the story, contributing little to the tale itself until the final couple of paragraphs. The fact is that this story could have been done completely without the astartes and it would have been all the stronger. It’s somewhat unfortunate as this is one of the few tales involving them where their every last characteristic isn’t defined by their primarch and twin curses, but there’s really little actually to them. Removing them and replacing their arc would have strengthened the tale considerably by focusing purely upon the necrons for a number of reasons, chiefly to help develop the ideas behind them.
What proves to be relentlessly frustrating throughout the entire tale is how the necrons themselves waver on the edge of being truly interesting. We have two completely separate Dyansties meeting one another for the first time, one awakening for the first time in millennia and the other combating what should be entirely new threats. Yet for all this we only catch brief shades of what could be a stronger tale. There’s interesting moments to be sure where the story throws up some solid questions. After awakening a number of necrons wonder how many of their people have survived and if the Webway is even intact, while others accompanying Anrakyr have been noted to have traversed the galaxy for countless centuries before he began his personal crusade. Atop of this, there are shades and moments where we start to see where the more differing ideas and concepts which might help to truly better depict the race from an inwards perspective (well, to do so without them treating the scenery as a gourmet dish anyway) but then the book starts to make mistakes. It starts calling the Tyranids just as “Tyranids” when there’s no actual reason for them to do so, and it’s the same with the astartes. Well, no, not even that as “astartes” might have some weight rather than just Space Marines over and over again. This basic element does a lot to rob the story of any feeling that these are alien ancient robots rather than dressed up humans, and it only gets worse from there.
Both of the necron protagonists have little actual opportunity to (no pun intended) become fleshed out, often boiling down to a few general characteristics. Anrakyr is arrogant, almost spiteful at times and driven, but he’s very two dimensional here and it honestly seems that his accompanying necron advisers are the more interesting characters. It’s only made worse when his dialogue and thoughts can be sadly cliched at times, with his clipped statements and repeatedly commenting upon the repugnant nature of organic beings hardly helping. Valnyr is little better, as despite her prominent role within the Tomb Complex she never impresses upon the reader as being a figure in control or a position of power. With more time, more pages and spacing there might have been a chance to properly depict this between her alarmed awakening and the horror of discovering that flayers are among them, but it’s so squashed in that she just seems powerless. Rather than character moments, we just get a constant chase with no moment to really let up on the action or explore things.
Even the action here is very mixed from the start. Some moments are good, but others are surprisingly poor. The big failing often tends to be trying to depict massive armies acting or fighting at once, as a lot of the bigger bits tend to be skipped over or described in very general details. Parrino has always succeeded when it comes to smaller focus tales like an Inquisitorial strike group, a lone Librarian or even duels, and a full blown planetary invasion just doesn’t come across well here. The scale of Leviathan’s invasion is never delivered with much impact from Anrakyr’s perspective, and a lot of elements here seem all too conveniently tied up or added via sudden suggestions by side characters.
It needs to be stressed that there was a good story in here, but it was buried beneath overstuffed storytelling, a demand for action, and a non-ending which seems to just tie into another book. It would be fantastic to see this author be given a real chance to map out and cover the necrons in a book where they were the sole focus, but for this one it’s not worth your time really. Perhaps consider it if you’re die hard necron fan and you want a few good ideas or concepts, but otherwise skip this one.
September 26, 2021
Brilliant addition to the collection, quite interesting to see the point of view of two different necron parties and a space marine Sargent. Plenty of action, just a shame it was a novella rather than a fully fleshed out book as a part of this series. Would say it's nice to read this before / after Dante but before devistation of Baal. Quite liked this author work here and hadn't read anything of his prior.
September 25, 2026
The necrons sections of this story were it's best parts. They have to deal with not only humans covering their tomb world but then the planet gets to host a Tyranid kegger. On top of that, the flayer curse is doing a number on the tomb world itself and our boy Anrakyr is just having a really bad day.
The Blood Angel sections were just very standard bolter porn and the bit at the end was mildy amusing.
The Blood Angel sections were just very standard bolter porn and the bit at the end was mildy amusing.
August 14, 2023
If you like 40k novels that are nonstop battle with characters being a lesser priority, you will love this book. That’s not my thing, but the novella got me even more interested in the Necrons. I’d enjoyed “The Infinite and the Divine” immensely and I think I’ve found a new faction. It doesn’t hurt that I’m a Blood Angels fan and these two armies are now entwined.
February 17, 2019
Very average. Lot of carnage but little intrigue or revelation.
October 24, 2026
Pretty cool story. Main message: everyone hates the fucking Tyranids, they wont fucking stop eating things.
January 18, 2015
Too short, and the entire book basically amounted to a single battle. No real story development, even compared to a regular 40k novel...
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews