The Remnant Blade

by Mike Vincent

A Warhammer 40,000 Novel

A disgraced Night Lord must deal with infighting and insurrection among his cadre and a bloody-handed rival to maintain his waning grasp on power. Could a new conquest be what he needs to set things right and regain what he has lost?

READ IT BECAUSE
It's a glimpse into what passes for politics among the most cruel and merciless of Heretic Astartes. They're not only a nightmare to their foes, but to their rivals as well, and will stop at nothing to satisfy their ambition and bloodlust.

THE STORY
Dalchian Rassaq, the Skin-Taker, erstwhile lord of the Blades of Atrocity, is broken, battered, and betrayed. From the heights of infamy he has fallen, and now his Night Lords face the threat of extinction under the command of a hated rival. Would-be allies and merciless foes circle, and what few warriors remain loyal to him are riven by open defiance. Dalchian must outplay his rivals and regain mastery among his own, or be condemned to oblivion.

As the whisper of a phantom voidship reaches him, he sees a chance to reclaim what he has lost and strike out at those who have wronged him. With only a renegade tech-priest and the cruelty of the Night Lords to his advantage, his ordeal will be great. But the will of the Skin-Taker is no meagre thing, and his blades yet thirst…

Written by Mike Vincent.

Genres: 40k, Science Fiction

387 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 3, 2025

Reviews

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

A suitably grim Night Lords tale with a genuinely fun plot with a few little lore tidbits that I really enjoyed (I.E. the Nostraman tech in use by the Imperium, the weirdness of the Black Ships, and a Sahaal namedrop).

Where most Night Lords books I've read add a normal human point of view to ground the madness, Vincent eschews that completely. This is all Night Lord all day baby, and it sure is a gory sight to behold.

This is going to make me sound like an insane person, but I found the story oddly inspiring? SUUURE his name is Skintaker but haven't we all hit a low point in our lives that we never thought we'd get out of, only to somehow turn it around. I'm reading this at an extremely low point of my life, so seeing our characters journey was genuinely helpful. IF SKINTAKER can thrive with naught but a handful of warriors, maybe I too can surmount my own private battles.....just without all the murdering....and skin taking....hopefully?

[Vincent Knotley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Don't Ave Dominus Nox it until you try it. I came into The Remnant Blade off the back of the Soul Hunter Night Lords trilogy, pensive of whether or not another author might capture the theme of justice through cruelty and the Night Lords' oddly likable flare for flaying.

Mike Vincent nailed it for me. It's a delightful romp with a few twists and turns, engaging and relatable characters to say they're far from human and no end of deliciously despicable detail.

A worthy read for anybody with even a passing interest in Night Lords, Chaos Space Marines and the concept of ship-to-ship boarding actions in the 41st Millennium.

...My lord.

[Pallav · Rating 5 out of 5]

Six fucking stars for the 8th legion.

Mike Vincent is a mad genius and a sick puppy. Loved the fuck out of this book.

One of the most rock n roll Warhammer books in recent times. It's like a metal concert on the page.

Dalchian Skin-Taker is THE MAN!

[Remembrancer S Stone · Rating 4 out of 5]

Are blades yet thirst.

When I first saw this book I thought it would be a continuation of the night Lord trilogy.
sadly that's not what we got, but fortunately what we did receive is still quite entertaining.

I love the main characters attitude, Yes he was sad at times and there was moments where his situation did threaten to cave in on him.
however he never gave into despair.
he kept going forward for that was the only option.

Something that gave this book an entire extra star is they have my favorite trope of the wacky tech priest!
(for real every 40K book is like 20% better with a crazy tech priest))

At first I thought they were throwing around a bit too many characters... so much so that I struggled to keep up and had to make a list.
but given the rate of attrition you quickly see why there was quite so many to begin with.

I deeply hope that this also becomes a trilogy.
as in this book we see them taking large steps forward.. And I'm interested to see if they can make even greater leaps and bounds or if it will all come crumbling down... as is the normal way of things in the grim dark of the far future.

[Mohd Azrie Sidik · Rating 4 out of 5]

Our blades yet thirst!

Add that line to fan favourites such as Ave Dominus Nox,etc

A new night lords novel and it exceeds my expectations,fans are introduced to the blades of atrocity, few in numbers and as always amongst treacherous so called allies of other chaos factions. Enter Dalchian Rassaq the skin-taker, from the get-go he is not a Segar or Talos,and this is made clear by author mike Vincent.


If Talos has some modicum of respect for his serfs,Dalchian takes pleasure in hunting them to appease his appetite of fear, and early on his character development is well fleshed out(no pun intended)

We get to meet the other members of the blades,the Lords of other chaos factions Dalchian has to serve in his dire circumstance and barter what little left of his warband just to regain some modicum of respect. Rubrik,to give you a hint.

Expect night-lords use of prey sight in the small confines of vessels hunting their unfortunate victims, void warfare written in detail.


Fans can expect to love Dalchian by the end of the book.

[Daniel Acosta · Rating 5 out of 5]

There is beauty in accepting what you are writing about, there are no heroes in this story, only monsters filled with vengeance and ambition.
I think this is the most faithful depiction of a chaos warband in a long time, true underdogs with no honor and no respite.
Treason is the blood of the legions and strenght and cunning are the bones of Dalchian as a chaos lord. Our blades yet thirst.

[Paul Sparks]

Sadly yet another Bl book that is trope laden and simply rehashes stories that have altered been told
Please give us something new BL !

[Patrick Correal-Winters · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had a lot of fun with this book, and the Audible version is really well narrated.
The story follows the Night Lords warband leader Dalchian Rassaq, the Lord Skin-Taker(very subtle) of the Blades of Atrocity, as he attempts to reestablish his warband's place as a force in the galaxy following their betrayal and subsumption by a rival warlord.
This book plays around with some fun characters in an interesting way, and does a really good job of being grimdark -characters just kinda die without much fanfare, and Vincent was unafraid to give his characters meaningful consequences from their battles(see: being maimed).
With all that said, the Remnant Blade falls into a similar category as Eidolon: The Auric Hammer in terms of impact. I picked that one up because I love the Emperor's Children and it gave me a fun little IIIrd Legion story nowhere near the depth or impact of something like Fulgrim, which more or less caps it out at a 3 for my ranking; I picked the Remnant Blade up because the 8th Legion is sick and I got a fun adventure without the staying power of the top shelf of Black Library fiction.

[Robert Furlong · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very surprised that this was the author's first full BL novel. It was a very fun read, even with a few moments where I was just left thinking "ok bro" and a couple endgame twists that failed to land. Highly recommend.

[Cassie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yes >:) This is exactly what I wanted: vile, abominable Night Lord activities! Great writing, a well paced plot, and interesting characters. Shout out to regular human naval officer with a dart gun. She was cool as hell.

[Robin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic book. Great writing and characters!

[Michael Collingwood-Foehlinger · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fine story. Pacing is all over the place. The fights are the weakest part of the story. I preferred any point where the Nightlords were on the hunt.

[Maxim · Rating 5 out of 5]

After a massive party fowl. Can the Remnant Blades pull off the Legendary Heist of a Black Ship to perform the ultimate prank on their brothers.

[Paul Austin · Rating 5 out of 5]

absolutely loved this book, found all the characters interesting and rooted for them the whole way through. everybody that I wanted to live, lived as well which is always a nice bonus.

[Chuck Rader · Rating 4 out of 5]

We gotta get some better Night Lord names.

[Tom · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not on the level of the Night Lords Omnibus, but still an interesting read.