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.

[La Criatura]

Technically my second book of 2026. I enjoyed this quite a bit. Wasn't entirely sure what to expect going in, which is a little my fault since I'm aware the author has previously written a short story about the Blades of Atrocity, but it was fun! It's interesting to read something that's kind of divorced from a lot of greater 40K continuity, so to speak, and lovely to have a Chaos-aligned protagonist who isn't a product of the Heresy era. Wannabe flesh-reaver zoomer little brother bat, I do like you.

Writing M41 Night Lords is a little rough, I feel, not because Night Lords are inherently difficult to make compelling or write about but because it's almost impossible not to compare that writing to ADB's trilogy-- arguably (an argument I would myself make, in fact) one of the best collections of 40K fiction out there. That being said, the best Night Lords prose out there is in my opinion the stuff that acknowledges that NLs are scary, and brutal, and also extremely funny people. One of the first chapters of this had our protagonist going through a whole internal monologue about how his liege-lord was a murderer only to pause and get self-conscious because he was at that moment holding a half-flayed human skull. This is the kind of grimdark goofiness I live for.

Overall the style is one of my favorite things; it flows quite well, and especially near the end it picks up and has a few quite good moments (including one that made me cheer a little IRL-- I won't spoil it, it's better to experience it yourself). The one thing I felt it was lacking was more of a solid supporting cast. There are a few side characters I'm fond of but pretty much all of them are not of the Blades themselves, which is a shame given that the premise of the novel is Dalchian trying to rebuild this band of brothers he's been left in charge of. I love Chaos toxic polycule drama more than perhaps anything else in 40K so I am of course thirsting for it constantly and I think a little more of it could have edged this closer to something I really loved.

Still, definitely fun, and definitely worth reading if you are a Bat Enjoyer.

[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!

[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.

[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.

[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 !

[Jordan · Rating 2 out of 5]

I went into this book with tempered expectations. I knew it likely wouldn’t compare to Dembski-Bowden’s trilogy, but, despite that, I was still quite excited due to being quite the Night Lords fan.

This story was, unfortunately, a let down, however.

For starters, the plot was fairly generic and surface level, but with a mildly interesting twist. Dalchian and his warband aren’t doing too hot and want to steal a ship and recover their strength. And it takes them… way too long to do it. I feel as if this novel could have been half the length and not lost a whole lot, as it spends a lot of time just meandering and introducing new characters that aren’t really necessary.

Speaking of which, I didn’t really care for any of the cast, including Dalchian himself. At worst, they were forgettable and I didn’t care about them. At best, they lacked charm. Either way, I found myself never particularly worried about any of them as the stakes rose.

My biggest complaint, however, is… this isn’t a Night Lords book. It’s a generic Chaos Space Marines book with a Night Lords coat of paint on them. A vast majority of the time, Dalchian and Co. don’t FEEL like sons of Curze to me. They have glimmers here and there that made me hopeful, but they never expanded into anything concrete. They just often felt like you could have made them Black Legion or Red Corsairs and nothing about the story would change at all.

That being said, there were a handful of moments that DID give me those VIII Legion vibes I wanted, and a number of scenes I enjoyed. I also found Vincent’s prose to be solid for the most part. I’m just afraid none of that was enough to satisfy me overall.

2/5 stars. A small collection of good in a fairly large pile of disappointment.

[Matt Scambo · Rating 2 out of 5]

The 'Meh' heard round the galaxy. A 'Night Lords' book more or less in name only, the Remnant Blade follows an incredibly generic group of Night Lords lead by the comically named 'Skin-Taker' which is a great foreshadowing for the rest of the characters and overall plot because it feels as though it was written by someone who skimmed the Night Lords wiki page, or wanted to write a Traitor Marine book but got told to make them Night Lords to lure in some fans hoping for something more in the vein of the Night Lords Trilogy. I'd say you could swap the name Night Lords for something generic like 'The Blades of Atrocity' and nothing would change, but the story already does it for you since that's the name of their warband and they mainly refer to themselves as that anyway.

Sadly the Skin-Taker and his warband, the Blades of Atrocity, feel less like veterans of the Long War and more like a bunch of edgy kids who grew up in the suburbs but hung out under bridges to feel angst. Aside from making a people-cape, they never do or even say anything that makes them feel like the Legion they supposedly represent. They never say 'We have come for you' instead using their warband's boring catch phrase of 'Our blades yet thirst', they never use the 'Scream' or excruciate anyone. Outside of the use of lightning claws and flensing knives, a one-time making of a people cape and some references to the color of their armor they don't do anything unique to the Night Lords.

To lampshade it, there's a point where the Skin-Taker even reflects on how little he cares about the legacy and teachings of Kurze, or the direction Sevetar/Sahaal tried to take the greater legion in, but it falls flat. You could make the point that in the lore there are certainly Night Lords warbands who are completely detached from their legion's history, tenants and purpose so instead are just a bunch of roving taxidermy/ S&M enthusiasts, but that's boring. It'd be like a World Eaters book where they don't have the butchers nails and are led by the fearsome 'Axe-Swinger'.

At any rate, the story follows the 'Clout-Borrower' and his warband as they chafe under the heel of a Crimson Slaughter alliance leader, who unlike most of the Crimson Slaughter, isn't a lunatic murderer driven to madness by Khorne and the voices of the slain, but instead is a shrewd and tactful leader of an alliance of Chaos Space Marine warbands, like a store brand Huron Blackheart instead of the berserkers they normally are. Skin-Taker and his cronies are upset because previously they were a warband in their own right, but sensing their desire to leave his alliance or challenge his rule, their Crimson Slaughter leader sent them into an ambush where they lost their Thunderhawk and most of their Marines, hence Skinny-Takey referring to himself and those left as his Remnant Blades.

What follows is Skin Taker bamboozling the Alliance leader, stealing a ship, teaming up with a Thousand Son's successor warband, fighting some Sororitas, stealing another ship, and then attacking a Black Ship. During this time Skin Taker plots to betray the Sorcerer then doesn't, the sorcerer plots to betray him then doesn't, then in the end when the sorcerer does betray him, Skin taker double-backsies betrays him and claims ownership of the Black Ship.

Again, it feels like it could've been a Black Legion book and nothing would be different.

Skip this one unless you really really are desperate for something 40k to read.

[Nick · Rating 3 out of 5]

All the ingredients are good, the recipe seems promising but when it all comes together something is just lacking. The remnant blade brings the story of an atypical nightlord warband one seemingly full of new bloods raised up by the legion long after the horus Heresy.

This in itself is interesting as most of the time chaos marines of the old legions are almost always represented by veterans of the long war. However this atypical situation is barely utilized story wise; what does it mean to be a nightlords when Konrad Kurze is a name nothing more? At one point lord skintaker is mocked for being as absolutist in his convictions as a loyalist astarte and besides it making him uncomfortable and angry has a ring of truth to it.

In all honestly what drives someone like Dalchian? He isn't in favor of the dark gods, he'isn't seemingly invested in the night lord ethos (how thin that may be) and he isn't a veteran of the old war so what exactly motivates him to fight the imperium? This should have been the main focus of the book but it isn't.

The book seems to be humming in second gear, only occasionally some heat is put on and it is genuinly good and fun but also over way to quickly. The dynamic between Dalchian and Ibriel is genuinly amusing and I would have loved even more of it but I get Ibriel's core motivations far better then Dalchian's and I think a better story could have been written if Ibriel's had been the pov. A mechanicus adapt turning to service of traitor marines and discovering for himself/herself/itself why the rigorous rules of the adaptus mechanicus exist. what remains of oneself at the end of this path of techno damnation? If that had been the case then Dalchian's mercurial nature would be far less of an issue for me as a reader which I had to go through all the time as is.

Plotwise; the issue is that it is two plots at the same time; on the one the black ship and the cooperation witht he abyssal kindred and the plot of the Dalchian taking back theirs after their betrayal at the hand of the gorelord. Like oil and water they just don't mix well despite well written prose trying to keep it solidified. I can't put my finger on it but I just wasn't convinced by the abyssal kindred's choices in part maybe because I am not that convinced by Dalchian myself so I fail to see how he inspires a rival to risk it all for him or at least risk it all for his plan.

Conclusion; I think there is an interesting story to be told with the material but the endresult is lacking, if it were a dish I'd eat it but also with some reluctance.

Hold on! as the saying goes it aint over until the fat lady sings! I had written the review with 40 pages left to go as I could not be convinced that the ending would change my opnion that greatly. Well It might not have saved the book but finally the gear was in the right slot and the plot of the black ship and the fighting back to prominence plots did interwove a bit better. Looking back I also do appreciate the warpsmith character and the layout of the black ship was also good and this is the first time such a ship is an active part in a warhammer story. For all this raise it to three stars!

[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.

[Normkompatibel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Now this is a FUN book. Mike Vincent is clearly aware of the quality of previous Night Lords books and offers something different while staying very true to the Night Lords lore. What amazed me the most is how he can portray all these different chaos space marines as individuals, none of the characters feel generic and each traitor astartes has its own story, reason to fight and (shifting) allegiance.

This is a story about betrayal, from the standpoint of the betrayer. This is what makes books about traitor astartes so fun, you can go along with the sheer cruelty, selfishness and pettiness of all these characters. And there is a LOT of betrayal: I think every chapter has at least one betrayal and all of them are motivated, act as plot twists and carry the story forward.

Dalchian " the Skin-Taker" Rassaq is the perfect protagonist: tragic, far from perfect, struggling, cunning and cruel. Secretly my favorite character is Theta-Ibriel-7-4, a Tech Priest captured by the Night Lords but she is only slightly sad about that because now she can finally experiment, something she wasn't allowed to do by the Mechanicum. Her skills and recklessness are amazing. She seems autism-coded but I'm not sure that's intentional.

It's written in a way that makes this book readable by anyone really, you don't need to know anything about Warhammer 40.000 lore to enjoy this book. This a major feat in itself.

Very much looking forward to reading more by Mike Vincent.

[Phillip Keeling · Rating 3 out of 5]

Vincent's a good writer -- his action scenes are excellent and his characters are memorable as hell. But his vision of the Night Lords here feels a touch... cuddly? Like, they're in their feelings a LOT, which is a little distracting when our protag is skinning prisoners for a new cloak. This feels like a decent enough first book for what I'm sure the author's hoping will be a long-running cast. But our wrap-up feels a little like the Night Lords were saved by the power of friendship, if that makes sense.

[thebedisburning · Rating 2 out of 5]

2,5 estrellas porque me gusta un Night Lord triste y bastante pringado y se agradece que sea muy diferente a los clásicos de ADB, pero la trama es tan simple y se repite tantas veces que la segunda mitad se me ha hecho cuesta arriba y he estado a punto de abandonarlo. Lo de que sea una novela de 400 páginas también 🫩

[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.

[Gregory Rumeser · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some cool and interesting parts and solid characters. If you like the Night Lords, you’ll enjoy this book. It has some interesting lore about the Imperiums Black Ships too. A few pacing issues but overall enjoyable.

[Ellen Schoener · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great Night Lords book with interesting characters.
Sadly not as good as the trilogy, though.
Interesting to learn that the pain engines of the penitence engines of the Sororitas are actually a Nostraman invention!

[Carson Doyle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another awesome Night Lords book. Took a different path from the critically acclaimed Night Lords omnibus that covered a separate train of thought for this warband. Fit the style of the Night Lords post-heresy very well.

[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.

[Sunlogix · Rating 1 out of 5]

A big meh...

[Josh Bojarski · Rating 4 out of 5]

Take a shot each time they say "Skin taker". You'll be dead by chapter 3.

Overall a very fun read with really fun side characters that kinda steal the show for me.

[Jack Walker · Rating 4 out of 5]

good fun