What do you think?
Rate this book
Master of Rites
A Ferren Areios Novel
The Khorsari Reach has been lost to the Imperium for over a decade, locked behind the warp storms that cling to the edges of the Great Rift. Its worlds have been claimed by the Death Guard, its people slaughtered by the servants of the Plague God. But these are the worlds of Ultramar, and they are protected.
READ IT BECAUSE
We first met Ferron Areios in the epic Dawn of Fire series. Now he's ascended to the rank of Captain of the Ultramarines Sixth Company, earning the title Master of Rites. Now he must face his most challenging task to date – taking on the Death Guard in a grinding war where little glory can be found. Honour demands that this task must be undertaken, and who better to lead than the Master of Rites?
THE STORY
Ferren Areios, Captain of the Ultramarines Sixth Company, has been dispatched to retake the worlds of the Reach and cleanse them of the Death Guard’s corruption. As the Plague Marines dig in and the death toll rises to catastrophic heights, Ferren is pushed to the limits of his Chapter’s creed. Isolated in the Plague God’s domain, the reclamation fleet fights not only for the worlds of the Reach, but for what remains of Ferren’s own humanity.
Written by Rob Young.
The Khorsari Reach has been lost to the Imperium for over a decade, locked behind the warp storms that cling to the edges of the Great Rift. Its worlds have been claimed by the Death Guard, its people slaughtered by the servants of the Plague God. But these are the worlds of Ultramar, and they are protected.
READ IT BECAUSE
We first met Ferron Areios in the epic Dawn of Fire series. Now he's ascended to the rank of Captain of the Ultramarines Sixth Company, earning the title Master of Rites. Now he must face his most challenging task to date – taking on the Death Guard in a grinding war where little glory can be found. Honour demands that this task must be undertaken, and who better to lead than the Master of Rites?
THE STORY
Ferren Areios, Captain of the Ultramarines Sixth Company, has been dispatched to retake the worlds of the Reach and cleanse them of the Death Guard’s corruption. As the Plague Marines dig in and the death toll rises to catastrophic heights, Ferren is pushed to the limits of his Chapter’s creed. Isolated in the Plague God’s domain, the reclamation fleet fights not only for the worlds of the Reach, but for what remains of Ferren’s own humanity.
Written by Rob Young.
- Genres40kScience Fiction
351 pages, Kindle Edition
Published December 5, 2025
24 people are currently reading
23 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
January 18, 2026
classic story of a hero defeating his enemys going form weakest to stronger , but with more depth like a spacemarine going tru loss and pain of losing his friend
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 20, 2025
Pretty good read overall. Ferren’s character growth with him dealing with anger and grief was insightful. The rouge trader Calvaros was also entertaining. The parts with the Death Guard were the most under developed and seemed like filler
December 13, 2025
Since it seems to be one of the authors first forays in to the franchise, I understand that it wont be perfect.
The book is faithful to the franchise, it doesn't diminish what came before and its serviceable as a history book, for what may drive the narrative in the Khorsari reach.
The first 200 pages of the 270 page book, reads like this.
"Ferren swung his hammer, the heretic human exploded in a myriad of different fluids, then the next new model fired, then Ferren swung at the next mutant, his skull leaking puss and bile. Then the next new model engaged in combat, Ferren was angry, but he was an Ultramarine, and they do not give in to anger"
It felt like I was reading a transcript of a tabletop-game, trying to sell me as many new models as possible. If page upon page of descriptive weapons firing is your thing, this may indeed be a very good book for you. I need likeable or interesting characters, I had to sit myself down and force myself to read every time i picked up the book.
We have the angry spacemarine as maincharacter, and the angrier spacemarine as sidecharacter.
And our main spacemarine was angry until he had the epiphany that being angry almost made him lose, so now he will always be in control of his anger. Which again, felt jarring and undeserved.
I was at least enjoying the last thirty pages or so, when the author dropped this gem:
"~Are you the one who killed my friend?"
"~Ive killed millions one more hardly matters to me"
"~Well i don't know those, but I knew my friend"
And It was the first time the book got a chuckle out of me. Not just because of the delivery, but its like Ferren just forgot, he had previously used exterminatus twice, by all accounts he's worse.
The book is faithful to the franchise, it doesn't diminish what came before and its serviceable as a history book, for what may drive the narrative in the Khorsari reach.
The first 200 pages of the 270 page book, reads like this.
"Ferren swung his hammer, the heretic human exploded in a myriad of different fluids, then the next new model fired, then Ferren swung at the next mutant, his skull leaking puss and bile. Then the next new model engaged in combat, Ferren was angry, but he was an Ultramarine, and they do not give in to anger"
It felt like I was reading a transcript of a tabletop-game, trying to sell me as many new models as possible. If page upon page of descriptive weapons firing is your thing, this may indeed be a very good book for you. I need likeable or interesting characters, I had to sit myself down and force myself to read every time i picked up the book.
We have the angry spacemarine as maincharacter, and the angrier spacemarine as sidecharacter.
And our main spacemarine was angry until he had the epiphany that being angry almost made him lose, so now he will always be in control of his anger. Which again, felt jarring and undeserved.
I was at least enjoying the last thirty pages or so, when the author dropped this gem:
"~Are you the one who killed my friend?"
"~Ive killed millions one more hardly matters to me"
"~Well i don't know those, but I knew my friend"
And It was the first time the book got a chuckle out of me. Not just because of the delivery, but its like Ferren just forgot, he had previously used exterminatus twice, by all accounts he's worse.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 7, 2026
Thoroughly enjoyed the novel. There are several characters who pop up within it who I would be outright ravenous about reading more of again.
Without spoiling any of the central themes or their threads, there is just one thing about Master of Rites which gnaws at me. And it may have just been my headspace at the time while reading, but it feels as if this could have very easily been a much longer book or two books diving more into the themes and what's happening to the characters within, and it could have been even better for it.
Not to say it felt cut short. Not at all. We go through a journey and come to a satisfying conclusion to the story Master of Rites wants to tell. Of that I will not say otherwise.
But where usually I don't want a book to end because I'm enjoying my time with the cast of characters, I would have delighted in reading more about what happens at certain points in between the opening and closing portions of it. I just can't escape the notion that, like the book's core character in the Dawn of Fire series (and this isn't a spoiler because it's clearly visible on the cover) a limb either got chopped off somewhere and the book was condensed to completion or the phantom of that limb was present in the authors mind but due to time constraints or publication constraints of some sort it couldn't be explored as deeply.
Without spoiling any of the central themes or their threads, there is just one thing about Master of Rites which gnaws at me. And it may have just been my headspace at the time while reading, but it feels as if this could have very easily been a much longer book or two books diving more into the themes and what's happening to the characters within, and it could have been even better for it.
Not to say it felt cut short. Not at all. We go through a journey and come to a satisfying conclusion to the story Master of Rites wants to tell. Of that I will not say otherwise.
But where usually I don't want a book to end because I'm enjoying my time with the cast of characters, I would have delighted in reading more about what happens at certain points in between the opening and closing portions of it. I just can't escape the notion that, like the book's core character in the Dawn of Fire series (and this isn't a spoiler because it's clearly visible on the cover) a limb either got chopped off somewhere and the book was condensed to completion or the phantom of that limb was present in the authors mind but due to time constraints or publication constraints of some sort it couldn't be explored as deeply.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews