Krakenblood

by Marc Collins

A Warhammer 40,000 Novel

A Wolf Priest is tasked by Ulrik the Slayer to recover an ancient relic of the Chapter – a chance for him to write his own legendary saga.

READ IT BECAUSE

Ivar Krakenblood is a Space Wolves hero in the making. But first he must learn that those who seek glory in place of destiny – and an end worthy of the sagas – never find what they yearn for.

THE STORY

All sagas begin with blood.

Born upon the ice world of Fenris, Ivar Krakenblood has been raised to stand as one of its warrior sons, anointed to serve as a Wolf Priest. Life and death are his to give, and Ivar has proven his worth with deed and word. Still, the glory of true legend has always escaped him.

On a quest given to him by Ulrik the Slayer himself, Ivar seizes the chance to recover a lost relic of the Space Wolves Chapter and challenge the fates themselves. With a band of warriors, old comrades, and new allies, he sets out to forge his own path, one worthy of a son of Russ.

Yet those who strive to change their destiny must often pay a terrible price. There are forces that lurk in the darkness, seeking to sever him from his fate.

In the short story Price of Morkai, a Wolf Priest must deliver a fallen brother's geneseed back to the Space Wolves Chapter, while reflecting on his battle as a Blood Claw with the great Fenrisian beast responsible.

Written by Marc Collins.

Genres: Science Fiction, 40k

400 pages, Paperback

Published July 14, 2026

About the author

Marc Collins is a speculative fiction writer from Glasgow, Scotland, covering diverse topics from Norse werewolves to the grim darkness of the far future. When not working in Pathology, he enjoys a dram and pondering our transhuman future, inspired by writers such as Iain M Banks.

Reviews

[Ryan · Rating 1 out of 5]

Garbage. No substance, no innovation, no storytelling. It reads like ai wrote it in 2022 based off of a fan fiction from someone who only knows the stereotype of the faction.

[Christian · Rating 5 out of 5]

OMG, that was solid. That was so epic.

[Mason Holt · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think this book was alright. The amount of time the book spent to get on the ship and actually go did surprise me for a book about going on a quest to forge a saga, I feel there may have been opportunity to shorten that a bit. The book described what fighting tzeentch's lovecraftian creatures would be like well with fractal shapes that burrow into your mind and blood that sizzles into unknowable colors. The section with the spider mechanicus foundry felt fun to go through and where the book really picked up for me, unfortunately that was almost halfway through. The main character stayed the same for most of the book it is only towards the end that he ever has to feel any real doubt about his mission but whenever he does one paragraph later and he is all over it. The fights were pretty fun and there was cool descriptions of some of our favorite factions, if that interests you I would pick it up but otherwise you may not enjoy this

[Aimee Youngs · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good enough easy read with Space Wolves, Thousand Sons, Sons of Mars and a lot of Tzeentchian influence.
I really liked the iron priest Brynjar and the New Mechanicum. The rest of the wolves were enjoyable enough. I got this book as a first Space Wolf read to learn more about them so my experience is limited.
The vibe is hubris, epic quest and fate.
Not a bad book but coming off Era of Ruin it fell a little flat. I would get the next book if there was one and it would make a good fun weekend or holiday read

[Reader · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the more interesting new authors coming through at BL, Marc always surprises me with his consistency and pacing.

I find his characters well developed and fascinating, even when I dislike the chapter he’s writing about. Looking forward to reading more of his stuff. Would definitely recommend checking this and his other books out if you’re a fan of the setting (and even if you’re not).

[Zach Wolfe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Decent book and worth a read but didn’t really measure up to the other books of the sons of Russ.

[Jesper Karlsson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is one of those books I wish we could rate it a 7, so I will give it a weak four.

What it does well, is that it understands that spacemarines are made cool by the reactions and comparisons to the actions of humans around them.

Many of the characters do go through their own development and I feel like contrary to many other spacemarine novels the characters actually grow and learn, and they act believable from their own point of view.

What I feel that the book did poorly, is that it falls in to the traps that many of the other books I've read in the franchise does, is that it just includes too many point of views.
After half the book, it felt like the only thing that had happened was, Ivar killed some trolls and got on a ship. While the second half is the polar opposite where we get set piece after set piece, with different arenas and enemies.

The second problem is that this is one of the hardest reads I've had so far, and this could in no way be recommended to someone new to the franchise, you have the normal 40k linguistics, mixed in with spacewolf and mechanicus. There is a heavy use of all three of them, and thats overlooking the unusual choice of "esoteric" language.
In my fifty previous franchise books I rarely had to pick up a dictionary, English being my second language I know there will be gaps. But it did take a way a bit from the pacing of the book, but at least I've add some new words to my vocabulary like, ephemeral, doggerel, akashik, and the insistence to call every single "hole" an aperture.

That being said, its a solid read, and I felt I got my monies worth.

[Dylan · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was a slog of a read unfortunately, my first space wolves book and it has almost turned me off reading other books based on them.