What do you think?
Rate this book
Space Marine Battles
Sanctus Reach
The latest title in the premium Warhammer 40,000 series
The orks of the Red Waaagh have come to the Sanctus Reach and death follows them. As Grukk Face-Rippa and his green tide fall upon Imperial worlds, it falls to a few warriors to stand against them. The Space Marines of the Obsidian Glaives make a final stand against the alien hordes, while the brave men of the Astra Militarum and the noble Knights of Alaric Prime struggle to repel the greenskin invaders from their planet. But hope is not lost, as the savage and noble Space Wolves arrive to bring an end to Grukk and his rampage.
Sanctus Reach contains the novellas 'Evil Sun Rising' and 'Blood on the Mountain' and six short stories exploring the various fronts of the vicious war for the Sanctus Reach.
The orks of the Red Waaagh have come to the Sanctus Reach and death follows them. As Grukk Face-Rippa and his green tide fall upon Imperial worlds, it falls to a few warriors to stand against them. The Space Marines of the Obsidian Glaives make a final stand against the alien hordes, while the brave men of the Astra Militarum and the noble Knights of Alaric Prime struggle to repel the greenskin invaders from their planet. But hope is not lost, as the savage and noble Space Wolves arrive to bring an end to Grukk and his rampage.
Sanctus Reach contains the novellas 'Evil Sun Rising' and 'Blood on the Mountain' and six short stories exploring the various fronts of the vicious war for the Sanctus Reach.
416 pages, Paperback
First published November 1, 2015
13 people are currently reading
144 people want to read
About the author
Ben Counter
158 books211 followersBen Counter, as well as making several contributions to Inferno magazine, has written the Soul Drinkers and Grey Knights series and two Horus Heresy novels for the Black Library. He is an ancient history graduate and avid miniature painter with a bronze demon under his belt.
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 5, 2018
A fun book. I think Guy Haley is quickly becoming one of my favorite Black Library authors (which is good, because the dude writes *a lot*), and his Ork-perspective novella was fantastic. The other stories in this anthology were fine... but Haley's were the clear stand-out winners here.
I do kinda feel like a lot of the Red Waaagh!/Hour of the Wolf events were glossed over too heavily though. There were a lot of interesting characters in the game events, that barely got a mention in this book, and some of the bigger moments in the campaign were completely glossed over. And... the thing with the Ork/Demon corruption at the end was, confusing. Did that happen in the campaign books? i honestly don't recall that. but whatever, it was a fine book.
I do kinda feel like a lot of the Red Waaagh!/Hour of the Wolf events were glossed over too heavily though. There were a lot of interesting characters in the game events, that barely got a mention in this book, and some of the bigger moments in the campaign were completely glossed over. And... the thing with the Ork/Demon corruption at the end was, confusing. Did that happen in the campaign books? i honestly don't recall that. but whatever, it was a fine book.
December 7, 2022
Quite boring.
September 22, 2024
The Space Wolves faces the Orks led by a cunning possessed leader.
February 17, 2017
A collection of eight stories, in two-story bunches. Kind of a mixed bag.
Penumbral Spike by Ben Counter - The first of the two Obsidian Glaives short stories. The Waaaagh! hits a world before Sanctus Reach, with predictable results. Nothing memorable, but decent.
Black Gulch by Ben Counter - The fairly foreseeable end to the Glaives/ork interaction. Better than Penumbral Spike, but still ultimately forgettable.
The Fall of Hive Jensen by Josh Reynolds - Shockingly, by far the best story in here. I say shockingly because this is an anthology about Space Marines vs. Orks, and this story is weirdly about an Inquisition team working behind the scenes of the battle. Absolutely loved this story & hope that perhaps this team will show up again in some other anthology.
Death Mask by Cavan Scott - Another story set kind of behind the scenes, having to do more with the government. Sadly I couldn't make it through this one, even though there were some fun ideas, like the amusing image of a cult that wants the orks to turn them into orks when they arrive.
Evil Sun Rising by Guy Haley - Goddammit, Guy Haley, can you do anything wrong? I friggin hate orks, and this is a novella about orks, and I made it through it and overall enjoyed it. Basically we follow the difficulties of one of the ork engineer teams who run one of their ... titan analogues, can't recall what they're called ... because everybody wants their secrets. Fun little glimpse into the world of an orkineer.
Klaw of Mork by Guy Haley - Essentially tying up the loose ends from ESR
Blood on the Mountain & Iceclaw by Ben Counter - grouping these two together because a) they focus on the Space Wolves vs. orks, the main confrontation we've been waiting for here, and b) sadly, I couldn't make it through them. Something about the way Counter writes the Wolves just didn't work at all for me. I got maybe 15 pages into the first one, and just realized I didn't care. Oh well.
Overall, don't go into this expecting an entire anthology of Wolves vs. orks. Which is kind of good and kind of bad. Still, you might end up liking more than you thought you would.
Penumbral Spike by Ben Counter - The first of the two Obsidian Glaives short stories. The Waaaagh! hits a world before Sanctus Reach, with predictable results. Nothing memorable, but decent.
Black Gulch by Ben Counter - The fairly foreseeable end to the Glaives/ork interaction. Better than Penumbral Spike, but still ultimately forgettable.
The Fall of Hive Jensen by Josh Reynolds - Shockingly, by far the best story in here. I say shockingly because this is an anthology about Space Marines vs. Orks, and this story is weirdly about an Inquisition team working behind the scenes of the battle. Absolutely loved this story & hope that perhaps this team will show up again in some other anthology.
Death Mask by Cavan Scott - Another story set kind of behind the scenes, having to do more with the government. Sadly I couldn't make it through this one, even though there were some fun ideas, like the amusing image of a cult that wants the orks to turn them into orks when they arrive.
Evil Sun Rising by Guy Haley - Goddammit, Guy Haley, can you do anything wrong? I friggin hate orks, and this is a novella about orks, and I made it through it and overall enjoyed it. Basically we follow the difficulties of one of the ork engineer teams who run one of their ... titan analogues, can't recall what they're called ... because everybody wants their secrets. Fun little glimpse into the world of an orkineer.
Klaw of Mork by Guy Haley - Essentially tying up the loose ends from ESR
Blood on the Mountain & Iceclaw by Ben Counter - grouping these two together because a) they focus on the Space Wolves vs. orks, the main confrontation we've been waiting for here, and b) sadly, I couldn't make it through them. Something about the way Counter writes the Wolves just didn't work at all for me. I got maybe 15 pages into the first one, and just realized I didn't care. Oh well.
Overall, don't go into this expecting an entire anthology of Wolves vs. orks. Which is kind of good and kind of bad. Still, you might end up liking more than you thought you would.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews