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Space Marine Battles
Space Marine Battles: Sanctus Reach
The latest title in the premium Warhammer 40,000 series
432 pages, Paperback
First published November 1, 2015
13 people are currently reading
144 people want to read
About the author
Josh Reynolds
107 books23 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
For the Black Library and horror author, see Joshua Reynolds.
For the Black Library and horror author, see Joshua Reynolds.
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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