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Night Lords #1-3
Night Lords Trilogy
A Chaos Space Marines boxed set
Driven by their hatred of the False Emperor, the Night Lords stalk the shadows of the galaxy, eternally seeking revenge for the death of their primarch. Guided by the visions of the prophet Talos, a warband from this sinister Legion struggles to survive in a constant war against the forces of the Imperium. But when they come into conflict with fellow renegades and are hunted by the eldar of Craftworld Ulthwé, the Night Lords find themselves returning to the scene of their greatest defeat and drawn into a battle they cannot possibly win.
This boxed set includes the novels Soul Hunter, Blood Reaver and Void Stalker. Each is a lavish hardback volume (the first time in hardback for these classic novels) and they are collected together in an exclusive box designed like a Nostraman artefact, complete with plenty of grisly details. Only 500 copies of this collector's edition boxed set are available.
Words from the Author:
I think the most obvious thing to say is that the Night Lords Trilogy kicked off my Warhammer 40,000 wordsmithing in some crunchy, munchy ways. The first novel, 'Soul Hunter', was what got me invited onto the Horus Heresy series back when the team was teeny-tiny, and going to my first HH meeting was the most intimidating thing I could imagine at that point in time. (Dan Abnett still reminds me about when I first met him at one of those meetings and lost control of my voice, blaring "HI DAN ABNETT" uncomfortably loudly at him.)
But, okay, here's some perspective. My inbox is still besieged by artwork and conversions of Talos and First Claw every freaking month, even now. The question I'm asked most often at signings or events is still "What happens to Decimus?" – although that's being threatened the last last couple of years by "When are you doing more Sevatar?" and "Why do you write so slowly?"
Even if I wanted to flee from the legacy of this trilogy, I basically couldn't. We're far past the point of no return on that score.
The whole trilogy is still among Black Library's very best-reviewed releases, which is the kind of thing authors will say doesn't matter at all, but is really immense reassurance for the craven, cowardly cores that exist in our chest cavities where other humans have beating hearts. It was the positive feedback from the Night Lords novels, more than anything else, that convinced me that maybe everything wasn't going to go wrong after all, and that I could spew out some words worth reading. Whether that remains true – or was ever true in the first place – is a notion I leave to you, the erudite and discerning readership.
I'll sign off on a personal note. Like every author with every novel, I'd probably change half/most of it if I ever had the chance to rewrite it, and I can't say I could ever sit down and enjoy it myself (outside of redrafting I can't stand reading my own stuff)... but if nothing else, Soul Hunter got me married. To this day, the best comment I ever had was at a signing in the States, when a little girl came with her father to get the book signed, and said it was "sooooo nice!" that the dedication at the beginning of Soul Hunter was asking Katie to marry me.
Let that be a lesson, folks. Proposing at the start of a novel about treacherous space murderers is clearly a move of romantic genius.
Driven by their hatred of the False Emperor, the Night Lords stalk the shadows of the galaxy, eternally seeking revenge for the death of their primarch. Guided by the visions of the prophet Talos, a warband from this sinister Legion struggles to survive in a constant war against the forces of the Imperium. But when they come into conflict with fellow renegades and are hunted by the eldar of Craftworld Ulthwé, the Night Lords find themselves returning to the scene of their greatest defeat and drawn into a battle they cannot possibly win.
This boxed set includes the novels Soul Hunter, Blood Reaver and Void Stalker. Each is a lavish hardback volume (the first time in hardback for these classic novels) and they are collected together in an exclusive box designed like a Nostraman artefact, complete with plenty of grisly details. Only 500 copies of this collector's edition boxed set are available.
Words from the Author:
I think the most obvious thing to say is that the Night Lords Trilogy kicked off my Warhammer 40,000 wordsmithing in some crunchy, munchy ways. The first novel, 'Soul Hunter', was what got me invited onto the Horus Heresy series back when the team was teeny-tiny, and going to my first HH meeting was the most intimidating thing I could imagine at that point in time. (Dan Abnett still reminds me about when I first met him at one of those meetings and lost control of my voice, blaring "HI DAN ABNETT" uncomfortably loudly at him.)
But, okay, here's some perspective. My inbox is still besieged by artwork and conversions of Talos and First Claw every freaking month, even now. The question I'm asked most often at signings or events is still "What happens to Decimus?" – although that's being threatened the last last couple of years by "When are you doing more Sevatar?" and "Why do you write so slowly?"
Even if I wanted to flee from the legacy of this trilogy, I basically couldn't. We're far past the point of no return on that score.
The whole trilogy is still among Black Library's very best-reviewed releases, which is the kind of thing authors will say doesn't matter at all, but is really immense reassurance for the craven, cowardly cores that exist in our chest cavities where other humans have beating hearts. It was the positive feedback from the Night Lords novels, more than anything else, that convinced me that maybe everything wasn't going to go wrong after all, and that I could spew out some words worth reading. Whether that remains true – or was ever true in the first place – is a notion I leave to you, the erudite and discerning readership.
I'll sign off on a personal note. Like every author with every novel, I'd probably change half/most of it if I ever had the chance to rewrite it, and I can't say I could ever sit down and enjoy it myself (outside of redrafting I can't stand reading my own stuff)... but if nothing else, Soul Hunter got me married. To this day, the best comment I ever had was at a signing in the States, when a little girl came with her father to get the book signed, and said it was "sooooo nice!" that the dedication at the beginning of Soul Hunter was asking Katie to marry me.
Let that be a lesson, folks. Proposing at the start of a novel about treacherous space murderers is clearly a move of romantic genius.
1248 pages, Hardcover
First published April 6, 2016
3 people are currently reading
101 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
February 10, 2026
Well, this took a while to get through because even though the characters are engaging, the first book was a bit of a slog to get started. It definitely crescendos in the final book in this omni, like 900 pages later. So, if you like slow burn? Here you go!
I was not a great fan of the Night Lords prior and I'm still kinda...not. And it's mostly memelords that make it so. They keep grimderping the Night Lords for memes and that's cool and all but it really picks up the few moments where the NL don't have the baby-skinning turned up to an 11. Talos has like...three moments where he's almost trying to not be a Night Lord and almost decent, but those fade quickly and of course that's on purpose--ADB's main theme here (despite what he says in the foreword) is about being unable to actually take the good path. To keep making bad choices. Talos blames the Night Lords, but...I mean, he chose it. Every step of the way.
The 'team' is well defined and they all hate each other (Night Lords Core I guess). The battle scenes were well written throughout and a number of characters got a hell yeah moment (Vandred's last words, for example as a mild mild spoiler)
The whole set up with the prisoners who capture Eurydice to ostensibly rape her is what made me stall for literally months on this book because I knew it would go one of two ways: Either I was going to read some hideous GRRM esque rape scene or it was going to be not even mentioned beyond a plot point to try to show us that Talos Is A Nice Guy SEE?
I was correct that it was one of those. And it's never brough up again. Yeah that's super not well handled. I will not spoiler the team you meet and where they are when the story ends, but it's emotional and satisfying. I have SO Many notes, and yes, the line about Night Lords staring autistically is real.
When I say the best part of this omni is the last 50 pages, I'm not trying to be snarky. EVERYTHING comes to a head, every story arc gets closed, every character gets brought out, the action is everywhere. It just took 900 pages to get there.
I was not a great fan of the Night Lords prior and I'm still kinda...not. And it's mostly memelords that make it so. They keep grimderping the Night Lords for memes and that's cool and all but it really picks up the few moments where the NL don't have the baby-skinning turned up to an 11. Talos has like...three moments where he's almost trying to not be a Night Lord and almost decent, but those fade quickly and of course that's on purpose--ADB's main theme here (despite what he says in the foreword) is about being unable to actually take the good path. To keep making bad choices. Talos blames the Night Lords, but...I mean, he chose it. Every step of the way.
The 'team' is well defined and they all hate each other (Night Lords Core I guess). The battle scenes were well written throughout and a number of characters got a hell yeah moment (Vandred's last words, for example as a mild mild spoiler)
The whole set up with the prisoners who capture Eurydice to ostensibly rape her is what made me stall for literally months on this book because I knew it would go one of two ways: Either I was going to read some hideous GRRM esque rape scene or it was going to be not even mentioned beyond a plot point to try to show us that Talos Is A Nice Guy SEE?
I was correct that it was one of those. And it's never brough up again. Yeah that's super not well handled. I will not spoiler the team you meet and where they are when the story ends, but it's emotional and satisfying. I have SO Many notes, and yes, the line about Night Lords staring autistically is real.
When I say the best part of this omni is the last 50 pages, I'm not trying to be snarky. EVERYTHING comes to a head, every story arc gets closed, every character gets brought out, the action is everywhere. It just took 900 pages to get there.
February 11, 2026
Fantastically written trilogy in my favourite sci-fi setting. Some incredibly well written characters with very interesting stakes and perspectives in a setting that does not always put those things first. Of course the thrilling action and grim dark nature of 40k is always consistently great and I never tire of reading through those sections, but to have a very complete cast of characters (both likeable and hateable) showing some real changs through the trilogy is always so rewarding as a reader. Found myself gripped especially by the final book with surprisingly deep interactions and twists with characters I was not expecting such moments from.
February 25, 2024
The best 40K book I have ever read, and I've read quite a bit. Only masterful writing can make you find any redeeming value in Talos in his band (at least until the... Ritual.) The gold standard all 40k lit should be measured against
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 31, 2023
My favourite 40k trilogy.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews