Omnibus edition containing all three novels in The Macharian Crusade Angel of Fire, Fist of Demetrius and Fall of Macharius .
At the dawn of the 41st millennium, Lord Solar Macharius and his vast Astra Militarum armies embark upon the reconquest of a thousand worlds. Only Macharius, his will idomitable, has the strength of purpose and leadership to bring about such an immense undertaking, a crusade the like of which has not been seen since the dark days of the Heresy. But the countless wars are all-consuming, devouring men and materiel, and soon even Macharius's trusted generals and advisors begin to question the feasibility of such a punishing and seemingly endless campaign. As the battlefront stretches across the length of the stars and over a thousand worlds, can Macharius hold his crusade together or will it end in ignominy and flame?
I really enjoyed this series. You really learn to care about the characters, and there is great growth over time. Relationships are complicated and deep. There is also great WH40k fights.
Easy to recommend. 3 novels at a great price. King truly is a very good writer.
At first, the reading positively impressed me. A veteran of the Macharian Crusade, who reflects on his past, in a grim and dark setting, tells the story. The protagonist and his friends are underdogs in a world entirely bent on bureaucratic oppression, where the rich and criminal thrive on the masses.
When confronted with a wrong, the characters stood up for the victim. Given the might of local criminal organizations, they had to find a way out, choosing to join the Imperial Army. So far, their actions were reasonable and I felt sympathy for their lot in life. I also enjoyed the setting on a bleak and gloomy factory world.
Then it all changed quite abruptly. The narrative skips a few years of Guardsmen training and fighting. Gone was the underdog and survivalist. Instead, I felt myself listening to a shell of iron and plasteel, driven by a ghost who had long ago resigned himself to circumstances and the chain of command. A ghost who relies entirely on the confidence and faith of others, but with none of his own.
I felt his resignation the most in his brief but frequent monologs on fatality. All is lost; all is insane; we have failed; and so on. He only keeps on fighting because he got nothing better to do on the one hand, and because he is told to do so by his superiors on the other. In my eyes, that makes him a drone and one hard to listen to.
The plot itself is interesting enough, and I may keep on reading over a very long time with many breaks. Nevertheless, for the reason of a fatalistic narrator, who is talking directly to me in his demotivated way, this book became a DNF for me.
Really loved the book(s)! It was a nice reference to Kings ”later” saga about Ragnar Blackmane too. As in reading about a young to be great wolf Logan Grimnar. Exciting stories and some good battles, nice to read about driving a baneblade too.