Dawn of War III

Warhammer 40,000

by Robbie MacNiven

Every 5,000 years, the accursed world of Acheron emerges from the warp. Drawn by its legend, three factions – Space Marines, eldar and orks – battle each other to possess the great weapon that is said to reside there. But when the weapon is finally revealed, a terrible threat rears its head. Can the three warring generals do whatever it takes to put aside their differences and defeat the ultimate evil?

Set in Games Workshop’s Warhammer 40,000 universe, this novelisation features characters and events from Dawn of War III, the third game in Sega and Relic Entertainment’s phenomenally successful RTS franchise.

Read it because
It's a novelisation of the story from the newest instalment in the Dawn of War computer game series!

336 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 8, 2017

About the author

Robbie MacNiven is a Scottish author and historian. His published fiction includes over a dozen novels, many fantasy or sci-fi works for IPs such as Warhammer 40,000 and Marvel's X-Men. He has also written two novellas, numerous short stories and audio dramas, has worked on narrative and character dialogue for multiple digital games (SMITE: Blitz and Age of Sigmar: Storm Ground), has written the colour text for multiple RPG rulebooks and has penned the scripts for two graphic novels and three comics, for Osprey Publishing and Commando Comics respectively. In 2022 his X-Men novel "First Team" won a Scribe Award.

On the non-fiction front, Robbie specialises in Early Modern military history, particularly focussing on the 18th century. He has a PhD in American Revolutionary War massacres from the University of Edinburgh - where he won the Compton Prize for American History - and an MLitt in War Studies from the University of Glasgow. Along with numerous articles for military history magazines he has written six books on different aspects of the American Revolutionary War, five for Osprey Publishing and one for Helion Books. He has also written the scripts for ten episodes of the hit YouTube educational channel Extra Credits.

Outside of work and writing, his passions include re-enacting, gaming, and football.

Reviews

[Alex Boast · Rating 4 out of 5]

Must read for fans of the series

Essential reading for anyone planning to pick up the game in a few weeks time. Enjoyable and easy read, i finished quickly and wanted more.

[Matt · Rating 2 out of 5]

My main beef with this book is that it is incredibly short (rushed) considering the epic encounter it's supposed to tell. I can play the game for the war action on the planet, but this book is supposed to tell me why and how these 3 races are duking it out. Backstory ya know?? Instead, the orks get 1 real character (Gorgutz), humans get 1 (Angelos), eldar gets 2 (Macha, Kyre) and the supporting characters and backstory barely gets developed. Come on! 3 races, ancient eldar relic, and chaos planet that spawns once every 5000 years? There should definitely be a good long story here, but it seems blacklibrary just wanted to cash grab and rushed something out to coincide with game release timing.

[Rob · Rating 3 out of 5]

Where are the rest of the cast of characters from the previous Dawn of War books? You get the feeling that there really is only 1 character per race here. Good action scenes though, not bad for a book based on a game.

[M.L.S. Weech · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pretty much non-stop action and mayhem from cover to cover. Not much in the way of character development. Probably a great edition in a series, but not likely a good book to start the series with. Full review to post on my blog Feb. 14.

[Joanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5

[Edsel Gomez · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was a decent read.
Well written.
Probably better than the game.
Enjoyed that i got three point of views.
End was kinda lame.
Only gripe I had with the book.
Solid tittle.
4 out of 5 stars.

[Eugene · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's definitely not the best book in the warhammer universe, but considering it's a video game novelization, I must admit, its definitely a pretty enjoyable reading. If you love the game go for it, you should like it.

[Tepintzin · Rating 2 out of 5]

So boring, but I think that's because it's a game tie-in. I only read this because I know the author, who did the best he could with uninspiring material. The Blood Ravens are the most generic Chapter of Space Marines I can imagine. Too many factions, too much surface interaction, just dull.