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Warhammer 40,000
War for Armageddon: The Omnibus
A Warhammer 40,000 omnibus
In the 41st Millennium, Armageddon is a watchword for total war. Across two separate invasions, the ork warlord Ghaszghkull Thraka has brought ruin to the once-prosperous world, now a battlefield where the Imperium and its xenos foes struggle for supremacy. This omnibus contains a host of action-packed tales from these deadly conflicts.
READ IT BECAUSE
It's a collection of brutal stories of war, heroism and honour, starring Space Marines and other Imperial soldiers battling the greenskinned invaders for the fate of Armageddon.
DESCRIPTION
In the bleak 41st Millennium, the planet Armageddon is on the cusp of annihilation. The strategically vital hive world has captured the attention of infamous ork warlord Ghazghkull Thraka, and when the Astra Militarum and whole Titan Legions prove unable to halt the invasion, it is feared that both the planet and the wider sector will be lost to the greenskins. But the Imperium refuses to succumb and unleashes the Space Marines - genetically engineered warriors who thirst for naught but blood and victory. But can even this alliance of mankind's greatest warriors hope to turn the tide against Ghazghkull and his endless ork horde? This high-octane omnibus contains the classic novel Helsreach by New York Times bestselling author Aaron Dembski-Bowden, alongside four novellas and a host of short stories by some of Black Library best-known authors, including Guy Haley, Nick Kyme, Chris Wraight and Josh Reynolds.
CONTENTS
Helsreach, Blood and Fire & At Gaius Point by Aaron Dembski-Bowden
The Relic by Jonathan Green
The Eternal Crusader, The Glorious Tomb, Only Blood & Season of Shadows by Guy Haley
The Third War by Rachel Harrison
In the Depth of Hades & Vengeful Honour by Nick Kyme
Angron's Monolith by Steve Lyons
Dante's Canyon by Josh Reynolds
Unbroken by Chris Wraight
In the 41st Millennium, Armageddon is a watchword for total war. Across two separate invasions, the ork warlord Ghaszghkull Thraka has brought ruin to the once-prosperous world, now a battlefield where the Imperium and its xenos foes struggle for supremacy. This omnibus contains a host of action-packed tales from these deadly conflicts.
READ IT BECAUSE
It's a collection of brutal stories of war, heroism and honour, starring Space Marines and other Imperial soldiers battling the greenskinned invaders for the fate of Armageddon.
DESCRIPTION
In the bleak 41st Millennium, the planet Armageddon is on the cusp of annihilation. The strategically vital hive world has captured the attention of infamous ork warlord Ghazghkull Thraka, and when the Astra Militarum and whole Titan Legions prove unable to halt the invasion, it is feared that both the planet and the wider sector will be lost to the greenskins. But the Imperium refuses to succumb and unleashes the Space Marines - genetically engineered warriors who thirst for naught but blood and victory. But can even this alliance of mankind's greatest warriors hope to turn the tide against Ghazghkull and his endless ork horde? This high-octane omnibus contains the classic novel Helsreach by New York Times bestselling author Aaron Dembski-Bowden, alongside four novellas and a host of short stories by some of Black Library best-known authors, including Guy Haley, Nick Kyme, Chris Wraight and Josh Reynolds.
CONTENTS
Helsreach, Blood and Fire & At Gaius Point by Aaron Dembski-Bowden
The Relic by Jonathan Green
The Eternal Crusader, The Glorious Tomb, Only Blood & Season of Shadows by Guy Haley
The Third War by Rachel Harrison
In the Depth of Hades & Vengeful Honour by Nick Kyme
Angron's Monolith by Steve Lyons
Dante's Canyon by Josh Reynolds
Unbroken by Chris Wraight
- Genres40kScience Fiction
1049 pages, Kindle Edition
First published August 1, 2018
164 people are currently reading
334 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
August 22, 2021
The first thing she says to me is something I am not sure how to respond to.
'You have very kind eyes'
Her own eyes are removed from her skull, the sockets covered by these bulbous lenses that twist as she watches me. I cannot return the comment she made, and I do not know what else I could say.
So I say nothing.
If the name, or the cover, or the first page doesn't give it away, this is a pretty fighty omnibus.
Putting the grim in grimdark
The great thing about an omnibus is the variety of characters and settings. We have the religiously grim Black Templars making a desperate last stand and strangling anyone who doubts them. The sisypheanly grim Celestial Lions being undermined by the Inquisition and deciding the best way to remedy that is to all die. The psychotically grim Flesh Tearers entering a battle on tenterhooks and... ...murdering their own allies. The sociopathically grim Marines Malevolent who... ...also murder their own allies... ...and are then murdered by the Black Templars.
Fun stuff.
The innocent will always die when the guilty are punished.
The feature novel Helsreach comes the closest to "lightheartedness". It's doable and good when it works, but I wouldn't say it was essential. There's still variety in the tone, I promise.
Andrej was occupying himself by picking his nose. This was something he struggled to do in gloves of thick, brown leather, but he went about the task with a curiously stately tenacity.
War as we kind of know it
Warhammer 40K doesn't have special insights about what the future of war will look like. It's a surrealistic setting of superhumans with chainsaws chopping up overgrown fungal spores. It's not a masterpiece of tactics, operational art, or strategy. There are a couple of stories that try their hands at it (the starship and White Claws stories) and they, unsurprisingly are the worst.
How I see the book is that it is a fantasy setting where you throw weird stuff together and try to create an emotional connection from that weirdness. Maybe it's revulsion at the lobotomised bodies of children kept eternally young through gene manipulation and hormone control, but there's plenty of "nicer" stuff. The desire to protect. The laughing in the face of death:
'And we should not die, when so many others have?'
...only to later wish to trade 50 lesser lives for that of your comrade. There's horror both external and internal; betrayal and redemption rewarded with more betrayal. I've written before this is universe that paints emotions in primary colours but when we are reading about robots carrying literal cathedrals on their backs, I'd say subtley is best avoided.
If you can't be bothered reading it all, Helsreach will do. There's interesting lore and emotional insights to most of them though, so it's worth a crack.
'You have very kind eyes'
Her own eyes are removed from her skull, the sockets covered by these bulbous lenses that twist as she watches me. I cannot return the comment she made, and I do not know what else I could say.
So I say nothing.
If the name, or the cover, or the first page doesn't give it away, this is a pretty fighty omnibus.
Putting the grim in grimdark
The great thing about an omnibus is the variety of characters and settings. We have the religiously grim Black Templars making a desperate last stand and strangling anyone who doubts them. The sisypheanly grim Celestial Lions being undermined by the Inquisition and deciding the best way to remedy that is to all die. The psychotically grim Flesh Tearers entering a battle on tenterhooks and... ...murdering their own allies. The sociopathically grim Marines Malevolent who... ...also murder their own allies... ...and are then murdered by the Black Templars.
Fun stuff.
The innocent will always die when the guilty are punished.
The feature novel Helsreach comes the closest to "lightheartedness". It's doable and good when it works, but I wouldn't say it was essential. There's still variety in the tone, I promise.
Andrej was occupying himself by picking his nose. This was something he struggled to do in gloves of thick, brown leather, but he went about the task with a curiously stately tenacity.
War as we kind of know it
Warhammer 40K doesn't have special insights about what the future of war will look like. It's a surrealistic setting of superhumans with chainsaws chopping up overgrown fungal spores. It's not a masterpiece of tactics, operational art, or strategy. There are a couple of stories that try their hands at it (the starship and White Claws stories) and they, unsurprisingly are the worst.
How I see the book is that it is a fantasy setting where you throw weird stuff together and try to create an emotional connection from that weirdness. Maybe it's revulsion at the lobotomised bodies of children kept eternally young through gene manipulation and hormone control, but there's plenty of "nicer" stuff. The desire to protect. The laughing in the face of death:
'And we should not die, when so many others have?'
...only to later wish to trade 50 lesser lives for that of your comrade. There's horror both external and internal; betrayal and redemption rewarded with more betrayal. I've written before this is universe that paints emotions in primary colours but when we are reading about robots carrying literal cathedrals on their backs, I'd say subtley is best avoided.
If you can't be bothered reading it all, Helsreach will do. There's interesting lore and emotional insights to most of them though, so it's worth a crack.
July 13, 2022
I'm still early into my WH40k journey. This book was good for getting some more info of the universe. The stories were on, mostly they were sort of flat. Very little about any of the characters or the stories really drew me in.
March 22, 2024
I got this book for the ADB Gimaldus Story
Aaron Dembski-Bowden is Black Library's best writer. Dan Abnett is what brought me into 40k, with the Guant's Ghost series and then his Inquistor trilogy. Those are some of Black Library's best stories. I then stumbled upon a 3rd Armageddon movie on YouTube. It 2 hours plus, but I was enraptured by that story in a way no Space Marine story has ever gripped me and that led me to this omnibus.
I bought this omni for the ADB Grimaldus story and then short story that rounds out his time on Armageddon. It was worth 21 dollars. The way ADB pulls you into the mind of the Reclusiarch and the Black Templars has made them my second favorite chapter after the Salamanders.
Merek Grimaldus is promoted from company chaplain to chapter Reclusiarch at the beginning of the story. It weighs heavy on him, but never says from his duty. He is hates his assignment, but never says away from it. The Black Templars are a crusading chapter and to defend is anathema to them. Grimaldus has to defend a hive on Armageddon from the largest Ork Invasion force ever assembled against the imperium. This is the premium 40k fiction.
None of the stories in this omnibus are terrible, and are worth reading but the best one, by far, are the Grimaldus stories. He might be my favorite 40k Chaplain. Those two stories are worth the price of admission. Trust me!
Aaron Dembski-Bowden is Black Library's best writer. Dan Abnett is what brought me into 40k, with the Guant's Ghost series and then his Inquistor trilogy. Those are some of Black Library's best stories. I then stumbled upon a 3rd Armageddon movie on YouTube. It 2 hours plus, but I was enraptured by that story in a way no Space Marine story has ever gripped me and that led me to this omnibus.
I bought this omni for the ADB Grimaldus story and then short story that rounds out his time on Armageddon. It was worth 21 dollars. The way ADB pulls you into the mind of the Reclusiarch and the Black Templars has made them my second favorite chapter after the Salamanders.
Merek Grimaldus is promoted from company chaplain to chapter Reclusiarch at the beginning of the story. It weighs heavy on him, but never says from his duty. He is hates his assignment, but never says away from it. The Black Templars are a crusading chapter and to defend is anathema to them. Grimaldus has to defend a hive on Armageddon from the largest Ork Invasion force ever assembled against the imperium. This is the premium 40k fiction.
None of the stories in this omnibus are terrible, and are worth reading but the best one, by far, are the Grimaldus stories. He might be my favorite 40k Chaplain. Those two stories are worth the price of admission. Trust me!
September 21, 2020
Various stories from The Third War for Armageddon against the Ork xenos.
Much of the book focuses on Chaplain Grimaldus of The Black Templars and the fight for Helsreach, but theres also stories focused around the White Scar, Relictor and Marines Malevolent chapters during various campaigns / crusades of the war.
The book reads well start from finish despite the choppy switching between Authors / contexts.
Much of the book focuses on Chaplain Grimaldus of The Black Templars and the fight for Helsreach, but theres also stories focused around the White Scar, Relictor and Marines Malevolent chapters during various campaigns / crusades of the war.
The book reads well start from finish despite the choppy switching between Authors / contexts.
May 9, 2019
It was an intense story with action packed adventure and I loved it.
Read
November 8, 2025There is only war, and epic storytelling...
Mostly picked this up to finally read Helsreach by Aaron Dembski Bowden, but found a wealth of short stories that satisfied my craving for some good 40K fiction...
Mostly picked this up to finally read Helsreach by Aaron Dembski Bowden, but found a wealth of short stories that satisfied my craving for some good 40K fiction...
April 18, 2019
This book like many other omnibus has a mix of good and bad. While all of the stories were well written some tended to drag a little at times.
August 18, 2021
Hells Reach is definitely the best story in the omnibus. The rest are good but after getting through hell's reach they are just quite not as good. Overall I enjoyed the book
Want to read
November 25, 2022I loved this book. I will read it again
October 24, 2023
Fantastic insight in to the massive War of Armageddon, written brilliantly and shows many different aspects of the WH40K universe
December 10, 2023
Some stories had me glued in and some not so much.But most importantly this omnibus has it all.Bunch of stories from more than a few angles and some interesting twists to them.Worth a read.
November 28, 2025
Good
Every short story in this book is good. Most are like a solid 7 out of 10 except for Angrons Monolith. That one was a f***ing chore.
Every short story in this book is good. Most are like a solid 7 out of 10 except for Angrons Monolith. That one was a f***ing chore.
January 12, 2022
Wow! If every Warhammer book was like hellsreach i would buy everyone. The rest of the books in this are ok but hellsreach is what warhammer is about.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews