Castellan

Castellan Crowe #2

by David Annandale

Seit mehr als einem Jahrhundert dient Castellan Crowe von den Grey Knights dem Imperium und beschützt dieses vor Dämonen jeglicher Art, während er gleichzeitig die verdorbene Schwarze Klinge des Antwyr hütet. Doch nun steht er einer Herausforderung gegenüber, wie er sie nie zuvor erlebt hat. Der Planet, auf dem er und seine Streitmacht kämpfen, wird von einem gewaltigen Warpsturm verschlungen, der die Cicatrix Maledictum genannt wird. Der Überlebenskampf in diesem Sturm ist jedoch erst der Anfang, denn die Grey Knights kehren in ein verändertes Imperium zurück und stellen fest, dass das Schicksal von Sandava III Teil einer viel größeren Bedrohung ist. Crowe muss einen Gegner bekämpfen, dessen geduldig geschmiedeten Pläne nun endlich Früchte tragen und drohen, das Imperium mit unfassbarer Zerstörung zu überziehen.

Genres: 40k, Novels

330 pages, Paperback

First published January 6, 2018

Reviews

[Christian · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a decent continuation of the Warden of the Blade. It had Crowe, the Blade of Antwyr and a solid cast of supporting characters. The slaughter and carnage are, again, on an epic scale but the ending, for me, was a little underwhelming and the possible survival of some supporting characters is a little head scratching. I look forward to reading more battles with Crowe and his crew.

[Michael Dodd · Rating 3 out of 5]

Following on from Warden of the Blade and bringing the series right up to the current 40k timeline, we catch up with Crowe and his fellow Grey Knights as they look to finish the job on Sandava III, which seems simple enough until the Cicatrix Maledictum splits reality apart and engulfs the Sandava system, all hell literally breaking loose. Meanwhile Canoness Setheno (remember her from Death of Antagonis?) hunts Emperor’s Children on Angriff, a world with powerful meaning to another Grey Knight – Justicar Styer.

There’s no doubt that the central concept of the Grey Knights in the Cicatrix Maledictum is a cool one, and in places it’s chillingly dark and powerful. Too often that’s interspersed with repetitive action scenes which start to drag after a while; it could have done with livening up either through stronger arcs for the secondary characters or, at times, simply more for them to do. Overall this isn’t quite as effective as Warden of the Blade, but it’s got some great moments and is worth checking out if you’re a fan of the first book, or Grey Knights in general.

Read the full review at https://www.trackofwords.com/2018/01/...

[Yiannis Nousios · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another book that shows the might of the Grey Knights. It must be hard to portray such god-like warriors and indeed some times in the book this portrayal may reach an hyperbole. All of us who know and love the 40k universe though, are familiar with normal (and not so normal) humans fighting against gods and demons alike. So it is nice to know that the Imperium has ''immortals'' of its own fighting on its side for a change. Maybe the Grey Knights are there to even the odds a bit!
Good writing but some times confusing (during some fighting scenes). Mr. Annandale though has captured the essence of the 40k universe and hopefully will continue to do so. Overall a very enjoyable read!

[Allerglance · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book took a bunch of tries to read. It's got a good story, but it's narration has a problem:
The action scenes can get dragging at times because the words are just plain and simple that have no emotion, and some scenes just become a wack. At the start and a quarter to the end, there are some scenes that would just try to explain so many things that's happening at once. However, to be fair, this is my second book in the 40k universe, so I don't have much experience with warp presentation per say. Going back though, as entities of the warp attack and teleport at every material space available, it's difficult to read what's going as actions that occur are heavily repeated it gets annoying to read. Like, the daemon appeared and attack the castellan, then there's gonna be another text with some added context going like that over and over again.
It could've improved by focusing on one particular action and build it up in a way it doesn't try to paint the entire picture in one sentence. This book really had a potential in it being good. It's got three stars for the lore.

[Arcangel1175 · Rating 2 out of 5]

This one was not a good squeal,a shame as I really like Crowe. The plot armour of grey knights hits you on the face in this one(with grey knights not receiving a single casualty in the catastrophe,even their vehicles are intact until the end). I was more excited about how antagonists would manipulate the plot and it did have some good moments. Although I felt disconnected from Crowe's ability to view wrap different. This ability is always refered in the first novel,yet in this novel Crowe relies on a librarian to view changes in wrap this time(Which feels totally odd). Crowe is also reduced to space Sherlock with clues just hitting him out of thin air with no pshyic things involved (which we want to see more of in a grey knights story), again feels odd. My major compliant is the deviation from the main character's core abilities.

[Zaphied · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wasn't until I finished this and came to add it to my 2019 goodreads reading challenge tonight that I find it is a second part it was so well self contained. Grey Knights vs Slaanesh demons and Emperor's Children. Was pretty interesting to see the corruption and falling into heresy from a heretic's viewpoint. Daemonette giving out an oracle of what to come for a dying Chaos Marine was striking. Ended with a cliffhanger quest. I would have enjoyed it more had the chaos forces had more screentime over Crowe but it was a decent 40k novel all in all.

[Seth Dickerson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I actually enjoyed this story of Crowe, the blade of Antwyr, and the supporting characters. It was intriguing yet was suspenseful and I love the orbital analysis part which it was discovered the system was moving in a logarithmic rhythm to bring the perfect ruination. I thought it was well thought through and even though some parts make it weird on why certain people lived it was still very enjoyable.

[David Allen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Decent storyline but I felt like it was lacking in detail at some points. The story brings you to the current Dark Imperium time frame. Much has changed for Crow and he's become quite the champion.

If you love the Grey knights, it's a must read.
Happy Reading!

[Mikita Taukachou · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not the best book in the Warhammer 40,000 universe, but quite a good reading among the other books about Grey Knights.

[Amanda]

No rating - proofread