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Necromunda
Road to Redemption
A Necromunda novel
Zeke of House Cawdor is on a crusade of vengeance. His entire world has been burned down, and he'll stop at nothing to get those responsible – even it means facing his own troubled past.
READ IT BECAUSE
See what happens when the firebrands of House Cawdor step into the spotlight in a tale of faith, fury and lots of fire!
DESCRIPTION
From within the hives of Necromunda, where unchecked billions teem and fester, House Cawdor knows the truth – the doom of the universe hangs eternal over their heads. You cannot escape it, and you cannot escape your past.
Floodgrave burns, and with it burns the life Zeke of House Cawdor has built. With his friends dead, their children missing, and the culprits nowhere to be found, Zeke takes up the weapons he swore to leave behind, and starts a path downhive that will see him face the man he used to be. He will stop at nothing, even if that means bringing the horrors of his past back into the light.
Zeke of House Cawdor is on a crusade of vengeance. His entire world has been burned down, and he'll stop at nothing to get those responsible – even it means facing his own troubled past.
READ IT BECAUSE
See what happens when the firebrands of House Cawdor step into the spotlight in a tale of faith, fury and lots of fire!
DESCRIPTION
From within the hives of Necromunda, where unchecked billions teem and fester, House Cawdor knows the truth – the doom of the universe hangs eternal over their heads. You cannot escape it, and you cannot escape your past.
Floodgrave burns, and with it burns the life Zeke of House Cawdor has built. With his friends dead, their children missing, and the culprits nowhere to be found, Zeke takes up the weapons he swore to leave behind, and starts a path downhive that will see him face the man he used to be. He will stop at nothing, even if that means bringing the horrors of his past back into the light.
- GenresScience Fiction40k
383 pages, Paperback
First published March 31, 2020
10 people are currently reading
100 people want to read
About the author
Mike Brooks
79 books548 followersMike Brooks was born in Ipswich, Suffolk and moved to Nottingham when he was 18 to go to university. He’s stayed there ever since, and now lives with his wife, two cats, two snakes and a collection of tropical fish. When not working for a homelessness charity he plays guitar and sings in a punk band, watches football (soccer), MMA and nature/science documentaries, goes walking in the Peak District or other areas of splendid scenery, and DJs wherever anyone will tolerate him.
And, y’know, writes.
And, y’know, writes.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
April 14, 2020
I don't write reviews very often but this book deserves it. Black library has been hiring some amazing new authors who might be able to compete with Abnett, Dembski-Bowden and Wraight in time, with Mike Brooks, Rachel Harrison and (I suspect) Denny Flowers.
Road to Redemption is everything you want in a Necromunda novel, he's got the setting spot on, shows how the underhive works outside of the gangs themselves, interesting character arcs and keeps you reading even when you know you should be getting on with other jobs.
Try this book, you won't regret it.
Road to Redemption is everything you want in a Necromunda novel, he's got the setting spot on, shows how the underhive works outside of the gangs themselves, interesting character arcs and keeps you reading even when you know you should be getting on with other jobs.
Try this book, you won't regret it.
April 3, 2020
First things first, I really like Necromunda as a setting for books, especially since it’s recent return. Secondly, I really like Mike Brooks as an author. So am I going to rave about this? Yes, of course I am.
Short version- if you like Necromunda books, you’ll like this. If you like the prose of Mike Brooks, you’ll like this.
Long version? Well...
I’m going to do my best to discuss this without spoilers, so I’ll just say that for the first third I thought it was going to be a by-numbers quest with bits of a Deathwish-esque one-last-mission revenge tale thrown in, but then it gets wonderfully, stunningly dark. Possibly even darker than Terminal: Overkill, and that’s bleak as anything in places. The plot remains the same, after the tonal shift, but the route taken took me aback.
One of the best, and conversely worst, things about Necromunda as a setting, is that it can cleave so closely to pulpy tropes. When it’s good, you get an insight into how the bleakest living conditions and abject misery can’t always grind down the human spirit, fast-paced stories of gunfights, gangs and outlaws and nice slices on the all-to-rare civilian experience in the Imperium. At its worst, you get tired western and pulp tropes. Thankfully, Road to Redemption falls into the first camp, for all that it has a hoary plot. Without wanting to oversell it, it explores faith, personal & collective responsibility, here mentalities, familial ties and other types of loyalty. It oscillates between bleak and uplifting in the best possible way.
The book features, to varying degrees each of the ‘Classic’ gangs, as well as 2/3 of those from Outlanders. Brooks manages to bring the differences between the houses to life really well through their language- we’ve already had his take on, and explaination for, the Goliath speech patterns in a previous short, but this is the first time, as far as I’m aware, that the linguistic idiosyncrasies of Orlock and Delaware has been featured. Each house has it’s own vocal tics and differences in syntax and this really helps to distinguish and further set them apart- the differences between the houses are, after all, more than their fashions; they have their own distinct cultures and have populations far in excess of many modern nations, so why wouldn’t they have different ways of talking? It’s a crying shame that’s there’s no audiobook for this on the horizon, it would be really fun to listen to in this regard alone.
Brooks has already done some fantastic work around gender and sexuality (in this regard I mean all levels of human attraction. Or not) in his 40k work so far, so it shouldn’t come as much surprise that he returns to these threads here.
I’m going to make a sweeping statement here that if you are the kind of reader who has trouble accepting that in an Imperium of a million words these things only exist within the narrow parameters of early 20th Century Europe you maybe have a paucity of imagination that ought to preclude you from reading speculative fiction.
In Choke Point, Brooks gave us one of the few 40k characters that I can recall to express or indicate physical attraction in a convincing way, appreciating the attractiveness of a particular Scion and comparing him to their parmore. Nothing earth-shattering, but refreshing. Here we again have characters expressing a desire for intimacy and being motivated by inter-personal relationships rather than just ‘duty’ or shared home worlds. Religion, likewise, isn’t a certain immutable concept, rather a faith that is struggled for and not universally shared.
Gender too is presented here beyond a binary and it totally works. The culture of Necromunda is drawn from so many modern tropes but, like so much in 40k is more than that. There are characters who are referred to as they/them. It might take some a while to adjust to while reading, but if you can adjust to promethium, this isn’t much more of a leap...
I THINK THAT IT’S GREAT THAT CHARACTERS IN BLACK LIBRARY BOOKS ARE BECOMING MORE REPRESENTATIVE OF WIDER SOCIETY AND THAT THIS NOT ONLY LEADS TO BETTER STORYTELLING BUT ALSO MAKES MARGINALISED PEOPLE FEEL MORE WELCOME TO EXPLORE THE SETTING, BUT IF YOU DON’T I’D REALLY RATHER NOT HEAR ABOUT IT, thanks.
Short version- if you like Necromunda books, you’ll like this. If you like the prose of Mike Brooks, you’ll like this.
Long version? Well...
I’m going to do my best to discuss this without spoilers, so I’ll just say that for the first third I thought it was going to be a by-numbers quest with bits of a Deathwish-esque one-last-mission revenge tale thrown in, but then it gets wonderfully, stunningly dark. Possibly even darker than Terminal: Overkill, and that’s bleak as anything in places. The plot remains the same, after the tonal shift, but the route taken took me aback.
One of the best, and conversely worst, things about Necromunda as a setting, is that it can cleave so closely to pulpy tropes. When it’s good, you get an insight into how the bleakest living conditions and abject misery can’t always grind down the human spirit, fast-paced stories of gunfights, gangs and outlaws and nice slices on the all-to-rare civilian experience in the Imperium. At its worst, you get tired western and pulp tropes. Thankfully, Road to Redemption falls into the first camp, for all that it has a hoary plot. Without wanting to oversell it, it explores faith, personal & collective responsibility, here mentalities, familial ties and other types of loyalty. It oscillates between bleak and uplifting in the best possible way.
The book features, to varying degrees each of the ‘Classic’ gangs, as well as 2/3 of those from Outlanders. Brooks manages to bring the differences between the houses to life really well through their language- we’ve already had his take on, and explaination for, the Goliath speech patterns in a previous short, but this is the first time, as far as I’m aware, that the linguistic idiosyncrasies of Orlock and Delaware has been featured. Each house has it’s own vocal tics and differences in syntax and this really helps to distinguish and further set them apart- the differences between the houses are, after all, more than their fashions; they have their own distinct cultures and have populations far in excess of many modern nations, so why wouldn’t they have different ways of talking? It’s a crying shame that’s there’s no audiobook for this on the horizon, it would be really fun to listen to in this regard alone.
Brooks has already done some fantastic work around gender and sexuality (in this regard I mean all levels of human attraction. Or not) in his 40k work so far, so it shouldn’t come as much surprise that he returns to these threads here.
I’m going to make a sweeping statement here that if you are the kind of reader who has trouble accepting that in an Imperium of a million words these things only exist within the narrow parameters of early 20th Century Europe you maybe have a paucity of imagination that ought to preclude you from reading speculative fiction.
In Choke Point, Brooks gave us one of the few 40k characters that I can recall to express or indicate physical attraction in a convincing way, appreciating the attractiveness of a particular Scion and comparing him to their parmore. Nothing earth-shattering, but refreshing. Here we again have characters expressing a desire for intimacy and being motivated by inter-personal relationships rather than just ‘duty’ or shared home worlds. Religion, likewise, isn’t a certain immutable concept, rather a faith that is struggled for and not universally shared.
Gender too is presented here beyond a binary and it totally works. The culture of Necromunda is drawn from so many modern tropes but, like so much in 40k is more than that. There are characters who are referred to as they/them. It might take some a while to adjust to while reading, but if you can adjust to promethium, this isn’t much more of a leap...
I THINK THAT IT’S GREAT THAT CHARACTERS IN BLACK LIBRARY BOOKS ARE BECOMING MORE REPRESENTATIVE OF WIDER SOCIETY AND THAT THIS NOT ONLY LEADS TO BETTER STORYTELLING BUT ALSO MAKES MARGINALISED PEOPLE FEEL MORE WELCOME TO EXPLORE THE SETTING, BUT IF YOU DON’T I’D REALLY RATHER NOT HEAR ABOUT IT, thanks.
April 3, 2021
I got into reading Necromunda books because of Mike Brooks. I picked up the collection Underhive a couple of years ago and loved his story Wanted:Dead. Since then I’ve read a couple of the novels. I was excited to read a full length novel from Brooks, not just a novella. However, I really didn’t like it.
If I could describe this book I would use one word “contrived.” It started out well enough. It was a classic western formula. Old gunslinger lives a life of peace after hanging up his guns. His village is massacred he picks back up his guns to save the kidnapped children. It started very strong.
However, about half way through everything just felt super contrived. The second main character Alin Choll’s personality seemed to shift suddenly, and all of his dialogue felt extremely contrived.
The Redepemtionists are introduced, but it’s so obvious that’s what was going on the whole time it made the first half of the book seem stupid and pointless.
His “followers” becoming rabidly cultist happened very quickly, and felt inorganic, and again contrived.
Warhammer is a pretty on the nose allegory, but there is something tongue and cheek about it, but in this the allegory was just suffocating, just trying too hard?
There is some really well written parts with the Redemptionist leader converting the kid that feels straight out of Blood Diamond, or something else about child soldiers. Again, it’s really well done, but the tone is just off. Necromunda is very pulpy, and even though it’s grimdark, it’s so grimdark it’s almost comically. Whereas this is very serious. It just felt out of place, like it should be in a good Literary book, but feels limited here. Like he should have saved this for a hard SF book, not a Warhammer book?
There are a tone of underutilized side characters. Like Kat the thief, Grimbjorn Stonefist. He came up with some cool minor parts but didn’t flesh them out.
I really appreciated having the character of Alin Choll. Good on the author for having a non-binary character. However, since this book is very action heavy, I found using “they/them” pronouns often lead to action sequences involving Alin that were hard to follow. I don’t know if it would have been better to use a made up gender neutral pronoun, or just the character’s name, but it muddled the action.
Finally, the ending was so predictable, with the reveal. Then it was so rushed and anti-climatic. And for the 100th time the word contrived comes to mind. Like are we really supposed to believe his ex-lover has been running this cult on the same floor of Necromunda he’s been hiding out on for 13 years and they never ran into each other?
Idk, I really appreciate what Brooks was going for here, but it just did not click with me.
If I could describe this book I would use one word “contrived.” It started out well enough. It was a classic western formula. Old gunslinger lives a life of peace after hanging up his guns. His village is massacred he picks back up his guns to save the kidnapped children. It started very strong.
However, about half way through everything just felt super contrived. The second main character Alin Choll’s personality seemed to shift suddenly, and all of his dialogue felt extremely contrived.
The Redepemtionists are introduced, but it’s so obvious that’s what was going on the whole time it made the first half of the book seem stupid and pointless.
His “followers” becoming rabidly cultist happened very quickly, and felt inorganic, and again contrived.
Warhammer is a pretty on the nose allegory, but there is something tongue and cheek about it, but in this the allegory was just suffocating, just trying too hard?
There is some really well written parts with the Redemptionist leader converting the kid that feels straight out of Blood Diamond, or something else about child soldiers. Again, it’s really well done, but the tone is just off. Necromunda is very pulpy, and even though it’s grimdark, it’s so grimdark it’s almost comically. Whereas this is very serious. It just felt out of place, like it should be in a good Literary book, but feels limited here. Like he should have saved this for a hard SF book, not a Warhammer book?
There are a tone of underutilized side characters. Like Kat the thief, Grimbjorn Stonefist. He came up with some cool minor parts but didn’t flesh them out.
I really appreciated having the character of Alin Choll. Good on the author for having a non-binary character. However, since this book is very action heavy, I found using “they/them” pronouns often lead to action sequences involving Alin that were hard to follow. I don’t know if it would have been better to use a made up gender neutral pronoun, or just the character’s name, but it muddled the action.
Finally, the ending was so predictable, with the reveal. Then it was so rushed and anti-climatic. And for the 100th time the word contrived comes to mind. Like are we really supposed to believe his ex-lover has been running this cult on the same floor of Necromunda he’s been hiding out on for 13 years and they never ran into each other?
Idk, I really appreciate what Brooks was going for here, but it just did not click with me.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 16, 2022
So I would say this is more of a 2.5 rating, but went with 2 over 3 because of the ending.
This book starts out okay. As others have said in their review, it has a very western feel to it, with an ex-cawdor ganger enjoying his life after having left a redemption gang. Things happen, and he sets out to find the two children of the people who took him in. All in all not an original plot, but one that has all the proper elements to make an enjoyable story, albeit a familiar one.
There are some elements of this novel that were enjoyable. The interactions of the various gangs that join the crusade, the various personalities, and the world building. Out of those three, the world building is probably the best part of this book, as it helps to enrich the Necromunda world immensely and provides some very nice settings. The gangers all behave like you would expect them to, and nothing really sits outside of the norm there.
The romance between the protagonist and one of his followers (being vague to not give spoilers) felt tacked on to increase the reader's attachment to them. It really doesn't add anything to the story, nor does it build anything to either of the characters. There wasn't really anything there, it felt hollow, and I felt Brooks could have done a lot more with it. The fact that the Delaque are supposed to not even really be human according to The Book of Shadows, this felt like a very, very odd choice. In the end, if it was removed from the story, I don't think anything would have been affected.
Another issue is the ending. It feels like Brooks was just sick of the story at that point, got bored, or just generally wanted things to be over. It's anti-climactic, cliche, and easily one of the most unsatisfying endings I have read in a long, long time. There is no pay out, there is nothing to make the journey of the protagonist seem worth it, nothing. Though it could be argued that's the grimdark of the 40k universe, it could have been done a lot more effectively. Instead, it feels like running into a wall. Suddenly things happen, it's described in one giant brush stroke, and then it's over.
In the end, if you want a book that will add to the overall feel of Necromunda for players, this is a good book for that. Want a complex storyline and a satisfying ending? This isn't the book for you. There are better Necromunda books out there, and I would suggest you go and read those first.
This book starts out okay. As others have said in their review, it has a very western feel to it, with an ex-cawdor ganger enjoying his life after having left a redemption gang. Things happen, and he sets out to find the two children of the people who took him in. All in all not an original plot, but one that has all the proper elements to make an enjoyable story, albeit a familiar one.
There are some elements of this novel that were enjoyable. The interactions of the various gangs that join the crusade, the various personalities, and the world building. Out of those three, the world building is probably the best part of this book, as it helps to enrich the Necromunda world immensely and provides some very nice settings. The gangers all behave like you would expect them to, and nothing really sits outside of the norm there.
The romance between the protagonist and one of his followers (being vague to not give spoilers) felt tacked on to increase the reader's attachment to them. It really doesn't add anything to the story, nor does it build anything to either of the characters. There wasn't really anything there, it felt hollow, and I felt Brooks could have done a lot more with it. The fact that the Delaque are supposed to not even really be human according to The Book of Shadows, this felt like a very, very odd choice. In the end, if it was removed from the story, I don't think anything would have been affected.
Another issue is the ending. It feels like Brooks was just sick of the story at that point, got bored, or just generally wanted things to be over. It's anti-climactic, cliche, and easily one of the most unsatisfying endings I have read in a long, long time. There is no pay out, there is nothing to make the journey of the protagonist seem worth it, nothing. Though it could be argued that's the grimdark of the 40k universe, it could have been done a lot more effectively. Instead, it feels like running into a wall. Suddenly things happen, it's described in one giant brush stroke, and then it's over.
In the end, if you want a book that will add to the overall feel of Necromunda for players, this is a good book for that. Want a complex storyline and a satisfying ending? This isn't the book for you. There are better Necromunda books out there, and I would suggest you go and read those first.
July 6, 2020
Mike Brooks’ second novel for Black Library, Road to Redemption swaps Navigator Houses for Necromunda in a dark and character-driven story about faith, atonement, buried secrets and impossible decisions. For Zeke, once of House Cawdor, a quiet life of hard work, hard liquor and honest friendship provides a way of silencing his demons, right up until it’s burned out from under him. With that life destroyed, and his friends’ children taken, all he has left is the drive to find the culprits and either rescue or avenge the children, but to do so he’ll need to face not just the risk of death but a return to the life he tried so hard to escape.
Necromunda as a setting is pretty grim, but away from the brutality of the usual 40k battlefields, stories set there often feel a little lighter, more human and relatable as they focus on everyday people and their everyday wants and needs. That’s certainly the case here in some respects, however Zeke’s story is every bit as dark as the grimmest war story. The combination of straightforward, endearingly pulpy narrative, vividly drawn setting and complex, conflicted characters makes for a book which is easy to get into and hard to put down, and if the fiery finale is perhaps a touch abrupt, all told this is a tremendously characterful, dark and powerful story.
Read the full review at https://www.trackofwords.com/2020/07/...
Necromunda as a setting is pretty grim, but away from the brutality of the usual 40k battlefields, stories set there often feel a little lighter, more human and relatable as they focus on everyday people and their everyday wants and needs. That’s certainly the case here in some respects, however Zeke’s story is every bit as dark as the grimmest war story. The combination of straightforward, endearingly pulpy narrative, vividly drawn setting and complex, conflicted characters makes for a book which is easy to get into and hard to put down, and if the fiery finale is perhaps a touch abrupt, all told this is a tremendously characterful, dark and powerful story.
Read the full review at https://www.trackofwords.com/2020/07/...
May 8, 2020
This was so, so good.
First of all, characters, ever the most important thing to me in a story. Zeke is very likable, a sort of Commissar Cain played for Drama. He's competent, true, but he's also constantly getting injured and proven wrong. You understand his reasoning for everything he does and most importantly he just comes across as very human. The supporting cast and bit parts are all memorable as well, with the Delaque Cholls being the obvious standout. There's even a Squat. I have to give special props to the antagonist though. Black Library is very good at writing memorable villains, they're just usually protagonists. Infernus though, you're cheering for his death in a way you aren't for most system-ravaging Chaos Lords. The children Zeke is out to rescue get a surprising amount of development as well, and it helps build some very effective tension for the climax.
The plot is straightforward, but it's an effective vehicle for the cast and the setting. I learned a lot about Necromunda without it feeling like Brooks was ticking off a list. Zeke's development borders on the suspiciously convenient, but never crosses that line for me. Everything is appropriately small scale, and it captures the fragility of human existence in 40k very well. It also gets very, very dark, which is an extreme I'm always hoping to push when reading Black Library. You'd think the ending was a bit abrupt, but once I realized what Brooks was doing I thought it was very well done, more in the spirit of 40k than most in all honesty.
The pacing is excellent, I can't think of a single scene that overstays its welcome. The writing too is strong, mostly in the character stuff.
I will give a bit of criticism to Brooks' handling of violence, while thankfully brief and effectively bloody, I had a bit of trouble following a few of the action scenes. He also occasionally forgets to describe the environment, a lot of my favourite scenes occur in a bit of a void. A certain reveal was also a bit obvious, though I appreciated how it resolved greatly.
First of all, characters, ever the most important thing to me in a story. Zeke is very likable, a sort of Commissar Cain played for Drama. He's competent, true, but he's also constantly getting injured and proven wrong. You understand his reasoning for everything he does and most importantly he just comes across as very human. The supporting cast and bit parts are all memorable as well, with the Delaque Cholls being the obvious standout. There's even a Squat. I have to give special props to the antagonist though. Black Library is very good at writing memorable villains, they're just usually protagonists. Infernus though, you're cheering for his death in a way you aren't for most system-ravaging Chaos Lords. The children Zeke is out to rescue get a surprising amount of development as well, and it helps build some very effective tension for the climax.
The plot is straightforward, but it's an effective vehicle for the cast and the setting. I learned a lot about Necromunda without it feeling like Brooks was ticking off a list. Zeke's development borders on the suspiciously convenient, but never crosses that line for me. Everything is appropriately small scale, and it captures the fragility of human existence in 40k very well. It also gets very, very dark, which is an extreme I'm always hoping to push when reading Black Library. You'd think the ending was a bit abrupt, but once I realized what Brooks was doing I thought it was very well done, more in the spirit of 40k than most in all honesty.
The pacing is excellent, I can't think of a single scene that overstays its welcome. The writing too is strong, mostly in the character stuff.
I will give a bit of criticism to Brooks' handling of violence, while thankfully brief and effectively bloody, I had a bit of trouble following a few of the action scenes. He also occasionally forgets to describe the environment, a lot of my favourite scenes occur in a bit of a void. A certain reveal was also a bit obvious, though I appreciated how it resolved greatly.
August 21, 2020
While, not my favorite, it's in my top five. This was an awesome Cawdor story with a healthy dose of Delaque. Actually it's a Cawdor vs Redemptionist story, which is even better. The story was awesome, but what I really liked was that the Delaque were both nonbinary and our hero Zeke was at least bisexual, but probably gay. These aren't important to the main story, but not what I would expect to see in a Black Library book. The main story was a pretty awesome and epic quest and the author seems to understand the Underhive which is refreshing. The only thing I didn't like was the REALLY cliche ending.
October 7, 2020
Heart-wrenching, beautiful WH40k/Necromunda scifi. A wonderful cast of characters that drives forward a tale of trying to find oneself when all is lost, of family, and of the dangers of worship.
April 21, 2023
Mike delivers with a solid yet bittersweet entry into the Necromunda series.
November 23, 2023
Truly a great read. It hooks you early and keeps you invested. The author shows us not only great characters but a really interesting look through Games Workshop's best setting. Highly recommended
April 2, 2024
I'd say this is definitely one of THE best Necromunda novels. Its characters are fun and unique, the plot coherent, and even has a twist or two I didn't expect at the end. Now, with it being the grimdark of 40k the ending was slightly predictable, but that's kind of just part of the genre.
The book did a lot of cool stuff to expand on the worldbuilding of Necromunda. New towns and I think the very first good-guy Cawdor protagonist ever. There's even a squat! Very engrossing read that kept my attention all the way through.
The book did a lot of cool stuff to expand on the worldbuilding of Necromunda. New towns and I think the very first good-guy Cawdor protagonist ever. There's even a squat! Very engrossing read that kept my attention all the way through.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews