Eye of Medusa (Warhammer 40,000)

Book keeps a fast pace while exploring the intricacies of a lesser known chapter. With a crazy climax to finish the story off. Very good

A little too technical for me. I love 40k books but the way this one is written makes it hard to follow the story. Iv'e read Necron stories that were less technical and they're robots.

I love this chapter, it is so different from the others.

I think this is well written, but it's still the Iron Hands. Just not a group in the 41st Millennium that you can root for. Some good background on them.

Granted, it is a book about transhuman homicidal psychopaths. However, while the author tries to make you care about three or four of the characters, there is really nothing there to make you care whether they live or die. The prose is thick with an overcomplicated vocabulary, is unnecessarily repetitive, and nothing is actually resolved in the end. I plowed through to the bitter end but felt like my time could have been better spent reading something else. Definitely not a keeper.

he really likes it.

I usually like judgig books in a simple way: good or bad. But after reading this, I don't know what to feel.Plot: Cybernetic warriors (Iron Hands) debating about philosophy of war - to be 100% cruel or just 90%? Yeah, that's it.If you read Lexicanum or any WH40K lore websites, search for Kristosian Conclave. There was an Iron Hands commander, named Kristos and he sacrificed ally forces in order to win a battle. In the book, we are after the deeds of Kristos, and the other SMs are debating, whether it was rightful or not, to be more effective in battle. Meanwhile, there is a technoheretic rebellion going on at the edge of the Medusa system, which is the homeworld of the Iron Hands, so they are really angry about it. But they are always angry if something is not happening as they want it to happen. They are also angry because there are still cells in their body and instead of machine. So everybody hates themselves. It was actually really interesting, it differs a lot from other SM novels. AdMech is doing its usual mindfckery thing - business as usual.Pros: Iron Hands are cybernetically enhanced, so they are really resilient. There are numerous cool moments in the book. They walk through a minefield, and don't give a fck about mines exploding under their feet; whole squads and companies are acting as one, as they are connected through a mind-internet, subordinates half-enslaved to their officers. It was really cool and different from the bloodied frenzy of other SMs. As I have written previously, I liked this philosophical debate about chapter doctrine.Cons: There are some lore violations: a SM is incapacitated, in sus-an come, BUT THE MACHINE SPIRIT OF HIS POWER ARMOUR CRAWLS OUT FROM THEIR UPSIDE DOWN RHINO, SHOOTS MULTIPLE OPPONENTS AND WAKES UP THE SM. No. No. No. Machine spirits don't do things like that. A Baneblade or a Land Raider can do it, no an Mk VII. power armour. Also, there are multiple bad writing things: for example, when Kristos sacrifices its allies, I don't get wtf was his advantage? It's not written, what he gained from his allies' death. Also, there is a Titan, firing at our heroes, they get some weird AdMech gun working, they are about to fire but, they don't push the button, because there are some battlefield news. The Titan is still killing them, but the writer forgets about the whole stuff. What??? As not a native speaker, the vocabulary of the writer was really difficult, harder to understand, than other WH40K novels, I have read so far. Not a disadvantage, because it is a good thing to use various expressions and to write in an ornate way, yet it was a bit demanding to read.

fantastic

Very difficult to read, starting with the names of the charakters: Rauth, gnark, rorrk, gnorr, vauth, raunk (or similar).And then the different clans...same problems...took me half the book to find out who is who and in what clan.Although a lot of tech expressions which seem ridiculous to even the hardiest WH40K fans.This makes the story very cumbersome to read.To the story line: Some invasion on some Forge world, some faction of Mars turned traitor (or not) against the iron hands.The Iron hands are not portrayed very sympathetic, indulging in self destruction and killing themselves over their own agendas.A mighty cliff hanger at the end....so I suppose it is only the beginning of a story line. Does have some potential to develop, but maybe one would prefer to read all books in one go.

Mr. Guymer is a capable writer and I am pre-disposed to the Skitarii/Mechanicus narrative within the Warhammer 40K universe. So, I was hoping for a thrilling read. Not so. Mr. Guymer’s descriptions of Adeptus Mechanicus’s ritual practice, equipment and hierarchy trawl on for page after page with a monomaniacal tendency that borders on the fetishistic. Nothing wrong with fetishism you may opine, but I would retort: if it occludes and slows the dramatic development and the action of the novel to a glacial pace then it has over-reached as a technique. Also, if you are looking for a hero within the novel: there are none, only a gaggle of sadists racing to the bottom to shed what remains of their humanity. The reader is left with the ascendant impression “I don’t care about any of these characters—they are all cut of the same monstrous cloth and I don’t care who wins or loses.” As this impression is well-entrenched in the reader by page 150, it makes the prospect of reading the following 271 pages a daunting and unfulfilling exercise.