The World Engine (Space Marine Battles)

(Without spoilers) Very unique storytelling POV. Exciting addition to the lore and insight into the necrons. Hope this author continues to write.

Standard 40K Grimdark war porn with an original twist followed by a standard 40k gimmick. The Necrons make a Death Star (interestingly described, but yeah, it's a Death Star). A B-List Space Marines Chapter crash lands on it in a 'no doubt about it' suicide mission to destroy it (also an interesting idea but the decision by the Chapter Master to do so seems a little rushed and could have been gone into in a little more detail). All this happens within the first 20 pages of the story. What separates it from the rest of the pack is the "who's corpse are they retrieving these memories from" narrative device and the unknown until the last few pages, reason behind this particular SM Chapters need to save the next planet in the Death Stars trajectory.Interesting characters. The backstory for the Chapter is that their aspirants are chosen from a single home-world that has a seemingly Middle Eastern/Asian inspired Royalty/Caste system (think Dune) that plays heavily into how they act and react to each other (even though they are sworn to disavow all aspects of their former lives during the SM conversion.) The Necrons are a combination of Pre and Post Matt Ward fluff tinkering. They are mostly mindless killing machines save for the leaders that have maintained their Necrontyr personalities and actually bark insults and taunts at their enemies, this works a lot better that you would think it would.The only problem is the usual 40K "Deus ex Machina" (or in this case 'Deus ex C'Tan") ending that quickly ties things up too neatly yet leaves the door open for another conflict with the very thing they released to save themselves. This worked wonderfully (and tragically) in Eisenhorn, but the the idea has been beaten to death by subsequent Black Library 40k novels.I enjoyed it overall.

A little-known chapter that made the top of my list. Epic in many ways. It can be a little hard to follow because each chapter is told as a separate anecdote and not necessarily in order

Great book. the Astral Knights make a desperate assault on a necron "Death Star" like world called the world engine by crashing a ship with their whole chapter on to its surface.I have always enjoyed seeing the space marines fighting the necrons as it is one of the few races in the 41 millennium that seem to out match them particularly in this one where they don't even now who the necrons are or anything about them before they got to the surface. they did not even know if they would survive the crash to the surface or if sending their whole chapter to certain death will even do any good.the one problem I have with this story is there was not much build up to the coming up with the plan to crash the ship. just a few pages in and they are making their death run at the world engine. this gets explained more latter in the book but missing that build up was still a disappointment to me.also there are breaks from the main story to read notes from an Inquisitorial agent who is digging out the memories of a of the space marine recovered from the battle with the world engine. which are weird but get very intriguing as the book goes on.

It's pretty good

Loved it great but not disappointed Warhammer at its best 😈😈😈😈😈

Another Great Warhammer Book

I was looking for a fun, interesting, standalone Space Marine book. I'm a fan of the 40k universe but didnt want to invest in a whole series of books. I just wanted a fun one and done story and this book is exactly that.I really liked how you get the perspective of different types of space marines and get to see how assault squads are different from scouts or how a librarian is different from a codicier etc.The story isn't super original, but that isn't what I was looking for. The stoey also had a few neat twists that kept it interesting.I wouldn't recommend this book to people brand new to the universe or who are looking for something more than a straight forward space marine vs. Necron story.

Un-putdownable read,sad to lose a whole chapter of heroes,I'm going to paint a squad of marines in their colours as my next project

Should have got a hard copy

Warhammer 40k is a world of darkness, violence, and despair - and Counter understands how to bring all of these together in an impressive and fresh way.The World Engine describes the last stand of the Astral Knights, and explores their discovery of the Necron Horror. It does so through the lense of an inquisitorial investigation, which proves to be some of the best reflective writing I've ever read.Definitely worth a read, and probably a second, and a third!

An enjoyable Space Marine book that uses the point of view of multiple battle brothers of the Astral Knights Chapter throughout to advance the story. The Necrons are the enemy in this book however we never get the story from their point of view .PROS: It"s pretty much Space Marines assaulting the World Engine then the campaign of battles and survival that follows.CONS: No point of view of the Necrons. Doesn't offer to much details to the lore of the WH40K universe or either faction involved in the book.Still an enjoyable read.

Some spoilersThe title essentially summarises the two main protagonists of this new publication from the Space Marine Battles Series, apart from a glimpse at the Ultramarines and one of their captains. An incredibly powerful space fortress – the world engine – has started to travel through space, laying waste to every inhabited world on its way and defeating all fleets attempting to stop it with energy weapons that outclass any human technology.The latest expeditionary force is attempting – and failing – to stop them so the Chapter Master of the Astral Knights tries a desperate gamble: he will crash his huge battle barge on the artificial planet and try to storm the fortress with as many of his Space Marines as can be crammed into the ship.For potential readers that are also Warhammer 40K players, this book will provide elements for a battle scenario, plenty of information about the enemy and a good deal of possibilities for variations.For just about everyone, it contains a wealth of information and a number of interesting twists, starting by the way the story is told through the collection of the memories of the last survivor of this suicidal expedition. The wealth of information is particularly worthwhile with regards to the inhabitants of this world engine, and in particular by its warlords and its builder. Also of particular interest is the main reason that drove the Chapter Master to embark on this sacrificial mission and the presence of and dealings with the Inquisition.This was a rather superb read worth five stars.