The Gate of Bones

by Andy Clark

This is a no spoiler review.

Gate of Bones is Book 2 in the Dawn of Fire Series, and after the first book, Avenging Son, which I recently reviewed, I was hoping this one would be a little stronger. The Gate of Bones follows the Adepta Sororitas of the Argent Shroud, the Adeptus Custodes led by Shield-Captain Marcus Achallor and imperial knights taking on Word Bearers, Iron Warriors and the Dark Mechanicum as the latter try to utilise an evil weapon.

Fleet Primus sends a reconnaissance mission to the world of Gathalamor, and it isn’t a pretty sight when Achallor’s forces arrive. The imperial forces are losing, and it transpires that there is something even more important going on with the chaos forces. It’s not exactly a surprising plot, but is interesting enough and enables a look at many disparate forces: astra militarum, imperial knights, custodes, primaris marines and more. Aspects of the plot as they unravel get very interesting too: the nature of the weapon is fairly unique, and seemingly important characters become less so – through death, for example – and seemingly unimportant characters clearly have later significance outside of this book – such as the cultist leader who works for the Word Bearers. All of this is a far more effective consideration and implementation of a wide cast of characters than in Avenging Son. The characters have personalities, motivations and developments which are well considered and explored. I never felt like it was jumping around too much, which is one of my common complaints with Warhammer novels.

I can feel the pain overtaking me

The exploration of the chaos forces deserves a lot of praise in this book. The Word Bearer Dark Apostle Kar-Gatharr’s part in the story is interesting, and it feels like a while since I’ve seen the chaos forces portrayed so well. They often work with one another begrudgingly, as Kar Gatharr does with the sorcerer Tenebrus. I particularly enjoyed Kar-Gatharr’s friendship with Torvann Lokk, the Iron Warrior. We rarely see the bonds between chaos forces explored, and it made for a refreshing change of pace.

Warsmith Yutil speaks up:

"It is a big city with a continent’s worth of structures and catacombs. The cultists Kar-Gatharr delivered to us are not worth a damn in a war like this. The best indication they give us of the foe’s presence is when they show up dead!"

(from chapter 23 of the audiobook)

We revisit some of the characters, unsurprisingly, from Avenging Son too – Guilliman, Belisarius Cawl, Fabiann for example. But there are additions which prevent the developments from becoming mundane. Much more is made of the links between Guilliman and the Aeldari, and it is heavily implied that he has met with them several times more than he has let on. Perhaps there is a direction here that the Aeldari will have to be more heavily allied with in the face of the chaos threat, which makes sense given all that has happened.

But it is a good pain

Occasionally, the book does fall down a bit: the occasional conversation is just tedious or the characterisation is done poorly. Dvorgin, commander of the Gathalamor forces had an engaging relationship with his daughter, but the fact he was tired came up repeatedly, and although it was good to see this human emotion it was a bit over-emphasized – him repeating how tired he is again and again isn’t the best way to convey this, even if the idea of showing more about how commanders feel was a good idea. Some of the Adepta Sororitas, felt like faith was their only defining characteristic, which is a danger with the more zealous factions, although this wasn’t true for all of them.

Similarly some action scenes felt just a bit too routine. Maybe that’s a symptom of reading too much Warhammer (not something I’ll apologise for) but it sometimes felt a little predictable. Of course, Fleet Primus, the fleet led by the primarch himself, isn’t getting stopped here, and at least the plot started trails that we will learn more of, presumably, in later books, but some of the battle scenes themselves lacked tension. I will also give credit though that one death in particular was very surprising.

For the audiobook, John Banks’s performance is good, although several characters tend to have the same voice. As a result, it isn’t quite the level of Jonathan Keeble or Timothy Watson’s narration, who narrate on some of Black Library’s other audiobooks.

Final Score

Gate of Bones stands out in some aspects: the plot, the characterisation of the chaos forces, the raw emotion. But it remains average in some respects – the development of a different character, action scene, or more tedious conversation. This one was a step up from Avenging Son, thankfully though, and unfortunately might be missed by many if they gave up after the first book, despite The Gate of Bones being quite a worthy read.

7/10