An Uncanny Chimera Not Quite the Sum of its Parts

I will make clear that this is my extremely subjective reaction to this book and that many others have given it rave reviews, so your mileage may vary. There is a combination of factors here that have lead me to not giving this a higher rating, despite the prose being decent, the performance being pretty great, and there being lots of good ideas. It's this last point that lead me to have such a muted and disappointed response to this book because there is so very much potential here for something truly spectacular.

It looks like the perfect combination for this story and me personally, new (at least to me) narrator who does a pretty great job, aside from a coupe of odd pronunciations, a high quality and lauded sci-fi writer with their own personal enjoyment of Warhammer, Genestealer Cults, and revolution and resistance to the fascist slavery of the Imperium on a Mechanicum world. Mix in some fascinating warping of the Imperial Creed into the worship of the Emperor as a Tyranid deity and this recipe is absolutely mouthwatering. It's very likely that it being so my kind of thing made me extra critical, but I just found there was so much that seemed accidentally incongruous and a general lack of development and depth, not to mention wasted opportunities to really make this book and the elements sing.

It's like every awesome element comes with downside:
The Many-Handed Emperor and the Tyranids as angels arsphenomenal Ideas mirroring the Imperial Creed and Space Marines, but it is left rather superficial and shallow. I would love to have seen more of the cult being a cult, possibly clashing with devout Techpriests or even visiting Ecclesiasisrchy on planet for the Day of Ascension.
We get a bit of a different look at the Mechanicum, but actually see very little. There is a Forgemaster who is all 'flesh is weak', but they have incredibly human proclivities for fancy food (which apparently they can't taste) and collecting art, including works not approved by the Imperium, and are written and performed as being rather fat and posh. These could be interesting, but don't relate to anything, beyond them not having any respect for for the biologis work of the antagonist and second POV character. Honestly, they appear more like a High Lord, some kind of Terran aristocracy, or a planetary governor than the head of a Mechanicum world and nothing is done wit it.
The antagonist is just a scheming person willing to break the rules to get ahead, regardless of the chaos it causes (when an Imperial character is written, the Empeor tosses a coin to see whether they are noble and good or conniving and evil). There is a revelation that reflects interestingly on their intentions that is pretty cool.
The protagonist is really underdeveloped and no work is really done to create a emotional hook. For the most part they are a plot device to keep everything moving, which is a crying shame as they really could have been a truly emotion-destroying character.
I don't know if I'm just broken by Pierce Brown's Red Riding trilogy, but the revolution, oppression, and the portrayal and discussion around it is more milquetoast weak sauce written in a way to be non-political and lacking emotional depth. These values and opposing oppression actually mean something to some of us and the lazy way authors handle them is kinda gross.

The prose itself is pretty good, not what I would have expected from such a luminary, and I can see people enjoying this. I just wanted so much more and was left feeling teased and unsatisfied. I would place this around the top of the middle quality of Black Library books. It's definitely nowhere near the worst, but it's not close to the best stuff ever. I don't think Abnett, Dembski-Bowden, McNeil, Thorpe, etc. have anything to worry about. I still want to read more of the classic works of this author and would eventually be open if they did more Warhammer stories. I just get ruined by the uncanny valley and potential.

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A fine little novel, exciting, well characterised, witty, charming, and so nice to see the Cults from the inside. One of the best of recent years from Black Library. ( )