Priests Of Mars

[Zombiecrackers]

I am really, really looking forward to this I love the adeptus mechanicus and I love their backstory and think its amazing that black library is making more adeptus mechanicus books since theres not that many out there its gonna be amazing so what are your thoughts on this epic book coming out soon ??

[lovelessmerc]

I love the mechanicus, they have to be my favorite faction in 40k. Woefully underdeveloped they are on par with the Imperium if it ever came to war between the 2, and yet all we have is a few novels, Titincanus, and mechanium. The orginization that makes every single weapon used by the imperium needs to be in almost every single 40k novel considering that every single 40k novel is set during some kind of conflict with the Imperium. The political power these cyborgs wield is incredible and in my opinion they are the most underused, written, expanded on faction in 40k. The second i see this Im gonna buy it.

[johnmcl7]

Any mention of titans for this book?

John

[AdamR]

There are Titans in it.

[johnmcl7]

There are Titans in it.

Thanks, I try not to buy hard back books but looks like I've to order this one then as I'm in a titan mood at the moment and I agree with the above comments that there are too few Adeptus Mechanicus books. Mechanicum and Titanicus are obvious titan ones, Storm of Iron isn't bad but are there any other good titan books? There's plenty that mention the mighty god machines of Mars (Dies Irae in the Heresy books, another Imperator in Helsreach, some titans in the third Space Wolf book, some in the Eisenhorn trilogy) but I can't think of any others that properly feature them and none at all with a Warmonger.

John

[AdamR]

If you've not read it yet, Wrath of Iron also features titans.

[CaladanCid]

Just finished reading Priests of Mars, got the ebook from Black Library.

Very disappointing book. First off, it is apparently the start to a series of some sort, either a duology or trilogy. This is not mentioned anywhere so I was pretty surprised at the end of the book, which leads me to my biggest complaint....nothing happens. At the end, they have made it to the start of their journey. Other events happen, but almost no movement takes place on the "main" storyline. More annoyingly, all the problems are solved, quite literally, with a deus ex machina. It is more appropriate in a book about the Mechanicus, I got it, but it still is frustrating.

The characters are the strongest part of the book. The rogue trader, the IG captain, the Black Templars, and the various Magos are quite well done.

All we find out about the outside of the Ark Mechanicus is that it is really big and angular. The interior is described in many places, and very well at that, but for some reason the look of the main part of the novel is never fully described.

I expect to know going in to a book if it is part of a series, and I can't decide if that information was left out as a calculated attempt to bump sales or as a huge oversight. As a standalone book, it could be good the way the fluff blurbs are good in Codex SM and Codex IG for showing what goes on the Imperium. As a novel I felt pretty disappointed when it was over and actually thought my transfer must have been bad because surely the book wouldn't end like that.

[Lucifer216]

My reaction after finishing it was pretty much the same. It's not helped by the persistent feeling that McNeil spends the whole book riffing off Abnett, with even the introduction feeling like a reworked version of the opening to Titanicus.

[Soul Hunter]

I disagree. I felt the book ended in a great place. This is the 40k version of the Odyssey, and it ends with the journey finished. Now comes the reason behind the journey, the hunt.


SH

[Damien 1427]

I enjoyed it for the most part, as it's always nice to have the Mechanicus/Mechanicum around, and this certainly builds on Mechanicum. I don't mind it being part of a longer series, if anything that could be great fun, but it's kind of irritating that there was no indication it'd be an ongoing thing. Sometimes it's nice to just have a standalone book that doesn't get spun out into two or three further novels.

Worth the ride for the novelty of an AdMech novel alone, though.

[shadowhawk2008]

Last year, Graham mentioned that this'll be a duology and that the series itself was called Priests of Mars. I suppose some details have changed.

Got almost to the halfway point for this last night. There is a lot of wonderful buildup of all the characters and factions, particularly the Mechanicus and the indentured bondsmen (press-ganged more like) of Joura. Really nice that Imperial Guardsman J.H. has returned to the 40k scene, although he is really getting hammered by the "grimdarkness" of 40k.

However, half the novel is the setup. That doesn't work for me. It's all nicely written and what not, but this shouldn't take this long to get going.

[Shadow Walker]

I am huge fan of everything AdMech. I loved HH: Mechanicum and Titanicus is my favourite BL novel. BT are my favourite chapter and I love Ogryns. I also like McNeill style so I have got everything in PoM and I should be happy but.....I am not. I was fully aware that this is part one from duology but that novel felt like too long prologue with max 3 first chapters ripped from whole book. Also I expected something more exiting that fighting Orks, even ones wearing human skin. And how many times in BL book will we read about Princeps having problems with being overwhelm by its past and Titan's machine spirit?

[shadowhawk2008]

"max 3 first chapters ripped from whole book"... ummm what??

I'm not aware of "Princeps having problems with being overwhelm by its past and Titan's machine spirit" being some sort of cliche or trope in BL fiction. Care to point that out?

[Shadow Walker]

"max 3 first chapters ripped from whole book"... ummm what??

I'm not aware of "Princeps having problems with being overwhelm by its past and Titan's machine spirit" being some sort of cliche or trope in BL fiction. Care to point that out?

1. It just felt like that for me. I had a feeling that I am reading beginning of bigger book rather than whole one.
2. Titanicus/Mechanicum/Helsreach all have examples of Pinceps who suffered that kind of [maybe not exactly like my wording in post above] problems.

[Lupe]

2. Titanicus/Mechanicum/Helsreach all have examples of Pinceps who suffered that kind of [maybe not exactly like my wording in post above] problems.

That would only be a cliche if all examples you mentioned would be the exception from the rules (i.e if this was a one in a million chance incident, that just happens to appear in four books). However, in the 40K universe, the job of a Titan Princeps actually involves them mind wrestling the machine spirit of the Titan, on a daily basis. Sometimes they're slipping up momentarily, and they're constantly losing a bit more strength every time they control the Titan. I'm actually inclined to say that this is actually plausible and normal in the 41st millenium, with each Princeps experiencing this sort of events multiple times per deployment.

This is actually consistent with other descriptions of machine spirits for extremely powerful machines (especially navigators who struggle to control their ships - see ADB's Night Lords trilogy), and could actually happen for all smaller machinery, like APCs or fighter craft, if their machine spirits were operated via psychic means.

[Calgar]

Might have missed something important in the story...but...where in the galaxy is the Halo Scar located?

[shadowhawk2008]

The Halo Zone was my understanding.

[Steve54]

Just finished reading Priests of Mars, got the ebook from Black Library.

Very disappointing book. First off, it is apparently the start to a series of some sort, either a duology or trilogy. This is not mentioned anywhere so I was pretty surprised at the end of the book, which leads me to my biggest complaint....nothing happens. At the end, they have made it to the start of their journey. Other events happen, but almost no movement takes place on the "main" storyline. More annoyingly, all the problems are solved, quite literally, with a deus ex machina. It is more appropriate in a book about the Mechanicus, I got it, but it still is frustrating.

The characters are the strongest part of the book. The rogue trader, the IG captain, the Black Templars, and the various Magos are quite well done.

All we find out about the outside of the Ark Mechanicus is that it is really big and angular. The interior is described in many places, and very well at that, but for some reason the look of the main part of the novel is never fully described.

I expect to know going in to a book if it is part of a series, and I can't decide if that information was left out as a calculated attempt to bump sales or as a huge oversight. As a standalone book, it could be good the way the fluff blurbs are good in Codex SM and Codex IG for showing what goes on the Imperium. As a novel I felt pretty disappointed when it was over and actually thought my transfer must have been bad because surely the book wouldn't end like that.

100% agree with this, a huge disappointment from start to finish. Another thing that really jarred for me was how in combat the AdMech characters seem to become human making wisecracks and experiencing human emotions.

[Steve54]

Just finished reading Priests of Mars, got the ebook from Black Library.

Very disappointing book. First off, it is apparently the start to a series of some sort, either a duology or trilogy. This is not mentioned anywhere so I was pretty surprised at the end of the book, which leads me to my biggest complaint....nothing happens. At the end, they have made it to the start of their journey. Other events happen, but almost no movement takes place on the "main" storyline. More annoyingly, all the problems are solved, quite literally, with a deus ex machina. It is more appropriate in a book about the Mechanicus, I got it, but it still is frustrating.

The characters are the strongest part of the book. The rogue trader, the IG captain, the Black Templars, and the various Magos are quite well done.

All we find out about the outside of the Ark Mechanicus is that it is really big and angular. The interior is described in many places, and very well at that, but for some reason the look of the main part of the novel is never fully described.

I expect to know going in to a book if it is part of a series, and I can't decide if that information was left out as a calculated attempt to bump sales or as a huge oversight. As a standalone book, it could be good the way the fluff blurbs are good in Codex SM and Codex IG for showing what goes on the Imperium. As a novel I felt pretty disappointed when it was over and actually thought my transfer must have been bad because surely the book wouldn't end like that.

100% agree with this, a huge disappointment from start to finish. Another thing that really jarred for me was how in combat the AdMech characters seem to become human making wisecracks and experiencing human emotions.

[WarBoss PuG]

Just on Graham McNeill's webblog and picked up 2nd book is called 'lords of mars'. Soz if this is already common knowledge but couldn't find any mention of it already.