The Avenging Son *felt* important- gathering the forces required for the Crusade, mustering support for the new undertaking, wandering around Terra; these are Significant-with-a-capital-S. Clarke has a trickier job here; he’s telling a largely brand-new story here, so can be forgiven for making the reading feel events are Significant in the same way largely by stating that they are. We know all along that the Chaos forces are going to be thwarted- Guilliman is due to star in another dozen books after all, so it is full credit to the author that he managed to imbue the story with the degrees of peril that he does. The focus of the book mirrors the cover; the returned Primarch is not the focus of this book, and one’s expectations should match this fact.

As I’ve said, the scope of this novel is less grand than the previous, but we do get good character work. The Mordian Iron Guard make, by my reckoning, their third ‘lead’ appearance in a BL novel or novella and are very human; far more than just sticklers for well-pressed uniforms- the regimental and possibly planetary psyche is explored, and they are distinct from other Astra Militarum regiments. Clarke has written Battle Sisters before, and arguably better in Celestine, but those we do meet here are very much led by their faith. wise, he’s written Knights before, and demonstrates once again a good feel for these- their duels with an increasingly warped heretic tank squad in particular stand out. A book this will never feature the Chaos antagonists to the extent that I’d , but the Word Bearers and Iron Warriors are both great fun, and the book has some of the best descriptions of warp-infused technology since the original Word Bearer trilogy. The characters carried over from book one are presented consistently, and some big hitters from other series make appearances. Primaris marines are given distinct personalities from their firstborn brethren, which adds an interesting dimension- Lucerne, in particular, is a really interesting character.

It’s not wall-to-wall action either; we get characters musing on the inherent hypocrisies that sustain the Imperium, as well as the chaotic nature of Chaos and futility and ennui of the Long War. Unusually for a BL novel, it had me consult a dictionary on several occasions; Clarke drops beautifully obscure words incredibly well- prate being a personal favourite.

Overall, a solid continuation of BL’s latest series.
9 s Matthew Bradley4

Damn good piece of writing. Avenging Son floundered a little from being mired in set-up and not having an overall lead physical conflict driving things. Gate of Bones takes all the set up done in the preceding book and delivers and excellent self-contained story that slots into the overarching narrative perfectly.

What feels too many viewpoints and characters to start with crystallises about a quarter of the way in to give a wonderful multilayered and contrasting view of the battle for Gathalamor, in a way few Black Library books do. The way the viewpoints and voices of the warriors on the traitor side contrast with the loyalists throughout the book as they race towards their inevitable, final in-person confrontation is incredibly satisfying and, without exception, legitimately surprising in their resolution, and I’m loathe to mention any characters by name for fear of spoiling those moments of shock. I genuinely hope we see some of these characters again throughout the Dawn of Fire series because it’d be a shame for them to linger in obscurity after the excellent character work. As much as I enjoyed Andy Clark’s previous Black Library work in the Knightsblade / Kingsblade series I think he’s definitely hit a new high with Gate of Bones

Addressing the obvious comparison to Black Library’s previous ongoing long-form series, Avenging Son and Gate of Bones are leagues ahead of the opening books of The Beast Arises in I Am Slaughter and Predator, Prey. It’s very hard to compare with Horus Rising and False Gods, simply because of the expectations and excitement around the opening books of the Horus Heresy and the momentous events therein, but as individual books I’d say while Dan Abnett deftly blended set-up and action in Horus Rising in a way that Avenging Son failed to do, but Gate of Bones is every bit as (or even more) entertaining and well-written as False Gods, even if it lacks anything that impacts the overarching narrative on the same level as Horus’ temptation or Magnus doing nothing wrong.6 s Ridel315 5

Less is More

Whether you Gate of Bones will depend on your expectations of the Dawn of Fire series. At one point, it was advertised as the Horus Hersey in 40K, detailing the Indomitus Crusade and retaking of Imperium Sanctus. Gate of Bones sets its aims much, much lower… telling a plot-centric tale filled with narrative viewpoints in service of a classic Black Library story. The author also cleverly weaves in some character moments as they reel from relevations unleashed from the Throneworld, and manages to succeed where its predecessor failed.

Gate of Bones is focused on Gathalamor to the exclusion of all else. Those coming from Avenging Son will find a much less epic tale, with little in the way of galactic politics or recurring characters. After finishing the novel, you might question its place as a sequel. They key is that it cleverly works in the Indomitus Crusade. We see the impact on the rank and file when they learn that a Primarch walks, the Custodians have left Terra, and the Primaris Marines are legion. All this while using a plethora of viewpoints to present both the attackers and defenders of Gathalamor, resulting in a very satisfying read.

As well, this is one of those novels that proves a wide variety of characters can work, as it’s the plot that is the star. multiple angles of the same sports match, the narrators provide a cohesive picture of the planet through many viewpoints. I was surprised at how intriguing the traitor Astartes were. Part of it is the use of Horus Hersey lore, which instantly provides history to characters a Mechanicum Magos. The other was giving them purpose beyond offering the main characters a named target to shoot, and their reactions to the same revelations are just as enjoyable.

Then, just in-universe, Custodian Achallor appears and becomes the focus of everything. The arrival of the Shield-Captain to a Cardinal world populated with Sisters of Battle is absolutely perfect, and this is why Gate of Bones is exceptional. I loved the Adeptus Sororitas; from their dogged defense of the world to the way the Canoness interacts with the Imperial Guard. After all, you might outrank your priest in the military, but they outrank you in faith. If you’re open-minded, you might even laugh at some of the dry humour.

Gate of Bones isn’t the sequel I expected, with none of the enormous fleets or mind-numbing logistics of its epic predecessor. It eschews character arcs and rather focuses on emotional moments while simultaneously dealing with bits of lore that deserve to be lavished over. By returning to the basics and focusing on a tale against the odds, my interest in this series has been renewed.

Recommended for Warhammer 40K fans.
black-library4 s Steve204 2

This entry in the Dawn of Fire series had some strong characters (Dvorgin was a standout) and strong moments, but overall felt a bit of a slog. I think perhaps I was a bit disappointed after the strong start of book 1. I think that maybe if the narrative had drilled down just a bit more and focused on a slightly smaller group of characters, it would have been a real winner, but as it is, I struggled to get to the end.1 Aaron37 1 follower

I enjoyed this book far more than the first one. The story is more focused to a single plant and the point of view characters are more connected to one another. As far as a series goes, this book could be read without having read the first one. Only two characters carry over from the first book and one of them is pretty much a new character. The story focus on the war taking place on the key world of Gathalamor and we follow different groups through the long war. This is also the first book I read with traitor space marines as point of view characters. It was interesting to see into their minds and how they view the long war. Overall, the story was good, however I have no idea what from this book will appear within the next book.

Some of the point of view characters: Beside a few one-off point of view characters below is only a few of the overall characters. Oddly enough on the character guide pages at the start of the book the knights are not present, despite the princess being a major point of view character.

Luthor Dvorgin = The general of the defenders and one of the more interesting characters. He leads the ground forces of the guardsmen a faction I have not seen much from beside the first Dawn of fire book. Un the member of the guardsmen, we followed in the first book we spend far more time and get a far better idea of who Luthor is. His shame in his eyes and his relationship with Kelsh. One of the best characters in the book.
Achallor = It was really cool to see from the point of view of a custodian. The custodians are pretty much demigods created by the emperor himself, beings so great every battle they take place in is immediately assumed to be a victory. Thier power is well shown and their care for humans is really great. Honestly his care for Kelsh, a regular human who in most eyes would be so far below him is really good. Her almost dying towards the end of the book and him feeling he failed her hurts.
Torvann Lokk and Kar-Gatharr = Two chaos space marines and together their point of view was a threat. There is a odd sorrow to these decade old solders who continue to fight a war who they have long since felt disconnected from. They only go on in hope that it ends at some point. I prefer Lokk mainly because of his clash with the knights towards the end of the book. Him vs the princess was a really great fight.
Fabian = The only point of view character who is carried over from the first book. He plays a minor role in the set up and wrap up of the story. Of the characters in the first book, he would have not been my first pick, however I am happy to see him in this book. Each book does end with a summary of how the crusade is going. I'm assuming this is written by Fabian and I am hopping he shows up in the next book. sc-fi1 Juan ClemaresAuthor 29 books1 follower

LA PUERTA DE LOS HUESOS, Amanecer de fuego vol.2; Era Indomitus. La segunda parte de la Cruzada Indomitus me ha parecido simplemente genial, una de las mejores novelas que me he leído de Warhammer 40.000, lo que ya es mucho decir. El ritmo de la acción no decae, asistimos a increíbles y épicos combates, así como que el argumento avanza y se crean nuevas tramas a cada cual más interesante. Otro punto a detallar es el protagonismo de las Adepta Sororitas y de los Adepto Custodes, y también contamos con la presencia de Astartes renegados y siniestras fuerzas del Caos. Este es un importante punto de inflexión, ya que a medida que la Cruzada sigue adelante, se van asentando los pilares que sostienen lo que va a ser el “nuevo” universo de W40K. He disfrutado mucho con su lectura, teniendo en cuenta que todo lo que voy leyendo para mi es novedad. Dejo como aviso lo de siempre: si no conoces a fondo el universo de W40K, o no te has leído “La Herejía de Horús”, te vas a perder con el trasfondo y no vas a entender muchas cosas.
El Primarca Guilliman recibe un mensaje inaudito: el mundo sagrado de Gathalamor resiste a las fuerzas del Caos y no ha sucumbido a la Gran Fisura. Puesto que es un mundo clave, Guilliman envía a cinco Custodes y a varios Marines Primaris como avanzadilla y para apoyar a los defensores de Gathalamor y, en especial, para averiguar qué hay de cierto en que el Caos busca un arma poderosa en ese planeta.
terminado1 Giovanni Casula57 3

Bello epico, ottimi protagonisti e anche gli antagonisti, Thorvar Lokk dei guerrieri di ferro l ho trovato davvero interessante!1 Dale Thompson23 7

The Gate of Bones is the second book of Black Libraries newest major series “A Dawn of Fire”, this is being toted as the Indomitus Crusades version of the Horus Heresy series and I’m super excited to see what we get from a brand-new storyline that doesn’t contain as much pre-existing Lore. The first book, Avenging Son, was a fantastic entrance to the series, introducing us properly to Roberte Gulliman, which was a massive bonus for those that haven’t paid a massive amount of attention to Games Workshop newest story arc (such as myself), introducing the new Primaris Marines in all their glory, and setting the grandeur and scale for the task that was being taken by the Imperium. I would recommend reading up a little on the events that happened just before this however it isn’t fully necessary – https://warhammer40k.fandom.com/wiki/....

I always find it interesting reading these mega series from Black Library because you often get a different author each time, not only taking the resources of previous books, reintroducing old characters, and sharing story arcs as they become canon, but you also tend to get in some cases very different writing styles. Guy Haley and Andy Clark are both in my opinion very good at character development, both books did incredibly well at building the humanity behind the god figures that walk among us and delivering the absolute despair and grimdark nature of regular humans, both writing interesting POVs that don’t leave you bored when reading someone other than your favourite, and honestly that’s hard to do, especially when you look at the scope of these stories and the amount of time and space that they tend to cover. The Gate of Bones was my first story containing the Astarte Custodes, described as the children of the Emperor in the way the Space Marines are children of their Primarch’s, they share the Emperor’s blood line, they are in all ways more Impressive than the regular Astartes and Andy did a really impressive job of showing this. He managed to really show the difference between the Custodes and the Space Marines, up till this point there had been nothing in 40k that really made me see the Space Marines as anything but the almost invincible warriors they are. If the Space Marines are the Angels of Death, what are the Custodes? On top of these demi-gods Andy had to write characters from the side of Chaos which is always such a stark contrast from the Emperor loving Imperium forces, you get to see their hatred for the so-called Corpse God and what drives them towards their end goals. We also got a full Lance of Knights, the mini-Titans of the 40k universe, the fanatical Sisters of Battle and fantastic characters coming from the classic Imperial Guard that just bring the levelling needed so you remember the grimdark nature of 40k even with beautiful Golden Gods that stride across the fields of battle.

Andy’s writing style made this book a lot more of an interesting read for me over Avenging Son, the first book at times felt full of very unnecessary prose that just felt a little over the top, I understand it’s a hard balance because the world of 40k really does need the grandeur to properly explain it sometimes, Gulliman striding into a room demands the attention to detail that is warranted by a Primarch and Guy Haley did a fantastic job of writing Gulliman and the people surrounding him, but that isn’t maybe needed at every turn. Andy felt a lot more to the point, sparing no detail when needed but instead spending more time focusing on the plot and character development, this led to me feeling no inclination to skim over paragraphs I did in the first book. He also did a great job of writing a tense and exciting plot, which I imagine is a struggle when your main character has full plot protection and a already summarised ending to the Era Indomitus supplied by Games Workshop codex’s, so to still write in a way that gives the reader concern’s about what might happen to Gulliman and to the crusade as a whole is something I find really impressive, and in general this is always something the Black Library authors have done so well, writing something that feels fresh and exciting when you already know the end game really shows the talents of these writers.

This book really had everything needed to meet the demand of the Black Library standard, tons of incredible action but also plenty of really strong character development that never felt boring or you were being pulled away from the excitement. I can’t wait for the next story in this saga and will continue to follow the Dawn of Fire series eagerly.

Give Black Library a chance, regardless for your interest in the tabletop game the stories themselves are so good that they deserve the attention, and I can almost promise you will not be disappointed. Also, if it makes it helps, as far as I’m aware there are zero love triangles in any of the 40k books and if that isn’t a reason to read it I don’t know what is.1 Nevada Dru56 3

For the full review, please head over to Bits & Pieces - https://bitsandpieces.games/2021/03/1...

Dawn of Fire, Warhammer 40,000‘s epic new series of novels, finally has a follow up with The Gate of Bones by Andy Clark. If you missed my review of the first book, Avenging Son, go and read that because it lays a lot of the groundwork for the events and characters in The Gate of Bones. However, un other instances, I don’t think you need to have read Avenging Son to enjoy The Gate of Bones. Instead, it holds up as a stand-alone story and as part of a wider narrative. The big question, though, is whether this series is shaping up to become a worthy addition to the Warhammer canon?

For me, The Gate of Bones is a difficult book. On one hand, it does a lot right. We have interesting and relatable human characters, the Custodes are hulking demi-gods that barely resemble humanity and the Chaos characters are more than moustache-twirling villains. All of which I love. However, for all of that, The Gate of Bones is about as standard a Warhammer 40,000 story as you can get. The basic premise of the narrative is that Chaos has taken hold of a world, the Imperium doesn’t that and wants to rid it of this corruption. At which point there’s a lot of shooty bangs, dead characters and honourable last stands. It’s very safe and never strays too far from the expected path. This feels a massive shame because it meant that the twists weren’t really twists and the turns felt more the author was turning to the reader saying “You know that thing that happens in most Warhammer fiction? Well that’s what’s going to happen here”. And I’m not saying every book needs to be some earth-shattering revolution, but The Gate of Bones rarely put its own stamp on the 40k universe.warhammer-40k1 Jack3 1 follower

Custodes, Mordian Guard, Sisters of battle, Imperial knights and chaos space marines of the iron hands/ word bearers make up this novel. Each is handled great and really sets the tone for each of there points of view.

We get the rigid loyalty of the Mordians following a general. What amount of bloodshed will make him question that loyalty? Is it the death of a world or the death of a single soldier?

A Custodes of the emperor comes to grips with what he knows to be true and the orders he is given.

An Iron warrior who has lived for nothing but war wants it all to end.

The Cannoness of the sister of battle shows compassion and a human emotion to war which the other characters seem to lack but then you are reminded of her zealous fervor for the god emperor.

Also imperial knights are really cool. They feel the only ones here who are morally good and doing what they can for the planet they have sworn to protect

All this culminates in the last 3rd of the book and ends with my favorite character of the series: the Humble Historater.

overall: Good read for a fan of 40k
8/10 for a black library novel
6/10 compared to all books everywhere40k-read warhammer1 Henry Raj5

The storyline was great, I loved the characters and where this book is taking the dawn of fire series. However, the way that the Custodians were written, to me, really felt their power and the superhuman nature of their physiology was completely nerfed, especially in the end chapters where the final confrontation took place. A certain one of these characters deaths I thought was completely unwarranted other than for the purpose of the custodies narrative that seems to be developing in the series - they had to kill said custodies so that they could make the point of custodians disagreeing with the religious zealotry of the 41st millennia Imperium, but see that it has value and power, as well as a galvanising effect it has within the 40K universe. I see that they needed to do this for the plot, but the custodian in question would most definitely have won the fight had it taken place outside the context of the story ark.This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.Show full review1 Zeki Czen253

Much better than Dawn of Fire #1. There is some solid lore reveals. The narrative is clear and the POVs are all relevant. It gets bogged down a bit about 3/4s of the way through but picks back up at the end. I enjoyed the chaos characters actually having some motivations and character instead of just being cackling cartoon villians.

It loses some points for being formulaic, but it's Black Library, so you're either invested in the formula or you're not. That being said, nothing in the book was really surprising. Perhaps I shouldn't be too shocked by this since the entire Indomitus story line is already established, and this limits the ability to build suspense.

If you're looking for a competently written 40k novel that advances the story, you'll enjoy it. If you're looking for something new from Black Library, not so much.1 James Wetherill82 3

I absolutely loved this second instalment in the Dawn of Fire series, it was an excellent continuation to the series about the Indomitus crusade.
There was a lot to love here, and for once I found the Sisters of Battle characters very well written, something I have found lacking in previous BL outings.
The enemy Iron Warriors and Word Bearers were suitably villainous, and they didn’t fall into some of the comic book villain tropes found in other works.
All in all a lot to love here, and I am excited for the series to continue on1 E.J. GrahamAuthor 2 books5

This makes an interesting comparison to Avenging Son, as this feels both a bit more action focused and yet also more slow-burn. I also that we get to see more of the Imperial forces (no offence to Space Marines but they get a little bit boring after the 300th story centred around them) and have a meatgrinder of a battle which definitely feels rather pyrrhic in the end.

Although I appreciate that two seemingly dead characters are revealed to have survived through sheer blind luck.

I'm curious to see where Dawn of Fire goes next though. This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.Show full review1 Reid Edwards184 3

Andy Clark continues to be a strong author in the Wh40k/WH sphere - The Gate of Bones continues the Dawn of Fire series with a strong push, full of the grimdark action and universe-enhancing lore that is the trademark of Clark's writing. I especially enjoyed seeing the various factions juxtaposed; it gives you a great feeling and understanding for the differences not only amongst characters, but amongst their respective Chapters and organizations. Definitely a great read - you also can pick this up as a stand-alone without too much difficulty.1 Mathew Thomas2

Absolutely loved it!

It's a self contained book which does lead on from Avenging Son which had the harder task and setting out the story. Andy Clark has done a fantastic job here of building on that.

Some great characters and development, my personal favourite being General Dvorgin and the Order of the Argent Shroud battle sisters. Some very suspenseful moments and a great setting.

Can't wait for the next installment.1 Jordan17 1 follower

The personal story of Luthor; his love, torment and unwillingness to have a child in a cruel universe, was the best of this book. In a fictional universe of gods, monsters and magic, this was the most alluring part of the novel.

The action in the mid to end of the story dragged on. Typical bolter-porn. Yet the final parts of the story was saved by a great final stand, reminiscent of the final battle scene in Zulu.This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.Show full reviewgods imperial-fists iron-warriors ...more1 Jab76

En esta ocasión el punto de visto o los puntos de vista cambian de personajes de forma bastante brutal, esto no es malo, pero cambia bastante y parece ser que toda la saga continua con este formato de mostrar varios lugares de la galaxia y no la evolución de la cruzada indomitus.

En español disponemos de dos libros traducidos y en ingles se han publicado al menso 6 que ya por portada tiene varios capítulos, el tercero corresponde a “Los lobos espaciales”
Dentro de este mismo libro nos encontramos con que Gathalamor esta siendo asediada por el caos, enemigo recurrente de la saga fijo (¿
Este mismo planeta es un planeta santuario con sus macrocatedrales que medien tres kilómetros e infinitas catacumbas, tendremos el punto de vista de dos marines del caos y su sequito, uno de ellos un portador de la palabra que cree en una verdad, la verdad de su primarca (si este estuvo en la herejia de horus) resulta que las creencias de este primarca (Lorgar) era un poco mejor que lo normal del caos.

Por su contra partida tendremos el punto de vista de los adeptus custodes, su líder no se termina de fiar de Guilliman que evita que vuelva a suceder la herejia? Por ese tiempo habían 18 primarcas y 9 traicionaron a la humanidad, hoy (en el libro) tenemos solo un primarca no hay quien le haga frente si llegara a ser traidor, los adeptus deben de ser el contra punto para evitar una nueva herejía (hoy en la vida real está anunciado que Lionel Jhonson también a despertado)
Asi con todos estos grises de por medio se desarrollara la historia donde se debe recuperar el planeta para que sea un punto de abastecimiento para la cruzada, pero las fuerzas del caos tienen un arma, un arma que se ha ocultado en esas catacumbas planetarias por miedo, el peligro es grande y puede hacer tambalear el futuro de la humanidad si no se garantiza este punto

Cinco adeptus custodes se infiltrarán en el planeta para que la victoria esté garantizada.
Hanz Löwe50 3

not really that engaging of a book, I am also quite sure that there are a few grammatical mistakes at least in my e-book version, given that I am not a native speaker, when even I could spot errors, there must be something seriously wrong with the editing I fear.

The story also doesn't seem to be that well thought out
Originally the fleet went there because of a vague warning, and a single ship with a few Custodes was sent ahead to scout the system, the ship was only supposed to scout the place and lend aid if it would make a differnce, hence only a few Custodes. However once they arrived, they almost immeditately went down the planet and gave themselve of the task of removing the threat to the fleet when all they had was just a vague warning about some danger in that system, the confession of an uneducated heretic slave that they were digging some bones and a passing remark from a astropath about something dark in some direction... Now, we know there was something terrible happening because we were given also given the POVs of the Iron Warriors and the Word Bearers, but the point is, the Imperium didn't know that. And the idea that they launched a suicidal assult with almost their entire strength based on almost nothing is quite incredible....

Also how did a few Sisters of Battle, some Guards and some Knights hold out against an entire Chaos Fleet with at least serveral hundreds Chaos Marines when they lost almost the entire planet in the inital assult?
warhammer Manuel14

Gratamente sorprendido.
Recaí en La puerta de los huesos por interés sobre la narrativa de 40k en el timeline presente. Tras haber leído ocho libros del Asedio a Terra, y con una sensación de decepción absoluta, decidí ver si las cosas en el presente eran mejores.
Lo son.
El ritmo del libro es bueno. No hay pasajes de relleno; todo es relevante, ya sea para contar la historia, desarrollar personajes o ambientar. Los personajes son coherentes y creíbles, si bien quizá hay demasiados y no todos obtienen el protagonismo que merecen. Los caóticos no son (al menos todos) el típico malo de opereta tan común en los marines del caos, sino que hay hasta una escena de hermanamiento muy interesante entre dos de ellos.
La trama cumple. No va a darle la vuelta a tu vida pero te va a satisfacer en cuanto a algo de intriga, mucha acción y correcto desarrollo.
La traducción es mejorable, si bien compadezco a la traductora porque traducir algo de este universo es complejísimo. Traduce "bolt" por "rayo", cuando se refiere a proyectil de bólter. Trata a algunas hermanas de batalla como si fueran varones. Hay ciertas inconsistencias en algunas escenas que implican equipamiento astarte o custode. Como digo, es perfectamente comprensible y tampoco imposibilita la comprensión del texto.

En general, muy satisfecho con este libro y ha provocado que adquiera el anterior (comencé por el segundo porque soy un poco imbécil).warhammer40k Mitchell George53

The Gate of Bones feels two books of very different quality battling it out.

On one hand you have a pretty engaging, relatively small-scale conflict between the Imperial Guard and a militia of normal, corrupted humans and Chaos Space Marines... but on the other hand, you've got the Adeptus Custodes and the wider story. The best parts of this book were the ones focused on the small players - especially in regards to Dvorgin's struggles to keep his men alive, and Lokk, a Iron Warrior on the verge of true corruption at the hands of the Chaos gods. The more personal nature of the conflict fuels the strongest parts of the books - a tale of vengeance, of desperation, a showcaseof the brutality inflicted upon both sides.
It's when the Adeptus Custodes turn up, filled to the brim with plot armour and being nearly impossible to actually kill, the stakes feel less earned, and the anxiety that Dvorgin and his troops will actually succeed begins to dry up. For the most part, though, I think the prose and character writing of this book is actually very strong - it's just the overall narrative, and the pretense of world-defining factions that poison the well.

As an aside, I also felt The Gate of Bones pull a little bit of a bait and switch, opening with a message from Imperial Nihlus, and I was hoping we'd get a bit more of that nightmare showcased in here, but we pretty rapidly move away from the plot point, ly to be explored in further novels.

The Gate of Bones at times is genuinely fantastic, especially in it's quieter, more introspective moments, and at it's best, frequently outstrips it's predecessor. Unfortunenetly, the elements of the large narrative caused me some level of frustration, degrading this book to 'just another' Warhammer novel. I do really hope some of the characters in this - especially Dvorgin and Lokk - return soon, as they really felt fleshed out compared to the rest of the cast, but as it stands, The Gate of Bones is fine. James Green168

The Indomitus Crusade is finally underway. But as Fleet Primus sets sail a warning is given to the Primarch. A warning that is given by a farseer of the xenos species the aldari. If this warning is to be believed then there is a threat ahead of the crusade, a threat to the Primarch himself and hence the entire Imperium.

In an age of demi-gods it is nice to have a book focusing on the mortals. Though that was largely true of the previous book in this series too, it's perhaps even more the case here. While a Custodes and a Primarius Marine (the first time they have been let off the leash on their own) do have 'speaking roles' it is a Mordian Iron Guard general, a mortal human who has the staring role as he tries to defend the Cardinal world of Gathalamor from a mixed force of Iron Warriors, Word Bearers and Dark Mechanicum. The latter two are up to something more than just a simple mission of conquest.

A fun bit of military sci-fi that perhaps doesn't move the main story on quite as much as I would . Kyle T51 1 follower

A really exceptional story from the 40k franchise. I think it touches on a wide variety of things fan are looking for without feeling it's just fan service crammed into a novel. To give you an idea with no spoilers, you have essentially every kind of combat playing out here: space combat, tanks, titans, space marines, imperial guard, a great and horrible weapon of mass destruction, and more! I think this second novel in the Dawn of Fire series is leaps and bounds better than an already enjoyable first book. Lastly, you really get a feel for the horrible odds the Imperium is stacked against when even Custodes (I won't say who as there's multiple it could be) find their demise in this book!

Highly recommend this book. The only problem I had when listening to it (I had the audiobook version) was that the end just kind of happens. I can't go into specifics due to spoilers, but it's actually worked into the storyline which was interesting. I wish there was a more definite end, but at the very least it has me wanting to immediately start the third novel! Frank171 1 follower

This is real Warhammer 40k popcorn-fare. It's a fun and engaging war story, I really enjoyed it. Regardless of its place in the new lore, and it's early enough in the series that I skipped the first book and was fine, this book stands on its own. It reminded me of a good classic war movie with a large cast of characters, just deep and dynamic enough, put in interesting situations, with engaging action. It's not perfect, but it's 40k, and the 4 stars I give it are because it had a lot of everything and it does it all fairly well. CozyCharles7

A brilliant follow up to Avenging Son, the characters are well written and the factions covered by the POVs were refreshing. Mordians are stoic yet human, Imperial Knights are chivalric to a fault, Custodes are... Well they're what you'd expect from the Emperor's geneseed. Even the Chaos POV chapters had me genuinely sympathetic to the Iron Warrior and Word Bearer bond of brotherhood (don't tell the commissar).

All in all, a highly enjoyable read and I think I'll be adding a few more of Andy Clark's works to my backlog. Dane Greenhalgh18

This book was sold to me this "Lesbian ship captain high on speed barrel rolls ship to broadside with both sides of the ship in one move. Oh and there's custodes." How could I not pick up this book after that. And it did live up to all the hype that was sold to me. It was gripping throughout and really developed the characters more. I am always happy to see Sons of dorn (even if they are unnumbered sons of dorn) and there is even a thoughtful moment between some chaos marines. Overall a great hook into the series that made me get more of the novels owned Clint89

Somewhat difficult to judge, but 4/5 Staroritas

While having a wide selection of POVs is helpful for this series overall, I think having a tighter focus would have served this particular novel. Especially since it only deals with one planet

That said there's almost something for everyone in this book. Very light on Xenos but almost every flavor of Imperial faction gets a moment and there are multiple flavors of Chaos

I'm torn between thinking Custodes are awesome and thinking they're really stupid Goran Zoricic10

An excellent read, although a bit of a 'side quest' as far as the Indomitus Crusade and Guilliman are concerned. A bit too combat-heavy for my taste, but some glorious moments with Custodes and Sisters of Battle. Also, a great depiction of heroism of ordinary humans in a fight against an overhelming foe. Samuel28

Good read. I d Avenging Son *slightly* more for the grand overview/Guilliman sections, but I also suspect I'm in the minority on that. Lots of great POVs that keep the constant battles from getting exhausting. Fun implications with the Sisters of Battle and how their faith is growing for the future. Christian686

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