The Reader in Darkness

The author of The Rose in Darkness has penned ten Adeptus Sororitas shorts/novels. With such dedication, I’m disappointed by the simplistic portrayal of the Battle Sisters and the Ecclesiarchy. Classroom cliques have more complex politics, and aside from the Canoness, every Sister has the same bland personality.

I was surprised to learn that Sister Superior Augusta is a recurring character from previous novellas. There’s no implied background story, her squad doesn’t banter veteran soldiers and instances of insubordination imply the opposite. They’re sent to Opal to retrieve a precious relic at the center of an eight-hundred-year religious cycle but appear ignorant of this celebration. How’s this possible? You’re not posthuman Space Marines unable to fathom human customs. You’re the elite militant arm of the state religion!

These kinds of worldbuilding failures occur throughout the novel. The author doesn’t understand the scale of a planet or its orbital industries. A shrine world that’s the destination for millions of pilgrims is somehow a single city that’s small enough to be demarcated by a river. Opal’s soldiers are fewer than the NYPD has officers. Forget economics or logistics; give me clear antagonists. Aside from mobs of nameless monsters teleporting around the city, nothing resembles an opposition force. There’s no void war, orbital landings or armed formations. Instead, disconnected scenes of soldiers dying inundate the narrative while the reader remains in the dark, unaware of what’s happening.

Worse, the author fails to make readers care about the stakes. Rich, corrupt and incompetent bureaucrats are the face of Opal. There’s not a single sympathetic figure among them. One finds themselves cheering for the Genestealers as they kill these caricatures. The most remarkable failure is that the Sisters are written as female Space Marines. A single squad will turn the tide of a planetary battle. Their performance against Genestealers is on par with Terminators. For an author so focused on the Adeptus Sororitas, she doesn’t understand them at all.

Not Recommended.black-library3 s Christian686

Whoa! This was really really great! This was an outstanding mix of character writing and action; such a fun read.1 Valtier45

I really enjoy the stories of Augsta, all of them are a pleasure to read, and so is this new one.1 Brian Stabler137 12 Want to read

Annoyed to find this sold out in hardback within minutes of pre-orders becoming available. 1 Sarah Beecher14

I love the Sisters of Battle, although I suspect they’d hate me because I’m a heretic and a coward with a pile of unwashed Nurgle tops. But nothing beats the Adepta Sororitas for being the most 40k in 40k. Their style sings to my heart and no other faction can be so simultaneously divine and majestic yet so unsettling and terrifying (see Repentia, Arco-flagellants and Penitent Engines). The fact that they are also human and not gene-enhanced super soldiers just makes their existence all the more horrific and mesmerizing.

It's a shame then that they don’t get as many stories as they deserve but I always appreciate it when a novel comes out for them. Still waiting for that Miriael Sabathiel novel but in a world of few Sisters books, I’ll devour whatever comes out the gate.

The Rose in Darkness kicks off superbly in a truly relatable piece of mission creep. Sister Superior Augusta and her squad must go get the holy skull of Saint Veres from the planet Opal. Opal, however, is having a massive celebration for the saint and is, as one would expect, somewhat disinclined to just hand it over. As such, the sisters decide to wait for the celebration to finish before collecting the skull. Only then by waiting do they discover that the entire planet might be in trouble and must sort all that out as well, then get the skull, maybe. It’s my typical workday, only less nightmarish.

As one might expect, tits go vertical, fans get clogged with excreta and Augusta and friends are scrambling to hold back the tide of this week’s brand of insidious, planet consuming evil. Plans are devised, matters escalate, stakes raise, and bolter shells are inevitably loosed upon the enemies of the god-emperor.

So far so typical, but boy if things don’t start getting to me a little as the full scale of the threat starts to unveil and hope starts to falter. Ever since reading The Locked Tomb books my soul seems more sensitive to things, but I cannot deny that I was quietly affected as characters begin to struggle with ever looming failure and loss.

It’s so easy to play to stereotype with a faction the Sororitas, making them overly zealous and violent caricatures, closed-minded to the point of automata. But here they have much more complex internal lives that resemble something approaching human, something vulnerable and genuinely quite comforting in how familiar it is. They doubt themselves, their abilities, feel guilt and shame for what they did or failed to do. Characters teeter on the cusp of losing themselves to despair, where the degree of loss and grief being felt pulls at their minds. It had me engaged far more than any combat typically does and this sort of struggle permeates the entire book.

It's also rare to see compassion cited in a 40k novel, and as a positive. Compassion? In the 40k grimdark? Surely the foulest heresy. But it works, it would be so easy to just pull the bolt pistol and fire but the battle for the soul has always been so much more interesting and it gets multiple run outs here, especially in the later half of the book. That it is so uncommon, that it is usually seen as a weakness in the context of the wider Imperium, makes its appearance so welcome. Not only that but it is used as inspiration, as a rare virtue that can be a great power in and of itself. I thoroughly enjoyed every moment where it seeps up from the usual stoicism and was wise caught up in the fate of those who were the most compassionate, the kind souls who somehow have found a way to preserve their hearts in such a bleak and hostile universe.

The epilogue especially just squeezed the life out of me in this regard. Its bittersweet implication and raw emotion levelled me at a stroke and made me desperate to see the future for one character in particular.

I tend not to get too emotional with 40k novels, but The Rose in Darkness succeeded in giving me a fair case of book depression. It’s a fairly standard story in terms of the overarching plot and the nature of the mission, it doesn’t do anything particularly inventive with the setting or lore, but it rather appears to use the mission to explore more the psychology and emotions that arise from it, finding more value in people than anything else, which isn’t always the case with these sorts of stories.

What made things all the worse was that I hadn’t read any of the previous Augusta stories. I looked up, saw my Rose at War hardback untouched, leafed through it quickly, saw familiar names (Viola – frickin’ love Viola, massive heart, massive gun) and, oh no, other familiar names. Suffice it to say my heart won’t be taking a break any time soon.1 Clint89

3/5 Staroritas ™ did I already use that one? Whatever

Okay let me start by saying that I should have looked at this book on Goodreads first instead of Audible. I figured out that the characters had previously published stories part of the way through. I'm not a monster, I would have read them first

Having said that, the best thing about this book was the narrator. Helen McAlpine did a fantastic job. I went and looked through her catalogue afterwards and while most of the books I can tell are not my bag, I'll be checking out her other Black Library entries

The plot was pretty straightforward and if you've read a couple of Black Library books you won't be surprised. The characters were a little too archetypal to really be standouts which is a shame. This is (I'm pretty sure) the first book I've read where the Sisters of Battle are the main feature so I was hoping for a faction-standout entry. I Sororitas well enough but they're a little too creepy for me to fully get behind them as a faction I love. And there's definitely some of that in this book. I don't mean that as a criticism because that's just how they are. Kinda how AdMech are a bunch of weirdos. I don't make the rules

There were two main things that kept this from being a higher rating for me. The first and biggest of the two is the talky bits. I for my Warhammer to have plenty of talky bits; if I just wanted shooting and stabbing (bolter porn as it's known) I'd play a video game. But the conversations all felt circular and painfully long. two characters talking past each other rather than to each other and then the conversation ends with some for of acquiescence. If that happened only once, I could forgive it. Frankly that's a realistic way for two headstrong people to talk and that describes a lot of characters in this book. But by the God-Emperor it's not engaging

The second thing is a spoiler that involves deeper 40k lore and I've been unable to find a satisfactory answer. I don't hold it against the book that much because of that. However here is a somewhat spoilery description: I was under the impression that Camilla is a Genestealer hybrid the whole book. She's from the Outskirts and is heavily influenced by the Tyranids. But the Sisters of Battle never once consider that if I recall. But my Genestealer knowledge isn't the best. Most books don't go into them that much

Anyway this is a decent entry into the Bug Squashing genre. Check it out if that's your bag Tory Thai798 4

A plot and characters this probably were better suited for a novella. This being stretched to a full length novel made this kind of drag and feel repetitive.
The plot was simplistic and there's 4 weird moments where the meat of what's going on is repeated they felt a bit forced the 2nd, 3rd and 4th time, it's trying to be more complex then it actually is. It's .... Yes I understood the moral of the story the 1st time and it was decently delivered but repeating it over and over kinda sucked the point dry. It felt unnatural.

The characters were also a bit one note. All of them could have been interchangeable and there didn't feel there was enough build up to really care for them on their own. It felt the 'character' was portrayed as this small group of battle sisters as just one chunk that can get chipped away at instead of the feel any one sticks out as their own person. It wasn't the best character writing and the dramatic moments lost their impact because of it.

The fighting scenes were fun initially but get stretched out so long that you could often glaze your eyes over in and out of consciousness and not lose much.

Seriously by the end you could totally see where this was going and I wish it just sped up and wrapped it up. I felt ... I knew the story and whether I paid attention or not, nothing was going to be exciting enough to matter unless I just wanted more entertainment from pointless carnage and destruction that added very little.

This I guess is for those who needs a death and destruction fix but overall I wish i skipped this. I was so bored. Jason Spencer19

Are you a fan of the Adepta Sororitas? If so, you'll enjoy this book and I would definitely recommend it to you. However if you're looking for your next Warhammer read, I wouldn't recommend this; there are many different, better books out there and unfortunately this fails to hit the mark.

There are many things that didn't 'hit' with this novel, to the dreadful repetition of the sister's praying to the bland combat scenes. The plot unfolds slowly with plot holes apparent throughout. The sisters barely stand apart and any characterisation of them is minimal. Alongside this the genestealer cult seem nonsensical and make bizarre decisions. Just odd storytelling!

There are certainly better Warhammer novels out there - give this one a pass. Jesus Contreras2

Life and some laziness got in my way, so it took me a while to finish this book, but this book was a great read. Action from the first page. This was no Nathanial Hawthorne book. It was action and adventure and politics and intrigue and drama all wrapped neatly into scary story. Read it. It’s a great book. Jackson Handley29

Concerning yourself with numbers in 40k is a fool's game, nonetheless the scale in this book is just a bit off. I would happily read more from Ware, ideally Astra Militarum where there is more freedom for her to write for humanity. Mr A2

Fantasically written. Gives a good account of sisters. The story is intresting and very catching. This is the second book, which i didn't know until finishing. Didn't feel i missed anything due to skipping ahead. Patrick Collins39

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