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  • Storm of Iron

  • Warhammer 40,000
  • By: Graham McNeill
  • Narrated by: Michael Geary
  • Length: 11 hrs and 3 mins
  • 4.6 out of 5 stars (211 ratings)
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Storm of Iron cover art

Storm of Iron

By: Graham McNeill
Narrated by: Michael Geary
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Summary

Winner of the Readers' Choice Poll.

Hell has come to Hydra Cordatus. A massive force of terrifying Iron Warriors have invaded the planet and laid siege to its mighty Imperial citadel. Can the defenders hold out? And just what do these ancient traitors want with such a seemingly insignificant world?

Listen to it because....

It's one of the true Black Library classics, and one of the first novels to make the bad guys the heroes...and it introduced the mighty Warsmith Honsou, who went on to plague the Ultramarines across plenty of novels. It also pits the Iron Warriors against their oldest foes, the Imperial Fists, which is always a guarantee of quality action.

The story:

On the nightmare battlefields of the far future, few foes spark more fear and dread than the Chaos Space Marines. Nurturing a hatred that is millennia-old, they attack without mercy, spreading terror and destruction in their wake. Now hell has come to Hydra Cordatus, for a massive force of terrifying Iron Warriors, the brutal assault masters of Chaos, have invaded the planet and lain siege to its mighty Imperial citadel. But what prize could possibly be worth so much savage bloodshed and destruction—and how long can the defenders possibly hold out?

Written by Graham McNeill. Narrated by Michael Geary. Approximate running time 11 hours and 4 minutes.

©2022 Games Workshop Limited (P)2022 Games Workshop Limited

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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Warning! Rose-tinted glasses advised

Growing up in the early eighties I loved the Transformers cartoon on British TV Saturday mornings. It was insanely good and the memory of my enjoyment of it has stayed with me into adulthood. So it was shattering to me, when on an idle Sunday afternoon, I finally tracked down an episode on Youtube and I discovered… that it was bilge. Utter bilge. Horrible, cheap animation, cheesy dialogue and absurd plots. A huge piece of my childhood was taken from me right there and then. Which, as a preamble to reviewing Storm of Iron, is all merely to say: be careful what you wish for.

'Storm of Iron', first published in 2002, recently won a poll by Black Library asking fans to identify an older 40k story for re-publication. The new audiobook edition offers a salutary reminder as to why rose-tinted glasses can be dangerous.

Clearly, a great many people remember reading Storm of Iron when it first came out and have fond memories of it. However, in all frankness, warm, fuzzy feelings of nostalgia for something is generally a very poor basis for making decisions (see 'Brexit').

Viewed in the cold light of 2022, Storm of Iron is a straightforward yarn about a siege, featuring — who else? — the Iron Warriors and the Imperial Fists, and scores of Imperial Guardsmen who, in true Black LIbrary tradition, die as soon as they've been introduced to the reader.

The problem with Storm of Iron is that even a fairly uncritical 12-year old today would probably find it lacking in depth or subtlety. Black Library still publish a fair amount of turgid, wooden crud today, but in general the quality of writing in their output has been raised considerably in the years since this first came out.

Since 2002, Black Library has given us the likes of Josh Reynold's masterly Fabius Bile trilogy, Aaron Dembski-Bowden's Night Lords saga and Chris Wraight's Lords of Silence. These are books which not only write from the perspective of the bad guys but also make them sympathetic, complex characters, and they credit the reader with enough intelligence to figure out what is going on without having every detail pointed out via constant, heavy-handed exposition. Set against this standard, Storm of Iron's clunky dialogue, wooden characters and general lack of a cogent story line serves mostly as a reminder of how much things have changed for the better.

Graham McNeill is, of course, still a highly prolific BL author today. I find his output infuriatingly mercurial. His recent Priests/Lords of Mars books were enjoyable, character driven stories. Sad to say, Storm of Iron belongs in the same bin as his ongoing, excretiable Uriel Ventris series. Yet, I shall always forgive him these blips thanks to The Last Church, which remains possibly the greatest w40k short story ever.

If you read Storm of Iron back in the day, and it gives you warm fuzzy feelings to hear it now in audiobook format, I don't begrudge you your enjoyment of it one bit. Michael Geary is a newcomer to W40k narration, admittedly given a relatively undemanding set of characters to portray he still hits most of the right notes here, but even his enthusiastic performance doesn't mask the fact that in 2022, Storm of Iron clunks badly.

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7 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

A fierce and monsterous anime

The heading of this review was a line in the book. Yes it was pronounced that way. 10/10 best narrator, would sack his duck.

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4 people found this helpful

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    2 out of 5 stars
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A boring siege a below average novel for me

Hello Everyone
You’ll find me on the camp of Black Library that loves 40K only and within that
Eisenhorn and Raven or and recently Pariah
So as someone else put It I am leaning to side that is less about gore and bolters and more about story and characters….
But don’t get me wrong I LOVED the night lords books, then the Fabio’s Bile (what imagination) The first 4/5 of Horus heresy (the rest is just a shameful and scouting act of capitalism and fan base disrespect

Do check my other reviews to see what I like

So on to this novel:

I got 60% through this and gave up
Not an exciting siege
voices are a bit samey (sorry dude)
story boring
characters not exciting

I don’t know why I cant get into the Gaunts novels when everyone else likes them and I love the Luther novel- one of my top3 if you have any recommendations for me drop me and email or tell me is there an online place we can rant about these novels!!

Ben

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3 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Wonderful

really enjoyed this, read it many years ago and I was amazed at how clearly I remembered some of the scenes. really brought me back, thoroughly enjoyed it. Good on Guardsman Hawk!

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2 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Lives up to the text, amazing effort!

Of the many Black Library books set in the 40k universe, this one is my favourite. This book got me into playing the game and gave me an unhealthy obsession with Iron Warriors, so as much as I wanted an audiobook version, I worried that it wouldn't live up to the novel.

I needn't have worried. This is a superb effort and the narrator does a great job of making the characters distinct and the action scenes pop.

Still my favourite 40k novel and now one of my favourite audiobooks too!

Iron Within, Iron Without.

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Justice to a classic

Storm of Iron is one of my favourite Black Library books from my first steps into the written lore. It was as much of a pleasure to listen to as it was to read over a decade ago.

Michael Geary really seems to understand the weight of these characters from Honsou, Forrix, Guardsman Hawk, and even the Warsmith, and channels these personalities magnificently. I’d love to hear him read more of the Iron Warriors stories, and even more Chaos Marines books (Word Bearers Omnibus please)

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1 person found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

A classic, remastered

One of the finest pieces of black library work brought to a new listening audience.

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Chaos vs Imperium at it's finest

The characters were compelling, interesting and believable. Especially some if the guard's leadership. Engaging a chaos marine with a blade when you're a mortal human is brave on a new level.

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Classic 40k

One of the classics of 40k, characterful, idiosyncratic, brutal.

nothing else to say but reviews have a 15 word minimum so here's a filler sentence.

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    4 out of 5 stars
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food for thought

n flesh for survival in a battle of will and might which never fails to imaginationand the narrator is full of expression and energy

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