Listen free for 30 days

  • Wrath of the Lost

  • Warhammer 40,000
  • By: Chris Forrester
  • Narrated by: Richard Reed
  • Length: 15 hrs and 2 mins
  • 3.4 out of 5 stars (41 ratings)

One credit a month, good for any title to download and keep.
Unlimited listening to the Plus Catalogue - thousands of select Audible Originals, podcasts and audiobooks.
No commitment - cancel anytime.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.
Wrath of the Lost cover art

Wrath of the Lost

By: Chris Forrester
Narrated by: Richard Reed
Try for £0.00

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £29.99

Buy Now for £29.99

Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.

Summary

A Flesh Tearers Novel

Having secured Baal, the Flesh Tearers receive timely reinforcements from the Indomitus Crusade. In that moment of hope, however, they realise they've not heard from their now isolated homeworld of Cretacia in far too long...

Listen to it because...

The Flesh Tearers are Sanguinius' wrath writ in flesh and blood. Spared extinction thanks to reinforcements from the Indomitus Crusade, they are the vanguard of the Angelic Host, securing Baal and its neighbouring worlds for the Great Angels and the Imperium. Yet in fulfilling their oath to the Lord of the Blood, they have isolated themselves from their homeworld, Cretacia – and there has been no word from the garrison left to hold it.

The story:

Ordered by Gabriel Seth to secure Cretacia, Chaplain Dumah and Apothecary Barachial set course for the Flesh Tearers' homeworld. But when they finally lay eyes on it once more, will they find a garrison standing firm, or a desolate wasteland scoured by their enemies? The Space Marines must walk in the footsteps of their chapter's mythic founder, and along the way they will learn what it means to embrace the Wrath of the Lost – or die trying.

©2023 Games Workshop Limited (P)2023 Games Workshop Limited

What listeners say about Wrath of the Lost

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 3.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    16
  • 4 Stars
    7
  • 3 Stars
    4
  • 2 Stars
    7
  • 1 Stars
    7
Performance
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    21
  • 4 Stars
    6
  • 3 Stars
    3
  • 2 Stars
    4
  • 1 Stars
    3
Story
  • 3.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    15
  • 4 Stars
    6
  • 3 Stars
    5
  • 2 Stars
    2
  • 1 Stars
    9

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Bad-tempered morons fight everyone

Let me state upfront: I have always had a soft spot for the Fleshtearers. In the Devastation of Baal and other Blood Angels-centred tales, Fleshtearers Chaptermaster Gabriel Seth is a violent, anarchic counterpoint to the cerebral and terribly decent angels, a bit like that weird uncle who shows up drunk at family gatherings and wrecks the place.

Importantly, Seth was always depicted as a man who is the master of his rage: he channels and focuses it before turning it to bear on the Emperor's enemies. The Fleshtearers are borderline insane, but there's a method to their madness. Or there always was, until Wrath Of The Lost.

The Fleshtearers in this story are so far beyond reason, they start to make the World Eaters look vaguely rational by comparison. The suggestion that they could credibly pose a military threat to anyone feels increasingly laughable as this tale goes on. This isn't about the bubble of silliness that surrounds all things w40k — I can live with that, it IS a darkly absurd universe, after all. But every fictional 'verse must have some kind of internal logic to it. And there is none here.

The FTs in this tale are depicted as demented psychopaths who are incapable of interacting with anyone without losing it. Every scene features a Fleshtearer getting irate and wishing to kill the other characters. If that's another space marine, they argue (following orders or respecting the chain of command clearly isn't a thing). If it's one of their mortal thralls, they kill them. Every time. Mortal interrupts you? Kill them. Mortal tells you bad news? Kill them. Mortal points out some important truths that you need to hear because you are in the wrong? Kill them! Mortal just happens to be standing close by when you've gone bonkers and think you're Sanguinius? Kill them!

This quickly goes beyond any notion of grimdark and plunges headlong into the realm of the ludicrous. After all, how could a supposedly elite military outfit function when the staff that all fighting forces rely on to supply them in the field, repair stuff, and get them from A to B are constantly being slaughtered like cattle by their own soldiers?

It's not only ridiculous, it also gets increasingly reprehensible. The slaughter of menials by the FTs seems to happen in a totally consequence-free environment. After each murder spree is over, nobody mentions it again, not even in passing. It doesn't feel convincing. Even the one mortal who seems to have a decent rapport with her master talks back once too often and gets offed. Afterwards, the space marine responsible doesn't even pause for a moment's reflection or regret. These are supposed to be the Emperor's angels. We know the Fleshtearers aren't the Ultramarines, but the way they are depicted here, they treat baseline humans as nothing more than cattle. Thralls be guaranteed better treatment on a Night Lords vessel. That's how bizarre the levels of abuse get.

So self-reflection and becoming a better person are clearly not the Fleshtearer way — redemption arcs are for cowards! But that's just the beginning: Wrath of The Lost is littered with details that makes no sense in terms of the story or the lore. Take their petulant inability to follow basic orders, and flat refusal of any tactic that isn't charging directly into melee combat. The fact that the main characters are Primaris marines who've spent decades as pseudo-Ultramarines in the Indomitus Crusade, yet they act like a bunch of savages with the impulse control of toddlers. None of it makes any sense, and stuff like that annoys me.

All the main characters in this are reprehensible and without any redeeming virtues, yet we are expected to care about their mission to reclaim their fortress monastery and their lost relics. I couldn't have cared less, by halfway, I was rooting for the thralls to rise up and murder them all.

Even monsters must have some redeeming virtues so we can find them likeable in small ways. There's none of that craft in the writing here. I geniunely struggle to understand what the point of Wrath of The Lost is. I feel even Fleshtearers fans who might otherwise consume this uncritically will be disappointed with the depiction of their chapter here. It feels like a waste of everyone's time — including me as the listener, author Chris Forrestor's and poor blameless narrator, Richard Reed. I don't know why this book exists.

11 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Angry marines are angry!

Performance is fantastic. The story however was not for me. All the marines are angry or super angry and it doesn’t work well as a story driver.

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

A vile chapter

The flesh tearers come across as bad as any chaos company. They clearly care not for mankind. Sanguinius weeps.

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

The serfs nightmare

This might have been an OK story if it wasn't for the endless killing. These guys are worse then the world eaters ,without the excuse. Ex comunicatos this annoying chapter of space marines.

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

really poor and boring

really poor and boring
I'd leave this one,there are good Gabriel Seth books and his kin, this is not it trust me

why Black Library do this I've no idea.

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Really, really, disappointing- don't waste your £

Such a missed opportunity. Does nothing to build insight into the Chapter and is littered with plot flaws that just make no sense whatsoever, even by the twisted logic of 40k. It feels like the author has no true understanding, or even basic knowledge of 40k and 30k fluff- which is ok- unless you're writing a book about one of the most notorious Chapters of 40K. Games Workshop, please exercise more quality control because you are destroying the Universe you've creating over past 40 years, and without that, what is the point in buying anything from you

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Incredibly poor depiction of a chaplain.

Huge fan of the lore of war hammer 40K but this saga would be better off marked as heresy.

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Great book

Great book really enjoyed the insight into the chapter
They lack their BA brothers class and nobility

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

RUBBISH

This is one of the "Space Marine" battles type books that comes across as if it was written by a twelve-year-old on meth.

It has no interesting lore, no character development, no build-up of story, no core characters, no clever twists and turns, no humour and is soooooooo grim dark it just comes across as lame - like when you're trying way waaaaaaaaaay too hard to be cool.

And trying to "cure the thirst" ... I mean come on... like really. Primaris or not, Dante and Mephiston and Cawl all know that the thirst is metaphysical. It isn't in the gene-seed. It can't be cured. It is part and parcel of the Blood legacy... but whatever.

Everyone is unlikeable, they are just moody man-children, that are bad-tempered and complete idiots. I was glad when this book ended and I have listened to hundreds of books from the franchise.

Black Library, hang your heads in shame. It's like you let someone write about the flesh tearers when they hadn't even read the previous blood angels books ... and I even mean the bad Deus series from a few years back, so they could swear to never allow such bad writing to happen again.

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

We get it, you’re mad.

I’ve read every Flesh Tearer novel and they (Even the bad ones) are all better than this.

This author clearly doesn’t understand the subject matter. I think he wrote a Flesh Tearer short story once, but this is just awful.

If you love Blood Angels and Flesh Tearers avoid this, it will spoil the narrative for you.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars
Profile Image for Lam
  • Lam
  • 31-01-23

A pain to listen to

The book is at best makes you think its writtten about primaris marine in adolescence trying to copy their forefathers in the worst aspect thinking its cool.
And at worst the story is colored in pure stupidity.

4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars
Profile Image for Amazon Customer
  • Amazon Customer
  • 29-01-23

Even die-hard 40k lore fans should save their money & do not buy

An overly wordy embarrassment of cliched writing, gleefully grating at you with the same boring tag phrases and aborted gestures at any remotely interesting. agonizingly predictable character development, was rooting for villains by end. All married to a performance by Richard Reed that can only be described as painfully mendacious.
An enormous blown opportunity to do something interesting in the 40k setting.

4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars
Profile Image for Rachel
  • Rachel
  • 26-01-23

ugh!

this is a book where everyone is snarling and braying for blood with a character that wants to betray his chapter master. they are straight murders just because they can't control their impulses.

4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars
Profile Image for Wulfy
  • Wulfy
  • 20-01-23

A Lost Chapter now lost to bad writing

There are several major issues with this. When reading or listening to the fall of the Blood Angels chapters, and the stories about the Flesh Tearers. You think of them as savage, yes. But there is a form of tragedy in regards to there actions. The charm of the Tearers, is an understanding that they should be treated and despised. But, despite their violent behavior, they commit and establish honorable actions. This is not portrayed in this book. They are shown as little more than blood thirty puppets. Highlighted by how individuals of the primaris, immediately begin turning, in their actions into blood fiends. As if they were a part of the Flesh Tearers chapter for 500 years, and were never a part of the indomitadus crusade. The charm of the Tearers is lost, the writer highlights the wrong aspects of the chapter, and the internal conflict in every Blood Angel successor is trivialized, or bastardized into a cop-out. For Blood Angel fans, for Flesh Tearer fans, and for 40k fans, avoid this book. It will enrage you more than the black rage will.

4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars
Profile Image for Anonymous User
  • Anonymous User
  • 14-02-23

A story about morons who can't do anything right

I can't see how anyone would ever want to play and or have anything to do with flesh tearers. Poor planning leading to horrible things happening constantly all because the vampire chapter needs to suck blood. I'm sorry but seriously I'm tired of being disappointed over and over by this chapter and the stories about them I have yet to read a single flesh tearers novel that makes me do anything other then wince at how stupid they are,how bad their leadership is and I'm sorry but the writer of this doesn't seem to be very creative with them

avoid this book I got a good 3rd the way in the this books predictability lost my interest. The voice acting is good but that's all

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars
Profile Image for J. Scott
  • J. Scott
  • 07-02-23

Misses the mark at every opportunity

[Heavy Spoilers]
If this is your first 40k novel and you are unaware of the rest of the setting, you will more than likely enjoy the novel. If you know anything about the setting this book is just down right painful to get through.
The primaris characters are not likeable, there are no redeeming qualities, the librarian being the only exception. They are all wrath and rage with none of the qualities that make people like the Flesh Tearers. The extreme acts of rage are not counter balanced with extreme acts of humanity so we are left with chaos marines. Specifically chaos marines that feel like Saturday morning cartoon villains.
The crossing of the great rift in the beginning of the book is where the permanent damage is done. The Night Lords treat their slaves better than the Flesh Tearers treat their chapter thralls. The was zero attempt to even consider trying to keep the crew alive, no changes or adaptations from the space marines. They are only a few years removed from being unnumbered sons but acting like World eaters suffering from the bite of the nails. All of the decisions by the marines are equal to that of children. All of the human crew who tell them the truth or start making better choices get killed by the Flesh Tearers.
They come across a gene stealer cult infestation and oddly enough the author makes the Magos of the cult interesting. I would have been content with the chapter fighting the cult for the bulk of the novel and the discovery of their chapter home world left as a cliff hanger. However the conflict ended before anything meaningful would happen and we go back to the Flesh Tearers being world eaters. The end of the passage results in a chaos cult uprising on the strike cruiser, the conditions were that bad. The scenes come to a head when the Chaplin keeps a cult member alive for questioning. The cult member is basically the voice of the audience at this point and for the rest of the novel I was rooting for the villains or the black rage to win.
The retaking of the chapter's home world makes no sense for the villains. They are supposed to be Alpha Legion, but they are your basic Khorn affiliated warband. The plan is to convert them to chaos by taking their fortress, looting their relics, and converting half the world's population to chaos. If the warband was established as the word bearers this would make sense given their established lore.
There is a scene where a Flesh Tearers is in preparation for the final assault and murders his arming thrall in cold blood. it's an extremely short scene and can be classified as a throw away scene but it encapsulates most of the problems in this novel. The arming thrall is literally just standing there doing her job, the flesh Tearers gets really upset during training. Notices the pulse in her neck and proceeds to kill her by sinking his fangs in her neck and drinks her blood. His rationale is there are going to be thousands of dead tomorrow so what's one more death?
They are all vampires, they are all drinking an absurd amount of blood, and they are all extremely angry. If the inquisition shows up there is absolutely no reason why they would not get purged.
At the end of the book when all of the story arcs are wrapping up and we are getting our big emotional pay off for sticking it out, I felt relief knowing that most of these characters were either dead or fell to the black rage. Even if this was an origin story of how the 4th company became a chaos warband, there is nothing to emotionally connect the audience to the main characters.
The narrator is even disengaged while reading this. This gentleman has narrated other 40k novels, such as The Infinite and the Divine, and is absolutely fantastic. However, even he couldn't get this story to come to life. If you want a solid newer Flesh Tearers novel, get Echoes of Eternity, save your money or credit and pass on this one.

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars
Profile Image for WintersDawn
  • WintersDawn
  • 11-02-23

Well

Where do I even start well, I will say one thing. If you wanted me to hate this chapter you succeeded.

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars
Profile Image for robert orr
  • robert orr
  • 10-02-23

Had to force myself to finish

One of the biggest things when writing is to make sure you at least have one likable character. This book has none. I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to root for the Flesh Tearers or the traitors. Also I’m not sure how you can make non-stop action boring, but this guy did it. Sanguinius would be ashamed!!!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars
Profile Image for Brian Larkin
  • Brian Larkin
  • 08-02-23

Great performance, terrible book

A farcical tale of Space Marines who are so busy baying for blood and being angry at each other there's virtually no character development or story line. Seriously, did CS Goto write this? It's that bad. Spend your money elsewhere on fiction that actually has interesting characters, conflict, and dialog aside from "he forced down the black rage". Do Flesh Tearers fall to the black rage every ten minutes or something?

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars
Profile Image for Anonymous User
  • Anonymous User
  • 04-02-23

drinking game

this is weird.
Spacemarines are supposedly elite super SOLDIERS, but Fleshtearers act like 10 year old children, with piss poor disciplin and coordination.
the story is a semi good idea, that makes no sense what so ever. Skip the first third of the book. It is just, nonsense, whining and blood.
If your really brave (or stupid) drink a shot every time they say blood. You will be in the hospital soon 😉

1 person found this helpful