The Twice-Dead King: Ruin (Warhammer 40,000) [Paperback] Crowley, Nate

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The necrons have no facial expressions or inflections of voice, so instead they found more technological ways to express emotional nuance in their new bodies: through the intensity of their core-fluxes, their ocular flaring, discharge node patterns, vocal buzz-tones, actuator signals, and the glyph-signifiers (e.g. a glyph for earnestness or hostility - essentially emojis!) and interstitial codes appended to their communication relays. I liked this book a lot. The Necron lore is in abundance but it’s written in such a way that I think any fan of the Tomb Kings styles Warhammer factions will enjoy it. It’s all about Necrons though and while it features other races, they tend to play a part that’s about as impactful as a random monster in an ARPG. Which is nice, for once, in a BL book.

If you’re not familiar with the Necrons beyond the fact that they’re metal skeletons who aren’t very happy, these books will – hopefully – give you a hefty insight into what they’re about,” he adds. I have been having a lot of fun listening to a bunch of awesome Warhammer 40,000 (W arhammer 40K) novels over the last year, with some great examples including Deathwatch: Shadowbreaker by Steve Parker, Kal Jerico: Sinner’s Bounty by Joshua Reynolds, Fire Made Flesh by Denny Flowers, and First and Only by Dan Abnett. While I have deeply enjoyed all these novels, I felt that it was time to go outside of the novels that typically focus on this universe’s human characters and instead read something with a more unique subject matter. As such, when I saw that The Twice-Dead King: Ruin had recently been released, I instantly grabbed a copy, and I am really glad that I did.

So how do you demonstrate in a single story that you can have heart without having a heart, and write a 40K epic on the themes of love, solitude and hope with nuance, humour and action? Simply, reader, you do it like this. There are a number of gut-wrenching moments (save in the presence of our Necron friends of course) where Oltyx is confronted by the existential horror of reality as an everyday Necron, stripped of one’s self and senses, that are so raw and agonising for him that as a reader it feels almost intrusive to witness them. When the people he knew begin to horrifically degrade, we feel Oltyx’s revulsion, and his own shame for feeling this. We experience the reality of relationships existing over aeons – the grind of grievances maintained over the lifetimes of countless brief mortals, and the nova-like brightness of hope when past loyalties are rekindled. When a writer makes you feel empathy for a being made to wage war you know they have the skills to tell a story that will be read by Necron fans for ages.

For being the 2nd Necron book I've ever read, the 1st being The Infinite and the Divine, I have to say this is right on with the other in being amazing and well written.neither matter, nor energy, but information: they cast hekatic decrees, written in the basal language of reality itself, which command the molecules of their targets not only to dissolve their bonds, but to tear each other apart. The only con I can say this book has is its frequent use of WH40k and (mostly) necron terms and names.