Spear of the Emperor cover art

Spear of the Emperor

Warhammer 40,000

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Spear of the Emperor

By: Aaron Dembski-Bowden
Narrated by: Kelly Hotten
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About this listen

A Warhammer 40,000 novel.

The Emperor's Spears are a Chapter on the edge of destruction, last watchmen over the Elara's Veil nebula. Now, the decisions of one man, Amadeus Kaias Incarius of the Mentor Legion, will determine the Chapter's fate....

Listen to it because:

Aaron Dembski-Bowden has turned his attention to creating (and maybe destroying) a Space Marine Chapter in detail, and this is your chance to discover their fate.

The story:

The scattered worlds of the Elara's Veil nebula were once protected by the oath of unity sworn by three mighty Chapters of the Adeptus Astartes. The Star Scorpions were undone by flaws in their genetic coding. The Celestial Lions were ravaged by the Inquisition for sins they did not commit. Now, after hundreds of years, only the Emperor's Spears still keep their vigil. They are barbarian watchmen against the Outer Dark, bloodied but unbroken in their long duty.

Amadeus Kaias Incarius, a brother of the Mentor Legion, is commanded to cross the Great Rift and assess the Spears' war-readiness, only to be drawn into the chaotic plight of a depleted crusade on the Imperium's benighted frontier. The decisions he makes, far from the God-Emperor's light, will decide the fate of the war-torn Chapter.

Written by Aaron Dembski-Bowden. Running time 11 hours and 46 minutes. Performed by Kelly Hotten.

©2019 Games Workshop Limited (P)2019 Games Workshop Limited Adventure Fantasy Fiction Post-Apocalyptic Science Fiction Space Exploration Space Interstellar

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Most relevant  
Some previous reviewers have expressed concerns about the narration. Annoyingly this initially put me off this audiobook until I decided to ignore them and take the plunge and I am glad I did. I am therefore happy to confirm the following facts a) YES Kelly Hotten is a girl b) NO she does not have a silly/strange voice, she has a perfectly normal, intelligible English accent c) NO she is not completely untried, but a proper actress who has been on TV and done audiobook narration before d) the narrator and main protagonist of 'Spear of The Emperor' is a woman, therefore having a female voice artist makes er, perfect sense e) Her voicing of male characters in this book is far less incongruous than Toby Longworth or Jonathan Keeble doing funny falsettos for female characters in other W40k books.

The story itself is a space marines romp of reliably good quality as you'd expect from Aaron Dembski-Bowden. By focussing on the chapters and the main Astartes characters, the Black Library blurb (as so often) is slightly misleading. The main character is not a space marine, but one of their human slaves/assistants. This actually makes the entire plot far more interesting than some recent 'Dark Imperium' era stories written from the perspective of space marines. Let's face it, as main protagonists they're a bit dull, lacking as they do fear and doubt and similar qualities which you generally need in a main character to keep things interesting. That said, boys that just like macho giants blowing each other up in space will still find plenty here to please them and who knows? They may just enjoy it enough to forget that the person reading it to them is...a girl!

"Oh no, it's a girl!"

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at first i thought that the female voice actor was going to make it weird when she does the marines but the story is done as biography of the situation and thing that happen are in a pretence so works out great. The camaraderie between the space marines comments from mordent and amadeus and my personal favorite would be braec

great book gives you a wider perspective

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really shed light on imperium nihilus and really enjoyed the primaris story furthering and how 'old' and new marines interact

excellent story from start to finish

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Great story although lacking somewhat in action, more than making up for in intrigue! Narration was excellent, I had my reservations at first but were quickly dispelled!

Needs a sequel!

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However, it’s really let down by the awful choices of voices for the Celestial Lions characters.

Fantastic book, great story

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Detailed and gripping. ADB is definitely time wizard from the 41st millennium selling these amazing tales as "fiction". Long may he continue to do do.

Why did it have to end!

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One of the best 40k books I've read, excellent characters and stories. A chance to see the power and strangeness of the astartes through human eyes.

A gem in the black library

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detailed, full of lovely lore and a great narrator make this a 40k treat. The perspective gives a great insight into the grimdark, with a refreshing take on the Warhammer 40k universe

one of the strongest black library novels

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This is a good story from a novel perspective. The reader did a great job.

ignore the bitter reviews

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Tbh I didn’t get this much story was ok but ADB’s worst in my opinion.
The voice acting is the main problem, she is great but can’t do a many (only one well) male they sound like Russian or Soviet Union era and in-spite of her best attempts drags you out of amercing yourself into the setting.

I didn’t mind it but needed a second voice actor

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