Forges of Mars Omnibus

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A good book filled with all the grim dark, Warhammer 40K you would expect.

Forges is a great collection of books, and this is a great way to pick up. The characters are well done, and very WH 40k.

Galatea - how to describe Galatea without spoilers? I figured Galatea would be an Elder. Hah, oh not quite.

Very well done.

The short story that was tacked on didn't bring much for me.

Good trilogy of books. Enjoyed how the story line evolved throughout the series. Looking forward to the next book as hinted.

Love this series. Gives a good glimpse into the various sects of the Adeptus Mechanicus.

Graham McNeil is fantastic at pacing and setting the tone. Overall a wonder omnibus for anyone loving 40k!

I really enjoyed the book. However I wasn't very happy with the way it ended. I also was angry with what happened to one of the characters. But hey, if it was poorly written I wouldn't have cared, right?

One of the great things about the world of Warhammer 40,000 is all its fascinating factions. Its easy to think one is not for you, but like comics all it takes is the right writer to illustrate a group's potential. For me that faction was the the Tech-Priests of the Adeptus Mechanicus, but then I read Graham McNeill's Horus Heresy novel, Mechanicum. In it McNeill showed me the Admech are a fascinating group of characters and there's a bunch of interesting stories to be told with them. So I thought I'd see what he could do with a whole trilogy of Adeptus Mechanicus novels and picked up the Forges of Mars omnibus, which contains the novels Priests of Mars, Lords of Mars, and Gods of Mars, as well as the short story Zero Day Exploit.

I got what I wanted and then some. Because Forges of Mars is full of a whole host of fascinating characters not just members of the Admech. Plus each book in the series ups the scope and scale . So Gods of Mars is a story full of grand, epic action, and character payouts.

The Forges of Mars omnibus starts out as a tale of exploration. So essentially McNeill is taking a Star Trek style story and giving it a 40K spin.His story is about an Adeptus Mechanicus expedition for a missing ship that traveled outside the known galaxy thousands of years ago. The flagship of this new expedition is a massive and ancient vessel known as the Speranza. It's almost like a planet and much of the action in the trilogy unfolds in its labyrinthine layout. It's a pretty fascinating locale that's almost a character unto itself.

Walking the halls of the Speranza are a diverse group of Adeptus Mechanicus tech-priests. First and foremost is of course the expedition leader, Lexell Kotov. He's surrounded himself with a number cold and career focused tech-priests like Tarkis Blaylock. What's great about those characters though is how nuanced they are. Over the course of the trilogy you get moments that show them at their worst, but they also get genuine moments of heroism and altruism. Plus there are some very noble, grounded, and easy to like tech-priests like the father and daughter team of Vitali and Linya Tychon. Their noble nature and genuine affection for each other made them some of my favorite characters in the trilogy.

The nature of the Kotov expedition allows McNeill to expand the cast of Forges of Mars beyond tech-priests and include divers characters from all over the Imperium of Man. Accompanying the expedition are a band of Black Templar Space Marines, a detachment of valiant soldiers from Cadia, a Legion of Titan war machines and their pilots, a Rogue Trader and his crew, and several normal humans press ganged into being bondsmen aboard the Speranza. But that's not all! There's also a crew of Eldar pursuing the Speranza.

As the Forges of Mars trilogy unfolds were allowed to spend time with all of these characters and see things from their perspective. So I really came to care about almost all of them. It heightened all the action scenes and made the climax of the trilogy incredibly enjoyable. There was so much payoff. The character arcs I probably enjoyed the most were the ones of Linya Tychon; Rogue Trade Roboute Surcouf who hails from the Ultramar system which means he's kind of like James T Kirk mixed with the nobility of Steve Rogers; and Black Templar sergeant Tanna, who really goes on a journey of growth over the course of the trilogy.

I also have to mention that McNeill may have opened my eyes to the appeal of the Eldar. They are another faction that have popped up throughout the Black 40K novels I've read that I really haven't found all that appealing. In Forges of Mars, McNeill points out how the Eldar are a damned race thanks to their creation of the Chaos God Slaanesh, but they've decided to sort of go down swinging and fighting against their fate. That made me see them in an entirely new light. So I may have to seek out some Eldar novels.

I don't want to say too much about the action of the Forges of Mars trilogy because a lot of of it is shrouded in mystery with some great reveals. What I will say is the story takes readers to pretty fantastic locales like alien planets, a seemingly deserted space station, and a mysterious Forge World. McNeill also has a lot of fun with the tone of the trilogy as well. You get moments of grand adventure, character drama, cosmic horror, and over the top action. The climax of the book is an epic struggle to save the entire universe and features a number of wildly imaginative and gloriously trippy sequences.

All of that makes Forges of Mars an incredible and epic read. For me, its one of those grand trilogies that reflects all the reasons why I love the 40K universe. It's right up there with Dan Abnett's Eisenhorn trilogy and Aaron Dembski-Bowden's Night Lords trilogy. It's that good! I was already a fan of McNeill before reading this Omnibus, but now he's one of my favorite Black Library authors.

This was a great read for an AdMech nerd. It was my favorite AdMech series since the Horus Heresy Mechanicum book. I would have preferred more skitari. There were also some character motivation/decision issues that could have been written better. Still it was an enjoyable, engaging read that I couldn’t put down (even at 2am).

In Warhammer 40K territory it is pretty easy to find stories of your favorite Inquisitor, Imperial Guard or Space Marine, but the Adeptus Mechanicus has remained a shadowy organization to me until I stumbled upon this exemplary collection of stories. And what a cool department these guys are! Kind of remind me of the Titans from the Dune prequels, except less evil. I loved every page of this thing.

This book contains the three novels Priests of Mars, Lords of Mars and Gods of Mars as well as a short story, Zero Day Exploit. All written by McNeill, and all as fascinating and exciting as you would want a Warhammer story to be. The three novels have an over-arching plot which entails an Explorator fleet investigation of an ancient expedition which has been recently rediscovered. The mystery of it all kept me enthralled, I probably read this giant 943 page book faster than I’ve plowed through any previous Warhammer epic. Easily one of my favorites in what is becoming my favorite literary universe. My highest recommendation.

Great book