Assassinorum Kingmaker (Warhammer 40,000)

Product Information

I was really drawn to one sequence where you see a group of characters “talking” before it flashes over to another character quickly and efficiently killing everyone nearby. However, you do not appreciate just how bad things have gotten for the protagonists until they are suddenly hit from every direction and hell reigns down all around them. Reddit and its partners use cookies and similar technologies to provide you with a better experience. Augmentative nodes are stitched into his brain, and sub-muscular acoustic surgery prepares his body for the punishment that will be visited upon him in the line of duty. They must constantly fight each other in armed and unarmed combat, in conditions of total darkness or blinding light, zero gravity or crushing weight, stifling heat or freezing cold.

Assassinorum Kingmaker Black Library - eBook: Assassinorum Kingmaker

By meditating on the immortal glory of the Emperor, these superb marksmen can slow down their metabolism to an almost hibernatory state. There have been a few bits and pieces here and there (Rath’s previous short stories, and the James Swallow Horus Heresy novel Nemesis among the more notable), but I believe this is the first current timeline novel centred around the Imperium’s assassins. In some ways, it feels like an inverse of a typical Imperium 40k book where mysterious crap is happening to the protagonists.

Political intrigue, three Assassin Temples and Knightly Houses, combine to make an interesting story.

The Infinite and the Divine - Goodreads The Infinite and the Divine - Goodreads

Three assassins have to work together to pull off an audacious mission, infiltrating a Knight world to instigate a succession and avert a secession, bringing the Knights of Dominion back into line with the Imperium. The Assassinorum clades came into their own during the Horus Heresy of the early 31st Millennium, when they were tasked with eliminating the rebel Warmaster Horus and other leaders of the forces of Chaos; these missions met with only mixed success as the brutal history of that period all too amply demonstrates.

Being all but invisible to not only the aether-sight of Xantaka's Daemon armies but also his Rubricae bodyguard, Dranos simply walks up to the Sorcerer Xantaka and burns his brains to ash with a blast of negative energy. I honestly did not notice some of the clues that Rath set out in the earlier stages of the novel, but once you realise what he has done, it really becomes apparent how much detail and planning the author put into the story. So it is that there is no world in the galaxy beyond the Emperor's rule; no enemy beyond the Emperor's wrath. And so what you get is the plot to infiltrate the closed, insular nobility of a knight world's feudal elite, while also seeing three different assassins from three different temples doing what they do best.

Assassinorum: Kingmaker by Robert Rath | Goodreads

It's possibly a bit heavy on the characterization at first but it works and gets you in the mindspace when they're presented with obstacles. I have already had a lot of fun with books like Steel Tread, The Bookkeeper’s Skull, Day of Ascension, Kreig, Ghazghkull Thraka: Prophet of the Waagh! M38) - The progressive astrologer Lenas Scard is marked for death before his heretical discoveries shake the Imperial Creed any further.Dominion’s status as a somewhat independent planet in the Imperium was also pretty intriguing, and it was fascinating to see members of the planet arguing over whether they should serve themselves or help the Emperor.

Assassinorum: Kingmaker (Novel) - Warhammer 40k - Lexicanum

The Assassins of the Imperium are able to change the fate of worlds with the pull of a single trigger. Menst abandons his plan and instead climbs to the highest spire of Hive Mendicantus, knowing that it is only a matter of time before the glint of Scard's scrying scope appears. M38) - The planet of Orlenza Triartes severs its ties from the Imperium, hoping for better trade terms.

Perhaps the best summary of the Vanus Temple's philosophy was stated by Fon Tariel, an infocyte of Clade Vanus, the Vanus Temple's precursor, during the terrible civil war and intrigues of the Horus Heresy: "the cleanest kill is one that another performs in your stead with no knowledge of your incitement. Yet an Initiate that joins the ranks of his temple's operatives will have all these skills at his command. Seeing an outsider character interact with Jester’s mind, which contains the spirits of its previous riders, was extremely fascinating, and you get a good sense of the difficulties and insanities involved with piloting such a machine.