solid, winding, unsettled but good ending

Andy Clark does better than expected in this 2nd book of this series. One negative of the story is it seems at times to be disjointed. Some threads of the story are not tended to for quite some time, and this affects the overall coherency of the story.

As a general theme, this book might be summed up as "bad news but here is some hope".

Several of the main characters have sound quality, and are written well. A few of the main characters seem to be a bit to shoehorned however.

Where is the main guardsman female scout is a very decent character, the main knights female character is largely a paper cut out.

A person can tell that Games Workshop is in a big push for more female characters because there are a lot of female characters. And when you have quite as many female characters mandated and inserted into a story, the shear number seems to drive down the quality.

The mandate doesn't seem to stop at simply female characters however, because maybe the most prominent female character is, not joking, a paraplegic female Warrior character.

S somebody who spent about a decade in the American army, let me assure you, there are differences between boys and girls that are not simply biological. This sort of strategy seems to ignore that.

What Andy Clarke does not ignore is the mortality in difficulty of warfare. Andy Clark includes fatigue, filth, terrible trying difficulties, and what it sometimes means to earn a victory in dire circumstances.

The author also is very good about treating both the protagonist and antagonist with reasonable story time. The villains add good development and a character arc. This made the story well balanced and the victory for the protagonists worth something.

Also, something that is often ignored is the nature of each side of the conflict. Part of the nature of being a traitor is that your side is willing to splinter fairly readily. Part of what makes the loyalists loyal is there Fervour for unity.The author did not ignore any of this. He made it a consistent thread.

Well done Andy Clark.

One pet peeve was that the actual numbers of people that we were dealing with seems to disappear and then reappear only inconvenience to the story.

Now where some characters were developed well over the story, Like the custodian shield captain, others, like one of his team of custodes, was an absolute dead weight. He had some fun lines, but the events of the story meant nothing to the outlook of his character. He served more as an ideological place holder than an organic character.

I do not know if Andy Clark is a veteran, but it would seem no. The reason is that the tactics employed by some of the different elements of the combating forces seem to be inefficient or unwise.

As a personal sidebar, I love the historian times of the story because I myself was for a time and army historian.

So to sum up:
A LOT is happening.

Pace is usually good but with some lag times.

Some characters are well developed, some painfully not.

There is as unrealistically large lady presence in this book.

Earned story line and arc for the protagonists.

Antagonists were well invested.

Main points at the end of the story are meaningful, human, and touching.

The narrator occasionally seemed to mix up voices with lines in this blizzard of characters.

4/5 stars, read this book of you are a Warhammer fan.

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Further illustrates a fragmenting Imperium

Dawn of Fire turns up the heat, but no smoke yet. Gate of Bones is a pretty good stand-alone story with the Indomitus Crusade as a backdrop. Horusy Heresy references are sprinkled throughout the story, but don't allude to much we haven't already heard about. Many characters are introduced, most of which have satisfying arcs and development. John Banks is great at what he does.

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Filler Book

Characters weren’t particularly interesting, story wasn’t advanced in any sort of way, no real insight as to what’s going on in the galaxy. Nothing unexpected, no real twists.

Starts out interesting with xenos having an audience with guilliman explaining how Chaos has a powerful macguffin on a planet.

Then we go to the planet for 98% of the book. Chaos finds macguffin, uses on imperial forces, imperial forces triumph in the end but chaos slinks off with the macguffin (we didn’t lose this was the plan all along...) for the next book.

Gripping and entertaining

I did not like the first book in the series, Avenging Son, but wanted more books set in the current lore. This book is excellent, the characters are interesting, the story is as well, and of course the writing is impeccable. Really recommend this one!

good 40k book

read this awhile ago. i dont remember alot but it was pretty good and enjoyable while reading. its was real cool seeing reactions to custodes though.

Very little plot Armor

A pit of a shake up if I am being honest. The 40k universe is always Grim Dark. This time it feels more so. You have your standard list of heroes and villains, however the usual ending of the heroes coming out on top is off in this one. The battles feel hard fought with sacrifices and victory nor easily. This all leads to an ending that is bittersweet and more melancholic than usual. it is a good read and leaves me waiting for the next one.

Good Listen

Interesting characters, a good story, and a good back and forth perspectives from each side.

Can't Eait for the Next One!

Guilliman and the Indomitus Crusade are on their way to Gathalamor, a Cathedral World. Imperial Knights, Sister of Battle, Custodies, Iron Warriors, IG, Imperial Fists, etcetera, position for the first half of the novel then spend the second half of the novel blowing each other apart! Not quite as good as the first novel in the series but still great fun! John Banks does his usual, fantastic job at narration!

Less a Sequel, more its own novel. Still Loved it.

At first, I was annoyed by Gate of Bones. It has almost none of the characters from Avenging Son, most of whom I was excited to hear from again. It didn't feel like a sequel at all. But the longer it went on, the more I began to really love this book. It is much more focused than Avenging Son so we get a deeper look into fewer characters. From an aging IG general who's regrets in life are piling up, to a squad of Custodes who are uncomfortable with they way they are worshiped by the humans they're sworn to protect. We also get some really compelling and sympathetic Chaos characters, which, even in the best light, I usually have no sympathy for, so this book excelled there. A great read for any 40K fan and a great window into the current setting of the Indomitus Crusade.

Good follow up

Good follow up to book 1. Characters are still really well developed, though I'd say book 1 was a little more compelling. I did like that we got perspective from 2 heretic Astartes though, a Wprd Bearer and Iron Warrior.