Short and sweet

I was not bored. The characters did not annoy me. The book did not spend 3 hours describing the details of every nail, screw or weapon. These are all positives, but sometimes lacking in the 40k books.

There is enough build up of characters and the setting, and the book flows at a good pace. The story is interesting, and the narration is great. The premise did not at first appeal that much to me, but the good writing and quick pace drew me in.

If it was longer, it would have ended up dragging and bloated. I did not wish it to be longer, but it made me want to read more books by the author, and for him to write more 40k books. In that, at least, the book was successful. And it was a new and interesting way of telling a story in this setting. Much more worth the credit than some 16 hour long, bloated mess where nothing happens, and everything is described. in. painful. detail.

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2 people found this helpful

Great BL Story

Credit to the author and the narrator for an entertaining and unique story! I really enjoyed the insight into how a cult is perceived from within and how it can bring about its revolution. Not for the first time I find admech are great antagonists for the way they compare and contrast with the protagonist faction, a forgeworld additionally being the perfect setting for a cult uprising. I've seen some reviews wishing the book was longer, and while this wouldn't hurt I personally found the length to be more than sufficient to tell a great story.

Well worth a credit, 5/5!

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1 person found this helpful

A great introduction to the Imperium's dark side!

This book scratches deep beneath the surface of Imperial life, putting readers among the diseased and impoverished servants of the cruelty of the Adeptus Mechanicus. Discover how people are swayed to cult worship, and witness more of the Adeptus Mechanicus' ice-cold politicking. Recommended for readers who dare to discover the side of the Imperium not covered in as nearlyy as much detail as it ought to be!

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a great new Angle of THE CULT

Just finished Day of Ascension by Adrian Tchaikovsky. It's a bit of a coup to get an established Sci fi author to write a Black Library book and it would be very cool if he did more or they managed to poach someone else at some point. While this book is on the short side it crams in a lot of content. When I play the game I play Admech or Genestealer Cults, so seeing my two factions put head to head is great! Both have appeared in a lot of books before now but this is very different. It's not much of a spoiler to say that the GSC are basically the heroes of this story, and not simply the brainwashed hybrid brood often depicted. Basically, life for the working class on the forge world of Morod is so nasty, so brutish and so short, that staging a revolution and then being eaten by a hive fleet is honestly preferable, dressed up in the right language, this the most... human and relatable the GSC has ever been on the page, you will root for them.
The Adeptus mechanicus are more as you would expect, but no less enjoyable to read about, the author really captures the stagnation and inertia of their doctrines. Both represented in their religious activities and the byzantine politicking they get up to.
Having read Tchaikovsky's full length books I'd really like something longer than this in the 41st millennium, but that's really my only complaint. Excellent book!

excellent narration, great array of voices, I enjoyed the Fabricator General in particular.

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2 people found this helpful

everything I wanted from a GSC story!

Great juxtaposition between the all consuming demands of the mechanicum and the tryanid swarm.

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fascinating deep dive

held off and bought this when it was on sale but shouldn't have bothered well worth the normal price and a steal on the sale. Wasn't sure what to expect but genestealer cults always interested me so I thought I'd take a chance.
Really interesting take, and love how the author breathed life into the cult and made their belief believable.
really good performance also, without that the story really would have fallen flat. my favourite short story previously by black library was an eisenhorn/ravenor one but this was truly excellent and might now be my favourite highly recommend!

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I'd even recommend this to non-40k fans

it's short, it's punchy, the characters are good, the narrative has twists and turns. I had a great time with this one.

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Superior stuff, but why so short?

There's a number of reasons to recommend this audiobook: For a start the author, Adrian Tchaikovsky has the distinction amongst Black Library writers that he was neither plucked from obscurity or over-promoted from the exposition factory of their games design department. Instead, Tchaikovsky comes fully formed, already a successful science fiction writer who (I learnt from his Wikipedia page) studied zoology and psychology at university.

That's perhaps the perfect author's CV to write a long-overdue story examining the genestealer cults from the perspective of the cultists themselves. That's the other reason I was drawn to this one. I've always been fascinated by the question, 'Do the genestealer cultists have any idea what is actually coming - and what would they make of it if they did?' The nearest we've ever gotten to an insight into this before was a passing remark by Mephiston (in Darkness in The Blood, I think) who addresses a cultist as 'magos'. When they act surprised at his use of their title, he replies, "You are always called magos...you are the product of a template." Ever since then, I've been itching to hear a story that examined this question properly, 'Do they know what they are?' After all, if Nate Crowley (in the excellent Twice Dead King and the not-quite-so-good sequel) can make murderous metal skeletons into sympathetic characters, then I'm certain that there is a human interest story to be found in the life of the murderous parasitical genestealers and their extended families.

Still, it's not an easy job to make such horrific creatures interesting and even likeable. Yet AT (as I'm calling him now) pulls it off neatly. He cleverly uses the more 'human' members of the cult, to show us the normal, day-to-day existence of workers within the great machine of the Imperium (in this case, a forge world). So it's possible to share their disgust and anger at the general treatment of the population by their Adeptus Mechanicus masters. At times, the attitude of the members of the cult and the general working population is in perfect alignment. So it's easy as a listener to get behind them, they genuinely are underdogs and you find yourself wanting to root for them, you wily dog, AT I see what you did there.

Day of Ascension's plot is, in fact, split between two points of view, with the other side showing us a downtrodden but scheming adept of the mechanius. This starts off promisingly also. Initially, it sets the story up a bit like The Day of The Jackal, with the reader finding themselves rooting both for the hunter and the hunted. However, this goes a little off the rails, with our adept quickly descending into cartoon villainry. I guess this is to ensure we place our sympathies squarely with the members of the genestealer brood, but it feels a bit forced and I didn't need it. At just over 5 hours, this is a very short audiobook (no way is the print version the advertised 368 pages) and one feels there was plenty of space to give us interesting and sympathetic character development from both sides. I think AT and Black Library need to credit readers with enough intelligence to have a story where we can see things from more than one perspective. After all, as someone else said already here, there are no good guys in the grimdark universe of W40k, only shades of grey.

Still, look, I'm not complaining. This is a good'un. A word also for Harry Myers, a whole book of Mechanicus characters made me fear having to endure hours of grating 'robot' voices, but Myers sensibly gives them all normal, but distinctive voices. He's a good choice for this kind of 'quieter' more character-driven tale instead of the more bombastic narration we normally get with Black Library's military sci-fi yarns.

All in all, good job lads - and credit where it's due to BL for refreshing their pool of writers and narrators with two quality contributors. Let's hope we see more from Harry and AT in the grimdark future.

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22 people found this helpful

Excellent!

a must read/listen for the true warhammer 40k fan! great storyline, awesome narration, Interesting perspective!

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Brilliant!

I've always been interested in a closer, more intimate look into the Genestealer Cults. And I can only say that Day of Ascension has DELIVERED.

The story short: we get a glimpse into the life of a 4th generation female Neophyte called Davien, and the life of a general citizen of the human empire. We are presented with lifes of suffering. But also with hope. For the Emperor and his angels - with all their arms and fangs - are with us. Salvation is coming!

Adrian Tchaikovsky is an excellent writer. He knows how to present us with a world that is unlike our own. Coupled with Harry Myers as the narrator, you're in for a treat!

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