Wrath of Iron

Space Marine Battles #9

by Chris Wraight

After months spent in the service of the Chaos god Slaanesh, the ruling classes of the Contqual sub-sector have finally brought true damnation upon their people - innumerable hordes of foul and lascivious daemons swarm from a tear in the fabric of reality to embrace their mortal pawns and drive them on to ever more depraved acts of worship. It falls to the merciless Space Marines of the Iron Hands Chapter to cleanse these worlds of the warp's unholy taint, and it is upon the surface of Shardenus that the fate of a billion lost souls will be decided.

Read it because
The Iron Hands face one of their oldest foes as the forces of Chaos infest a hive world. With surprising links back to the Horus Heresy and the death of Ferrus Manus, this is a defining tale for the sons of the Gorgon.

Genres: Science Fiction, 40k, Fiction, Fantasy, Novels, Science Fiction Fantasy, Military Science Fiction

300 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 8, 2012

About the author

Chris Wraight is a British author of fantasy and science fiction.

His first novel was published in 2008; since then, he has published books set in the Warhammer Fantasy and Stargate:Atlantis universes, and has upcoming titles in the Warhammer 40K setting.

He is based in the south-west of England.

Reviews

[Gianfranco Mancini · Rating 4 out of 5]

Only rarely did the sons of Manus abandon their meticulous way of war and adopt the ancient rage that lay deep in the gene-heritage of all the Adeptus Astartes. When that happened, there were few forces in the galaxy capable of resisting it: ten thousand years of anger,of rage, of bitterness, all concentrated into a single machine-augmented storm of vengeance.
Now the storm was coming. Now Shardenus would face the wrath of iron.

The Warhammer 40000 Space Marine Battles series is an hit or miss for me because of some too much cheesy, lame or uninteresting 100% bolter-porn novels. This one was almost a five stars bullseye.
Storyline was far from being an original one, with an Imperial assault force made of Iron Hands, Imperial Guard and Titans invading Shardenus capital world of corrupted Contqual subsector to purge it from rebels, heretics, mutants and chaos daemons, but I liked a lot Clan Raukaan dislike for flesh applied to their human allies, used as cannon fodder and diversions in a race against time to stop a rift opening and turning the planet into a daemon-world.

He gasped for breath and his legs kicked out uselessly. His captor squeezed, and Arela dropped his blade. His vision blurred, and it was all he
could do to look his killer in the eye.
'I fight... for the Emperor,' he gasped, blurting it out as if that fact could alter anything.
A metallic growl issued from the monster's vox-grille.
'You do not,' it said, squeezing his neck and breaking his spine. 'We do'.

Then, after an average first half, pace goes full-throttle, reading becames a page-turning one, and the apparition of an old acquaintance from the Horus Heresy, together with one of the bleakest endings ever, reminding you that in the grim future of W40K there are no good guys at all, you have a full five star second one.

Hate them,' he thundered, raising his lightning claws high. His blades shot out, sheathed in fire. 'Hate those who have sullied this place. Let your anger burn, let it make your blows strike true. With every stride you take, their corruption weakens. You shall be the instruments of Shardenus's salvation. You will be the immortal heroes of this world!'
Morvox remained still. The words washed over him.
He could hear a low murmur of assent from the men standing behind him.
He knew what was happening. Khatir's voice, laced with subtle neuro-markers, would be stirring them.
Their tired limbs would be feeling lighter. Their slack jaws would be tightening, as would the grip on their lasguns.

An excellent grimdark read, but some characters were just needing litterally more flesh to be fully appreciated.

[Terrible Reviewer · Rating 2 out of 5]

"Men as machines - no compassion, no remorse and unrelenting. Not much to like then."

Imagine, if you will, a genetically modified man, bred for war. Who is already perfect, the pinnacle of mankind and immortal. So let me introduce a chapter known as the Iron Hands. These Space Marines look at flesh as a weakness, 'from iron cometh's strength' is their mantra. They are devoid of emotion, they have no compassion for the weakness and frailty of humanity. Their allies the Imperial Guard are just meat for the grinder, humans are cattle to them. Here in lies the problem insomuch as how the hell are we as a reader meant to relate to such characters? I'm not the type who likes the stereotypical character where they are perfect and have no flaws. In fact I'm a fan of the anti-hero type. I just felt Wrath of Iron was so devoid of any likeable characters it distracted me from a half decent story.

On a world known as Shardenus, a taint has rooted itself at the centre of the primary hive. Unbeknownst to the Imperial citizens the ripeness of Chaos has infected the heart of the government. A combined army of Imperial Guard, Iron Hands and Mechanicus are dispatched to deal with this threat. Ironically when those defending Shardenus are engaged they still believe and worship the Emperor of Mankind. The taint has only spread so far, but to the Iron Hands, all must die. Under the command of Rauth, Captain of Clan Raukaan (the Iron Hands are divided into clans instead of squads) of the Iron Hands, things begin to turn into a shitstorm for the good guys. None of the Iron Hands has any sympathy towards what they feel is the weakness of mankind, that being humans. What does this mean? Well it makes the Iron Hands masters at doing what is necessary. In this case freeing them up to act as they see accordingly.

Fortunately for the Guard there is disagreement with this aloof attitude. Lord Commander Nehata and Princeps Lota are wary of losing their assets so easily. This does give some balance to the Iron Hands mantra as I've mentioned, but is outweighed so heavily by the depth of dull rhetoric from those Astrates, that it really has no impact on my view of the Iron Hands. They are more machine than men!

Having said that, there are a few interesting characters to be found. Magos Ys of the Mechanicum does something unexpected - which threw me, in a good way. The relationship between Nehata and General-Commissar Herait is a unique one. They are friends (not unusual) but they trust each other explicitly is unusual. A commissar who sees the 'grey' areas and has some tactical nuance is rear indeed. Don't bring Caphias Cain into this, what a coward! Valian, a Imperial assassin/death cultist is rallying loyalist to sabotage elements of Shardenus defence. The trouble with this character was, well, he was rubbish. Didn't do anything other than what I mentioned until the very end - where he had a affect on the story. However, up until that point, I didn't feel he was a highly skilled and trained warrior. Valian need more distinction in regards to his character.

At times Wrath or Iron felt like déjà vu, the story is ok, but so standardized in Warhammer 40K, that being; Chaos taints planet, Chaos infects populous, Imperials respond, Space Marines purge taint at great cost to both sides. Big battles *pew pew pew*. This is standardized operating procedure with Space Marine Battle novels. It's lazy. Other than the immense Helsreach by ADB and Battle for the Fang by Chris Wraight, the rest of the series is, well standard too dire. There is no real originality to the novel, no interesting plot points, it's fairly ponderous and A-B stuff. However, if you are a fan of bolter-porn I'd give it a go.

[Milo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Original Post: http://thefoundingfields.com/2012/07/....


“If you’re looking for a reason why you shouldn’t cross the Iron Hands Chapter, Wrath of Iron provides that reason. Action-packed, bloody, gory and page-turning, Chris Wraight shows that he is making himself a Black Library author to watch out for.” ~The Founding Fields


Ah, The Space Marine Battles series. Whilst I’d like to say my experience with them has been entirely positive, that would be a lie. I didn’t like Rynn’s World by Steve Parker, nor did I like Gav Thorpe’s Purging of Kadillius and Andy Hoare’s Hunt for Voldorius. If this series was written by the same author, I would have probably given up on them by now. However, whilst it has produced some bad novels, we’ve also seen some excellent books in this series. It really is hit-and-miss, and you never know whether you’ll be disappointed or pleased by the next Space Marine Battles novels, no matter how much you like that author. (As was the case with Gav Thorpe – I’ve enjoyed pretty much every other work by this author, although Purging of Kadillius didn’t quite win me over.) So, with that in mind, I was a little reluctant about diving into Chris Wraight’s Wrath of Iron, even though I haven’t read a bad novel by him yet.

And was I disappointed by Wraight’s latest novel?

No. I was not. However, whilst Wrath of Iron is now my fourth favourite novel in the Space Marine Battles series, I still had a few issues with it.

After months spent in the service of the Chaos god Slaanesh, the ruling classes of the Contqual sub-sector have finally brought true damnation upon their people – innumerable hordes of foul and lascivious daemons swarm from a tear in the fabric of reality to embrace their mortal pawns and drive them on to ever more depraved acts of worship. It falls to the merciless Space Marines of the Iron Hands Chapter to cleanse these worlds of the warp’s unholy taint, and it is upon the surface of Shardenus that the fate of a billion lost souls will be decided.

Anybody who has read the fifth edition Space Marine Codex (so far the current one, although that could change with the new sixth edition of Warhammer 40k being released), will have probably heard about the Purging of Contqual. It’s one of the, if not the only Iron Hands story in the Codex, and details how the Iron Hands unleashed a ruthless campaign against the traitors in the sub-sector. This Purging shows just how cruel the Iron Hands can be, and just how a grim dark the Warhammer 40k Universe is. This is one of the darker novels published by Black Library, and reinforces the stigma that there is no straight line drawn between Good and Evil in the Warhammer 40,000 Universe. Whilst many newcomers may think the Imperial faction are the good guys simply because they’re human (or genetically enhanced humans) and fighting for humanity’s Imperium, then Wrath of Iron is going to show that there are no good guys in this playground. There is only evil, and not-so-evil.

So basically, don’t go into Wrath of Iron expecting a Star Wars-esque novel, because you’re not going to get that here. The Iron Hands are perhaps the most heartless bastards of all of the loyalist Space Marine Chapters, and Wraight pulls this off superbly. Although it may be a depressing read, Wrath of Iron still manages to prove itself enjoyable, even if it is merely a novel full of non-stop action.

But then, with a Space Marine Battles novel, that’s pretty much what you get. Page-after-page of non-stop, well-written, gory action. The pacing is fast throughout the whole book, making it quite a quick read. Wraight writes brutal, well-described action scenes that pit the Iron Hands and the Imperial forces against the armies of Slannesh, and there is a very interesting nod to Graham McNiell’s spectacular Horus-Heresy novel Fulgrim which fans who have read it will spot the reference. I’m going to also add that if I could be any Warhammer 40k character, I wouldn’t want to be Ferrus Manus, that’s for sure, as his fate is also touched upon in Wrath of Iron - and it isn’t a particularly happy one. (One that’s even worse than getting beheaded.)

Fans of the Iron Hands Chapter will love Wrath of Iron. Chris Wraight gives the Chapter new life, and we learn that Companies are called Clans in this novel, with Clan Commanders instead of Captains, and we also find ourselves learning more about the internal battle that each Iron Hand is facing – one between flesh and metal, and the characters presented in this book each allow us to get a different perspective on what it’s like to be a son of Ferrus Manus. The characters are varied, and like Legion of the Damned by Rob Sanders, there is a lot of attention focused on the non-focus Chapter, but in this case it’s more on the Imperial Guard than the Iron Hands, rather than on different Space Marine Chapters. This allows Wraight to show just how detached from humanity the Iron Hands really are, making you almost feel sorry for the non-Astartes forces who are serving alongside them.

However, whilst Wrath of Iron had some strong elements, it had some weak points as well. None of the characters were strong or memorable, and they lacked depth – which is a common flaw that I found in previous Space Marine Battles novels. Maybe Wraight could have slowed up the relentless pace a bit to give time to explore the characters in further depth, making us care for them more – and this would allow him to make the ending even more depressing than it actually was. There isn’t a lot of plot in Wrath of Iron as well, it’s just a straightforward invasion, which also happens to be what the Space Marine Battle series is mostly about, as most famous 40k events such as this one are straightforward invasions, and you’ll find the Marines either defending or attacking a planet.

But don’t let that put you off Wrath of Iron. It’s an awesome read, even if it isn’t quite up to the standards set by Battle of the Fang and Helsreach. Although I initially favoured this novel over Legion of the Damned, I think – after having another look at it, I’m going to say that Legion of the Damned is now my third favourite Space Marine Battles novel, with Wrath of Iron being my fourth.

Verdict: 3.5/5

[AA_Logan · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best titles from the Space Marine Battles line; almost certainly one of the best portrayals of the Iron Hands anywhere.

[Patrick Stuart · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wrath of Iron read on the recommendation of a friend. Chris Wraight. Good book. Add the Iron Hands to the list of canonical body-dysphorics in 40k. Amusingly this has a fully metal tech priest explaining to a standard human that the Iron Hands dysphoria is a flaw while hers is quite reasonable actually.

Iron Hands; "I'm not dysphoric, I am PURGING WEAKNESS"

Ad Mech; "I am dysphoric and that's completely normal._

Necrons; "I'm not dysphoric, this is my form of final victory over god's and time. I never think about eating, or touching skiiiiinnnn"

Emperor's Children; "I am dysphoric and it's GREAT!! I have twenty dicks, twelve vaginas and I change my skin like it's a seasonal fashion! Let's goooooo!"

Has an interesting moral axis in that the most sane, reasonable and sympathetic character is doomed while the fanatical, dehumanised and deranged are successful. Good illumination of what "only the insane shall prosper" actually means in real terms.

Another to add to the "actual downer" list of 40k books.

Wraight is so careful about the moral axis of his story being a form of tragedy in which a poisoned causality results in an unavoidable moral horror story. Other BL writers tread similar lines at times. I wonder what they think of the "ashully warmhampster ish a shatire" line.

I suspect GW itself will be torn between full adoption and quietly skittering away from this hard to defend and very midwit take.

[Luk · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book gives a great insight into what it means to be a part of the Iron Hands chapter and their beliefs.

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another worthy entry in the Space Marines Battles line of books. This one explains the strength and resolve, as well as the overwhelming desire to transcend the weakness of flesh and replace it with metal, that the Iron Hands Chapter are ruled by. This is a great book and is just a solid war novel. Great characters with faults and weakness, overshadowed by the implacable strength and one minded drive of the Iron Hands. Very good read!

[Callum Shephard · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overlooked and underused factions are a dime a dozen in Warhammer. It seems these days that even with efforts to build upon what we know, authors and the franchise as a whole seems determined to stick with the most recognised names. The Tallaran Imperial Guard, Saim-Hann, Sa’cea, the Howling Griffons, the Kabal of the Flayed Skull, the list is endless. One of the most criminally underused however is the Iron Hands.

One of the first space marine legions, the chapter with the closest ties to the mechanicus, a force who fought in the Isstvan V Massacres; they’re important but have all but been ignored by Games Workshop. This was one of the rare opportunities for them to take the spotlight and be the focus characters. It’s also why it’s so depressing to read through this novel’s sub-par content.

Set during the retaking of the Contqual sub-sector, Imperial forces are staging an assault against the major world of Shardenus. With massive heavily defended cities capable of repelling the fiercest of assaults, the crusaders request the presence of a clan company of the Iron Hands. Joining them, the Iron Hands soon realise that there is far more at stake than first seems and the Slaaneshi cultists who now dominate the system will soon summon a being to crush the crusade.

Having written the excellently grim and very costly Battle of the Fang, Christ Wraight seemed like the perfect author to write this book. The Iron Hands were a grimly determined legion, bent upon punishing traitors and while they had an identity they were still flexible enough for creative liberties. The problem seems to have been that unlike the Space Wolves, Wraight doesn’t seem to have enjoyed writing about the Iron Hands.

The Wolves in his book as he wrote them were flawed. They had their strengths but also their failings and could easily make mistakes. Here though, the Iron Hands seem more a danger to themselves and everyone with them more than the enemy. The very first pages into the book establish the idea that everything the Iron Hands do, every tradition they have and every ideal they hold is a betrayal of their gene-father. That their every act of self enhancement is the exact opposite of Ferrus Manus’ will and that they have ultimately betrayed him.

It only goes downhill from there.

Along with adding new weaknesses such as the idea that they are utterly reliant upon the Mechanicus for new bionic enhancements, they are utterly tactically inept. While previous depictions showed them having some degree of dislike for humans due to their weaker bodies, here the Iron Hands all but loathe them. Seeing them as apparently not even being worthy of learning vital information or just why so many Imperial troops are being massacred to bring down the city as fast as possible. The entire climax of the book could have been avoided if the Clan Commander had just taken the Imperial Commander aside and said “We need to end this quickly because…” They never take the time to co-ordinate in their actions when they’re supposed to be logically driven. This isn’t helped by and one surprisingly decent scene even highlights how they are above the usual pride found in space marines and are above most emotions which would cause such a problem.

Such a portrayal of the chapter might have been forgivable were it not for the characters. The only word capable of describing them is “forgettable” as they have few to no characteristics you can latch onto. Wraight did a brilliant job with the various Wolves in his last Space Marine Battles Novel but the Iron Hands have no individuality. Even as you’re reading it you’ll end up forgetting the names of those involved and likely only remember them thanks to their rank. The only exceptions here are Guard Commander Nethata, Commissar Heriat and Princeps Lopi. This is because unlike the Iron Hands they seem to have actually been written to be sympathetic. They’re more victims of the Clan Commander’s unwillingness to actually co-ordinate or communicate than any personal flaws on their part. Unlike the Iron Hands it’s easy to root for them and want to see them win because they seem more individually defined.

Still, we’ve spent long enough on this point. While it is a big problem within the novel, a huge one, the bits beyond this core point are sometimes decent.

While Wraight has the problem of portraying the military as far smaller than a crusading force would normally be, and Titans as extremely vulnerable machines, the action is solid. Graphic moments of the initial airborne invasion past the city walls as troop carriers are ripped from the sky and the tunnel battles are clear highlights. Furthermore the final battle at the top of the spire is the moment you’ll truly remember with a very powerful, and to some readers very familiar, daemon prince arising. Facing down first a trio of Codiciers and then the Clan Commander himself in combat, all the while taunting them. It’s the only time the enemy is given a real face, but the delivery in that final moment is well worth it.

The pacing is also extremely fast but never moves so quickly for readers to lose track of events. Something fitting of the continual mentions of how quickly the army is forced to advance and never allows one setting to become dull or overused. The actual writing style is also fairly strong with that balance of environmental description and fluid action only Wraight seems to be able to deliver.

Unfortunately such strengths are moot when the basic point of the novel, to explore the Iron Hands, seems to only portray them as a mistake. A force no Imperial in their right mind would go anywhere near and one who needlessly wastes allies while holding them in little regard. Even the briefly explored point of the Iron Hands’ absolute faith in their leaders is only touched upon and doesn’t excuse their behaviour.

It’s obvious what Chris Wraight was trying to do, he just didn’t do it very well. With the core point of the whole novel being so flawed, it ends up being average. It’s only just passable due to the strength of his writing when it comes to action and the surprising likability of the side characters. You might enjoy it as an isolated story but as an introduction to the Iron Hands it’s a very botched presentation.

[Heinz Reinhardt · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Iron Hands are the least human of all the chapters of the Adeptus Astartes (for degrees of being human, as all of them are transhuman), and as such are the hardest to capture in a way that makes them interesting. Leave it to Chris Wraight to do it with flying colors, however.
This book is, at it's core, tale of sacrifice. Of purging weakness, of all kinds to include human compassion, all in the name of defeating an evil so great that even the barest hint of what we would call a virtue, would be turned against humanity and used to destroy it.
While the format of the Space Marine Battle series leaves little room for character growth or much of anything beyond scenes of military conquest and daemon slaying, it still drives it's points home well. And it makes illuminating, nearly glorious, really, the least understood, and written about of the Space Marines:
The Iron Hands.

[Edward · Rating 2 out of 5]

An early effort from Chris Wraight, and while written with adequate technical proficiency, not up to the standard of his later works. The nominal protagonists are the colossal space jerks the Iron Hands, and Wraight doesn't pull any punches showing you what titantic assholes they are. Unfortunately, even in the grim darkness of the year forty thousand, it's hard to be enthused about the continuing adventures of these gigantic pricks, and I spent the whole book wishing they would die in a suitably humiliating manner, a hope which, alas, was unrealized.

[Igniferroque · Rating 3 out of 5]

Conveys the grimdark nature of WH40K

It is well written and focuses on the nature of sacrifice. There was a bait and switch towards the end. Two characters written to be sympathetic in the first three quarters of the book were arbitrarily designated to be "bad people" at the last moment. That manipulation left a bad taste and is the basis for the three stars.

[Adam Sinclair · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really quite enjoyed this one. Expected a tough read as Iron Hands don't exactly set the world on fire when it comes to personality but there's e ough personality spread around the secondary Nd tertiary characters that it's quite an easy read.

[Zaphied · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is pretty grimdark. Everyone presented, even the unfeeling machine men, has all too human motivations and weaknesses that will effect them in awful ways.

[Joanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5

[Ulzeta · Rating 2 out of 5]

Boring.

[Kenneth · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Iron Hands stop at nothing to close the daemon rift.

[Michael T Bradley · Rating 2 out of 5]

Normally I love Chris Wraight, and usually the Space Marine Battles books are at least entertaining for me, but man. This just left me cold.

[Colm Jennings · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good read

Took me a while to get into but once it got going it really got going. I haven't read much about the iron hands but I will look up more now.

[Draim · Rating 1 out of 5]

I feel like there are one of two key chapters missing in this story. Things just happened for some reason.

[Bill Imber · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting story told from multiple perspectives. My favourite 40K Novel I've read to date.

[Joe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Several different point of view characters, some with conflicting goals, agendas, and motivations, makes this a little different than a standard view point 40K novel.

[Tom · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was better than I thought it was going to be. While the battle is the main focus, issues of humanity and ethics are also worked through as well.

[Stefan Koepeknie · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Better the ignorant die than the guilty live."

[adam-p-reviews · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don’t really know what I thought of Wrath of Iron. After reading Gav Thorpe’s novels on the Dark Angels, I was extremely excited to get stuck into another Space Marine Battle Novel, as The Purging of Kadillus was so brilliant! However, for me, this book did not live up to that expectation. Nevertheless, it does not mean that I did not enjoy it.

The novel tells the tale of The Iron Hands and their allies- The Imperial Guard and the Titan Battlegroup Praxes. The Space Marines and their allies are sent to purge the world of Shardenus, which comes under the control of the Chaos Gods. Shardenus is an industrial waste with most of its inhabitants living underground to avoid the poisonous fumes that inhabit the world’s surface. The synopsis sets the book up to be an epic battle. The Marines are tasked with breaking into the planet’s underbelly, fighting off Daemons and Mutants and finally, destroying the Chaos Leader that is corrupting the world. However, I felt the one problem that let this epic-ness down was the Iron Hands!

I have never really read into the Iron Hands before this book. The chapter revolves around the belief that the human form is weak and that the only way they, as machines of war, can overcome this weakness is to literally become machines. The Iron Hands do this by firstly removing one of their hands and replacing it with an iron one. Then over their many decades of service, they remove other body parts and replace them with implants and machines. This leads to many of the Marines losing their human feelings and compassion. I think this explains why I didn’t take to this book as much as I did with other Space Marine novels. This is because there is no real depth to any of the Iron Hands as they have no real feelings or back story. I thought that as a reader, you didn’t get any real feel for who the Iron Hands are, like you do in other Space Marine Battle novels. I also think this is why the book is taken up with the stories of The Imperial Guard and the Titans, as much as it is with the Iron Hands. I think this is because without these subplots in the novel, the plot of the Iron Hands would have only taken about 100 pages to read.

Nevertheless, as an author and writer, I really liked Chris Wraight and when the Iron Hands did get interesting towards the end, his description of the gory battle and their last push really captivated me and made me want to read more of his novels.

All in all, I felt a little disappointed with this book but I think this is because I am not a fan of the Iron Hands, however, the ending is great and definitely made this book worth a read. I would suggest it to anyone who is a Warhammer 40k fan, specifically if you’re an Iron Hands player. I’d also suggest it if you like sci-fi and have never read a Warhammer 40k novel before. The Space Marines Battle series is a great way to get into the wonderful world of Warhammer, so why not give one of the excellent novels in the series a try!

For more book reviews check out http://adam-p-reviews.blogspot.co.uk/

[Andrew Ziegler · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was good, nothing special, not enough like others from the Black Library that have compelled me to keep patronizing their wares. Chris Wraight is good, and of the Space Marine battles novels in the past, his SW novel about the battle for the Fang and the return of the Crimson King was one of those novels. This started out with the marks of the kind of BL rarity that I cherish, a novel expounding upon a founding chapter of the Space Marines that have had no real defining novel written yet. I kept hoping they would get their own novel, one that really brings it all together, in the HH series. You remember that thing, 36 novels...no end in sight. Anyway. The IHs were probably best described in the Flight of the Eisenstein. Ferrus gets lip service in novellas and novels, and the IH survivors seem to show up everywhere, but they have not had their - Fulgrim, White Scars, Angel Exterminatus, and any of the other excellent novels showcasing, and exposing a legions roots and flaws. I happen to think the IHs are bad ass, and I would love it if someone finally wrote the novel for them that they deserve. I would complain other legions have gotten this treatment before and I thought they were undeserving of the work. I am looking at you Alpha Legion and the novel, Legion. HOWEVER, every time a good author takes up the task of giving a history and depth to these legions, it turns out amazing. Legion is among those worthy efforts. I am not saying that a Space Marine Battles series book needs to be this, but comparatively look at the excellent job the Legion of Death novel did to illuminate and make uniquely cool the Excoriators Chapter. I don't know, perhaps I am ranting, and my point is I want far more than I was ever going to get from this novel. I want to reiterate, it was good, it just was not STAND OUT good. Read it? I guess, I seem to be buying and reading everything the BL puts out...this is novel 60 something if i remember correctly from the new BL. And I say new BL vs old BL to mean I consider William Kings wonderful trilogy (and I know the series went beyond three) about Ragnar and the wolves to be OLD BL and anything after the launch of the Abnett era (Gaunt, Eisenhorn, hell even the HH series) to be NEW BL. Anyway. This book, you may love it, it may compell you further into other BL books...but once you find some of the REALLY good stuff out there (READ THE NIGHT LORDS TRILOGY IF YOU HAVENT - YOU ARE WELCOME) you will forget this book, and its non special characters. End rant.

[Richard Smith]

The second Space Marine Battles novel, Wrath of Iron, is a good book for anyone who likes lots of action but doesn't mind a lack of plot and character depth. Wrath of Iron, is a book of above average quality, while the battles are written in stunning detail, there is little to nothing in character depth, or plot. Like many Warhammer 40,000 books and novels, Wrath of Iron focuses more on the excitement of war and battle instead of an unnecessarily deep plot, while this may help the book is up to who ever reads it in my own opinion, I find this book to be nice.

Wrath of Iron while having a large array of characters, has almost no character background or plot development. In fact the first scene of the book is through the eyes of one of the defenders of the hive city who is killed at the chapter's end by Brother-Sergeant Naim Morvox of the Iron Hands. Even though Morvox is a main character, like everyone else he has almost no background info. The only thing there is is when he recalls when he first became a space marine and found out his home planet was thought of as a dump. So even though I find this book to be a good read, it's story and character development left something to be desired.

The beginning of Wrath of Iron starts with a quote from the Primarch of the Iron Hands, Ferrus Manus . "The hands are strong, and created great things, but they are not mine." He tells the reader how even though his mechanical hands have helped him do great things, in the end he has come to rely on them too much. The conflict in this passage is not one of man vs. evil, but of man vs. machine, and how he and his chapter have come to rely on their augmentations. I find this to be an interesting concept and am annoyed that it is only brought up once, and that is when Magos Ys is warning General Nethata not to cross the Iron Hands. I feel that if brought up more, it might have strengthened the book's plot.

Wrath of Iron is a book for people who don't care about an interesting story and just want to read about battles of grand proportion. It's the kind of book that you would read on plane or bus ride instead of for a school project. It's lacking a few things but is still an enjoyable book in my opinion. All in all I would give Wrath of Iron a 5.5 out of 10.

[Niina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wrath of Iron is a Warhammer 40,000 Space Marine Battles novel, which says quite enough of its contents. It's fighting, lasguns, Titans, traitors, daemons... Everything that's 40k.

I've read Warhammer 40k novels before but this was my first Iron Hands story. I knew this Chapter by name but that was pretty much it, so it was interesting to get a sense for them.

Wrath of Iron follows the battle of Shardenus, which has fallen to traitors and now must be purged by the Emperor's Angels of Death. Iron Hands clan Raukaan leads the assault alongside Imperial Guard forces and the Titans. Traitor forces have taken hold of the planet but something far more sinister is waiting for them at the top of the Capitolis spire. They just need to find out what it is and how to get there fast enough.

Iron Hands aspire to become more machine, less human - or all machine, none human. They are only focused on doing the Emperor's work, purging heretics and finishing their task. For the humans working alongside them, this isn't good news. We get to follow Iron Hands, Imperial soldiers, Librarians... A big bunch of people. At times there may be too much people and factions to follow, so some of their parts don't get that much focus.

The plot of the book is the battle, as I already said. The book is divided into three parts: Planetfall,Underworld, and The Machine-Spirit. From initial planetfall to the very end, the story marches us through the planet, only allowing momentary breaks for strategy and arguments. Considering how it was three hundred pages of warfare, it was nice Wraight managed to write it in an engaging way that didn't start repeating itself halfway through.

I enjoyed Wrath of Iron and it was nice to read some Warhammer after a long-ish break. The Iron Hands may not be my favorite Chapter and I might not all that much about them, but from what I could tell, this book did their Chapter ideology justice. Not always a pretty kind of justice, but an interesting all the same.

[Tarl · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Space Marine Battle book about the Iron Hands. I really didn't know what to expect from this. The Iron Hands were one of my favorite chapters a few years back until more and more fluff for them came out. I was curious as to how they would be represented in this novel.

Wraight does an amazing job with the 40k universe within this story. The Mechanicum, the Iron Fists, the Imperial Guard, they are all portrayed as they should be, including their internal workings. That is the biggest strength of Wraight in this novel. He captures each character's interactions wonderfully and each separate entity behaves as you expect them to.

That said, despite his ability to create engaging characters Wraight unfortunatly creates perhaps too many of them. Though each one has their own place within the story, there are a couple of them that don't really play a roll within the story. Their rolls felt redundant and perhaps could have been combined into a singular character.

Wraight writes large scale combat fairly well, though he falters when it comes to the final climactic battle. The pacing of the climactic battle becomes drawn out and choppy, with none of the flow of his large scale combats. It almost feels as if Wraight was worn out from all the writing up to this point.

But in the end, this is an excellent book that does an excellent job portraying the Iron Hands and how they view the world around them. The tale is strong and despite the few issues mentioned above, is still an enjoyable read.

The first half of this book is significantly better than the second, yet in the end, I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys Space Marines, and more so to fans of the Iron Hands. I may no longer like the chapter itself, but I did enjoy this book.

[Christian · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Iron Hands Chapter, supported by Titans and the Imperial Guard, try to reclaim a formerly Imperial world that had fallen to Chaos. The Iron Hands are extremely unsympathetic to human frailty and are probably one of the worst chapters for mortals to fight alongside. The human and Adeptus Mechanicus characters embody human emotion and are in stark contrast to the eventually emotionless Iron Hands. The most poignant moment in the novel was when an Iron Hands sergeant crushed the head of a gut shot heretic with his finger. They studied each other for a while and then the sergeant crushed the heretic's skull like an eggshell. One reason I chose this book was because of the great writing Wraight did on the Battle of the Fang Space Wolves novel. Unfortunately, I found his writing here to be too slowly paced and weighed down with barely necessary characters. The other reason I chose the book was to see the contrast between those who have abandoned the flesh, the Iron Hands, and those who embrace sensation, the Daemons of Slaanesh. It didn't happen.

[Matias · Rating 4 out of 5]

Best of the Space Marine Battles novels I've read so far. The other two I've read were Battle of the Fang and Legion of the Damned - both are novels worth much of praise, but this one, IMO, was even better.

The common problem of the Space Marina Battles novels is the lack of deeper plot. In Wrath of Iron Chris Wraight works this one around by presenting multiple lead characters from different groups within the Imperium, and all of them are kinda cool ;)

Definitely worth reading. Of all the sadness that lack of deeper plot does, just because of it even someone new to the series can start off with a bang of excitement.