Urdesh: The Serpent and the Saint

Warhammer 40,000

By: Matthew Farrer

Narrated by: Harry Myers

A Warhammer 40,000 Audio

War rages across the surface of Urdesh as the Iron Snakes Space Marines attempt to hold the planet against a tide of Chaos forces.

Listen to it because: Urdesh is a brutal world, the fires of its forge-cities mixing with the many volcanoes and an endless expanse of battle wreckage littering the plains. When the reincarnation of Saint Sabbat herself appears on the blasted battlefields of Urdesh, powerful forces race to secure that which may decide the ultimate fate of the world and the crusade at large.

The story: the mighty world of Urdesh is burning. The smoke of war mingles with that of her many volcanoes; the wreckage of battle litters her forge-cities and chokes her fertile seas. Until the warriors of the Imperium can free Urdesh from the grip of the Anarch, the future of the entire Sabbat Worlds Crusade will hang in the balance.

Across these ashen battlefields strides Brother-Captain Priad and the warriors of Damocles Squad. They must keep safe one of the Imperium’s greatest weapons: the Beati, the reincarnated Saint Sabbat herself, whose very presence on Urdesh inspires the Imperial armies on to glory. But the enemy has plans for the Saint too, and against the malice of the Anarch and the trickery of the warp, the Iron Snakes may truly need a miracle to prevail....

Written by Matthew Farrer. Narrated by Harry Myers.

©2022 Games Workshop Limited (P)2022 Games Workshop Limited

Iron Snakes of Ithaka!

Great to see more Iron Snakes novels, although Brothers of the Snake was a bit better, so start with that if you want to get an Iron Snakes novel!

decent story

a decent story hurt by a very oddly quick ending. the biggest issue with this book is that the author uses chapters like the return key. right in the middle of action he will start a new chapter which will pick up exactly where the last chapter ended for no reason. one chapter was just a sentence long. it almost feels like he was paid by the chapter and just threw them in for more money.

sadly the iron snakes aren't as well written as in their short story collection. they almost seem to be added on to a story that really doesn't have enough going on and feels partially like it was written just to set up a sequel.

Half a book

First of narration was great, Harry Myers is awesome.

As for the story itself, Farrer does a good job of writing like Dan Abnett. It does seem like there is a lot of “bolt p0rn” filler. Like, we don’t need a second by second detailed fight about a random trooper. I know it’s trying to show the human element and contrast it with the Iron Snakes, but I was hoping for more about the Saint herself, like the recent Celestine book which was done from her POV, but we get basically nothing about her. She’s in the background but not really part of the story.

Matthew Farrer is Black Library’s secret weapon

Some of the best action scenes that I’ve read in a BL novel; it moves at a frantic pace from fantastic set-piece to fantastic set-piece, and it’s always more than welcome to see non-Imperial perspectives in a 40k novel.

Sabbat worlds written in a new style

Matthew Farrer takes a good stab at Annette sabbat worlds.
A fairly traditional space marine novel.
But with a very welcome underwater fight scene.
The saint also makes an appearance with some anime level power flexes.