Ephrael Stern: The Heretic Saint

Warhammer 40,000

By: David Annandale

Narrated by: Emma Gregory

Length: 5 hrs and 54 mins

Publisher's summary

A Warhammer 40,000 audiobook

After centuries of strife guided by the Emperor's holy light, Ephrael Stern finds herself forsaken when the Great Rift dawns and the light is extinguished. When a mysterious stranger offers new hope, the Daemonifuge is thrown into battle once more….

Listen to It Because

Catch up with Ephrael Stern, the Heretic Saint and living weapon against Chaos, in a new novel that picks up the story of this classic character from Black Library's history and thrusts her into the Dark Imperium.

The Story

Throughout the tortured galaxy, Ephrael Stern is known by many names. The Thrice-born. The Daemonifuge. The Heretic Saint. Trapped deep within Imperium Nihilus following the coming of the Great Rift, the maligned Sister of Battle fears the Imperium is no more. The God-Emperor’s light, which has guided her through centuries of strife, has too extinguished. Seemingly forsaken, Stern is bereft until a mysterious stranger arrives, offering her a new destiny. One that might yet see the Imperium saved. Stern must prove herself worthy of the God-Emperor’s grace once more, lest a new threat greater than any mankind has faced before plunge humanity into a nightmare abyss of nothingness.

Written by David Annandale. Narrated by Emma Gregory.

©2020 Games Workshop Limited (P)2020 Games Workshop Limited

Stern is basically a DBZ character in the 40k universe

Amazing narration performance that conveys how powerful Stern really is! Also, some interesting revelations! I want to know more about this character and I hope more is done with her in the future!

Great Performance

Story is good but the performance is what sells it. This is unquestionably how Stern would act and sound.

One of the best Sororitas books

The characters are all great and the story is exciting. Singlehandedly made Ephrael one of my favourite characters in the setting. Kiganyl's voice is a bit funky but, he still sounds pretty good all things considered.

The Emperor Protects

"she looked at the demons with the righteous hate that was the gift of true faith" 🤣

so many gems in here. great 40k book. actually got tingles at the very end

this is a much forgotten character but well done

it's a bit hard to follow at times, especially towards the end, but it is easy otherwise

Great story of the emperors light

The best Sisters of battle associated book I have read yet.

The emperor protects. I want more of these

Excellent performance.

The story was great for sisters fans, but needs context for the characters past in early 2000.

Good reintroduction

Decent story and a good way to bring Ephrael back into the lore. Builds into the Pariah Nexus

Disappointing Return of the Daemonifuge

Ephrael Stern is one of Warhammer 40,000's most famous characters from its earlier days. In "Daemonifuge," first published in Warhammer Monthly in 1999, Stern was an Adepta Sororitas battle sister with a mysterious background and vast power. Hunted by the Imperium, facing foes like the Dark Eldar and Chaos Space Marines, she seemed to be largely forgotten for decades until recently. This novel, though, is a disappointment.

Much of what makes Stern a unique battle sister (and unique character) simply isn't found here. Instead we're given a character who seems little different than Saint Celestine. Stern goes on and on about her faith, and while it's important to the character here it seems to be the sole driving purpose for everything she does. Her powers (which were nuanced in the comics) here are just generic. Her vast knowledge and understanding of Chaos is barely mentioned and only really comes up once. She is supposed to be a living weapon against Chaos, not just a prayer-spouting clone of Celestine. She's almost as much a threat to the hide-bound Imperium as she is to Chaos... but none of that is here.

And the action is the usual "endless horde of generic Chaos cultists attack as a group of brave Imperial holdouts try and survive" we've seen countless times. Chaos, it seems, is able to field more cannon fodder than the Tyranids, and they never run out. The author wastes no time treating anyone in the enemy force outside of the two primary villains (one and half, really) as characters. They're meat running into the sisters' guns. The villain's plan is... well, what is his plan? Take a world, turn everyone on it to Chaos (somehow, and done off-screen), and then... what? And his final power-up seems like it could have been taken directly from Dragonball Z.

It's not all bad. Emma Gregory's narration is good, as always, doing sisters work. I enjoyed Stern's bond with Kyganil, and wish we would have seen much more of him since he leaves half-way through. I would have enjoyed seeing him cut loose in the final battle in the Temple, and there were story possibilities in having him and the Sororitas forced into a reluctant alliance... but we don't get that. The Inquisitor is an interesting character, and his journey from attempting to manipulate Stern to realizing he's just following in her fate is well done.

When it comes down to it this just seems to be a throwaway novel leading to the Psychic Awakening campaign. It treads no new ground, gives no real insight into Stern, and even the action is just the same sort of thing we've seen before, only with the power-levels set to superhero mode.

ok, kind of disappointing

This one felt lacking like it was just missing something that would make a story about a holy saint great even though I liked all the characters and setting and narration really.