--- title: "Priests of Mars" subtitle: Book review author: Seth Kenlon publish_date: 2025-05-02 08:00 date: 2025-05-02 08:00 hero_classes: text-light title-h1h2 overlay-dark-gradient hero-large parallax hero_image: warhammer_space-marine-troops-by-games-workshop-1600x800.webp show_sidebar: true show_breadcrumbs: true show_pagination: true taxonomy: category: culture tag: [settings, scifi, warhammer] --- I recently read the **Warhammer 40,000** novel **Priests of Mars** by Graham McNeill, and this is my review of it. There are spoilers in this review, so do not read on if you're getting ready to read the book yourself. The short spoiler-free review is that the book is good, although maybe atypical of what you'd expect from a story called "priests of Mars". Also, it's the start of a trilogy, so prepare to read more after this one. I picked up **Priests of Mars** because I'm [a fan](https://mixedsignals.ml/games/blog/blog_warhammer40k-mechanicus-and-it), and [player](https://mixedsignals.ml/games/blog/blog_review-warhammer40k-10-codex-adeptus-mechanicus), of the cult Mechanicum. In the **Warhammer 40,000** universe, the Adeptus Mechanicus are the builders and maintainers of all things technological. Over the millennia, science has waned so severely that interacting with technology has become a literal religion, and the inhabitants of Mars are its priests. But for anybody into historical science fiction, **Priests of Mars** basically sounds like a long lost Edgar Rice Burroughs novel, and that's not a bad thing. ## Plot This is a big long novel, but it's one of the most focused **Warhammer 40,000** novels I've ever read. Lots of 40k novels cut between an A Plot and a B Plot and sometimes a C Plot and D Plot. This one has a full cast of characters and it does cut between scenes now and again, but it all happens over the course of a single voyage into the unknown. Archmagos Lexell Kotov is down on his luck lately, having lost a forge world or two to catastrophes of one sort or another. He needs a success, or a discovery, or anything to restore his public image. It's no surprise that Kotov jumps at the opportunity for a high profile expedition when rogue trader Roboute Surcouf reveals that he possesses a map to an unexplored star system known as the Halo Scar. That's the setup, and the rest of the book is about the journey to the Halo Scar. Obviously the journey doesn't go as smoothly as Kotov would want, but it's surprisingly not as bad as you might expect (except when it is). Sometimes the journey is pleasant, actually. There's an oddly notable couple of scenes that take place during a formal dinner. I remember it sticking in my mind well after I'd finished the book, and later I happened to read a statement by Graham McNeill about this novel, and he specifically mentioned the same scene as something unique about this book. I guess in a way it feels like a scene out of an early **Horus Heresy** novel. For a moment, you got the feeling that the universe was maybe not at peace, but at least it had stablized. The funny thing about that feeling is that you have to imagine it's exactly the feeling of the nobility of 40k's universe. When you're born a noble, you can probably live your whole life thinknig that humanity is safe within the galaxy, protected by a God-Emperor and his Angels of Death. You might hear about invasions and devastation from time to time, but those are things that happen to a planet lightyears away. It doesn't happen _here_. ## It's not all about the nobles This novel isn't just about the nobles, though. There are adepts (the Adeptus Mechanicus and the Adeptus Astartes are both present and accounted for on the journey to the Halo Scar), but the B Plot is squarely about the lower decks. Abrehem Locke, Vannen Coyne, Ismael de Roeven, Julius Hawke, and Crusha are bondsmen who are, rightly or wrongly, inducted into servitude to the Adeptus Mechanicus. One night they're in a pub trying to forget the horrors of the 41st Millennium, and by morning they're indentured servants on the _Speranza_, headed for the Halo Scar. They toil away in the radioactive engine rooms, barely surviving, until they're forced to face down xenos boarding actions. It's an exhausting and exhilarating and horrific sub-plot, a stark contrast to our elite main characters. What makes it all the more brilliant is that it strongarms you into willful sublimation. You can't despise Kotov and the Tychons and Pavelka and Reclusiarch Kul Gilad and Ven Anders and all the others. They're the main characters of the story. If you hate them, you've got no book left. So you like them. And you sort of conveniently forget that they're the ones benefitting from the enslavement of Abrehem and all the common folk on the lower decks. This is **Warhammer 40,000**. Ignoring the disparity, Abrehem's story is one of the best stories in the book. I don't know where it's going, exactly, but it's the first one to pay off, and arguably the only one that pays off in this specific book. The other stories extend beyond this novel, and while I do think we haven't seen the last of Abrehem by the end of this book, I also have to admit that in a way we don't need to see more. His story starts and ends cleanly, and it's extremely satisfying. ## Priests of Mars but not on Mars The title of this book is maybe a little misleading. It's not really, of course. It's accurate. There are priests of Mars in this book. But when I see a book called **Priests of Mars**, I expect a story about priests _on_ Mars. This isn't a story of the Adeptus Mechanicus roaming the red wastes of Barsoom. This isn't even a story of the Adeptus Mechanicus creeping around ancient burial chambers in search of archeotech. This is a bunch of Adeptus Mechanicus on a space ship. Seeing the Adeptus Mechanicus on a voidship isn't new, by any means, but they're often background characters. This is an Adeptus Mechanicus _fleet_, and all the other players are here to support them. That's kind of cool. It's not often that we get to see the priests of Mars as the central spacefaring force in a story. I haven't read (or even purchased, yet) the next book in this series, so I don't know where the story is going. But I think it's safe to assume that it's going to be exciting because, as it turns out, you can't put a bunch of Adeptus Mechanicus on a fleet of voidships, throw in some Black Templars and Cadians, and _not_ have my full attention. ## Good Warhammer This is a good start to a trilogy, and it appeals strongly to my interests. I don't think it's necessarily a great starting point, if you're new to **Warhammer 40,000** novels, but if you're into 40k and space exploration, then this book is something to consider. There are lots of characters, and many of them you'll forget. But those characters and their little storylines all work together to create a memorable and compelling experience that just so happens to have the red-robed Martians as some of the central characters.

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