Priests of Mars, is another Graham McNeil book set in the hum-drum dark bleak world of the 40K universe. I have enjoyed the majority of his stories so I grabbed this without even thinking twice.
This was and wasn’t the typical 40K novel. There is a minor space battle, there are some space marines doing stuff, some titans are around, and there are guardsmen doing guardsmen stuff. However, the main crux of the story is the trip to the edge (one of many) of the universe by the Adeptus Mechanicus.
The Halo Scar is a barrier between this universe and another universe. Or is it something else altogether? All that is known is that a Mechanicus expedition went there and never returned. Now another tech priest has the same wild idea to pierce the Halo Scar with an exploratory fleet. Why? Science is why. Well and to hopefully regain some lost standing with the muckity-mucks in the Adeptus Mechanicus. So, off goes a giant fleet of ships to fly through a mess of: gravity weirdness, black holes, collapsed stars and all matter of space anomalies, just to see what is on the other side. It sounds simple, but we should all know that it is anything but that.
All this happens with a large eclectic cast of characters all with their own story that somehow manages to stay within the main plot. Then add in the typical extensive amount of detailed description of every person, place and thing. This makes for a novel that feels much longer than it actually is.
This actually has a more Star Trek episode feel than 40K. I was fine with that as I do like me some Star Trek. It is a space journey story more than the typical battle and explosion novel from the Black Library. If that is what you are after, then stay away. You will not like this book and will find it boring. If you want a space story with 40K elements and a smattering of action with a ton of detailed descriptions, then give this a read.
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