Teaser

A tyranid fleet menaces the Imperium of Man. Bearing down relentlessly on a poorly protected world, it falls to Castamon and his Ultramarines to defeat the monsters. yet these tyranids are more insidious than anyone realises . . .

Review

With the release of a brand new edition of Warhammer 40,000 as a table-top wargame, comes the inevitable tie-in novel. Leviathan follows in the proud footsteps of books such as Justin D Hill’s Cadia Stands and Gav Thorpe’s Indomitus. The purpose of these books is manifold. Of course, they are intended to be entertaining stories. They also serve to add a narrative edge to the associated models. First and foremost, however, and even more so than other Black Library releases, they exist to sell models. these are books that actively encourage you to buy a bunch of Ultramarines and tyranids, paint them up, an re-enact your favourite scenes from the book. And then buy more models and create scenes and battles of your own. Now, you can complain about capitalism and the Games Workshop’s aggressive marketing all you want, but the fact is that these tie-in stories have developed a life of their own.

In terms of being a literary depiction of the game, Leviathan is an unqualified success. There are Ultramarines, and the shoot at tyranids. That’s it. That’s the game right there. Buy the boxset of the same name, and you can recreate most of this book in miniature. Or rather, you can if you’re better at painting than I am, but I digress. The action in this book flows thick and fast, as does the blood, and leaves you with a good impression of the two sides. The Ultramarines are simultaneously heroic angels and inhuman monsters. The tyranids are grotesque abominations that are nevertheless incredibly fascinating. I don’t know the rules of the game well enough to be sure, but the various breeds of tyranid and their abilities feel like they are taken right from a rulebook, all the way down to their neural link.

That’s all very well and good, but an advertisement for a game doesn’t necessarily lead to a good story. Tyranids don’t really feature as characters, and the Ultramarines have a certain sameness to them after the first few are introduced. But there’s more than just that in Leviathan. The first half, the build-up to to all-out invasion, is by far the best part of the book. The first chapter is masterclass in building tension, and it’s the more insidious aspects of the tyranid threat that really interest me. The street-level engagements between xenos-worshipping cultists and the human military are brilliant, but sadly lost amid the sound and fury of a Space Marine rampage. Happily (for the reader if not for the characters) the humans do get a fitting send-off even when the action shifts to a more superhuman level.

If you’re wondering if Warhammer 40,000 is for you, then Leviathan is fairly representative of the fiction, and a good indication about the game itself. Personally, I think there are better starting places than this, but Leviathan will definitely bring you up to speed.

Book Stats

• A Standalone Novel
• Focuses on the Ultramarines
• First published in 2023
• Published by Black Library
• Grimdark SF
• 309 Pages