Teaser

Life an an Aeldari Corsair is a life of freedom, but that freedom comes at a cost. None know this more than Baron Myrin Stormdawn, who must face not only the orkish threat, but also the backstabbing ways of his fellow corsairs . . .

Review

Mike Brooks has written a fair few books for Black Library now, covering everything from orks to navigator houses, by way of space marines and the city of Necromunda. If there’s been one common thread running through all of his varied works, it’s been a sense of fun. Brooks has a way of capturing the zanier aspects of the grimdark future that few other authors have been able to match. That fun returns in spades in Voidscarred, which despite the rather bleak title turned out to be one of the most rollicking adventures to come out of the forty-first millennium.

Among all the recent xenos-centric novels from Black Library, it can feel like the Aeldari have got the short end of the stick. the Necrons are well-represented, and there are more orks than I know what to do with, but this is actually the first book wholly centred on the Aeldari that I have read. I know there have been a few before, but those are all out of print now, and if Voidscarred is anything to go by, the world is the poorer for their absence.

While a lot of Warhammer 40,000 books fall somewhere along the grim horror-military SF spectrum, Voidscarred is firmly in the space opera tradition. You’ve got nomadic fleets, gathering places for dozens of species, space pirates, and more epic battles than you can shake a stick at. the Starsplinter Corsairs are a wild bunch to spend a book with, but amid all the chaos and bloodshed, we get a proper look at how their freedom-focused society is able to function. Poorly, at times, but it does function. Around the fringes we also get to peek into the inner workings of the other Aeldari factions. from Craftworlds to Commoragh.

This being a Mike Brooks novel, we also get a healthy dose of orky goodness. It’s possibly even less restrained than his Ufthak Blackhawk novels in the level of comedy it provides, but delivered in smaller bursts so it never undercuts the tension of the rest of the book. I have never laughed more at the word ‘lid,’ and chuckled at a fair few other lines too. Suffice to say if you want to see orks trying to build a Death Star, then this is the book for you.

As ever with an audiobook, the burden of making the delivery work falls on the shoulders of the narrator. Nathaniel Priestly is more than up to the task. His deadpan delivery of orkish dialogue (not to mention internal monologue) is absolutely perfect, while his Aeldari characters all remain distinct. with the latter, he takes a theatrical approach to character voice that really works for the larger than life corsairs. I don’t believe I’ve listened to any of Priestley’s work before, but on the back of this experience, I hope Black Library keep bringing him back for as long as they can.

I dare say that Voidscarred is Brooks’ best novel to date. It has all the humour you’d expect, but also some truly masterful character-work, a bout of swashbuckling among the stars with some of Warhammer’s most memorable settings, and a perfectly balanced plot. I thoroughly recommend this book.

Audio Stats

• Narrated by Nathaniel Priestley
• A Standalone Novel
• Published in 2025
• Runtime 10hrs 11mins