Teaser

This is a city on the brink of chaos. The governor is gone, and his replacement is untested. Law enforcement struggles to maintain order as gang wars overrun the lower levels. And in the darkness, something is stirring . . .

Review

If there’s one thing guaranteed to get the Black Library readership buzzing with excitement, it’s a new Dan Abnett novel. In the last few years Abnett has brought us the long-awaited conclusion to the Horus Heresy, a renewal of the Gaunt’s Ghosts series, forward momentum on the Bequin trilogy, and at last a sequel to Double Eagle. Yet while the eager fans are clamouring for news of Pandaemonium, Abnett (and Black Library) surprised us all with something new. That something is Hive. A story unconnected to anything else Abnett has written. A brand new story that will please existing readers and lure in new ones. It’s a mammoth book. The physical edition was released split into two hardback volumes, while the audiobook clocks in at a solid day of listening time. Small wonder people are referring to Hive as Abnett’s greatest work in decades.

The greatest strength of the book (aside from Abnett’s usual brilliant writing) is that you can pick it up without any prior knowledge of Abnett’s novels, or indeed the Warhammer franchise as a whole, and still enjoy it in full. It’s a book that genuinely works on its own terms. If you’re familiar with Warhammer, then the odd bit of jargon will already be familiar to you, but the lingo is used so sparingly and deftly that even the initiated will pick it up. And if you know nothing about the wider universe, you’re in good company. Abnett plays on the enforced isolationism of the Imperium to great effect. When the trouble kicks off and Sacramentus’ darker history starts to unfold, certain names start cropping up. Dedicated fans of the franchise will know them, but the characters themselves are as in the dark as a fresh-faced reader. Not only does this ignorance make the book more accessible, it also adds to the creeping sense of unease as the novel progresses.

If the book has one fault, it’s that it does take a very long time to get going. Setting up a new corner of the galaxy is no mean feat, and Abnett takes his time to flesh out the different sectors of Sacramentus, to fill them with well-realised characters, and to make sure that the conspiracies and loyalties are as twisted as they need to be. Because the audiobook comes as a single offering, I don’t know where the split in the physical book occurs, but eschewing chapters in favour of sections lasting multiple hours makes the book feel incredibly slow for much of it’s opening half. I can also only hope that the physical edition contains a dramatis personae to keep everyone straight, because I did struggle with this at times.

All this build-up does pay off, however. The final third of the novel is a gut-wrenching saga of apocalyptic proportions in which no punches are pulled. That’s the other advantage of filling a book with characters who don’t stem from miniature wargames. You can kill whoever you want with impunity. Which is exactly what Abnett does. Bodies hit the floor in alarming quantities, and a lot of them are people we’ve grown familiar with over the past two dozen hours. It’s brutal, it’s bloody, and it’s brilliant.

While I think Abnett has written a few novels that have the edge over this one, there can be no doubting that Hive is a titanic achievement. It’s a massive book, and listening to it is quite the time commitment. But if you find yourself lost, just know that it all pays off in the end. Whether you’re an Abnett veteran, or if this is your first trip to the forty-first millennium, Hive is a book you’ll want to experience for yourself.

Audio Stats

• Narrated by Toby Longworth
• A Standalone Novel
• Published 2026
• Runtime 24hrs 26mins