Product Description

Dedicated to serving the Imperium, the Iron Hands, the most powerful members of the Adeptus Astartes, will do anything to remove all weaknesses, even practicing bionic augmentation on their own bodies in order to achieve a physical perfection to match their iron will. Original.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #809776 in Books
• Published on: 2004-08-31
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 416 pages

Review
'A story packed with action and hardcore military sci-fi in a dark and brutal universe.'

Customer Reviews

This one is a stinker....
OK, I realize that Warhammer novels are not exactly tops on the list for deep characters, but this novel brings 2 dimensional characters to a new low. I'd call them 1 dimensional in this book. Iron-Father Gdolkin, the main character, apparently has only one emotion...anger. He is angery at this guy, angery at that guy, angery at this situation, angery at that situation...blah blah blah. I suspect he is even angery at his rice crispies in the morning - I say it like that because it was getting tedious that he was angery at every single encounter. Other then that Gdolkin was as flat as can be. He began to get on my nerves about a third of the way through the book.

Other characters were simple paper cut outs to be killed, shot up or used as extras as the situation warranted. The plot was spelled out very early in the book, but quickly became boring. The enemy presented no real challenges and Gdolkin always has the right answer for everything...boring!!! Interactions between side characters was laughable. The writting was also very clumsy.

Ya, I was hard on this book. Let me finish on a bright note. Mr Green's knowledge of the 40K universe was very good and he did a nice job of using the different aspects of the 40k universe. That plus the ending was a little different is why I gave it 2 stars.

I dare you to read this sentence!
Here is a passage from Iron Hands sure to perplex:

"In this way, he had seen the mesa quite clearly during the approach, the plateau's sheer sides rising from the flat plain of the desert wilderness as if it had grown up out of the surrounding sands, like one of the crystalline formations that were found buried beneath the shifting surface of this world and that were then employed in the manufacture of the standard issue Imperial Guard lasgun across this subsector."

If awkwardness like this doesn't aggravate you, I strongly recommend this book. In it, the Iron Hands space marines are called upon by the adeptus mechanicus to investigate a mysterious warpstorm bordering the eye of terror. The story takes place during the harrowing time of Abaddon's thirteenth black crusade. Iron-father Gdolkin is the leader of the small band of marines dispatched for the mission, which turns into an epic quest whose outcome decides the fate of a million Imperial worlds. Johnathan Green makes excellent use of the warhammer lore and you get to see obliterators, dreadnoughts, defilers, raptors, plague marines, a battle aboard a mountain-sized ordinatus artillery cannon and a battle within a towering emperor titan. The chaos forces are well-represented; never before have they been described this relentlessly as corrupt, rotting pus-filled, diseased abominations. And that's a good thing.
The character's in Iron Hands are well-imagined, but suffer a marked lack of depth. The story is vividly imagined in some parts, and half-baked in others. The writing is a bit clunky in comparison the wonderful 40k writings of Dan Abnett. Overall this is a truly epic story that makes great use of warhammer lore and depicts an interesting side story to the thirteenth black crusade.

A kick in the face to Iron Hands players
Ohhh where can I start on this review.

Lets start with the main character, Iron Father Gdolkin. He seemed to be a pretty characterful guy when he was young, but when he became a Space Marine apparently they decided to remove part of his brain and replace it with part of an Ork's brain. Gdolkin does two things in this book. If you think this sounds rather odd then I agree with you, but unfortunately its true. Gdolkin is extrememly shallow and one of the biggest train-wrecks of a main character I've ever read. First of all, he is very gullible. Its not fun to watch our hero follow a Tech Magos around because "he is on an important mission" and never find out what that important mission is, EVER (as in the reader never knows what the whole point of the book was). You wouldn't believe how gullible this guy is. Next, he gets angry at everything. With how often he gets angry it doesn't make sense that he doesn't shoot the Tech Magos who is dragging him around everywhere halfway into the book. And finally, he is stupid. You wouldn't believe the idiocy of this guy at some points in the book. I would spoil them because after reading this review you shouldn't even consider reading this book, but just incase you are going to anyways, I won't.

The ending is priceless (in a bad way). There Gdolkin is, a gullible drooling idiot with a very short temper, and well, you will have to see for yourself.


If you have considered starting an Iron Hands army in Warhammer 40,000, this will turn you off from them forever. If you have an Iron Hands army then you will be seriously disillusioned if you read this book. I am a hardcore Iron Hands player, they are my favorite army, but I really, really had to force myself to finish it. The only reason I give this book 2 stars is because the book does have a few good parts. One star is reserved for the very bottom of the barrel.