Reviews

Helsreach by Aaron Dembski-Bowden

vincent_coles's review

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adventurous dark emotional fast-paced

5.0

doler12's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional inspiring medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.25

woody4595's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

saxonblood's review against another edition

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adventurous dark inspiring tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

stygian_theophany's review against another edition

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adventurous dark tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

sthenic's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

lapismydear's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional inspiring tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

qwerqsar's review against another edition

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challenging dark sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Excellent work by ADB, in addition to the great reading by Jonathan Keeble. The story has high and lows, describing the siege of the hive-city Helstead. Bombastic moments, specially when the Titans are involved. Must read for WH40k fans!

scaryfool's review against another edition

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adventurous tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

eltcic's review against another edition

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4.0

Read it because I was simping for a nerdy boy.
A bit hard to get into (Grimaldus said "I will die in this world" and I was about to put the book down because without knowing that there's more than one world in this universe, it sounded like the beginning of an insufferable anime monologue - not the writer's fault of course, it was stupid of me to think I could just get into it blind), but after watching a couple of YT videos explaining the general lore, I really enjoyed it! I'd say it took me about 40 pages to really get into it, about a tenth of the book, mainly because the POV was switching a bit too often to allow me to immerse myself in the story. But with the power of simping by my side I made it through that awkward initial stage and had the time of my life.
I was annoyed at some unrealistic interactions between humans, and at how the author seems to favor the more difficult words over the right words - sometimes it feels like he wrote a first draft, grabbed a thesaurus and swapped some words with more refined synonyms, with little concern over whether the replacements were *exact* synonyms.
I did love how he writes Space Marines though, and the interactions between them and humans. I'm not used to reading POVs from characters with their temperaments, it was so interesting! I loved every dialogue between a Marine and another, and wished the interactions between Grimaldus and Andrej, and Grimaldus and the Crone would never end. Overall would reccomend to a friend after tying them to a chair A Clockwork Orange style and subjecting them to a two hours lecture on why they should like the book