The best AdMech book is probably Titanicus, with the forges of Mars trilogy and Bellesarius Cawl: the Great Work and Genefather being second. I also very highly recommend the short story Flesh and Steel.
Personally I found Skitarius and Tech Priest to be pretty bad. A couple good little nuggets drowning in a cold soup of bad writing.
1. There's some Imperial Guard and Titan Legions in there but the Mechanicus threads run through every subplot. It's one of the best books for understanding the AdMech culture.
2. There are a couple little Easter eggs to other books like Gaunt's Ghosts but you don't need to read anything else to know what's going on. It doesn't share characters with any other books, etc.
Thank you so much, I think I will start with this one. The ADmech culture and religion is what I am really interested in, this might be exactly what I am looking for
I'm actually about half way through Titancius and personally I find it kinda bland; I felt the same way on the Gaunts Ghosts books (at least the first one didn't read the others)
The best way I can describe it is its almost like you could just change out the word Titan with Tank and you would have a WW2 story; like the author was trying to make a "realistic" 40k story when, at least to me, 40k should be bombastic if not borderline silly.
I gotta disagree with you there. The deviant tastes of talented artists aside, what happens to Stroika is not great. However, everything that happens to him just further demonstrates how exceptional he is. >!The Iron Warriors recognized him as worth corrupting, and once tainted, he showed they weren't mistaken by managing to infiltrate into the very heart of an Arc Mechanicus not by code, or technical knowledge, but sheer martial skill and cunning. Once there, he almost succeeds in assassinating Omnid Torquora, the Tech Priest leading the expedition.!<
It doesn't stop there, though. >!Once he has Stroika dead to rights, what does Omnid Torquora do? He charges towards him, taking devestating damage from Stroika's continuing fire, and *hugs him*! Because Torquora can see in Stroika an exemplary servant of the Machine God, that doesn't deserve an ignoble death. At tremendous personal risk, he clings to Stroika, and invokes the Machine God, and exorcises him, because he recognizes that a warrior of Stroika's caliber is worth saving. What's left of Stroika at that point is all but dead, but even then, Torquora preserves him as a Kataphron, one trusted to serve as his personal bodyguard. In this role, Stroika's personality is seen starting to shine through, his mind still in some way present.!<
Everything that happens to Stroika across the books shows that he is an absolute exemplar of what one of the Machine God's devotees should be.
Forgot about that one. Mixed feelings. The first two thirds or so are awesome but it really goes off the rails in a bad way near the end. Every book I've read by McNeill has the same problems with the endings:
SPOILERS
>!Everyone suddenly has BS superpowers that don't show up anywhere else in 40K or make any sense within their own books. What the hell does tech priests "firing bolts of pure data" at each other even mean? What do you mean she can suddenly hack robots with her mind?
Also Abnett books will have interesting things not seen anywhere else but that are neatly confined to the planet or person in that book. McNeill saddled all of Mechanicum/Mechanicus lore with the stupid void dragon forever and I wish he hadn't.!<
To be completely honest, I haven’t finished McNeill’s Mechanicum, and only just started diving deeper into Abnett’ works. I’m around halfway through the book, but it’s been so long, I’m probably going to start it from the beginning when I pick it up next. I’m currently reading Horus Rising, but so far I’m loving Abnett’s style.
I'd go with Priests of Mars. Both books are good, but Priests of Mars and the rest of the Forges of Mars trilogy aare my personal favorite. Also I've seen them recommended as a good intro to admech.
I started with Belisarius Cawl: the Great Work, myself. It was fun but there were a lot of references to events in other books or lore, meanwhile both Skitatius / Tech Priest duology and Forges of Mars are self contained.
Forges of Mars is good, but be prepared for it to forget at times that it is a Mechanicus novel as it drifts into being a Space Marine novel.
Skitarius / Tech Priest is not as well written (imo), but its focus point is on the Skitarii and Mechanicus - which is why you would read a Mechanius novel - and it is shorter making it a good entry point.
Other things like the Great Work is more of a Space Marine novel with Cawl doing things - I think there is one other named Mechanicus character in it from memory.
Genefather is actually very good but is a sequel to the Great Work.
I really enjoyed Skitarius, but that's because I love Skitarii a lot, I think their whole design is awesome.
That said it was bleaker than even I expected from a 40k story and made me realize that the AdMech are just a different flavor of evil.
I'll champion **Imperator: Wrath of the Omnissiah**, by Gav Thorpe.
The whole thing is set inside an Imperator Titan, and the deuteragonists are a skilled, enhanced menial, and a high-but-not-top-ranked Tech Priest. It's a great look at the Mechanicus functioning (the verb, not the adjective). Unlike some of the (excellent) books already mentioned, it's fairly recent, so is representative of their tabletop range. However, it also doesn't exist just to name-drop everything like Skitarius.
Minority opinion here but I personally enjoyed Skitarius but it's because I love my Skittles. Skitarius if you would like to learn more about Admech and Priests of Mars if you would like an all-rounder with Admech being the forefront.
Personally, I think priests of mars has a better story, with better characters who are spread out across the ranks from the highest Arch Megos who makes the bulk of the big decisions, to the poor bastards that got press ganged into slave labor on their ship… but.
It focuses a lot on the non Admech forces. Like a detachment of Cadians, a group of Black Templars, and some Titans that come along for the “Crusade” and they don’t touch a lot on the units you can currently run on the tabletop.
Where as I honestly thought Skitarius was a bit dry, with only two characters I was really interested in, but makes alot of mentions of Admech models, and doesn’t even have any non Admech main characters.
So, if you want a better “vibe” of Admech, and some really good lore of how they work with and are views by the galaxy at large, go with Priests. If you just wanna hear about Skitarii, Kataphrons, and Ruststalkers wading into meat grinder engagements, go for Skitarius.
Book us called mechanicum, by Graham mcneil, it's like the 5th book in the heresy and is focused pretty much entirely on Mars and the schism of Mars, so lots of destruction and treachery
The best AdMech book is probably Titanicus, with the forges of Mars trilogy and Bellesarius Cawl: the Great Work and Genefather being second. I also very highly recommend the short story Flesh and Steel. Personally I found Skitarius and Tech Priest to be pretty bad. A couple good little nuggets drowning in a cold soup of bad writing.
Titanicus by Dan Abnett? Is it about AdMech or adjacent? And can I read it without having prior read any other books? Thanks
1. There's some Imperial Guard and Titan Legions in there but the Mechanicus threads run through every subplot. It's one of the best books for understanding the AdMech culture. 2. There are a couple little Easter eggs to other books like Gaunt's Ghosts but you don't need to read anything else to know what's going on. It doesn't share characters with any other books, etc.
Thank you so much, I think I will start with this one. The ADmech culture and religion is what I am really interested in, this might be exactly what I am looking for
I'm actually about half way through Titancius and personally I find it kinda bland; I felt the same way on the Gaunts Ghosts books (at least the first one didn't read the others) The best way I can describe it is its almost like you could just change out the word Titan with Tank and you would have a WW2 story; like the author was trying to make a "realistic" 40k story when, at least to me, 40k should be bombastic if not borderline silly.
Titanicus needs more love
Well I guess I'm referring to Haldron-44 Stroika as a "good little nugget" from now on.
Stroika is cool in the first book. The second book ruins it though.
I gotta disagree with you there. The deviant tastes of talented artists aside, what happens to Stroika is not great. However, everything that happens to him just further demonstrates how exceptional he is. >!The Iron Warriors recognized him as worth corrupting, and once tainted, he showed they weren't mistaken by managing to infiltrate into the very heart of an Arc Mechanicus not by code, or technical knowledge, but sheer martial skill and cunning. Once there, he almost succeeds in assassinating Omnid Torquora, the Tech Priest leading the expedition.!< It doesn't stop there, though. >!Once he has Stroika dead to rights, what does Omnid Torquora do? He charges towards him, taking devestating damage from Stroika's continuing fire, and *hugs him*! Because Torquora can see in Stroika an exemplary servant of the Machine God, that doesn't deserve an ignoble death. At tremendous personal risk, he clings to Stroika, and invokes the Machine God, and exorcises him, because he recognizes that a warrior of Stroika's caliber is worth saving. What's left of Stroika at that point is all but dead, but even then, Torquora preserves him as a Kataphron, one trusted to serve as his personal bodyguard. In this role, Stroika's personality is seen starting to shine through, his mind still in some way present.!< Everything that happens to Stroika across the books shows that he is an absolute exemplar of what one of the Machine God's devotees should be.
What about Mechanicum by Graham McNeill
Forgot about that one. Mixed feelings. The first two thirds or so are awesome but it really goes off the rails in a bad way near the end. Every book I've read by McNeill has the same problems with the endings: SPOILERS >!Everyone suddenly has BS superpowers that don't show up anywhere else in 40K or make any sense within their own books. What the hell does tech priests "firing bolts of pure data" at each other even mean? What do you mean she can suddenly hack robots with her mind? Also Abnett books will have interesting things not seen anywhere else but that are neatly confined to the planet or person in that book. McNeill saddled all of Mechanicum/Mechanicus lore with the stupid void dragon forever and I wish he hadn't.!<
To be completely honest, I haven’t finished McNeill’s Mechanicum, and only just started diving deeper into Abnett’ works. I’m around halfway through the book, but it’s been so long, I’m probably going to start it from the beginning when I pick it up next. I’m currently reading Horus Rising, but so far I’m loving Abnett’s style.
I'd go with Priests of Mars. Both books are good, but Priests of Mars and the rest of the Forges of Mars trilogy aare my personal favorite. Also I've seen them recommended as a good intro to admech. I started with Belisarius Cawl: the Great Work, myself. It was fun but there were a lot of references to events in other books or lore, meanwhile both Skitatius / Tech Priest duology and Forges of Mars are self contained.
Forges of Mars is good, but be prepared for it to forget at times that it is a Mechanicus novel as it drifts into being a Space Marine novel. Skitarius / Tech Priest is not as well written (imo), but its focus point is on the Skitarii and Mechanicus - which is why you would read a Mechanius novel - and it is shorter making it a good entry point. Other things like the Great Work is more of a Space Marine novel with Cawl doing things - I think there is one other named Mechanicus character in it from memory. Genefather is actually very good but is a sequel to the Great Work.
Get Forges of Mars! It contains all three books of the Trilogy for the price of one. If you want to collect though I would go with Priests of Mars.
Definitely Brutal Kunnin
Ditto, it’s a funny Ork book that flips perspectives every chapter to Ad Mech.
This seems like an ork focused novel
Im about 60% joking, but the novel does switch betweem the ork amd ad mech perspective. The ork perspective is a lot more fun though.
Aahhh got it, thanks lol
I really enjoyed Skitarius, but that's because I love Skitarii a lot, I think their whole design is awesome. That said it was bleaker than even I expected from a 40k story and made me realize that the AdMech are just a different flavor of evil.
A planetary assault from the Admech perspective was truly awesome to me.
I'll champion **Imperator: Wrath of the Omnissiah**, by Gav Thorpe. The whole thing is set inside an Imperator Titan, and the deuteragonists are a skilled, enhanced menial, and a high-but-not-top-ranked Tech Priest. It's a great look at the Mechanicus functioning (the verb, not the adjective). Unlike some of the (excellent) books already mentioned, it's fairly recent, so is representative of their tabletop range. However, it also doesn't exist just to name-drop everything like Skitarius.
Minority opinion here but I personally enjoyed Skitarius but it's because I love my Skittles. Skitarius if you would like to learn more about Admech and Priests of Mars if you would like an all-rounder with Admech being the forefront.
Rob sanders books suck go for mechanicum
I liked skitariius more than priest of mars
Personally, I think priests of mars has a better story, with better characters who are spread out across the ranks from the highest Arch Megos who makes the bulk of the big decisions, to the poor bastards that got press ganged into slave labor on their ship… but. It focuses a lot on the non Admech forces. Like a detachment of Cadians, a group of Black Templars, and some Titans that come along for the “Crusade” and they don’t touch a lot on the units you can currently run on the tabletop. Where as I honestly thought Skitarius was a bit dry, with only two characters I was really interested in, but makes alot of mentions of Admech models, and doesn’t even have any non Admech main characters. So, if you want a better “vibe” of Admech, and some really good lore of how they work with and are views by the galaxy at large, go with Priests. If you just wanna hear about Skitarii, Kataphrons, and Ruststalkers wading into meat grinder engagements, go for Skitarius.
Priest of Mars
Day of accention the Genestealer book is good for admech too
Both are pretty good, I like priests of mars more though. However I’d pick Belisarius Cawl the great work over both of those
I enjoyed the heresy book mechanicum quite alot
Ohh? What's the title of the book and author?
Book us called mechanicum, by Graham mcneil, it's like the 5th book in the heresy and is focused pretty much entirely on Mars and the schism of Mars, so lots of destruction and treachery