Title: Forges of Mars Omnibus
Author: Graham McNeill
Genre: Military Sci-Fi (Warhammer 40K)
Pages: 944
Rating: 3.5 of 5

Over the last couple years, the Warhammer 40,000 books have become my go-to series when I’m in the mood for escapist sci-fi. There’s very little complexity in characterization or plot, but it can be a nice violent grimdark read.

*Heresy Alert* I’m not a big fan of loyalist space marines. Their character development pretty much begins and ends with [Role in their squad] + [“FOR THE EMPEROR!!!”], so I tend to gravitate toward books based on other character types. This particular omnibus was a lot of fun in that regard. As you you would expect from the title, the main story revolves around the tech priests of Mars. The three book arc (I wouldn’t recommend reading the books separately) follows an exploratory mission led by an arch-magos of the cult mechanicus. Along for the ride are a rogue trader and his crew, Cadian guardsmen, skitarii, titans, Black Templar space marines, and more. Weave in an eldar storyline and you get a lot of interesting interaction between groups that usually go their own way.

This is definitely worth a read if you are into the WH40K universe and want to explore something other than space marines. I almost gave it 4 stars (an unprecedented rating from me for a WH40K book), but the author was so obviously fishing for a sequel with the way he ended the third book (and even more so in the follow-up novella) that I docked it half a star: 3.5 stars for competent escapist sci-fi that manages a bit more character development than usual.