What do you think?
Rate this book
Space Marine Battles
Fateweaver
The White Consuls Space Marine Chapter answers a distress call, only to discover that the source of the signal is far more terrifying than the message it relays. As a psychic backlash sweeps through their astropathic choir, the infamous Kairos Fateweaver, greater daemon of Tzeentch and master of manipulation, reveals his final hand in a game which has lasted since the beginning of time. Destiny awaits.
87 pages, Kindle Edition
First published December 1, 2011
2 people are currently reading
103 people want to read
About the author
John French
154 books309 followersJohn French is a writer and freelance game designer from Nottingham, England. His novels include the Ahriman series from Black Library, and The Lord of Nightmares trilogy for Fantasy Flight. The rest of his work can be seen scattered through a number of other books, including the New York Times bestselling anthology Age of Darkness. When he is not thinking of ways that dark and corrupting beings could destroy reality and space, John enjoys talking about why it would be a good idea... that and drinking good wine.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
March 14, 2018
Read in the Architect of Fate Space Marine Battle Novel anthology
What is left of White Consuls Space Marines Chapter, after years spent among the Imperium containment force around the infamous Eye of Terror, answers to a distress call from an astropathic relay fortress in the Claros system.
Sadly psychic messages sent across the Warp are a gamble and sometimes they are lost somewhere in time...
An awesome final novella of the Architect of Fate Space Marine Battle Novel anthology, full of twists, thrills, mayhem and great character building, well connected to the 3 previous tales and tying up for good all of them.
March 20, 2016
This novella was absolutely astonishing. Not as good as the "Endeavour of Will", but still amazing in its' own regard.
John French wrote in a way that I absolutely loved, but don't quite know how to describe. The attention to detail was awesome, the fight scenes were a bloody mess(in a good way!), but the mystery aspects and character building stands above everything for me.
The plot twists and how this novella relates to the other 3 in the anthology "Architect of Fate" was amazing.
John French wrote in a way that I absolutely loved, but don't quite know how to describe. The attention to detail was awesome, the fight scenes were a bloody mess(in a good way!), but the mystery aspects and character building stands above everything for me.
The plot twists and how this novella relates to the other 3 in the anthology "Architect of Fate" was amazing.
June 6, 2017
This is not about Kairos at all.
March 4, 2026
Quite fun.
June 29, 2012
Shadowhawk reviews the first ever Space Marine Battles anthology, a collection of four novellas by different authors focused on a key character of the Warhammer 40,000 setting, the Greater Daemon of Tzeentch known as Kairos Fateweaver.
“One of the best anthologies that Black Library has ever published, Architect of Fate has definitely set a great precedent for future works that are similarly themed. I certainly want more such anthologies!” ~The Founding Fields
The Space Marine Battles series is one of the best ideas to come from the Black Library editorial staff as it has produced some of the best novels from some of its best authors. Sarah Cawkwell’s The Gildar Rift, Chris Wraight’s The Battle of the Fang and Rob Sanders’ Legion of the Damned are some of my favourite novels, especially the latter which I believe has set the bar really high for a really dark, gritty and stubborn yet heroic portrayal of Space Marines.
..................................
Closing off the anthology is John French’s Fateweaver, a story closely tied to Sarah’s own contribution, featuring the Space Marines of the White Consuls this time around. This one is a beauty, a gem of a story. As with Darius Hinks, the only John French I’ve read other than Fateweaver, is his short story The Last Remembrancer in the Age of Darkness anthology for the Horus Heresy series, and his BLis15 eShort about the Thousand Sons: All is Dust. As I remarked to a friend a few days ago, John’s prose reminds me quite a bit of Gav Thorpe’s own style. They both write very insightful and nuanced stories, something that is very welcome and enjoyable. Their stories are often bleak in their outlook but still quite heroic all the same. John, in all of his works I’ve read, really captures the theme of sacrifice for the greater good, not to be confused with the Tau philosophy “The Greater Good”. That one theme unites all of John’s stories and he delivers on it quite well.
Fateweaver made me really connect with the various characters, especially the White Consuls themselves. John portrays them as heroic and noble individuals who are ever ready to sacrifice themselves if need be. By the climax, I was really feeling sorry for the White Consuls and the ending was almost emotional because of how distressing it all gets for them. That John ties the climax to Sarah’s own novella was even more poignant for that fact. The connections between the two are laid bare at the end and it is almost as if Kairos’ schemes are coming a full circle. Yet, as omniscient readers, we know that where Tzeentch is concerned nothing is ever the same, certainly not when Kairos himself is involved. There is bolter-action, mystery, thrills, deception, manipulation, cryptic secrets and all aplenty in the novella and the author keeps it all steady and consistent right till the very last pages.
John French really should get a chance to do a full novel for Black Library, and I’d be very interested to see how he handles that medium. He has another novella coming out later this year, the Horus Heresy novella called Crimson Fist that will be a part of the Shadows of Treachery anthology. Looking forward to that certainly.
Rating: 9.5/10
You can find the full review over at The Founding Fields:
http://thefoundingfields.com/2012/04/...
“One of the best anthologies that Black Library has ever published, Architect of Fate has definitely set a great precedent for future works that are similarly themed. I certainly want more such anthologies!” ~The Founding Fields
The Space Marine Battles series is one of the best ideas to come from the Black Library editorial staff as it has produced some of the best novels from some of its best authors. Sarah Cawkwell’s The Gildar Rift, Chris Wraight’s The Battle of the Fang and Rob Sanders’ Legion of the Damned are some of my favourite novels, especially the latter which I believe has set the bar really high for a really dark, gritty and stubborn yet heroic portrayal of Space Marines.
..................................
Closing off the anthology is John French’s Fateweaver, a story closely tied to Sarah’s own contribution, featuring the Space Marines of the White Consuls this time around. This one is a beauty, a gem of a story. As with Darius Hinks, the only John French I’ve read other than Fateweaver, is his short story The Last Remembrancer in the Age of Darkness anthology for the Horus Heresy series, and his BLis15 eShort about the Thousand Sons: All is Dust. As I remarked to a friend a few days ago, John’s prose reminds me quite a bit of Gav Thorpe’s own style. They both write very insightful and nuanced stories, something that is very welcome and enjoyable. Their stories are often bleak in their outlook but still quite heroic all the same. John, in all of his works I’ve read, really captures the theme of sacrifice for the greater good, not to be confused with the Tau philosophy “The Greater Good”. That one theme unites all of John’s stories and he delivers on it quite well.
Fateweaver made me really connect with the various characters, especially the White Consuls themselves. John portrays them as heroic and noble individuals who are ever ready to sacrifice themselves if need be. By the climax, I was really feeling sorry for the White Consuls and the ending was almost emotional because of how distressing it all gets for them. That John ties the climax to Sarah’s own novella was even more poignant for that fact. The connections between the two are laid bare at the end and it is almost as if Kairos’ schemes are coming a full circle. Yet, as omniscient readers, we know that where Tzeentch is concerned nothing is ever the same, certainly not when Kairos himself is involved. There is bolter-action, mystery, thrills, deception, manipulation, cryptic secrets and all aplenty in the novella and the author keeps it all steady and consistent right till the very last pages.
John French really should get a chance to do a full novel for Black Library, and I’d be very interested to see how he handles that medium. He has another novella coming out later this year, the Horus Heresy novella called Crimson Fist that will be a part of the Shadows of Treachery anthology. Looking forward to that certainly.
Rating: 9.5/10
You can find the full review over at The Founding Fields:
http://thefoundingfields.com/2012/04/...
December 26, 2011
Another very nice read about Chaos, Daemons and Marines. The nice thing about the "Architect of Fate" series is that it less of bolter porn and more about fleshed out characters. Or at least, as little card-board characters as it is possible in this setting :-)
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews