Assassinorum Kingmaker (Warhammer 40,000)

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Other than that, Kingmaker is just overall a fun time. The three assassins making up the Officio team all get their moments to shine and have great interpersonal chemistry. They were surprisingly – though pleasantly – human, with a smart focus on how their personalities and viewpoints integrate with their equipment and methodology instead of bland codex regurgitations.

Assassinorum: Kingmaker is really good : r/40kLore - Reddit Assassinorum: Kingmaker is really good : r/40kLore - Reddit

The Horus Heresy (ca. 005-014.M31) - After the Warmaster Horus' treachery is revealed, an early incarnation of the Officio Assassinorum sends four operatives, one from each of the major temples, to form an Execution Force and hunt down and destroy the Traitor Primarch. All four are found wanting, for Horus is powerful beyond the reach of mortal men, and his destiny lies elsewhere. Assassins are typically deployed alone wherever feasible, having been trained to operate extensively behind enemy lines with no support. Given the sheer potential political power of this Adepta and the fact that its operatives are known to have been used against rival High Lords of Terra in the past, the authorization to assassinate a target must come from the very highest echelons of Imperial command. For this reason, Assassins are watched very closely to make sure that they are under the control of the Imperium. The Callidus Temple is the subtlest of the ancient temples of the Officio Assassinorum, specialising in the artful deception of the enemies of the Imperium. I also need to highlight the character of Sir Linoleus Rakkan, a noble of Dominion who is co-opted into the plans to kill the high monarch and becomes a member of the assassin team. At the start of the book, he is introduced as an ambitious pilot attempting to raise his fortunes. However, after nearly being killed, he becomes a mercenary Freeblade, fighting against the forces of Chaos, before being kidnapped by the assassins. Initially a depressed prisoner who relies heavily on drink to mask his emotional pain and the issues surrounding his disabled legs, the assassins manage to convince him to help Sycorax impersonate him on Dominion and use his return to gain access to the court. Due to being a son of both the rival Stryder and Rau houses, Rakkan provides some great insights into both houses and the royal court, as well providing instruction on how to pilot a Knight. It was a lot of fun to see Rakkan’s reactions to many of the early events of the book, especially as he is forced to watch himself being impersonated, providing information to help them pull off the charade. While Rath could have left Rakkan as a useful, one-note character, he instead spent a good portion of the novel evolving Rakkan and ensuring that he ended up being a key part of the plot. Not only does he mature greatly after witnessing some of the key moments of the mission and Sycorax’s impersonation of him, but Rath also dives into his past and the connection he has to his father, a Dominion hero whose glorious death Rakkan continually witnesses due to his connection to Jester, which his father died in. This obsession with his family and the past eventually leads him to some big revelations in the present, and he ends up having some major and exciting moments in the last half of the novel. Rakkan ended up being one of the most complex and entertaining characters in Kingmaker, and I really appreciate the excellent way in which the author developed him. Ah brilliant, I’m so pleased you enjoyed it! What a great book, right?! 🙂 Hopefully Rob will write more about these characters…fingers crossed!Trazyn. Our ships are without atmosphere, unpressurised,’ Orikan said. ‘Do orks… breathe?’ A pause. ‘They have lungs.’ Prepare to repel boarders, Orikan signalled. In case.” Being a 40K story, there is obviously combat, but it is always delivered in the right moment,.instead of being a filler like in other books .

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It was fun and you wanted everyone to succeed. Would it have been more intense and gripping if the key players paid a higher cost? Or is that just outweighed by charm of the whole tale. Kingmaker more than does the job. Rath realizes the Assassinorum as unique and distinct from the Inquisition despite an oft overlapping remit, giving the Officio a Cold War spy vibe that really fits. There’s no religious mumbo-jumbo and everything seems much more centralized than you get in Abnett’s or Wraight’s work. However this book is decidedly more about the process of conducting an operation than the Assassinorum as a whole. Rath focuses on how the assassins involved, all of whom are wonderfully well depicted in their interactions with each other and their targets, plan out/perform their mission. There’s also a lot of time spent getting to know the world of Dominion, to the point that this might be the best work on Imperial Knights in the canon. I generally don’t care for the ‘medieval nobles piloting mechs’ vibe it seems every Knight House has to have (why can’t they be diverse like the Titan Legios?), but Rath clearly put a lot of time into giving Dominion an engaging political identity. In the broad view I think it’s a brilliant move to focus so much attention on whomever the Assassin(s) are targeting. Hopefully it will mean future books in the series, if they happen, vary considerably with each entry. Looks like the Word Bearers have got more mischief planned. What could possibly go wrong? Quite a lot…I was expecting good as I've enjoyed the short stories to date and I am largely a fan of the specific stories that Rath cited as his inspiration for Kingmaker. The first major praise I have for Kingmaker is its tone and atmosphere. Not necessarily the worldbuilding (though that’s no slouch here), but the overall genre experience. I’m not a connoisseur or expert in spy thrillers or the like, so somebody better versed in them would be more suited to comment on specific tropes, trappings, etc. I can say that Kingmaker feels very cinematic. From the first act of assembling the assassin operative team – opening with the various members mid-operation, the Liaison and his chain-smoking, ‘that’s need-to-know’ mannerisms, to the briefings and status reports, to the recorded conversations and the middle-act montage-like rapid sequence of sub-operations, this novel has a very distinctive feel in the reading. First and foremost, a potential Culexus Assassin is chosen because he possesses a very rare genetic defect, something that is at once unique and yet utterly abhorrent to the Imperium. Every living being has some sort of presence in the Warp, where the soul is reflected through from the real universe. Each temple is led by an official known as a "director primus" while the Officio Assassinorum as a whole is led by the Imperium's grand master of assassins.

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Kingmaker shows the fascinating relationship between two very different temples of the Assassinorum, as two agents navigate the complex social hierarchy of a Knight World. The stakes are high and the pressure is on, for an Imperial war effort hinges on them executing their duty before disaster strikes.However, after the Wars of Vindication which took place shortly after the death of High Lord Goge Vandire during the Age of Apostasy in the 36th Millennium, a renegade Callidus Assassin by the name of Tziz Jarek attempted to assassinate the Grand Master of Assassins. After a series of terrible atrocities that were precipitated within the Imperial Palace itself, the Assassin temples were split up and distributed across the width and breadth of the galaxy. For those that defy the Imperium, only the Emperor can judge your crimes. Only in death can your receive the Emperor's judgement."