Brutal Kunnin: An Epic Waaagh! Novel (Warhammer 40,000)

Product Information

With a contender from each clan warring to succeed the dead warboss, this standalone novel is set in the same ork-verse as Mike’s previous teef-rattling tales.*** It’s filled with fantastic characters, dark humour, and orkish hijinks. Throw in a prophecy from a weirder-than-usual weirdboy – and a grot revolutionary with a shiv who isn’t afraid to use it – and you know you’re in for a great time.”

One particular incident in the book is two orks, a gretchin, and a squig taking down a titan, with the squig getting the name Princess out of it. With that in mind, it should be noted that this is as much a Mechanicus book as an Ork one, despite what the cover implies (according to Brooks, this was mandated.) But he uses that split extremely effectively – I’m always looking for a good AdMech book and this one was all the sweeter for being unexpected. CONTEXT: During an Orkish invasion of a Forge World, Te'Kannaroth — a greater daemon of Khorne now bound into a daemon engine — looks over the battlefield. This prompts the daemon to think about each of the galaxy's major 1 races, particularly "the abhorrence" (AKA the Orks). More potential spoilers below: read at your own risk! honestly I think I just like Warhammer books but I really didn't expect to like it as much as I did. The 40k Orks are just forces of complete randomness and violence and yet its that vibe that makes this book a compelling, brain-off kind of story. This book is also legitimately hilarious with the Orks facing off against the cyborg Adeptus Mechanicus and the constant strain of the two factions trying to figure counter each other with opposing logic is very compelling. The prophecy in question foretells of a mysterious gate that lies beneath the human city on the fortress world of Aranua. The one true warboss will be the first to find it, and use it to turn the galaxy green.The setup for this book is comedic genius. The non-ork POVs play the orkish invasion completely straight. It’s pure unpredictable destruction and murder and their desperation feels very real as the orks seem to outdo their defenses through pure savagery at every turn. While this is happening we alternate frequently to the orks – and see that all their victories are either exceedingly simple or complete accidents. The juxtaposition is hilarious. Mike Brookes proves that you can have compelling point-of-view xenos characters even when they're as different as orks. Iron Warrior Warpsmith Gavrak Daelin (interacts with Zaefa, get's killed by a combination of her and Mitranda, wants revenge against Vast's Titan for destroying a corrupted warlord titan that was his charge) There’s one scene in particular which would have been utter bloody horror for the humans involved, but for Ufthak it’s just a brief, slightly confusing diversion. A Chaos Space Marine, for example, might have gloried in the slaughter and the terror: Ufthak just kills a few humans and then looks around for a more challenging fight. So far as orks are concerned, fighting is the best thing in the galaxy, and they’re not sure why few other species seem to enjoy it as much, or aren’t very good at it, or even want to avoid it entirely. This does not include Tyranids or the T'au. The latter are still fairly minor on the galactic stage, so their omission isn't a complete surprise. The Tyranids' absence is a little harder to explain. My guess is that, to an entity as ancient as Te'Kannaroth, they're simply too recent an addition to worry about. This would also apply to the T'au. However, since time holds little to no meaning within the Warp, I'm not certain how relevant that actually is. In a way, what's left out is as intriguing as what's put in.

Thanks as ever to Mike for taking the time to answer these questions! I’m sure I’m not the only person very excited to read this novel – it sounds so much fun! Expect a review just as soon as I get hold of a copy… Mike Brooks: It’s a novel about the orks of the TekWaaagh! invading the forge world of Hephaesto. It’s primarily told from the point of view of the orks, although there are also Adeptus Mechanicus POV characters. MB: It’s set on the forge world of Hephaesto, and in terms of timeline it’s roughly concurrent with the ‘current’ 40k timeline of the Indomitus Crusade, but I haven’t nailed down an actual date for it. This is one of the best 40k novels in a long time and I'll be recommending it to everyone. It's fun, exciting, and I genuinely didn't know what would happen next. You can probably already guess that the orks are very funny, but it also shows how formidable and terrifying they can be, as well as getting plenty of laughs out of me for the Adeptus Mechanicus characters. The two 'sides' (though both orks and AdMech clearly aren't united sides and there's as much fighting amongst themselves as there is against each other)) are both funny and potent in their own ways, it was a great choice of dichotomy. There is also a great side-story and internal dialogue of a senior tech priest, her name is Zaefa Varaz who is trying to figure out wtf is going on. All isn't what it seems on the forge world and the Mechanicus isn't so resolute in it's mission.

There was also some pronoun confusion. If the above paragraph was a little hard to read, you understand. A few of the AdMech characters are so changed by their bionics that Mr. Brooks decided to go with the singular "they" pronoun for them. After an initial moment of confusion, I didn't really have any troubles understanding the scenes where these characters showed up., so it's all good.

The two main AdMech characters are Zaefa Varaz, Hephaesto’s Lexico Arcanus, whose role it is to interpret the data of the orks’ offensive and who has to deal with the whims of her Tech Priest Dominus, and Secutor Haphax Mitran-da, who leads the forge world’s defenders on the battlefield. Also featuring is Kaptin ‘Flash Git’ Badrukk, who happens to have arrived at the same time as the TekWaaagh! and has his own designs for the planet and its booty.Listen to it because: get into the heads of a band of orks in the first-ever novel from their point of view. Discover what it takes to be part of the Waaagh! and carve out your own little piece of glory amidst the mayhem in a novel that's brutal, kunnin' - and darkly hilarious. MB: I LOVE ORKS. Always have done. I’ve drifted in and out of 40k, but any time I’ve played it, it’s been with orks. They’re tremendous fun, whether that’s playing as them, or in the lore. Part of the reason I wanted to do this was to prove that it can be done, and partly (I must admit) because I wanted to be the first person to write a 40k ork novel, but mainly it was because it felt like one of the most fun things I could be paid to do. WHAT I LIKED : The internal dialogue and thinking process of the Orkz. It wasn't meant to be comedy, quite brutal actually, but god damn did I laugh at some bits of Ork logic. I also loved the side story with the tech priests. I don't want to spoil the entire book, but there is also some narration by another character which is just as good. With only 2,000 uniquely numbered and individually signed copies available, any self-respecting ork enthusiast needs to grab theirs before they are gone. I found this passage particularly intriguing, as it gives a short blurb about each race's relation to Chaos from the perspective of Chaos (or at least a greater Daemon, which is as close as we're ever likely to get). While nothing seems exactly groundbreaking, I think it's an excellent little summary. The most surprising thing, to me, is the hatred that this Khornate daemon feels for the Orks. They are, well, abhorrent to it! In a way, it makes sense: Orks really seem like they should be super easy to turn to Khorne, but they're just... not. That frustration evidently builds resentment among the Blood God's servants. I also like how this excerpt dovetails with the idea that Gork and Mork (or is that Mork and Gork?) are what keep the greenskins from falling to chaos, which I've seen on here a number of times. In true Orkish fashion, however, it's not some kind of mystical purity protecting Da Boyz (a la Grey Knights or Battle Sisters)... they're just having so much fun with their current deities that, well, why would they want to try anyone else's? Like Te'Kannaroth says, there's nothing the Big Four can offer that Orks both want and don't already have. Now, again, I don't think any off that is truly brand new, but it's cool to see it from the Chaos PoV as well as the Greenskin one.