Belisarius Cawl: Archmagos cover art

Belisarius Cawl: Archmagos

Warhammer 40,000

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Belisarius Cawl: Archmagos

By: Guy Haley
Narrated by: John Banks
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About this listen

A Warhammer 40,000 Audiobook

Belisarius Cawl is the greatest mind of his age, and he has a plan to open up the Attilan Gap to allow safe passage through the Great Rift. In order to complete his work, he travels to a necron tomb world. In the process, he attracts the attention of something even more dangerous than ancient xenos…

LISTEN TO IT BECAUSE
Belisarius Cawl continues to be one of the most important figures in the 41st Millennium as he attempts to solve the greatest problem facing the Imperium – allowing safe passage through the Cicatrix Maledictum. He squares off against ancient necrons and the forces of Chaos in his audacious attempt to do the impossible.

THE STORY
For years, Belisarius Cawl has nurtured an audacious plan to stabilise the Attilan Gap sufficiently that the Imperium might open a stable route into Imperium Nihilus. With the primarch Roboute Guilliman having crossed the Great Rift, and now isolated on the far side, time is running out.

Before Cawl can perfect his latest great work, he requires one last element: control codes preserved on an ancient necron world trapped on the event horizon of a black hole. Realising that even he cannot do this alone, Cawl recruits help from across the Adeptus Mechanicus. Yet as victory nears, malign intelligences have taken note of the archmagos, and Cawl is about to discover it is unwise indeed to provoke the interest of Vashtorr the Arkifane…

Written by Guy Haley. Narrated by John Banks. Runtime 10 hours and 52 minutes approx.

©2025 Games Workshop Limited (P)2025 Games Workshop Limited
Adventure Science Fiction
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This is the third in Haley's Belisarius Cawl series, and another very enjoyable yarn. Crammed with great characters, a weaving narrative, and some great set-pieces. Superbly narrated. A must for 40k lore nerds too.

Another excellent Guy Haley story

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this book would be 5/5 the reader is amazing the story is great however parts of it is really rushed and that is down to the writer.

other then that its a great story and definitely worth getting

great but but small problem

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This is one the best i have tried, the series is brilliant and i want more cawl and primus!

Amazing story , deffo worth it!

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John banks is forever the voice of guilliman to me after I binged Dark Imperium and the Dawn of Fire books, and he does both Cawl and Guilliman fantastically. He captures the mischievous nature of Cawl well in his VA.

But there were too many points in the story where (because there wasn't a 'he said, she said' at the end of the sentence) I had no idea who was talking because the secondary characters were not voiced different enough.

Really pains me to say it because he's an absolute legend in the Doctor Who Big Finish productions.

Good story but let down by John Banks (sorry dude)

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The performance is great as usual, its got good VAs
So the audio part is great

However the story, even tho extremely important for the main 40k narrative and has plenty of high level players from the universe, is by far the worst edition to the established universe and a major departure away from Grim Dark.

I won't spoil it by being specific but I can say some key words

1. the tone: hopefully and playfully.
2. Necron interactions with Cawl and crew.
3. The way demons communicate amongst themselves.
4.Characters who let absurd herresies slide.

I get that cawl is a radical and that Gman is ok with it but you have religious fanatics who just let's it slide that he is a blatant heretic.

This book has some sprinkled elements of dystopia but a galaxy apart what we hear and read in the Horus heresy books.
If the way forward is a shift away from grim dark, then that is a disservice to the franchise and the fans

A good audio book, a bad 40k book

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