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Witchbringer

Warhammer 40,000

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Witchbringer

By: Steven B Fischer
Narrated by: Amy Rockson
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An Astra Militarum Audiobook

Once a Cadian captain, Glavia Aerand's psychic talents see her pressed into service in a new role, to fight and die as a sanctioned psyker.

LISTEN TO IT BECAUSE

This story offers a rare glimpse into the mysterious process of becoming a sanctioned psyker in the service of the Golden Throne, and you'll learn what that means for those who are found strong enough to serve.

THE STORY

Suffer not the witch to live, unless by their service they might earn redemption. This is the creed of the Scholastica Psykana, a brutal foundry in which those with psychic power might be taught to serve. On the eve of her sanctioning as a primaris psyker within these very halls, Glavia Aerand, former captain of the Cadian 900th Regiment, receives a startling premonition – one concerning her old unit, and a dangerous psychic artefact hidden on the planet where they are deployed.

After a reunion she never expected – or wanted – Aerand finds herself mired in a vicious campaign on the psychically active world of Visage, where the shallow seas and endless fogs are rumoured to swallow the souls of the dead. Haunted by growing suspicions of her new commander and the manifestations of the sinister relic, Aerand must trust in her new-found abilities to keep her former comrades alive, and confront an ancient threat that could consume Visage entirely.

©2023 Games Workshop Limited (P)2023 Games Workshop Limited Adventure Genre Fiction Military Science Fiction Space Opera War & Military Fiction Emotionally Gripping
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Witchbringer is not your typical war story with Guardsmen: it's a combination of military fiction, mystery and atmospheric horror, which makes it stand out from the other novels of the Astra Militarum series. While I was already familiar with psykers from reading Dan Abnett's Eisenhorn novels, it was really fascinating to learn about how psykers work and what they can do, although the sections dealing with the warp (aka empyrean or immaterium) can be trippy and hard to visualize. It's also the shortest entry in the series by roughly 30-80 pages, and that brevity shows. While the pacing itself never suffers, the development of the supporting cast certainly does, making me not invested in them. I can't even remember their names, except for one. I think the other novels of the series that I've read so far (Steel Tread, Catachan Devil and Longshot) did side characters better and made them more interesting and memorable. More scenes of the characters reminiscing about the past, or even a few flashbacks to earlier campaigns, would have strengthened those relationships while also showing how capable Aerand was as a soldier before the Black Ship took her away to the Scholastica Psykana. As I was over half-way through the book I thought I had the story and characters all figured out and was planning to give this a 3/5. Then Fischer cleverly subverted my expectations; the final act contains several twists I genuinely didn't see coming, and they pleasantly surprised me enough that I had to raise the score to 4/5. The ending also felt perfectly Warhammer 40,000: one war on one miserable cesspool world is won, time to be sent to fight another war on another cesspool world. Amy Rockson's voice sounded fitting for the kind of sympathetic character Aerand is, and for this kind of story. There were times, especially at the beginning, though, where she kept too long pauses after almost every sentence, and sometimes even in the middle of sentences.

Witchbringer

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A fine little book that does a decent job of looking at the struggles of a recently sanctioned psyker, returned to her former guard unit who don’t seem all that keen on having her around.

There is a brief but tantalizing look at life in the Scholastia Psykana but otherwise this a straight up Guard novel with ghostly mists, witches and all manner of heretical shenanigans. The writing perhaps lacks a degree of elegance but manages to capture Glavia’s anxieties and inner life rather well. Her love-hate-obsession with the warp makes for an engaging diversion from the usual Militarum action, and the tense reunion with former comrades and friends helps to add further troubles to an already burdened mind.

Amy Rockson meanwhile is perfectly decent; excellent during the more intimate moments, perhaps less so when things are more bombastic.

A Warp in the Park

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This never goes deep on anything a surface level look at life for a combat Psyker. At the end of training through to attached to a cadian unit.

Very simple look at a Psyker life.

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