Urdesh: The Serpent and the Saint by Matt Farrar

[theSpirea]

The novel is 90k+ words which is pretty much a standard for BL novels. It's longer than Brutal Kunnin or Resurrection/Incarnation.

 

Sure, it's a weird move by BL to end the book like that but I highly doubt it was done just to be able to sell two books instead of one.

[DukeLeto69]

I’d say more likely Farrer just wrote a LOT and BL decides instead of asking him to severely edit down they would release as two books. Might also partly help to explain why this took so long to come out. Splitting the book would probably involve some structural changes and possibly even necessitate writing some more content to make it up to two novels?

[Sothalor]

I’d say more likely Farrer just wrote a LOT and BL decides instead of asking him to severely edit down they would release as two books. Might also partly help to explain why this took so long to come out. Splitting the book would probably involve some structural changes and possibly even necessitate writing some more content to make it up to two novels?

 

I bet it was a combination of this with some schedule changes/infrastructure backlog that resulted in this.

 

It wouldn't be the first time projects have changed during the making (The Magos being a self-admitted example), and I doubt it'll be the last.

[Roomsky]

Urdesh: The Serpent and the Saint – Matthew Farrer

 

Well, this was a disappointment.

 

I LOVE Matthew Farrer’s writing. The Enforcer trilogy remains some of the best Black Library fiction out there even all these years later in an era where its contemporaries have lost their lustre. AND he basically defined the character of Angron in After De’Shea, a truly incredible short.

 

And truth be told, a lot of Farrer’s greatness is still here. The prose is immaculate; there are a tonne of evocative descriptions kind of unlike anything else from the studio. And there are moments, moments that made me forget all my frustration with this book and go “damn, this is genius, this should be a masterpiece.”

 

But it’s not.

 

This book has almost no plot and almost no characters. The Saint and Priad and Milo are memorable, but of course I already know them from other works, and Milo barely even features. The loyalist astartes serving Priad are all completely interchangeable, and no real effort ever seems to be given to distinguishing them; this is especially unfortunate as they star in most of the book. The humans are all very well written, be they’re around so briefly that I can’t remember any of their names. Honestly, per cast member, the Chaos forces are way more memorable, and again, they barely appear.

 

And a book can get by with thin characters if the plot is gripping, but its really not. This novel feels like action scene piled on action scene, each superbly described, but all the while all I could think of is “I don’t care what happens to these astartes.” Again, there are moments, but they’re almost exclusively away from the action which must take up a good 70% of the page count. Reading this was laborious between the islands of shocking quality.

 

I’m not sure how I feel about this being split into parts, either. On one hand, if this were a full narrative mega-chonker I might have given up on it if not for Farrer’s name on the cover. But on the other hand, I don’t even know if I’ll bother with the second at this point. If its structured anything like this book, I certainly don’t want to.

Is this book worth it for the good moments? Honestly, probably yeah. The submarine scene alone would have been another GOAT short story. But its just SOOOO PLODDING, wonderfully described bolter porn means nothing to me if I don’t give a frack abut the people involved.

 

5/10 (Which probably retroactively lowers any other 5/10 I've given by a point, by virtue of Farrer)

Diehards Only

[DukeLeto69]

Just about to start this but with some trepidation based on reviews! Like Roomsky, I absolutely love the Calpurnia novels and think they are amongst the best things ever to come out of BL so Farrer is a must but for me.

 

Urdesh had an interesting journey that may go some way to explaining what it is?

 

Originally Urdesh was commissioned as a Space Marine Battles book (yes it was that long ago). It was also supposed to be written by Nik Vincent (Mrs Abnett). However, at some point this switched to Farrer which always struck me as an odd choice for a SMB novel as his work is about as far away from bolter porn as you can get!

 

I believe Farrer and the Abnett’s are good friends, so perhaps Dan “entrusted” Urdesh to his skill and Farrer felt he couldn’t say no?

 

The gestation period for Urdesh has been very long. I would say that indicates that Farrer struggled to figure out how to execute the kind of thing he likes to write and reconcile it with the SMB brief from BL, ie how to write bolter porn (heavy on battles with Space Marines) that isn’t bolter porn!

 

From the reviews it sounds like the “voice” he eventually found was more “Homeric” ?

 

Will start reading today.

[DukeLeto69]

I finished this a couple of days ago and...actually I really liked it.

 

The book is split into three sections. For me a chunk of the first section was the hardest going due to the amount of “space marine battles” but once the

 

wirewolves

 

Show up, the action works so much better with high drama and higher stakes.

 

Not good at writing reviews but I think the quality of Farrer comes through (although I maintain he possibly struggled to reconcile his preferred story telling with the original SMB brief from BL).

 

IMO Farrer very deliberately made the Snakes very similar to each other, in some ways almost indistinguishable. Human characters struggle to know whose who (sometimes slightly humorously). What we do see is what Space Marines are there for and what they do best. They are killing machines. Strategic and tactical geniuses BUT cold blooded and single minded (edit - and do not always remember, and have to remind themselves, that humans are not collateral damage who just get in the way, but who the SMs were designed to serve and protect). They are not human and share few traits. Humans often refer to them as “they” rather than “he”. Farrer certainly treats SMs as “other”.

 

The story/plot is straightforward. The Iron Snake squads each have their own mission which, it seems obvious to me, will converge in book 2, as part of the wider strategy.

 

We also get to see the Saint/Beati in action. She sure ain’t just some farm girl from Heroder who had visions...

 

Sabbat is channeling the God Emperor and it is terrifying the power she wields - all good with me, afterall what is the point of The Saint if not some kind of avatar of His will?

 

So for me, much better than I expected having read some reviews BUT also good to have my expectations steered somewhat. This is not “Calpurnia Farrer” this is “delivering a specific BL brief but subverting it a bit Farrer”.

 

Really good. Can’t wait for part 2.

Edited August 1, 2021 by DukeLeto69

[aa.logan]

I was all ready to say what I felt about this book having finally read it but I’d just be adding the same points as everyone else has made but less eruditely.

 

But yeah, really mixed book. Does some things really well, other things less so. Would have been great as a debut, but compared to Farrer’s prior works largely underwhelming.

[Blood-worm's Master]

Recently I heard that there is/are Titan Legio(s) mentioned in the book - does anyone know which one(s)?

[Taliesin]

Anyone started on the second book yet?

[cheywood]

Anyone started on the second book yet?

Finished it yesterday. It’s very much more of the same - great prose, a lot of action, little in the way of plot or character development.

[DarkChaplain]

Sounds awesome. Like, exactly what people were pining for these past how many years that the title "Urdesh" combined with the author "Matthew Farrer" got people super excited.

 

Such a pity.

[Sothalor]

I'm still waiting for my pre-ordered copy to ship from GW. Honestly, it's getting a bit frustrating that it's either order direct from them and then sit around watching orders NOT ship, or roll the dice with local retailers who may or may not have items in stock.

 

Anyways.

 

I went back and re-read The Serpent and the Saint, and found I actually enjoyed it more the second time around. Knowing what to expect let me enjoy its merits on its own.

[cheywood]

I still quite enjoyed both books. They were very much not what I expected going in, but the action scenes are surprisingly vivid and you get a few moments of truly wonderful prose. I think the weight of Farrer’s past work hurts here, Urdesh is unlike everything else he’s written. Edited December 10, 2021 by cheywood

[malika666]

So erm…how about sharing sone spoilers?

[Sothalor]

Urdesh: The Magister and the Martyr

by Matthew Farrer

 

Reading The Magister and the Martyr (TM&TM) re-contextualizes many of the issues I had with The Serpent and the Saint (TS&TS) and retroactively elevates that one in the process. Having read this one now, I really like the entire Urdesh package more than I thought I would after my first read of TS&TS.

 

First thing to note about this one is that it’s not a novel, and neither is The Serpent and the Saint. Rather, they are both parts of a single novel. This is not a two-book series, this is one novel split into two entries. That may seem like a trivial distinction to be splitting hairs over, but it does affect the reading experience and overall understanding/perception of the work, and I think it needs to be emphasized here.

 

Let me compare it to the Lord of the Rings movies, specifically the extended editions on blu-ray discs. TS&TS and TM&TM ARE NOT like The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers.

 

Instead, they are like Disc One and Disco Two of The Two Towers. One story – part of a larger overall tale – split across two packages.

 

With that perspective, many of the events, scenes, and setups in TS&TS gain new relevance and clarity. The seemingly odd construction and pacing of TS&TS make a whole lot more sense within the wider revealed context. TS&TS was all setup, TM&TM is all payoffs. Those two really ought to be read back-to-back unbroken as a single work.

 

So in that light, many of my previous criticisms and remarks about TS&TS carry over directly to TM&TM. This is not a complex character exploration or intrigue-laden thriller. This is an action-focused, relatively straightforward story. It features long sections of detailed combat scenes. It won’t be for everyone.

 

However, I think TM&TM puts in more character work than the previous entry in a sort of reversal of a ‘typical’ action novel like this. Most story structures for this type of book would have slower character development up front with the rising action. Urdesh, taken as a whole, does it the other way round. TS&TS used its word count to show and highlight the inhumanity of the Astartes and the Saint, both their capabilities in battle and their outlooks and mindset. TM&TM uses that inhuman baseline to play up the ways the Astartes and the Saint actually are human. I think this is actually quite a clever way to use action scenes as character development. TS&TS was a showcase in how they fight, TM&TM shows off more of why they fight and the fraternal bond between the Iron Snakes. TM&TM has some wonderful character moments – heartfelt and moving beats that, in hindsight, are the payoffs to TS&TS’s setups that may have gone unrecognized at the time.

 

Another thing that The Magister and the Martyr re-contextualizes is the story structure, and this is one of my favorite things about it. Urdesh, now that we’ve got the entire novel, has a chiastic story structure – that is, it’s built around narrative symmetry. Plot elements echo and mirror around a central event or incident about which the whole story turns, like thus:

A

  B

    C

      D

    C’

  B’

A’

 

It’s not about having plot points repeat directly, but having them reflect – thematic echoes that rhyme with the previous plot points yet transformed now that we’ve passed through the narrative crucible. A fantastic example of this in film is 2012’s Dredd movie with Karl Urban. I love this kind of story structure, especially when your brain starts piecing things together like figuring out a puzzle. For me, that moment came at a point in TM&TM when I was reading about some Legio Invicta Titans attacking enemy siege engines. I thought ‘this seems a lot like that part in TS&TS, and that rout earlier felt like the wirewolf panic of TS&TS but in reverse, and… Oh!’

 

The chaistic structure of Urdesh also contextualizes the various Iron Snakes squads on their disparate missions: TS&TS was about scattering them in an act of sowing plot seeds, TM&TM is about reaping that harvest to bring everything back together. I’ve said earlier regarding TS&TS that I reserve the right to change my opinion about the scenes with the Marine squads all doing their own things and what those had to do with the central plot around the Saint and Ghereppan. Well, consider my opinion officially changed. The symmetry with which these elements separate and come together was fantastic.

 

The Magister and the Martyr also addresses my criticism about Saint Sabbat herself in TS&TS. There, Sabbat often felt like a distant, hollow vessel – a plot device rather than a character. Or, to re-contextualize it, Sabbat is an incarnation of the Transcendent impinging upon the Immanent. TM&TM flips that around, by showing what happens when the Immanent brushes up against the Transcendent. Like how we previously experienced the inhumanity of the Astartes in battle, Sabbat was previously an inhuman face of the supernatural. She seemingly had no agency of her own, and what TM&TM does is introduce questions about just how much Sabbat is still human and the implications of that.

 

Sabbat as a character is delightful here. She is a nexus of miracles and divine phenomena, but it’s how human she is with her moments of uncertainty, doubt, anger, and wonder that round her out and paints a wonderfully compelling portrait. Farrer totally sells how her presence is such an icon for Imperial forces. Her interactions with Priad and Damocles Squad are some of the highlights of the book.

 

Other things I enjoyed about TM&TM include its depictions of the miraculous and the numinous. It continues the style already shown in TS&TS – not surprising – but also ramps up the forces of Chaos use of sorcery and arcana, and highlights the differences as a sort of foil. Urdesh is ultimately about a supernatural war and what that looks like played out among mortals. This is one of my favorite depictions of a numinous Other in any 40k work to date.

 

TM&TM also has one of the best-written duels between two Astartes, showing them using every last bit of all their post-human strengths and abilities in a way that sells the verisimilitude of such a fight.

 

That’s one of my big compliments about Urdesh, actually. You could write it off as “ah, it’s just a series of battle scenes,” but it genuinely feels like Farrer put real effort into thinking those things through. Like he sat down and reasoned through each fight – who is participating, what are their goals right now? Do they change? When? Why? What are their capabilities? Where is this fight occurring, where are the participants, how are they impacting the environment and how is the environment impacting them?

 

There’s actually quite a remarkable level of craftsmanship that goes into these scenes – and the fact that Farrer can pull this off, when you compare it with his previous works, highlights his skill as an author.

 

And so I find myself in the rather unexpected position of having been quite disappointed by TS&TS, yet with TM&TM, the total package of Urdesh transformed into one of my favorite reads of this year. I am very much biased in this regard, as Urdesh’s themes, chiastic structure, and the technical composition of its action scenes are all things I greatly enjoy. Even separate from that though, I think the fact that TM&TM is not a sequel but the second part of a single novel ought to be a significant factor in how to approach the work. It fills in and completes. This is the payoff to the setup. And by the end, I was emotionally invested in a way that TS&TS hadn’t quite managed to invoke in me – and I now understand why, having actually read the whole story.

 

Or, most of it. Urdesh sets up one of the major plot threads of Anarch, and anybody who’s read that knows the story doesn’t end here. And yet, Farrer manates to draw his part to an admirable close: the war isn’t over, but there’s a solid sense of closure regarding this chapter for many of our key characters here, and even some poignant character moments that adeptly draw upon the foundation of a brotherhood of super-soldier killing machines and a literal magical saint girl that Farrer laid in the first part.

 

If you absolutely hated everything about TS&TS, I doubt TM&TM will change your mind. If you shared many of my criticisms about its strengths and weaknesses, I highly recommend reading the entire thing as one novel. The Magister and the Martyr both complements The Serpent and the Saint, addresses many of its seeming shortcomings, and does so in a way that elevates the collective whole.

[DukeLeto69]

@a melancholic sanguinity that us an awesome review. Not read part 2 myself yet but was always reserving judgement as I knew Urdesh was one book split into two rather than a duology (bit like how Villeneuve has split Dune into two parts).

[theSpirea]

Thank you for the awesome review. I'm definitely getting both in paperback once they are out (I love what they did with the covers when you put the books next to each other).

[jaxom]

I was wondering if it would be worth the time to reread TS&TS and now I know. Thank you, A Melancholic Sanguinity!

[StrangerOrders]

Have been eyeballing getting these for quite some time, thanks to folks for their reviews. Looking forward to an 'eh' read that gets better with time and does a good job at making Astartes unnatural.

 

EDIT: Huh, its not on Audible.

Edited December 27, 2021 by StrangerOrders

[Felix Antipodes]

Well i finally finished this duo and what a read.  Really struggled initially with the density of the writing style and structure but found it hard to put down.  Because i knew it was effectively one story in two parts I didn’t have the issues some frater had when they finished book one but i understand how the book would seem to those who read it as a stand alone.  It was obvious early on that Farrer was making an effort to place the story within the Abnettverse without stepping too close to Dan’s main storyline.  This was a good or bad thing depending on whether you think this helped/hindered the story being told.

 

I also didn’t have an issue with the characterisation of the Snakes, finding enough individuality between squad members to know who was who at any given time.  It was pretty obvious early on though that Priad was going to get the majority of the Astartes spotlight.  I liked that the various squad members didn’t quite know what to make of the Saint.  If they spent much more time in her presence they might have ended up bigger Emperor boosters than the Black Templars 

 

Farrer put a lot of time and thought into just how Astartes would really fight.  This is one of the few times in BL fiction that I felt these were post human killing machines TM as opposed to humans in tin cans.  I was also impressed with just how hard it is to kill an Astartes with 10,000 years of fighting experience.  I’ve always felt Heretic marines died too easily in past fiction.

 

In summary - a good novel, maybe not for everyone, but imho a fine addition to farrer’s output.

[DukeLeto69]

Just finished The Magister and the Martyr (read back-to-back with second read of the Serpent and the Saint) and it really was epic.

 

Farrer’s Calpurnia books are some of my absolute favs but this was different. Very different.

 

I confess it was hard going at times and the incessant fighting/battles made it hard for me. It is very obvious this duo started life as a Space Marines Battle novel (it took THAT long to write). And that was never going to be my cup of tea and yet...

 

The moments between the battles, the wirewolves and then the climax battle were amazing.

 

There is a lot to ponder (as I would expect from Farrer) including the nature and “otherness” of Space Marines, faith and what/who the Saint actually is. Not got my head fully around it all at this stage TBH.

 

I enjoyed it but in a different way to how I enjoyed the Calpurnia books. The Urdesh books are “heavy” and almost (I think) Homer(ish) in approach. I’m not good at reviews and that reference may be wrong, but the Urdesh books have a Greek Myth quality about them.

 

But for me the gold was in the (IMO) too infrequent quiet moments.

 

I feel exhausted from reading them and defo need something lighter next.

 

My only actual complaint (unless I missed it) was that I expected (my issue rather than Farrer’s) to see/understand how Brin Milo ended up where he did in Anarch when we first encounter him?

 

Edit - just one further thought. I think Farrer very much went in for the “show don’t tell” approach (very cinematic). So, for example, the nature of, and individual character of, the Iron Snakes is revealed through their battle/fight scenes. What it is to be a Space Marine (whose entire life and purpose is to be a warrior) is arguably perfectly suited to be explained via their actions and style etc.

Edited May 22, 2022 by DukeLeto69