Void Exile by Robbie Macniven

[Nagashsnee]

So got around to this. I want to preface this by saying i went from the second book to this one, and i feel like i have missed a middle story. 

 

Non spoiler review, 6/10, a perfectly serviceable space marine book, lighter on the chapter lore then previous ones, this is a far more generic space marine battle story. It does nothing to connect from the second one, and indeed the plot and story kept making me think i had missed a novella or something.  There is some serious logic gaps in the overall plot, tho it may just be things i missed as i read half this book while slightly ill.

 

Still less of a fever dream then reading the Reverie tho haha.

 

Ok so more details in spoiler tag:

Spoiler

So basic plot, Bail Sharr the captain we have followed in previous books has been exiled from his company. I dont know why this happens off screen, and why we never get the details on what goes down. I suspect this happens in a short story or novella but i aint going to try and track it down. 

 

His company with a temporary captain are ordered to defend a forge world from a space hulk. Things go south and the hulk crashes on the planet, this causes mass damage, why other forge complexes on other continents/far away dont survive i am not sure, but when the inqusition comes along its described as a dead world. 

 

I found the way the forge worlds ENTIRE noosphere network gets instantly hacked and taken over, with entire defence platforms going rogue, the entire defence force and world leadership are also affected and die or go crazy in huge numbers, this was a little too much for me.  Likewise the lack of Mechanicus fleet was a bit weird. There should be a whole orbital zone over a forge world for shipping and trade if nothing else. 

 

Anyhow the hulk crashes on the planet in pieces, many people and marines die, our survivors have to regroup and fight off chaos, and it was fine, but also just predictable, i was excited that the pale nomad wasnt there to start with and we would get a mature Khauri coming into his own, but that was re set by pale nomad forest (coral?) walking to the planet. 

 

Bail Sharr meets up with his company and goes thru a utterly predictable redemption arc (tho i found his character growth nice, a marine with imposter syndrome who basically seeks out to punish himself was fun to see).  They kill chaos, loot some people/stuff and go back into the dark. All perfectly fine if boring.

 

And here is my MAJOR problem, i dont like space sharks because they are normal marines, i dont want to see them on imperial worlds doing standard marine stuff, their cooler aspect is them being in the dark between the stars, fighting new threats, being nomads, exiles, non codex scavengers. I want to see them be the things that make them DIFFERENT. By taking them and putting them in such a normal story, with normal parameters for 40k you lose the chance for us to see and explore the things that set the Charcharodons apart.  Even the second book opens with the Grey tithe and has them go to the ashen claws (sp?), it gives shots and glimpses of a non standard chapter life and lets us experience the nomad predation fleet while also having the imperial planet genestealer plot. 

 

Likewise Bail Sharrs exile, his missdeeds, the exile kill teams are all kinda quickly glossed over, again losing the chance to be anything but a generic space marine battle book. Maybe the problem is my expectations.

 

I want to make clear, i dont need a super special lore dump, they dont need to explore the history of the chapter, or geneseed. I just want chapter books to explore what makes different. This can be in very MUNDANE ways.   This was by far the weaker of the 3 books.

 

 

Edited December 23, 2025 by Nagashsnee

[The Scorpion]

Aye. This felt like bolter porn, unlike the other two entries. Maybe I missed something?

[sitnam]

I read this when it came out, and I enjoyed it, but it was a bit of a step down from the first two books. Kinda surprised me, I loved what MacNiven did with the Exorcists

[Felix Antipodes]

I definitely felt like there was an editorial hand holding MacNiven back after reading this, like he was writing to direction rather than where the story was taking him.  Maybe he just kept it safe after being let back in the door at BL?

[Nagashsnee]

On 12/30/2025 at 9:13 PM, The Scorpion said:

Aye. This felt like bolter porn, unlike the other two entries. Maybe I missed something?

Thats how i felt, like i have missed some missing link.

On 12/31/2025 at 2:01 AM, sitnam said:

I read this when it came out, and I enjoyed it, but it was a bit of a step down from the first two books. Kinda surprised me, I loved what MacNiven did with the Exorcists

It was a fun enough read, but as you said a clear step down. 

On 12/31/2025 at 6:14 AM, Felix Antipodes said:

I definitely felt like there was an editorial hand holding MacNiven back after reading this, like he was writing to direction rather than where the story was taking him.  Maybe he just kept it safe after being let back in the door at BL?

I cant see what the editors wanted to achieve tho, they dont push any specific thing with the ending, its not a primaris polish, no new unit or thing gets highlighted. If he was directed it was poor direction.

 

Thanks all for the reposnes glad it wasnt just me, still a mediocre book is better then a bad one.