Hive - Dan Abnett

[cheywood]

Only about a 10th of the way through, but I am absolutely loving it. Could easily see it being my favorite BL novel of all time. It’s sprawling and filled with world building yes, but it also feels like a clear through line is being established narratively. It’s definitely more complex than the vast majority of 40k fiction, but anyone who’s read Game of Thrones (or any overstuffed fantasy/sf series) could pretty easily follow this. It’s nothing like Pariah or The End and the Death where you’re left trying to parse sentences or figure out what in the world is happening to the main characters. The prose is accessible and measured, with some unique but perfectly intelligible dialogue styles to represent the difference between various cultures. It feels like if Necropolis or Titanicus grew up from something fixated on war to something fixated on culture and people. Didn’t think we’d ever really get something like this from BL.

[Sothalor]

People be like "its Warhammer Crime in disguise"...

 

Spoiler

It's actually Warhammer Horror in disguise.

 

And hot damn if it isn't the most magnificent rope-a-dope bait and switch.

 

I'll make the argument right now that all the worldbuilding and vocabulary do an incredible job of immersive misdirection to suck you into its world so it can hit you with the full force of something that loses a lot of impact by being an outside "Warhammer 40000 hobbyist."

 

[Taliesin]

Why is it more horror than crime?

Edited May 26 by Taliesin

[Termalatur_Timmy]

I finished the book and am left a bit disappointed. As everyone already mentioned, the descriptions of the hive and its social and physical strata were really well done. In my opinion the vocabulary is 95% of the time understandable from context, and really adds to the feeling of the hive being alive and having its own culture that outsiders might have trouble navigating. I really think it added a lot to the atmosphere. Some current day social issues represented in the books took me a bit out of it, but I'll admit I'm sensitive to that stuff. Where I think the book really suffered is the overarching story. I feel like I played an AAA game where world building, art direction, voice acting, music, technical functionality all were 10/10, but they forgot to put actually engaging game-play in.

 

Spoiler

As far as I can remember, none of the characters were faced with any tough choices. None of them really had to compromise on their morals. They all did what you would expect a good person to do in a relatively clear cut situation. None of them introduced any kind of drama, all of it was there purely to show off how people in different strata lived viewed and interacted with each other.

 

The story twist itself made me groan out loud. I had a hunch I was in for Genestealers relatively early, but held out hope for a political drama. Dan had a good set up where the Domne/Governor had to balance the ludicrous tithe demands imposed by the Arbites, her popularity in the hive, and her obligation as planetary governor to aid the smaller, second hive after a brutal civil war that left little room for solidarity. All that got cut criminally short by the whole 'Genestealers have been here for long enough to call the nids, and all of this was doomed from page 1' thing.

 

Not noticing an invasion does work well with the 'there is only the hive and the outside' theme, and a literal hive within the hive is a neat idea. Maybe readers who haven't read enough 40k to expect genestealer cults behind every corner will feel less robbed.

 

 

[Fedor]

It's a great 40k book about the insignificance and insular ignorance of the typical Imperial Hive World inhabitants. Then they meet a monster.

[Taliesin]

Received my copy, hated the "slipcase" as I thought I might. Very poor material. Didnt get the books out , for a start. And then the slipcase was just flimsy, I ripped it apart and put it in the trash. In terms of book size I am not quite sure why this could not have been 1 big book. I dont mind 2 books but they did charge a lot more, which was surely why they split it. 

Edited June 2 by Taliesin

[DukeLeto69]

16 hours ago, Taliesin said:

Received my copy, hated the "slipcase" as I thought I might. Very poor material. Didnt get the books out , for a start. And then the slipcase was just flimsy, I ripped it apart and put it in the trash. In terms of book size I am not quite sure why this could not have been 1 big book. I dont mind 2 books but they did charge a lot more, which was surely why they split it. 

Pure business model stuff. They found that with the Urdesh books. Nobody will buy half the story! Milking milking milking!

[DarkChaplain]

It's actually a good chunk longer than any of the The End and the Death parts, by around 30%, going by my calibre plugin. Same rough increase in runtime for the audiobook compared with TEATD 1 or 2. 3 is actually a good bit shorter (which makes it even more annoying how Dan handled the ending).

 

Comparing it to Urdesh is actually not that much of a discrepancy. Yes, Urdesh is slightly shorter, but only by about 5-10% I'd say.

 

 

[DukeLeto69]

I missed out on getting the HB (first time ever with an Abnett book - I actually forgot which shows my diminishing interest in W40k) so feeling a bit salty. Hoping they come out in paperback as don’t do ebooks.

[DarkChaplain]

3 hours ago, DukeLeto69 said:

I missed out on getting the HB (first time ever with an Abnett book - I actually forgot which shows my diminishing interest in W40k) so feeling a bit salty. Hoping they come out in paperback as don’t do ebooks.

 

The Print on Demand order window is still open right now, by the way. Regular hardback set for 55€, premium edition at 100€.

 

Orders close in 20h from now, so it's the final day already. Silly to not have more than a few days for it, considering the 180 day fulfillment window.

[Lord_Ikka]

Just finished the book and am fairly pleased. Abnett is one of my personal favorite BL authors and I like the fact that like Peter Fehervari, he doesn't always write a paint-by-numbers tale that so many of the 40k books turn into (especially in their third arcs). 

 

If you are looking for a character-driven book story like any of the Gaunt's Ghosts series, look elsewhere. This book is all about thematic feelings and more importantly, a specific place as both a character and setting, rather than the individual mortal components that are telling the story through their experiences. I totally understand that this won't be choice that everyone likes, but I did. It is also very much a horror novel rather than anything that could be thought of as a political thriller, mystery, or combat novel, though it takes elements from all of those. 

 

I definitely think that the slang in the beginning was something that you just have to get through. Context clues help, but for the most part early on it felt like the beginning of Bequin when she was talking about Queen Mab and I didn't really have an idea what was going on. It smooths out after a bit, or it did for me, as my mind just kind of fills in the words with place-holder text, but I understand the frustration that some people have with it.

 

Overall I enjoyed the book. Definitely a different take on the main plot point, with a creeping horror that I don't think I've seen in that particular conflict.

[Preliminary Bombardment]

I’ve just started this, pleasing so far 

[malika666]

Any easter eggs / hints / mentions of other Abnett-verse stuff in there? So stuff related to the Eisenhorn/Ravenor/Bequin, Gaunt's Ghosts, or HH series?

[1ncarnadine]

On 6/10/2026 at 9:45 AM, malika666 said:

Any easter eggs / hints / mentions of other Abnett-verse stuff in there? So stuff related to the Eisenhorn/Ravenor/Bequin, Gaunt's Ghosts, or HH series?

It's mostly self-contained, though you do see the occasional mention of a Tronsvasse pistol or things like SteG armoured vehicles (presumably from Urdesh).

[Lord_Ikka]

Goonhammer/Tabletop Battles did a pretty good review here. 

[Firedrake Cordova]

I'm about 10 hours into the audio book, and I'm enjoying it so far. As usual with Toby Longworth, the narration is excellent. The hour-long chapters (very few are under 50 minutes) do make it a little difficult to schedule in outside of big chunks, though.
 

I've seen descriptions of it being reminiscent of a Warhammer Crime novel, which I think is a fair description of the "feel" (I would add that I really enjoyed the Warhammer Crime series).

[DarkChaplain]

Yeah, whoever edited this really messed up by not splitting up the chapters into more digestible chunks. The audiobook has additional halfway chapter markers, which helps, but without those being added solely for the sake of navigating the audiobook, we're talking about 1:30h to 2h chapters.

 

You simply can't tell me that there were no points where Abnett could've split them up, or that they all needed to be under the same chapter header. Heck, could've even used sub-chapters/numbered sections, which wouldn't be a first in an Abnett novel.

 

This is the sort of thing where an editor should have raised the issue. This is a big chonker of a book, so long, they had to split it up. Editors should have readability and accessibility on their radar, to make sure the finished book is actually digestible, and that you can find your place easily enough if you happen to miss it. It's the bare minimum of reader accomodation to not endlessly textwall them but maintain a steady flow that makes it able to tell they're progressing at a comfortable pace, instead of getting bogged down in scene 30 of a single chapter. In this case, it seems again that they just let Abnett do his thing and didn't meddle even on the finishing stages, even though that'd have been their job.

[Firedrake Cordova]

On 6/21/2026 at 12:12 PM, DarkChaplain said:

Yeah, whoever edited this really messed up by not splitting up the chapters into more digestible chunks. The audiobook has additional halfway chapter markers, which helps, but without those being added solely for the sake of navigating the audiobook, we're talking about 1:30h to 2h chapters.

I ended up using the "scene changes" within the chapters as stopping points. Obviously that's not the most convenient method, as it's unknown whether the scene you're in is 5 minutes or 30 minutes long. Inconvenient, but didn't stop me really enjoying the book.

 

On 5/18/2026 at 10:53 AM, DarkChaplain said:

There's actually a section in the Afterword about this, haha.

Thanks for that - the audiobook is missing the afterword.  

 

Having finished the book ...

Spoiler

I thought the setting was an interesting one and well fleshed out. I'd have been happy to see further stories set within the hive a la Varangantua, but given the rather cataclysmic ending, that's not possible, except as a prequel, I guess.

 

I'll admit, I didn't get the Genestealer Cult connection straight off (I initially thought Slaaneshi cult given the use of purple and having names like Cacophanist and Agonist), and if I'm honest, I have mixed feelings about that turn - whilst I feel it worked well in the context of the story, personally I'd rather have seen it concentrate on the internal situation and that with Ostrica, with the possibility of more stories (although given Abnett's writing schedule, I'm guessing we'd be waiting some time).

 

Edited June 25 by Firedrake Cordova

[W.A.Rorie]

So I am only 25 Minutes in or so, into the Audible version. It is interesting, but not fully invested yet.  

[jingus]

Probably as good as anything Abnett has ever done (which is great, he's the best!), and pretty sad. 

I wish it had been longer just to spend some more time with that world and those characters. A tremendous novel 

[Firedrake Cordova]

On 6/28/2026 at 7:34 PM, jingus said:

I wish it had been longer just to spend some more time with that world and those characters.

That was my feeling, too.  (or should that be ?)

[Knockagh]

Dan is a fabulous writer and I love his style,  and as much as I am enjoying reading this the constant bouncing around character lines is getting pretty exhausting. I will never complain, too much, about a book from Dan, particularly one like this where he gets to build fabulous worlds but I definitely find I loose immersion into the story with the bouncing around.

[The Scorpion]

This is turning out better than I expected. Even with things like the copious use of jargon and the lingo I've had to swallow my words.

 

I felt slightly annoyed at hearing characters say "plenty be your light" at every turn. I get it, I told myself, a measure of uniqueness has been established. This place will have slang like necromunda dies. And for a while that was it, but then I saw the 

Spoiler

Slanneshi heretics open their secret meeting with "plenty be your plenty" and it gave me chills. After hearing the regular variant for a hundred or so pages this felt so appropriatly... wrong. An utter perversion of everyday life.

 

One of the mfs at the meeting liked to snort Neg smog like a delicacy, even though most Neg characters resent living there at all. It goes to show how removed from the rest of the characters these people are, as they should be.

From there on, I just decided to trust the process. And I haven't regretted it.

Edited July 15 by The Scorpion

[The Scorpion]

On 5/30/2026 at 8:51 AM, Termalatur_Timmy said:

I finished the book and am left a bit disappointed. As everyone already mentioned, the descriptions of the hive and its social and physical strata were really well done. In my opinion the vocabulary is 95% of the time understandable from context, and really adds to the feeling of the hive being alive and having its own culture that outsiders might have trouble navigating. I really think it added a lot to the atmosphere. Some current day social issues represented in the books took me a bit out of it, but I'll admit I'm sensitive to that stuff. Where I think the book really suffered is the overarching story. I feel like I played an AAA game where world building, art direction, voice acting, music, technical functionality all were 10/10, but they forgot to put actually engaging game-play in.

 

  Reveal hidden contents

As far as I can remember, none of the characters were faced with any tough choices. None of them really had to compromise on their morals. They all did what you would expect a good person to do in a relatively clear cut situation. None of them introduced any kind of drama, all of it was there purely to show off how people in different strata lived viewed and interacted with each other.

 

The story twist itself made me groan out loud. I had a hunch I was in for Genestealers relatively early, but held out hope for a political drama. Dan had a good set up where the Domne/Governor had to balance the ludicrous tithe demands imposed by the Arbites, her popularity in the hive, and her obligation as planetary governor to aid the smaller, second hive after a brutal civil war that left little room for solidarity. All that got cut criminally short by the whole 'Genestealers have been here for long enough to call the nids, and all of this was doomed from page 1' thing.

 

Not noticing an invasion does work well with the 'there is only the hive and the outside' theme, and a literal hive within the hive is a neat idea. Maybe readers who haven't read enough 40k to expect genestealer cults behind every corner will feel less robbed.

 

 

I regret trusting the process, only a bit, but I regret it.

 

This turned out to be exactly what it says on the tin: the story of a Hive city.

 

But the main character is the HIVE, not the characters who live in it. All the POVs are secondary characters, with many arcs having personal devellopment and great character moments but amounting to nothing plotwise.

 

There are some characters who wrestle tough choices, some proactive ones who are not passive witnesses of the story, and some whose actions affect the plot, but there is no one character that has all three at once.

 

The end result is characters whose end to their story line is redundant, or pointless (they had served their purpose several chapters before the end of the novel), or who spent their whole plots being carried out by the tides of the larger happenings of the Hive.

 

Take it for what it is: a snapshot of life and death in a hive city.

[1ncarnadine]

I don't feel that the hive was meant to be a character. This book is more about the culture of a hive, and creating an example for the depth of culture that hive cities in the Imperium should have. The culture of the hive is a character much more so than the hive itself.

Edited July 20 by 1ncarnadine