Elemental Council

Warhammer 40,000

De: Noah Van Nguyen

Narrado por: Emma Gregory

A Warhammer 40,000 Audiobook

Since the T’au Empire annexed the world of Cao Quo, its benighted human population has caused setback after setback for their new rulers, resisting the light of the Greater Good. Now, an armed rebellion has taken root, led by the ruthless but brilliant Artamax – a Space Marine of the Raptors Chapter.

LISTEN TO IT BECAUSE

Explore the inner workings, politics, and challenges facing members of the T'au as they face a full-scale planetary insurrection from within their own empire. Can a selection of experts from across the castes come together to defeat this insurgency?

THE STORY

In a moment of crisis for the T'au Empire, the enigmatic ethereal Yor’i assembles an elite Elemental Council – a veteran Fireblade, a water caste spy, a peerless air caste pilot, and a maverick earth caste engineer – in the hope of curtailing the growing insurgency on the planet Cao Quo.

But as a full-scale planetary insurrection looms, enemies more cunning than Yor’i’s council could have imagined begin to surface from both sides, and Cao Quo soon finds itself teetering on the brink of being plunged back into a dark age of ignorance, and all-out war.

©2024 Games Workshop Limited (P)2024 Games Workshop Limited

Compelling characters struggling for a victory against the shadowy imperium

My first 40K book. Thought it was a great listen, especially for a Tau fan. I would recommend it to anyone interested in the faction!

A Return to form

For years, Tau stories have felt like hastily rewritten Imperial stories and the rather ridiculous brutality didn’t help either. This story feels like a return to the early Tau novellas and magazine excerpts. The characters were written with depth and I can’t wait to see if we get another book following this Elemental Council.

An interesting look at Tau/human interaction.

Diplomatic battles almost as tense as the real one. a good look at the many methods Tau use for war. Perhaps not as grimdark as many 40k works but still interesting.

This is THE T’au book

I was very excited to read this since it was announced. It promised to be a look into the internal structures of the T’au Empire and the relations between members of the different castes and it most certainly delivered.

“Elemental Council” feels like a deconstruction of the T’au Empire, the Greater Good, the caste system, and what it means to be T’au. It explores the supposed righteousness of the Ethereals and asks how much that they can truly represent the Greater Good. It breathes life into the characters and gives them vibrant personalities. The characters are very likable and each one of them has an interesting story and relation to the other characters, whether it’s already existent or developed during the course of the story.

The story shows both hope and despair for the future of the T’au Empire. It shows the good parts of the Empire, as well as showing its failures and inadequacies, all without dwelling one too much. The T’au are allowed to be right, they’re allowed to have good ideas of peace and unity, but they’re also allowed within the story to be misguided and passive to their authoritarian empire that governs them.

The book also adds a lot of potential for future T’au stories, while also not feeling like it’s all too important. And it really feels like an appropriately grimdark story for the universe that it takes place in.

Overall, “Elemental Council” is a superb book that balances deconstruction of the T’au faction with a good story and entertaining events throughout the book. I’d recommend it for any T’au fan or anyone seeking to learn more about the T’au. It was truly amazing to experience and is likely my favorite Warhammer 40,000 book.

love the kroot

I love kroot! he was my fav character of the book and how he moved along in the story can't beat a good kroot

The Battle for the Greater (Interpretations of) Good

This is one of the best 40k books in the last couple years, and there has been some fantastic ones. Nguyen has stood out in this, not just as a Warhammer author but an author in general. The way the narrative is structured, and the journey it takes you, the twists, the turns, the laughs, and the TEARS. What a fantastic book this was, the characters were so life like I was literally cheering at times. I usually listen to the audiobooks when going to bed but I honestly could not sleep as this was just so captivating. Elemental Council is seriously a superb novel and if you are a fan of fiction in general, you will like this. I can't say it enough READ LISTEN, whatever it may be, get this book! Thank you so much to the author for providing me this experience, I feely life is actually net-better afterwards. I was already a fan of the other T'au novels, but this is a league of its own.

The first good Tau book on audible, and a must read for Tau fans

Tau have a reputation for having bad books. While usually warranted, this book is the exception. Part hiest, part mystery, part war story, this book uses the Tau to their fullest literary ability. The story follows a group of 5 Tau, one from each caste, attempting to save a captured ethereal from a rebelling human world. The story has several exciting twists and the characters all came to grow on me. This is a must read for Tau fans.

Not just good, it's a Greater Good.

A book for Tau fans. A warning, your enjoyment will depend on how you feel about the characters and their arcs. Thankfully those characters and their arcs are great. The only real flaw was the antagonizing forces were kept shadowed a bit too long for my taste. It all came together excellently in the end though.

A perfect Ten

Elemental Council feels like a love letter to warhammer fans as well as Tau fans specifically. The author uses the setting to address many of the myths and memes about the Tau, finding a perfect middle ground of making them true but not unreasonable, or formerly true but no longer. This is a story of living up to your own expectations, and the pressure of finding your place in a common cause. I’m very happy with how it turned out, and will be coming back to it again and again.

Tactical, cunning and brilliant.

This is a fantastic novel, and is far better than I expected. Noah has proven how well he writes 40K action and intrigue. While a bit of a slow start, it quickly picks up and keeps you guessing and invested in the story. It is balanced between realism and grimdark, and has something for every kind of 40K fan, be you fanatic of the imperium of man, or sympathetic to the greater good of the Tau empire. Truly a great work of fiction, here’s hoping for more.