Leontus: Lord Solar

Warhammer 40,000 Characters Series

By: Rob Young

Narrated by: David Seddon

A Warhammer 40,000 Audiobook

A saviour pod screams a flaming path through the skies of Fortuna Minor, almost lost amidst the debris that rains down over the arid plains below. The Imperial fleet in orbit is in full retreat, their deployment undone by orkish cunning.

LISTEN TO IT BECAUSE

Follow the story of a leading Imperial military strategist as he attempts to almost single-handedly turn the tide of war against a ferocious ork Waaagh!. Discover how the Astra Militarum fight when they're outnumbered and outgunned.

THE STORY

Fortuna Minor is overrun by Speed Waaagh!s, its population enslaved to build weaponised effigies of the orks’ foul gods. For the Imperial forces on the planet, every hour is a hopeless fight for survival.

But into this nightmare steps Arcadian Leontus – Lord Commander of the Segmentum Solar, peerless tactician and mastermind of countless victories. Even stripped of his armies, Leontus has no intention to merely survive this war. He intends to win it.

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great introduction to the character

the book feels like army roster snapshot in the best possible way, i always like it when great generals can make mistakes and rally from it

A Decent Guard novel

A nice difference to the typical Guard book, even if the writing was a touch simplistic. Multiple small details shined through that showed that the author really knows the lore; when the Ork has his tooth knocked out and he sticks it in his pocket for later spending, big lolz

Lord Solar, lower enlisted edition

Big boss solar gets laid low and rallies a guerilla campaign with all sergeants and below. Short audio book, great time. Both the author and the VA nail the vibe for a story beat like this. VA does a good orc too.

Lot of fun to listen to.

It fleshed out the new character quite well. Far better than Ursula Creed book. Little overpriced for such a short book though.

A surprise for me

This book had the task of getting me to care about Lord Solar Leontus, a relatively new character in the 40k universe. It had to make me understand why this guy was the head of the Solar Segmentum's armies. Luckily it did. Leontus is a badass who is smart, cold at times but ultimately caring for the people under his command, and a great fighter. The supporting cast were great too and I found myself rooting for them to make it. By the end I was into this character. David Seddon's narration was great too, did a good job with the voices. Get this book.

Great story

A short story to drive into the lord solar’s lore! Great audiobook with epic moments

Written to sell a model

First and foremost, the VAs did an excellent job with this title. The side characters of the book were also generally very interesting to follow along. This book perhaps adds the most Attilan lore we’ve had in a while, and Rob Young’s experience in writing Death Korp really shows. That being said, the focus of the book, Leontus himself, leaves a lot to be desired.

We get a story where none of the intrigue of the character really shows up. We don’t see why this man is considered a tactical genius, how he deals with imperial bureaucracy at his position, or any of the other factors that make a guard character of his rank interesting.

Instead, we get what amount to bolter porn where action happens and he shoots “Sol’s Righteous Gaze” over and over again. The story states the name of his gun every time he shoots, which is incredibly annoying. They also managed to shoehorn his mechanical horse in.

The story also never really has a sense of danger until the finale either. We also never see the inner workings of Leontus to any major degree.

If you want a this premise done to a better degree, I would seriously consider getting the third Ciaphas Cain book as it paints a much clearer and more interesting story using the same narrative beats.