Renegades: Lord of Excess

Warhammer 40,000

By: Rich McCormick

Narrated by: Richard Reed

A Warhammer 40,000 Audiobook

The Emperor’s Children seek sensation above all else, but when Xantine's warband come upon an isolated Imperial world, he sees an opportunity to pursue the finer things in life. How long can the proud warlord maintain his 'perfect' rule – and will the planet survive his reign?

LISTEN TO IT BECAUSE

It's a tantalising look into the gleefully twisted minds of the Emperor's Children, as an arrogant warlord strives to 'save' an Imperial world from its own imperfections.

THE STORY

Once a united Legion, the disparate splinters of the Emperor’s Children now eke out a violent, hedonistic existence between the stars, raiding and ravaging worlds to indulge their fathomless appetites.

Xantine, proud leader of the Adored and a true son of Fulgrim, wants more than simply pillaging backwater worlds. He soon finds what he has been searching for – Serrine, a wealthy but cruel planet festering under misrule and inequality, cut off from the Imperium by warp storms. It is too tantalising a prize to ignore, and Xantine sets out to bring perfection to his new world.

But perfection is an elusive concept, and as threats creep from the depths of Serrine and the ranks of the Adored, the rot at the heart of Xantine’s perfect rule is laid bare...

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

Emperor's Children done hilariously right

The EC finally get some love in this book and it's the right way, I always imagine the Emperor's Children as hilariously evil and petty and this book delivers on that. Xantine is legitimately compelling as a protagonist and the humor that comes with his "merry" band of Renegades hits almost every time. Where else are you gonna get Space Marines getting distracted by their own reflection while fighting for their life or the most heinous of hypocrisy and hubris. It's all here in a non-typical Chaos tale; it may have some repetitive diction here and there, but a story with this much variety in tone in 40k is quite rare. Definitely recommend.

Excellent narration, pedestrian storyline.

The narrator carried this fairly bland story to its conclusion. In fairness, it was fun to see the Tyranids pitted against the Emperor’s Children.

All the different enemies.

I never dislike this books they will always be 5 when I review not a single coin. 🤘😉🤘

A good book

It is a fun read, although it gets very slow in the middle. That makes sense. But the motivations of a few characters just fail to make any sense and annoy me a bit. Otherwise good throughout.

Great narration, meh story

Narration was great, storylines seemed a bit contrived. “Oh really, this fight ended with one combatant falling a long distance with a seemingly mortal wound, I wonder if they survived 🙄”

A good Emperor's Children Story.

I honestly thought Lord Of Excess was decent. Historically I really haven't been a big fan of the Emperor's Children as a Legion, or Fulgrim especially as their Primarch. However this story really did a lot for me, and was much better than I thought it would be. My biggest problem is Richard Reed's portrayal of the main character Xantine. I love Richard Reed, and I think he's a phenomenal narrator, and while I think he does quite well with everyone else in the book, the specific voice he does for Xantine just really doesn't fit in my opinion. It bugged me through the whole book. The story is nothing crazy, but it's good for what it is, a bit predictable at points, but certainly not bad. Overall I really liked Lord Of Excess, and if you're already an Emperor's Children fan, I'd say this book is a must have.

Very fun.

First off, because of the title i hope this means we are getting similar books for the other three chaos gods.

Secondly, this book is very fun. It gives us an excellent look into a smaller chaos war-band, the type you hear about that splintered off from even medium sized bands. The cast of characters is where this book really shines, with a good mix of space marines and civilians of all stripes.

Every character's point of view of the adored landing on sirenne is interesting and it doesn't ever feel like you are spending too much time on one character.

The narration is spot on, really no complaints there.

I have a few minor gripes (Gun malfunction as a way to save characters happened too much, for instance) but i was pleasantly surprised by this book.

A Delightful Tale of Excess

It isn't often you listen to a story about the most awful people imaginable, and feel invested. Villains and monsters of every variety vie for what's theirs; deceit, cunning, and twists are around every corner. Sensational!

Solid 4-star

Fun book with references and appearances of characters we love from the Emperors Children. The moments of demon and tyranid insight are the peaks of the book for me. Conclusion was written on the wall for any vet of 40k so the ending wasnt 4-star, more like 2. Would read if youre like me and want to consume background material for any faction. Would not read if youre looking for a mini-series or if you are a fan of other Emperors Children protagonists.

Close to being great

The narration is brilliant and I always love more emperor’s children content! But sadly this story is brought down by a lagging and slow storyline with far too much focus on characters I found hard to care about. I found Xantine and S'janth to be a very interesting characters and I very much enjoyed their storyline. I would say if you like emperor’s children it is worth a listen. Otherwise feel free to skip this one.