Adeptus Ridiculous - FLESH AND STEEL | Warhammer 40k Book Club

Episode Date: August 23, 2025

https://www.patreon.com/AdeptusRidiculoushttps://www.adeptusridiculous.com/https://twitter.com/AdRidiculoushttps://shop.orchideight.com/collections/adeptus-ridiculousBorn into riches, Probator Symeon Noctis attempts to atone for his past sins by championing the powerless of Nearsteel district. But the sprawling city of Varangantua is uncaring of its masses, and when a bisected corpse is discovered in the neutral zone between Nearsteel and the Adeptus Mechanicus enclave of Steelmound, Noctis finds himself cast into his most dangerous case yet.Partnering with the tech-priest Rho-1 Lux of the Collegiate Extremis, Noctis is drawn into a murky world of tech-heresy, illegal servitors and exploitation that could end his career, or his life.Support the show

Welcome everybody to The Book Club, where we listen and or read books. There is an and in that possible sentence. And we are back discussing another Warhammer 40K novel. Before we get started, if you enjoy this podcast and these bonus episodes, go ahead and check out patreon.com slash adeptus Ridiculous, where you can get access to the posters, bloopers, the Discord, and all that good stuff. And if you want to buy any of those posters in a physical form, you may check them out at Orcadate.com. Link in the description. Yippee.

Ooh, love those links in the description. Love that poster too. Hey. Hey, such is the power. Such is the power. You know, it's as they say. Yeah, Bricky, what do they say? I don't know.

What do they say, sir? Is that the only thing they say about Nagash? Such is the power of Nagash Yeah, that's the big one Yeah, such is Such truly is He's pretty petty too, I guess Right?

Like he's, he's petty guy I feel like most He won't die I feel like most Like tomb kings Slash like evil skeleton People tend to be very petty And by that I mean

Tomb Kings and Necrons Oh yeah Tomb Kings are so petty All of them so petty Yeah that's fair If they could just get along They would have ruled the world but no, no.

Speaking of Petty, today's book is flesh and steel. Flesh and Steel. Flesh and Steel. It is written by the one and only Guy Haley, if I am unmistaken. And it is narrated by, I do not remember the name off the top of my head.

I was trying to be quick enough to find it on Audible before I made that statement. but unfortunately I was too slow. It is narrated by James McNaughton. I probably butcher that. McNaughton? McNaughton? Sure.

It's fine. But yes, written by Guy Haley, who is a very prolific author of Games Workshop properties. There are many Guy Haley books. I do not know if we have heard James in a prior 40K book and looking at his voice

acting credits on Audible, we have not. Hey, I was going to say the name doesn't sound familiar, the voice didn't sound familiar, so I would definitely go with. This is our first time, yeah. Yeah. Now, Guy Haley has written a substantial amount of books. A slew of books, yeah. Yes, a substantial amount of books.

And so there have been many, many Guy Haley is out there. But all that aside, yeah, this is a very fascinating book. We are going to start off with non-spoilers, and we will give you a very clear and obvious statement when we start moving into real spoilers. But would you like to give us a plot synopsis, D.K., of flesh and steel? Oh, boy, a plot synopsis.

So we're following Noctus. He's a probator. And he's sort of your... I'm not undercover cop. He's just sort of your cop on the streets. He drinks a lot. He doesn't get enough sleep. His only love in the world is his silly little, his silly little cat.

And I think at the outset of the book, his main goal is like, oh, what? Like he's trying to find the missing daughter of the, shoot, what's the family, the Marttruenskas? It's some very difficult name, but it is the missing daughter of a very rich family. Very, very rich family. and he seems a little down on his luck, but he's actually from a very wealthy family that he left, and he's sort of just going his own way on the mean streets of electo.

And Veringensua. Vergenchua, right. The same location in Bloodlines, a personal favorite book from myself. Right, right. And he gets put on a new week, murder that happened in Varengansua where someone was cut in half and left on, I think one side is the Adeptus Mechanicus side and the other side is not. And it's like, oh boy, why would someone do this? And this is sort of like where we pick up his adventures, right? I don't want to like give too much way. But that's like sort of like the, oh, God, what, how did this happen? I would. Well, I mean, we can we can explain the one part where the, um, the, the, um, the, The murder was committed by a servitor.

A servitor, yeah. Yes. That they think malfunctioned or went haywire, and it's like, servitors shouldn't be able to do that. Their master? Also, the murder had a lot of aspects of a cover-up, despite it being a servitor, which is very strange. So. Very odd. And he also partners with Roe 1 Lux, an ad mech lady.

That is like, she's like a tech priest-ish, but she is also a bit like lower. on the amount of augmentics that she has. So a bit more human than your average tech priest. And the two of them represent both sides of the part, which helps a lot with the title, which is flesh and steel. Steel. Yeah, Noctus is the flesh.

She's the steel. And so, that's the general synopsis. The book is about 900, nope, nope. It's like 530-ish pages, I want to say. Yep, it's a little difficult to determine it via, audiobook length because it can depend on the narrator. But it is nine hours and about 23 minutes of an audiobook, which I believe puts it square in average length.

Yeah, it's not a super long one. It's not a super short one. Yeah, it's, it hits the average. Although I found like it felt like it just zoomed by to me. Like it didn't seem like a really like long book. I felt like, you know, it was, is a quick read. I would agree. I would say that obviously there's a lot of aspects to it.

I found slang hilarious now that I'm on Audible. They misspelled Guy Haley's name. Oh, no. You go to Audible.com and it's like by Guy Haley and it's H-A-Y-L-E-Y. And I'm like, what do you mean? He only has six writing credits. And I realized, and I looked at the cover, it's Guy, H-A-L-E-Y. They added a why in there for some reason.

You're right. They did misspell his name. Yeah. And I'm like, Guy Ali has written a lot more than this. Why, you know, why is he not like, why are there not many things? Like, didn't we read his Belisarius call book? And then I found it. I'm like, yeah, we did.

Yeah, they, they have several instances where they've misspelled his name. Yeah. Yeah, very bizarre. But, anywho, all that aside. The audiobook is narrated by James McNaughton, who as we mentioned, has not a ton of Warhammer. I think this might actually be the only Warhammer book that he has narrated, unless they also spelled his name wrong. And what were your thoughts on James's VA? So I didn't think they did a bad job, but I have the unfortunate.

So I started reading this in physical print on my Kindle. And in my brain, I thought Noctus would sound a lot more gruff and almost like this sort of gravelly like Batman voice just because like he's presented as like this like really gruff cop. You know, he's like, I'm on the streets. I'm doing the hard labor. And so I was kind of expecting this really gravelly voice. And then when I went to Audible, it was.

wasn't quite that, and I think it's just my own bias towards, like, how I initially internalized his voice. But I think he did all right. I think he did fine. I think, you know, it wasn't a distracting thing. It wasn't a bad reading. He was convincing. So, you know, it was fine. Yeah, and I think James did a pretty good job. I think, especially if you're a narrator who doesn't do a lot of 40K, getting that feeling is a bit tough. I actually think that he did a fine job. I would like to see him more because I think once he really engages heavily in understanding how to do VA work for this kind of world, I think he can come into his own because I actually

found his narration of Noctus to be, Noctus and actually Ro 1 to be pretty good. they both sound like just general folks I imagine you probably thought that Noctus would sound like Noctus's superior who like tries to quit smoking Yeah exactly Which I imagine probably is That's closer where I had in my mind too

But I imagine doing that voice the whole time Would have been quite difficult Oh yeah But I also I actually was really surprised Because he occasionally his narration And his Noctus voice were very similar He didn't really put on like a huge voice for Noctus, but then he would go to some of the other random people voices, and it would be like

a whole different person. Well, sometimes it was a whole different person because the, uh, Ro one's parts are narrated by, by, uh, by a female voice actor or actress, um, which actually is not listed, which is not listed here, which is actually very annoying. You know, I, I, I did not realize that. And I was like, wow. I was about to say, but man, his Ro one Lux is incredible. I was stunned at how well he did Ro one. Unlux. It's crazy. He's really got that feminine voice down. It's insane. And well, there you go.

Yeah, yeah. And it's like, no, yeah, no, that's a different person. It's not here. It's actually unfortunate. They should really add her narration credit to this. Because it just says narrated by James McNana. Unless he did it. And if he did it, then holy shit. Maybe he did. Maybe he just is that good. He is just him.

That go crazy. But, um, but yeah. But yeah, uh, the, sometimes he would end up playing a character, like he would end up playing an ad mech or a particular kind of little old man hermit and his voice would just swap so heavily differently. And I was like, oh my God, that was impressive, you know? So I'd love to see, I love to see him do a few more of these because I feel like, I feel like he did decent, but I feel like he could really do well with a little more practice of the material. Yeah, really let the horse out of the stable and just let it rip.

Yeah. What were your thoughts on the general page? of the book. One of the things that I think about a lot when I listen to audiobooks is, because I know you started reading it physically, but whenever I listen to an audio book, a telltale sign that the book is really good is when my focus on whatever I'm doing, like driving or whatever, my brain tends to wander, if it kind of like gets more consistently pulled back to the topic of the book. Like obviously, I'm always like listening and digesting the information, but there are some times where I kind of like my mind gets a little bit wandering when things aren't getting very interesting. Yeah.

And certain of books get that way. I find that my mind tends to wander when they get overly descriptive and they're just, they get really into like, yeah, look at how grim dark this setting is. The dust arises on the city like clouding out the sun because of how depressing it is and the steel walls are shimmering with darkness. grime and it just goes on like that for like three and a half pages and I'm just like completely zoning out but um I thought the pacing was pretty good I never really felt like I was like oh man come on come on speed it up speed it up uh it felt like there was always a solid bit of like oh that's an interesting thing or like where exactly is this going or like I think I know where this is going but like man I can't wait for them to get to that part and what's going on with his daughter because they're

alluding to something going on with his daughter and there's corruption everywhere and why is this guy cut in half and oh my god we're going to the servitor part and um i felt like there was like enough suspense and enough just general action and answering a question but needing to have but that answer leading to like 18 more questions that it always felt pretty well-paced pretty snappy pretty engaging pretty you know so i i thought it was pretty well-paced i i'd agree i think the slowest part of the book is actually the opening. But I think it's mainly because it's just a lot of setup. Yep. Setting up the guy getting the journal and then reading it and being like, is this it? Yeah, though, that part, but also just, I think it's weird. It's both my positive

and negative simultaneously. And then the opening takes its time, which is both amazing because I'm glad it took its time, but it also was a little slow because it took its time. Yeah. I think definitely what I like the most about the intro is the fact, oh, sorry, what I dislike the most about the intro is that every 40K book requires you to explain 40K to an extent, you know? Yep. Like, we've been told what the Mechanicus is, maybe 100 times, you know? And like, I get it. You have to because it's, you know, you got to explain it for the, for the reader, who doesn't

know these things, but I'm tired of it because I've heard it so many times. But that's more of like an exposition. Well, it is exposition, but more of an exposure thing. But after the first like two hours of the initial book, which was like fine, not bad, it picked up really well. And I barreled through this book. Yeah, same. Yeah. Yeah, I feel like with the crime book specifically, you really got, like, you almost have to go into the explanation of 40K.

Like if it's book 25 of the Horace heresy, you can skip that part. but I feel like in flesh and steel and like bloodline it's like yeah we really better explain it again just in case this is someone's first time reading this and yeah yeah I mean I will say that for the most part the exposition on the world of Warhammer

wasn't too bad there were occasional moments especially when they visited the admec factory where they really heavily added a lot of that just because the concept of the admec is even a little difficult to understand for more veteran 40K players about the pursuit of knowledge and stuff, as opposed to just like, I love lopping off my limbs and replacing them with metal. You know, it takes a little bit to fully get it. But all with that, that being said, I think the pacing of the book was breakneck.

I was really enjoying it almost the entire way. And even the parts that are considered slow, like a lot of the noctists and row one stuff, where we're actually quite good. Yeah, I actually kind of like their interactions because Roe is like this sort of like, I mean, she's kind of your typical admec, but she does have moments of like, oh, it's an admec that has emotion

that isn't completely detached from her human side. And then you have Noctus who is just undercover drunk cop that just hates everybody and everything, kind of. And it's a nice interaction between the two. And he also obviously has the hots for Row 1 Lux, because apparently Ro 1 Lux, despite being Admec, is very pretty. Yes, she is a very pretty person,

despite her weird augmentations. Also, Noctus is an undercover. I think he's a detective. Right, yeah, he's just like a beat cop. He's like, yeah. He's a detective, yeah. Yeah, he's a detective, yeah, not underc. I don't know why.

I keep thinking of him as an undercover cop. He's not. He's very not undercover. Detectives occasionally do like undercover-looking things. So I'm sure, you know, but he's not like a rat or nothing. Yeah. Moving from that, as far as the adaptation of the Warhammer setting is one thing, a note that I want to always mention because lots of books adapt Warhammer in certain ways.

I think they did a pretty good job. I will say, I think a little bit less than other books, though. I think they do the thing where they definitely wanted to make it more accessible from a new person perspective. so they do a lot of the stuff that other Warhammer books tend not to do, which is used like earth slang like shit and fuck. Yeah. Which sometimes, I hate to say that it takes me out of the book sometimes,

but it kind of does sometimes. Just the tiniest bit, I think it's because I'm just so used to it being our slang that I normally hear, maybe I'm too used to Gaunt's Ghosts where they go like, ah, fething this or something, right? Oh, that's true. They did do fething in Gons Coast, didn't they? Yeah. So I think maybe I just have a little bit of like a mental blockage when it comes to that stuff.

Not not at the fault of the book. But I think for the most part it was a pretty good adaptation, though I think it adapted less than other books in terms of like how hard. Because when you war hammerize your book, you take like a percentage. You know, this is like like an 80% like heavy warhammerish type thing. This is like a 90. This is like a 50. Like it's a pretty classic story That just has a light coat of paint

Not a very heavy coat of paint This is no Horace Rising Definitely yeah It does feel like it was like Oh yeah We've got this really great detective story Let's just let's put a little Let's put a Warhammer coat of paint on it

But I feel like they They did good enough in like The Warhammer stuff Like the Admec the servitors What are servitors Why would someone buy a servitor what do you mean a server or doesn't have a personality? Why is it illegal that a server or has a personality?

Why is it illegal that there's something left? What's this thing with Mars? And so I felt like when they had to explain 40K stuff, they did it, they did it quite well. And I feel like even if you're not familiar with 40K, like this isn't a bad book to pick up. Like you'll still, by and large, understand what's going on and why it's happening,

even if you're not like, you know, a 40-year veteran of, of the franchise. Yeah, I think that's kind of part of it for me, which is like it is, in a sense, a combination of, the less you heavily adapt the world of 40K, excuse me, the less you heavily adapt the world of 40K,

the more new person friendly it becomes. So it's like a little bit of a scale. And being able to do both the same time, I think is very difficult. But I genuinely feel, that at a lot of points in time, the less and the more, I don't know how you say, exceptions they make throughout the book help a ton with making it more accessible for new people. It's actually one of the reasons why I recommend Bloodlines so much because Bloodlines is, I think, such a really good new person novel because it doesn't go too crazy in the 40Kifying nature of it all. And so I think it works with both.

I think it's adapted decently enough, but it's not too over the top where you need to know what all of these things are. Like they refer to a lot of things like calm beads. They don't call them like voxes. That's right. They don't, yeah. And like even he has like a felonid, which they explain very quickly as a cat, you know?

And I was surprised that they were like, oh yeah, not many people know what a felonid is. Only the richest of the rich get a felon. And everybody else is like, do those things talk? What is that thing on your lap? And it's like, it's a cat, you dope. And it's like, oh, okay, whatever. No, absolutely.

And I think that's an important little distinction there, but they do it pretty well. Real quick, obviously, we have our overall recommendations for the book. Shy obviously has her own and she's voiced it with her text of speech. I think maybe if anything, we can go ahead and give our quick recommendations and then splice in Shai's part of the review and then go from there. So what would you give it in terms of like a general recommendation? I would give this a solid like whether you are new to 40K or you are like an old head. I would say it's a good pickup because it's just, you know, it's just it's a good story. whether or not you're into 40k or not

a good story is a good story I felt like it really got the grime and the grit of 40K and yeah and also God that servitor part is still that that part's never going to leave me yeah that part that part's awful it's the worst and it's just like

oh yeah by the way of course they didn't euthanize them because they're ad mag that's like trying to tell them to euthanize the nail before it gets it with the hammer And it's like, oh, God, oh, Jesus. You're right, but Jesus. So, yeah, my recommendation is, yeah, pick this up. I'd give it a solid like eight and a half at a 10. That's about what I would give, too.

I think the book is very good. I think it goes by very quickly. I think the narration is, for the most part, quite solid. The pacing is really good. I would give it probably like a B plus to A minus, give or take. I can't find a whole lot of faults in the book without going into the spoilers. And I have a couple, I have a couple issues with the book in spoiler territory. But overall, I would say it's a solid pickup. And I would also say it's a solid pickup for those who are

less deep in the trenches of the actual Warhammer world. I think it would be a book that might do quite well for someone who even does not understand enough about the 40K world. All right, Shai has a quick review. That's no spoiler as well. And then after that, we'll jump right into spoilers. No spoiler review. Bye, Shy. I'll start with strengths. The main appeal of this book for me is the world building, the description of the city, and the overview of the life of average citizens, comparing it to the insane life of 1% nobility. My favorite example is the protagonist giving 10,000 slates to a poor woman, and the explanation that it would pay for a new apartment, medical care, and enrollment in Descola for her kids, or less than one second

of a nobleman burning real wood in a fireplace just for vibes. And also juxtaposing average citizens and nobles, who are at least humans, with the life of Admec in their conclave, which is just traumatizing to regular human perception. Their depiction and their conclave kind of reminded me of the combine and their citadel in half-life too. Also, can't skip over our boy Simeon Noctus,

who is an interesting case. Compared to, say, bloodlines, where Zadaroff was a pretty classic depressed fat noir, detective, Noctus is a shitter. He is sarcastic, flippant, and very much sees through the fallibility of the Imperium to sometimes heretical levels. But he is also a very good guy who genuinely cares about the people to a fault. Yet also, as an additional level, is a rich boy who basically pretends to be a regular Joe. And despite all his efforts to not be a rich asshole, he sometimes snaps and treats some people really shittily. As well, despite hating the riches and nobility,

He still lives in a really nice apartment and drives an expensive car. Though, to be fair, he admits to being a hypocrite. I think he is a great character, and sometimes I was more interested in his dark backstory than in the main crime. Downsides, boy, this is wordy. At one point I had to switch that bitch to 1.5x speed, because sometimes the book likes to stop dead and describes some apartment complex, then the interior of it, then a room inside of it, in insanely great detail, even if it never gets mentioned again and plays

no big role. Yes, this attention to detail is what makes world-building great, but Guy Haley goes a bit too hard and far in a few places. I think the audiobook could have been like 1.5 hours shorter. The mystery. I don't know. I don't claim to have a 200 IQ, but I figured out the gist of it pretty quick. And the last, and also least, Ro 1 Lux. Yeah, sorry, I didn't care for her at all. I appreciate Noctus going for the dream of all the gamers out there and trying to get an admec wifu, but she doesn't get that much screen time. She is just a cold, distant lady with rare flashes of humanity that she is trying to suppress.

I don't get what Noctus saw on her, and I didn't see that shit going anywhere. But none of that is a deal-breaker. I think it's an immersive book, with great characters surrounded by a very interesting world, and I really liked it. I don't know what score I would give it, probably around eight.

Finally, there's a fun Meta-Post credit second ending. No big spoilers. Since the book is structured as a book, a memoir. As the in-universe character finishes reading the book, he does the SpongeBob Patchy the pirate meme of that's it? Then proceeds to tell the author to present it as a proper report

next time, instead of flowery prose. Oh, and once again, seeing everyone in universe hating admec is really funny, and as usual, it's completely justified. It is truly understated in the 40K community what a bunch of evil, scary motherfuckers these cogs are.

So, with that all said and done, Spoilers now You know, I think I think for the most part There's some agreements I actually, you know I didn't really think that very much through

Yeah, Roe 1 I actually feel like as a character Was a bit better served Because of Noctus's infatuation with her As opposed to her being like Because now I think about it

She's not like super interesting Yeah, she's And I feel like Actually a lot of her screen screen time is her like, it's like,

oh yeah, this was taken directly from her mem core or something. And it wasn't even like her interactions with not this for the most part.

It was a lot of just like, oh yeah, we took this from her memory core when, you know, big thing at the end happened, right? Yeah,

I mean, at the end of the day, I think the part I like to withdraw one the most is when they're drinking. Yeah. And that was the one part where I was like,

oh, okay, okay. Maybe there's a little bit something here, but then never really, nothing ever really happened after that. That's the one scene I do like about her, and I feel like that was, it was underserviced, which is unfortunate, because Noctus rocks.

Oh, yeah. Obviously, I mean, as well he should, Noctus carried the book, right? Because it's a book about him, about him trying to figure out how deep this conspiracy goes and trying to find the missing daughter and all that. So he does justifiably and rightfully so carry the book, yeah.

I mean, I feel like more than anything, the choice to make Noctus like rich boy upset was a really good call. Yeah. I think that the ties to his family were really good, and I liked that a lot. I think that, I think, I really, okay, okay, I have to point this out because it makes me laugh every time.

I love the fact that he gets, he comes home to like the most debauchrous, uh, over the top party for his family. And the, the voice actor puts on like the most flamboyantly gay voice for his cousin. Yes, for Provenous or whatever his name is. Dude,

I like, I gotta be honest, it was, I don't know if I'm like upset about it or if I think it's hilarious. I'm, I don't think it's actually necessarily a bad thing. Because it was, because like the book treats it very like kindly. There's clearly no prejudice in the book.

And oh my God, I feel like sometimes I was reading a Marxist manifesto when I was reading that book. The amount of like, God, I hate the rich was so, was very, was quite prominent in the book. Yeah. The, the, it was very like, oh my God, look at the rich. Look at how awful they are. Nothing good comes from here. Once you're up here, it's just, it drains the life out of you and just, oh, look at all

the shady stuff that they're up to and and like even it's like oh i'm not even entirely sure what he what what noctus did to his dad i don't know if it's just because he left and didn't want to follow in their legacy but he's just like oh yeah by the way i sent your daughter to the scola and it's like jesus okay i guess yeah it was it was a little bit bizarre i mean i i don't know how to feel about it because i'm like like just the straight dude but uh I liked his cousin character because he was fun and he wasn't a prick. But it was kind of bizarre, immediately like, oh, there's the flamboyantly gay cousin character and then they're gone for the rest of the show. Yeah, I almost feel like they were trying to lean into like just this very exorbitant, very rich sort of hoity-toity vibe.

And it sort of became that sort of overly flamboyant in an effort to be like that, right? The voice actor, I think, is what really caught me off guard. I was shocked he threw on like an instant 2000s comedy gay friend voice. It caught me really off guard. But I did like the representations of the rich folks at the parties. I thought that was good. I will say, you know, like even if I may agree with certain aspects of the book's social commentary, of like, yeah, these people would like rather like, you know, burn someone alive because it would save the money type thing.

I do think they heavy handed it a bit much. I think they threw the rich get richer. There goes these rich folks. Like they did it almost every chapter and it was a bit much. I was like, I get it. I get it. I got the social commentary. We're chilling.

I actually cared a lot more about Noctus and how he was like born really, really wealthy. and how even though he's like trying to play the part of not a wealthy person, his mannerism seep in, that part I found to be way more interesting. Mm-hmm. Like, like Shai said, it's really interesting how he sort of plays up. Like he knows he's being hypocritical. He knows that like, oh, yeah, I might say I hate the rich,

but I'm still more than willing to spend dad's slates on lavish apartment, cat, car, But then also sometimes he's hypocritical in the sense that like, oh, it's for good. Let me, let me, you know, just give this, this poor lady 10,000 slates because why not? Screw my dad. Like, you know, let me actually help the poor. So, yeah, it's, he's, he's an interesting character. Yeah, I kind of like that, um, I kind of like the juxtaposition.

I wonder if it comes from a place of, of actual, like, experience. I don't, I don't know Guy Haley's background or anything, but like, if I, uh, I, uh, Because I have some, like, friends who grew up really wealthy. And they're, in a sense, like, I don't know. I'm hard to call them, like, middle class or whatever it is. They're, like, regular schmose. But you can kind of see little aspects of it, kind of clicking. It's almost like when someone's an only child.

You can kind of, like, sometimes, I mean, sometimes, no offense to anyone who's an only child out there, but, like, sometimes those that are can get a little entitled. And they don't, they don't mean to. it can like sneak in to occasional mannerisms sometimes. Yep, because you're used to having all the attention on you. You're used to being sort of the one. And yeah, yeah, I, yeah. I mean, it's, you know, it's not like it makes anyone like a bad person,

but sometimes you can, like, see small mannerisms peak. And I thought that was a pretty good way of it being written. I think, okay, one of my favorite parts of the whole book is when he goes into that decrepit dude's apartment. I loved that guy. The voice he put on for him was lovely. He was so fun. Yeah, was that? 350 slates, please.

That's not so much, right? Yeah, I dropped in 50 slates. I don't remember his name. He was only in it for a bit. Chen Chen was like one of the main villains, and that wasn't him. I think the little guy is the one that told them about Chen Chen or something.

Correct, yeah. He's your classic, like, dude who, I loved the idea. that he like plaste steeled his whole apartment and so if the building falls he's just going to like drop like a brick yeah that's really heavily yeah that's right because knox was like oh if i really wanted to i could arrest him right now for all these crazy modifications that he's done to his apartment like you're not supposed to do that buddy also i like the fact that he pointed a radium pistol at him which is specifically a pistol abmec used that is heavily radioactive and he's just like noctus was

very unsubes like of course an admec would do that this. They love their and he's like, I better note to self, take anti-rad when I get home. That's true. Shai mentioned her favorite scene is when they visit the Admec conclave. And I also have to agree, I did really like that scene.

I enjoy the fish out of water feeling that Noctus has when he was there. I also just like, I really liked when they spoke to, I don't remember his full name, the something 270893. Oh, the projection.

progenitor, right? Yeah, and it was just a bunch of like balls rolling together to make a face. Yeah, he was literally the room. And just all those little balls showed up and it's just, that's, I don't know that I've, we've discussed an ad me that was like personified like that, have we? And I was like, that's really cool. Matrix 3 Robot Face. You might be cooking on that one, Shai.

Matrix 3 Robot Face. It's been so long since I've seen. any of the Matrix movies. I don't remember. Huh. I remember Matrix 1 being good, two being passable, and everything after that,

just purging from my brain. I mean, that's fair. I get that, but, like, I think I know what she's talking about. Yeah, end of Matrix 3 type thing.

Oh, God. I think I know, I have like a memory of knowing, but I don't fully remember. Regardless, though, I did like a lot of that. That's, The admec stuff was pretty good.

I did like how just unabashedly horrible they were in this book. They really were the worst. Yeah. The conspiracy going through the ad mech for this stuff was just, it's unfortunate that you never quite find out what they needed the slates for, though. Because that was like the whole big deal is like, oh yeah, why are we making these? This is spoiler territory, right? Oh, we've been in spoilers for a while now.

Okay, good, good, good. But it's like, yeah, the whole thing is like, oh, yeah, they were programming servitors to have, like, they were essentially sleeper agents, more or less, where remotely they would just be like, oh, yeah, push a button, boom, servitors decides it needs to fucking kill its owner. And they were like, oh, yeah, we're programming these to get slates. And it's like, well, what were those slates for?

And like, I don't know, maybe in a, maybe in the next book you'll find out. And it's like, oh, well, that's unfortunate that we never quite find out why they were making rogue killer servitors. Yeah, I don't know, it's a bit, it's a bit like some uncertainty in that one, no doubt. I will say,

I think that the yeah, I mean the main villain of the book is clearly out of the reach of Noctus. Like that, that's an Arbides, if not more type situation, right? But I do think because of that, it does deflate the ending a little bit. Yeah.

That's one of my major, my major issue. that I think the ending is a little bit lax. It doesn't really feel very satisfying overall. Yeah, I was going to say, like, similar to what you said, even like with like, oh yeah, by the way, the Marchuenskas are involved in it too. And up, it was the wife. And oh, yeah, of course she knows where the daughter is.

And it kind of, it almost wraps itself up a little too nice, if that makes sense. Like it almost seems like it just ties. together just a little too clean. And it's just, I felt like there should have been a little more gravel, a little more dirt, a little more grime to it. Yeah, I'm a little, um, uncertain

about, about that. Like, yeah, I must say, Noctus's story about his wife's, like, suicide and the stolen daughter. Like, that was so much more interesting to me. And so depressing. And just, just horrid. Yeah.

It was awful. But at the same time, I was, yeah, I was really not interested in the Marchenskas or whatever. I feel like their plot line was so pushed to the side and then only became interesting or valid at the end. Yeah, I agree. And that's a little unfortunate because I kind of feel, I had that feeling too. During the book, I was like, this Marchenska thing is coming up only when it's needed, which means it's going to slightly be an important thing near the end and it's going to not be interesting. exactly that happens.

Yeah, it feels very kind of like, ooh, shoot, we forgot about the Marchenska plot. Let's throw it in there. I know we did like a sort of, the Marchenskas did a hit job on him, kind of in the middle of the book. And it's like, oh, yeah, that's right. They are a thing.

Oh, right, he is looking for their daughter. And then it's like at the very end, it's like, oh, hey, here we are again. It's like, hooray, let's blow him out, I guess. Yeah, it's a little lacking there. The book is really carried by Noctus. 100%. It is a Noctus book. Yeah. What are your thoughts on the whole row one thing?

Hmm. Like her just as a character or her being, I guess she's the admec, I think she said she's the admec equivalent of a Arbides? No, I mean more like the ending. Um, uh, like, again, I feel like throughout most of the book, now that I'm thinking about it, she was kind of just, Yeah, her just like bailing feels a little, I don't know. I don't like to her just being like, all right, bye. It's funny because like when you asked, I was like, I, what does he mean about like the ending? I was like, I don't remember anything special about her ending. I don't, what did she do?

And I was trying to like piece together. Like, what does she do? And then shy wrote in the chat, she just leaves and says, we'll meet again. I'm like, oh yeah. She does kind of just dip and just leave the potential. have a sequel open, doesn't she? Like, it's, it's no big thing. She just kind of dips. Has, um, doesn't she? Has the, is there a sequel to Flesh and Steel? A Noctus Roe one thing? Because even in the, in the Flesh and Steel audiobook, it says a noctus and Lux

audiobook, which, that's what made me think it was going to be a series. Yeah, I was like, is this, because it sounds like they're doing a, um, uh, oh crap, why am I forgetting their name? The, the, the, the, the human. Oh, Oh, right, right. Gottsrykin Felix. Gottsch and Felix, thank you. It sounded like that was going to be a consistent thing. And the fact that there isn't an additional one,

because this book came out in 2020. And so, yeah, and I'm kind of like, like, I am very open to a sequel in this one. I am super down for it. Noctus is a great character. And Roe 1 has, like, potential to be one. Mm-hmm. Definitely.

But it's not there yet. I'm like, ah. That's so weird. I genuinely thought that the Noctus in Ro 1 Lux was a series. Because like you said, on the cover, it says a Noctus and Row 1 Lux book. And then Ro 1 at the end is like, oh, maybe we can work again sometime. I really love that. Me too.

And even the way they present it in sort of the epilogue of like the, what is his name, Rik that's looking at, looking through it. He's like, oh, yeah, wow, that can't be it. And he's like, oh, no, that's just part one. like there's more and then he does the report thing and so I was like oh obviously they're planning to do

a long running series because they are presenting it that way right and so I'm kind of surprised there hasn't or I mean you know books take a long time to write too not 40K books I see I see some of these like blast through these but I'm sure maybe

it could be that flesh and steel was not a particularly I don't know if it didn't like do as well popularity wise maybe because it's not space marines. But I say that, but at this point, things are a little bit better now. But no, I mean, I did like the book. I think that it's always important to note that whenever we talk about these negatives,

personally for us at the end, these are negatives that are because of a very enjoyable book. And I'm, yeah, I'm a little bit like, damn, I was so into it 90% of the way. and I kind of petered out at the end. And I was almost like, ah, screw the ad mech stuff. What's up with Noctus? Like, I would really like, honestly, I would, I kind of wish there was more of the,

I kind of wish there was more of the aristocracy stuff. Because I, in bloodlines, one of the major parts in the very Gantua was the detective talking to like the mother, who is the really, really rich lady. And I would love, I would love a family drama crime thing more because that part was really interesting to me. And the admec stuff felt like more of a, well, okay, the server is going rogue is a great idea.

I think it's a great call. And I think it adds for a lot of it. But I was less interested in that than I was in Noctus as a character. And so something that affects Noctus more would be great. Like I'm already envisioning like him having to do a case and him having to do a case. and him having to introduce row one to his family. And that sounds awesome. Mm-hmm.

And his family actually being part of like some crime conspiracy that he has to like really, he's got to really dig up like all the skeletons in his closet. And he really has to dig deep in order to like solve it and, you know, like, oh, do I implicate my dad? Because he's still my dad, even though he's like, you know, a one percenter. And he sent my daughter off to blah, blah, blah, blah. and the Scola and God, he's awful. I want to see him like rot in jail forever,

but, you know, bloodlines, right? He's still dad. So I too would love to see sort of a more noctus family-centered crime drama, yeah. I really liked, I really liked the part when he's leaving the admet compound and one of the dudes

he puts in jail is like, hey, give me out of here. And he sounded straight up like a cartoon, British, Ligin villain is like, oh, hey, bruv, get me the hell out of here. It was very funny. But then apparently he was in the sex trafficking. So fuck that guy. Yeah.

Well, I think that's what, yeah, Rose, like, who was that guy that were asking for your help? You seem to know him. And he was like, yeah, he's a sex trafficker, skinner. He's the worst scum of scum. He deserves every ounce of pain that's coming for him. And I wouldn't shoot him if I could. Yeah, but also I feel bad for him because holy hell, he's about to suffer like a fate

worse than death. That's right. He was like, oh yeah, that's the duality of it, right? Because yeah, he's an awful, horrible human, but look at what he was raised in. You have to be like that if you want to survive. That's the only way to live in Varengansua. I think that was the other guy. I think those are two different people. Oh, okay, okay, okay. But, I mean, he was, he was telling Roe one, he's like, A, even though I didn't like, I don't like the Skinner guy, he's awful. I still don't really feel great about the fate he's about to have because I just watch people get, you know, turned into servitors and holy hell. I just watched the sausage get made. Yeah, yeah. The man, the sausage is getting made is rough. Overall, though, I'd still say the book is quite solid, even

despite the issues. Yeah. I really, really liked it. I think it is a great glimpse into the general horrors of the Imperium. I think it's a little too heavy-handed. with some of its, you know, social messaging, even if it's something that I understand, I think it just may be like, okay, you don't got to say it every single time. Like, he literally says the words the rich get richer. I'm like, okay, just like, come on, man.

Like, have a little more, you know, subtlety than that. Did he literally say that word for word? I can't remember. Yeah, he literally said that word for word. It does seem like something that would get said in this book. Yeah, I don't doubt you. And yeah, that's maybe, maybe a little less on the nose, eh?

Yeah, it's just, it's a little too on the nose sometimes. And I get the why, but sometimes I need a little bit more subtlety. I would love a sequel. I would adore a sequel to this. I genuinely, like, loved the book. I just need a, uh, I just, I want more, I want row one to be a bit more fleshed out. Uh, and I, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. And, uh, whatever the next detective thing is.

is I would really like it to have a bit of a stronger, more poignant ending than sorry, buddy, but, you know, your villain is on another planet. Yeah, that was unfortunate. Yeah, like you said, overall still definitely recommend it. Even with all that, I was like, yeah, 8.5, pick it up if you're just into Warhammer at all, right? So, yeah. Also, Shia said, isn't it hilarious that Varengantua is a good city to live on in the Or Hammer Universe.

Slavery is illegal. That's fucking nuts. Crazy. Yeah, Varon Gantua is like a normal place. It's not bad. It's not amazing. But it's like this is a normal like hive city, right? I mean, slavery is, is, is, you say slavery is illegal.

But I mean, like, I guess like, oh, yeah, slavery is illegal unless you're servitorized. And then it's, you're right, servitors are not slaves. How dare we? I get what you're saying. I get what you're saying. And every planet's got servitors. Yeah. Though I guess they do make a point in that where like slavery is illegal in Veringantua,

but the rich have like indentured servants in a sense, you know? Yeah. And so it's like kind of sort of. It's still a shit place to be, but it's just not as shit as like Necromunda, because Necromunda is awful. Yeah. Don't want to be on Necromunda. No, definitely not.

But yeah, no, like B plus A minus. I give it like an eight and a half, probably give a take. full agreement, full agreement. And yeah, fun stuff. I would highly recommend it. Guy Haley, please make another one. Yeah, make several more actually. Make a trilogy.

I'm here for it. Yes, please, please make another one. We would love to read it. I would like to propose a new book. Hey, I was about to ask, do we have any ideas for the next book club? We do. I had a concept that I thought would be kind of fun.

I don't know how good it is, but I am more than interested in bringing it out as an option. Let me double check if it's on Audible because I would want it to be on Audible. You don't want to force people to read the Amazon Reader file, right? I just like to make sure it's on Audible. Here we are. It is Void Exile. It is a Carcaryodon's book. How however it involves the enemy of the book, I believe, is Vastor and his boys.

Ah, that's why you found it. It all makes sense now. Ricky wants the Vashdor book. All right. Hey, I like the sound of that. I'm here for it. That is totally fine. Shai will not be reading this.

She'll be reading the new Mad Dock Grotsnik book. because that makes total sense, and I'm okay with that. That being said, I would love to read a... I want to get a little bit of space marine slop, but I care, I don't really give a shit about that.

I care about the fact that this is... It might be the first major book with Vash Store. I don't know. Yeah, I mean, honestly, you had me at Carcadon's, and then you're like, oh, yeah, Vash Tors is the villain. It's like, all right, well, fine, maybe I'm just... Yep, right?

Okay, fine, let's go. So, yeah. Yeah, I don't know. if there is a book with Vashdor other than the Arks of Omen books. So it might be the first one. Someone can correct me. But yeah, let's

do a Carcadon's book. Let's read about space sharks and let's read about Vashdor and see how it goes. Hell yeah, brother. Hell yeah. Well, anyway, that is our book club. Thank you, everyone, so much for listening. Appreciate you very much. Another large shout out to Guy Haley and James

McNaughton for their writing and narration. and very interested to read the next book by Robbie McNevin, narrated by Shogo Miyakita. That I am so sorry. I butchered that stuff. However, this Space Shark book was written by the same guy who wrote the other two Carcaryodon books,

Outer Dark and Red Tithe, which I believe are the books that make everyone big Space Shark fans. Oh, so it's going to be real good. That's the hoping. Oh, narrated by the same person who did those books, too. Okay, so it's basically like, it's kind of, it's not book three, I don't think, but it's, uh, it is still like along the same concept. Okay, so they must have done pretty good with the other two if they're, yeah, hell yet.

Pogging out of my gourd. All right. Right out of it. Thank you everyone so much for watching. We will see you on the next book club.