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The Regent’s Shadow cover art

The Regent’s Shadow

Written by: Chris Wraight
Narrated by: John Banks, Emma Gregory, Penelope Rawlins
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Publisher's Summary

Book 2 in the Watchers of the Throne series

A new day has dawned for the Imperium, but not everyone sees the light. The Custodian Guard and Sisters of Silence must battle not just Chaos, but those who do not share Regent Guilliman's vision....

Listen to it because:

See how enemies lurk everywhere in the Imperium - even on Terra itself - and discover how the Adeptus Custodes excel at rooting out the darkness that lurks on the Throneworld and bringing it to light.

The story:

As Guilliman, Regent of Terra, heads off to lead the Indomitus Crusade, he leaves behind a world still in turmoil, beset by cult activity. Stripped of its huge armies for the galactic offensive, recovery is precarious. The Custodians do what they can while keeping the Palace secure, and the Sisters of Silence rebuild their citadel on Luna. When the warship Phalanx returns, it seems that stability will at last be assured. However, as reconquest forces push out further into the slums, they come across signs that another mysterious foe is active. The truth dawns - not every enemy is corrupted by Chaos, for there are many on Terra who do not share Guilliman’s vision of a new order, and the prospect of a Terran civil war looms...

Written by Chris Wraight

Running time 11 hours 52 minutes. Performed by John Banks, Emma Gregory and Penelope Rawlins.

©2020 Games Workshop Limited (P)2020 Games Workshop Limited

What listeners say about The Regent’s Shadow

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    5 out of 5 stars

Excellent tale.

A wonderful tale of political intrigue in the grim dark future.

I truly wish to hear more of the characters.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

intrigue galore!

who doesn't love a good novel about intrigue? this book has it in spades. I found myself bingeing it because I had to know happens next.

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    4 out of 5 stars

Great actor voices and characters, great story!!

I really loved having 3 different actors and styles. made it fresh and kept me really interested. The woman voices done by woman, yes!
Thanks for this product, can't wait for more.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Solid sequel but it felt contrived.

The heroes are back and as enjoyable as ever, circumstances bring them together again to navigate the machinations of a new council and uncover a devious power play in the wake of so much change.

The plots thicken, there is double crossing and betrayal galore. Loyalties are tested and somewhere in it all there are twelve elite assassins with unknown orders and loyalties.

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Great quality

the VA for Jeck struggled a little with male voices, but as a whole all three did a fantastic job making this a very entertaining novel

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    4 out of 5 stars

Impressive Lore-Building

Chris Wraight continues his chronicle of a pivotal event in the history of the Warhammer 40,000 Universe: the surprise attack on Terra (ie. Earth) at the turn of the 41st century by Daemon forces of Chaos - and the reactive launch of the Indomitus Crusade by Primarch Guilliman [I am not steeped in WH lore (I'm more an unfinicky Fantasy/SciFi consumer) but, helped by Wraight's storytelling skills, I could get caught up with the mythos pretty quickly/easily].
The first book in Wraight's 'Watchers Of The Throne' duology documented the actual sneak-attack - and the drafting of Custodians (including Shield-Captain Valerian) and Sisters Of Silence (incl. Tanau Aleya) into a desperate attempt to forestall collapse. This one discusses the human counterattack, but focusses predominantly on political struggles, duplicity, treachery, and (dare I say) heresy back home.
'The Regent's Shadow' is well-written, well-paced, and has plenty of action, but is mostly an endeavor to enrich the WH40K canon (don't buy it expecting battle after battle between the Neverborn and Space Marines - there is plenty of combat.. just not as the primary focus like in the first installment).
As a casual fan, the expositional goal of the book isn't terribly appealing.. I'm just not that invested in the overall WH40K narrative.. but thinking of this novel as a story exploring political intrigue in a Fantasy setting allowed me to enjoy it thoroughly.

Bravo to the producers at Black Library for bringing this story to life with superlative narration: John Banks (Valerion) and Emma Gregory (Aleya) return to the narration team, this time accompanied by Penelope Rawlins as Chancellor Jek. All three display impressive tone, timbre, and pacing on this project, bolstered with high quality sound engineering (softening the high-frequency sibilance in Rawlins's reading voice, for example). My only notable concern is that Rawlins is sometimes unable to do credit to male characters - occasionally opting for cartoonishly husky voices. The performances are otherwise exemplary.

Overall, this is an imperfect audiobook.. and no doubt more valuable to a hardcore Warhammer fan than to a casual adherent like me. In fact, the subject material *could* actually be considered fairly dry.. but I rate it 8 stars out of 10. In addition, you likely need to listen to Part One of the mini-series to have any idea what's happening here (there is very little Standalone merit to this book), but Part Two is worth a download.

TO THE PRODUCERS: You guys misspelled Aleya and Jek in the Chapter Headings of the download ('Aliyah' and 'Jeck'🙄)

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Emotional Ride

Like it's predecessor a fantastic work! Engaging, entertaining and full of great performances. Only complaint is that it had to end.

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Great story.

It builds slowly, but the writing is great and the story interesting. Not lots of action in the first half, but always entertaining.

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    5 out of 5 stars
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good follow up

i have the same mind as i did listening the previous entry. i love the dynamic of the sisters and custodes. i think this book would be awsome to follow with the plague war series.

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fucking awesome

I loved the narrators, they brought the book to life in my mind, has a great story that is better then the previous book in this series.

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