Fabius Bile: Manflayer (Fabius Bile #3) by Joshua Reynolds

Fabius Bile: Manflayer (Fabius Bile #3) Reviews

• 
  Matias

  To put this short,
  this whole Fabius Bile "trilogy" series was of a quality that'd be easy to read several more books of. Can't say there was even a single boring/uninteresting character in any of the three books. While there are many very exciting 40K novels, this kind of "peak" 'ish quality doesn't happen so often.
  
  The ending in this last book (no spoilers here!) was something I'd been wondering about ever since began reading the first one, Primogenitor.
  
  I recommend reading all of the three books. These books might as well work nicely for 40K newcomers but 40K veterans might enjoy them even more... (hard to say since even 40K veterans have a weird pride of remembering very nitpicky things).
  
  Now, excuse me, for I need to figure out what 40K book to read next.
• 
  Rostislav Markelov

  Primogenitor, Clonelord, Manflayer.
  
  Now the story is complete and I finally managed to write a bit about it.
  
  I was in love with the series from the first book. Surprisingly enough, it wasn’t Fabius himself, as fascinating as he was, who made me feel that way about Primogenitor. While I relished other aspects of the book as well, it was Oleander’s fate that made this book unique for me. In a fashion of the classic tragedy, he was unable to see that the object of his desperate search, his true goal he sacrificed so much and betrayed so many for was with him all along, and even after losing it he still didn’t notice. It was poetic level of irony, befitting any play or drama, I’m sure even harlequins were impressed.
  
  To me it was absolute highlight of the book and to be completely honest I didn’t expect that the story gets better than that.
  
  I was so wrong.
  
  Manflayer was everything I ever wanted from conclusion of the trilogy. And general composition of the Bile’s’ story plays significant part in it. Primogenitor introduces Bile to us in all his brilliance and twisted glory. He is a genius, has his grand vision and is so cool, fabulous and charming in his own unique way that you could easily forget that he is actually hideous monster and a madman. Than we had Clonelord, where subversion and deconstruction of his previously established character begins. We see his doubts, explore his flaws, and clever perspective shift allow us to enjoy the contrast between how Fabius perceive himself and who he really is with all irony that comes with it. And finally, in Manflayer all Fabius’ faults and mistakes, all his hypocrisy and delusions caught up to him leading to a crisis. Reynolds utilizes this structure very skillfully providing the ground for comprehensive character study that other WH40k characters can only dream of – at least I never encounter something on that scale among BL novels.
  
  In addition, all this build up made me very invested into story’s resolution.
  
  However, to the book itself (Warning – possible spoilers).
  
  Once again, I was captivated from the start – so many interesting details and developments appears right from the very beginning.
  
  For example, I was very glad to see Oleander again. Clonelord implied that his fate was grim, but I didn’t expect it to be that bad. His betrayal of his brothers from Consortium was a very beautiful twist of a knife in his overall theme, subtle and refined, befitting sadistic but artistic nature of haemonculi. Another example would be a joke about Fabius’ Chirurgeon – not only set up was great, this moment was properly foreshadowed in the previous books (while being surprising nevertheless) and even became a plot point during the epilogue! To utilize story elements to such extend require both talent and professionalism, and when it applies even to such minor details, it should give you an idea about quality of the writing. And there are much more well written and enjoyable moments deeper into the book.
  
  But it is not just writing skill that made Reynolds unique in my opinion. What distinguishes him from many BL writers is that he dares to write about fundamental things in his wh40k books. Manflayer is not an exception. At least to me, the essence of this book is not in the events themselves, not in the intrigues of Dark Gods, harlequins and haemonculi (which are great on their own right). But in the web of relationships between the characters (Bile and his “creations” in a very broad sense: his daughters, disciples, New Man and so on), in topics the book explores (Fathers and Children, parents’ love and responsibilities, loyalty, including loyalty to yourself, roles that people play in stories, and role of the stories in people’s life) – there lies the substance of the book. Let’s take a conversation between Fabius and Fulgrim for example. Yes, they talk about things like killing your battle brothers to find a cure for a legion of super soldiers or beginning of Horus Heresy and other ridiculous things, but if you rip off all wh40k gimcrack and look underneath you will find a conversation between father and grown-up son whose relationship went wrong. Or a conflict between Fabius and his daughters, where each side thinks that they know what would be better for the other but drift farther apart as a result. It was so… human. Every time wh40k books extend beyond bolter fire and simple heroism, it pleases me immeasurably and Manflayer was a perfect example of such thing.
  
  Another strong point of Reynolds writing is his characters. They are aplenty, they are colorful and nuanced, even the minor one. Watching how the resolution of their stories unfold was incredibly satisfying. But at the very center we have, of course, the Fabius Bile, full of genius and arrogance in equal measure, with all his contradictions and hypocrisy, dreams and doubts, broken pieces of virtues and monstrous flaws. We are able to witness his treacherous nature and rare moments of genuine affection and many other things. Conclusion of his story was great, I was especially impressed with how Reynolds managed not only connect to, but also integrate other stories about Fabius into his own narrative. As for other characters – there are too many to write something substantial about them, if I do justice to everyone, I will never complete this review. So I just mention that dialogues complement characters rather nicely, reading their banter was always entertaining.
  
  Another aspect I should commend is depictive power of Reynolds writing. Imageries he create are rich and impactful, be it portraying of dark eldar society, daily life of some exotic places like Eye of Terror or haemonculi’s coven, or mysterious harlequins. The latter ones are the gem on their own, their scenes have the equal chance of inspiring you to start collecting them as an army or giving you coulrophobia. Personally, I find their portrayal fascinating, especially when they are utilizing “narrativium” or demonstrating their horrifying combat abilities. They are not in the spotlight in Manflayer, preferring to forge their story from behind the scene, but their image is strong and consistent through the trilogy nevertheless.
  
  Well, but what about the flaws? Nothing is really perfect – it is hard truth Emperor Children struggle so hard to accept. After all, even when I re-read Primoginitor I found a couple of things that rub me the wrong way, shattering illusion of perfection. But the another truth is – I don’t have any desire to search for them in this book, or even notice them. And when you feel that way it is a clear indication that writer did his job well.
  
  All in all, I’m really glad that I was able to read Fabius’ trilogy. Personally, for me Reynolds leaving the BL is a tragedy rivaling the fate of the Count Sunflame. It’s not like there are many people who could provide really thoughtful stories set in WH40k universe - every single one counts. But well, life is life, I guess I just need to keep an eye on his future works regardless.
• 
  Joseph Wilson

  Reynold's does a fantastic job with Fabius in this book and the series as a whole. Too often Bile is portrayed as the generic Dr. Frankenstein / Mad Scientist trope but here we get to see some real character development. This book, and series as a whole gets away from the "bolter porn" realm that is terribly common in the 40k universe, that isn't to say there isn't some violence and combat; the battles scenes that are there do a good job of keeping the action going but it is hardly the focus on it.
  
  He does well describing the various quirks to those that live within The Eye, but without having to fallback on the overused sexual aspect of Slaanesh; it is still present, as is drug use but he does well to use it in complementary fashion.
  
  For being a book about monsters and horror the humanity he manages to show reflected in his characters are impressive.
  
  The book is a must read for any fans of Fabius, by far the best representation in the lore. Fans of Emperor's Children in general will be pleased as will anyone with an interest in some of the background of Chaos.
  
  Easily my second favorite series after Gaunt's Ghosts, and that just barely loses out due to nostalgia and other reasons.
• 
  Daeron

  Oh my word this was so good! A worthy end to the Fabius Bile trilogy.
• 
  Oliver Eike

  The book i enjoyed the least so far in the series, yet it is still 4 stars. This trilogy is some of the best Warhammer 40K stuff i have read in my near 30 years of enjoying Warhammer.
  
  This book is a bit slower to start than the others, takes 200 pages before it gets into a proper flow, and a few things feel rushed in the end, but it is still a good read. If you have read the two previous books, do not let this review stop you, because you will regret it if so.
  
  Read and enjoy.
• 
  Jack Creagh-Flynn

  A short (spoiler free) summary of the book
  Fabius (sneering, of course): "Well, well, well....if it isn't the consequences of my own actions."
• 
  Heinz Reinhardt

  Review forthcoming.
• 
  Corey

  A terrifying and chaotic end to a master of his craft and that chapter of his existence. What comes next may horrify, but the moment has been prepared for.
• 
  Xavier Virsu

  Good read
  
  A good read that brings Bile into the Era of the great rift. I guess the galaxy will never be free of his taint. The ending didn't make sense, however and was a cop out. I liked the series, but the ending just killed me. I don't think I need to explain why I feel this way. It gets 4 stars for a good series and good read.
• 
  Nick

  When I started reading this book, I came to the startling realization that I remembered nothing of the previous book. To an extent that I wondered if I had ever read it, but I have because I gave it a rating and everything yet in those days I did not systematically wrote review for fiction books so I am grasping in the dark here. What I do remember is the first book, I loved the first fabius bile book because Fabius Bile as a character surprised me, in his first appearance in the horus Heresy books, Fabius Bile is a sadistic madman more akin to a dr mengle then a doctor Frankenstein which he more resembles in this triology.
  
  The final chapter in the triology left me a bit perplex, it builts on plots points of both book 1 and 2 but even having forgotten most of book 2 I was still able to get up to speed. He crossed the wrong people and now they want payback, got it. This is the first plot of the book and we spent quite a bit of time with the antagonist of the book, Hexachires who is... I ok but not that much more. Given what he is and his background, I was expecting something a bit more, exotic and less mundane in motivations. The second plot of the book is all about the first book; Fabius is still dying and is torn between ensuring his creation, the homo novus, survives him and keeping an arm's length from the clutches of Slaanesh, two goals that increasingly become incompatible due to plot 1 pressing in on him.
  
  Here's the thing, sometimes when one cooks and has good ingredients, the flavors don't really mix. Maybe the seasoning is off, or maybe it had to cook and stew a bit longer or you tried to gulp it down and did not really give it time to grow on you. That's what i had with this book. There is nothing, no aspect I disliked but taken as a whole it did not quite sit right with me with perhaps the dessert that left a bit of a weird taste in my mouth.
  
  The Fabius in the end is seemingly back to the dr mengle of the past and I can't really accept that. The epilogue was all about hitching him to the primaris marines arrival, sort of a foreshadowing of what to come. That is fine in itself, but the book and whole trilogy was all about him readying for his death and his defiance as the in essence last atheist in the galaxy. The ending did not match that builtup, yes there is a twist of some sort but honestly? It felt forced and to some extent made it feel as if Fabius was back to square one as a character.
  
  Fabius of the last four millenia has been dreaming in a statis module and all of his deeds had been executed by imperfect clones guided by his memories and mood swings, at the very end he wakes up and is all like back to work now. Just..... no. Fabius should have died but the overarching plot of warhammer forced him to stay among the living.
  
  Do I recommand the triology? Yes and no. The first book is amazing, the second book was good but not as memorable and the third is somewhere in between but with an ending I do not agree with. The highlight of the show has to be Fabius and his student fellow apothecaries, his homo novus children and a few more. Shout out to Arrian, Saqqara, Khorag, Igori and Savona but honestly all the characters except for the main antagonist and the at first pleasant but later disappointing return of 'count sunflame' were amusing, even very minor ones felt to have depth to them. Maybe I just like apothecaries in the space marine lore? it must be...
• 
  ᚦᛟᚱ

  Ol' fabulous Bill is at it again, making his new man's, but then the space elf cenobites are pissed, and what ya gonna do then? Maybe go see Papa Fulgrim? Ol' Billy finally gets to play his dream as Grandpa Emps and sit on his golden throne. Ok these books get more and more ridiculous but their fun.
• 
  Nik

  A great novel, with a slightly medicore final act.
  
  Fabius really has a "Oh god, What have I done" when he reaps everything he's sown over his long life of fiddling and farting around with genetics.
  
  The last, final act in M42 is profoundly disappointing end to the mad scientist I grew to love. Just another pawn to Chaos, regardless of his previous plans. But that is the price you pay when falling to Chaos.
  
  
• 
  Daniel

  One of the better Black Library novels. Unlike many, it actually advances the plot. It also humanizes this character who is considered the worst of the worst. And he is. But like the best mad scientists his motivations are hard to argue with.
  
  
• 
  Luke Courtney

  I've been waiting for this for a long time; Josh Reynolds has done a spectacular job in bringing to life, fleshing out and exploring the depths of Fabius Bile, a character who many authors before him have made a bit of a caricature, so after the truly spectacular installments that were Primogenitor and Clonelord, I expected big things from Manflayer...I was not disappointed! Manflayer ties up the Fabius Bile trilogy really well, delves into more of Fabius's background and belief system, as well as fleshing out details only mentioned obliquely in his backstory in Warhammer 40,000 into a gripping story that doesn't let up!
  
  The battles between Fabius's loyalists and the drukhari seeking to settle old scores were truly spectacular, and at times, you aren't certain Fabius will make it to the end. I thoroughly enjoyed seeing the familiar faces in the story like Arrian, Saqqara, Savona and others getting the conclusions to their own character arcs, even if some of them ended not in the way I'd hoped, and some cameos from some of the biggest names amongst the Chaos Space Marines were real joys to witness, as well as the ending, neatly bringing Fabius into the current timeline of Warhammer 40,o00.
  
  All in all, a spectacularly good conclusion to a series that has been some of the best Chaos Space Marine related fiction from Black Library I've read in years, and one I thoroughly recommend!
• 
  Tim Van Lipzig

  How to end the story of an immortal character? This question must surely have been on Josh Reynolds' mind when he sat down to write Manflayer, the third and final book in his Fabius Bile trilogy.
  
  We know that the eponymous mad scientist is still around in the 41st Millenium - he just got a new tabletop model, after all - so how to find a suitably dramatic conclusion to a series of stories about a protagonist so steeped in blood and delusion, one that sits so comfortably besides a Dr Frankenstein or a Macbeth, one that is primed and well deserving of a tragedy to entertain the gods, but is chained to the longevity of a Batman or James Bond?
  
  Primogenitor and Clonelord are among my favorite novels to come out of the Black Library since, well, ever - scratch that: some of my favorite novels, period - so I was at once enthusiastic and worried at the announcement that there would actually be a third instalment of the series after the author earlier seemed to have moved on from the character. In a time of disappointing conclusions to formerly awesome series in cinema and on TV, I wondered whether Fabius Bile would get his graceful Endgame or a disappointing Episode IX. I'm happy to say that, in my book, Josh Reynolds managed to provide Fabius with the former.
  
  Manflayer builds not only on the two preceding novels, but also weaves in threads from Reynolds' other stories about Fabius and the web of characters around him like the short-stories 'Prodigal' & 'Light Of A Crystal Sun' as well as 'Fulgrim - The Palatine Phoenix' (none of which are required reading to make sense of the plot, but enhance the experience and are well worth a read). It's clear that Reynolds took great care to tie the various branches, characters and themes of his 'Fabiusverse' to a coherent, satisfying conclusion.
  
  All ends define what the story that they conclude was about. Manflayer is a novel that bears this conflict on its chest and at times even makes it literal. It's the final act of a story about an idealistic but deeply flawed protagonist, the funeral bell to a monstrous character, a story about consequences, parenthood, death, immortality and the stories that we tell others and ourselves. It's a story where the menagerie of secondary characters can be read as fractals, echoes and mirrors to the hero, monster, father, god at it's centre. It's a novel where the ending sat with me well after I turned the last page. As I tweeted shortly after finishing the novel: "It's cool when a novel simply leaves you delighted after it's last page, but it's much more interesting when you feel the story slowly sinking in and gradually fermenting...It's like watching meaning blossom like a flower instead of consuming it ready-made."
  
  I take a bow and say goodbye to this weird, wonderful, twisted world of monsters and madmen. Thanks for the journey, Mr. Reynolds.
• 
  John Dodd

  Most 40k stories feature some form of heroism, at least the chance for redemption, and indeed, the want for it.
  
  Not this one, characters that are gleefully evil and have neither issue nor pause in that evil, on the one hand, it's interesting to take a walk on the other side of things, but I've always enjoyed the complexities of evil. Something (and I do stress the thing part of that word) that has no compunction about what it does or why it does it, something that has almost scientific curiosity as to what it's doing, without any of the remorse for what it does to those that it experiments on, this is a difficult thing to get inside the head of, but this book does it.
  
  If you're looking for a regular story of war and conquest amongst the stars, with bold soldiers willing to give everything for what they've been told is what the universe needs, this is not it. If you're willing to take a look over the edge of loyalty and honour and see what lies on the other side....
  
  You may find something of interest in this.
• 
  Penelope

  I really enjoyed this book quite a bit as someone trying to learn more about the Emperor’s Children. There’s a lot of body horror, grim detail, and it’s almost dripping with vengeance. The whole themes of the book seem to be continued vengeance vs acceptance that in the grand scheme, does it truly matter. When powers beyond clutch the strings, what are you if you do not join them? There’s a bit too much “plans within plans” and I’m sure Fabius is the boy to be overloaded with such a trope, but still. The constant turns did overstay their welcomes just a bit. In all, a really solid story and one I am glad I read. It is good the Tower of Flesh can move no more.
• 
  Matthew Jolly

  The weakest of the three. Not 'bad', but not up to the quality of the other two. Fabius is reduced to pure desperation and is forced by the narrative to drop many of his qualities developed in the other books just to survive. A weak ending with many unresolved plot threads and a 'villian' that just 'runs away' who we never hear from again, and lest we forget, important characters who we've come to know and love over the last two books dying offscreen.
  
  Many-many good qualities overall, and a solid 4 out of 5. But the other books were better.
  
• 
  Ellen Schoener

  Great characters, plot twists and turns, treachery and intrigue.
  I love books that shed new light on established villains- and although these are all despicable beings, there is still some nobility and sensibility left.
  Who would have thought for example that both noise marines and World Eaters enjoy gardening in their free time?
  And since this is a Warhammer book, there is also plenty of action.
  Best of all, this book series gave me plenty of new ideas for my own Chaos army. I even painted Fabius and converted some new humans for him.
• 
  Maxwell Patterson

  A decent conclusion to the series that suffers mainly from the fact that, like most of the Warhammer 40K books, being beholden to established lore and timelines means that any sort of "ending" is never going to feel truly satisfying, and this one is no exception. Still a fun read and a great character, if goodreads allowed for a 3.5 I'd probably bump it up to that but overall still worth a read.
• 
  Reid Edwards

  Fabius Bile: Manflayer is everything I wanted in a story about an arch-villain of the WH40k universe - it let me into Bile's head without making him sympathetic or reasonable, showed flashes of insanity and brilliance, and was all in all a very enjoyable read.
• 
  Mike Sheehan

  This is a fantastic 40k series that I believe is MUST read for fans of the universe. Great characters, great stories and just great fun. The third book is so far my favorite so let's hope for more installments!
• 
  John McDonnell

  Decent read. Not overly happy with the direction that Fabius' character is being developed, but that is my opinion. Still good story.
• 
  Christian

  This was a good ending to the trilogy as Bile and his faction call in their markers to make a last stand against the Drukhari. The dialogue is golden and Reynolds make us cheer for the bad guys. I heard he no longer writes for Black Library and that’s very very disappointing.
• 
  Alasdair

  This whole series has been an amazing ride and Fabulous Bill and his cohorts are surprisingly interesting characters and even have arcs!
• 
  Steven Baldwin

  Emperor's Children's best boy. Great character! Hope to read more on him.