Review: The Infinite and the Divine

The Infinite and the Divine by Robert Rath
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The first thing that jumps out at you when you start reading the story, is how, despite literally being older than the dinosaurs, these two, nigh immortal, masters in their own fields, bicker like children on a playground. They want a shiny toy, and are willing to throw hands and insults to get it.

The other is how after spending millenia bickering, they start sounding like an old married couple. Don’t believe me, just read the following

‘You have seen this, I suppose,’ Trazyn said with a drop of acid. ‘In your…’ He wobbled his head, made nonsensical symbols with his fingers.‘Meditations.’

Does that, or does that not sound like someone who’s been having the same fight over and over and over. Complete with freaking Xenos air quotes; I can’t even.

Things get so bad when the two are in the same room, even the other necrons, unfeeling, uncaring automatons, get annoyed out of their wits. There is this one hilarious scene where the superiors of the two, tired of all their bullshit, put them in what is essentially a timeout; Forced to be in each other's presence for centuries, working towards a common goal. Literal children I tell ya.

But back to the plot, as you might have surmised, the whole narrative is focused on the necrons, ten thousand years or so before they begin their galaxy wide awakening.

Context & Lore

For the uninitiated, the necrons, or the necrontyr as they were called, were once flesh, turned cancerous and having short lives due to their highly irradiated sun. This was over 70 million years or so ago.

In order to find immortality, they, in order, waged a war against the Old ones, God like beings that were the big dogs at the time. That didn’t end well. The necrontyr then allied with the C’tan, energy beings who were essentially parasites feeding off stars. The C’tan promised them immortality. And through a process called ‘Biotransference’ did make them into a race of alien terminators; sans their soul and everything that constitutes a personality. Oh, and they were now slaves to the C’tan.

Naturally, the newly formed necrons, and their ruler, Silent King Szarekh, were supremely pissed that they signed an agreement with a less evil version of disney, without reading the terms and conditions. So, they bided their time.

The C’tan used their slave army to steamroll the old ones, replacing them as numero uno in the galactic order. Then, naturally, fell into infighting.

Szarekh, knowing the time was right, rose up against their slavers, and with the might of the undead necron warmachine, and after suffering grievous losses, manage to destroy their star gods into several fragments of their former selves, called the C’tan shards. These were then sealed away to prevent the C’tan from reviving, and for a while the Necrons reigned supreme.

But, after two galactic sized wars, the necrons faced a new threat, in the form of young races left over by the old ones, such as the Aeldari (Space elves) and Orks (self-evident). Being utterly exhausted from millions of years of fighting, Szarekh instead ordered his forces to embark on a 60 million year stasis induced sleep, aboard large planet sized mausoleums called tomb worlds.

While he remained awake, to wander the galaxy, and reawaken his forces, in a future time when their enemies had grown weak, and the galaxy was ripe for reaping. That’s where we’re now. The necrons are slowly waking up piecemeal, Szarekh is nowhere to be found. And a whole bunch of infighting and feuds persists amongst the various necron dynasties. Such as that between Trazyn and Orikan.


Characters & their development

One of the difficulties when writing characters who are immortal, much like with overpowered characters such as superman, is to make their problems relatable. I mean, how does one relate to the concerns and obsessions of someone that are millions of years old. Someone who is willing to spend over 10000 years waging a petty feud. A race that, I kid you not, has drama which is played out over the course of decades, without stopping for breaks. The benefits of being an undead race of metal men, with no need for food, breathing or any form of rest I suppose.

The way that the writer, Robert Rath chooses to portray it is, by showing just how utterly insignificant the lives of mortals are to beings such as this. Over the course of this squabble between immortal babies, in the background, we see how entire civilizations, aliens and humans rise and fall. Entire planets went from being untouched virgin ecosystems, to colonized by xenos such as the aeldari, to ravaged, to then be colonized and developed by humans, to then subject to a genestealer cult (blame Trazyn), to getting turned into an literal scorched earth due to some zealous bouts of Exterminatus.

All the while, Orikan and Trazyn wage their vendetta over it multiple times. To them, the passing of time and lives is merely an event in the periphery. Like morning dew turning to mist, a trite novelty. Entire generations are born and die, within a span where they remain unchanged, untouched by time and its tides.

But, as mentioned earlier, this immortality is not one which comes without drawbacks. Of the necron population, all except the uber elites, lost their souls and very sense of self. Even the ones that did retain it, like trazyn and orikan, find their memories of the past to be muddled and seem like those belong to someone else.

So we see, throughout the story, how they try to come to terms with it, or live in denial. Most of the remaining elites keep themselves busy, with long pursuits, the type that only immortals have the luxury of engaging in, and serve to keep their minds busy and not pondering over the hollow abyss in their souls.

Trazyn the archeovist comes under this category. Having collected a cornucopia of artifacts, invaluable and sometimes objects of mere amusement, he tirelessly catalogues, categorizes, curates them, and displays them in elaborate and meticulously detailed dioramas, exhibits, galleries, and tableaus. All for a non-existent audience to admire at some unknown future date. His obsession is characterized by the inability to remember his own past. So, by preserving it to the best of his abilities, Trazyn hopes to form a complete picture of his psyche, like a never-ending jigsaw puzzle, with pieces being added ad infinitum.

While Orikan, the chronomancer, acknowledging their decision as a mistake, instead looks towards what’s next. Which according to him, is to achieve apotheosis, to infinite beings of pure energy, having discarded the finite moral shells. Similar to what the C’tan were once. For Orikan, he wants the suffering that his race went through over the ages, to have some meaning. Their torturous existence, enslavement, loss of their soul, their current deathless state. All must be a prelude to the greatness that necrons were destined to. That must be their destiny. And he is the one meant to usher this age of ascension. The weight of this glorious purpose makes him unable to exist without engaging in its pursuit.

This does reveal a flaw, a frailty, in the otherwise indestructible flesh of living necrodermis. Don’t get me wrong, this doesn’t by any stretch make them good people. As we see in the narrative, they’re more than willing to condemn entire species and worlds to damnation, if it serves their final goals. To be fair, it’s like construction workers destroying ant colonies. It’s regrettable, but no one’s going to stop building that new shopping mall, just because a couple of thousand ants end up dead.

Trazyn at least, as a virtue of his obsession, views living beings with more of a kinder outlook. He does enslave and murder them in droves, but as a whole, he likes spending time with so-called lower lifeforms.

In fact, the parts of the story, where we see him, dragging along a reluctant Orikan, interacting with the population of a soon to be decimated human frontier world, are what ‘humanize’ them to an extent.

That one scene, where the two of them (under illusions), enjoy a human drama, while reconciling their past and hatred, is by far the high point of the narrative as far as character development goes. Then shit goes as usual, lots of guns, lots of dying, lots of Warhammer.

Plot and notes

Which brings us to the actual plot. It is better than most of the Warhammer stories out there. There is a MacGuffin, leading to some ancient secrets. Lots of people get killed on the way to said secret. Orikan & Trazyn, in addition to dealing with each other’s machinations, also have to contend with eldar, orks, humans, who all for the most part, just happen to be collateral, wrong place, wrong time.

The character interaction, particularly the jibes and petty rivalry shared between the two, form the high points of the story. It gives enough fertile grounds to a slew of gut-busting memes online, which I can't get enough of. That is not to say, it lags behind in other categories.

As mentioned, there is an engaging action scene, between various factions, taking place across multiple locations, in all manner of inventive and gore filled ways. Seeing as these are the necrons, one of the most technologically advanced factions in the setting, the opposition are more of an annoyance, flies swatting at your face, as you write to write something. (Which they right now are doing to me)

I appreciate how the narrative, and the circumstances around the necrons awakening, is used to put constraints on the total force our protagonists can muster against their enemies. Due to the nuances surrounding the necron society and the reawakening/reanimation process, as well the final opponents they end up facing, our dynamic duo is pushed against a corner, and the stakes are high when despite immortality, they face the prospect of permanent ‘death’.

Seeing how we’re talking about soulless metal monstrosities, don’t expect many ‘human’ emotions in them, even when they are facing otherwise world ending entities. That’s the charm of the necrons you could say.

Another thing of note is how this book serves as a guide, at least in broad strokes, to the events surrounding the war in heaven, and the history of the necrons as a race. Many things are left unexplained, as is the case with GW and such super important but vague lore. It nonetheless serves as an excellent piece of worldbuilding. After reading which, you would get a much better handle on necrons as a faction, and their motivations.

There is one part of the narrative, centered around Orikan and his research into the Asterium Mysterious, the MacGuffin. I’m not going to elaborate on it, considering it a major spoiler. But it’s sort of funny and pitiful. Where you end up feeling really sorry for him. You’ll know when you read it.

Final Thoughts

The Infinite and the Divine. Definite highlight of the book is the exceedingly hilarious, entertaining, and at times introspective interactions between each of our deuteragonists. This, along with the solid worldbuilding, and engaging plot, not to mention the thrilling inventive action scenes, makes the books a must read for those who wish to sample something different than the usual Warhammer 40k fare of novels. Would certainly recommend it. Happy reading.


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