
Dreaming Cities
science fantasy
Series · science fiction
The Castellan Crowe series by David Annandale has 2 books and is best read in publication order, starting with Warden of the Blade (2016).
Start here: Warden of the Blade (2016) — then read straight through in publication order.
The order the books were released — the default way to read the series.
Castellan Crowe is David Annandale's Grey Knights duology, following Castellan Garran Crowe -- a named character drawn from Warhammer 40,000's tabletop lore -- and the Purifiers, the most zealous and uncompromising branch of the Imperium's secretive daemon-hunting Space Marine Chapter. Warden of the Blade (2016) sends Crowe's strike force against a heretical crusade led by a former battle-brother, testing how far the Purifiers' doctrine of total purity through destruction can be pushed before it consumes its own wielders. Castellan (2018) escalates dramatically: the Purifiers are caught inside the Cicatrix Maledictum, the galaxy-splitting warp storm that reshaped the setting's status quo, and emerge into a transformed Imperium where daemonic plots they thought long since crushed are on the verge of coming true.
Where Annandale's Yarrick series is an origin story and his standalone Warhammer Horror work leans on dread, Castellan Crowe stays close to the Grey Knights' core premise -- fanatics who fight monsters by refusing to compromise with anything monstrous, including within their own ranks.
Two: Warden of the Blade (2016) and Castellan (2018).
A named Grey Knights character drawn from Warhammer 40,000's tabletop background -- a Castellan (senior officer) of the Purifiers, the Chapter's most doctrinally extreme branch, who leads the strike force at the centre of both novels.
Yes -- Castellan continues the same crusade and the same cast directly from Warden of the Blade, now reshaped by the setting-wide Cicatrix Maledictum warp storm.
A third volume was reportedly discussed by the author around the second book's release, but no third book has been published or announced with a release date as of this curation (August 2026).
Reading order last verified .