"Mark Of Calth" (short story collection)

Time for another story collection! These do seem to be published with growing frequency in the HH line. I ain't complaining, as I've previously stated my love for them. This one is kind of unique, as it centres entirely around the ongoing war on Calth.

IT'S SERIOUS TIME GUYS.

We've had 'themed' collections before, but never around a single planetary conflict. Mind you, Calth is of such vast significance, it makes sense. I'm assuming this will mean the only Legions to appear will be Ultramarines and Word Bearers, but with the cultists, Imperial Army, Mechanicum, Titan Legions, and whatever ships remain in Calth's orbit, we're hardly going to be restricted to 8 stories of "blue and red team" marines slugging it out. This also could be seen as a companion piece to Know No Fear, which is one of my favourite books so far in the HH series, and certainly left a good amount of plot and character strands tantalisingly unresolved. So... I'm excited!

Shards Of Erebus: This is something of a 'prequel' to the action of Know No Fear. It's split between Erebus learning how to jack Philip Pullman and get his Subtle Knife on, and the gearing-up for war for the eight anointed commanders who were chosen for the great honour of leading the Word Bearers at Calth. With what we've learned from the last few HH books, we know that most of these lucky winners were in fact the high commanders of the XVII who had been found wanting in ability by Lorgar and could be... expended. So we get commanders like Foedral Fell and Hol Beloth as well as some who haven't made an appearance before. I was cursing myself trying to remember which of the commanders actually made it through the meatgrinder of Know No Fear, but I'm sure the rest of the stories in this volume will tell me soon enough...

I really liked both strands of the story. Erebus' arrogance and basic, well, evilness is explored on his dark pilgrimage, but we also get a sense of how paranoid and insecure he is becoming. He can't let himself believe that his dark patrons are using him, but he's happy to embrace mistrust of his brothers on the physical plane. A real theme of the last couple years of HH books is "Who's fucking who?" when it comes to Erebus and his schemes. This is build on nicely in Shards Of Erebus. Is he holding all the strings, or is he just a power-armoured puppet? I'm tending more and more to the second case...

From the sections where the Word Bearer host are preparing for war, we get a sense of how much the Legion has fallen. Remember 'The First Heretic' when they were united in brotherhood for a new cause? Now that the Primarch's attention is occupied elsewhere, it seems they've fallen into petty power struggles and backstabbing. Part of this is probably due to the incredibly poisonous influence of the Dark Cardinal. Kor Phaeron continues to be a real evil piece of shit, an arrogant, entitled bully. Knowing about the power-fisted whuppin' he's down to recieve on Calth just isn't enough. I want him dead! I want his family dead! I want to drive to the ruins of his house in the middle of the night and piss on his ashes! Sadly, I'm pretty sure we won't ever see this happen in BL fiction... but despite the Kordelia's dickishness, I give 'Shards Of Erebus' 8/10 - it's well written and an excellent showstarter.

Calth That Was: After the 'prequel' action of 'Shards Of Erebus', we get some shit picking up after the Atrocity at Calth. A few weeks after, to be more exact. This novella picks up on some major players from that book, including Ventanus and Tawren for the Loyalists, and Foedral Fell and Hol Beloth from the Word Bearers. Some new faces are introduced as well.

'Calth That Was' seems a tribute to Abnett's masterpiece in a lot of ways: it's strictly third person present tense throughout, and takes that novel's brusque, declarative tone. It also has that feeling of vertigo in the beginning, of events rushing towards an awful confusion, and when the tide of violence breaks, the action is just unceasing. I still don't think McNeill is as good at dialogue and characterisation as Abnett, BUT, this actually gives him an advantage when dealing with Ultramarines. The XIII Legion characters here are much more Ultramariney than they were in Know No Fear: humourless, one-track, and occasionally pompous. TOTALLY IN CHARACTER! And of course, while Foedral Fell and Hol Beloth were huge 'players' in the action of 'Know No Fear', we didn't get much 'face time' with them. (Well, nor here for that matter, but there's a good reason for that.) To top this off, Maloq is a truly repulsive antagonist, and he would have succeeded in his plan if it warn't for that pesky landspeeder - garn!

I won't give away much of the story. But with the hatred and despair of Ventanus and the Ultramarines growing, and the Word Bearers falling to ever more debased, desperate acts as they realise they've been discarded, both sides are in a fairly bad way. Full of twists and turns and great battle sequences, Calth That Was is a fitting continuation of 'Know No Fear'. I give it 9/10. At first I docked a point for the slightly disappointing abruptness of its ending, but fuck that. This is a short story after all.

Dark Heart: Some might know Anthony Reynolds from his 2 omnibuses (omnibii?) worth of Word Bearer novels set in the 40K universe. I haven't read them, but it makes sense that the hero, Marduk, would show up at some point in the HH timeline. And what better place than Calth? When we meet Marduk, he's been singled out for censure and hauled before Kor Phaeron - the story then becomes a flashback of him explaining the reason for his transgression, which impresses Kor Phaeron enough to keep Marduk alive.

And then later, the spiky red caterpillar became... a beautiful spiky red butterfly.

At this point a much more lowly grunt than the powerful warlord he would become, Marduk broods, listens to groove metal (don't think I didn't catch that Pantera reference, Reynolds...) and plots his ascension throughout the ranks of the 17th Legion. He's an interesting character, and the story is quite well written. Though I'm not instantly going to rush out and buy the Word Bearers novels, I am quite interested to find out what the arrogant, lethal young Marduk ultimately made of himself. Furthermore, this is a useful addition to the Calth background as it includes another perspective of a fantastically memorable scene in 'Know No Fear' (Kor Phaeron's heart? Meet Guilliman's fingers!) this time from a Word Bearer viewpoint. I give this 7/10, again, only missing out on a higher grade through the slightly sudden, cut-off ending (yep, I know I'm contradicting myself now).

The Traveller: Humans trapped in the arcology system get a raw deal in this story collection, don't they? In 'The Traveller', terrified Imperial citizens beneath Calth unwittingly feel the influence of dark powers they cannot hope to comprehend. They quickly fall back on their worst instincts and begin killing the funny-looking or creepy refugees who they suspect might be up to something. Surely a sign of the direction the Imperium will take... though it says a lot that the clearer-headed influence of the Astartes wasn't present at all for this story.

It's not exactly an original concept, and it doesn't progress the story of any of the key players in 'Fear To Tread', but 'The Traveller' drives home the awfulness of being an 'ordinary' person on Calth following the Betrayal. It also carries on with the story concerning the dark force which took the Campanile (the vessel whose death kicks off the massacre at Calth). Actually, therein lies the only thing I dislike in this story. In Know No Fear the italicised creepy daemon voice interruption of action was used sparingly and was absolutely terrifying. Here it's used horrormuch redblood spasms frequently awful cries way too much and shortly becomes bad goth poetry. A shame, because without OOH WAHH-AH-AH down with the sickness the story is great. Again, a story that is only just short of excellent. 7/10.

A Deeper Darkness: In this slightly predictable but solid story, Ultramarines find themselves stalked through the arcology by something those horrid Word Bearers have brought forth without truly comprehending its power. We have a slightly predictable scenario of Ultramarines and soldiers separating into teams and slowly losing contact with each other, one by one. Hmmm, d'you think there might just end up being one or two left?

Tetrarch Nicodemus makes another appearance, mainly to let us know he's still alive. But really, no major players make themselves known here apart from that, and unlike saving or killing thousands of enemies or innocents, the stakes are somewhat smaller here. There are only a few soldiers going into peril here and they're a minor element of a much larger force. But after so many stories where whole armies are in the balance, somehow smaller seems to work just as well, and be just as dramatic. The ambiguity and suddenness of the ending, something I've been complaining about a lot in this collection, is actually used very well here. Despite all this, there's something about Rob Sanders stories that means I just don't really get pumped for them. Same as for 'The Crimson Fist' and 'The Iron Within'. Well written and engaging enough to not get mad at, but missing that certain something that would put them up with the best stories in this collection. Again, it'll have to be 7/10.

The Underworld War: Beginning to read The Underworld War, I'll be honest, I got feelings of dread. It's taken me around half a year of pretty solid reading, but I'm nearly up to the end of the published HH series. I know 'Vulkan Lives' is just around the corner, and there are (I'll be honest) more exciting books than that on the way that are makin' my claws flex in anticipation. But... for the first time, I'll be finishing an HH book without saying "Welp, time to start the next one". All I can do is... start all over again. Or maybe... read some non BL books. Yikes. Luckily, there are short stories by Dan Abnett and, yes, Aaron Dembski-Bowden still between me and that dark, curséd point.

Hoping to illustrate how empty my life will be without new HH books, I googled 'sadness'. This was one of the first images to come up. Yeah, Sanguinius is a little more voluptuous than I pictured him...

So here we are in the Underworld War, back to the Word Bearers perspective. At this point, these chaps have been fighting the Ultramarines for... wait, seven years?! That means the Age Of Darkness is pretty much done. For you, Word Bearer, zee war iss over! And these poor schmucks don't have a clue. At this point, I'm there, "I knew the Ultramarines were a long time bringing relief to Calth, but I didn't realise the shit dragged on this long."

This story focuses on a single Gal Vorbak warrior who decides to leave the arcology behind and travel the surface of Calth. It's great seeing the long-term ruin that was made of Calth firsthand. Our hero, Kartaul, gives himself a mission is to gather artefacts of each destroyed Word Bearer Chapter that Lorgar sacrificed at Calth. I don't know what he plans to achieve in attempting to shame his Primarch - does he think Lorgar's just going to start weeping or something? But it's an oddly noble goal, and it's well told. And of course, Aaron is the guy who's handled the Word Bearers story for much of the Heresy, so naturally he's not content to just do a simple battle story - he wants to progress the character of the Legion.

I used to read White Dwarf magazine.

'The Underworld War' has a nasty sting in its tale, nasty for the reader more than the characters, something that is in some ways the equivalent of ending a lengthy story with "...but then I woke up". But it's not quite that awful and hacky a device; split between prophecy and alternate reality, I'll admit it fucking pissed me off at first, but I got to like it. Somehow, it's all the more poignant for never really having happened. And of course, being an Aaron story, this is one of the better-written stories in the whole collection, which counts for a lot. All in all I'd give this 8/10.

Athame: A bit of a curveball this. Of course, the athames are quite an important part of the Horus Heresy and Word Bearer cultures. But I'm not sure they're as 'Calth-specific' as merits a solo story in 'Mark Of Calth'. Accordingly, this is the least Calth-centric story in the collection. Athame takes it back... WAY back. What I love about the HH line is it's unafraid to fuck around with allusions to modern day myth or events, something that 'modern day' 40K tends to blanket with "oooh nobody in the Imperium REALLY knows about what happened 100 years ago, let alone 38,000 years ago!" type shit. So Athame takes us from pre-historic/mythical Earth through ages of darkness into the 'modern day' of Word Bearers sticking their dicks into the immaterium and finally, whaddya know it, the damn thing ends up on Calth (with a bonus little allusion to 'Prospero Burns', as well). This facetious review makes it sounds like a mere diversion but I don't think Athame could have been any more masterfully done. This almost makes me want to pick up Ahriman: Exile as soon as it drops (though I'll probably wait for the paperback tbh). I give Athame 9/10. Oh yeah, and ultimately this athame is picked up by Oll Persson (at the end of 'Know No Fear'), which leads us nicely to...

Unmarked: He's an odd bird is Oll Persson. At first, I figured his name to just be a clumsy pun on 'Old Person', since he seems to have been around since the beginning of Earth's history. A reincarnating, forever-living 'everyman' isn't really a new concept. Perhaps he's an Eternal Champion riff. Perhaps he's the ultimate form of Orlando. But we do know he's not the only one of his kind. It's heavily implied the Emperor himself is one. We know John Grammaticus was one (and I'm sure we haven't seen the last of him) and we know that creepy/rapey dude who snatched up Cyrene at the end of Betrayer is one. And fuck knows what that guy has planned. But Oll Persson might be more than just some reincarnating hosejockey. He's special in his own special way. There's a throwaway line in this story where we find out he used to be known as 'Pious' for his adherence to the old Catheric faith (which I guess is Catholicism for offensive oriental stereotypes). Hmm, I thought, remembering a video where Dan Abnett talks about adding the myth of Ollanius Pius AKA the Patron Saint of the Imperial Guard who fought (and died) at the side of the Emperor during The Ceremonial Blazin' Of Terra. Doing a bit of research on Pius, I found out he was just a normal Imperial Guard dogshit trooper (with 2 days til retirement) who leaped in front of a psychic blast from Horus meant for the Emperor. It would appear that he took the brunt of the blast and shielded the Emperor (which makes no sense anyway. If this blast can't just go through a human like wet paper and in fact a human body robs it of its deadly force... what's it gonna do against the King of Kings?). Apparently his last words were "My one regret... is... being flayed alive hideously... ow."

He had just two days until retirement.

As you might have realised, taking this fruity-ass story and turning it on its head is probably the worst thing that GW have ever done. Quite frankly, the chatty rooms are going nuts over this shit. You would think that Dan had applied spicy BBQ sauce direct to the rectums of every IG player. "Dan Abnett is just a bad writer, period" and "The Horus Heresy series is the worst thing to ever happen to 40K" and "How did this clown get anywhere near Pius? I may just smash up my whole Guard army - FOR SHAAAAAAAAME!" are just some of the nicer stuff that's being said.

I've been butthurt about this kind of stuff before, granted. 'Butthurt For The Abyss', for one thing. But ultimately, the thing I feel is kind of cool about the Games Workshop fandom is the way it's frequently willing to pull the rug from under you. And that's been the watchword for HH all this time. Horus and Lorgar were a couple of assholes? The Loyalist Primarchs were all flawless dudes? The Emperor was always the God-King of Mankind and revered as its galactic saviour? This is some shit that we don't take for granted anymore. Ignore for a second that you feel it's all a gigantic conspiracy to sell more GW models. What do you think they gain by changing this fluff? Do you think they believe by stopping this minor character from being some random chode who yells "NOOOOOOO" and dives across a corridor in slow motion, and changing the guy into Elric van Jesus, they're going to increase revenue by 200%?

The face of the devil, apparently.

Besides, Abnett doesn't exist in a vacuum. Any 'fluff-fucking' he wants to get into, you know, he has to put past the other HH writers and the Black Library (and Games Workshop) head honchos. And sure, they can all say they hate it and shoot it down and he can be forbidden to write it, and then write it anyway while cackling and masturbating cause he's Dan foch'n Abnett ye ken but that's probably not what happens, is it? It probably wasn't even his idea to write it like that. So maybe let's try stop being such utter cunts to Dan, shall we?

Anyway, 'Unmarked' carries on the story where 'Know No Fear' left off. Oll and his rag-tag group of adventurers are on some Philip Pullman shit, cutting through realities, falling into different worlds and different times, desperately trying to reach Terra in M31 in time for their graduation speech. I've ranted too long so I don't really want to give much away about 'Unmarked', but it's pretty fucking mental. There are dark hints about John Grammaticus (motherfucker is definitely Into Some Shit), dark hints about Maloq Kartho or what he may come to be known as, and of course, dark hints that Oll's death may be coming (well, we already knew that). If you're already an Oll hater, then this isn't gonna help you out much, since there's some more stuff about him being one of Jason's original Argonauts (which seems to be one of the primary causes of anal fissures among "PIUS WAS JUST A NORMAL DUDE" shippers). For those who are already down for The Pius Cause, the shit will just about make you weep boy. Oh boy, I can't wait for these crazy kids to continue their adventures!!! Naturally, I give Unmarked 9/10.

In conclusions... I've already gone on for waaaaaaay, way too long. But I give 'Mark Of Calth' a 7/10. It probably could be an 8/10, but I was a little disappointed by some of the stories I had, perhaps, unrealistic hopes for. This was balanced out by some stories I was expecting to be trash, being kind of fun. I certainly don't think this is proof the Heresy series has irrevocably stalled, and I'm glad that it looks like the story collections will be published with increasing frequency ('The Shadow War' and 'The Shattered Legions' are the next pencilled-in releases for the series). I hope we can start to move away from Calth now, though. Getting mighty sick of that planet.

New to PurpleHeresy? Head on over to the index page to see a more chronological list of the Horus Heresy reviews on this blog.