"Mechanicum" by Graham McNeill

It’s weird to think that this book is six years old already, appearing a year after prequel ‘The Kaban Project’ showed up in a Games Day chapbook. I re-read that story as a palate-cleanser before leaping into ‘Mechanicum’, and I’m still not really sold on it… but my memory of ‘Mechanicum’ is mostly positive, perhaps even "the point at which Graham got good". Let’s see how my second read-through of this book (first read-through in a few years), leaves me feeling.

"Hah! Now I'll never lose my assault cannon again... Oh, fuck. I've only gone and glued my hand to my chest!"

The Mechanicum, then. A very different organisation to the Adeptus Mechanicus of ‘modern’ times. Early on in the book, it's described as “competitive, uncooperative, suspicious and insular”. It’s a bit of a mystery, and as you might have gathered from the title, this book features the organisation heavily. So how does it do at presenting this force (in some ways as significant in the Heresy as the Legiones Astartes)? Wellllllll…

I’d forgotten that the ostensible main character is a woman, Dalia Cythera. Considering how female characters have tended to fare in Graham’s HH novels, this might be a bad sign. Right off the bat, we learn that she’s a teenage prodigy with a photographic memory. Awful visions of a Graham-penned Lisbeth Salander occurred me, but that’s not something that happens here luckily (though she does have the Repressed Psyker trait, long before it became a ridiculously common plot device in HH). However, we do start with a bit of a howler: Mistress Zeth, our heroine’s apparent benefactor, is based in a forge complex built on a lake of magma. I mean, even in the frequently nonsensical universe of 40K, this seems like a stupid thing to do. Graham can try to cover that one with pseudo-science but amongst all the robots built using human corpses and spaceships that look like city-sized cathedrals, this really stands out as a bad idea. I’m sure it won’t be used as a convenient plot device in the shocking finale.

Simultaneous to the introduction of Dalia, a group of three patrolling Knight Paladins encounter the Kaban Machine as it attacks a facility they are defending. This section reminds me that Graham is great at writing mechanised combat sequences and also gives us some background: political and ideological tensions have been growing on Mars, but not to the point that armed conflict between two elements of the Mechanicum isn’t a huge shock to these Knights. In the aftermath of the Kaban Machine conflict, we see a council of Titan Legio commanders assemble in the hopes of averting a disaster. This is another great scene that gives us further insight into the culture of the rival Titan factions, particularly the arrogant, sinister Legio Mortis. I know I often complain when a HH character is unambiguously villainous from the beginning, sapping their betrayal of any dramatic weight, but goddamn, Graham has made a satisfyingly evil antagonist here.

With that, Graham’s set up the two narratives he’s going to flick between for the rest of the book. The growing hostility between the Martian factions, and Dalia’s quest to DO A THING with the help of her plucky team of misfits. Dalia’s colleagues are nowhere near as engaging as I’d remembered, and they’re all fairly shallow and archetypal. For example, Zouche is an example of the fantasy Dwarf, going beyond his diminutive height; bellicose, bluff, tactless. I chose him as an example because he’s the only one whose backstory and motivations are interesting (actually, it provides a really useful insight to pre-Unity Terra). The rest of them are just pretty boring. Dalia herself quickly becomes a bit of a damsel. For example, when she’s motivated by empathy to save a psyker caught in an experiment gone wrong, she just makes the situation worse. Her intent is admirable but her actions are truly fucking stupid and all the screaming and crying just makes me think of that dreadful character in ‘Honour to the Dead’. That dumb incident, though, does set the narrative lurching forward. Given a terrifying glimpse of forbidden knowledge, Dalia now develops her own agenda.

Scrapcode plays an important part in ‘Mechanicum’, though the way it shows Kelbor-Hal’s corruption through AN EVUL CHAOS COMPUTAR VIRAS is pretty dumb. But the spread of devastation across Mars caused by the code is nicely done. There’s a great, tense scene showing a Titan confrontation with the first combat use of the corrupted scrapcode. Abnett did write this better in ‘Know No Fear’ – but still, the High Noon-style standoff between Legio Tempestus and Legio Mortis is a great moment.

I’ve used the ‘d’ word earlier in the review. Let me just take an overly long detour to elaborate on this ‘damsel’ thing. Like many of Graham’s female characters, Dalia just wants a big strong man to hold her and tell her it’s all OK. Am I exaggerating? A little bit, but not much. On reading Dalia’s sections of the book, my main feeling was “I really don’t remember it being this bad”. (Then again, I also remember the techno-friends’ dragonquest road trip being most of the book, while it actually doesn’t even start until over halfway through, so my memory is clearly unreliable.) She’s mostly capable and useful in a support capacity… but when there IS a combat situation, Dalia loses her shit. I’m torn on whether to condemn this or not. On the one hand, a standard human non-combatant without any kind of combat training would probably be utterly terrified if huge evil robots were trying to kill them. So maybe I should applaud Graham for realistic character actions. But from another perspective, this focuses so much on a female character’s weeping hysterics that it comes close to being a defining trait. 

I’m not saying a conscious decision has been made to show that women are weaker or more cowardly than men… but that’s the message I get, especially when her male companions’ response (also fear) is barely focused on. Compare to, say, Abnett in the Gaunt’s Ghosts series, where he is excellent at showing the bowel-destroying fear troopers both male and female encounter in combat: the portrayal is a lot more subtle and even-handed and, to my recollection, never falls back to simplistic pantomime overreactions. Yeah, yeah, not every writer can be Dan, and not every reader gives a fuck about this aspect of 40K; in fact from what I can tell, a lot of Black Library fans are deeply resentful of any ‘agenda’ they suspect of being pushed regarding gender equality in the grim darkness on the future. But this goes beyond my flag-waving political correctness, it’s just lazy character writing. I think Graham’s come a long way with this stuff for sure, but that doesn’t make this, ‘Fulgrim’ or ‘False Gods’ any less tough to read. I absolutely do give him credit for Adept Zeth though: she illustrates that Graham makes no distinction between the men and women of the Mechanicum. It's a shame, then, that she's barely developed as a character, only having time for a few interesting hints of something more to her than there first appears before her premature end.

That’s just a little lecture about the evils of gender role stereotyping comin’ to you from a guy who listens mostly to misogynistic rap music and is scared to even talk to women. Fuck this blog, right?

In the last part of the novel, we see the long-promised civil war finally erupt on Mars. The rise of Kelbor-Hal’s ‘Dark Mechanicum’, while lacking any subtlety, gives us some great scenes. The repercussions are felt even on Terra, where Malcador and Dorn worry about Mars even as they resolve to first squash Horus at Isstvan V. (Dorn and the Sigillite’s portrayal as close confidants here is certainly at odds with what’s come since – but that’s something which understandably happens a fair bit in these early books.) I loved that brief mention of Sor Talgron's creepy machinations; it feels like ‘The Purge’ was in the pipeline for years, perhaps ADB’s Word Bearer domination delayed it a bit?

After a spectacular Titan battle, the book ends, quite suddenly. My feeling is that Dalia’s fate is a setup for some 40K novel or event (possibly even Graham’s ‘Mars’ series, which I’ve not started yet) since it certainly doesn’t look like it’ll have any future relevance for the Horus Heresy. When thinking back on that section of the book, then, it’s hard to restrain the feeling of “who gives a fuck?” Like ‘Nemesis’, that’d be fine if the story was original or interesting to act as a ‘standalone’, but to be brutally honest, I just don’t think it’s strong enough. Meanwhile, the Civil War thread spends most of its time building agendas and characters embroiled in this power struggle, only to ultimately murder most of them in a riot of Forge-destroying violence. Graham has a tendency to do this with his characters; see the III Legion officers in ‘Angel Exterminatus’. I applaud him for killing almost indiscriminately – this is WAR, after all – but couldn’t he leave some room for series-spanning character arcs? With the Loyalist forces near-annihilated, I don’t know this ‘war’ will continue, but keep in mind this was only a snapshot of the conflict focusing on a ‘small’ but significant part of Mars. Ultimately, we leave ‘Mechanicum’ with a fairly limited context for how the planet-wide struggle is going.

Through this book, Graham’s dialogue is sometimes a little shaky. For someone who’s keen on characters making some big, portentous speeches, there are a few too many “fair enough”s and “I suppose”s here; the casual nature of it seems forced, and context-inappropriate. But that’s a minor issue. The structure of ‘Mechanicum’ is not dissimilar to ‘Deliverance Lost’, in that full-blown action only occurs near the end of the book. Possibly encouraged by ‘Legion’, this book skirts a cautious acceptance that BL readers don’t need a battle every fifty pages to maintain their interest.

There is dumbness galore here, not on ‘Battle For The Abyss’ levels, but sometimes close. Kelbor-Hal’s rather literal manifestation of ‘corrupted data’ calls for Michael Biehn to blast him with a shotgun and rasp “needs a reboot” or “reformat THIS, sucker!” or similar. Something about Graham’s books, especially during this era, screams “80s action movie”. Often really dumb and fun to read, but sometimes you find yourself thinking “That’s some fucking stupid shit.” The ancient Adept our heroes meet on their quest for the Dragon of Mars is dripping with ‘Writing for Nutsos 101’ clichés to the extent that I’m surprised he doesn’t shriek “Mad! They called me mad! Blind fools!” Mind you, sometimes the craziness is a boon. For example, the bizarre story of how the Dragon of Mars was imprisoned by the Emperor and how it’s linked to the origins of the Imperium… it’s so bonkers I’ve actually got to love it. Oh, apparently, most readers more au fait with the current 40K fluff than me concluded from hints in the book that the Dragon was actually a C’Tan. I don’t really know what that means or give that much of a fuck, I just thought I’d mention it.

As usual for a Graham book early in the Heresy series, criticism can be made of the lack of character ambiguity. Kelbor-Hal and his cronies are never less than loathsome; Adept Zeth, while occasionally heartless, is pure as snow when it comes to loyalty to the Imperium. Consider Deltrian, the Adept in the Night Lords series by ADB – that was a character whose portrayal showed clearly the Mechanicum was about as subject to black and white notions of “good” and “evil” as the shadowy upper echelons of the Imperium were. To show either side as cackling monsters or stern-faced saints seems to cheapen the schism a bit.

You might be able to tell how this is going from all this complaining. Sadly, re-reading ‘Mechanicum’ was less enjoyable than I had hoped. Perhaps the first time I read it I was relieved at the slight uptick in quality compared to ‘Fulgrim’ and ‘False Gods’ – after all, this time Graham wasn’t shitting all over characters Dan had written brilliantly. Yet at a second glance, his characterisation and dialogue hadn’t got any less shallow. The book also takes a great deal longer to get started than I remember; while I do like the intrigue of the Martian power moves, I don’t think Dalia and co. turn out to be worth the time spent on them. Only Zouche is interesting and the weird blink-and-you’ll-miss-it hint that he might have a deeper, more sinister agenda makes me hope we’ll see him again.

And speaking of that...

I’m still very interested in the Mechanicum storyline in HH and it’s a real shame it’s been dormant this long. Like most early HH Graham books, I can’t help but wish Graham had put the good bits (notably the Titan and Knight combat) in a novella and someone else had tackled the bits which called for more subtlety, like the actual culture of the Martian priests, or the behind-the-curtain political manoeuvres of Horus’ emissaries, or the motivations of Kelbor-Hal for revolt (beyond a couple sloppy pages which are the equivalent of some asshole saying "WE'LL GIVE YOU GOLD!"). I’m ‘bout to throw out some dream roster shit. David Annandale would have been great to write about the Dragon of Mars stuff, John French could have been excellent for Mechanicum Machiavellian plotting, Chris Wraight could have shown the actual day-to-day logistics of Mars’ government and how it interacts with the Munitorum, Aaron could have shown the claustrophobic desperation of the Imperial Fists’ scramble to secure supplies… OK, the involvement of all of those authors with the Heresy series was some way off. But I’d also nominate Matthew Farrer, with his excellent ability to write about the 40K Mechanicus (or the Heresy Mechanicum, as ‘Vorax’ showed), as a person who could have made this book the visceral, disturbing novel it should have been. Of course, Dan would be my first choice for rewriting any of the first 10 HH books, but Dan was cooking up some marvellous shit about Prospero during this time, I think… I realise I seem to trash McNeill quite a bit on this blog, but with his “PurpleHeresy’s Most Improved” medal for ‘Angel Exterminatus’ and ‘Vengeful Spirit’, Graham himself would be a nice choice for a sequel.

Anyway, all this wishlisting is a waste of time, since Rob Sanders is apparently in line to come in with the sequel for this in novella form sometime next year. Here’s hoping that he will at least be able to match the original.

Well, I went in with a positive attitude, no one can deny that... but this falls short of the greatness it deserves – like too many of the early Heresy books. Y’all haters who shit on ‘Deliverance Lost’ and ‘Angel Exterminatus’ might need to re-read the late-2000s novels and check whether it really was all better back in the day. 6/10

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

"Burden Of Duty" by James Swallow / "Grey Angel" by John French

2 OF AMERIKKKA'S MO$T WANTED

Burden Of Duty by James Swallow: For a long time I considered ‘Burden Of Duty’ (or ‘Garro: Burden Of Duty’ to some) the weak link in the Garro audiobook chain, since “NOTHING EVEN HAPPENS!!!!” Listening to it again, though, it seems to be an excellent addition to the ‘Silent War’ arc. The actors here are John Banks, Toby Longworth and Ramon Tikaram, and as always, Toby Longworth is great to hear as Garro: that unhurried elegance just on the right side of stuffiness.

James Swallow always starts his Garro dramas with a bit of a recap/overview of the Heresy series. Welcome for newcomers (though once again I have to state that people with no knowledge of the HH chronology who begin the series with a Garro audio drama are smoking crack). I’m not sure how well that will play when the rumoured prose collection of Garro’s audio adventures is printed, though – imagine an anthology where the first couple pages of every story is identical. Not a fun time.

The plot for this audio drama is pretty straightforward. Using a single-person ship and a falsehood, Nathaniel Garro infiltrates the Imperial Fists fortress-ship Phalanx and makes his way to the meditation chamber where all the Fists Librarians have been sequestered. The Imperial Fists apparently withdrew their psykers from combat duty entirely once the Edict was passed. The Librarians, led by a Brother Massak, awaken from their meditation and attack this intruder, but the fray is stopped by Rogal Dorn, who takes Garro into custody. Despite being pressed to account for his actions, Garro will not reveal the purpose of his mission – but it seems obvious he was intending to recruit the unused former Librarians into Malcador’s service. The drama ends with Garro released by Dorn, but the Imperial Fist Librarians remaining in seclusion. Like I said, fairly simple, but the worth of ‘Burden Of Duty’ is in the well-drawn characters, and the exploration of the motivations of two key figures in the Heresy and the ambiguity of their relationship.

Joe Budden Of Duty

Chronologically, I always assumed that this took place at the same time as ‘Grey Angel’ since they were packaged together on the same CD. However, a lot of people think this is set much earlier, long before Loken joined the Knights Errant. Since ‘Legion Of One’ was supposed to be the last recruitment mission by Garro, this probably takes place before that, but it really could be at any time after ‘Flight Of The Eisenstein’, since none of the other Knights Errant are mentioned.

I’ve made my dislike of Rogal Dorn quite clear on this site, but this drama illustrates how far a good performance can go in changing your mind about a character. Here, Dorn is stern and patrician, yet he has an underlying charisma where the character could have been cold and forbidding. I’m not sure who’s playing him, but they sound exactly like Horus in ‘Warmaster’, so it’s either Ramon Tikaram or Toby Longworth. It’s a stark contrast to the way Magnus sounds like a burbling idiot in ‘Thief Of Revelation’ – this is how to do a Primarch the right way. Effective, nuanced performance, not gimmicks. His attitude to Garro seems to have softened a little, I think there’s clear admiration there – but he also seems to see him as little more than a catspaw of Malcador, who he obviously has little regard for. The last lines of the drama show perhaps one of my favourite Dorn moments in the whole series, as a decision I’d assumed was down to his servile obedience to daddy is revealed to be something much more ambiguous. Overall, Legion and Primarch bias may stop me from ever truly liking this guy but if he’s handled well, he can be an interesting character at least. Comparatively, Garro isn’t given too much to do in terms of dialogue, but his quiet dignity is always appreciated. Brother Massak could be a promising addition to the HH cast – I’m interested to see what else they do with this guy – but is a bit of a blander version of Rubio at this point (down to the slightly intense whispered delivery).

Joe Biden Of Duty

‘Burden Of Duty’ is very subdued, which is an approach that works surprisingly well with BL audiobooks, considering the narrators usually get overexcited and start yelling if any combat is taking place. Here, the PEW PEW PEW lasers and VRRRRRRM chainswords are at a minimum: sound effects are mostly ambient and serve only to immerse you further in the story. Black Library bringing out a minimalist Pinter-esque drama with nothing but talking is very unlikely, but I vastly prefer this atmospheric stuff to the shouting and explosions stuff. Listening to this again made me remember how much I enjoy James Swallow’s Garro audios, and considering that I feel they’ve been getting better and better in order of publication, I have high hopes for ‘Garro: Shield Of Lies’. I give this a solid 8/10.

Grey Angel by John French: But wait, haven’t I already reviewed ‘Grey Angel’? Yeah, but it was one of the first reviews I did, back when the tone of this blog was… a lot more irreverent, and I felt the need to put a few jokes into every paragraph even when they didn’t fit. I wince a bit when I read that review, and listening to the audio drama again recently, I thought it might be fun to try reviewing it again.

Following his recovery from the blasted surface of Isstvan III, Garviel Loken, the Space Marine everyone thought was dead, IS BACK WITH A VENGEANCE! Actually he’s back with a subdued personality and a likely case of PTSD. At the request of Rogal Dorn, Loken and fellow loyalist Sixteenth Legion warrior Iacton Qruze have journeyed to Caliban to feel out the allegiance of the Dark Angels posted there, and inform them of Horus’ treachery should they prove loyal. Captured by the First Legion and interrogated by Luther, Loken realises the loyalty of Caliban is no clearly-defined state. The ‘Grey Angel’ of the title could be Garro, clad in his new featureless armour – but more likely it’s Luther, standing not clearly with the light or darkness, but rather in the spaces between. Meanwhile, Qruze roams Aldurukh and encounters a mysterious Dark Angel whose motives are similarly unclear. Like ‘Burden Of Duty’, the voice actors here are John Banks, Toby Longworth and Ramon Tikaram.

I’ll just briefly reiterate what I spent most of my original review banging on about: HOLY SHIT, THAT LUTHER THOUGH! The performance here for the Lion’s former best buddy is really, really good. While there is arguably even more arrogance and malice in Luther’s voice than Hakim in ‘Sword Of Truth’, here there’s a contrasting edge of wounded pride and nobility we didn’t see in the White Scar’s portrayal. (I mention Hakim because I swear Ramon Tikaram is doing the voice for Luther – which is an oddly fitting redemption for a great voice actor). Luther is obviously a more complex character than the two First Legion novels have showed him – and actually, more complex than even the fairly subtle creature shown here. At least we’re starting to mine the character’s potential – I really hope there’s a lot of Luther in the upcoming Horus Heresy Dark Angels work (and, to be honest, that a writer a bit less ‘meat and potatoes’ than Gav was writing about him). The other voice actors are far from bad – in particular, Loken’s performance is very strong – and the narrator is also good despite the over-excited rushing through action scenes, but Luther is the star here.

luther had a dreaaaaaaam
horus had a dreeeeeeam
the emprah had a dreeeeeam

‘Grey Angel’ has been criticised for its possible deviation from the established chronology of the Dark Angels. While Luther and the banished Dark Angels who would become the Fallen were only part of the Great Crusade for a very small amount of time according to ‘Descent Of Angels’, ‘Grey Angel’ asserts that they took part in many significant actions and fought alongside many of the other Legions, notably the Luna Wolves – and that Loken is well-acquainted with at least one of their number. I do really like this idea and a Luther/Abaddon team-up is an awesome concept, but I’m sure that the time Luther was at the Lion’s side in the Crusade was around a year or less, most of which is covered near the end of ‘Descent’. Also, Luther cracks on to know nothing about the Heresy, but at the end of ‘Fallen Angels’ it’s established that the news of Isstvan had reached Caliban. You could assume that Luther is just lying because he’s a deceitful character, and that the war-damaged Loken is easily convinced because he wants to believe the full extent of Space Marine treachery has already been revealed. You could also assume that John French didn’t read ‘Fallen Angels’ recently (or ever, and who would really blame the guy) and forgot that Luther was aware of the Heresy. 

I’m not one of those people who throws their toys out of the pram when the order of events in HH is a little unclear (it’s pretty much expected in multi-author undertaking like this) but I really think in this incidence, the possible botch is problematic. I try to be optimistic, especially where John French is involved, so I’d hope that Luther’s playing a long game here rather than this just being an authorial mistake. Still, Gav seems to have taken over the Dark Angels writing now, and Gav is pretty good at ironing out chronology errors, so hopefully he'll write something about this. The fact that ‘Guardian Of Order’ and ‘Master Of The First’ didn’t mention the events of this drama makes me wonder if he'll just ignore it though. I’m also much less confident now that the mysterious Dark Angel who helps the Knights Errant escape is Zahariel; his comments about his plan to “watch and guard in silence – [the same as] those who came before me” make me think that it’s Cypher. Since Cypher is probably going to get a lot more character development once Gav focuses on Caliban, this is one strand of the story I’m very confident will be picked up.

There are more pressing issues with the plot than the ambiguity of Luther’s words. Loken’s insistence on not disturbing the Caliban ‘balance’, and the cryptic words of the Watcher who assists him, are not my favourite parts of this drama – they seem a little contrived, a way of extracting these characters from this precarious situation with nothing resolved and little of consequence happening. In fact, the dramatic conflict near the end of the drama is probably the weakest part, though the aftermath of this conflict sees the writing improve once again.  ‘Grey Angel’ has flaws, and as a story, I’d give it 7/10, but the performances of this audio version – particularly Luther’s theatrical menace – really bump it up, so it’s 8/10 for me.

There are a few thematic links between these stories: as well as honourable characters being forced to commit subterfuge and ‘shadow actions’, the significance of dreams is emphasised few times. Whether that’s the visions of Heresy which come to Brother Massak when he sleeps, the flashbacks of dead comrades who haunt Loken’s scarred mind, or Luther’s bitterness at his inability to dream since the Imperium “changed” him. Then again, one could argue that the true link between the stories is the feeling of “coitus interruptus”: you think it’s heading towards a resolution, so to speak, only to stop short at the last minute, rather frustratingly. I really wanted Massak to leave the Phalanx with Garro… but he didn’t. I really wanted Loken and Qruze to uncover some significant and obvious treachery in Aldurukh and let Malcador know Luther couldn’t be counted on… but they didn’t. Of course, we can’t always get what we want - but you could argue that by virtue of these downbeat endings, the protagonists achieve nothing in these stories. I think the common 40K messageboard meme that Malcador’s assignments are pointless wastes of time is generally nonsense… but unlike with ‘Garro: Legion Of One’ or ‘The Sigillite’ it seems unclear here what Malcador was really trying to achieve with his mission – realistically, how could Garro hope to escape the Phalanx even if all the Librarians joined his cause? And Dorn’s task was just as bad: if the Calibanites had declared for Horus, the Knights would have been fucked, and even if they were faithful to the Emperor, why would they believe or obey two anonymous, Legion-less warriors? Still, when the stories are this well-presented and the performances are great, I’m not going to complain too much. It actually worries me how well this will translate to the prose format because Dorn and Luther are performed so well that I can’t really tell how the writing will stand alone.

I honestly think John French and James Swallow might be the best at the audiobook format. Definitely looking forward to what happens next in the Knights Errant storyline; following the action-packed but sometimes jumbled handling of it in ‘Vengeful Spirit’, it might be nice to return to the subtlety of these two stories and give the characters some space to breathe.

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

Black Library Weekender III: "I'm Getting Money, I Think I'm MC Hammer"

No, I didn't attend the third Black Library Weekender... I'm borderline agoraphobic at the moment, and also a bit ill (and a bit broke). Still, starting Sunday I was eagerly trawling the internet for any info about this event.

The last few days, as attendees started to shake of their hangovers and post about BLWIII's announcements, I've been pretty excited at the release schedule taking shape; my bitterness about the disappointing 'Legacies Of Betrayal' lineup is all but forgotten. Unfortunately as per usual I had to wade through all kinds of bitterness, anti-BL circle jerking and general hate/ignorance while I was trying to get the facts. Same old story, it's pretty much why I avoid the forums whenever possible, but I always enjoy seeing the posts from the few users who obviously enjoy reading the series.

I've taken this opportunity to update the Index Page with some of the confirmed Horus Heresy release information and some of the rumours as well (although I'd say pretty much anything discussed by the authors at the Weekender can count as 'confirmed'). My main source here was Nico, who sometimes posts as Death-Nikorps, and is @blacklibrarium on Twitter. Shout outs to Nico, your enthusiasm and positivity is always nice to read - and thanks for the scoops!

I've also decided to take 'The Shattered Legions' and 'The Silent War' off the Uncomfirmed Projects list. It feels like nobody's talked about them for a while, and they were probably unofficial groupings for arcs rather than a planned anthology release.

Some thoughts here:

Stealth Alpha Legion novella release! Would we want it any other way? Having read a few things about the storyline of 'The Seventh Serpent' I am confident I'll enjoy this when I actually get to read it (hopefully it will go on sale on the BL website in the next few months). It almost feels like BL are letting every author give the XX a shot, I look forward to reading Graham's take on the sons of Alpharius.

On a less positive note, I'm lacking in any optimism about 'Deathfire'. My interest in the Salamanders remains low. My interest in Vulkan remains low. My faith in Nick Kyme's ability to write a good novel remains low. I'm sure it won't be bad, but if it's anything like 'Vulkan Lives', it may be a struggle for me to get through. If this is a book about stoic Isstvan survivors struggling to come to terms with their Primarch's absence and pondering at length on how best to strike back against the traitors... well, fuck. On the other hand, if it's an Imperium Secundus book focusing on Vulkan's sons clashing with Guilliman's authority, and their Primarch's resurrection/rehabilitation - that could be an interesting scenario. But... the cover art really makes me think it's the first one, 

Looks like a lot of HH audio dramas over the next few months, which I'm definitely pleased about, and they're mostly from authors/storylines I'm a fan of. In particular, I look forward to 'Iron Corpses', which I assume is a continuation of John French's Tallarn storyline (the Battle Of Iron Corpses being a significant action in that conflict).

Aaron has bowed out of the Heresy lineup for now, preferring to focus on the second Abaddon book. I have mixed feelings about this, which I'll probably explore in my 'Talon Of Horus' review, but there certainly seem to be several 'young blood' Heresy authors to replace him - Guy Haley, David Annandale and Andy Smillie are all making waves, after all.

It doesn't seem like there'll be a Death Guard or Mortarion-focused book in 2015. Oh well. A couple more short stories or an audio drama would tide me over, but I really hope 2016 sees a full novel or at least a novella... and that Chris Wraight writes it.

Lastly: Horus Heresy Weekender 2015 dates have been announced, and I'm determined to attend - I'm so sick of getting pissed off about the event-only anthologies, why not do something about it? Hopefully I'll manage to act naturally and not freak out (well I doubt there'll be many girls there so I'll probably be fine).

"Child Of Night" by John French / "Daemonology" by Chris Wraight

Well, my ‘Mechanicum’ review has stalled a bit. I’ve been distracted by other stuff the last couple months, most recently the World Of Fire And Ice ‘history’ book from George RR Martin but also Borderlands 2 – great video game, horrible writing – and listening to YG’s mixtape Just Re’d Up 2 an unhealthy number of times. THAT’S ON THE SET, HOMIE

Enough about NON BLACK LIBRARY LIFE! I know what people come to this blog for, when they come at all…

So as you might have gathered from a few comments in previous reviews, when I found out ‘Legacies Of Betrayal’ was no novella collection but an apparently randomly selected grab-bag of previously available material, with only two stories included that weren’t already out there in some form (‘Spirit Of The Conqueror’ by ADB and ‘Serpent’ by John French) I was… bitter. My resentment grew a little when I saw that ‘Spirit Of The Conqueror’ was included in ‘Death And Defiance’ as a teaser for ‘Legacies’, and it turned out to only be a few pages long. I’d like to believe that was just an extract from ‘Spirit’, not the full text, but… I’m not optimistic.

Yet my resentment has ebbed a bit in the last couple weeks. It’s been announced that the fourth Forge World Horus Heresy book, ‘Conquest’, dealing with the Sons Of Horus and Death Guard’s actions post-Isstvan V, has a ‘Winter 2014’ release date. We’ve also been told that Andy Smilie’s Flesh Tearers book, ‘Sons Of Wrath’, will deal with events surrounding the Chapter’s founding, meaning it’ll be immediately post-Heresy, a time period I’m extremely interested in. That’ll be out December as well (earlier, if you want the First Edition). Hell, the great audio drama ‘Parting Of The Ways’ released in October dealt memorably with the post-Heresy period for the Space Wolves, and their slow decline before and after Russ’ disappearance. In terms of the Heresy series proper, ‘Master Of The First’ was a (surprisingly) gripping Gav Thorpe audio drama about the Fallen Angels on Caliban, and Aaron Dembski-Bowden’s long-awaited continuation of the Sevatar story, ‘The Long Night’, will hopefully follow this month, also in audio form. The first Garro audio drama in well over a year, ‘Shield Of Lies’, is set to drop in early December. And no doubt the Black Library Weekender will see a bit more of 2015’s release schedule information announced, including confirmation of the 32^nd book in the HH series, and hopefully cover art too. All in all, Quarter 4 of 2014 is not looking as much a fallow field for HH enthusiasts as I worried it could be.

Anyway, I’m not here to talk about that. I’ve already reviewed ‘Death And Defiance’, and I’ll hopefully review ‘Master Of The First’ soon. This is about two ‘Digital Monday’ shorts Black Library released this week and last week, providing further reassurance that they still give a fuck about the HH series, and that they in fact have some of their best guys on it.

AWW MAN WE GOT DIFFERENT COLOURS AND ALSO SKULLS

“Child Of Night” by John French: Fel Zharost, First Librarian of the Night Lords, is a character we’ve not met before as far as I recall. And, well, there’s a reason for that: as this story starts, he’s been an outcast from his Legion for many years, and is hiding in the ‘sinks’ on Terra – the dark underground cities/prisons which the Night Lords originally took their recruits from, and where Fel Zharost’s life began. The Terran days of the Eighth were an element John French expanded on brilliantly with Alan Bligh in the Forge World book ‘Massacre’, and he flawlessly transposes that ‘fluff’ to a narrative setting here.

Child Of Night’ flashes back to key moments of his lengthy service, beginning with the first time he encounters Astartes and his psychic gift manifests – a memorable and excellent scene, which establishes the ambiguous nature of Zharost’s relationship with his Legion. We also touch on the period where the Eighth were the ‘watchdogs’ of Unity, bringing the Emperor’s retribution down on untrustworthy allies and traitors using torture, psychological warfare and terror tactics. Zharost fulfils these duties with aplomb, but no particular relish. We see Zharost’s disgust and disillusionment with the changing culture of the Eighth writ large in a tense confrontation between himself and Sevatar over the Edict of Nikea, a scene which shows both men letting their masks slip more than they would like. Last but not least, we see Zharost’s present: cornered by an Astartes from an unknown Legion in the prison sinks of his birth, the Librarian feels that the Emperor’s justice has come to him at last for his neglect of his duties. But COULD THINGS BE QUITE AS THEY APPEAR? Erm, well, no.

You know what makes a short story damn near classic? A compelling lead character, and Fel sure fits that bill. A Terran, and a psyker, we get the feeling he considered himself something of an unwelcome presence among the Nostramans, who have been known to distrust witches. (Anti-Terran feeling doesn’t seem to have been prominent in the Eighth, but not all of a Night Lord’s paranoia needs to be warranted.) He also seems to have been less gleeful than many of his Terran kin about the Legion’s shift into manic sadism. Event after this quite short story, I’m very eager to see where Zharost’s story goes – if the heavily-implied truth is that he’s going to be a new Knight Errant, I think he might be an excellent fit with Garro, Loken and co; as an older, Terran Legionary, he could be a replacement for Iacton Qruze (though of a darker hue). Due to his psychic gifts, Zharost also seems like a possible candidate for a founding Grey Knights Grandmaster as well – which would certainly upset the fan theory that Sevatar was one of the first heroes of the 666^th Chapter.

The writing is excellent throughtout; Frenchie really seems like one of the most reliable authors in BL right now – I’m really looking forward to whatever his next project is, and I hope he gets a crack at another Knights Errant story in the near future. With this, and ‘A Safe And Shadowed Place’, a cynical man might think BL are auditioning authors to take up ADB’s crown as King Of The Night Lords, considering that Aaron has implied he wants a break from HH (perhaps a long one) once ‘Master Of Mankind’ and hopefully ‘Nightfall’ are done. I’m not complaining; Aaron’s left a strong foundation for his colleagues to build on, and Guy Haley and John French have shown they are more than capable of working within the parameters of what’s come before. If what we get is this good – well, I say let the Dark King take his break.

I give this 9/10.

“Daemonology” by Chris Wraight: Oh shit, a MORTARION story! You know I was on it like a bonnet. This is a dual narrative, knocking back and forth between the Death Guard’s assault on the Library World called Terathalion, soon after the events of ‘Scars’, and a confrontation between Mortarion and the Sigillite during the Great Crusade, after he’s been recovered from Barbarus but before he takes command of the then-Dusk Raiders. As I’ve said, I was… dissatisfied by the change in Mortarion’s attitudes between ‘Scars’ and ‘Vengeful Spirit’ regarding sorcery… but I also understood there was room for more fiction between those books to tell us how it got this way. And… well, I was hoping for a whole book, at least a novella, but this story could be it. But guess what? That’s all I need, because ‘Daemonology’ is a perfect bridge between the hardline witch-hunter of ‘Scars’ and the cautious sorcerer of ‘Vengeful Spirit’. Sacking Terathalion to capture one daemonhost human (but also because he loves to destroy worlds, and the fact that this one was beloved of Magnus doesn’t hurt), Mortarion hopes the neverborn will be intimidated enough by his threats of physical pain that they’ll help him understand the horrors of the Warp. Not because he wants to use the Warp, of course; because he wants to be better armoured against its dangers. Is this dude naïve or what? The daemonhost is a great character and its own arrogance and smugness is nicely set against Mortarion’s aggressive ego.

A WALKIN STUDY INN A DAEMONOLOGY HAAAAAYYY

The only thing I’d complain about here is that there was no time to flesh out the Death Guard Legion’s character – great scene of their method of planetstrike, but no captains or line soldiers are given any lines to say, and there’s no indication of how the Death Guard feel about Mortarion’s defeat at Jaghathai’s hands, or his increasingly unstable behaviour. The focus is absolutely on the Death Lord. It's totally understandable, since this is a short story, and I’m really happy with the way he was portrayed, but I think his Legion desperately needs some non-Typhon characters. A shitload of them are going to have to die before or during the Siege, after all.

As for the flashback stem of the ebook, Wraight shows once again that he is the definitive writer for Malcador in the whole HH stable. These flashback scenes are much less action-packed than the ‘modern’ ones, but they contain some welcome fleshing-out of the Death Lord’s character. It shows nicely that Mortarion’s mental state was worrying to the Sigillite, especially considering his open hostility toward many aspects of the Imperium. The way he was placated by the prospect of one day having his day in the sun at Nikea is a great touch.

Mortarion is a wounded monster throughout the whole story, either recovering from his ordeal on Barbarus or his defeat on Prospero – the story catches him at two of his lowest ebbs. Sadly, we know it can only get worse for Morty. But that’s what makes him one of my favourite characters – his tragic fall, and his unbelievable arrogance; he’s utterly convinced he knows better than his father or any of his brothers. This slow and agonising journey into damnation is making up for the hash I think the BL authors made of Fulgrim and Horus’ initial descents. I am daring to hope that since his recent books and stories (both HH and not) have often featured the Death Guard heavily, Chris Wraight may be called to write the next HH Death Guard book which, well, hopefully exists in some form. As much as I enjoy James Swallow, I think Wraight would be the better fit. Mortarion barely featured in ‘Flight Of The Eisenstein’, after all, and Swallow didn’t leave much of a stamp on the 14^th Legion – that book was more about Garro’s journey than his past.

Enough speculation! I’m very happy to give this story 9/10 as well.

One last complaint: I use the Google Chrome free extension Magicscroll to read my Black Library ebooks and goddamn, they look like SHIT. I don’t know if this is a problem with the reader, or with Black Library’s formatting; neither would massively surprise me. Font sizes fluctuate wildly from page to page, the document clearly can barely handle bold and italic fonts being used, let alone both at the same time, and sometimes entire paragraphs – for no reason – are blue hyperlinks to nowhere. It almost – ALMOST – makes me want to buy a Kindle or something in hopes that the text might look a bit better. It’s not going to stop me reading these ebooks, of course, but it is one more reason why I personally favour printed over e-format. Maybe I should stop complaining and find a better ebook reader.

Anyway, apart from that little bit of whining, I’m extremely pleased at the high quality of these short stories. Here’s hoping Digital Monday is HH-focused at least a few times over the rest of this year.

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

"Death And Defiance" (short story collection)

This is a bit of a first for Black Library. A Horus Heresy novella-length hardback which is available at a normal price from the beginning of its publishing cycle. No limited edition at double the cost and then it’s unavailable for two years. No ‘event only’ availability. As pissed off as I am about what I now know regarding 'Legacies Of Betrayal', I’m glad Black Library can pleasantly surprise me with stuff like ‘Death And Defiance’. 

Fulgrim looks like fucking shit! What is this, a Conan book?

Despite what I personally think is one of the worst pieces of HH cover art in years and years, I was fucking PUMPED to buy this collection right after Warhammer Fest finished and it went on sale on the BL site (with surprisingly little fanfare). There are five stories here, written by some old faces and some new. Let’s get right into them.

Imperfect by Nick Kyme: Nick is very uneven as a writer, in my opinion – but his audio drama ‘Censure’ is a firm favourite of mine, and the micro-story ‘Phoenician’, concerned with Fulgrim and Ferrus’ Isstvan showdown, impressed me a lot. So I was excited to find he would be tackling those characters again in this collection. Here, Fulgrim and Ferrus face off across a regicide board, but is their good-natured banter all that good-natured? Is this regicide game everything that it seems? Any time that question is posed, the answer’s going to be “no”, isn’t it? Man, at this stage of the storyline, I would kind of get a kick out of it if the regicide game was just some flashback to happier times (ending with a soft-focus montage of Ferrus and Fulgrim riding their bikes, laughing, while Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Glory Days’ plays). But that’s not what’s cooking here. Since this is Purple Heresy and not a site by actual professionals who put effort and journalistic ethics into making good reviews, I’m just gonna spoil the shit out of this. The ascended Daemon Prince Fulgrim has cloned Ferrus Manus many, many times and is playing a regicide game against each one – I believe the story implies that he is trying to see if there is some chain of events or line of reasoning he can put into play that would result in Ferrus’ loyalty switching to Fulgrim (and Horus) rather than the Emperor. Sadly, each attempt ends in failure, with each clone trying to kill Fulgrim and failing. You’d have to eventually say, could we not just play 2-player Halo or something?

I do really like some elements of this story. Nick’s Fulgrim is different to the preening, histrionic drama queen Graham sketched so entertainingly in ‘Angel Exterminatus’. Here, Fulgrim is more subdued, more guilty, and his actions – if not his internal monologue – seem to present him as deeply ashamed of his failure to turn Ferrus, and the fratricidal incident this led to. He seems desperate to right this wrong in some way. An interesting twist on the characterisation of Fulgrim so far; we’ll see if it’s taken further.

I feel there is meant to be some big, shocking implication to the fact Fabius has some cloned infant with a “Cthonian birthmark” in his laboratory, but I assume this is foreshadowing for the cloning of Horus – something Aaron already wrote about in ‘The Talon Of Horus’. Then again, it seems a little early in the HH timeline for that event hundreds of years in the future to start getting set up, which means maybe this is going to tie into a different Sons Of Horus cloning plot. I think it’s too early to really give a fuck. Maybe he’s cloned Loken so there can be an evil Loken in the Mournival? At this stage I would not be surprised if Fabius was growing cloned Cthonian babies so that he could eat them alive just for kicks. I like the III Legion a lot so whoever writes them, I’ll read it, but after my initial optimism, it doesn't look like Nick Kyme plus Emperor’s Children is guaranteed to always be good. That new 40k Salamanders book he wrote sounds kind of interesting, but I’m still not hugely into the idea of another Horus Heresy novel by him. I bet it’s coming whether I like it or not, though. This one I give 7/10.

Howl Of The Hearthworld by Aaron Dembski-Bowden: A pack of Space Wolves bitterly protests their assignment as ‘watchpack’ to Rogal Dorn, then eventually accepts it. They get on a ship and start on some poor clerk guy. That’s pretty much the events right there, though of course there’s more depth to it that I’m not doing justice to. I probably won’t write much on this (I think it’s the shortest story here). My gut reaction is that these seven warriors will end up being the only Space Wolves present on Terra for the Siege, and will probably play some significant/tragic role there. Maybe we’ll see more character development before then, maybe they’ll start a brawl with Bror Tyfingr and get murdered, maybe they’ll never even reach Terra. The Space Wolves here did seem interesting and I certainly want to find out more about them, but as in some moments of ‘The Talon Of Horus’, it feels like Aaron is over-writing some of this stuff. I’m not saying every 40K novel has to be bleak, hard-bitten Mike Hammer type shit, but – though I hate to say it – it means that Aaron’s Space Wolves are just not as enjoyable to me as Abnett’s or Wraight’s. This would be fine (as different portrayals of the same Chapter are equally valid in 40K) if I didn’t feel like he was aiming for the same exact area as those two but JUST missing it. It may grow on me over time, but at this point I’d say ‘Howl Of The Hearthworld’ is the least enjoyable Horus Heresy material Aaron’s ever produced. Still, I didn’t like ‘Betrayer’ at first either. For now, I give this 7/10.

A Safe And Shadowed Place by Guy Haley: With Aaron’s portrayal of the Night Lords perhaps one of the most widely loved explorations of a Legion, it’s not easy to step into the Horus Heresy with a Night Lords story. Guy Haley has written relatively little Heresy fiction, but with ‘Shards Of Erebus’ and ‘Strike And Fade’ he showed he could stand with the big boys. I also really enjoyed his ‘Hunter’s Moon’ audio drama. Fucking good thing I did, because less than a year later it will be taking up like 20 pages in the "new" story collection ‘Legacies Of Betrayal’. That’s a rant for a different time, though. It’s ballsy that Guy’s jumping in with a direct sequel to ‘Prince Of Crows’, one of the fan favourites of the HH canon. He doesn’t follow Sevatar’s arc, of course (apparently set to continue in audio drama format this year); if anyone but ADB handled that, there would be riots in the streets. Instead, ‘A Safe And Shadowed Place’ deals with Skraivok, a Night Lords officer whose badly damaged ship has limped to the borders of Ultramar following the Dark Angels’ battering of the Night Lords fleet. Abandoned by the few captains that were accompanying him, he struggles to deal with his fractious command and the frustratingly slow repair of his vessel. The waters are muddied by Krukesh the Pale (a minor but memorable presence in ‘Prince Of Crows’) showing up with a much larger Night Lords fleet and starting to throw his weight around.

Guy seems to have studied Aaron’s Night Lord characterisation very closely, but he puts a lot of ideas in there that are clearly his own as well. While I wouldn’t call any of the characters here staggeringly original, Guy is a good writer of both action and dialogue, and while Sev’s barbed witticisms are sorely missed, there is some bleak humour here. I can’t believe Black Library let him put in the moment where our VIII Legion hero idly thinks to himself that a female bridge officer “looked like a screamer”. Yeah, I know he was supposedly thinking it in the context of considering skinning her alive, but… I’m pretty sure the innuendo was intentional. Hilarious.This was the first story in the book where I didn’t feel a vague sense of disappointment after reading it. With a growing Night Lords fleet presence lurking near Sotha, and Kurze still apparently on Macragge intending to wreak yet more havoc on Imperium Secundus, I’d assume this story is a one-off intended as further VIII Legion antagonistic setup for Dan’s sequel to ‘The Unremembered Empire’ – but I’d certainly not object to more Guy Haley Night Lords stories. 8/10.

Virtues Of The Sons by Andy Smilie: I think this might be the first Andy Smilie Horus Heresy story. He’s more famous for writing a lot of 40K-era audio dramas and novels, most of which seem to be about the Flesh Tearers. Black Library’s frequent attitude of thinking someone is perfect for Horus Heresy books about a Legion because they write about that Chapter or its successors in 40K books has not always resulted in the highest quality books. Here, though, I reckon they’re on to something. Smilie obviously has a real ‘feel’ for this Chapter and is keen to get his teeth into their origin story. Of course, Amit, ‘the Flesh Tearer’, the possibly-Khornate Blood Angels warrior with anger management and impulse control issues, is a prominent character in this story, but it’s not all about him. Sanguinius and a Blood Angel called Azkaellon are also heavily featured. Primarch writing is always tough, I think, but Smilie writes Sanguinius possibly a little better than James Swallow did (yes, that is a compliment, I really liked ‘Fear To Tread’). As for Azkaellon, his juxtaposition with Amit makes me think he’s also going to be a Blood Angels Successor Chapter founder, but I can’t be sure about that. I could do some research, but I kind of prefer to be surprised in this case.

This kind of has the opposite problem to a lot of HH fiction: it’s very well written, but the events here, taken by themselves seem a little insignificant. The cynical side of me thinks this is a little bit of foundation-laying for ‘Sons Of Wrath’, the book about the first years of the Flesh Tearers Chapter following the end of the Heresy and Sanguinius’ death. I was planning to buy that book anyway, since immediately post-Heresy fiction interests me almost as much as the HH series itself, but knowing Smilie writes this well made me realise it’s going to be a mandatory purchase. Perhaps I’ll be grateful for ‘Virtues Of The Sons’ once ‘Sons Of Wrath’ is out, but for now, I’m giving this 7/10

Gunsight by James Swallow: My lengthy and quite whiny review of ‘Nemesis’ may have mentioned that this story was on the cards. I don’t know if anyone was after a ‘Nemesis’ sequel starring Kell the Vindicare Assassin; ‘Nemesis’ wasn’t super-well received and I get the impression most people thought Kell died at the end. But fuck me, this is really good. Kell is aboard the Vengeful Spirit, a lone gunman in the truest sense, consumed by an obsessive desire to finish his mission. The way that Horus’ shift in allegiances has changed the Spirit is really well captured; I liked what Graham did in his book, but I think Swallow just has a more evocative way with scene-setting. He also tackles one of my favourite themes in the 40K universe: the insidiousness of Chaos, and how easy it is to be corrupted especially when you believe yourself incorruptible. This is the other side of the coin shown in the Gaunt’s Ghosts series, where Gaunt and his men are able to overcome the darkness by clinging to their faith and their basic human decency. Kell is not so lucky. Still, there are some surprising twists along the way, and the door is very much open for a continuation of Kell’s ‘mission’ (in a way). I almost wanted a full-blown ‘Nemesis’ sequel after this… well, maybe just a novella, since this also reinforced my opinion that James Swallow is really good at short stories. Him becoming a near-exclusive audio drama/short story guy is a smart deployment of his talents. Against all odds, this is an excellent story; I give it 9/10.

So overall, this book didn’t have a collection of top-notch stories, but considering my least favourite was one of the shortest and my favourite was the longest, I can forgive a little inconsistency. I hope Black Library releases these a bit more frequently. It might take the sting off them apparently thinking a HH story anthology’s primary function is to be a fucking recycling dump. In the midst of all my bitter ranting I give this one 8/10. 

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

"Hunter's Moon" by Guy Haley / "Thief Of Revelations" by Graham McNeill

Black Library released these two on the same CD, so I'll review them together, though they are completely separate stories.

YOU THOUGHT IT WAS AHRIMAN BUT IT WAS ME! DIO!!

'Hunter's Moon' is by Guy Haley and concerns the ongoing conflict between the Alpha Legion and Space Wolves touched on in ‘Scars’ and ‘Wolf’s Claw’. This time, events are witnessed by three fishermen on a planet called Pelago who find a crashed Astartes vessel and get more than they bargained for when they investigate: Torbjorn, a Space Wolf, the only remnant of the Watch-Pack sent to Alpharius’ side. The cast here are Gareth Armstrong, Angus King and Toby Longworth. I felt that the three fishermen were excellently acted; you have the callow, ignorant youth, the wise elder, and the sympathetic 'mid-point' who mediates and has a nice, reassuring Scottish accent. The Space Wolf is not as subtly performed – or subtly written – as the human characters (unsurprisingly, I guess), but still he was very good.

Pelago is like many Imperial worlds: dedicated to the secular Truth, but also not completely ‘enlightened’ or up-to-date with the state of the Imperium. Talk about “star giants” and “men sailing the night in ships of steel and fire” and “monsters swimming in the sky’s night” sounds like superstitious nonsense at times, but they are obviously talking about the Great Crusade, just in more poetic terms than we might be used to. I was reminded of ‘Prospero Burns’, which for me is never a bad thing. I’m also always fond of stories which show how the galaxy-wide Heresy affects the lives of the countless billions of normal people whose worlds are being fought over.

As HH fans we can easily surmise why this Space Wolf warrior has been left stranded and alone on a crashed Alpha Legion gunship, but the way the story slowly fills in the blanks leaves it very suspenseful and worthwhile... at least until the last part of the story. The ending was disappointing and felt a little abrupt. I feel like BL authors’ increasingly frequent portrayal of the Alpha Legion as actively cruel and sadistic is odd. ‘Legion’ set them up as an unknown quantity for the Heresy time-period, motivations not entirely clear, but possessed of a lot of likeable qualities (and a lot of terrifying ones) – overall more callous and unfeeling than malevolent. While some HH stuff is running with that ambiguity, like ‘Scars’ or ‘The Serpent Beneath’, I feel like there’s been a gradual slide towards “They’re just some assholes” (ie, this story, or the slightly disappointing background for them in the Forge World book ‘Extinction’). Mind you, keep in mind that we are seeing the sons of Alpharius through the eyes of a terrified fisherman who’s befriended their adversary, so it’s not like we’re going to get a measured exploration of the character of their Legion. Also, I guess there are going to be a wide range of personalities across the XXth Legion, and some of them are going to be, well, just some assholes. I guess when it comes down to it, I’m just bitter that Dan Abnett isn’t writing every Alpha Legion book and that the ‘Legion’ approach of “What even ARE the Alpha Legion? It is a mystery, dogg!” has been ditched somewhat.

Still, this is an engagingly told story, and I have a weakness for Scottish accents, so that pushes it back to 8/10. I really hope Guy Haley has some more Horus Heresy stories coming.

'Thief Of Revelations', by Graham McNeill, is concerned with the Thousand Sons Legion. As we know, not much has been written about them since Graham’s book ‘A Thousand Sons’ which left them shattered and bitter in the Warp, licking their wounds. So it’s kind of nice to see what the survivors from the Burning Of Prospero are up to on the Planet Of The Sorcerers… but this section doesn't really add anything to their characters. Amon is still a self-important know-it-all (in fact, so is Ahriman), Sobek does fuck-all, and Hathor Maat is still vain and flippant. There is a nice scene where Ahriman is taunted by a 'flesh-changed Astartes' (he seems not to fully grasp what it is, but the way it's described just sounds like a straight-up Possessed Space Marine). Still, this whole introduction felt a little... pointless to me. They're disturbed by the Flesh-Change, and frustrated by Magnus' refusal to do anything about it. Really it didn't seem to tell us anything that the ending moments of 'A Thousand Sons' or that scene from 'Aurelian' haven't told us already. Next, Ahriman seeks an audience with Magnus. This does present one of the best moments of the story: the description of Magnus’ tower. A very important element of the Crimson King’s myth even post-Heresy and Graham gives it the respect it deserves. We also get some great little details that I love, like how the Thunderhawk Ahriman uses has been changed by warp energy so that it is actually becoming similar to a hawk. You might think that’s hecka dumb but I love that idea.

While the description of Magus himself is also excellently done, I’m frustrated and unimpressed by a lot of the dialogue between Magnus and his wayward son. There’s a bunch more cryptic dick-waving about how Ahriman should definitely stop trying to find a way to stop the hideous mutations that are slowly destroying more and more Legionaries... but also a refusal to fully explain why Ahriman should stop, or what Magnus will do to remedy the shit situation they’re in. "No just do what I say though, powerful psyker who has shown clearly that he distrusts me and has a dangerous propensity for rebellion and free-thinking. DO IT THOUGH! SHUT UP!!!" Man, some of the Primarchs are complete assholes (or perhaps... slightly poorly written).

The ending of the drama is very entertaining, though, with Magnus showing Ahriman where some of the Primarchs are, and dropping dark hints about the roles they may play in the future. The conclusion of the Thramas Crusade between the Night Lords and Dark Angels is shown, as well as the dark fate of the Blood Angels at Signus Prime, and the sack of Guilliman's Five Hundred Worlds by Lorgar. Nice to get another dimension to these significant events… but while this seems intended to give a cryptic snapshot of Magnus' intentions and current mindset, it seems very clear which way the Thousand Sons’ Primarch is leaning. Despite an extremely confusing closing line which I still can’t really make sense of, it really feels like Magnus is 90% decided on throwing in with Horus. I’m a bit unsure on how, exactly, a novel’s worth of drama can be spun between this point and the point at which the Thousand Sons turn. But hell, Graham can often turn stuff that seems insignificant into a great story, IMO (see ‘Angel Exterminatus’ and ‘Vengeful Spirit’).

The actors for this drama are Gareth Armstrong, Martyn Ellis, Jonathan Keeble and Toby Longworth. It’s hard to portray a Primarch in an audio drama, since they are beings almost beyond human comprehension – Legionaries are hard enough. So I know that this was a real challenge to pull off – but in my opinion, the way they did Magnus’ voice sounds like SHIT. And Ahriman also sounds ancient and querulous where (I feel) he should sound strong and authoritative. The bitter musing of “Was it worth it, Russ?” is spoken in a tone more suited to “Get off my lawn you dang kids!” The narrator is very good, though - I'm pretty sure it's Toby Longworth. If it is Toby, he’s delivering a more restrained performance than he often does. The other Thousand Sons only appear relatively briefly, and their performances aren’t really worth discussing too much – not bad, not notably excellent.

I honestly question the wisdom of making this an audio drama. It feels like most of this would have served excellently as the first chapter of 'The Crimson King', the full-length Thousand Sons novel Graham is doubtless working on now. However, I bet 'Crimson King' isn't out for another year or two so I guess it's fair play that BL want to ensure the Thousand Sons are kept in our minds. Due to the issues I’ve outlined, this just misses being an 8, so I’ll give it 7/10. That Ahriman voice just puts me on edge.

This marks (probably) the last time I’ll buy a Black Library audio drama on CD. I was just doing it from some weird stubborn sense of obligation, but I never actually put any of them in a CD player – just ripped them to my PC and listened to them on that, since I find headphones the only way to go with this form of media. From ‘Templar’ onwards, I’m all about the MP3. Still not crazy about ebooks, though…

One thing I really feel is necessary to state is that the musical score is superb for both audio dramas. Generally an exercise in understated ambience... but there were moments where the musical accompaniment to the reading was so perfect, it gave me chills. The piano-heavy horror movie atmospherics in the last segment of ‘Thief Of Revelations’, in particular, seem like they might be the best soundtrack for a Horus Heresy audio drama so far. The sound effects are excellent as well. I really love the constant lapping of water in 'Hunter's Moon', and the howling winds on ‘Thief Of Revelations’. Christian Dunn produced both of these. I don’t know whether that means he helped with the soundtrack (probably not, this ain’t hip-hop) but simply from the excellent performances of most of the voice actors (especially in ‘Hunter’s Moon’) makes me hope he can produce more BL audio to this standard. If it takes him away from writing, it can only be a good thing...

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

"Book Two: Massacre" (Forge World publication)

To my surprise, I enjoyed the first Forge World Horus Heresy book, ‘Betrayal’, very much – arguably, more than I’ve enjoyed a few of the Black Library Horus Heresy novels. At the time, the only other book available in the series was ‘Massacre’, and I bought it as soon as I finished ‘Betrayal’. 

GET A LOAD OF THIS SHIT! Part II

As before, the first half is ‘fluff’ (lore) and the second half is ‘crunch’ (rules). I’ll be focusing on the first half, since I don’t care too much about tabletop gaming anymore (and for all the crazy money I’ve sunk into my HH fandom, I will NOT begin a Horus Heresy-era army – that is where I draw the line). Like with ‘Betrayal’, the ‘fluff’ part of this book is presented as a historical textbook. There are vague parts where it’s admitted that nobody really knows what happened, and also some stuff that directly contradicts Horus Heresy novels… but that’s because it’s a chronicle apparently collated by one unnamed scribe on Terra (well, it’s attributed to an ‘A.K.’, so I guess today was a good day… groan), apparently writing long after the Heresy, based on first-hand or second-hand accounts from the survivors of these events. I really, really appreciate the length that Alan Bligh and co. have gone to in order to make these books immersive and faithful to the tone of the novel series, as well as informative and ‘neutral’.

Funnily enough, this focuses on the Dropsite Massacre of Isstvan V. The first few pages are kind of a ‘previously in the Horus Heresy…’ recap. This was a little worthless in my eyes, because who’s gonna buy just ONE of these series? It’s safe to assume people who bought this have heard all they need to hear about the events on Isstvan III. A page for a recap would be fine, but this goes back to pre-Unity! Ahh well, I didn’t mind reading it again. Having said that though there is a nice bonus here: a timeline which definitively presents events of the tail end of the Great Crusade and the beginning of the Heresy in chronological order. (Did you know that Alpharius only assumed command of the Alpha Legion three years before Kurze destroyed Nostramo? I didn’t!)

Once this part of the background is done, there’s an exhaustive account of the Isstvan V engagement, beginning with the first Loyalist ship of the Retribution Force to enter the system (a Raven Guard vessel, incidentally) and ending with Ferrus Manus’ death and the cease of the ‘formal’ military engagement. If you think ‘Fulgrim’ and ‘The First Heretic’ told you all you need to know about this engagement, you can probably skip this section of the book. But if, like me, you feel those books’ accounts (while great) only scratched the surface of one of the most significant and brutal fights in Imperial history, you’ll enjoy reading this much more dry, ‘factual’ account. Just because it takes a different approach to narrative, doesn’t mean ‘Massacre’ isn’t just as good at building tension and describing the horror of Isstvan V.

TEXT FOR DAYS SON, TEXT AND TEXT AND TEXT

This account takes in the key moments of this action, through the initial forays into the system showing that the Traitor naval presence seems to have unaccountably disappeared, to discussing the pervading confusion and anger at the command level in the Loyalist forces trying to make sense of what was happening (Horus must be mad, or under the thrall of some horrible xenos parasite; Horus the prideful bastard is trying to carve out his own Empire), to the Loyalists’ fateful decision to not wait for the rest of their force and make planetfall immediately, through to the eventual horror of the Iron Hands as they encounter the ‘changed’ Emperor’s Children up close for the first time, taking in the way the Sons Of Horus literally treated the Army units in their command as cattle and drove them against the First Wave with long barbed whips, and more obscure stuff like the suicidal ‘grudgematch’ between the Legio Arturus and Legio Mortis Titans. Whew, what a long-ass sentence. I must have been reading a Forge World book.

Even beyond this there are some gorgeous illustrations, including a two-page system map of Isstvan, as well as extra bits that nicely play with the ‘historical textbook’ format: testimony from a Raven Guard on his experiences in landing in the First Wave and a transcript of the interrogation of a captured Word Bearer. You really get a feeling here of how catastrophically the Death Guard, Emperor’s Children, World Eaters and Sons Of Horus are mauled in the first part of the battle, something I feel hasn’t come across in the HH novels. The first wave may have died in droves but they gave back as good as they got. And then, of course, the horror of the Dropsite Massacre itself. I could read another ten novels set in/around this time; it feels like there are thousands more stories to be told. The final ‘butcher’s bill’ – over 200,000 Space Marines dead, including both Traitor and Loyalist. Pour some out.

SPACE MOTHERFUCKER

Before we get to the ‘meat’ of new Legion backgrounds, there’s a small section on each of the First Four Traitor Legions – an overview of their actions in the Dropsite Massacre, an account of a significant figure in their ranks and some nice background/illustration of some vehicles. I didn’t really find the Emperor’s Children or World Eaters sections too noteworthy, but I really liked the other two; for example, we learn that following the drastic weakening of their armoured divisions in the Isstvan III battle, the Death Guard were forced to deploy reserve armour for Isstvan V’s engagement. These reserve forces also took a severe beating, and as a result, the Legion’s overall ability to deploy armour during the Heresy was dramatically reduced. And what was the role of the former Luna Wolves in the battle? Horus was cautious with his own Legion, probably because of the huge casualties they took on Isstvan III – he knew he needed to preserve his Legion’s strength as much as possible for the upcoming long war. Therefore the 16^th mostly deployed on the defensive until the second wave revealed their allegiance and the outcome of the battle was clear, at which point Horus lead from the front and joined in the massacre.

With that out of the way, we move on to the four Legions covered here. Apologies, but for a lot of people (especially those who read the White Dwarf Index Astartes articles back in the day) you’ll already know a lot of this… but most of it was new to me.

The Iron Hands: I always held the Iron Hands as my least favourite Legion. They seemed to have the arrogance and perfectionism of the Emperor’s Children and the brutality and contempt for human life of the World Eaters, but while those Legions were damned for their weaknesses and suffered severely for them, the Hands always seemed to have their failings treated as virtues by GW and the fandom in general; I found Iron Hands evangelists irritating on a level that Ultramarines fans can only dream of reaching. I think perhaps not liking Ferrus Manus as a character in ‘Fulgrim’ or ‘Feat Of Iron’, or in fact most Iron Hands characters as they’ve been portrayed in HH fiction, may also have been a factor. (Shout out to John French’s ‘Riven’, though, that’s a really good one.)

In their early years of Terran campaigning, the Iron Hands recruited from all over the world, but most significantly from Old Albia, which was also a heavy recruiting ground for the Death Guard, and I am guessing is meant to be located in the region of the modern-day Britain (Albia, Albion… maybe?). They quickly gained a reputation for relentless, well-coordinated ground war with heavy armoured support. The reunification with their Primarch came quickly, but it was not a smooth one: the proud and intractable nature of both Manus and his new Legion meant that clashes were inevitable, but most of the ‘Iron Tenth’ quickly became fanatically loyal. As well as a firmness of ethos, another important aspect Manus brought with him to reshape the Legion was the resource of Medusa’s ancient and sophisticated technology. The Iron Hands culture became tightly interwoven with that of the Mechanicum, and the tech-literate but otherwise quite savage tribal culture of Medusa informed all aspects of what the Legion became – especially their unique makeup of nearly autonomous ‘Clans’ of Astartes, all of which competed for resources and the favour of their Primarch.

These hands be straight iron, yo

Probably my favourite part of this background was the ‘what if?’ questions raised by it. Manus was highly intolerant of any perceived failure and his punishments were harsh and absolute. Sounds bit like Perturabo, doesn’t it? His Legion gained a reputation for tactlessness and, sometimes, hostility towards its Imperial Army allies or even other Legions. To Manus’ closeness to Horus and Fulgrim, his apparent callousness and implied willingness to harshly punish or even kill his own sons, add the fact that there was at one time a growing Lodge presence in the Iron Hands, and consider how differently things could have gone. Maybe if the Lodges had been associated more strongly with Horus than Lorgar (who Manus apparently had little regard for; see ‘First Heretic’) or if Fulgrim’s overture hadn’t been so badly done, or the Isstvan betrayal had been delayed by a few years… maybe Ferrus would have come down on a different side.

This part of the book was basically all I needed to make a complete U-turn on my dislike for the Iron Hands. They are actually one of the most interesting Legions if approached in the right way. In fact there is material here for a good few very rewarding Horus Heresy short stories (or a pretty hefty novel): a pre-Heresy account of the bitter competition of Clan lords trying to excel, or an in-depth retelling of the council that took place on Medusa following Ferrus Manus’ death in an attempt to decide the Legion’s course of action. And after the great ‘Riven’ I’d love John French to write a book about the dark paths that the most unstable X Legion soldiers take following the death of their father. After all, there were apparently a significant amount of Iron Hands who never even mustered for Isstvan, maybe as many as 30,000 – and that doesn’t even take into account the broken survivors who managed to get off-world. In the past I’ve felt the last couple years of Horus Heresy books had featured the Iron Hands too prominently, but now I think they’re still a rich seam to mine for the HH series; I’m glad that this (and ‘The Damnation Of Pythos’) have opened my eyes to that.

(And I’ve got Chris Wraight’s ‘Wrath Of Iron’ waiting on my bookshelf – looking forward to diving into that one.)

The Night Lords: Following AD-B’s ‘Prince Of Crows’, and the flashback sequences in his Night Lords trilogy, I felt like I had more of a grasp on the Heresy-era Night Lords culture than almost any other Legion: their gallows humour, their casual (almost… entitled) attitude to cruelty and their strange pride in their awful shithole of a homeworld. Plus, I wasn’t too keen on re-reading Night Haunter’s origin story AGAIN. But I was being unfair – there is much more to the Night Lords that Aaron didn’t touch on.

The VIII Legion was born in the giant prison-sinks beneath Terra; subterranean cities of criminals which never saw natural light and with a fairly unpleasant way of life. Rather than drawing from the criminals, the Emperor instead took recruits from the children born in these prison cities; inmates who’d committed no crimes, children who’d grown up in a sunless world and a crime-filled environment where life was cheap. Probably the Terran and Nostraman Night Lords had the easiest ‘culture merge’ ever.

As we know, the Night Lords were something of a ‘terror weapon’; when an enemy (or ally) committed a crime that went beyond simple defiance, when the Emperor wanted to send a clear message of “that shit won’t be tolerated!”, he sent the VIII. This section talks about the Night Lords’ “tendency to moral absolutism”, something I think has been captured particularly well by Aaron. The Night Lords’ attitude to ‘guilt’ reminds me of Robot Santa from Futurama. “Thugs beating up a shopkeeper for not paying protection money… naughty! Shopkeeper not paying his protection money… equally naughty!” This early section about Legion ethos might be the best-written part of the book. Here’s my favourite quote: “Perhaps memory is too kind, perhaps we wish to believe that there is a nobility in such monsters, where in fact there is only horror. Perhaps we wish there to be a purpose behind atrocity, otherwise how could such creatures be suffered to live?”

I feel like I’ve read more than enough about Kurze’s rise to power, but I really appreciated the description of Nostraman society as it stood when the Primarch arrived on the world. I also really appreciate the discussion of how deeply Nostraman culture came to influence the Legion’s structure; it was probably a bad idea that control of these thousands of sadistic super-soldiers was given to bored foppish nobles and low-level Mafia ‘enforcers’ who’d watched Scarface too many times. (Well, basically grown up in ‘Scarface’ plus ‘The Sopranos’ times ‘Mad Max’, but, you catch my drift). The short but sweet characterisations of the Kyroptera (like Kurze’s Mournival, or maybe his consiglieres) and the Atrementar of the First Company (the Night Lords’ secret police and enforcers… but with Terminator armour) really added to the Legion flavour.

Unlike with the X Legion, I really liked the Night Lord character/vehicle gallery. Especially the one for Uros Kastax, just check this shit out: “Known to have participated… in the Yoggoth Genocides, the Fall Of The Lords Of Ephrath and… the Succoth Perfidy.” How much HP Lovecraft can you take? Plus, it’s heavily implied that this guy’s squadmates used the Dropsite Massacre as an opportunity to shoot Kastax in the back. That’s the Night Lords way, summed up in one character. (Also nicely embodied by Talon-Master Vibius, a sergeant who took advantage of the chaos of Isstvan V to kill those standing in the way of him assuming control of his entire company.)

Like I said before, I didn’t think there was any juice left to wring out of the Night Lords blood orange, but Forge World managed it. Damn.

Salamanders: For my first few years of fandom, my attitude to Vulkan’s sons was “who the fuck are the Salamanders?” Then during my last years of being a young, enthusiastic 40K fan, the Third War For Armageddon happened, where Games Workshop heavily pushed the Salamanders as an alternative to Blood Angels and Ultramarines. I was a big fan… initially. Since I started reading Horus Heresy stuff, the XVIII seemed a bit… dull. Dull as dishwater, in fact. Maybe it didn’t help that the writer who apparently has their writing privileges locked down is one I don’t really find enjoyable to read. I appreciated their altruistic outlook, and the noble attitude they had towards their role in the Imperium, but that was it. Once again, it fell to Forge World to show me the error of my ways.

The origin of all the Legions were shrouded in secrecy, but apparently that of the Salamanders was even more so; they were closely linked to the Space Wolves and the Alpha Legion in their early recruitment stages and initial deployments. One can assume that the Emperor had very specific skillset or task in mind for these three. Or maybe there was another reason. The XX Legion is involved, so we will probably never know.

But wait, the friendly and noble Salamanders aren’t anything like the savage, almost-mutant Space Wolves or the sneaky, multi-skilled Alpha Legion, right? Actually, before Vulkan was reunited with his Legion, there was a pretty heavy darkness to these guys. Even in 40K, Salamanders are known for their stubbornness and almost suicidal willingness to take on impossible odds to protect the Imperium. Back in the Great Crusade, though, this was less ‘suicidal bravery’ and more just ‘suicidal’. They were willing to spend their lives in thousands to complete their mission, and from this section, it looks like could have ended up with the fighting style of the Iron Warriors or even World Eaters if their Primarch hadn’t been a stabilising influence. Speaking of which, between the Emperor discovering Vulkan and Vulkan taking command of his Legion, there was apparently a gap of several years where Vulkan fought at the Emperor’s side. I’d love to see some more information about that, perhaps in an HH novel flashback. I really like the section on how Vulkan’s introduction of the Promethean Cult, in particular, grounded his Legion and gave them purpose and direction for their dangerous bravery, and also stopped them from falling prey to the Lodges.

Pretty amazing...

I want to mention that the ‘gallery’ section for the Salamanders is particularly nice; it’s in the nature of the Legion to create ornate, beautiful armour and Forge World really outdid themselves portraying that. And their exemplary battle is… fucking hell. If you like the Salamanders, you should read about that battle. If you don’t like the Salamanders, you should also read about that battle. Overall, I’m not as completely reversed in my position on the Salamanders as I am with the Iron Hands… but I do find them way more interesting after reading this. Almost enough to buy those Nick Kyme 40K Salamanders books. Almost.

The Word Bearers: With ‘The First Heretic’, ‘Betrayer’, ‘Aurelian’ and most recently ‘The Purge’ dealing extensively with the culture of the Word Bearers and their long road to Heresy, I went into this section with a fairly cynical attitude. After all, how much more could I learn about this Legion? Not to sound like a broken record, but more than I expected, as it turned out.

Argel Tal: "Screw you chumps and chumpettes, I'm catching the next pimpmobile out of here."

In the first days of the XVII Legion, they recruited solely from the sons of the Emperor’s defeated enemies, and were taught about the value of the Emperor’s mercy, the importance of redemption, and that one should go to any lengths to bring the Imperial Truth to the unenlightened. If the ‘Catholic Space Nazis’ meme about the Imperium holds true, the Word Bearers were the Catholic-est. But even the Church changes its doctrine when needs must. When Lorgar returned to his Legion, he began to convert the more iconoclastic Word Bearers to his belief that the Emperor was a God. Once these influential Legionaries fell, the path of the Legion was assured… until Monarchia, that is. While we know the background of this Legion well, Bligh writes elegantly about this period and gives us a fresh perspective rather than just rehashing Aaron.

I liked the way the role of the Chaplains in the Legion was fleshed out, and I enjoyed the dark hints that the Word Bearer Apothecaries were harvesting the gene-seed of any and all Legions at the Dropsite Massacre.

Those Word Bearer marine portraits are pretty beautiful (good luck painting the intricate extracts from the Book Of Lorgar onto your squads of Terminators, nerd). Hell, I don’t really have much to say because through my reviews, I feel like I’ve talked about the Word Bearers so much already… but this section of the book lives up to the standard set by the coverage of the previous three Legion.

HELL YEAH WE GOT TANKS

Then there’s a little bit of info on the Titan Legion, the Legio Atarus AKA the Firebrands, who held a resentment for the authority of Mars’ Fabricator-Genereal and a grudge against Horus for his poor use of them in one of his campaigns, and by these circumstances escaped becoming traitors. (That sells them a bit short, I guess, but I don’t really care for Titan Legions anyway.) Then we’re on to the rules, which I won’t spend much time on. First there’s a framework for a Dropsite Massacre campaign, which looks horrendously complicated. Like I said I didn’t care much about the rules as I knew I would probably never use them, but they’re worth a read anyway as there’s still some nice background information there like, especially in the unit descriptions. For example, it’s in the Rules section we learn that only the Sons Of Horus were able to field the Alpha Legion-designed ‘Banestrike’ ammunition (designed to pierce power armour) in any significant numbers. The rest went to Alpharius’ lot. We also get updates for the ‘Betrayal’ Legions, giving them new special rules, special characters, rites of war and units. The Red Butchers, a brilliantly dark World Eater unit of utterly insane warriors in Terminator armour that can be immobilised remotely by their comrades once battle is done – it’s the only way to get them to stop killing. The most significant in ‘fluff’ terms are the Kakophoni, the proto-Noise Marines of Marius Vairosean who the III Legion first fielded on Isstvan V... but by the time I got to the army lists for the four ‘Massacre’ Legions, I just couldn’t get very excited about any of it. I know some dudes buy these specifically to geek down over the Primarch stat-lines and resolve their long-running arguments over whether Ferrus Manus could have beaten Horus in single combat, but I find those people as baffling as, well, as baffling as most people find my own reasons for buying this.

You can also find rules for the VIII Legion Terror Squad, a unit headed up by a Big Punisher who's known to pack a Mac in the back of the Ac.

So how does ‘Massacre’ stack up to its predecessor? I honestly think it’s better in every way, and keep in mind that ‘Betrayal’ featured three of my favourite Legions – the Sons Of Horus, Emperor’s Children and Death Guard (not that I’m not fond of the World Eaters as well). My only real complaint from ‘Betrayal’ has been dealt with – no longer are there pages two-thirds dominated by images of Forge World vehicles and units with a faded sepia filter. There are still some of them in effect, but they’re much smaller and more judiciously deployed. (Well, the ‘giant space filler’ stuff does still happen a bit, but mainly in the rule section, where you’re going to get a fair amount of ‘dead space’ anyway due to the nature of stat/rule sheets.) Furthermore, the ‘staged’ images with Forge World models are overall of a much higher quality and tend to be in vivid colour rather than all bleached out. Just look at some of those Dropsite shots. On top of that, the introduction of black and white ‘sketches’ of Astartes units (generally special characters) in the Rule section is a brilliant idea; it’s suited perfectly to the rather dour monastic tone of the book. Jesus, look what an evil bastard Sevatar looks; with that sneer, I half-expect the picture to tell me to go get my fucking shinebox. The quality of these sketches got even higher in ‘Extinction’ – here there are a few questionable choices, but overall they’re pretty great. The illustrations of Legionaries have also been changed in format slightly. Unlike in Book 1 where you would get four pictures of Astartes per page and a few sentences about each, they’ve decided instead to have one, much larger, picture of a Legionary and his gear, and several paragraphs of background. The increased depth (and larger image size) are a great idea and while it doesn’t feel like you quite get the ridiculous scope that ‘Betrayal’ gave you (with, say, three Legionaries per Legion rather than sixteen), it’s overall a much better approach. While they look amazing some of these didn’t really live up to their potential for me. I feel like Bligh and co. have a gift for writing ‘big picture’ lore that doesn’t necessarily translate to inventing compelling characters (I really didn’t get anything from the Iron Hands heroes/vehicles section, for example).

Calas Typhon. He looks like a former Premier League footballer... Which one? ANY ONE.

And of course, we have the age-old Forge World/Black Library/Games Workshop question: does this seem to have been proof-read? In this case, yes. There are a few instances of typos, (“death-throws” rather than “death-throes”, “the remaining populous” rather than “remaining populace”) but less than I seem to recall in book 1.

‘Massacre’ is about as close to perfect as any book in this format is going to get. The only thing stopping it from being a perfect 10 is that, well, about half the book is much less interesting to me than the other half. I know it’s a little unfair to penalise it for that but I can’t help but wish there were 100 or so more pages of lore. I still feel it’s prohibitively expensive – publish it in paperback for £30, £70 is obscene – but I won’t factor that in to my score this time. And so I give this 9/10.

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