"Vengeful Spirit" by Graham McNeill

Vengeful Spirit is book 29 of the Horus Heresy series; the book where, as the cover summary states, the Sons of Horus reclaim their place at the forefront of the galactic civil war. It’s been a minute since we had any books where these guys were the focus. WHAT, YOU THOUGHT THEY WAS DONE?

As I said before this is almost the exact same cover as 'Age Of Darkness' - but I'll allow it since I think this version looks waaaaay better.

Sometimes I get the feeling that in the last couple years, HH writers are scrambling to tie up loose ends from books 1-20. ‘Mark Of Calth’ was about the continuation – if not the ultimate fate – of the participants in the largest Legion action since Isstvan. ‘Wolf Hunt’ was one big wrap-up for ‘The Outcast Dead’. Hell, even ‘Scars’ wrapped up some loose ends from the collections ‘The Primarchs’ and ‘Age Of Darkness’, as well as being primarily concerned with a Legion that’s been one big ‘loose end’ since the series began. And of course, ‘The Unremembered Empire’ was a loose end apocalypse, possibly to its detriment, but no doubt to the benefit of the series as a whole.

'Vengeful Spirit' is sort of like Dan Abnett’s book in that it brings together several ‘arcs’, concludes some, continues some, and adds a few new elements to the HH series (and by the way, the more I re-read 'The Unremembered Empire', the more I wince at how petty and harsh my review was; that book is uneven, but it’s one of the few in the series I’d call beautiful. [Oh, and there's a sentence of explanation for the Vulkan appearance/time discrepancy, which I totally missed]). As with 'The Unremembered Empire', you may want to revisit several stories before you start ‘Vengeful Spirit’. In Aximand’s timeline, it’s a sequel to ‘Little Horus’. In Qruze’s timeline, it’s a sequel to ‘The Last Remembrancer’. In Severian’s timeline, it’s a sequel to ‘Wolf Hunt’. In the Red Angel’s timeline, it’s a sequel to ‘Fear To Tread’. In Loken’s timeline, it’s a sequel to 'Luna Mendax' (I think?), a story which I haven’t read and isn’t widely available; other BL fans will just come to it as a follow-up to 'Grey Angel'. For the society of Molech, it's the sequel to 'The Devine Adoratrice' (I've not read that one yet, to be honest with you). But for Horus, it’s the sequel to… what? His cameos in ‘Fear To Tread’ or ‘Nemesis’? Or the last time he was a primary 'onscreen' antagonist – ‘Galaxy In Flames’, bloody book 3 of the series, like 8 years ago? Probably the best precursor to ‘VS’ is John French’s excellent ‘Warmaster’ audio drama, though it takes place some years before ‘VS’ in the chronology. ‘Warmaster’ shows us a Horus wracked with doubt, distrustful of his fellow Traitor Primarchs and frustrated that the brightest and best of the Emperor’s sons have spurned him. And ‘VS’ shows us how Horus has not only regained his confidence, but further cemented his complete damnation.

This book follows three easily identifiable strands. First, Horus and his Legion set sail for Molech (they actually say ‘set sail’ at one point, which I found surprisingly exciting), a world they believe has some shadowy and significant connection to the Emperor, a world Horus and several of his brothers apparently fought across... but their memories of it seem to have been wiped. But how, and why? Then, on Molech itself, we follow the fortunes of House Devine, one of the Knight Houses which hold a large amount of power on the planet. (I wonder if the inclusion of this storyline could have anything to do with GW's push of the Knight model range?) Finally, Garviel Loken and his grey-armoured Knights Errant, the Chosen of Malcador, must infiltrate the Sons Of Horus flagship 'Vengeful Spirit'. They do this to perform recon for Leman Russ, who is laying the groundwork for the inevitable Horus-execution mission he feels will certainly fall to him before the Traitors can reach Terra. There are other strands and subplots, but those are the main three, and that's certainly more than enough to work with.

One reason that I loved ‘Angel Exterminatus’ was the depth and nuance brought to the relationship between Perturabo and Fulgrim – as well as unprecedented insight into the character of the poor, misunderstood Lord Of Iron. We don’t get that here, and that’s possibly for the best. Graham’s handling of Horus in ‘False Gods’ is something I’m on record as not being too fond of. I am a Primarch-groupie, and on that level, 'VS' is slim pickings, though I loved the brief summit between Mortarion, Horus and Fulgrim, the apparently genuine anguish Horus shows when Mortarion is wounded, and also a nice moment which shows again the high esteem Horus had for Ferrus Manus. Generally, Horus is kept at arm’s length, seen through the eyes of his Mournival or his cowering enemies, but that really suits the story; the detailed account of Perturabo’s thought processes was great, but I feel it’d be wrong for Horus (I think they’ll hold that back until his dying moments, for a big finish).

The other major reason I loved ‘AE’ was the extremely strong cast of Astartes characters; we had the Emperor’s Children exploring the depths of corruption following their excellent novella ‘The Reflection Crack’d’,  and the Iron Warriors characters, the majority of which had been important characters in Graham’s ‘modern’ 40K books ‘Storm Of Iron’ and the Ultramarines series. Many readers felt that the appearance of characters we know to be surviving beyond the HH timeline robbed ‘AE’ of dramatic weight, but I still think that misses the appeal of that book: it’s not about who will die and who will live, it’s about how the characters will be changed and twisted by the events taking place. Here, I’m sorry to say that ‘VS’ doesn’t quite measure up to 'AE'. I AM very impressed by some of the characterisation here; Graham builds excellently on the ‘melancholy’ portrait of Aximand that Dan Abnett painted in ‘Little Horus’ and I’d argue that Aximand stands out as the main character here even in such a large cast. Grael Noctua is also a good addition to the XVI command elite, an interesting character with an unexpected arc throughout the book. But Abaddon is still a bit of a non-character, just an angry, bloodthirsty guy who excels in almost every combat situation (I guess they’re holding out for Aaron to give him more depth?) and Falkus Kibre seems an Abaddon clone. Non-Mournival members are barely featured at all, and of course, Luc Sedirae’s fate doesn’t even merit a mention. (I'll keep banging on about that shit forever... I'm still butthurt...)

The Knights Errant are problematic – as fans started to complain about how frequently stories ended with Malcador snatching up new characters, and they were still quite limited in number, I can see why the authors decided to add several new ‘Greys’ at once here. but they end up being little more than Legion tropes. Tubal Cayne the Iron Warrior and Bror Tyfingr the Space Wolf are the only ones I was impressed by. Hell, even Rubio and Varren don’t stand out as interesting characters, which is a shame since James Swallow's ‘Sword Of Truth’ made them a couple of my favourite Loyalists in the HH series overall. Severian is well-handled, but he’s a purely Graham creation, so it’s not like he has to match him up to someone else’s narrative voice.

Loken… hmm, him I’m not sure about. Graham does well at communicating that Garvi is mentally scarred from the shock of his Legion’s betrayal, the death of his closest friend, the fact his other closest friends tried to kill him, and he has some brilliant scenes with Qruze… but I feel he ends up as something of a dull character. Perhaps this is unfair, as the rather dry sections of his plot in the beginning of the book seem a little squeezed by all the other crazy stuff happening elsewhere, and then the later sections of his story are (through necessity) a blur of Astartes chasing each other through the ship and don't have room for character development. As with most things I’m unsure of with HH, I guess it’ll really depend on what they do with Loken next.

I really liked the callbacks to the beginning books in the series; this is the first time we’ve seen Mersadie Oliton in ages, it’s implied that Euphrati Keeler and Kyril Sindermann are evading capture and spreading the ‘truth’ of the Lectitio Divinitatus around the fragmented Imperium. I really hope they pick this storyline up in the next few books; hopefully them reminding us is a sign of their intentions. From the limited amount we’ve heard concerning ‘The Damnation of Pythos’, it could perhaps fit quite well into that book...?

I'm going to talk here about one of the only really glaring problems I have with this book. You know me, I’m psyched whenever a HH novel features Mortarion, but I was particularly unhappy with one scene starring the future Plague Lord. So we know the lord of the XIV is pretty intractable on all this stuff to do with psykers and the Warp being a very bad, forbidden thing. Suddenly Mortarion is willing to sacrifice his elite Deathshroud guard because the voice of a dead Legionary tells him it needs ‘meat’. Y’all might remember Ignatius Grulgor as Calas Typhon’s confederate in ‘Flight Of The Eisenstein’. He got locked in a hangar with some open Life Eater containers in part of the worst work-related injury claim ever. But death wasn’t the end for this plucky fella. Grulgor has become a warp-thing, something it seems Mortarion would spit on and burn as an abject study in witchcraft. But nope! He’s happy to help his dead buddy manifest by killing a bunch of his elite guard and apparently sealing a pact with a warp entity. The only justification I can come up with in my mind is that a) Mortarion is genuinely deeply ignorant about the way the Warp works and believes this is a friendly ghost and b) the daemon formerly known as Ignatius is an incredibly effective weapon and fits well with the method the Death Guard use to fight so Mortarion is like "selling all my principles will be WORTH IT for THIS shit". But... fuck... LIBRARIANS are effective weapons. DAEMONS are effective weapons. It just seems like a bloody big leap for Mortarion to just shit on his previously established ethics. I would like a LOT more material about the repercussions of this decision and Mortarion’s thought processes. And on this Primarch in general. He just doesn't seem as fully-realised as any of the others at the moment. Having said that, I really am glad they brought Grulgor back, since he has the potential to be a badass, interesting character, AND a link to the Legion's future.

Anyway. Inevitably, the Knights Errant face off against the Mournival in Lupercal’s Court. It’s a tense, well-written action scene. I really thought Graham was going to ‘Wild Bunch’ it here, and just straight murder all of Malcador’s knights. The fact that doesn’t happen didn’t make me respect him any less. However, I did feel that Loken’s diatribe against his Primarch was a pretty dumb concept and it was executed sloppily. Hey, let’s all stop our life and death struggle to listen to this guy we hate, talking about how he hates us back. Don’t shoot him while his guard’s down though. The Sons Of Horus are renowned for fighting fair like that.

I’m a little confused at the significant repetition of the word ‘Murder’ in a few of the arc conclusions – are we perhaps going back to the world Murder (from ‘Horus Rising’) in the series’ future? As for the Sons Of Horus arc, it ends with Horus striking a 'Lettu Garaxy Burn' pose and saying "I am coming for YOU, Father!!!!!!!!!!", like a 'payoff' moment from my Japanese animes; to me, that seems to imply it's next stop, Terra. While that does get me really psyched, a part of me instantly started whining "but NOOO WE HAVEN'T EVEN HAD RESOLUTION FOR THRAMAS YET THOUGH!!!!"

There are certainly minor issues with 'Vengeful Spirit', that's unavoidable. I mean, ANOTHER Perpetual sideplot? What function is this one going to fulfil that Prytanis or Grammaticus or Persson (or Vulkan) doesn’t fulfill? I remain unconvinced. The Red Angel is ill-used, as are the Blood Angels who guard Molech; after a promising introduction, there’s no character development before they meet their nemesis. It really feels like another token ‘Hey, there are still Blood Angels around, guys!’ gesture. The female characters are horrible as usual; Lyx Devine (as well as sounding like a pornstar name) is a nakedly grasping, venal whore who is unambiguously evil and ambitious. And the awful matriarch of the Devines is actually even WORSE. Basically if you’re a sexually active woman you’re shit outta luck in the Grahamverse. At least there were a couple tough, capable Imperial army officers who just happened to be women, but they weren’t exactly developed characters; they get a couple of pages each. Graham is no Dan Abnett, Chris Wraight, John French or ADB when it comes to this shit. (As I wrote that, I did brighten up, because four authors who are making sterling efforts to bring three-dimensional female characters into the HH universe is better than nothing.)

Overall, though, I thoroughly enjoyed this novel. And even the cynics may have to admit that for the sheer amount of plot it ploughs through in its considerable bulk (close to 540 pages in the hardback collectors' edition), 'Vengeful Spirit' is impressive. I really don't get the reviewers who are crying about the HH series trafficking in predictable, zero-stakes scenarios we already know the outcome of. For instance, HOW did the way things were left in 'The Unremembered Empire' not result in the Dark Angels and the Ultramarines bolstering Sanguinius' Legion at Terra? And in this book, WHAT HAPPENED to Leman Russ' plans to make a Luna Wolves-style 'decapitation strike' at the Traitors? Or to Malcador's hopes he and the VI Legion would stand on Terra? And Graham states in his afterword that he hopes to explore what Horus experienced in the Immaterium (the cynic in me says he’s just copying Aaron’s ‘First Heretic' / ‘Aurelian’ double punch, and the HH fanboy in me REALLY HOPES that’s the case). There are plenty of questions that I feel should be answered in the next few years of HH before we get into "who did what on Terra". But enough of my ranting. Despite the parts of it I didn't like, I can't give 'VS' any less than 8/10. Here's hoping that Graham's 'killstreak' continues with whatever he tackles next.

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