"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.