Short Fiction Round-Up Volume 3: "Vorax" (Matt Farrer), "Luna Mendax" (Graham McNeill), "The Gates of Terra" (Nick Kyme)

Coming to you this time, three stories with a unifying theme: they all take place within the yellow light of Sol, though none are on Terra’s holy ground (well, as far as I know… jury’s out on the last one) after the outbreak of the Heresy. While this theme unifies them, the stories, characters and quality are all varied. I thought it’d be cool to do this themed roundup as the recent Weekender featured an announcement that the HH narrative will be moving definitively into the Solar System Campaign which leads into the Siege of Terra. Seems premature to me, but BL know what they’re doing… right??

Vorax by Matthew Farrer: Before ‘Cybernetica’ delivered on the promise of more, it seemed for a while like the Horus Heresy series had straight up forgot about Mars. (Nowadays everybody wanna talk, like they got somethin’ to say…) All these stories of Space Marines (mostly from the Shattered Legions) having desperate battles in the far corners of the galaxy when there was already a Traitor stronghold on Terra’s doorstep apparently going ignored. ‘Vorax’ was no more than a tidbit – an Advent Calendar Quick Read that in some ways serves only as a glorified advert for an expensive resin model made by Forge World. Yet somehow, it manages to be one of the best Heresy stories BL has put out in recent years. I’d compare it to Farrer’s seminal ‘After Desh’ea’ in the way it arouses my interest in a faction I’ve often found boring and one-note. I don’t wanna say that in its few pages, ‘Vorax’ is “better” than Graham’s whole ‘Mechanicum’ book was at showing scrapcode corruption and the madness that reigns after Mars declares for Kelbor-Hal… but… Well, I seem to already have said it, don’t I?

The story of ‘Vorax’ is rather basic and in fact can be summed up in a sentence. On the Ring of Iron, the Mechanicum traitor Ratiomancer Rhaal torments loyalist Enginseer Arrys, but is interrupted by some Vorax automata, who horribly murder him. The end. (Spoilers.) But like most of these Quick Reads, the story isn’t the appeal, it’s the way the authors can deepen and augment the background to this huge conflict. Farrer is one of the best in BL at showing us a new side to old, boring scenarios. Plus, homeboy can write – his flashy yet somehow terse style, florid in dialogue but brutal in combat, is one of my favourites after Dan Abnett. Here, he excels in showing the details of physical change wrought in Mechanicum operatives by the Mars scrapcode and their embrace of Kelbor-Hal’s new regime. Disturbing and horror-influenced, but somehow more believable than a lot of the more ‘gross’ stuff in HH. He also manages to tell us the current state of the Mars conflict and its blockade in subtle ways, making me wish for more of this from Farrer – a novella at least, or several more Quick Reads – to flesh out the Ring of Iron conflict. Still, I think any stories on this subject would be welcome, regardless of the writer – it really seems like a rich area that the series hasn’t mined yet.

In a short story like this characterisation often has to be done using broad strokes and clichés. Yet Farrer gives Rhaal a distinct and convincingly unhinged voice – it’s a very different approach from the dispassionate, brusque canting of Rob Sanders’ Dark Mechanicum creations. I’ve grown to enjoy Rob’s work in that area but this is still my preferred portrayal of Martian insanity and evil. Importantly, the Vorax themselves are a terrifying force of nature, and it’s a shame that as far as I know they haven’t shown up in any other Heresy work to date.

Sadly, the main problem with Vorax is that it’s so bloody short, and that its nasty, brutish ending makes it seem more like a prelude to a longer work than a self-contained narrative. I can only hope… but considering how infrequently Matt’s stories appear, it seems unlikely. For those who want more evil Mechanicum stuff from Matt, his novella ‘The Inheritor King’ from the Sabbat Crusade anthology also deals with corrupt machines, though in a very different way. For those who just want more Heresy stories from this guy, well, I’m right there with you. 9/10

Luna Mendax by Graham McNeill: At first published only in an event-exclusive anthology (which I was lucky enough to get my hands on), ‘Luna Mendax’ is an important chapter in the Garviel Loken story. Luckily, BL have finally put it out as an eBook, something they probably should have done in tandem with the release of ‘Vengeful Spirit’, since it’s an explicit prequel to that book. But oh well, since it’s out, it seems petty to complain.

‘Luna Mendax’ sees Graham McNeill take over as the writer for Loken for the first time since ‘False Gods’. Ben Counter may not have changed Garvi too much, but James Swallow made him fully insane and delusional, giving him the mantle of ‘Cerberus’ for his rather unsurprising return from the grave in ‘Garro: Legion of One’. Then John French took Loken on with ‘Grey Angel’, writing his shattered confidence well but involving him in a rather strange Caliban-centred plot hole which may or may not ever get a satisfying resolution.

When we meet Loken he’s working to build a beautiful garden, in a deserted hab-dome on Luna. Yeah, it’s a bit of a cliché for an old warrior to be working in a garden and musing on the nature of peace, an easy shorthand for the fact Loken is tired of war and wants to, well, retire. But after that slightly annoying intro, ‘Luna Mendax’ becomes a nice curiosity, an enjoyable HH story for those who don’t insist on their BL material brimming with violence, ichor and innards. Not only does it fill in the gaps between ‘Grey Angel’ and ‘Vengeful Spirit’, it also fills in the gaps after ‘Legion of One’, and that’s appreciated. The mission to Caliban in ‘Grey Angel’ is discussed at length, but the wilfully obscure nature of Loken’s findings are passed over, which is probably a smart decision. Graham also dials back the mad frothing of the ‘Cerberus’ insanity to show a more realistic portrayal of a warrior recovering from a deeply traumatic event which left pretty much everyone he had ever known either dead or his sworn enemy.

Loken’s memories are a mess, which gives Graham an opportunity for several flashbacks. These emphasise one of the things I like most about Graham’s writing: he really loves ‘Horus Rising’ and is unashamed of showing it. This writing showed a marked improvement in characters established in that first novel. It also gives Graham a chance to press ‘reset’ on the character of Loken and have him revert to his pre-Isstvan III self as his memories come flooding back. No more screaming insaniac, no more borderline-catatonic PTSD victim. 

Perhaps that’s a little disingenuous, throwing away other authors’ work on this central character, but I think it worked well to have the ‘old’ Loken back for ‘Vengeful Spirit’. And, yeah, it helps that I like Loken a lot. While Garro has reacted to the upheaval of the Heresy with explorations of religion and worship of the Emperor, Loken seems to be walking a more difficult path with less certainty in the answers, and that’s part of what makes him the ‘Grey Knight’ I like most (well, after Varren).

Lastly, it also sets up one of the weirder arcs in ‘Vengeful Spirit’, if I recall right – Torgaddon’s soul is devoured or trapped by a daemon, which ends up inhabiting Grael Noctua’s body, and I guess this is him asking Loken for help? Man, I hope that once gets as crazy a payoff as the setup seems to promise.

If there’s any complain I can level at ‘Luna Mendax’ – apart from the kind of lame opening – is that I would certainly have appreciated more of an insight into how Loken sees Malcador and Garro. It’s odd how Garro and Loken weirdly never seem to be in the same place at the same time since the Heresy started (not while Loken’s sane, anyway). These two squaring off, or maybe just fighting back to back, is something I’m really looking forward to.

My favourite Heresy stories are often the ones which have little in the way of combat, focusing instead on exploration of characters. I’d take this moving, elegant story over the similarly structured – but in my opinion, hugely overrated – ‘Last Church’ any day. 8/10

The Gates of Terra by Nick Kyme: The last of our three Sol system stories begins strong with a Malcador/Dorn discussion that, well, doesn’t suck. Very mysterious; they’re discussing the inevitability of Horus reaching the walls, the Edict of Nikea, and the importance of using every weapon available to them, even ones they must keep from the Emperor himself. Impressive, eh? As it starts to get interesting, the narrative shifts to… Arcadese. Remember him? The Ultramarine from ‘Forgotten Sons’. As a heavily augmented wounded veteran, dealing with feelings of obsolescence and a creeping suspicion his Legion have abandoned him, I found Arcadese a fairly interesting character. We last saw him leaving the dying planet Bastion after the failure of his diplomatic mission there, swearing to avenge his friend Heka’tan of the Salamanders, and to kill as many Traitors as he could before death claimed him. So what’s he up to now?

Battling a strange, indefinable feeling of wrongness – as if recovering from a head wound – Arcadese finds himself in a besieged fortress helping to hold off the full vanguard of Horus’ armada, including the grim monolith of the Vengeful Spirit. To make matters worse, in the sky Arcadese can see… Terra. That’s right, the war has come to the heart of the Imperium already. Arcadese is on an orbital station in the Ardent Reef, and he must hold as many of these ships off as he can. The situation is hella grim and with World Eater drop-troops and their daemon allies right at the fortress door, the Ultramarine must prepare to make the ultimate sacrifice, knowing it will never be enough to stop Horus.

BUT WAIT. As Arcadese dies, it’s revealed the whole thing was a simulation, psychically implanted by Librarians working at the behest of Malcador and Dorn (hence the conversation in the beginning). The Siege isn’t happening yet, dummy! The war is definitely a little further along here than we’ve gotten in the main novels’ ‘timeline’, since the Warmaster’s attack is considered to be imminent and the Imperium has knowledge that daemonic opponents will most likely be faced.

Honestly, I sort of love this weird twist ending, though the justification for it is flimsy at best. The ridiculousness of using this kind of intensive training rather than traditional simulation runs is handwaved away (in fact Malcador literally says there’s “no time” for that discussion). It hardly seems the most efficient way for the Astartes of Terra to prepare. And putting it into practice for such a relatively small group of Marines, especially one including a warrior of dubious effectiveness and stability like Arcadese? I’d like to have a few of these plot holes filled in, but there are aspects to ‘Gates of Terra’ which make me think it’s a really cool idea. Maybe this ‘battle-conditioning’ will just be used for the leaders of the forces who will be sacrificed at the various ‘waypoints’ before Terra can be reached… or, maybe we’ll never fucking hear about it again, like so many cool ideas floated in short stories. (Remember when the World Eaters went to dig through the ruins of Prospero? Apparently BL wants to act like this never happened.)

Any Malcador story will give you a few juicy morsels of information about the future of his shadowy network of underlings, and this is no exception. Another of Malcador’s Astartes, the Librarian Umojen, could be another potential Grey Knight. Then again, it’s revealed here that there are hundreds of these loyal Astartes being run through the psyker-induced simulation runs, from many different Legions, and each of the ‘trainees’ are overseen by Librarians of diverse Legions as well. This puts Malcador’s pool of potential Grey Knights at levels so high that it seems pointless to even have a conversation about Grandmaster identities.

This was apparently first published in French as part of the French Games Day 2012 Chapbook and, well, at times it seems like there’s been some Babelfish use here in preparing the English version. One character is referred to as ‘Lieutenant’ throughout and I’m not sure if this is because Arcadese admits to not knowing the character’s name – though he feels he should – or if it’s just been translated BACK into English from French and some weird shit has gone on with the phrasing. “Lieutenant had vanished from sight in the hellstorm” surely would read better as “The lieutenant (or ‘The nameless lieutenant’, or ‘The mysterious lieutenant’) had vanished from sight in the hellstorm.” This shit does make a difference, people, and since Nick Kyme also works for Black Library as an editor, you’d expect it to be picked up. Likewise, some of the sentences seem very terse, even to the point that words seem to be missing, and again, I’m not sure if this is intended to show Arcadese’s brusque manner or just a fuckup in translation. And sometimes words are there which shouldn’t be: ie the “cracked view-screen screen” mentioned in passing.

On my first readthrough, I felt pretty enraged that the Siege of Terra, even the prelude to it, was being introduced in such an off-hand way, in a fairly mediocre story. I went into my second reading of the story knowing that the apparent Siege was really a red herring, which made it easier to swallow, though it doesn’t get any less bland. There are some moments of ‘pretty okay’, maybe even ‘great’ void combat here, but Kyme’s characterisation of Arcadese here doesn’t really add anything new to an UItramarine I’d actually found pretty interesting previously. Add to that the fact that most of the combat sequences had me close to yawning – well, I’m far from proclaiming this a classic. However, I really like the direction hinted at in the ending, and while I’m not particularly bothered with finding out what happens to Arcadese specifically, I do want to know where this particular storyline goes. And as a “Fuck what you just read, it was all a simulation” moment, I’d take this over ‘Rules of Engagement’ for sure. 6/10

So there you go. Three stories about the Sol system. I guess we'll be seeing stuff like this a lot more in the next few years as the Legions begin their march back to ‘where it all began’. We’ll see how that turns out.

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

Horus Heresy Weekender - Part Six: Conclusion

Day Two

Garro: Knight-Errant

Before the speakers came in, some enterprising soul changed Laurie Goulding’s name to ‘Saul Tarvitz’ on the Powerpoint document. We all chuckled.

In attendance were Laurie Goulding, John French and Jim Swallow. This seminar was partly to promote the new 20 minute audio drama ‘Garro: Ashes of Fealty’ which was a new exclusive drama for the ‘Garro: Knight-Errant’ audio drama pack. We were told it ties into ‘Flight Of The Eisenstein’ more overtly than the other Garro dramas. It was described by Jim as a story of “faith versus reason”, focusing on Garro’s apothecary comrade who is trying to find a cure for Nurgle’s Rot. It also will go into the story of the loyalist Death Guard on Terra who were on the Eisenstein and weren’t named Nathaniel Garro. Jim assured us there is a longer plan for those characters, they haven’t been forgotten, and things will not go well for all of them.

On the subject of Knight Errant dramas, John French then brought up ‘Grey Angel’. John saw Garro as Jim’s character, so rather than doing a Garro story he decided to write a character who’d been done by other authors before. At the time, Black Library also wanted to pick up the trailing Caliban thread.

This led into a general discussion of the Knights Errant as an ‘organisation’ and it was emphasised that Garro isn’t necessarily that central to the way they work – they don’t just follow him around in a line like baby ducks. Answers to questions like “How many are there?” and “How long have they been around?” and “Does Garro know them all?” are probably going to be kept deliberately vague. 

Malcador sees his operatives as tools. There are things Malcador is surprised by – he’s not omniscient. (Case in point, the end of ‘Garro: Shield Of Lies’.) Jim said Garro is trying to find himself and find his purpose. That can create tension between he and Malcador, which is fun to write.

Malcador isn’t necessarily the villain. He definitely isn’t a straightforward, upright guy, which can make him appear to be villainous, in comparison to Garro. Jim likened Garro to Captain America (which I think kind of embodies his appeal).

Q&A

Q: Will the Knights Errant be featured further in the Heresy series?

A: Yes. (laughter) (I’m not sure what the person who asked this question was actually expecting.)

Q: Will we get more explanation/exploration of Malcador’s backstory?

A: At some point, the writers and editors for the Heresy had a meeting with Alan Merrett about the Sigilite’s definitive backstory. It was “too far”. It’s got some stuff which may never be used in the Heresy series. It was described as “chillingly awesome”. The authors also spoke on how they thought Malcador was a useful ‘Emperor substitute’ character, since it’s not possible for the Emperor to show up and say stuff most of the time.

Q: When you write recruitment stories for the Knights Errant, do you prefer it to be a Loyalist or Traitor Legion?

A: There are lots of warriors in the Traitor Legions who are starting to think “I’m not really sure about this ‘stapling a baby to my hat’ thing”, so the Traitor stories are often more fun as there is that additional conflict. Someone said they’d love to write about a loyalist Legionary who doubts their commanders and ends up switching to Horus’ side.

Q: Are there any plans for a Macer Varren solo story?

A: Jim: There are no plans, but it’d be fun. World Eaters are great to write, as they’re so raw, and Varren is just an angry Gerard Butler. (Laurie remarked he looks a bit like Gerard Butler on the ‘Sword Of Truth’ art.)

Q: Any more stuff about the secret base on Titan forthcoming?

A: There are plans to do more with the Titan storyline, though it might be a while before we see that.

Q: Any plans to do a Saul Tarvitz story? (groans)

A: It’d be really fun to do a flashback story, but there’s no (or very little) chance of bringing the character back to life in the current Heresy timeline. It was always the plan to bring Loken back from his apparent death; they have no such plans for Saul. Besides, Tarvitz did a significant job already, in slowing the Traitor advance and helping Garro flee to Terra. He fulfilled his role and perhaps bringing him back would cheapen that. However, it’s still fun to do ‘what if’ scenarios: How would events have differed if Saul and the loyalists had failed on Isstvan III? ‘Warmaster’ shows that Horus feels the events around this time are an endless series of mistakes and missed opportunities for his cause – but his ability to turn them around, to use them to his advantage…. Well, that’s why he’s Warmaster.

Q: If the Heresy series was being written on a blank slate and the ending wasn’t an issue, would you have changed the outcome?

A: Apparently, when this was starting out, Tony Cottrell asked “Why don’t we have Horus win? They won’t expect that.” However, they can confirm that’s not going to happen. Jim: “Yes, I enjoy destroying your sweet, sweet hope – your tears taste so delicious.” Laurie: “That was a bit sinister.”

Q: Will there be a Garro miniature?

A: They hope so, and they’d all like models for all the Knights Errant.

Q: Will there be any Knight Errant operatives from the Alpha Legion?

A: How do you know there aren’t now? (nervous laughter) The things which are appealing about the Alpha Legion are the things which make them very hard to fit into the Knights Errant. It would be difficult to trust any Alpha Legion warrior who was claiming to be a loyalist, and Malcador is not a trusting person anyway, so… probably not. However, when you think about it, the Knights Errant are a lot like the Alpha Legion, in that they wage war in the ways available to them, and not always in the most obvious way.

Q: In the wake of ‘The Watcher’, will there be Ison appearances in future Knight Errant stories?

A: Yes, that will be built on. Also that nearly-dead Space Wolf may be repurposed and show up later on. The Knight Errant organisation, such as it is, is a lot bigger and a lot more eventful than the stories take in, so there are a lot of stories like this happening all the time.

Conclusion

With the seminars finished, I slunk away into the night (well, mid-afternoon) deciding to forgo the closing ceremony.

How was the Horus Heresy weekender? Despite my general dislike for interacting with strangers, and general belief that some of the Heresy fans out there are complete monsters, I did enjoy myself for most of it, though I found it really tiring. If you’re thinking of going, I advise you go in a group of likeminded friends if possible – it’s much easier to cover a lot of ground with two or three of you checking out different things at different times. If I hadn’t felt a pressure to show up and pay close attention to every seminar, I might have been a bit less shattered when the night rolled around and been more intrepid in seeking out scoops from the BL authors, or getting into “bare bants” at the evening’s entertainment (the way this was scheduled and referred to quite coyly throughout day one made me think it was Laurie Goulding doing some Heresy-themed cabaret or something).

As for the people in attendance, they were fine. There was behaviour on display which I find massively annoying on forums (and in real life, as it turns out) like jeering when a character or Legion was discussed, or proudly stating that the novellas are a waste and money, but that stuff was fairly uncommon. I don’t love crowds, but it was rarely too claustrophobic an experience. I’ve learned by now that just because I share an interest with a big crowd of people, that doesn’t mean I’m going to feel a warm, fuzzy sense of kinship to them, and the Heresy Weekender was no different; I had some enjoyable (if short) conversations but I suspect I didn’t form any bonds which will persist throughout the ages.

For my intended purposes (mostly to get some exciting Black Library news and early releases) the Weekender was not a massive success. I’m tempted to try the Black Library Weekender later in the year, as I understand that has more of a book focus, but… ultimately, I think if Black Library really want to promote the Horus Heresy series in novel, rulebook and miniature format, they could stand to talk in a lot more detail and a lot more specifics about what is coming up. The fact I barely heard the words ‘Deathfire’ and ‘Crimson King’ at all over the whole weekend seems like an oversight.

It feels like this would be a perfect place to drum up publicity and enthusiasm for the 2015 schedule. Maybe they have yet to iron out what that actually is, but talking candidly about what everyone’s working on or even not working on, and what will be released this year, seems like something they could emphasise a bit more.

At least there was no “only available at this event!” shenanigans with Black Library here. With ‘Tallarn: Witness’ released as an ebook this week (think of how long most of us had to wait to read ‘Serpent’ and ‘Spirit Of The Conqueror’) and ‘Blades Of The Traitor’ available in ebook format right now – and probably print format within a few months – it looks like Black Library have decided to distance themselves from ‘event only’ shenanigans, going instead for ‘event early’. That’s great, and I really mean that. I’m glad everyone will be able to read the stuff I went to that event for in a few months, rather than a couple years. (Of course, I’d be happier if they had floated a release date for ‘The Imperial Truth’ and ‘Sedition’s Gate’ standard editions.) But the fact BL have sidestepped this but opened themselves to a new type of ‘exclusive’ scumbaggery is disheartening. In my opinion the pricetag for ‘Tallarn: Ironclad’ isn’t outrageous at all by itself… but I’m worried when they describe it as a ‘novel’. I’d rather say “Hey, a new Limited Edtion novella came out which cost a bit more and was a lot longer” than say “Hey, a new novel came out which was a lot shorter and a lot more expensive.” They’re kind of pushing me towards the second one, sadly. As for introducing a ‘location specific’ book – fuck outta here with that shit…

I doubt I’ll be at the Weekender next year. Still, it wasn’t a total loss. ‘Tempest’, the Ultramarine minis, the Scars sequel, the Alaxxes novella, Gav’s mysteriously absent ‘Raptor’, not to mention the curiously undersold ‘Deathfire’ – I’m happy the next several months will most likely be exciting ones for Heresy fans.

Short Fiction Round-Up Volume 2: "Distant Echoes of Old Night" by Rob Sanders / "Lost Sons" by James Swallow

Since I quite enjoyed writing the reviews for ‘Child of Night’ and ‘Daemonology’, I decided to write about some other ‘exclusive’ short stories Black Library has published. Usually, these are only available digitally, but with my new Kindle, reading eBooks is going to be a lot more enjoyable than using that lame-ass Magicscroll extension. Let’s see what I picked out this time.

Short Fiction Roundup: Now with 50% less skulls

‘Distant Echoes Of Old Night’ by Rob Sanders: As you might know, I’m a big Death Guard cheerleader (yikes, that’s a horrifying image) and I’m always eager to read more about Mortarion’s sons. So I was pleased to read this story, originally published in the ‘Games Day Anthology 2012/2013’, and so far not available to the public except in that book or as a download from BL’s website.

In this story we follow Death Guard Chaplain Murnau as he leads a group of Destroyer units on the forest moon Algonquis, seeking the remnants of an Imperial Fists force whose ship has crashed here. An engaging setup, and an excellent opportunity to see the 14^th Legion in action. You could argue that in the first four books we saw the Death Guard fight quite a few times, but I always felt they were lost among the other Legions in that context. Here, it’s all Death Guard. There are nice moments here, especially regarding the 14^th’s attitude to physical hardship and the way they fetishise endurance. The problem is, Rob has to convincingly deepen the culture of a Legion which has remained fairly unexplored, as well as showing hints about the Death Guard’s dark future, and (let’s not forget) tell a story at the same time. He probably would have been better off picking one thing and sticking to it.

So, the Legion hasn’t fallen yet; in fact, chronologically, they are the furthest off from their fall in the Big Four. But Rob still really goes in with the foreshadowing. In fact the signposting of the 14^th Legion’s fall to Grandfather Nurgle is awkwardly obvious at points. The Death Guard are fighting on a noisome swamp-world which was once a lush forest? Well, we’ve seen a Nurgle-dedicated ‘plague moon’ before, and it feels like the Death Guard probably are quite capable of war on other terrains. It’s well-established that the Death Guard bombard worlds with chemical weapons before they invade them, so, sure, fine. But it really feels like Rob picked a forest-heavy setting so he could trot out every well-established cliché about Nurgle. What about a desert? Or an urban environment? The setting choices here give me a lot of ‘False Gods’ and ‘Galaxy In Flames’ flashbacks and to be frank, those aren’t flashbacks I really want.

This story does, at least, succeed in showing an appropriate role for a Chaplain in a Traitor Legion that’s not the Word Bearers: motivating the troops and chewing up the scenery. Murnau is engagingly mental, but at times just seems like a silhouette with big devil horns, not exactly a fully fleshed-out character. He is also straight up preaching the gospel of Nurgle here, with his talk of “seeds of doubt [blooming] into gardens of darkness and despair” and his obvious enjoyment of the decay he witnesses in Algonquis’ ruined woods. I guess this could be a holdover from the culture of Barbarus and its harsh environment, but if that’s the case, I think it could have been explored much more interestingly. As for the rest of the Death Guard… fuck em. While the physical descriptions of the Destroyers were compelling writing, their actual personalities made little impact, and when they all start dying my reaction was generally “Wait, who was… was he the one with the… let me go back and check” rather than “Oh no, I hoped that guy would stick around for the sequel”. The narrative also starts in media res and ends a little abruptly. This detail, along with a few details around the Imperial actions here, makes me think that this was meant to be the beginning of a much longer Death Guard story or even novella (including the actual crash of the Fists vessel and more exploration of the Fists as characters) but then Rob went ‘ahh fuck it’ or Black Library said ‘nah bro’. Of course, this is all speculation and most likely total horseshit.

For a while ‘Distant Echoes’ was the best story available about post-Isstvan Death Guard action. Then those Forge World books came out and did a much better job of portraying the beginning of this Legion’s slide into corruption and madness. I’m not saying they’re superior in every way. ‘Distant Echoes’ is a story, not a scholarly essay about a military action: it’s arguably much more visceral than the Forge World material. Unfortunately, it suffers in comparison to ‘Scars’ and the newly published ‘Daemonology’: I feel Chris Wraight’s study of Mortarion’s prejudices and his instabilities is a much more telling document of the Death Guard’s character than this story. There are also moments where Rob Sanders’ writing slips into space-fantasy cliché: a ‘Battle For The Abyss’-style insistence on Murnau always “hissing” or “glaring” at his comrades makes him even more cartoonish. I’ll give this one solid point though: I really liked the Destroyer stuff here; while this is ostensibly a Death Guard story, it’s more convincing to call this a Destroyer story. I did also quite enjoy the downbeat nature of the ending. I had some feelings of ‘well, why the fuck did any of this matter then?’ but ultimately it was an appropriate finish for the story’s tone.

It’s funny, ‘The Serpent Beneath’ was such an efficiently-written, engaging bit of work which was brilliant at avoiding clichés (or rather, it used clichés from a genre other than space-fantasy/40K fiction) and I’ve found every other story by Rob to be so lacking in every way by comparison. This is probably one of his better efforts, but overall, it’s still a disappointment for a lot of reasons. 6/10

‘Lost Sons’ by James Swallow: Not to be confused with ‘Forgotten Sons’, this was a short story which followed on the heels of the controversial Blood Angels Horus Heresy novel ‘Fear to Tread’. It was published in the Black Library Weekender 2012 collection, and became available as an eBook in 2013.

Just because Jim is most associated with the Garro dramas in the Horus Heresy series, doesn’t mean that Nathaniel is the only Knight Errant he’ll focus on. Here, we get a Rubio story! Well, still more of a Blood Angels story, but Rubio is in it. Our main character is the IX Legionary Warden Arkad, who is frustrated with his duties; the stewardship of Baal is a wearisome duty for someone who would rather be out in the cosmos winning glory with his Legion. But it’s more than boredom Arkad has to contend with. He and nineteen of his brothers have watched over the Blood Angels’ homeworld for the past five years, since Sanguinius departed for the Signus Cluster. Three years ago, word reached them of Horus’ rebellion. No word has yet reached them from Sanguinius or any of their brothers, cut off from them by the Ruinstorm. They know the spirit of their orders was false, but they don’t want to disobey the last command from their Primarch. So they wait, slowly going mad with frustration. Until finally, a starship approaches, and a warrior with grey, unadorned armour lands on Baal, claiming to bring orders from the Regent of Terra. The Knight Errant, Librarian Tylos Rubio, carries a black scroll, the sign of the disbanding of a Legion (something which “twice before [has been] delivered to the homeworld of a Legiones Astartes” – damn!). Malcador’s reasoning for this is brutal, but sound. Yet there’s no way these proud Blood Angels will accept being sidelined again – will their continuing loyalty to their Primarch drive them to take up arms against a loyal agent of the Imperium?

I’ve kind of spoiled 95% of the story there, so why stop? ‘Lost Sons’ ends its tense standoff with word from Raldoron reaching Baal: Sanguinius is alive, and the Legion is battered but intact. The Blood Angels rejoice, and send Rubio on his way with no bloodshed.

The format of ‘Lost Sons’ – monologues committed to tape by Arkad as his frustration grows – really seems suited to an audio drama; I’d love to hear what Ramon Tikaram could do with this as a script. Adding to its ‘documentary’ feeling, we also get the text of the fateful order from Horus which sent Sanguinius to the Signus cluster. But don’t let me imply it’s bad as a written short story, because I really think it’s one of the best in the series. Jim really does well at capturing the anguish and annoyance of Arkad and his brothers at their situation, but also the nobility and humanity of the IX. There are a few sly nods towards the future of the Legion, too: It’s shown that Baal’s guardians have had visions of the horrific mauling of their Legion and Primarch by Ka’bandha and his daemonic horde – the Blood Angels’ psychic bond to their Primarch, especially in his darkest moments, will ultimately be their doom, so it’s kind of chilling to have that signposted here. The Death Company foreshadowing is a little heavy-handed, but it’s also really effective (you can almost hear the dramatic music swell as the black-armoured Blood Angels face down Rubio). This also has a small teaser for ‘Garro: Shield of Lies’ which I didn’t catch on my first reading. Overall, proof that Jim Swallow has a good grasp on the wider context of the Heresy series and isn’t just blindly churning stuff out. So what about Jim’s ‘other’ flagship storyline, the Knights Errant? As a character, Rubio continues to not really grab my imagination so much as Garro or Varren do – the reason I like him in the audios is that I dig his whispery emo performances. Yet he’s nicely built upon here; there’s a steel to him we sometimes don’t see when Garro is overshadowing him. I have faith he will continue to become an interesting character, if given the space to spread his wings.

At the risk of repeating myself I’m feeling more and more that short stories are the best use of Jim’s talents – though his audio work is great, ‘All That Remains’, ‘Gunsight’ and ‘Lost Sons’ are some of the very best Heresy material of the last few years. It’s a bit of a shame he may not do another Heresy novel but as long as he’s doing short stories I can’t complain. Here’s hoping that Swallow gives Rubio some more shine in the next Knight Errant story – though I’d actually prefer if Varren got a ‘solo’ mission (he’s the only ‘main’ Knight who hasn’t got any short story love). And if he cedes the Blood Angels Heresy stuff to Andy Smillie, well, that’ll probably mean more love for the Garro storyline, so it’s all good.

‘Lost Sons’ takes a little vignette which on the surface seems to be of little import, and masterfully turns it into a meditation on the Blood Angels as good as any published in the Heresy series. I know Swallow gets a fair bit of hate from Blood Angels fans, not least for ‘Fear to Tread’, but haters could do worse than giving this story a chance – I think it’s a very distinctive offering, higher-quality writing than ‘Fear to Tread’ which I did enjoy but which was quite straightforward. Here, Jim has addressed my main issue with ‘Fear to Tread’: that the Blood Angels’ personality often didn’t come through. This is different; this is IX Legion to the very core. 9/10

Boo-hoo, my Primarch died, waaah waaaah

So, the Blood Angels and the Death Guard. Two Legions which many would argue haven’t got their due in the Horus Heresy series. Things will probably continue to be pretty bleak with the Death Guard, as rumour has it there’ll be no XIV Legion novel in 2015. As a staunch Mortarion fan I’ll keep holding out (with an obligatory air of grim pessimism) for a Chris Wraight-penned Death Guard book but if that does happen, it won’t be for a while. How about the sons of Sanguinius? Many fans of those David Boreanaz-ass motherfuckers are rejoicing at the news that Andy Smillie seems to be taking a strong hand in the Imperium Secundus arc, and of course, ‘Dreadwing’ will likely feature an Abnett-written Sanguinius heavily. Something I’m definitely looking forward to, as Dan has always brought something new to Primarchs he depicts, and Andy has written some pretty great Blood Angels/Flesh Tearers stuff for 40K. Yet I never thought Jim Swallow was a bad fit for the Blood Angels (well, I’ve given both of his BA HH offerings 9/10). I’ll bow to popular opinion that perhaps he disrespects the fluff but I’ve always considered the quality of his writing to be sound. It’s just a shame the Blood Angels have been pretty much absent from most of the HH series – but perhaps that’s because they didn’t have much to do yet. As we move into the second stage of Imperium Secundus, this may very well change…

"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.

"Garro: Sword Of Truth" by James Swallow

I believe this is the longest HH audio drama, clocking in at around 2 hours and 20 minutes, spanning two CDs. While I guess most of the 60-80 minute audio dramas in the HH series are the equivalent of a short story, 'Sword Of Truth' is closer to a novella. It's read by Toby Longworth, John Banks and Ramon Tikram. Warning: even for a PurpleHeresy review, this bitch be rotten with spoilers, so if you haven't listened to this Audio Drama or read it in the new HH Scriptbook Vol. II, probably don't read this.

GARRO!
(not pictured)

We open on the Somnus Citadel on Luna, with an engaging portrayal of Garro, brooding and preoccupied with the horrors of Isstvan and Calth. It serves as a nice recap of the HH events so far (though why the fuck you'd start with this audio drama I don't know) as well as Garro's story in particular, including the events of 'Flight Of The Eisenstein'. We also have a recap of 'Garro: Oath Of Moment', which is lucky, because I haven't got the CD, I don't plan to download it, and I may never do a review. (I have read the script though.) In brief, Garro went to Calth and fought Word Bearers and daemons alongside the Ultramarines and Imperial military. He also recruited a former Ultramarines Librarian, Tylos Rubio. Rubio is established as an uncertain, cautious character where Garro is already fairly intractable and unquestioning of his new masters. He doesn't want to turn his back on his former Legion and is haunted by the shame he felt breaking the Edict of Nikaea. This part of the drama is really well written. Also the soundtrack is brilliantly employed here, low-key and almost ambient, and the acoustics of the vocals really sound like they're in a giant, echoing chapel. Rubio is a bit quiet in the mix though, and remains so throughout the drama - perhaps a performance issue rather than a production one.

One of the main things I like about the Garro stories is the little glimpses we’re treated to of the earliest foundations of the Inquisition, so I was pleased at the moment here where Rubio is presented with his new Knight Errant armour, grey and featureless but for the 'I' sigil of Malcador (clearly quite similar to that of the 40K Inquisition).

The Garro/Rubio dynamic isn’t flawless. Early on here, the two comrades have already begun the lengthy, pointless dance around Garro’s “heretical” beliefs. Garro is one of the most prominent characters in the HH universe who is a devotee of the banned Imperial Cult. This involves disobeying the atheistic nature of Imperial society and venerating the Emperor as a god… a religion which will ironically become the status quo in a few thousand years. As Rubio is able to read Garro’s thoughts and emotions to some degree, but won’t fully probe his mind out of respect for his privacy, he’s always slightly suspicious of Garro… but he never quite gets to the point of openly accusing him, or actually, you know, doing anything about it. Religious intolerance and the theological attitudes of the Imperium were heavy themes of the early HH books, so I’m glad that some stories are carrying on with those threads, but I’m still not sure if this story thread is actually going anywhere. (No end in sight, several years later…)

We then meet our initial antagonist, a Custodian Guard named Corarrin. He is arrogant, aggressive, competitive and distrustful (especially of the fact Garro wishes to employ a psyker). I’m pleased with Corarrin’s inclusion in the story. He is described extensively and is quite a distinctive character, not just Generic Custodes Dudeman. As we get to know him further, we get to understand his motivations and why he's so abrasive. In a way, Corarrin seems to be a stand-in for Rogal Dorn - he has similar attitudes, and he and Garro clash on similar issues. I’m glad they did this, there’s only so many times Garro can think “Jeez, I disagree with Dorn, but I’m physically incapable of speech around him because homeboy is legit swole.” It’s cool that they put in someone for Garro to bounce off of who can actually get touched. We’re not at that stage yet, though. While Corrarin’s barely hidden insults to the two Knights Errant are noted, Astartes apparently don't feel comfortable speaking out openly against the actions of any Custodes. However, Garro clearly doesn't want Corrarin’s arrogance to go unanswered, so under the guise of a healthy training exercise, he engages the warrior in a duel. A nice way to make the listener feel there's been some action while the plot is still being established, and a well-written scene; we also get more of a sense of Corarrin's character when we see his barely restrained fury at losing to someone he clearly sees as inferior. Garro's fiery retort also shows it's possible for him to be pushed too far.

So then, nearly 30 minutes in, the plot itself starts moving. A sizable fleet of apparently Imperial vessels has entered the outskirts of the Sol system. They claim to be refugees from Horus' betrayal. Corarrin views them with suspicion, but Garro feels some kinship with their plight. They are led by the 'Daggerline', a World Eater frigate Garro recognises from Isstvan. A pressing concern is the huge amount of civilians amongst them. These are the poor, downtrodden bastards Garro is committed to protecting - but amongst so many, can they be sure there are no agents of Horus present? We quickly learn that Corarrin is just itching to destroy the entire fleet at the first time of trouble. Moving to the fleet, and making contact with the 'Daggerline', we are introduced to Macer Varren of the World Eaters. Varren is a plain-spoken, passionate and quick-to-anger Legionary. Some ambiguity of characterisation may have been an interesting idea, to keep you guessing where his loyalties lie, but frankly it was hard to be suspicious of Varren for even a minute. Amongst the other Astartes who can seem pompous and stuffy, he's a welcome breath of fresh air, and you know there's no 'heel turn' in store for him.

We then meet the rest of the Astartes that Varren bought with him, and here's where the cracks in the drama (the story as well, to a lesser extent) start to show. Firstly, while there are clearly a lot of Space Marines present, we are only introduced to a few named characters, so we know that most of these guys are just superfluous bullet-sponges. On the Daggerline are several groups of Astartes, but we just meet their leaders. Rakishio (Rekitio?) of the Emperor's Children, who's kind of a boring non-character (though there's a well-placed mislead where Rakishio responds "I can't say" when asked about the fate of Saul Tarvitz, and you wonder if he might be more than he appears) and also Hakim of the White Scars. Remember the horrible scene in 'A Thousand Sons' where Yeseugi haltingly speaks with a forced Asian accent at Nikaea? Well, James Swallow doesn't give the Scars that horrendous broken English, but Heavy Entertainment decided to make Hakim have a VERY strong accent. And it sounds really overdone, as Hakim telling Garro that the Emperor's Children are planning something becomes "THEY'AH PA-RANNING SAAAHMTHEENG". It's something of a pet hate of mine, I don't think it's a bad idea for all the Legions to have a different accent (rather than all of them sounding like they went to Eton) but this is on the verge of pantomime. Not only is the accent strong, but effort seems to have been made to put maximum sneer and sinister-ness into it. I really feel like a much more restrained, less dramatic performance would have made Hakim's character a little bit more ambiguous and less obviously a villain. And fuck it, I'm gonna stop dancing around it: It seems racist, and built on negative perceptions of Asians. I know some people are like "lol fagot why u mad thats how they acshuly speak tho" but come on. The cynic in me says that they listened patiently through a 'normal' take and then asked Ramon Tikram to "do it really Chinesey" or something like that. At this point I should say that despite my issues with his delivery, Hakim is actually a well-written character at least, and the White Scar being the first character that Corarrin shows actual respect (if not deference) is a nice moment.

Also. Here’s a tiny detail that it’s kind of unfair to call out, but I will anyway. The story states the varied Astartes and Custodes present hold the belief that the White Scars have never shown anything but unswerving obedience and loyalty to the Emperor; an attitude that the novel 'Scars' directly states was not common amongst the other Legions, with many unsure of Jaghatai's loyalties and frustrated with what they perceived as a wilful, disobedient streak in his character… and others openly stating the V Legion would go to Horus' side. Later it's said that the Scars have proven their loyalty in the civil war, again, something that's just not true at this part of the HH timeline. (I guess this could take place after ‘Scars’, though; ‘Sword Of Truth’ is never firmly placed in the timeline aside from being after Calth.) In fairness, it's very likely that Chris Wraight's treatment of the White Scars hadn't even begun to take shape at the time 'Sword Of Truth' was written and recorded.

So without getting too exhaustive in my overview of events, SHIT GETS DIRE pretty quick, with the fleet of vessels feeling threatened and paranoid at the Custodes’ attitude towards them, and all kinds of courtly intrigue shenanigans taking place and dudes informing on each other all over the place. Things really hot up towards the end of part one of this drama, with one of the vessels in the refugee fleet desperately trying to run the blockade and being destroyed. With Garro now seeing Corarrin as having civilian blood on his hands, their relationship utterly disintegrates, while Rubio detects something dark and mysterious on the transport which attempted flight. As part two begins, Garro and Varren have an excellently written, excellently acted confrontation which adds more character to their relationship. Varren is characterised as quick to anger, but there doesn't seem to be the instability, or uncontrollable rage, that are brought on by the Butchers' Nails. (Then again, later the implants are alluded to in connection with Varren, and he bursts into a wild frenzy of killing.) The growing friendship and respect between the Knight Errant and the World Eater is nicely contrasted with Rakishio and Corarrin’s arrogance, and there's some further development of Rubio as a character as his long-dormant Librarius powers return to potency – but sadly, Rubio is probably the least utilised character in this drama.

Due to a shocking plot twist (or obvious misdirection if you prefer), the Emperor's Children are taken into custody by the Custodian after a tense confrontation. While they aren't really a focal point of this drama, their surrender shows the pre-corruption III Legion's respect for the chain of command and faith in Imperial honour. Both misplaced, as it turns out. As tension mounts, Rubio, Garro and Varren unearth the TRUE mastermind behind the conspiracy (hint: it was the dude who sounded like a fucking Scooby Doo villain.) As they try to warn Corarrin, Hakim makes his move. It's a superb sequence and it makes you root for a character you probably wanted to die not too long ago. It begins the last part of this drama, which boasts a fair amount of twists and turns, and you've really got to admire how well Hakim planned his gambit. Varren berating himself for not realising the White Scars' treachery is one of the best-delivered moments in the drama, but he needn't have worried. Those guys fooled everyone. (Yet another reason that Hakim should have been performed more ambiguously.) The only moment that takes me out of the story is when Hakim taunts Varren with the revelation that all his World Eater command are dead. So an entire complement of Astartes dies 'offscreen' with no apparent consequence. I find it hard to believe that the XII Legion loyalists were all in small, disorganised groups, as that seems like the only way they'd all be killed with no casualties to the traitors, and it feels like if the V Legion complement outnumbered all the others, we’d have been told about it…? Then again, Hakim has shown formidable ingenuity in his plans, so maybe I'm not giving him enough credit.

While it's a bit of a cliché, Hakim's "I'll tell you why I turned my cloak, BEFORE I KILL YOU" moment does show a quite nicely-developed set of character motivations, not just crazy ranting. It's also quite a nice foundation for the events of 'Scars'. In the end the fact that 'Garro: Legion Of One' came out before this is a bit of a spoiler (and I’m not really sure why that happened), as the main characters are Varren, Garro and Rubio. So we know that they will all come through safely. It does stretch the limits of credulity; actual numbers aren't given, but it was implied that the traitor White Scars had them heavily outnumbered. At least there's an attempt made to give a reason the Knights Errant are able to escape (though it's pretty fucking stupid). It helps that the soundtrack during the last battle scene is fucking cool! While this might not have the best overall soundtrack of all BL audio dramas, it’s not far off (as I said, the Somnus Citadel ambience is the highlight). Sometimes less is more, though… And to wrap things up we get a nice Malcador cameo, Varren 'taking the grey', and Garro musing further on the terrible angsty times we live in.

So what about the voice acting? Apart from the one I harped on and on about earlier, it’s mostly good. Rubio's voice acting is a little overdramatic and emotional. Garro's voice acting is overdramatic in a good way, consistent with his fruity yelling in the other audio dramas. You gotta have at least one super-hammy performance in every BL audio drama, so there ya go. Corarrin is excellent, a perfect mix of anger and confidence. I really liked the performance of Varren here, with his aura of East End charm and expressive outbursts of anger. Rakishio is almost comically bad, sounding like a posh bodybuilder with a heavy cold. But it’s all tied together nicely by the narrator, who is nicely energetic without being too over the top. Finally, the CD (or MP3 download if you prefer) has some great cover art, with a heroic picture of Macer Varren taking centre stage (which does look like he's escaped the visually distinctive implants of the Butchers Nails).

Like I've said, there are a few problems with 'Garro: Sword Of Truth'. My initial impressions were not at all favourable, but each time I've listened to this again, my opinion of it has improved. I'd say this might be the best Garro audio-drama, maybe even a better Garro story as a whole than 'Flight Of The Eisenstein'. I honestly feel that if the stories are this good, audio dramas this long are an excellent idea. I give it 9/10, and I really hope we get more Garro soon, ideally penned by Jim Swallow, and with Rubio and Varren back at his side. ('Garro: Shield Of Lies' coming soon though!) Oh, and I know I say a lot that "Since (blank) dies offscreen, I bet they're alive!" and it's getting a bit ridiculous, but I suspect we'll see Hakim again. Especially considering the revelation that an unidentified ship escaped the blockade and the chaos that broke out amongst the fleet… Hakim/Saul Tarvitz team-up audio drama in 2015. YOU HEARD THIS COMPLETE LIE HERE FIRST FOLKS!

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

"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.

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