"Vengeful Spirit" by Graham McNeill

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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"Deliverance Lost" by Gav Thorpe

For the eighteenth book in the HH series, Black Library turned its attentions to a Legion which is something of a 'cult favourite', but often seems to not get the same 'push' as some other Space Marine armies we won't name here. Here we go with the first HH Raven Guard novel.

Man Corax is pretty cool.

The book begins with a recap of 'Raven's Flight' and 'The Face Of Treachery', as the Raven Guard escape Isstvan (but I do recommend reading those short stories again if you can, before you start this one - and the Isstvan scene in 'The First Heretic' might not be bad to revisit, either.) There's a great moment where Corax reflects on his confrontation with Kurze and notes that their upbringings could have been much more alike, if not for fate, so Corax is lucky not to have turned out like Night Haunter. It's nice that he's aware of his relatively privileged past.

I didn't know much about the Raven Guard before I started 'Deliverance Lost'. Remember, "my" edition was 2nd Edition, so the universe was a lot... goofier back then. All I knew is that their home fortress had basements full of hideous mutants for some reason, and that their Primarch Corax survived the Heresy, only to go a bit mental and disappear off into the void, leaving with only the word "Nevermore..." Even 11-year-old-me rolled his eyes at THAT shit.

However, this really bare-bones 'fluff' has been fleshed out a lot in the intervening two decades or so. There is certainly plenty of Raven Guard lore here to sink your teeth into. Early on, it becomes obvious the Raven Guard are a 'stealth' Legion. Of course, an army where even your lightest troop types are much bulkier than a standard full-grown human will need some creative thinking in order to be light on their feet. So they use guerilla tactics, striking hard and fast, and retreating before their foes are able to counter-attack. Then they find another weak point somewhere else, and strike again. Their way of warmaking is necessarily bolstered by a lot of tech innovations other Legions don't have access to (or don't care to make use of). For example, the Raven Guard ships are tricked out with 'reflex shields' which make them practically invisible to enemy scanners. However, when this is active, the ships have almost no physical defense against attack. This technology becomes useful in the torturously slow high-tension escape from the Isstvan system, a masterfully handled sequence.

There are other interesting factors in the Raven Guard's cultural identity too. Unlike many of their brother Legions, the XIX are established as very austere warriors, likely influenced by the prison-moon, no-frills culture of its Deliverance-born soldiers. No Ultramarines ceremony or Emperor's Children flashiness for them.

But the Legion is in a pretty dire state. At this time, only 4,000 Raven Guard remain, less than 3,000 of them being Isstvan veterans. Considering the Legion was over 80,000 strong before Isstvan, this is pretty fucking horrendous. (I guess this doesn't take into account the scattered Raven Guard who didn't make it to Isstvan, or the ones who made it off-world separate from Corax's force.) Also, the survivors of Isstvan obviously share the bond of that terrible experience, which leads to the Deliverance garrison feeling alienated and guilty. It's a nice touch but not one that is developed particularly interestingly in this book. Agapito and Branne's conversation about Isstvan's horrors, or rather Agapito's refusal to talk about them, is another well-handled moment - an Astartes who was quick to boast about his exploits and combat successes before, now seems ashamed of his survival. But apart from that, this is just a background factor, not a real threat that is actually causing divisions in the Legion.

Corax is arguably the main character of 'Deliverance Lost', so we get plenty of Primarch-shadowing here. Left to reflect, Corax thinks on his past relationship with Horus - apparently they never got on. Corax felt he was an arrogant glory-hunter. He also thinks about the consequences of his actions during the Isstvan fight. Corax chastistes himself for being reckless and breaking from his sons to fight Lorgar. He swears he won't have an 'emotive response' like that again. Corax isn't a Primarch who gets all angsty when he considers the end of the Great Crusade - we find he had always accepted it would happen eventually and he would have been happy to sit in some apartment somewhere, writing political treatises or erotic thrillers. I really like this key quote from Corax: "We have no room for hope. We plan and we act. Hope is for dreamers and poets. We have our will and our weapons and we shall dictate our own fate." We also get frequent flashbacks to Corax's time leading the rebellion against the prison overseers on Deliverance (Lycaeus, at the time). They're a nice insight into his character, and also I guess they provide some action for readers who hate all the boring talking and need some FITES. In the course of the 'fleshing out' of Corax, we also get some of the best writing in the series on the subject of what it's like for a Primarch to come out of their stasis pod suddenly cut off from their 'father'. Disconcerted and alone, within seconds of finding himself on Deliverance, Corax is fighting a brutal 'overseer' and protecting defenseless prisoners, so he obviously got to Deliverance with his value system at least partly formed.

Early in the book, without much fanfare, the narrative suddenly switches to our primary antagonist: the Alpha Legion. First of all, we get some stuff from Alpharius' viewpoint. He's on the Vengeful Spirit, being dressed down by Horus for his mysterious tactics. ('Mysterious Tactics' - title of Alpharius' autobiography, I guarantee it.) Some nice stuff here along the lines of "you've changed bro, I don't even know you anymore!!!", as well as the setup for our book's plot: the Raven Guard have been infiltrated by the XX Legion. The dialogue isn't brilliant but it's not bad either, and at least it moves the plot along well (I feel like Primarch-to-Primarch conversations are the hardest to "get right"). This scene, and its aftermath, makes it clear that Horus and his commanders don't trust the Alpha Legion at all. In fact, they are ready to move against Lupercal's 'youngest' brother at the slightest provocation... but for now, Alpharius is a useful resource, despite his schemes. Back on Alpharius' flagship, the Primarch meets with his ambassador to the Cabal, some freaky lil alien dude. From the beginning we can see that Alpharius' relationship with the Cabal is strained to say the least; there's not much trust on either side. We also discover that Omegon is on Kiavahr (the planet which Deliverance is a satellite of) ready to provoke unrest and rebellion.

I am a huge Alpha Legion fan so I treasure the Alpha Legion lore which is casually dropped for us here - that the infiltrating Astartes, who all go by the designation 'Alpharius', have their real names wiped from their memories while undercover; that they still use Librarians, despite Nikaea's ruling; and perhaps most interesting, the mindset of an infiltrator - what it's like for one marine to take on another Legion's identity. The portrayal of the Alpha Legion in 'Deliverance Lost' is frequently criticised, but I think it's invaluable in establishing Alpharius and Omegon as distinct characters. Alpharius the worrier, preoccupied about the thousand deaths that await him if any of his schemes fail, haunted by the "truth" of the Acuity; and Omegon the field operative, calm, callous, efficient. Of course, they share more traits than they differ in. But I hope they continue to grow as their own characters; I'm really very anxious to see which author will handle them next. Moreover, 'Alpharius' is an interesting character(s); it's cool to see the frosty, cynical outlook of the XX Legion contrasted with the more humanitarian Raven Guard. And while the Alpha Legion infiltrators are pretty calm under pressure, it's an unenviable position they're in: isolated from their brothers, surrounded by the enemy, no hope of rescue if they fuck up. This leads to some awkward situations which the operatives extricate themselves from quite skillfully.

As for the Raven Guard characters, I feel they are a little bland and dour, but that actually seems quite fitting considering the nature of their Legion culture, as well as the horrors they've witnessed. The deployment here of the standard Black Library fallback "taciturn = stoic" could seem a bit lazy to a cynical reader, but I'm going to say it works this time. It is a bit of a problem in some contexts: When the identities of the fake Raven Guard are revealed, they turn out to be fairly peripheral characters; one is just some asshole who's done nothing "onscreen" but make an awkward joke to Corax in passing. Worse, one of them is actually one of Corax's most trusted commanders, but he's not really been fleshed out before this point, so you'd be forgiven for thinking "who?" at the big Reveal moment. Faring a bit better is one of the only human characters, Valerius, the Therion officer (the Imperial Army of Deliverance, I guess) whose visions prompted Corax's rescue. He's an interesting character: a vain, paranoid asshole, but a Loyalist one, who cares deeply and genuinely about the Legion he fights with.

A sequence here I feel gets unfairly criticised is the 'labyrinth navigation' Corax must mastermind to retrieve his dad's gene-tech is a nice piece of high-tension plotting. Some feel this is too 'videogamey', but that doesn't really put me off (I'd rather see a blatant 'adventure/puzzle game tribute' than some boring 'huge Prince Of Persia boss battle' ripoff). This sequence also shows us Corax's mettle. He may be a more humanitarian, conscientious and all-round courteous Primarch than, say, Night Haunter or Perturabo, but under the social niceties, there's a cold bastard who's very willing to sacrifice his own men if he feels the objective is worthwhile. Not that dissimilar from the Lord of the 4th, then.

Having said that, I felt that 'Alpharius' starting to feel a kinship and rapport with his 'squadmates' is perhaps a little heavy-handed. Surely a specialist trusted to a 'deep cover' mission of this magnitude would be prepared to squash emotions like this? Perhaps it's because 'Alpharius' is a well-rounded character with doubts and flaws that he also seems like a shit operative. I mean, getting your feelings hurt when the Loyalists you're infiltrating talk shit about Horus? Did you think you were infiltrating a princess' tea party dawg? Then again, later there's a really nice 'Alpharius' moment where he encounters Word Bearer Gal Vorbak warriors and is overcome with disgust, so it's clear the Alpha Legion isn't too psyched about the behaviour of its 'allies' either.

So the reward for this trek is the by-now-familiar laboratory where the Primarchs were created, and the genetic material that Corax needed, apparently bringing with it the ability to rebuild a broken Legion in a fraction of the time it should take. Corax thinks they can take advantage of the power and purity of this new genetic source material to greatly improve the chances of successful implantation and decrease the time it takes for a Legionary to be 'formed' - from several years, to a matter of months. All very well until you start thinking about how the Raven Guard will be going into battle using soldiers who were, until very recently, pre-adolescent boys. I guess Corax is prepared for a drastic increase in fart jokes and attempts to emulate wrestling moves on the frontlines. With this dramatic rise in the stakes, Part I of the book abruptly ends.

Part II begins similarly abruptly, with no indication of how long has elapsed, but the Raven Guard are back on Deliverance. They waste no time in shaking things up, immediately enacting the Edict of Dissolution and rounding all their Remembrancers up for return to Terra so they can be 'debriefed'. (I really like that Gav put a scene about this in here, I'd always wondered what putting that into practice would actually involve). There's also an interesting moment where it seems a Word Bearers Chaplain has been seconded to the Raven Guard to ensure Nikaea's edict is followed. Corax goes HAM on that hoe, first verbally excoriating him and his Legion, then executing him out of hand. A nice contrast to Guilliman's much more 'Geneva Convention' treatment of a captive Word Bearer in 'Unremembered Empire'.

Let me not forget the Raven Guard Apothecary, Vincente Sixx. As in, Vince Neil and Nikki Sixx of Motley Crue. FUCK YOU FOR THAT SHIT GAV! He's a good character though. It's revealed at this time that only seven Raven Guard Apothecaries survived the Isstvan massacre; Sixx has seniority, so he's the Chief Apothecary of a Legion by default. No pressure.

ARE YOU READY TO ROCK TONIGHT, DELIVERANCE??

We get some nice stuff for the 40K 'tech nerds' as well, including an early showing of 'Vengeance' bolter rounds and some fluff on how the Traitors were so successful - with relatively little loss - against an enemy who was armoured and armed to the same standard as they were. Another nice bit of fan-service is when the Raven Guard are presented with some of the very first Mark VI 'Corvus' power armour suits, the style they're most associated with in 'modern' 40k, and their slightly miffed reaction. "What, you gave us these 'beakie' suits because our Legion's named after a bird? Rude." And that part where Sixx complains about the disparities between all the Primarch gene-codes - well, damn, that's full of stuff to geek out over.

I really like the sections of the book which are concerned with character development and increasing the 'fluff' for the Legions involved, but as things start hotting up (like, two-thirds of the way through the book) part of me thinks "thank fuck for that". Omegon's gambit doesn't disappoint either - a well-written, edge-of-the-seat sequence which feels like the culmination of all the 'Alpharius' parts in the book, plus the tension of a 'casino heist' scene, right up to the bloody conclusion. (Also - the Door code for the gene-see storage unit is 'peta-orpheus-epsilon'. Most obviously this is a reference to Poe, that sad motherfucker who wrote a poem called 'The Raven', but could it also be a reference to Jack D. Ripper's mantra in 'Doctor Strangelove'? Maybe that's a bit too 'outside'.) So... the error that left the Raven Guard bolstered with horrible mutants, the error that haunts Corax for the rest of his days, isn't really his fault. That's some tragic shit. I think Alpharius owes him a phonecall at this point. "LOL IT WAS ME BRO, I WAS IN UR BASE, CORRUPTIN UR GENE MATERIAL. U SEEM MAD THO?"

We have a nice little 'wind-down' sequence where the Raven Guard look forward to - No, wait, there's still an entire military operation here, just over 10 pages, where they destroy an Emperor's Children base. The Perfect Fortress is an Emperor's Children installation on a planet called Narsis. As in narcissist. FUCK YOU GAV!! A bit strange this plot strand was picked up so late in the book, and perhaps cynical readers would feel BL looked at Gav's manuscript, said THERE'S NOT ENOUGH SHOOTBANGS, and made him tack this on. But I did enjoy it, and it's really the only time in the whole book where we see Corax in no-holds-barred combat, fucking dudes up.

I love books with this 'Empire Strikes Back' ending style, as I've said before. With Fabius and Alpharius both working on the Primarch gene material, and the Raven Guard halting their over-ambitious Legion rebuilding, it's shit times for the good guys. And yet their spirit is unbroken. It's an unfair comparison, as they benefit greatly from their Primarch's presence, but the XIX really seem to have a much healthier attitude than the surviving Salamanders and Iron Hands we've seen scattered through the post-Isstvan books. And as for the antagonists... I love all this internal suberfuge in the XX Legion; shit really feels like Smiley's Circus except with genetic superhumans rather than effete public school voyeurs. I get the feeling even Alpharius himself doesn't necessarily understand all the shit happening in his name. That last scene tho!! WHAT IS OMEGON DOING YO?! 'The Serpent Beneath' made it clear (as clear as things can ever be with the 20th) that the twin Primarchs don't necessary share an agenda anymore, let alone methods. Omegon's 'plain, unadorned' suit of mysterious "other" armour in that novella does make me think that perhaps the Knights Errant could be getting a new recruit sometime soon, or would that be too insane?? The fact their customary sigil, the Hydra, is generally depicted as having three heads - well, that makes me even more suspicious: Could there actually be a THIRD brother? It's doubtful, but DUDE I DON'T EVEN KNOW ANYMORE.

Through the series I've always like the books which give us an inordinate amount of time to just hang out with a Primarch or Legion and get to know them. 'The First Heretic' is really the king of this, and 'Scars' isn't far behind. 'Horus Rising' and 'Prospero Burns' too, of course, and I suppose you could argue for 'Fear To Tread' or 'A Thousand Sons' as well. I found 'Deliverance Lost' to be a worthy addition to this group of HH books. Not only did it provide a nice insight into a pretty neglected Legion, it answered some "what have they been DOING all this time?" concerns, AND we got some nice Alpha Legion stuff. I really don't see why some people violently hate on this book so much. Perhaps they don't like Gav's style (it is quite dry), perhaps they were disappointed at the lack of action, perhaps they didn't like the character development the way I did, or perhaps it was because "the series has stalled now and Black Library aren't pushing it forward 'cause they just want the $$$!!!!!" I mean... what's with those dudes? Do they want the Siege Of Terra to be over and done with by book 10? Anyway. It's not just the 'escape to Terra' storyline that reminds me of 'Flight Of The Eisenstein'. It's the fact that the story is fast-paced and compellingly told. The dialogue may be a little clumsy, and the characterisation made with broad strokes, but it's still a great yarn. I am happy to give this 8/10 and I hope that re-reading it continues to pleasantly surprise me each time, I always seem to forget that it's a good one. I also hope they keep giving Gav the Raven Guard stories, novels and novellas to write; seems he's got a real kinship with this Legion.

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