"The Sigillite" by Chris Wraight

It’s time for me to review one of the best Horus Heresy audio dramas ever. This one’s just over 70 minutes, and it’s produced by Big Finish. It’s read by Tim Treloar, Ramon Tikaram and Toby Longworth.

Lots of cool stuff going on this artwork, but fuck that giant red circle.

We open in the Sigillite’s chambers in the Imperial Palace, where Khalid Hassan is awaiting with some dread his debrief about his calamitous last mission. That action is told in flashback – a tense but comparatively subtle raid against an undefined enemy in Gyptus, ending with an apparent failure to retrieve what the team was sent for. In between those flashbacks, Hassan marvels at the majesty of the Imperial Palace, at the ongoing work Dorn is doing to turn it into a fortress, and ultimately at the nature of Malcador himself. By turns kindly, unassuming, wise, sinister and utterly terrifying, Malcador’s portrayal here is probably the most compelling study of this character in the entire Heresy series. In Wraight’s words: “For all the man’s frailty, Hassan could sense the quiet power radiating from him, as deep and cold as a well-shaft.” There are discussions of the unfolding Heresy, and hints at the Webway War, but you won’t find much in the way of series-vital plot points here. Rather, it’s about building the background and showing us the growing feeling of desperation on Terra, and how the Sigillite is adapting his role to the new circumstances.

This is a one-shot, and it’s not entirely clear where exactly it sits in the series chronology, though a brief mention of the events of ‘The Outcast Dead’ provides some context for the story. Don’t try this if you’re one of the people who insist that if a book doesn’t end with the Traitor Legions a measurably closer distance to Terra than they were when the book began, then that book’s a failure. But if you’ve liked the Terra-set episodes of the story – like I have – and you’re fond of the behind-the-scenes intrigue aspect as much as the pitched battles between thousands of Space Marines – like I am – then ‘The Sigillite’ may be a winner for you. And the end-of-drama kicker, where it's revealed that the worthless cargo Hassan's squad retrieved may not be so worthless after all - well, I couldn't help but smile.

                                           

Here’s how the roles are assigned, as far as I can tell. I apologise if these are incorrect - I'm still really unsure why Black Library never provides specific casting credits for these dramas. Ramon Tikaram plays our hero, Khalid Hassan, and his squadmate Farouk. (For some reason, a lot of reviews out there refer to the main character as Hasani Sabyat; perhaps, like Ollanius Pius, this is a name he will take up later, but for now, he’s Khalid Hassan – I double checked the CD case and everything.) Toby Longworth reads the titular Sigillite and the narration is done by Tim Treloar. Yes, there are only three named characters and four speaking parts in the whole hour-plus drama. As usual, Ramon Tikaram is excellent; I’m not sure what accent he’s doing exactly, but it doesn’t at all get in the way of the character portrayal and he invests straightforward soldier Hassan with a real sense of wonder (and dread) at being so close to such a legendary figure. Toby Longworth is excellent as well. While I think Garro’s been my favourite role for him, his Sigillite is great; venerable, but full of quiet authority. Wraight’s script calls for Longworth to switch between moods with little warning, and he pulls all of the transitions off with grace. Tim Treloar, as the narrator, is good also. At times, though, he seems to stumble in phrasing and pronunciation. This is certainly a narration-heavy piece so that’s sometimes quite an obvious problem; as with so many Black Library audio drama narrators, he just doesn’t seem to know what everything he’s saying actually means. An issue we can all sympathise with, but the producers should be make the extra effort to correct these mistakes. He also unfortunately does the thing I find so annoying in nearly all Black Library narrators: he thinks that in a combat scene, it’s necessary to convey the intensity of combat by SPEAKING LOUDLY and WITH GROWING INTENSITY. I guess it’s unfair to penalise the drama for that, though, since it’s been a drawback to every Black Library audio work I’ve heard, with the possible exception of ‘Chosen Of Khorne’. Lastly, Treloar's voice is at least very distinctive from the other two actors - ideal for a narrator who will often have to interject amidst bits of dialogue.

The soundtrack is absolutely superb in this drama – the understated plinking of Malcador’s waiting room, the percussive pounding of the battle scenes, the middle-east sounding atmospherics of Hassan’s stealth ops. And it’s not just music that’s done well. The sound effects are great and varied, too. We’re nearly ten minutes in before we even get any explosions, and when there is crazy action and gunfire going on, the SFX tends to be at an appropriate volume so that you can still hear the narration easily. They know when to back off completely, too. A large amount of the dialogue has no sound effects strangling it; sometimes there’s not even any music playing. Perhaps it’s due to Wraight’s inventively written scene-setting, but there are opportunities for lots of different, non-combat audio tags in the drama, and Big Finish don’t drop the ball on any of it. What I’m basically saying is that Black Library should still be using these guys to do their audio dramas still, but ahh, I guess Heavy Entertainment ain’t so bad.

But you’ll probably already have made your mind up about whether you like or dislike BL’s audio presentation. The main draw here – apart from it being well established that Wraight is an excellent writer – will be the hope that this will answer some of the long-running questions about the mysterious Sigillite. Who is Malcador? What is Malcador? What motivates him? What help did he provide the Emperor before Unity and the Great Crusade? What is the mysterious Order of the Sigillites? Some of these answers are well-established in ‘old fluff’ but the Horus Heresy has shown a willingness to trample on that fluff if the authors can come up with something better. But, well – no. ‘The Sigillite’ doesn’t really answer definitively any of those questions, though we can certainly tell Wraight and Black Library know what people want to learn about Malcador. There are moments – like the mention of the future High Lords of Terra – which may imply that Malcador has a firm grasp on the future direction of the Imperium; they could also be taken as the author slipping in a sly wink to fans of 40K who know how things will go, and may be sometime Malcador can claim no credit for. If you go into this drama not quite sure where the Emperor has been for the whole Heresy, you’ll definitely know when this is over – but you should have been able to pick that fact up from several previous Heresy books. For me, the lack of big, important revelations was not a problem – see my explanation earlier about the appeal of this drama. But I know that more than a few people will be angry about that.

Enigmatic origins aside, a real highlight for me was Malcador’s recollection of the Primarchs as they once were, as well as his anger and guilt at the way many of them have betrayed him. This leads to maybe my favourite quote of the whole drama:

“Do you know, out of them all, if I could have saved just one, it would have been Lorgar. Even though he despises me, and even though I was… wounded by him, he was such a fragile soul. So subtle and ready to bruise. We might have handled him better. Did we make mistakes with some of them? Surely we did. Though I fear the time to correct them is now long past.”

The repressed fury, the regret, and also the tired acceptance in Longworth's voice as he reads this line is great to hear and very impressive. Not quite as emotionally wrenching, but another nice quote takes place as Hassan looks out on the growing fortifications of the Imperial palace. The Sigillite makes the wry observation:

“With each passing day it will get a little bit uglier, a little more worn. Just like us, eh?”

A great line, and again, really well played by Longworth.

Of all the audio dramas, this one screams out most obviously for a follow-up. Perhaps it’s a little unfair since so many of the audio dramas I like have already had obvious follow-ups: ‘Butchers Nails’, ‘Wolf Hunt’, ‘Grey Angel’, ‘Sword Of Truth’. But I’d absolutely love for this to get an explicit sequel. Sure, Wraight returned to the Sigillite in ‘Daemonology’ – and ‘Scars’, I think – but I’d love a novella or short story from Wraight exclusively focusing on this enigmatic figure. He obviously knows how to hint at the mysteries of Malacador without it just being a bunch of arch pouting. With ‘The Master of Mankind’ on indefinite ice, perhaps that would be a nice Terra-focused stopgap? Really, we don’t even need a Malcador story – a Hassan story would be awesome as well. Since Malcador’s networks obviously go beyond Knights Errant, Hassan might be a nice guide for that world. Then again, if forced to choose between Chris Wraight writing more Malcador or more White Scars, I shamefacedly admit I’d go with the V Legion.

Is it a flawless drama? No. There are moments in ‘The Sigillite’ that take me out of the drama a little bit, and break immersion. For Malcador to hold forth about how Horus will bring them to the “barbarity of despotism” seems hypocritical. Horus is certainly WORSE – but the barbarity of despotism under the Emperor is pretty harsh, Jack. It’s just easy to forget about that when you’re in the middle of a cool-ass museum. The fact he’s also currently laying the groundwork for the Inquisition, and the direction that organisation will take in future years, makes his claim of the moral high ground even tougher to swallow. And that strange little moment near the end I – perhaps wrongly – assume to be a discussion of the Bible? That’s going to be problematic for some listeners. Yet I’d say even at the moments I didn’t like, I respect Chris Wraight’s authorial choices. He writes both action and dialogue with excellent craftsmanship and aplomb; some of these conversations are just as tense as the fights. ‘The Sigillite’ is damn-near definitive in several ways: as a character study for the Sigillite, as a Heresy drama tackling the Silent War, as a portrait of Terra in decline, as an illustration of how Warhammer-themed audio dramas can be done with subtlety. In a word, it’s excellent. 9/10

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

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…