"Corax: Soulforge" by Gav Thorpe

Gav introduced the Raven Guard to the mainline Heresy series with his novel ‘Deliverance Lost’. That book was divisive; perhaps realising that demand for a sequel might not be universal, Black Library elected to make Gav’s follow-up a limited edition novella, released in 2013, then given a non-limited reprint this year.

With this and 'Tallarn: Executioner', for a while there it seemed like the Heresy novellas might fall under a dumb new naming system which over-abused colons (pause). I was looking forward to 'Fulgrim: Judgement Day' and 'Angron: 2 Swole 2 Furious' but then the colon-free 'Ravenlord' ruined everything.

It was kind of predictable that ‘Corax: Soulforge’ would be ill-received. Unlike with Nick Kyme’s ‘Scorched Earth’ (and Gav’s ‘Deliverance Lost’, for that matter), I actually kind of agree with the poor reception ‘Soulforge’ got. I’m a big fan of Gav’s full length Raven Guard novel (some would say an apologist) and when that book ended, I was eager to see what Corax and the proud remnants of his Legion got up to next. As it turns out, the answer is… not fuckin’ much.

After the fall of the Perfect Fortress on Narsis at the end of ‘Deliverance Lost’, Corax was resolved to tackle the Word Bearers at Khalgorst. It’s clear that some time has passed since then; some of the Raven Guard make brief mention of what’s happened in the intervening time, but it’s not really gone into in detail. Seems Gav isn’t willing to pander to the fans like me who get a weirdly intense joy from cataloguing exactly where stories fit in the ‘timeline’ – and that’s fair enough. Hitting a Word Bearers vessel, Corax and his troops capture the Navigator, who hates the Seventeenth Legion as much as the Raven Guard do. She advises them of a rebel Forge World the Word Bearers are ‘grooming’ for a hostile takeover. With some of his forces diverted to fight Emperor’s Children (a fight which isn’t shown here), Corax and a minor infiltration force must appeal to the Mechanicum forces on Constanix – forces whose allegiance is unknown – and hope to deny the sons of Lorgar their prize.

‘Soulforge’ starts enjoyably; the Raven Guard boarding action is a gripping, nasty sequence with some visceral combat writing. It’s also interesting to see Agapito continuing to struggle with the limitless anger that’s dogged him since Isstvan. He’s still consumed by his hate for the traitors, and it’s starting to make him reckless – sometimes he seems to revel in the fact that the Raven Guard who weren’t at Isstvan can never truly bond with him again. Meanwhile, as Branne grows apart from his comrade, he becomes more comfortable with his role as leader of the Raptors. Speaking of the Raptors, Navar Hef and the ‘mutant’ Raven Guard initiates are still on combat duty, and their presence makes some Raven Guard uncomfortable – I’m really interested to see how this subplot plays out, especially towards the Heresy’s conclusion. The glimpse of the corruption and change wrought on the Word Bearers’ mortal crew is also nicely handled.

Following its strong opening, however, it’s a slow downward spiral for ‘Soulforge’. That’s not apparent right away: while Corax’s stealth insertion to Atlas (a floating forge-city on Constanix) isn’t too interesting, his uneasy confrontation with several machine-priests of uncertain loyalty to the Imperium is a tense and engaging scene. We see the worth of Corax as an ambassador, both in his ability to be diplomatic and also his capacity to inspire sheer terror. We also get some nice glimpses into Corax’s mind – his musings on his past and present are telling, though they aren’t really anything new for someone who’s read ‘Deliverance Lost’. The battle to retake Atlas also begins promisingly, as Agapito and Corax power through brisk but slightly bland fight sequences. For those who complained that ‘Deliverance Lost’ held too few moments of Raven Guard FIGHTAN, this is your chance to see how the sons of Corax fight… though this ‘attack, feign retreat, then attack again’ style has certainly been written about better elsewhere. Even the ‘stealth Titan’ moment (yes, you heard me) is endearingly silly, but it marks the point at which the account starts really going downhill.

One thing I quite enjoyed about ‘Deliverance Lost’ was the lack of combat. That tense Alpha Legion confrontation and the Perfect Fortress battle are really the only fights in that book, the focus instead being on the effects of the Heresy on the Legion’s state of mind and the subterfuge of the Alpha Legion. ‘Corax: Soulforge’ actually has a similar format in that the real action doesn’t start until the end. However, due to poor pacing, ‘the end’ is actually half the book. I’m not just being facetious, the last fifty pages or so drag so horrendously that it feels like the book is constantly just grinding to a close. I damn near fell asleep reading these combat scenes. They are just a series of mostly unnamed Raven Guard easily defeating a bunch of lame skitarii and other Mechanicum goons, with the slightly tougher Word Bearers coming in at the end. And then you get a couple ‘final bosses’. It’s kind of videogamey, a bit like those first two Dark Angels books – or, for that matter, ‘Promethean Sun’. There were several occasions where I got to the end of a page, turned it, then realised nothing I read had made any impression and I had to read it all again. I’d rub my eyes, get up, walk around the room, wonder to myself “Am I too tired to do this now?” and “What am I going to write about this book?” and frequently “What the fuck am I doing with my life?” - but then I’d read a few pages of, say ‘A Dance With Dragons’ or ‘Harlot’s Ghost’ and nope, it wasn’t that I was too tired – it was that when I was reading ‘Soulforge’, I was reading boring writing.

If the focus is going to be on (shitty) battle scenes, I kind of wish Gav had pulled his pretty good Raven Guard ensemble cast into it and given each one a little bit of development. Instead, we get ‘Tom Clancy: Rainbow Raven’ (don’t do fan art of that, you sickos). Gav gives us dry, boring fights, and to Legion culture he only adds an ill-executed attempt to give the sons of Corax a ‘special forces’ makeover. (Corax is wearing black camo on his face! BUT… FUCKIN’… HE CAN TURN HIMSELF INVISIBLE! FURTHERMORE, HE IS FIGHTING MECHANICUM DUDES WHO CAN PROBABLY SEE IN THE DARK! WHY WOULD HE BOTHER?!?)

As a Corax book, I’d regretfully call this a failure since I don’t believe it expands on the Primarch usefully or convincingly. But as a Raven Guard book… I’d also call it a failure, since it does very little to deepen the character of the Legion or add new blood to its shrinking Heresy-era cast. This does see the introduction of the Legionary Soukhounou, though he does very little apart from remind us that Terran Raven Guard are still a thing, and will probably form the basis of a Successor Chapter when the Heresy series finishes. Navar Hef’s barely present and the ‘affliction’ of the Raptors is hardly mentioned. Valerius doesn’t factor into the story, Branne has almost nothing to do here, and Noriz, the Imperial Fist who was helping Corax in ‘Deliverance Lost’, is mysteriously absent. The tech-priests are pretty unmemorable characters (all I can remember is that one speaks… very slowly… with laboured pauses… and ellipses… signifying his heavy breathing… Basically, he’s an augmented version of Stevie from ‘Malcolm in the Middle’). Worse, as Branne, Hef and Valerius fight a completely different war in a separate system, the primary cast essentially shrinks to Corax and Agapito as soon as the first chapter ends. Agapito’s nu-metal angst gets tiresome quickly, and Corax… well, I still think he was fun to read in ‘Deliverance Lost’, but here, he just switches between either moping or easily murdering hundreds of dudes, and (on one plot-dictated occasion) kind of losing in a fight for a little bit before the camera zooms in on his eyes and he snarls “B-Baka…”

So, this was a Limited Edition novella – BL have always tried to be a little innovative with the presentation of these things (maybe not £30 innovative, but still). With its smooth black-on-black cover, the Limited Edition of ‘Soulforge’ looks amazing – really amazing. Unfortunately, the cover is, like, matt black or something. If you like to take off the dust jackets to read them, like I do, your novella’s cover will be irreparably stained with fingerprints within seconds. Even if you wipe it down, it’ll never be the same. It also shows up evidence of either tiny scuffs or a sprinkling of dust like a motherfucker. Maybe I just have inhumanly sweaty fingers, but I don’t think I’m entirely to blame. All of the LE novellas are a bit like this, but ‘Soulforge’ is without doubt the worst-looking I own at this point. I’d like less of this, and more covers like ‘Scorched Earth’ or ‘Tallarn: Executioner’ if possible, please. It does look really cool at first, though. I also applaud the innovation they showed in printing a Quick Read-length story on the inside of the dust jacket (‘The Shadowmasters’, now available as an MP3). That’s that stealth shit. It makes up for the LE edition’s colour insert being mostly useless, though that John Blanche Corax concept sketch is ILL. In conclusion – even collectors shouldn’t feel bad if they missed the first printing of ‘Soulforge’; the ‘vanilla’ Black Library unlimited novella is far better value for money.

There are scenes of worth to be found in ‘Soulforge’ beyond its strong opening pages. The lengthy scene where Corax briefs Agapito for the battle ahead gives a few opportunities to develop these important characters. (On the other hand, it feels like a bit of a space-filler, considering it’s positioned right before the actual battle, and we frankly know the stakes are not too high for Corax.) Possibly influenced by the howling of internet gibbons whenever a Primarch does something weird or inscrutable, Gav ensures that Corax begins to inform his troops of the insidious nature of Chaos and its links to the warp – information which has been hinted at but never confirmed for them. Surely his rejection of Nikea can’t be far away. And learning a little of Corax’s relationship with Guilliman is a nice bone to be thrown. My end judgement, though, is that this is a less charming ‘Promethean Sun’ – it’d read nicely as anthology filler, and may be embraced by people who are desperate to read every scrap of writing about Raven Guard or Dark Mechanicum characters, but pay £30 (or even £15) for it and you may find it hard not to be disappointed. I’m glad that only a few of the Heresy novellas have been a let-down for me, but this is definitely one of them. 5/10

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

"Promethean Sun" by Nick Kyme

As the release date of ‘Deathfire’ drew ever closer, what better way to prepare than by re-reading Nick Kyme’s Vulkan arc? So last month, that’s just what I did. The logical place to start was here: a study of Vulkan and his Legion during the days of the Great Crusade.

Promethean Sun. Beacuse it's burning and fiery, like so much about the Salamanders. Also, homophones - because Vulkan is a Promethean Son. Eh? Eh? Geddit?

This was also the first stand-alone novella published as a Limited Edition for the Horus Heresy. It’s a parallel with ‘Feat of Iron’, the Iron Hands story in ‘The Primarchs’. We find the Salamanders on Ibsen, or One-Five-Four Four, with Heka’tan (yes, of ‘Forgotten Sons’) leading a massed action against the eldar forces opposing the Imperium. Of course, Vulkan himself (he of the burning scary eyes and big sweeping hammer) makes an appearance just when things are getting really bad, turning the tide of the battle. It’s the cool-guy/saviour moment you’d expect in a Primarch story, of course, but it’s a little rote and predictable. Perhaps that’s because we’ve seen so many of those kind of moments… but damn, contrast this to the entrance of Horus in ‘Horus Rising’; that shit really made you feel the immensity of a Primarch in battle and how awesome it was just to be present for it.

While it zips along at a good pace, the beginning chapter is cliché-riddled bolter porn of the type we rarely get in the Heresy. I think Kyme has improved dramatically since he wrote this, but opening with a fairly dull action sequence is one of the quickest ways to kill my interest in a story. The language is really familiar from tens (maybe hundreds) of similar stories at this point. Naturally the Salamanders being what they are, massive overuse of both literal and metaphorical fire can be found in these pages. I wonder, is Nick Kyme’s writing frequently boring because he’s writing about dull fucking Salamanders, or are the Salamanders deeply dull because so much about their culture and method of warmaking has been set down by Nick Kyme? Sort of a chicken or the egg situation.

It’s when the combat stops, and characters are built on, that it gets a bit more interesting; Kyme’s got a certain way with dialogue which – while not sounding within a million miles of what a real human would ever say – certainly seems appropriate coming from a staid, slightly pompous Primarch like Vulkan. The Primarch’s interactions with his close Pyre Guard champion Numeon (who will play a prominent role in ‘Vulkan Lives’ and ‘Deathfire’) are a nice way to establish the strengths and weaknesses of Vulkan as a character. For example, unlike many of his brothers, Vulkan seems to freely admit his faults, most notable being a lack of the burning (heh) self-confidence some of his more wildly conceited peers have been blessed with. If – as is implied here – the Emperor is putting on his human suit to do spot-check inspections of Vulkan to check his attitudes, it says some potentially interesting things about both Vulkan and his father, as well as making one think, erm, could you maybe not have done this with some of your other sons? Or maybe this attentiveness is a marker for just how significant Vulkan will end up being (like I keep saying, I got my suspicions).

(Let me just make an aside here: the antagonists for most of this story are eldar mounted on dinosaurs. I don’t know if this is a regular thing, I admit to a lack of familiarity with eldar fluff… but that’s pretty cool. I might’ve continued to be interested in those stick-up-the-ass space elves if they’d been riding fucking dinosaurs about. Milking this scenario for all it’s worth, Kyme has some fun with some classic Jurassic Park moments. It's a nice touch in a series that can sometimes be guilty of overdosing on the Grim Darkness.)

However, this is a Nick Kyme book, and while I think homeboy has written some great stuff for Black Library, he’s also often guilty of dropping some colon-destroying howlers in his prose. ‘Promethean Sun’ is no different. I hate myself for doing this, but I’m gonna get my ‘Battle for the Abyss’ on and recount some of the more dodgy writing in this slim volume.

-“My strength is our strength, Numeon. We are one, the Legion and I.” Despite his inner feelings of estrangement, this much Vulkan knew to be true. Save perhaps Horus, who had his Mournival, all the Primarchs trod a solitary path. It was simply that the Primarch of the Salamanders felt it more acutely than his brothers.

Huh? Am I misreading, or does this start with an affirmation of Vulkan’s unity with his Legion, then go on to imply he’s actually the loneliest of all the Primarchs? It reads like Nick got bored halfway through the paragraph and lost the thread.

-In the middle of a battle, Vulkan sees a young child in danger of being crushed by a falling pillar and he rushes forward, “knowing that to even witness the death of such an innocent would forever stain his immortal soul.” Well,

1) nice ‘teaser’ allusion to his Eternal status, but it makes him sound like he’s Catholic rather than Promethean

2) the moment of “No! Save the kid!” is one of the hackiest, shallowest ways of getting a character to appear sympathetic, especially a character who is designed to straight murder dudes and does it with some frequency in the established fiction

3) furthermore, Vulkan sees another young child’s corpse earlier in the novel, killed in a battle he fought in, possibly even killed by warriors under his command – and the sight merely haunts him for “a moment”. No eternal soul-staining.

-"Lord Vulkan would see our wounded self-esteem restored in the tempering flame of the forge." Yeah, I’ve heard that forges are perhaps the best tool for repairing wounded self-esteem, next to a trip to Mardi Gras.

-"The hellish kaleidoscope of close combat was almost upon them." I did not realise the Salamanders dosed themselves with LSD before battle. That’s some hardcore shit.

-“'We should pursue them, Lord. Varrun and I can ensure they do not return’ he promised with a feral look.” A feral look? Homie, I don't play that, yo. A feral smile, maybe. Even a feral snarl. But a feral look? I picture a ‘feral look’ as the Salamander whooping, licking his lips and doing a ‘don’t you know I’m loco?’ glare with his eyes.

-Describing eldar witches who have ridden lightning (METALLICAAAA OOH YEAH) to the battleground: “They embarked to set foot on the earth as any man would step from a ship”. Splitting hairs, but that really should be disembarked, shouldn’t it – especially if you’re comparing it to stepping off a ship. Words matter. Editors know this.

-There are moments in this book which are certainly… videogamey. Look, tie-in fiction for videogames might not be my thing, but I recognise those as actual books. This, however, sometimes reads like a half-crazed novelisation of a Call of Duty match. Just a mad, tactics-free rush to kill some eldar nubz; I’m not normally the kind of reader who gets hung up on “those tactics would never work” issues in these books, but at times this seems more World Eaters than Salamanders. At moments, it feels more like Dynasty Warriors (large horde of weaker enemies? Just mow them down with your AOE attacks!) or God of War (huge version of a previous enemy as an actual boss battle), but I’m not crazy about those games either.

Ahh, I’m a complete dick. I’ll stop it now – but I do genuinely find the sloppy moments of Nick’s writing quite frustrating, especially since he is capable of writing really well. Enough about that though.

There is a brio and enthusiasm to parts of ‘Promethean Sun’ which I really admire. But its overuse of cliché, its combat-heavy structure and some rather dull characterisation makes me wary to endorse it as a worthwhile purchase for any but the most dedicated Heresy fan. As time goes on, it seems like the best place to find good writing about pre-Heresy Legion culture and the highlights of the Great Crusade is in Forge World’s books. As a result, Crusade stories like this seem a little clumsy, since the authors often seem dead-set on putting in as much foreshadowing for the Age of Darkness as possible. ‘Promethean Sun’ is better than ‘Scions of the Storm’ or ‘Wolf at the Door’, but it’s still far from an essential read. It’s no ‘Battle for the Abyss’, but it’s certainly closer to that much-maligned book than most other Heresy offerings. While I hesitate to condemn a book for an ‘inconsequential’ story – some of the best Heresy fiction has focused on events far from the frontlines which may have little effect on the wider conflict – this just doesn’t seem to add much to the series. To top it off, the text here is noticeably larger and more spaced-out than any other HH novella I’ve got. In fact, it wouldn’t surprise me if this was the smallest novella yet in word count.

If you’ve not yet purchased the hardback novella or ebook, you may as well hold off until it inevitably appears in a mainline Horus Heresy story compilation. 6/10

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