"Hunter's Moon" by Guy Haley / "Thief Of Revelations" by Graham McNeill

Black Library released these two on the same CD, so I'll review them together, though they are completely separate stories.

YOU THOUGHT IT WAS AHRIMAN BUT IT WAS ME! DIO!!

'Hunter's Moon' is by Guy Haley and concerns the ongoing conflict between the Alpha Legion and Space Wolves touched on in ‘Scars’ and ‘Wolf’s Claw’. This time, events are witnessed by three fishermen on a planet called Pelago who find a crashed Astartes vessel and get more than they bargained for when they investigate: Torbjorn, a Space Wolf, the only remnant of the Watch-Pack sent to Alpharius’ side. The cast here are Gareth Armstrong, Angus King and Toby Longworth. I felt that the three fishermen were excellently acted; you have the callow, ignorant youth, the wise elder, and the sympathetic 'mid-point' who mediates and has a nice, reassuring Scottish accent. The Space Wolf is not as subtly performed – or subtly written – as the human characters (unsurprisingly, I guess), but still he was very good.

Pelago is like many Imperial worlds: dedicated to the secular Truth, but also not completely ‘enlightened’ or up-to-date with the state of the Imperium. Talk about “star giants” and “men sailing the night in ships of steel and fire” and “monsters swimming in the sky’s night” sounds like superstitious nonsense at times, but they are obviously talking about the Great Crusade, just in more poetic terms than we might be used to. I was reminded of ‘Prospero Burns’, which for me is never a bad thing. I’m also always fond of stories which show how the galaxy-wide Heresy affects the lives of the countless billions of normal people whose worlds are being fought over.

As HH fans we can easily surmise why this Space Wolf warrior has been left stranded and alone on a crashed Alpha Legion gunship, but the way the story slowly fills in the blanks leaves it very suspenseful and worthwhile... at least until the last part of the story. The ending was disappointing and felt a little abrupt. I feel like BL authors’ increasingly frequent portrayal of the Alpha Legion as actively cruel and sadistic is odd. ‘Legion’ set them up as an unknown quantity for the Heresy time-period, motivations not entirely clear, but possessed of a lot of likeable qualities (and a lot of terrifying ones) – overall more callous and unfeeling than malevolent. While some HH stuff is running with that ambiguity, like ‘Scars’ or ‘The Serpent Beneath’, I feel like there’s been a gradual slide towards “They’re just some assholes” (ie, this story, or the slightly disappointing background for them in the Forge World book ‘Extinction’). Mind you, keep in mind that we are seeing the sons of Alpharius through the eyes of a terrified fisherman who’s befriended their adversary, so it’s not like we’re going to get a measured exploration of the character of their Legion. Also, I guess there are going to be a wide range of personalities across the XXth Legion, and some of them are going to be, well, just some assholes. I guess when it comes down to it, I’m just bitter that Dan Abnett isn’t writing every Alpha Legion book and that the ‘Legion’ approach of “What even ARE the Alpha Legion? It is a mystery, dogg!” has been ditched somewhat.

Still, this is an engagingly told story, and I have a weakness for Scottish accents, so that pushes it back to 8/10. I really hope Guy Haley has some more Horus Heresy stories coming.

'Thief Of Revelations', by Graham McNeill, is concerned with the Thousand Sons Legion. As we know, not much has been written about them since Graham’s book ‘A Thousand Sons’ which left them shattered and bitter in the Warp, licking their wounds. So it’s kind of nice to see what the survivors from the Burning Of Prospero are up to on the Planet Of The Sorcerers… but this section doesn't really add anything to their characters. Amon is still a self-important know-it-all (in fact, so is Ahriman), Sobek does fuck-all, and Hathor Maat is still vain and flippant. There is a nice scene where Ahriman is taunted by a 'flesh-changed Astartes' (he seems not to fully grasp what it is, but the way it's described just sounds like a straight-up Possessed Space Marine). Still, this whole introduction felt a little... pointless to me. They're disturbed by the Flesh-Change, and frustrated by Magnus' refusal to do anything about it. Really it didn't seem to tell us anything that the ending moments of 'A Thousand Sons' or that scene from 'Aurelian' haven't told us already. Next, Ahriman seeks an audience with Magnus. This does present one of the best moments of the story: the description of Magnus’ tower. A very important element of the Crimson King’s myth even post-Heresy and Graham gives it the respect it deserves. We also get some great little details that I love, like how the Thunderhawk Ahriman uses has been changed by warp energy so that it is actually becoming similar to a hawk. You might think that’s hecka dumb but I love that idea.

While the description of Magus himself is also excellently done, I’m frustrated and unimpressed by a lot of the dialogue between Magnus and his wayward son. There’s a bunch more cryptic dick-waving about how Ahriman should definitely stop trying to find a way to stop the hideous mutations that are slowly destroying more and more Legionaries... but also a refusal to fully explain why Ahriman should stop, or what Magnus will do to remedy the shit situation they’re in. "No just do what I say though, powerful psyker who has shown clearly that he distrusts me and has a dangerous propensity for rebellion and free-thinking. DO IT THOUGH! SHUT UP!!!" Man, some of the Primarchs are complete assholes (or perhaps... slightly poorly written).

The ending of the drama is very entertaining, though, with Magnus showing Ahriman where some of the Primarchs are, and dropping dark hints about the roles they may play in the future. The conclusion of the Thramas Crusade between the Night Lords and Dark Angels is shown, as well as the dark fate of the Blood Angels at Signus Prime, and the sack of Guilliman's Five Hundred Worlds by Lorgar. Nice to get another dimension to these significant events… but while this seems intended to give a cryptic snapshot of Magnus' intentions and current mindset, it seems very clear which way the Thousand Sons’ Primarch is leaning. Despite an extremely confusing closing line which I still can’t really make sense of, it really feels like Magnus is 90% decided on throwing in with Horus. I’m a bit unsure on how, exactly, a novel’s worth of drama can be spun between this point and the point at which the Thousand Sons turn. But hell, Graham can often turn stuff that seems insignificant into a great story, IMO (see ‘Angel Exterminatus’ and ‘Vengeful Spirit’).

The actors for this drama are Gareth Armstrong, Martyn Ellis, Jonathan Keeble and Toby Longworth. It’s hard to portray a Primarch in an audio drama, since they are beings almost beyond human comprehension – Legionaries are hard enough. So I know that this was a real challenge to pull off – but in my opinion, the way they did Magnus’ voice sounds like SHIT. And Ahriman also sounds ancient and querulous where (I feel) he should sound strong and authoritative. The bitter musing of “Was it worth it, Russ?” is spoken in a tone more suited to “Get off my lawn you dang kids!” The narrator is very good, though - I'm pretty sure it's Toby Longworth. If it is Toby, he’s delivering a more restrained performance than he often does. The other Thousand Sons only appear relatively briefly, and their performances aren’t really worth discussing too much – not bad, not notably excellent.

I honestly question the wisdom of making this an audio drama. It feels like most of this would have served excellently as the first chapter of 'The Crimson King', the full-length Thousand Sons novel Graham is doubtless working on now. However, I bet 'Crimson King' isn't out for another year or two so I guess it's fair play that BL want to ensure the Thousand Sons are kept in our minds. Due to the issues I’ve outlined, this just misses being an 8, so I’ll give it 7/10. That Ahriman voice just puts me on edge.

This marks (probably) the last time I’ll buy a Black Library audio drama on CD. I was just doing it from some weird stubborn sense of obligation, but I never actually put any of them in a CD player – just ripped them to my PC and listened to them on that, since I find headphones the only way to go with this form of media. From ‘Templar’ onwards, I’m all about the MP3. Still not crazy about ebooks, though…

One thing I really feel is necessary to state is that the musical score is superb for both audio dramas. Generally an exercise in understated ambience... but there were moments where the musical accompaniment to the reading was so perfect, it gave me chills. The piano-heavy horror movie atmospherics in the last segment of ‘Thief Of Revelations’, in particular, seem like they might be the best soundtrack for a Horus Heresy audio drama so far. The sound effects are excellent as well. I really love the constant lapping of water in 'Hunter's Moon', and the howling winds on ‘Thief Of Revelations’. Christian Dunn produced both of these. I don’t know whether that means he helped with the soundtrack (probably not, this ain’t hip-hop) but simply from the excellent performances of most of the voice actors (especially in ‘Hunter’s Moon’) makes me hope he can produce more BL audio to this standard. If it takes him away from writing, it can only be a good thing...

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.

"Battle For The Abyss" by Ben Counter

For a long while, 'Battle For The Abyss' was not just my least favourite HH book, it was one I actively disliked. Fan reaction to this novel has stayed near-universally negative, so I'm not alone. But having enjoyed 'Galaxy In Flames' way more than I anticipated on my re-reading of it, I was interested to see whether 'BFTA' was still dreadful.

"You alright bro?" "Oh shit, I think I'm gonna hurl."

In terms of publication order, this novel is the introduction of the Ultramarines/Calth/Word Bearers arc. (In terms of reading order, as well as chronology, I don't think many would argue when I say 'The First Heretic' is a far more suitable intro.) Keep in mind, this book was the successor to 'Legion'. It's clear Black Library wanted to un-blow our minds and keep expectations low. This  book starts surprisingly close to Terra, and we're introduced quickly to Zadkiel, our primary Word Bearer antagonist. Zadkiel establishes himself right away as a zealous follower of Lorgar and the Word. In fact, all the character traits he'll display for the whole book are laid out on his first page. What, you were expecting a character who changes his behaviour or whose motivations can be questioned throughout the narrative? That was foolish of you. Here's a line I especially don't like: "His grey, turbulent eyes conveyed vehemence and surety." No Ben, the author is meant to 'convey' that. The beginning moments also set up the novel 'Mechanicum', introducing Kelbor-Hal as a character and showing that Mars is about to erupt in civil war, so pick up that book soon, kids. I do like this element of HH novels, even though it's kind of a gross shill... when you re-read them, you can always see a few strands included that you know are 'teasers' for novels that came later. I like Kelbor-Hal's ruthlessness here, though it kind of just makes me want to read 'Mechanicum' instead...

Zadkiel closed his eyes amidst the maelstrom of devotion and savoured, drank deep of the zealotry.

The stakes are high, and we know this before the Word Bearers' plan is even outlined. Zadkiel has 1000 Astartes at his command - a full Chapter (shh, I know the Chapter sizes have been flip-flopped a lot in this series, IT DOESN'T MATTER TO THE NARRATIVE, nerds). The warship, called the Furious Abyss, an Abyss-class ship (helpful) is also introduced right away in the narrative and described compellingly as a real nice piece of work. It doesn't take long before we find out what Zadkiel's cooking. He's gonna reach Macragge, bomb one of its moons into fragments and then virus-bomb whatever survives the catastrophic meteor shower. An impressively Dr. Evil-like plan. Along with the strike against the bulk of the Legion at Calth, this attack would (if successful) left the Ultramarines broken beyond repair.

We then move to some Ultramarine characters - this lets us know that the call for the Calth muster has already gone out, which should give you some big-time chills (especially when you think of how long it took BL to actually DO anything with that plot point). Almost instantly though, our blue-armoured heroes are killed by the Furious Abyss, a slightly hacky but very effective plot device which probably gave me one of the only moments of surprise in the whole book. Then we move to some piece of shit space station and get to meet Cestus, our actual Ultramarine hero, plus his life partner Antiges. They're something of a Loken/Abaddon pairing, with Cestus being thoughtful and sensitive (comparatively) while Antiges is brusque and forthright. Then there's Saphrax, who is a real tightass even for one of the XIII. We also meet Brynngar, a mead-swilling, void-barbarian type of Space Wolf. You know, the cliché Dan killed (or the lore he ruined, depending on who you ask) with 'Prospero Burns'? To be fair, we can't expect Ben to anticipate a book published over 2 years in the future. Brynngar is a walking archetype but in this book, that's kind of the entry criteria... borne out by our next entry into this genhanced Dirty Dozen, Mhotep, in one of the lamer intros of the book, well... see for yourself:

"Hooded eyes spoke of intelligence, and skin, so tan and smooth that it was utterly without imperfection, suggested the nature of his Legion: the Thousand Sons."

Huh?! What a confused mess. I know Counter's capable of writing with power and clarity, so why this bullshit? Well, the theory that's been passed around quite frequently is that this was a rush job, completed under pressure so that BL could keep to their release schedule (maybe 'Mechanicum' was delayed?). There's no proof for that though, so I guess we can theorise however we want. Anyway, Mhotep is a lot like the Thousand Sons marine from 'The Outcast Dead'. He's suave, mysterious, and makes HH-reading babies cry about how overpowered his psyker abilities are. While supposedly heading to Prospero, Mhotep decides to join up with the other Astartes on the station due to INSCRUTABLE THOUSAND SONS REASONS.

Slogging through the daemonic horde... he felt the pressure on his sanity increase.

So, after that ship in the first chapter of the book realised it was getting killed, it sent a distress signal to the shitstation; due to his proximity to a malfunctioning reactor, or due to GHOST RAYS (pick one), Cestus is the only one to see the 'missing piece' of the message which states that Macragge is in danger (but wait, how could the dying ship know that? Did Zadkiel tell them his evil plan 'offscreen' before he killed them?). Cestus therefore has some important information but because it got to him through suspicious means he doesn't want to tell anyone due to his ULTRAMARINE ultrastraightness. It's some real soap opera "I was hiding in Rodney's closet stealing his coke stash, and I saw Tarquin fingering Annalise - what a dilemma! I'm in trouble either way" shit. Understandable I guess, but it becomes annoying and contrived quite quickly. Luckily, he doesn't take TOO long to confide in his homies. After the initial shocking development of the named, good-guy Ultramarine character being introduced and then almost instantly dying, Counter unfortunately makes it apparent that of the 50 or so Loyalists who flock to stop the Word Bearers, only a few will live long enough to develop anything that might be called 'a character'. I mean, only around 10 of them - if that - are given names or dialogue that doesn't go like this: "One marine with him, not mentioned before, was called Plasticfish. Plasticfish reloaded his bolter and said maaaan these Word Bearers don't like these explosive rounds. (Five pages pass.) The volley of bolts knocked Plasticfish's head clean off. I DON'T LIKE IT EITHER were his last words as his head flew down the corridor."

For all its faults, 'BFTA' has some pretty great moments. Unlike so many HH writers, Ben Counter can write a compelling void war sequence, arguably almost as good as Abnett (nowhere near ADB though). Also, the pace is good (this is the problem that ruins 'Fulgrim' and probably 'A Thousand Sons' for me). It's in ceramite-crunching action scenes that Ben excels, explaining the somewhat exhausting 'action sequence after action sequence' pace of the book. We're less than 100 pages in before the Word Bearers reveal their treachery and, though their motives are sooo mysterious at this point, it clearly sets up the situation. The baddies will race to the finish line, and the goodies will stop at nothing to thwart their evil plan, for the rest of the book. Standard action movie stuff. With this in mind, 'BFTA' does its job pretty well. It's kind of like 'Speed' with the desperately increasing tension, or perhaps 'Die Hard' in space. Of course, it has the common 'dumb action movie' problem of all the characters being fairly one-dimensional, the villains most of all. The Word Bearers have no characteristics aside from loving Lorgar and hating the Emperor (and Guilliman, kind of as an afterthought). Compared to 'The First Heretic' and its nuanced characterisation of the XVII Legion and their rivalry with the Ultramarines, it's laughable, but that's a pretty unfair comparison. The nature of that entire book was exploring the Word Bearers. This is all about CRASH BASH NAGASH. In fairness I should say that the relationship between Zadkiel and Ultis, an ambitious young Word Bearer line soldier, is kind of interesting. But only interesting by comparison with the rest of the relationships in the book (and it has zero payoff).

Oh yeah, here's a great moment. The Furious Abyss has a giant book on its prow. Makes sense, what with the Word Bearers' iconography, right? Now, considering the size of the ship, this book is probably the size of a fairly large high school. At one point, the book slowly slides open to reveal A MASSIVE GUN. Probably the dumbest Wacky Races-type bullshit I've ever read but it's played 100% serious. I just pictured Cestus on the bridge throwing his helmet on the floor and jumping on it going "OHHH THOSE DAMN WORD BEARERS HAVE GONE TOO FAR THIS TIME!!"

Confusingly, a lot of characters refer to the Warp as 'the abyss', which isn't much help when one of the main ships is an Abyss-class cruiser called the Furious Abyss. Also, sorry, but Furious Abyss sounds like something a livejournal poet would use as a euphemism for a vagina. (Just me?)

So, after the void battle, the Word Bearers flee into the abyss in the Abyss, the Abyss (see what I mean?) and fuck about with the Warp to make pursuit extra difficult, as Lorgar and his sons are wont to do. The Loyalists follow anyway, and struggle to make headway; tempers are frayed, as are the Gellar fields, leading to daemons manifesting on the ships and running amok. One of the ships is ripped open and killed by the Empyrean, described as a sea of deadly emotions which feed on the crew (OK, I know it's established fluff that this is the nature of the Warp, but when it was put in those terms, I could not help but think of this song when reading this scene, and just about wet myself as a result):

Anyway, Mhotep banishses a big scary-shit daemon by yelling and cutting the shit out of it with his special custodes spear that totally isn't a custodes spear. Dude is pretty overpowered, I guess I can see why some people whined about this but it's kind of tempting to overlook his Draigo Junior antics as he's really one of the only memorable characters (apart from the awfulness of Zadkiel). Skraal the World Eater is less forgiveable, I guess because while Mhotep is kind of every generic son of Magnus in the whole HH series, Skraal can't be reconciled so easily with the World Eaters stuff post-'Tales Of Heresy'. The Butchers' Nails aren't mentioned, just generic battle-rage; mind you, it is possible to assume dude has the Nails (as he is pretty much out of control and hulking out for most of the book, and when not in battle he's hostile and twitchy).

Following Mhotep's daemon fight, the brotherhood splits regarding his POSSIBLE HERESY (they even call it 'heresy', even though the Imperium is atheist as fuck at this point) with Space Wolf and Thousand Son taking harsh stands against each other. Dialogue is particularly poor in this section, there's a point where two Astartes say to each other in a very overblown way "You're a stanky liar!" "Well, he who smelt it dealt it!" "NO, YOU!!" I kind of wish this conflict subplot wasn't in here as it just seems too 'on the nose', accentuating the Russ vs Magnus faction-grudge and Nikaea ramifications that were dealt with in the Prospero 'duology'.

Skraal kept watching with abhorred fascination

Hey, Kor Phaeron shows up as well! He's... a sinister asshole dripping with arrogance. Whew! No fluffbreaking here. Actually, the information on Kor Phaeron is a little inconsistent. He's travelling to Calth with a bunch of powerful Chapter Masters, who aren't given any character development (well, not a surprise by this point) but are also, as far as I know, not mentioned again in the whole series. I guess they weren't so all-fired important after all. Or they were Foedral Fell and Morpal Cxir and co. travelling under pseudonyms...? I guess the Word Bearers would have a LOT of Chapter Masters, since their chapters can be as small as 300, but... I'll admit, one of my pet hates is inconsistency like this. "This character is super important and involved in making plans with another major character. You will never see a trace of them again." Also in these sections, mention is made briefly of that dude Sor Talgron, the boring not-Argel Tal from 'Scions Of The Storm'. (I had to look him up later though.) Anyhow, apparently he's close to Terra and keeping up the pretense of loyalty to get closer to the Throneworld and not provoke suspicion. Sounds like grounds for a pretty interesting story. Shame they appear not to have done anything with this one... yet.

Over halfway through this book, important characters start to die. The Loyalists make a bold attempt to board the Furry Abyss (...well, it made me laugh...) while it's docked for repairs. Surprisingly, using stealth as your weapon when you command Space Wolves and World Eaters doesn't work out!! This leads to a pretty great, yet predictable, battle scene - suddenly generic Marines are getting named, in a frantic effort to give their almost instant deaths some emotional weight... it doesn't really work, but great sequence. I was kind of surprised Antiges went out so quick, but at least Cestus didn't drop to his knees and go NOOOOOOOOOOOO...!!! That's reserved for McNeill books I guess. As this thread resolves in ignominious defeat for the Good Guys, with Skraal marooned on the Abyss all on his lonely. I really like the sequence where Zadkiel messes with Skraal's head, telling him the truth about his Primarch's allegiances. Skraal's response is predictable - "FAGOT LIES! I KILL U WITH BAER FISTS!" - but I like that they tried to mess with the guy's mind. Such as it is. Skraal actually goes to some pretty dark places on his Rambo-style journey through the Abyss; there's a part where he sees some 'From Hell' type shit going on to Antiges' corpse as the Word Bearers try to discern the future in his innards.

"They tail us ever doggedly, my lord" uttered Reskiel as he considered the reports of Navigator Esthemya clutched in his gauntlet.

Once a second daemon invasion happens to the Blue Team's ship, it really feels like Ben's out of ideas and blatantly padding the book - this sequence adds little (though it's a little better written and engaging than the first one, certainly ONE of them could be cut). The same kind of stuff happens again, and the only difference is that they actually see Mhotep breaking a daemon's asshole open, rather than just surmising that's what he did... but we're not given time to concern ourselves with that - as almost right away, Cestus and Brynngar are dueling to decide Mhotep's fate. The Brynngar strand kind of fucking loses it at the end, also dude says at one point "You're a sore sight for my eyes." HOW CAN YOU FUCK UP THAT PHRASE? Also, Cestus' hallucination/'spirit journey' into the mythic Hells of Macragge myth is... a bit much, but well-written - I like the conflict between the Ultramarine's cast-iron faith in rationality and his belief those old myths are bullshit, coupled with his old pre-Legion folk beliefs which have been reawakened by a load of crazy shit that he thought was impossible. I also like that in Ultramar, apparently rebels and non-conformists are consigned to one of the inner circles of hell, dying horribly as part of a giant machine that crushes them. Marx would probably have some shit to say about that...

This next bit is just gonna be a 'cleanup' scattering of tiny complaints that didn't actually bother me that much...

• Some misspellings I'm not 100% sure are misspellings: 'reclusium' (Abnett says 'reclusiam'), a tech-adept called 'Magos Epsolon'... hmmmmm. 
• A few times characters warn against "sacrificing (x) on the altar of (y)", a phrase I don't love and one that doesn't gain anything with repetition. 
• Too often here, the Ultramarines just act like 'modern' 40K Space Marines - just brainwashed Ecclesiarchy "Put your trust in the Emprah!!" dogma. So the book does compare poorly to writers who've tried to show the nuances of the 30K setting's attitudes to the Emperor and how the Legions are very different to the Chapters of 'today'. 
• Still, I'll give Counter some credit. His daemonic creatures are creatively done, unlike with so many HH writers, who seem to be happy to just describe the daemon models Now Available From Your Local GW. Counter actually puts effort into making some freaky-ass warp entities. 
• Unfortunately, most of them tend to get fucked up by Mhotep before they get a chance to really DO anything. 
• The ending here is in keeping with the rest of the book - cool/dumb action sequence where BIG SHIP GO CRASH. But DID MHOTEP DIE? Probably. But don't rule out an audio drama soon where Malcador sends Varren to Formaska ONLY TO FIND that dude is still alive and has been eating space-rats for years to stay alive.

Having re-read 'Know No Fear' again as well, Kor Phaeron's plan seems reeeeeal sloppy. So he was gonna trust one ship (a giant one, to be fair) to kill Formaska and Macragge all by itself? In that case, why would a load of other Word Bearers show up at Macragge and observe from a distance? Cause when they see the suicide mission FAIL BADLY, and then all go "Wellllll... we best get to Calth in time for 'Know No Fear' to start I guess... no loose ends here. Certainly none of US have the technology or armaments to destroy that moon ourselves with cyclonic torpedoes or concentrated fire or anything like that." I mean, the assault on Calth itself was meticulously planned, but it seems... LUCKY that in the day or so of build-up after Kor Phaeron arrives in the Calth system in the Infidus Imperator, no ship shows up from Macragge going "Yo, some giant Word Bearers cruiser appeared in system and acted suspiciously, then blew up, we went inside and there was all kinds of wacky Chaos shit in there, so I sez to myself Guilliman will want to know about this, that's what I sez." Yeah OK, the explanation barely needed to be included - the Word Bearers fucked around withe the Warp to stop any information reaching Roboute, like they do so many times in the series. But it would have been nice if 'Know No Fear' had addressed this. I mean, 'Betrayer' managed to acknowledge 'Battle For The Abyss'... no matter what their opinions on the material, I prefer it when the authors don't retcon previous plots out of existence.

Last of all... Counter kind of goes nuts here trying to avoid use of the word 'said'. People are bellowing, hissing or intoning instead (often their voices are choked with awe or thick with rage, too). I don't subscribe to the Elmore Leonard view that authors should only ever use 'said', on pain of death but I mean damn, you can say it SOMETIMES.

'Battle For The Abyss' is too entertaining for me to keep hatin' on. But there's too many dumb turns of phrase, and thesaurus-abusing word choices, for me to give it a high score. I give it 6/10 (though I did enjoy it much more than 'False Gods', that book is, well, better written than this one, and has more important scenes). I also give Ben Counter an apology for the stuff I said about him being the WORST GUY EVER. I'd not object at all to Ben coming back to the series, just give him enough time to write the novel and give him a good editor, after all, 'Galaxy In Flames' was pretty great. Mind you, most of the good ideas/enjoyable parts in this novel were re-done elsewhere much better, not least the 'mismatched Marines try to halt great evil against the odds' plot reuse in 'The Outcast Dead'. But then again, that was widely hated as well... except by me...

I'll leave you with the dream casting for Cestus, captured here facing the prospect of assaulting the Word Bearers' kingship.

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

"Fallen Angels" by Mike Lee

So after 'Descent Of Angels' turned out to be, erm, pretty OK, how does the second (and last, so far) HH Dark Angels novel stand up on its re-reading?

Apparently the dude with the big sword is Luther. Sick helm brah.

Well, there's no fucking around - the book picks up exactly where 'Descent Of Angels' left off - with Luther, Zahariel and hundreds of other out-of-favour Dark Angels landing back on Caliban, cut off from their Legion and out in the cold. Holding the fort are a load of green recruits they are supposed to train, as well as the ancient, sick and wounded who were unable to follow the Astartes off-world. We also see new Cypher - a young, mysterious knight with dual pistol skills. During this section there seems to be a lil ole Game Of Thrones reference - Luther jokes that they should raid "Master Luwin's kitchen". Hahaha you Winterfell-ass motherfuckers, you better not!!! Aldurukh remembers. Luther puts on a brave face, but has to admit privately that it looks like they'll never leave Caliban again. Quickly, it seems apparent that Mike Lee's writing is quite similar to Mitchel Scanlon's; perhaps a little better. His lack of overblown, wooden language makes the book a little easier (and quicker) to read than 'Descent Of Angels' was. The attempts at Space Marine banter here, obviously, ain't shit compared to First Claw's sniping or Torgaddon breakin' Marines' balls, but at least it makes a change from po-faced bellowing at all times.

The action quickly jumps 53 years forwards, right to the eve of the Heresy. It's here we'll stay for the rest of the book, jumping between the exiles on Caliban and the Lion's Crusade force. Soon after the book begins, we are told of the Isstvan III bombing, and the book ends with the Isstvan V betrayal yet to happen (but soon come, dread). So the timeframe is fairly short. No lengthy 'Time passed and these events happened' sequences like in its predecessor. The news of the Heresy sets up Nemiel's plot thread; the Lion can't take his Legion to Isstvan to bring Horus to book, as he's currently stuck in a dang quagmire... but he'll take a small strike-force to the rebel Forge World of Diamat, in the hopes of disrupting Horus' supply lines. (Man, Jonson is keen on leaving most of his Legion to sort shit out and just fucking off with a strike force - see also that novella 'The Lion'.)

Nemiel wasn't a 'viewpoint' character in 'Descent Of Angels' as that book was definitely focused on Zahariel. Here, we're inside Nemiel's head for around half the book. Both cousins feel pangs of loss for each other and wish the exile had not happened. Nemiel is now a Chaplain, "charged with maintaining the fighting spirit of (his) battle brothers and preserving the ancient traditions of their brotherhood". It's still very strange to me that the atheistic Empire would use a term like 'Chaplain'. It makes sense for the Word Bearers - who I think were the inventors of the role - and it kind of makes sense that many Legions would later use the position as an 'enforcer' of the Edict of Nikaea (which 'The Lion' seemed to retcon Nemiel as). But Nemiel's duties here, well - it possibly would have made more sense for him to be a well-loved Veteran Sergeant or a Company Captain or something. All I'm saying is: it's acceptable for the 30K Space Marine Legions to not always fit in perfectly with the 40K Chapters... we won't shit ourselves. On that subject, it's apparent that it was written before 'A Thousand Sons' and its ramifications were really planned out. The Edict of Nikaea isn't mentioned too much, and in fact Zahariel is constantly described as a Librarian, carries a force staff, uses his psychic powers without thinking "O NO THIS BAD" or having his brothers yell "wwwwwwwiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiitchhhhh!!" I guess it's not too much of a stretch to imagine that the news of the Edict never reached Caliban, but the Edict being such a huge part of the First Legion's arc makes this a little problematic.

I'm just sayin' I don't think Nemiel should be baby Asmodai just yet...

Back on Caliban, Zahariel is preparing to send 4200 new Astartes to join the Legion - holy fuck! It seems they're about to begin their "19th training cycle", could they have sent 18 similar sized groups of Astartes in the last 53 years? Even if the first batches are implied to have been smaller, that's... still pretty huge. We also find that Luther has spent his years in exile 'civilising' Caliban - improving its infrastructure, boosting its population, making it more hospitable to life - basically turning it into a factory for the Imperial war machine. "I started this muthafuckin Caliban shit... and this the muthafuckin thanks I get??" Zahariel's continued psyker powers reveal to us that apparently the Winds of the Warp are strong on Caliban - possibly due to the proximity to the Eye of Terror? Oooh, this is an interesting turn for Caliban's backstory... well, if it hadn't been heavily signposted at every opportunity. Still, I was a little surprised by the revelation that the Watchers in the Dark are apparently xenos psykers tasked with protecting Caliban and containing its inherent corruption. I don't know if this is a new HH retcon, a secret finally revealed, or an established bit of Dark Angel lore since '94. Guess that's what comes of not giving a single shit about the Dark Angels until now... poor research, guys. I'm mad ashamed of myself.

One thing that made me cuss and realise my chronology of Dark Angels events was totally off is the fact that Astelan shows up as a fairly major character; he's been on Caliban for ages, which shows that 'Call Of The Lion' takes place 15 years after 'Descent Of Angels' and the ominous threat at the end of that book signified his exile, not his execution. Glad I finally realised that.

The Lion's parts of the story remind me of Guilliman's criticisms in 'Unremembered Empire'; that Jonson is too sly, secretive and private. That criticism's borne out here. Even with his favoured sons, the Lion isn't a leader who is in favour of transparency. He was born for royalty, like Guilliman was born for democracy and Kurze was born for totalitarianism. The arrogant control-freakery isn't necessarily a handicap, as he's a very good tactician, taking point in every aspect of the Legion's strategy and warfare.

The void war section Nemiel witnesses here is pretty dull and makes me wish ADB could have given some of his skillz to this bro. Not an auspicious start, as it's our first battle sequence. In fact, throughout the whole book, the action sequences aren't great. Arguably they're quite dull. As a result, Nemiel's chapters in the book are kind of a drag, as they include way more action - in fact, once you've got the setup out of the way, Nemiel's chapters seem like one long, continuous action sequence. (Despite my criticism, I can't deny that the section where Nemiel's insertion team finds the, erm, 'savage weapons' Horus seeks is brilliantly written and fucking cool.) With the creepy building foreboding of Zahariel's 'strand', Mike Lee is much more successful. Though the bit where Nemiel suspects the Lion is incapable of 'reading' his subordinates, then spends about half a page dissecting what this says about his character, is fucking great... and it also may be why Jonson KARATE CHOPPED NEMIEL'S FUCKING HEAD OFF. (I mean, we know Jonson had Watchers on deck, maybe they were reading minds and reporting back to him... xenos psykers be snitchin'.) Then again, later in the book it's implied that Jonson's motive could have been to silence anyone who could know of Caliban's taint (snarf); Nemiel and Zahariel were the last to speak to Lord Sartana, after all, and the Lion couldn't know what they discussed... so, they had to go.

Even Tony Jaa ain't do that shit Lion. Damn.

Zahariel investigates an apparently growing insurrection on the Lion's homeworld - his arc carries an interesting concept from 'Descent of Angels' - compliant worlds, even Primarch 'homeworlds', aren't sacrosanct - they get hecka plundered. You can see why the civilisations might revolt. Of course, I'd feel more sympathy if the rebellion didn't seem to be led by noblemen crying about how they got no feudal subjects anymore. But that's good, right? It'd be easy to paint the rebels as sainted crusaders the way the storyline is going. We also find that Luther is holding those thousands of new Astartes back from their deployment. I was kind of annoyed when Zahariel uncovered this information and gave in to the one of the worst HH cliches - positing the actual reason (that Luther is disillusioned with the Imperium and the Lion, and is unsure if they deserve his loyalty) then rejecting that, throwing his hand to his brow and swooning "No, NO, I must not think on't!" While this story line is far from unpredictable, I kind of like that some aspects of it at least are a bit shadowy. For most of the novel, it seems like the "accepted fluff" from 40k around this Legion - "half of 'em fell to Chaos because of Luther's selfish ways and bitter jealousy" - is just some bullshit Jonson made up after he Hulked out and blew up his homeworld for embarrassing him in front of his dad. But then, towards the end... Luther's fall to Chaos becomes much more possible.

The last third or so of 'Fallen Angels' is excellent, full of great moments - the Lion and Nemiel's suicidally brave (and arrogant) last stand against waves of Sons Of Horus, and Luther's 'declaration of independence' from the Imperium's affairs, as well as his big reveal of "Hey, I done got myself psychic powers through all my book learning!" While I'll still contend the Zahariel chapters of the book are superior and stay that way throughout, aspects of his plot strand's ending seemed stupid and rushed to me - the big reveal of the "Terran sorcerors" who serve as the book's antagonists is completely botched - who are they? what's their endgame? how did they infiltrate the arcology? THERE'S NO TIME!!! Just make 'em dicks with robes and wands and pointy hats, and fudge their motive confusingly.

This would have been way better.

By the end, Luther is certainly on the path to becoming the sinister magician we saw in 'Grey Angel'. It's kind of a cross-pollination of Lorgar and Magnus' stories - driven by bitterness and a public scorning by someone you intensely admire, you let your thirst for knowledge get the better of you. Unoriginal it may be, but Luther's arc has actually become one of my favourites in HH and I'm extremely interested in how it turns out. Speaking of 'Grey Angel', a central tenet of that audio drama was that Luther didn't know - or feigned a lack of knowledge - of the Heresy. Re-reading 'Fallen Angels', I realised this was falsehood. So did John French just forget (unlikely, but not impossible) or did the manipulative, psychically gifted Luther just read Loken's mind, realise the information he was looking for, and play dumb real good? I think I've answered my own question. But to what end? I'm assuming to buy time for his Legion...

It's still my opinion that Young Cypher is a big red herring. I believe Zahariel is the one who'll become the 40K Cypher. Still, this creepy young anonymous Cypher dude will have a big role to play in upcoming Dark Angels stories, I'll wager. We get a nice amount of backstory for him, it's just not that interesting. He's such a fucking one-dimensional chin-stroking evil puppetmaster that I can't believe they'd make him THE Cypher. Also, Zahariel is about the only Dark Angels Fallen character of note beside Luther (well, excepting Corswain, he's kind of the only surviving Dark Angels character of note, full stop). It seems unlikely that they'll waste him on death. Then again, my predictions have frequently been inaccurate, so we'll see what happens.

Here's the main problem with 'Fallen Angels'. You're switching back and forth, quite often, between two quite different stories - the slow burning political/mystery thriller on Caliban, and the straightforward BASH EM CRASH EM action movie featuring Jonson and his Crusade. But aside from its (many) minor flaws, I can't hate on 'Fallen Angels' anymore. Not when there's weirdo shit like 'False Gods' around still getting serious accolades. As a book, it reminded me more than a little of 'Vulkan Lives'. Sure I was bored at times, but I was also thinking "Oh, man, that makes that part in that book so much better!" I think reading the HH books in order of publication is a mistake, and the Dark Angels 'arc' illustrates this. Normally, introducing a Primarch would involve a big focus on description of their appearance, manner and general swagga. Sadly, you go through two whole books without ANY gripping descriptive work on The Lion. Then Dembski-Bowden's 'Savage Weapons' says more evocative shit about Jonson in its short length than both the full novels, and of course, 'Unremembered Empire', flawed as I think it is, was superb in its Lion coverage. (Then again the trip down 1st Legion Memory Lane wasn't all good; re-reading the novella 'The Lion' from 'The Primarchs' collection, which I've praised to the skies at every opportunity, I didn't find it significantly better than 'Fallen Angels' or 'Descent Of Angels' at all.)

Like 'Descent Of Angels', I'm giving this the 7/10 solution. Man, the books I was hatin' on before are actually pretty good. Seems like 'Fulgrim' and 'False Gods' are the only ones I can really summon up hate for these days...

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

"Descent Of Angels" by Mitchel Scanlon

AKA 'Decent Of Angels'. Cause it's decent, I guess...? FUCK, failure of joke. My memory of this book and also of its companion piece 'Fallen Angels' is not particularly favourable. Let's see if that is still the case after re-reading it.

Your MOM Descended on my Angel last NIGHT.

My patience is tested initially with a portentuous, overdone hand-wringing preface a-weeping and a-wailing about the fall of the Angels, the curse of Caliban and how Luther was a chill bro who gets totally misrepresented by the durn Emperor and his LIES. Our narrator for this intro isn't defined, but I'm guessing it's Zahariel. Who? Well, we'll get to that.

Once the italics disappear, the books set about establishing the character of Caliban's society before the Empire reaches it. They're essentially in a feudal state with castles, horses, knightly orders etc. However, they also have the technology for pistols, chainswords and power armour, though in crude forms. Their civilisation is harried by creatures called Great Beasts, each of which is a hideous yet unique monster. They sound very Chaos-tainted from the first time they're described, so the big secret reveal that's sold hard during 'Fallen Angels' that Caliban suffers heavily from warp-taint is, well, kind of pre-spoiled. Right off the bat though, I'm impressed - the beginning of this book is WAY better than I remembered it as. The ominous scene setting introduction, Zahariel's initiation, and the first time we see Luther and Jonson - pretty much handled impeccably. Scanlon's dialogue and characterisation is patchy, though. Especially when dealing with Zahariel and Nemiel. I can see why I hated these characters on my first reading. Also, the writing is a little shaky - not full of weird, twisted errata like 'False Gods' was, but packed with clichés, ie darkness that "seemed to reach out from... haunted depths like a living thing, enveloping (characters) in its silken embrace like an unwelcome lover." Count 'em up kids.

Early on, Lion El'Jonson's name is retconned to mean 'The Lion, The Son Of The Forest', not just a straight up stolen name from a dude who wrote a poem called 'The Dark Angel'. I would think that to make this a little more credible, the book would be full of forests with 'Jon' in their name. But no. Ah well. Anyway, Jonson's origins story is gone over in depth here - with almost 2/3 of the book dedicated to his life before the Imperium finds him, he may have the most 'pre-reunion with daddy' HH history of any Primarch in the series. The fact he was alone in the forest for the first few years of his life makes him unique amongst his brothers - most of them were quickly given surrogate father figures. Even Angron and Night Haunter - while fending for themselves - were at the centre of large societies of humans. This goes a long way towards explaining why the Lion is so secretive and has such an obsession with being self-sufficient.

The Lion wants to be the very best, that no-one ever was.

We also learn quite early on that the Lion has some premonitions of the Emperor and his crusade coming to Caliban. Not so special and unique now, are you Conrad? Ahh, that's unfair I guess... but I'm petty like that.

There are hints early on of how much the Order of Caliban will influence the First Legion - ie there are famed cavalry called the Ravenwing, the order has a Lord Cypher who is Keeper Of Secrets, they all wear hooded surplices over their armour... couple this with the fact we know Caliban has crude bolt pistols and chainswords, and you could argue the Lion had to make nearly no adjustments when he assumed control of his Legion. Also, when it comes down to it... ain't Knights In Space just a cool idea? Unoriginal but cool. Anticipation of this almost glosses over the fact the Lion uses goddamn CHILD SOLDIERS of 7 and up, putting them in incredibly deadly situations. But again, that totally fits with what a fucking ice-dick motherfucker he is. He also gets incredibly butthurt if anyone reminds him the Dark Angels existed before he took control. Insecure or what?

It's not all about the Lion (and I think this fact is one of the reasons 'Descent Of Angels' was quite poorly received by HH fans and still gets shit on today). Luther is a major character from the very beginning of the book. I found his character very bland the first time round, but after 'Grey Angel' single-handedly rejuvenated my interest in this character, I paid much more careful attention this time. And Zahariel is a much more interesting character than I remembered. He's outwardly cavalier and confident he's The Bravest Little Knight. But he's tormented by memories of his brutal initiation, where he was disturbed by the cruelty of the men he now calls brother. His rivalry with his close relative Nemiel also secretly disturbs him. Zahariel is terrified of the Great Beasts (a pretty normal reaction and one that makes him a much more relateable character).

So, the first quarter or so of the book is mostly scene setting and context. Then we're show the order in action when they come up against the Knights Of Lupus (RIP J Dilla). Zahariel goes on a Beast Quest (hoping to one day rhyme like Freddie Gibbs) and discovers his hidden psychic powers, as well as meeting the hidden Watchers In The Dark. The Emperor and his Astartes don't arrive until over halfway through 'Descent Of Angels'. It's a bold move, and I can see why so many people ended up pissed off and bored, but I think it ultimately pays off. We see these characters and learn their culture for a long while, so their reactions to the Imperium mean more. Already, the seeds of the Dark Angels' schism are sown...

I mean, this guy would have totally flown a spaceship if he had one.

Zahariel's discovery of his psychic abilities is pretty damn great. However, I don't see how he had to kill a Calibanite Lion. First you make this big song and dance about how the Beasts are all different to each other and there are no two the same. Then you say that the only Calibanite Lion was already killed by Jonson, a fucking Primarch. Then Zahariel finds out that no, guys, there's totally another Calibanite Lion and he just goes and kills it. I get that the purpose of this was for Zahariel to catch the Primarch's gaze - not in a totally favourable way, either ("NOW I DON'T HAVE THE HIGH SCORE ANYMORE!!!!! GRRRR!!") - but why not have it be a different, equally badass beast? It's still impressive for a teenager to triumph in that way, why double back on your own mythology to emphasise it?

In my opinion, the plot (and some of the action sequences) of 'Descent Of Angels' are surprisingly good. It's just that there's a bit too much exposition and dialogue handled in a stumbling, haphazard way. All the more reason to wish that Dan, Aaron, John French or Chris Wraight get the next Dark Angels full length. We got the brilliant 'Savage Weapons' from ADB and the Lion's excellent treatment in 'Unremembered Empire' from Dan, but that shit ain't enough. I want a full First Legion novel where they talk a bit more like normal people - I mean, I know they're pompous, honourable knights but that doesn't mean they have to spout awkward Tolkeinesque drivel. Regardless of the blandness of the writing, and sometimes of the characters, the lasting gift of 'Descent Of Angels' is the relationship between Luther and Jonson. It's a little bit fraternal, a little bit unspoken (sexual?) jealousy, and a little bit political power-struggle. Tough to describe. You really get the feeling that while there's envy there, Luther loves the Lion and wants him to succeed. Few Primarchs we've seen have a contemporary like this; I'm thinking a little bit of the Abbadon/Horus relationship, but even there we're always reminded of their military hierarchy.

The Knights of Lupus episode (as well as many more moments through this book) shows Luther as the smoothie in the partnership. Luther is the diplomat to the Lion's intractable, tactless bastard. If they'd stuck together, I've no doubt they could have achieved great things. The KoL episode, though, also really illustrates what a shit the Lion is. This segment starts with a gripping siege scene, albeit a very videogamey one - kill these guys! breach the walls! this guy is pulling on a lever - oh no, more Elites! Shit, a giant boss battle! Oh, a final cutscene, this guy's gonna tell us some history and accuse us of being the REAL monsters... IT'S LIKE MASS EFFECT 3 UP IN THIS BITCH. After this, we get a glimpse of how naive and short-sighted the Order's goals are: what do they think will happen after the Great Beasts are gone? (This is reinforced as poorly thought out in 'Fallen Angels', when we realise the importance of the function Great Beasts played on Caliban). Furthermore, we start to suspect that Jonson massacred an entire knightly order just to get a peek at their forbidden library of knowledge. Another question always in my mind was: how does the open, even-tempered good guy Luther in this book become the disquieting, slimy presence in 'Grey Angel'? I guess I will have to re-read 'Fallen Angels' to find out.

All we wanted... was the right... to live... and breed horrible Chaos monsters...

The 'payoff scene' where the Stormbirds of the Imperium finally arrive is excellently handled. I really like the initial chapters where Calibanite and Imperial are just feeling each other out. In these novels, we haven't really been shown what happens a) when a Primarch meets the Imperium or b) when the Imperium meets a feral but obviously 'compliant' world. It's not pretty, as their ecosystem, social structure and even beliefs are rendered down in a matter of weeks as mulch for the Imperial regime. It's not long after our heroes have passed their trials that we are whisked forwards in time - the process of Astartification (?) is glossed over. There could be an excellent HH book that spends most of its time on the process of implanting the new initiates with gene-seed, but 'Descent' isn't it. (I don't understand why a lot of reviewers seemed to lambast the book for its incredibly slow pace during its 'Caliban' sections, then got angry when a lengthy 'WE ARE TURNING INTO ASTARTES' sequence wasn't included.)

Instead, we're off to the Great Crusade. We learn quickly that the respected senior members of the Order were taken along with the Astartes and slotted into their ranks - shit, old Hadariel is even a Chapter Master. Seems like the existing Terran structure of the 1st Legion was very accommodating to the Order (or, more likely, the Lion would brook no disagreement). We're not in the new-look 1st for long before we're off to Sarosh, an apparently unobtrusive, compliant world. Actually it's totes corrupt and Chaotic but rather than resisting the False Emperor in the usual way, they're outwardly compliant and burying any real progress in endless bureaucracy. The description of this is weirdly funny, but also deadly boring. Man, the White Scars are ill-treated in these books, eh? On Sarosh, we get a friendly White Scar dude who just says alternative phrasings of "DON'T TRUST EM" again and again. Christ, at least he's better than Hakim... or the White Scar Librarian in 'A Thousand Sons'. I will never get tired of bringing up those racist-ass characters. Still, I read the first chapter of Chris Wraight's 'Scars' and it looks like he is gonna redress that balance, so... cautious optimism. BUT WE'RE HERE TO TALK ABOUT THE ANGELS SO MOVING ON...

Like the White Scars dude said...

Overall though, the Sarosh segment - which wraps up the book and sets up the concept for 'Fallen Angels' - is great, as Scanlon ratchets up the creepiness excellently. From the featureless golden masks all Saroshi wear, to the fact that projected census data shows 8% of the planet's population is simply unaccounted for, there's clearly Some Wrong Shit Goin Down. When the planet does, inevitably, erupt into Empire-defying violence, it's extremely chilling. Having said that, the "suicide bomb shuttle" plot detail is fucking stupid and depends on an incredibly retarded Mechanicum contingent on board the Invincible Reason.

"You guys, this shuttle the diplomats are coming in is really old and busted."
"Bor-ing! I'm so OVER it already. Don't even BOTHER scanning THAT shit."

It does at least lead to one of the book's best moments - the tense sequence where Luther debates whether or not to actually defuse the bomb... how badly does he want the Lion to stop overshadowing him? Dramatic.

The end of the book is abrupt, and comes when an intense action sequence is seemingly just getting underway. I guess the HH writers quickly learned the lesson of the exhausting 'Fulgrim' - always leave 'em wanting more... Suddenly, Zahariel, Luther and many of their brothers are packed off back to Caliban. With the Lion becoming increasingly capricious, those who are out of favour are to be swept under the rug and forgotten about. Ostensibly, they're "overseeing recruitment on Caliban" but everyone knows the real score. It's worth noting that at this point, we're still over 50 years before the outbreak of the Heresy. I'm not sure what to think of the Future Fallen Angels being 'benched' so quickly, basically a few months into the 1st Legion's involvement in the Crusade. In fact it seems to contradict the 'Grey Angel' section where Luther implies his involvement took into account several significant battles alongside 7 or more other Legions including the Luna Wolves. But this may just have to go into the growing file of "Stuff that shows HH readers don't read each others' shit too religiously."

I was kind of dreading this re-read. But I really enjoyed 'Descent Of Angels' the second time around. The writing is often clunky, and it very rarely surprises. Still, I can't see why I hated it so much before. All that's changed? I actually CARE about the Dark Angels now. Stuff like 'Grey Angel', 'The Lion', 'Unremembered Empire' and especially 'Savage Weapons' have got me interested in these humourless dicksmackers. It's crazy they got benched so quickly - for a while it seemed like nobody wanted to write about these dudes at all. More recently, there seems to have been a thawing of the ice towards these guys, so we'll see what happens. First read-through, the stilted, overly formal and often clichéd writing style really annoyed me. However, I now think it's intentional - Scanlon wants to create a mythic ambience to the book. First read-though, I shared the still-prevalent HH fanboy opinion - "All this shit is irrelevant, it's just for DA groupies - give us stuff that has a bearing on the actual Heresy!" Now I think this stuff is pretty relevant to maybe the sleeper hit of the HH series - the character studies of the Lion and Luther's natures and motivations. At this point, it seems very unlikely that Scanlon will be asked back for another book, but I don't think he's the shithound that many BL fans seem to paint him as. And therefore, I'm giving this the cautious thumbs-up of a 7/10.

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