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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Mechanicum" by Graham McNeill

It’s weird to think that this book is six years old already, appearing a year after prequel ‘The Kaban Project’ showed up in a Games Day chapbook. I re-read that story as a palate-cleanser before leaping into ‘Mechanicum’, and I’m still not really sold on it… but my memory of ‘Mechanicum’ is mostly positive, perhaps even "the point at which Graham got good". Let’s see how my second read-through of this book (first read-through in a few years), leaves me feeling.

"Hah! Now I'll never lose my assault cannon again... Oh, fuck. I've only gone and glued my hand to my chest!"

The Mechanicum, then. A very different organisation to the Adeptus Mechanicus of ‘modern’ times. Early on in the book, it's described as “competitive, uncooperative, suspicious and insular”. It’s a bit of a mystery, and as you might have gathered from the title, this book features the organisation heavily. So how does it do at presenting this force (in some ways as significant in the Heresy as the Legiones Astartes)? Wellllllll…

I’d forgotten that the ostensible main character is a woman, Dalia Cythera. Considering how female characters have tended to fare in Graham’s HH novels, this might be a bad sign. Right off the bat, we learn that she’s a teenage prodigy with a photographic memory. Awful visions of a Graham-penned Lisbeth Salander occurred me, but that’s not something that happens here luckily (though she does have the Repressed Psyker trait, long before it became a ridiculously common plot device in HH). However, we do start with a bit of a howler: Mistress Zeth, our heroine’s apparent benefactor, is based in a forge complex built on a lake of magma. I mean, even in the frequently nonsensical universe of 40K, this seems like a stupid thing to do. Graham can try to cover that one with pseudo-science but amongst all the robots built using human corpses and spaceships that look like city-sized cathedrals, this really stands out as a bad idea. I’m sure it won’t be used as a convenient plot device in the shocking finale.

Simultaneous to the introduction of Dalia, a group of three patrolling Knight Paladins encounter the Kaban Machine as it attacks a facility they are defending. This section reminds me that Graham is great at writing mechanised combat sequences and also gives us some background: political and ideological tensions have been growing on Mars, but not to the point that armed conflict between two elements of the Mechanicum isn’t a huge shock to these Knights. In the aftermath of the Kaban Machine conflict, we see a council of Titan Legio commanders assemble in the hopes of averting a disaster. This is another great scene that gives us further insight into the culture of the rival Titan factions, particularly the arrogant, sinister Legio Mortis. I know I often complain when a HH character is unambiguously villainous from the beginning, sapping their betrayal of any dramatic weight, but goddamn, Graham has made a satisfyingly evil antagonist here.

With that, Graham’s set up the two narratives he’s going to flick between for the rest of the book. The growing hostility between the Martian factions, and Dalia’s quest to DO A THING with the help of her plucky team of misfits. Dalia’s colleagues are nowhere near as engaging as I’d remembered, and they’re all fairly shallow and archetypal. For example, Zouche is an example of the fantasy Dwarf, going beyond his diminutive height; bellicose, bluff, tactless. I chose him as an example because he’s the only one whose backstory and motivations are interesting (actually, it provides a really useful insight to pre-Unity Terra). The rest of them are just pretty boring. Dalia herself quickly becomes a bit of a damsel. For example, when she’s motivated by empathy to save a psyker caught in an experiment gone wrong, she just makes the situation worse. Her intent is admirable but her actions are truly fucking stupid and all the screaming and crying just makes me think of that dreadful character in ‘Honour to the Dead’. That dumb incident, though, does set the narrative lurching forward. Given a terrifying glimpse of forbidden knowledge, Dalia now develops her own agenda.

Scrapcode plays an important part in ‘Mechanicum’, though the way it shows Kelbor-Hal’s corruption through AN EVUL CHAOS COMPUTAR VIRAS is pretty dumb. But the spread of devastation across Mars caused by the code is nicely done. There’s a great, tense scene showing a Titan confrontation with the first combat use of the corrupted scrapcode. Abnett did write this better in ‘Know No Fear’ – but still, the High Noon-style standoff between Legio Tempestus and Legio Mortis is a great moment.

I’ve used the ‘d’ word earlier in the review. Let me just take an overly long detour to elaborate on this ‘damsel’ thing. Like many of Graham’s female characters, Dalia just wants a big strong man to hold her and tell her it’s all OK. Am I exaggerating? A little bit, but not much. On reading Dalia’s sections of the book, my main feeling was “I really don’t remember it being this bad”. (Then again, I also remember the techno-friends’ dragonquest road trip being most of the book, while it actually doesn’t even start until over halfway through, so my memory is clearly unreliable.) She’s mostly capable and useful in a support capacity… but when there IS a combat situation, Dalia loses her shit. I’m torn on whether to condemn this or not. On the one hand, a standard human non-combatant without any kind of combat training would probably be utterly terrified if huge evil robots were trying to kill them. So maybe I should applaud Graham for realistic character actions. But from another perspective, this focuses so much on a female character’s weeping hysterics that it comes close to being a defining trait. 

I’m not saying a conscious decision has been made to show that women are weaker or more cowardly than men… but that’s the message I get, especially when her male companions’ response (also fear) is barely focused on. Compare to, say, Abnett in the Gaunt’s Ghosts series, where he is excellent at showing the bowel-destroying fear troopers both male and female encounter in combat: the portrayal is a lot more subtle and even-handed and, to my recollection, never falls back to simplistic pantomime overreactions. Yeah, yeah, not every writer can be Dan, and not every reader gives a fuck about this aspect of 40K; in fact from what I can tell, a lot of Black Library fans are deeply resentful of any ‘agenda’ they suspect of being pushed regarding gender equality in the grim darkness on the future. But this goes beyond my flag-waving political correctness, it’s just lazy character writing. I think Graham’s come a long way with this stuff for sure, but that doesn’t make this, ‘Fulgrim’ or ‘False Gods’ any less tough to read. I absolutely do give him credit for Adept Zeth though: she illustrates that Graham makes no distinction between the men and women of the Mechanicum. It's a shame, then, that she's barely developed as a character, only having time for a few interesting hints of something more to her than there first appears before her premature end.

That’s just a little lecture about the evils of gender role stereotyping comin’ to you from a guy who listens mostly to misogynistic rap music and is scared to even talk to women. Fuck this blog, right?

In the last part of the novel, we see the long-promised civil war finally erupt on Mars. The rise of Kelbor-Hal’s ‘Dark Mechanicum’, while lacking any subtlety, gives us some great scenes. The repercussions are felt even on Terra, where Malcador and Dorn worry about Mars even as they resolve to first squash Horus at Isstvan V. (Dorn and the Sigillite’s portrayal as close confidants here is certainly at odds with what’s come since – but that’s something which understandably happens a fair bit in these early books.) I loved that brief mention of Sor Talgron's creepy machinations; it feels like ‘The Purge’ was in the pipeline for years, perhaps ADB’s Word Bearer domination delayed it a bit?

After a spectacular Titan battle, the book ends, quite suddenly. My feeling is that Dalia’s fate is a setup for some 40K novel or event (possibly even Graham’s ‘Mars’ series, which I’ve not started yet) since it certainly doesn’t look like it’ll have any future relevance for the Horus Heresy. When thinking back on that section of the book, then, it’s hard to restrain the feeling of “who gives a fuck?” Like ‘Nemesis’, that’d be fine if the story was original or interesting to act as a ‘standalone’, but to be brutally honest, I just don’t think it’s strong enough. Meanwhile, the Civil War thread spends most of its time building agendas and characters embroiled in this power struggle, only to ultimately murder most of them in a riot of Forge-destroying violence. Graham has a tendency to do this with his characters; see the III Legion officers in ‘Angel Exterminatus’. I applaud him for killing almost indiscriminately – this is WAR, after all – but couldn’t he leave some room for series-spanning character arcs? With the Loyalist forces near-annihilated, I don’t know this ‘war’ will continue, but keep in mind this was only a snapshot of the conflict focusing on a ‘small’ but significant part of Mars. Ultimately, we leave ‘Mechanicum’ with a fairly limited context for how the planet-wide struggle is going.

Through this book, Graham’s dialogue is sometimes a little shaky. For someone who’s keen on characters making some big, portentous speeches, there are a few too many “fair enough”s and “I suppose”s here; the casual nature of it seems forced, and context-inappropriate. But that’s a minor issue. The structure of ‘Mechanicum’ is not dissimilar to ‘Deliverance Lost’, in that full-blown action only occurs near the end of the book. Possibly encouraged by ‘Legion’, this book skirts a cautious acceptance that BL readers don’t need a battle every fifty pages to maintain their interest.

There is dumbness galore here, not on ‘Battle For The Abyss’ levels, but sometimes close. Kelbor-Hal’s rather literal manifestation of ‘corrupted data’ calls for Michael Biehn to blast him with a shotgun and rasp “needs a reboot” or “reformat THIS, sucker!” or similar. Something about Graham’s books, especially during this era, screams “80s action movie”. Often really dumb and fun to read, but sometimes you find yourself thinking “That’s some fucking stupid shit.” The ancient Adept our heroes meet on their quest for the Dragon of Mars is dripping with ‘Writing for Nutsos 101’ clichés to the extent that I’m surprised he doesn’t shriek “Mad! They called me mad! Blind fools!” Mind you, sometimes the craziness is a boon. For example, the bizarre story of how the Dragon of Mars was imprisoned by the Emperor and how it’s linked to the origins of the Imperium… it’s so bonkers I’ve actually got to love it. Oh, apparently, most readers more au fait with the current 40K fluff than me concluded from hints in the book that the Dragon was actually a C’Tan. I don’t really know what that means or give that much of a fuck, I just thought I’d mention it.

As usual for a Graham book early in the Heresy series, criticism can be made of the lack of character ambiguity. Kelbor-Hal and his cronies are never less than loathsome; Adept Zeth, while occasionally heartless, is pure as snow when it comes to loyalty to the Imperium. Consider Deltrian, the Adept in the Night Lords series by ADB – that was a character whose portrayal showed clearly the Mechanicum was about as subject to black and white notions of “good” and “evil” as the shadowy upper echelons of the Imperium were. To show either side as cackling monsters or stern-faced saints seems to cheapen the schism a bit.

You might be able to tell how this is going from all this complaining. Sadly, re-reading ‘Mechanicum’ was less enjoyable than I had hoped. Perhaps the first time I read it I was relieved at the slight uptick in quality compared to ‘Fulgrim’ and ‘False Gods’ – after all, this time Graham wasn’t shitting all over characters Dan had written brilliantly. Yet at a second glance, his characterisation and dialogue hadn’t got any less shallow. The book also takes a great deal longer to get started than I remember; while I do like the intrigue of the Martian power moves, I don’t think Dalia and co. turn out to be worth the time spent on them. Only Zouche is interesting and the weird blink-and-you’ll-miss-it hint that he might have a deeper, more sinister agenda makes me hope we’ll see him again.

And speaking of that...

I’m still very interested in the Mechanicum storyline in HH and it’s a real shame it’s been dormant this long. Like most early HH Graham books, I can’t help but wish Graham had put the good bits (notably the Titan and Knight combat) in a novella and someone else had tackled the bits which called for more subtlety, like the actual culture of the Martian priests, or the behind-the-curtain political manoeuvres of Horus’ emissaries, or the motivations of Kelbor-Hal for revolt (beyond a couple sloppy pages which are the equivalent of some asshole saying "WE'LL GIVE YOU GOLD!"). I’m ‘bout to throw out some dream roster shit. David Annandale would have been great to write about the Dragon of Mars stuff, John French could have been excellent for Mechanicum Machiavellian plotting, Chris Wraight could have shown the actual day-to-day logistics of Mars’ government and how it interacts with the Munitorum, Aaron could have shown the claustrophobic desperation of the Imperial Fists’ scramble to secure supplies… OK, the involvement of all of those authors with the Heresy series was some way off. But I’d also nominate Matthew Farrer, with his excellent ability to write about the 40K Mechanicus (or the Heresy Mechanicum, as ‘Vorax’ showed), as a person who could have made this book the visceral, disturbing novel it should have been. Of course, Dan would be my first choice for rewriting any of the first 10 HH books, but Dan was cooking up some marvellous shit about Prospero during this time, I think… I realise I seem to trash McNeill quite a bit on this blog, but with his “PurpleHeresy’s Most Improved” medal for ‘Angel Exterminatus’ and ‘Vengeful Spirit’, Graham himself would be a nice choice for a sequel.

Anyway, all this wishlisting is a waste of time, since Rob Sanders is apparently in line to come in with the sequel for this in novella form sometime next year. Here’s hoping that he will at least be able to match the original.

Well, I went in with a positive attitude, no one can deny that... but this falls short of the greatness it deserves – like too many of the early Heresy books. Y’all haters who shit on ‘Deliverance Lost’ and ‘Angel Exterminatus’ might need to re-read the late-2000s novels and check whether it really was all better back in the day. 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.