"Meduson" (short story collection, Warhammer World exclusive)

A while ago – a long time, actually, it seems – there were rumours going around of an upcoming Heresy anthology called ‘The Shattered Legions’. As time wore on and nothing more was heard about it, it seemed like this was just something that the fell winds of Chaos would stop from ever happening – like Graham writing the Calth novel, or that Prospero graphic novel that Gav was doing. Yet some of us have always wondered: what happened to the stories that would have made up the anthology? Did they get drip-fed to us as Quick Reads? Did they become audio dramas and novellas or even novels, or did they just disappear into the Recycle Bin of time? As I finished ‘Meduson’, it seemed clear where those stories went; this anthology is ‘The Shattered Legions’ in all but name.

>>>>>OFFICIAL ART NOT AVAILABLE>>>>

So, if you’ve managed to pick up ‘Meduson’ (it’s only available at Warhammer World, Nottingham – more on that later) you’ll know it’s a strange beast. Like ‘Tallarn: Ironclad’ it’s not quite a novel and not quite a novella. While it’s just shy of 300 pages, ‘Meduson’ feels like a rather weighty contribution to the Heresy series. Sure, many people have a strong dislike of the anthologies at this point, and the contents of this book may not sway them. But how could you not get hyped at a release featuring all-new fiction from John French, Chris Wraight, Graham McNeill and Dan Foch’n Abnett, plus several others? Of course, we can all grumble about our dream line-ups being different, and that’s quite likely a complaint many will have, since Aaron Dembski-Bowden, Matt Farrer, Anthony Reynolds and Jim Swallow are all absent (and when will the great Joe Parrino get a shot at a Heresy story?) but let’s work with what’s here.

There are nine stories in the book, from eight different authors (Guy Haley does two). Despite its not-novel page length, that’s impressive. The first anthology novel ‘Tales of Heresy’ had seven stories, and my beloved ‘Age of Darkness’ also had nine. ‘Meduson’ feels closer to a ‘proper’ anthology than the slim volumes like ‘Blades of the Traitor’ or ‘Death and Defiance’ we’ve got recently. In fact, if my prejudice can show (well, it always does), I applaud ‘Meduson’ as a more welcome addition to the Heresy than the water-treading of ‘Legacies of Betrayal’.

Enough editorialising. Let’s get into the contents, shall we?

Meduson by Dan Abnett: Of course, of fucking course. Of course this had to happen. With so many (quite rightly) praising ‘Little Horus’ as a masterpiece, and some BL authors making overt tributes to it in their books (Graham and Chris, most notably), it was only a matter of time until Dan himself revisited that story. On top of that, Shadrak Bloody Meduson himself hasn’t actually appeared ‘onscreen’ in the Heresy yet. He was smoke and mirrors in ‘The Seventh Serpent’, alluded to in ‘Little Horus’ and may or may not have been present in ‘Vengeful Spirit’, but we haven’t met him. So it’s only fitting that his ‘creator’ be the one to actually put Shadrak onto the page. ‘Meduson’ shows the war-leader at the beginning of his meteoric rise, in the aftermath of the Dropsite Massacre, as what’s left of the Iron Hands clan-leaders squabble and beat their chests trying to decide what to do in the Primarch’s absence. Meduson is not content to make suicidal gestures or attempt to rebuild the Legion. He wants a different kind of action. You can imagine where things go – ‘Little Horus’ is significantly later in his timeline, and hopefully most of you have read it by now – but if anyone is going to make you happy at being along for the ride to a familiar destination, it’s Abnett when he’s firing on all cylinders.

So, I won’t spoil too much of it, but I will say that there is a rather memorable moment with a not-quite-bonded augmetic hand. It feels like Dan saw Aaron’s “Where’s your sword?” – “I left it in a Primarch’s spine” moment in ‘Savage Weapons’, nodded to himself, and made it a mission to quietly one-up AD-B in sheer badassitude.

In my original review of ‘Little Horus’ I expressed a hope that Dan would get to write something about Heresy-era Iron Hands. And – well, here he is, doing it. I’ve stated before that the most glaring fault with ‘Unremembered Empire’ was that it marked the first time Dan had done two Heresy novels in a row about the same Legion. While they’ve been a presence in some of his work – ‘Little Horus’, notably – this is the first thing he’s written focusing on the Hands. I feel that every time Dan hits a new Legion, he hits it with both feet: think of how he redefined the Sons of Horus, the Alpha Legion, the Space Wolves and the Ultramarines in the novels he wrote about them. The Iron Tenth here are far, far more emotional, noble and openly grief-stricken than they have been in any HH fiction so far. This – funnily enough – makes them about a billion times more likeable. Sure, Dan’s not flawless. His spin on each of those Legions is sometimes a little out of step with the other BL authors’ portrayal (well, he writes them as fantastically human, rather than herky-jerky robots, which makes this great to read but not necessarily that fluff-aligned). But… fuck, man, that guy can write. The Hands here are the flipside of the coin shown in the superb ‘Riven’ – they show that not only dark, violent shit can come out of this Legion; they can be a (comparatively) positive force as well. I know some of you Iron Hands groupies out there flip the fuck out when someone shows your Legion with anything other than a near-psychotic intolerance of emotional development, but I’m 100% in support of the choices Dan made here.

It’s not just Iron Hands crying and listening to Fall Out Boy or whatever people choose to believe about the ‘emo’ aspect of the Heresy. Dan takes the time to expand a little on the organisation’s culture and the impact Medusa had on them. There’s even a kind of awesome, nearly throwaway moment lampshading the character’s apparently lazy surname. Enough! I’ll just say ‘Meduson’ is a triumph and leave it at that. I’m pleased to give this story 10/10 with no reservations. Here’s hoping his rather crowded schedule won’t make ‘Dreadwing’ a ‘Master of Mankind’-style pipe dream.

Unforged by Guy Haley: I was a big fan of ‘Strike and Fade’, with its quartet of bitter Salamanders waging guerrilla war on Isstvan V long after the Dropsite Massacre had finished. For a while it seemed that it would be a one-off; a bleak little snapshot of the futile resistance on that dead world, fighting an unwinnable battle with no command structure or Primarch to pull them out of the fire. To my surprise, Guy returns to this ‘resistance cell’ with his story ‘Unforged’. Jo’Phor and Hae’Phast are back and this time it’s personal!! As it turns out, though, I guess I didn’t want to hear more about them, at least not like this. The story seems rather predictable and the characterisation doesn’t really seem to build on what was already established in ‘Strike and Fade’: the tortured protagonist, the angry one, the rookie, and Silent Bob. It’s certainly got its enjoyable moments, and there’s a nice tie-in with a dangling plot strand from ‘Scorched Earth’ (the more I read by him, the more it feels like Guy Haley is genuinely a huge fan of the Heresy series and loves tying things in to other authors’ work).

However, my expectations for Guy’s work have perhaps been raised unrealistically high following his superb ‘Twisted’ in ‘Blades of the Traitor’. In that context this was a little disappointing; sure, the settings of this and ‘Twisted’ are vastly different and these characters could hardly go in as intriguing a direction as Maloghurst, but when it comes down to it, I just didn’t have fun with this. But, well, I guess the point of stories like this is showing that a lot of Astartes’ stories in the Heresy ended in a bleak, sudden way. Point made. 7/10

Immortal Duty by Nick Kyme: World Eaters! Iron Hands! FIGHTAN! That’s an interesting thing to see, right? Especially when it’s a boarding action above Isstvan V, told in flashback? I know we’ve had a lot of Isstvan stories, but there are rather less which focus on the void war – in fact, I think ‘Veritas Ferrum’ might be the only one. More to the point, this story focuses on an interesting part of the X Legion we haven’t seen much. Since I first read about them in one of the Forge World books, I’ve found the Medusan Immortals to be a fascinating weapon in the Iron Hands’ arsenal. Made up of X Legionaries who have shamed themselves in some way, they are – even for the Tenth – heavily augmented and ‘flesh-spare’, ruthlessly focused, and committed to dying nobly in the Primarch’s service. It’s some ‘Suicide Squad’ shit, but without the awkwardly posed portraits.

‘Immortal Duty’ is brazen in its intent: it is a 40k story about phalanx fighting, the disciplined shield-bearers versus the berserk hordes, even making the Roman/Greek comparison explicit at one point. Like the best boarding action stories, it’s claustrophobic and intense. However, it’s not quite flawless. Nick Kyme always seems to have one facepalm moment per story – see the Tyler Durden reveal in ‘Scorched Earth’ – and here, that’s the way our protagonist reminisces over a particular World Eater warrior he fought beside many years ago, before the Heresy… ONLY FOR SAID WORLD EATER TO STEP OUT OF THE SHADOWS, FLICK HIS LIGHTER OPEN, AND CHALLENGE OUR HERO TO A RAP BATTLE… acgkkh. The ‘flashback’ setting up the confrontation comes just a few paragraphs before the character appears. That’s problem one – could Kyme not have put this at the beginning of the story? Did he think his readers were such idiots they wouldn’t remember something more than a few pages ago? (Maybe don’t answer that.) To me – admittedly, not a published writer, let alone a qualified editor – it feels like this moment could’ve been handled with more grace. In a Legion of hundreds of thousands, noted for its insanely huge turnover of warriors, bumping into someone you know is pretty noteworthy, but our narrator just seems to shrug and get on with it.

For all its dumbness it is, however, a really cool moment, and if you get too sniffy about unbelievable dumbness, the HH books aren’t for you anyway.

That’s my main gripe with ‘Immortal Duty’. It seems, towards the end, Kyme’s going for a ‘Riven’/ ‘The Keys of Hel’ tie-in, but it’s a little clumsily handled – in a way that doesn’t necessarily make me super-amped for the inevitable sequel. Still, the story is bookended nicely, and I really liked the moments where it was clear how uncomfortable the other Shattered Legions were with aspects of the Iron Hands’ culture. With ‘Immortal Duty’, you can add another win to Kyme’s column – Emperor’s Children and Iron Hand stories seem to energise him, so I’m a little nonplussed he’s doing another Salamanders novel. 8/10

Grey Talon by Chris Wraight: A sequel to ‘Meduson’, a sequel to ‘Scars’, a sequel of sorts to ‘Allegiance’, a parallel to ‘Brotherhood of the Moon’, a prequel to ‘Little Horus’, and possibly (hopefully?) setup for a plot strand in Chris’ in-progress ‘Scars’ sequel. Confused? Don’t be. Even if the only one of that list you’ve read is ‘Scars’, things should be pretty clear to you – Bion Henricos, lately having cheated death above Prospero, is off to tempt fate again. This time, he brings with him Hibou Khan, one of the ‘penitents’ of the V Legion who led an insurrection in Horus’ name but renounced the Warmaster when Horus’ motives became clearer. Hibou wasn’t really a major character in ‘Scars’, but this fleshes him out a bit – he’s a great addition to the cast, maintaining that enjoyable White Scar humility and poetry while also being full of shame for his actions. There’s a quite dark undercurrent to Hibou’s arc; after all, he is committed to a good death in battle with the Traitors (something that still eludes him as far as we know). This is nicely contrasted with Henricos; of course, as an Isstvan survivor, he has a burning hatred for any ally of Horus, so you can imagine how he feels about ferrying Hibou around. Chris continues to expand nicely on both of these warriors as characters; it’s funny to think that for a long time they were just peripheral figures briefly alluded to in one of Dan’s stories. There’s a wonderful poignant feeling to the end of the story as you realise you don’t want to leave Bion’s company, obstinate and hateful as he can be – but sadly, Horus Aximand looms rather large in his future…

As well as being full of character-building goodness and tense ship combat, ‘Grey Talon’ brings Shadrak himself back into the story, which is a nice touch, a step towards the anthology being a truly cohesive read. In fact, there probably could have been a bit more of this elsewhere. While I think a few more appearances of the title character could have made it even more cohesive, I suppose it would have been easy to overplay it.

‘Grey Talon’ is a fantastic story, possibly one of the best in the collection. With ‘Daemonology’ being so fucking good, and my feelings on Chris’ recent White Scar-focused short stories being a bit mixed, I was starting to wonder if I really wanted a ‘Scars’ sequel over a Mortarion book. This strengthened my confidence in ‘Scars 2’, whatever form it eventually takes, being another classic on par with the original. 10/10

The Keys of Hel by John French: ‘Riven’ was one of the all-time great Horus Heresy short stories, and – until I read ‘Meduson’ – I would have called it the best Iron Hands fiction in the Heresy series. This sequel is not as good, but “not as good as ‘Riven’” is still a pretty high fucking bar. So, what’s the deal this time? Well, Crius is back! That zombie robot motherfucker. The creeping, almost Lovecraftian horror of ‘Riven’ is not as noticeably present here, with more emphasis given to combat – which John writes very well, but I believe his true strength is in characterisation and lore-building. That’s not to say that some moments won’t make your flesh crawl, though.

If I can take a little diversion here. The title of this story made me hope that we’d see something I’ve been waiting for since I read the Forge World Heresy background for the Iron Hands – an exploration of the X Legion forces left on Medusa and their confusion as the Heresy unfolded; their debates and arguments as to which of the many unattractive courses of action they will take. While we’re on the ‘wish list’ subject, I’d also love to see something about Iron Hands aligning with Horus – they were not necessarily all fond of their Primarch and they had close links to a few Traitor Legions, so it’s far from impossible.

This is a brilliant story; it’s testament to how brilliant ‘Meduson’s batting average is that ‘The Keys of Hel’ isn’t the best one here. Furthermore, in an anthology stuffed with Iron Hand boarding actions, this manages to stand out as having some of the nastiest, razor’s-edge combat in the whole book. It’s another convincing exhibit in the ongoing ‘John French is the best Black Library author’ case (despite the slightly wince-inducing moment where Crius thinks of his old VII Legion buddy, unconsciously thinks the word “friend”, then thinks “What is a friend?” – yeah, I had a real ‘Inbetweeners’ moment at that line). It’s a visceral, bone-crunching tale which also takes some rather unexpected turns, and has a superbly spine-chilling epilogue. I’m fascinated to see where this storyline goes; John is obviously fond of it, and I hope we get some further developments in time.

9/10

Deeds Endure by Gav Thorpe: Above a World Eaters training facility, a small force of Salamanders debates with much larger force of Iron Hands on their best course of action to destroy this target. The Salamanders want to minimise damage to the civilian population (of course) while the Iron Hands want to bombard the facility from orbit and to hell with collateral damage (of course). The bitter arguments reveal the key philosophical differences in these Legions (of course) and give way to accusatory statements about Isstvan V (of course). Could these two Legions, supposedly on the same side, actually come to blows (of course)?

I can’t pretend I wouldn’t have preferred a continuation of the Corax story, or further setup for the Dark Angels characters Gav’s tackling in his next novel – but I suppose that would not have been thematically appropriate for this anthology. Yet what we got is so rote and inconsequential, it’s almost tempting to say “I’D RATHER HAVE NOTHING” – ‘Deeds Endure’ does seem to sap the anthology of some of its impact and momentum. In fact, it’s tempting to believe that ‘Deeds Endure’ exists only to float the existence of an alternative pattern of Tactical Dreadnought armour, something Forge World will probably release eventually.

The Iron Hand Kratoz is our protagonist, and like his God Of War namesake, he’s a thundering shitehound who looooooves pretending to justify wholesale murder. Yet compared with the same-old-bland-story Salamanders he finds himself in opposition with, he’s a charismatic powerhouse. At one point, he is told quite solemnly that “vengeance” is “just another word for revenge”. One starts to wish the response would be “Yeah, no shit, Sherlo’okh!” rather than the po-faced Iron Hands v Salamander arguments we’ve read – it seems – a thousand times. I was desperately hoping, right up until the end, that a single Raven Guard could show up so there’d be a bit more chance of Gav writing a decent character, but no luck.

While occasionally dull, it’s a long way from actively bad; Gav’s certainly written worse (I remain unconvinced that ‘Cypher: Guardian of Order’ needs to exist, though hopefully ‘Angels of Caliban’ will prove me wrong). There’s a nice moment where the Salamanders unpack the Iron Hands motto “The flesh is weak” and give another spin on it – perhaps this was a retort to the unfair internet hate David Annandale got for re-using that phrase frequently in ‘The Damnation of Pythos’. As I finished it, though, I hoped sincerely that Gav focuses his Heresy writing on the I Legion or, better yet, Corax’s remnants for the near future. 6/10

The Noose by David Annandale: An obvious high point of ‘The Damnation of Pythos’ – one that even that book’s detractors seemed to enjoy – was the naval confrontation between the Iron Hands and the Emperor’s Children. A big help to that sequence was that Annandale really nailed the disturbing body-horror menace of the III Legion’s slide into madness, in a way that even Graham McNeill has only hit sporadically. And here, showing the III Legion in repose as well as in the thick of the fighting, he makes it even more sinister. While I’m not sure he knocked it out of the park – the main antagonist repeats ‘perfect’ and ‘perfection’ in his inner monologue so much it honestly becomes nearly parodic – this is an excellent story.

When I realised this was a sequel to ‘Pythos’, I wondered at the logic; if any storyline seemed ‘one and done’, it was that book. But by taking up some of the strands that were left dangling, Annandale has done a credible job of crafting a ‘Pythos’ sequel which merits being told. Annandale writes Iron Hands as awkward and slightly one-dimensional – but unlike with many other BL writers, this seems like a conscious choice rather than bad or lazy writing. When you look at how unctuous and twisted his Emperor’s Children are, you can’t disregard the guy's skill as a writer. Given my preference, I’d take Dan Abnett or John French’s Iron Hands over these. But given my preference I’d also see Annandale take a far more prominent role in the HH series, and write about a very different Legion rather than the Tenth. It feels like Night Lords, Emperor’s Children or Thousand Sons would be the ideal area for his nearly Lovecraftian creep-outs, but honestly I just want another Heresy novel from him, hopefully one which gives him a more rewarding scenario to work with than a joyless trudge into, well, damnation. Hopefully he’ll hit M31 again between Yarrick books. 8/10

Unspoken by Guy Haley: And we’re back to Isstvan V, with a story which ties in to Guy’s other story here, ‘Unforged’ – but other stories too, with important roles going to Tarkan and Sulnar, key Iron Hands characters from Nick Kyme’s novella ‘Scorched Earth’. Our main character, though, is the Salamander Donak, or ‘Silent Bob’ as I’ve tended to call him, as we learn what happened to him following the curiously downbeat ending of ‘Unforged’. As I read this story, I felt bad for my dismissal of him as a one-note archetype. By showing us the Shattered Legions through Donak’s eyes, Guy makes him into a credible and memorable character; it’s nice to see a slightly darker Salamander explored here, amongst all the ‘nice but dull’ ones we’ve had in the series. In fact, ‘Unspoken’ is all-round great; this might be Guy Haley’s best story yet. It’s certainly just as good as ‘Twisted’, and shows he’s one of the Heresy team’s ‘secret weapons’, apparently able to write smooth, enjoyable fiction about Traitor and Loyalist alike. 

Like ‘The Crimson Fist’, ‘Unspoken’ switches between a few viewpoint characters, one of which is first-person, the others being third-person. In my opinion, it seems better integrated in ‘Unspoken’ than it was in the Phall novella. ‘Unspoken’ also brings Meduson back into the story – not appearing as such, but making power moves behind the scenes. To top it off, we have a face-crunchingly brutal Iron Hands/Salamanders assault on an Alpha Legion facility. Yeah, you might get a few moments of déjà vu for ‘The Seventh Serpent’ during this sequence, but why not? Once again, Haley excels as the janitor brought in to tie other authors’ bastard children into the primary storyline. That sounds dismissive and insulting but I really don’t mean it that way – his clear enthusiasm for his colleagues’ material always comes through. Considering that Aaron, Dan and even Graham seem to have left projects and storylines hanging in ways they are unable (or unwilling) to address, I certainly hope Guy is called upon in future to deal with some more unresolved Heresy issues.

9/10

The Either by Graham McNeill: When I saw the title, I got to admit I got a little bit hard. As time goes by, it seems that Graham is closer and closer to saying “OK, maybe I got the Sons of Horus kind of wrong in ‘False Gods’, but I read ‘Little Horus’ and I get it now. I’m going to do them justice.” Perhaps that’s a very creative interpretation, or more likely, a biased one by someone who’s bitter than ‘Angel Exterminatus’ is widely hated and ‘False Gods’ is widely loved. While I didn’t relish what Graham did with Dan’s characters in his sequel to ‘Horus Rising’, I’ve been a big fan of the way he’s portrayed the Legion in ‘Vengeful Spirit’, and as I’ve said before, I think he’s somewhat unique in the Heresy authorial staff in that his last few additions to the series have been his best.

So, I love the Sixteenth Legion, and I love Graham’s modern work; I was already halfway erect. But a new short story about them? Focusing on Tybalt Marr of all people? That really gave me a chubby.

‘The Either’ unfolds in parallel to the events that begin ‘Vengeful Spirit’, starting with Marr arriving on Dwell after the failed assassination on Lupercal and Mortarion, ending with Horus about to depart for Molech. It's best to have some familiarity with 'Vengeful Spirit' before you tackle this, but it could also stand alone pretty well, since Marr has played little part in the series until now. He’s been relegated to a peripheral character, mostly - but here, Marr is revealed as a bitter, glory-hungry and vain warrior... yet an oddly likable one. These character-focused pieces certainly have their detractors, mostly the fans who think the series is just treading water now, but I think without building up characters we care about, BL can’t make us care when most of them die all horrible-like in the course of the war. And Graham’s not just building on a Traitor officer; he’s building on the character of the Legion. As with most of the recent Heresy offerings by Graham, it seems he’s one of the most openly influenced by the Forge World Heresy books, dropping little tidbits alluding to the deep Sons of Horus lore in those weighty tomes.

So how do things stand as this one draws to a close? The setup seems to be for a bloody showdown between Marr and Meduson, and to be honest, I can’t imagine either one walking away (maybe that’s just the fatalist in me) as they have both sworn to take the other’s head. While part of me thinks a simultaneous kill is a dumb and simplistic way for this story to close off, I could really go for, say, a novella following the two commanders as they circle the drain… and Graham certainly seems more prolific of late. Though his recently announced move to the States means it seems less likely he’ll be the one who gets to tie this strand off – perhaps Guy Haley could fill in…

But that’s probably a long way off. Even if this goes nowhere for a while, ‘The Either’ is a great story, and it’s the perfect way to close off this collection. 9/10

As a standalone product, ‘Meduson’ is a triumph. Even the obligatory duff story (sorry Gav) isn’t too bad. However, I’d love to dock it most of its positive score because of the way it’s being marketed. ‘Meduson’ is a cracking read, and a tribute to the Black Library authors’ ability to pull together and bring us a great, unified anthology by sticking to a few themes (arguably ‘Meduson’ is an even better example of this than ‘Mark of Calth’). So it’s kind of fucked that so few people can actually read it. If you’re a Horus Heresy fan, and you don’t feel your Shattered Legion threshold has been reached, you really should try to get your hands on a copy of this. Go on eBay, or get a friend who lives in or near Nottingham to pick you up a copy. For those who don’t have those options, a darker path might need to be considered. I dislike the idea of anyone torrenting these authors’ hard work (which they absolutely deserve financial restitution for), but considering the insanely restrictive walls Black Library have put around procuring ‘Meduson’, this is probably the only product in the Heresy you could illegally download without being a complete dirtbag. At least, in my eyes you’re not a dirtbag; BL’s legal team would no doubt have a different view.

Remember, though, BL have shown over time that their deployment of the word ‘exclusive’ is creative at best. You can take solace from the fact these stories may be added to a novella (‘The Seventh Serpent’ would be an obvious choice) and marketed as an all-new Heresy hardback in a couple years. As long as that’s not guaranteed, though… torrent away.

Kind of a bummer way to end the review, eh?

9/10

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

"Echoes Of Ruin" (audio drama compilation, various authors)

This is an anthology of the short-form ‘advent calendar’ Horus Heresy audio dramas Black Library did in December 2012 and 2013, plus an extra short audio drama exclusive to this collection. I really like this idea, but I had already bought the dramas individually when they came out, so I just downloaded the exclusive one (I appreciate them giving us that option). I do think the £3, ten minute audio dramas are a fun idea and when well executed, they’re excellent additions to the canon. If they’re not well executed, well, they’re ten minutes. It ain’t exactly another ‘Battle For The Abyss’.

This cover is actually kind of spoiler-y.

Veritas Ferrum by David Annandale: When I heard the next Horus Heresy novel would be a continuation of ‘Veritas Ferrum’, I was not particularly psyched. For a while this was my least favourite of any of the HH ‘advent calendar’ releases. The setting for this drama is during the initial, confusing moments of betrayal on Isstvan V, more specifically the fleet battle that broke out above the planet’s surface. This story focuses on one Iron Hands vessel in that space battle, the Veritas Ferrum of the title. Our characters here are two X Legion soldiers, Captain Durun Atticus and Sergeant Galba. Hey, Ramon Tikraam is in this audio drama! Guess how many people sound like Chinese commies in some 50s Hollywood propaganda movie? None. So yeah, he doesn’t HAVE to do that voice. I guess I should stop going on about ‘Sword Of Truth’ and its voice acting problems. In fact the voice performances are good here. The Iron Hands sound like stereotypical East End thugs, I was expecting Ray Winstone to walk in. Interesting choice, but it fits with the character of their Legion I suppose. I kind of always pictured the Iron Hands as Scottish though, I don’t know why. Their dialogue is nicely written, and there are some really impressive moments of void warfare as well. The initial antagonists are the Night Lords and Alpha Legion, which leads to a line which left an AL groupie like me really annoyed: “So, the individual is unimportant, is it Alpharius? Then what we’re about to do won’t hurt you at all.” You don’t get it do you, you Medusan bastard? You can kill an XX Legion cruiser, but the Legion is forever. Hail Hydra.

Once this conflict is resolved, we get a difficult situation for the Ferrum: They can save two Thunderhawks full of Salamanders, Raven Guard and Iron Hands, but only at great risk to their ship. I don’t think it’s too much of a spoiler to say they do the noble thing, BUT AT WHAT COST?! The way things are left, Sergeant Khi’dem of the Salamanders will, I imagine, be a primary antagonist for Atticus in ‘The Damnation Of Pythos’. And I really like the characterisation of Atticus, especially this line from his musings: “He would not believe that Ferrus Manus had been killed. Not unless he saw the Primarch’s body before him. Perhaps not even then.” Could be a bit of foreshadowing for a character slipping into denial after this great trauma. I dunno, I’ll have to read ‘The Damnation Of Pythos’ and find out I guess. Like I said, I didn’t like this at first, but each time I re-listened to it, I enjoyed it more. I give this 8/10.

Warmaster by John French: In the aftermath of Isstvan V, Horus Lupercal broods alone on the bridge of the Vengeful Spirit. ‘Warmaster’ takes the form of a monologue (you might even say a soliloquy) from Horus, giving us some insight into his mental state at this fairly significant time of his rebellion. Horus muses on the title ‘Warmaster’, his father, the brothers who are standing with him and against him, and his dissatisfaction with the way things stand at the moment. (It’s not clear whether this is before or after his famous/mysterious speech to the entire traitor host on Isstvan V. Probably after.) I’m just going to geek out and throw in a bunch of my favourite quotes here.

On Guiliman: “Roboute with his scratching quills and his plans and his hope. Too understanding. Too strong. Too damned perfect. I wish he was with us.”

On Alpharius: “The Hydra does not see all, and now his blindness places a knife at his own back.”

On the Traitor Legions: “At my back are only the flawed and damaged. I am a master of broken monsters… With such creatures I must remake the future.”

Yikes. Emotions running pretty high there. John French is a really good writer for Horus. He knows how to convey how much of a monster the Warmaster is, yet still make him more than one-dimensional, perhaps even sympathetic at times. It would be a real shame if he didn’t get another crack at writing for Lupercal, perhaps this time with some Sons Of Horus in the frame as well? Though I guess the list of things I really want John to write in HH is growing fairly unrealistic: Horus and his Legion, some Thousand Sons stuff to tie in with his Ahriman books, more Loken, more Tallarn stuff, more Dorn, more Sigismund, more Luther… I would be surprised if he ends up doing even two of those.

Anyway, while many stories here feel like little offcuts from a higher story, ‘Warmaster’ is completely self-contained. I really like that stinger at the end of the story, as well. Fuck Fulgrim, right? Overall, I give ‘Warmaster’ 9/10, and if you listen to just one of these audio ‘ministories’ you should make it this one.

Strike And Fade by Guy Haley: Quite some time after the Dropsite Massacre, four Salamanders survivors of different companies form an ad-hoc resistance cell to harry the traitors who remained behind. (If you’ve read the Forge World book ‘Extinction’, or the book ‘Deliverance Lost’ for that matter, you’ll know this conflict continued for a long time after the Massacre was done.) With that title, I was sure the Raven Guard would be the primary force, but oh well. While it’s just over ten minutes, ‘Strike And Fade’ manages to create some compelling characters, and the interplay between them (or lack of interplay, when it comes to the Silent Bob Salamander) makes me really want to hear more from Jafur and his brothers. Good writing and good voice acting; they work a lot when you’re trying to make your characters interesting. I’ve been fairly neutral towards most of the Salamanders characters in the HH series so far, and these were probably the first I actually liked. Maybe Nick Kyme having a stranglehold on Nocturne’s sons isn’t such a good idea, though I guess if I’m totally honest they were never my favourite Legion, purely based on their lore.

The action of this story comes as the cell ambushes a group of Night Lords. I never really read a convincing ‘bikes versus infantry’ battle scene, except perhaps Chris Wraight’s White Scars books, and this is no exception – that’s really the only weak point of ‘Strike And Fade’. The battle is fairly short, at least. It even builds a bit on the character of the Night Lords Legion – I never thought about it before, but naturally, the aftermath of Isstvan V would be more their preferred combat environment than the actual pitched battle.

This is a great story and I should mention that the soundtrack is particularly good, especially during Jafur’s conversation with the dying Raven Guard Legionary. I give this 8/10.

Lucius: The Eternal Blade by Graham McNeill: Following the events of ‘Angel Exterminatus’, the Emperor’s Children splintered into warbands. Brooding on his defeat, death and unexplained rebirth, Lucius ends up on the Planet Of The Sorcerors (somehow?) in search of a Thousand Sons Athanaean swordsman named Sanakht. The XV aren’t really a Legion noted for bladecraft, but deep down I think Lucius wants to murder a few people with inferior skills to him, just to get back on that horse.

There are a few similarities with the audio drama ‘Thief Of Revelation’, even beyond the setting and the appearance of Ahriman. Graham McNeill continues to write very well about the strange, warp-influenced landscape of the Planet Of The Sorcerors, and the way it’s slowly twisting the nature of the XV Legion. I really look forward to him expanding on this in the next Thousand Sons book.

Voice acting of characters is generally pretty good here but this narrator is not great, fairly slurred and seeming to have a bit more trouble than usual with some of the more ridiculous 40K lingo. It’s a problem I’d expect to encounter way more, and the fact that this problem is only apparent in this audio drama (to my recollection of the HH audio drama library) is a credit to Black Library really, they tend to choose the narrators well.

The most obvious comparison between this and ‘Thief Of Revelation’ is that both stories are clearly intended to be ‘teasers’ for Graham’s upcoming Thousand Sons novel, apparently called ‘The Crimson King’. Since Lucius and Sanakht aren’t mentioned in ‘Thief Of Revelation’ I assume ‘Eternal Blade’ took place after that story (unless Lucius just left after this, which’d be lame). I’d be interested to see how that goes; also Sanakht seems to be set up as a character in John French’s new Ahriman book, so I’m interested to see if he ‘remembers’ this story at all. I give this 7/10.

Khârn: The Eightfold Path by Anthony Reynolds: Man, I love the Russian Khârn, he’s pretty cool. This performance of Khârn is much more aggressive than the almost melancholy dignity he showed in ‘The Butchers Nails’ audio drama, which definitely makes sense following the events of ‘Betrayer’. The Nails are troubling him even more than before, and he hopes that the fighting pits can offer some kind of salve to the pain. Although Khârn is becoming more and more of a beast, he’s lost none of his bleak humour (“Sword against axe. Such a fight never lasts long.”) After a tense fight, we see a disturbing manifestation involving blood. Possibly sent by some kind of… blood god? Or possibly caused by the presence of so many screaming, berserk warriors.

‘The Eightfold Path’ just shows an event on the World Eaters’ path towards full-blown Khorne worship. Perhaps an insignificant event, but if you’re a XII Legion fan, you should check this out. It’s a nice little snapshot that doesn’t fuck around with any elements of Aaron’s World Eaters background (like the ongoing contempt shown to the supposed Legion elite, the Devourers), but uses them as a springboard to keep progressing the story.

Unlike most of the other stories in ‘Echoes Of Ruin’, ‘The Eightfold Path’ doesn’t seem to be an extended ‘trailer’ for anything. I’m not aware of any World Eaters stuff coming up, but Anthony Reynolds would be a good choice for a novel or novella about these guys, I think he’s got right attitude towards the existing fluff (and he’s definitely got Kharn’s narrative voice). Also, I think the production on here is particularly good, the soundtrack and effects are used incredibly effective (especially that brief moment of silence, followed by the return of the crowd’s roar). 9/10, perhaps even better than 'Warmaster'...

Cypher: Guardian Of Order by Gav Thorpe: Well, here’s a good way to wind down your pulse-rate after that amazing story. Some bullshit about two jerks doing very little. Ahh, I need to be more mature than that… but damn. So this is a story about Zahariel and Cypher checking out a possible site for a new Dark Angels fortress. We find that the recruitment rate has continued to rise, to the extent that new fortresses may be needed – so obviously any Fallen/Lion faction scuffle coming up is not going to go easy for anyone. But wait, remember that creepy monster under the North Wilds? Yeah, remember that hype-ass action sequence in that hype-ass book ‘Fallen Angels’? Apparently it’s totally back, according to some creepy and ill-defined bad feelings Zahariel gets.

I am very interested in a Fallen Angels Horus Heresy novel (which Gav will almost certainly be writing) and I actually like the idea of that book adopting a “slow burn” approach with lots of intrigue and backstabbing amongst the Fallen. But a short audio drama is probably the wrong format for introducing this concept. And while I don’t hate the first two HH Dark Angels books, I’m dubious that anything can be gained by recycling plot elements from them. The possible threat of widespread rebellion among Caliban’s citizens? We did it. A disgusting daemonic creature lurking in the arcologies? We been had that.

All kinds of dark questions are raised by this story, namely how much do Cypher and Luther know, and what’s their agenda? Do they want the same thing or are they at cross purposes? And why Cypher seems completely self-assured, then suddenly shakes with fear and runs off LIKE A LIL BITCH. Why? Hints at future plot points? Or inconsistent writing? And is the over-the-top reading of the last few lines meant to convey Zahariel in immediate danger, or is the narrator just freaking out? As the drama states, “Too many questions without answers.”

I’m not too fond of this one. I’d say 6/10.

Wolf’s Claw by Chris Wraight: I read the prose version already in the ‘Wolves Of Fenris’ collection, but I think audio format might be better for this though, especially for the frantic action scenes that bookend the story.

Following the events of ‘Scars’, Bjorn and the Space Wolves are still fighting the Alpha Legion. Unfortunately, Bjorn has not been able to secure a replacement for his chopped-off arm. Despite his favour with the Wolf King, there’s no queue-jumping in the Space Wolf forges. Unless you’re just a dick about it and steal shit! There’s not much to say here. Chris Wraight hasn’t written any duds as far as I can see, and he’s second only to Dan for writing Space Wolves I think (yeah, I don’t like Bill King). Toby Longworth’s voice acting is good, apart from giving me serious Skyrim flashbacks at times. (Hjolda! Jarl Balgruf here!) I guess the only fault is that this story seems kind of inconsequential, especially considering how Bjorn overcomes his primary obstacle. 7/10.

Some of these stories were superb, some were sub-par. But they were all worth a listen. If you haven’t heard any of them you might want to consider the CD purchase, if you’re not completely committed to the HH line you might just want to buy the one which involves your favourite Legion or author. Overall, I’d give it 8/10 as a collection. I hope we see more of these short-form audio dramas (and I’m sure we will).

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

"Mark Of Calth" (short story collection)

Time for another story collection! These do seem to be published with growing frequency in the HH line. I ain't complaining, as I've previously stated my love for them. This one is kind of unique, as it centres entirely around the ongoing war on Calth.

IT'S SERIOUS TIME GUYS.

We've had 'themed' collections before, but never around a single planetary conflict. Mind you, Calth is of such vast significance, it makes sense. I'm assuming this will mean the only Legions to appear will be Ultramarines and Word Bearers, but with the cultists, Imperial Army, Mechanicum, Titan Legions, and whatever ships remain in Calth's orbit, we're hardly going to be restricted to 8 stories of "blue and red team" marines slugging it out. This also could be seen as a companion piece to Know No Fear, which is one of my favourite books so far in the HH series, and certainly left a good amount of plot and character strands tantalisingly unresolved. So... I'm excited!

Shards Of Erebus: This is something of a 'prequel' to the action of Know No Fear. It's split between Erebus learning how to jack Philip Pullman and get his Subtle Knife on, and the gearing-up for war for the eight anointed commanders who were chosen for the great honour of leading the Word Bearers at Calth. With what we've learned from the last few HH books, we know that most of these lucky winners were in fact the high commanders of the XVII who had been found wanting in ability by Lorgar and could be... expended. So we get commanders like Foedral Fell and Hol Beloth as well as some who haven't made an appearance before. I was cursing myself trying to remember which of the commanders actually made it through the meatgrinder of Know No Fear, but I'm sure the rest of the stories in this volume will tell me soon enough...

I really liked both strands of the story. Erebus' arrogance and basic, well, evilness is explored on his dark pilgrimage, but we also get a sense of how paranoid and insecure he is becoming. He can't let himself believe that his dark patrons are using him, but he's happy to embrace mistrust of his brothers on the physical plane. A real theme of the last couple years of HH books is "Who's fucking who?" when it comes to Erebus and his schemes. This is build on nicely in Shards Of Erebus. Is he holding all the strings, or is he just a power-armoured puppet? I'm tending more and more to the second case...

From the sections where the Word Bearer host are preparing for war, we get a sense of how much the Legion has fallen. Remember 'The First Heretic' when they were united in brotherhood for a new cause? Now that the Primarch's attention is occupied elsewhere, it seems they've fallen into petty power struggles and backstabbing. Part of this is probably due to the incredibly poisonous influence of the Dark Cardinal. Kor Phaeron continues to be a real evil piece of shit, an arrogant, entitled bully. Knowing about the power-fisted whuppin' he's down to recieve on Calth just isn't enough. I want him dead! I want his family dead! I want to drive to the ruins of his house in the middle of the night and piss on his ashes! Sadly, I'm pretty sure we won't ever see this happen in BL fiction... but despite the Kordelia's dickishness, I give 'Shards Of Erebus' 8/10 - it's well written and an excellent showstarter.

Calth That Was: After the 'prequel' action of 'Shards Of Erebus', we get some shit picking up after the Atrocity at Calth. A few weeks after, to be more exact. This novella picks up on some major players from that book, including Ventanus and Tawren for the Loyalists, and Foedral Fell and Hol Beloth from the Word Bearers. Some new faces are introduced as well.

'Calth That Was' seems a tribute to Abnett's masterpiece in a lot of ways: it's strictly third person present tense throughout, and takes that novel's brusque, declarative tone. It also has that feeling of vertigo in the beginning, of events rushing towards an awful confusion, and when the tide of violence breaks, the action is just unceasing. I still don't think McNeill is as good at dialogue and characterisation as Abnett, BUT, this actually gives him an advantage when dealing with Ultramarines. The XIII Legion characters here are much more Ultramariney than they were in Know No Fear: humourless, one-track, and occasionally pompous. TOTALLY IN CHARACTER! And of course, while Foedral Fell and Hol Beloth were huge 'players' in the action of 'Know No Fear', we didn't get much 'face time' with them. (Well, nor here for that matter, but there's a good reason for that.) To top this off, Maloq is a truly repulsive antagonist, and he would have succeeded in his plan if it warn't for that pesky landspeeder - garn!

I won't give away much of the story. But with the hatred and despair of Ventanus and the Ultramarines growing, and the Word Bearers falling to ever more debased, desperate acts as they realise they've been discarded, both sides are in a fairly bad way. Full of twists and turns and great battle sequences, Calth That Was is a fitting continuation of 'Know No Fear'. I give it 9/10. At first I docked a point for the slightly disappointing abruptness of its ending, but fuck that. This is a short story after all.

Dark Heart: Some might know Anthony Reynolds from his 2 omnibuses (omnibii?) worth of Word Bearer novels set in the 40K universe. I haven't read them, but it makes sense that the hero, Marduk, would show up at some point in the HH timeline. And what better place than Calth? When we meet Marduk, he's been singled out for censure and hauled before Kor Phaeron - the story then becomes a flashback of him explaining the reason for his transgression, which impresses Kor Phaeron enough to keep Marduk alive.

And then later, the spiky red caterpillar became... a beautiful spiky red butterfly.

At this point a much more lowly grunt than the powerful warlord he would become, Marduk broods, listens to groove metal (don't think I didn't catch that Pantera reference, Reynolds...) and plots his ascension throughout the ranks of the 17th Legion. He's an interesting character, and the story is quite well written. Though I'm not instantly going to rush out and buy the Word Bearers novels, I am quite interested to find out what the arrogant, lethal young Marduk ultimately made of himself. Furthermore, this is a useful addition to the Calth background as it includes another perspective of a fantastically memorable scene in 'Know No Fear' (Kor Phaeron's heart? Meet Guilliman's fingers!) this time from a Word Bearer viewpoint. I give this 7/10, again, only missing out on a higher grade through the slightly sudden, cut-off ending (yep, I know I'm contradicting myself now).

The Traveller: Humans trapped in the arcology system get a raw deal in this story collection, don't they? In 'The Traveller', terrified Imperial citizens beneath Calth unwittingly feel the influence of dark powers they cannot hope to comprehend. They quickly fall back on their worst instincts and begin killing the funny-looking or creepy refugees who they suspect might be up to something. Surely a sign of the direction the Imperium will take... though it says a lot that the clearer-headed influence of the Astartes wasn't present at all for this story.

It's not exactly an original concept, and it doesn't progress the story of any of the key players in 'Fear To Tread', but 'The Traveller' drives home the awfulness of being an 'ordinary' person on Calth following the Betrayal. It also carries on with the story concerning the dark force which took the Campanile (the vessel whose death kicks off the massacre at Calth). Actually, therein lies the only thing I dislike in this story. In Know No Fear the italicised creepy daemon voice interruption of action was used sparingly and was absolutely terrifying. Here it's used horrormuch redblood spasms frequently awful cries way too much and shortly becomes bad goth poetry. A shame, because without OOH WAHH-AH-AH down with the sickness the story is great. Again, a story that is only just short of excellent. 7/10.

A Deeper Darkness: In this slightly predictable but solid story, Ultramarines find themselves stalked through the arcology by something those horrid Word Bearers have brought forth without truly comprehending its power. We have a slightly predictable scenario of Ultramarines and soldiers separating into teams and slowly losing contact with each other, one by one. Hmmm, d'you think there might just end up being one or two left?

Tetrarch Nicodemus makes another appearance, mainly to let us know he's still alive. But really, no major players make themselves known here apart from that, and unlike saving or killing thousands of enemies or innocents, the stakes are somewhat smaller here. There are only a few soldiers going into peril here and they're a minor element of a much larger force. But after so many stories where whole armies are in the balance, somehow smaller seems to work just as well, and be just as dramatic. The ambiguity and suddenness of the ending, something I've been complaining about a lot in this collection, is actually used very well here. Despite all this, there's something about Rob Sanders stories that means I just don't really get pumped for them. Same as for 'The Crimson Fist' and 'The Iron Within'. Well written and engaging enough to not get mad at, but missing that certain something that would put them up with the best stories in this collection. Again, it'll have to be 7/10.

The Underworld War: Beginning to read The Underworld War, I'll be honest, I got feelings of dread. It's taken me around half a year of pretty solid reading, but I'm nearly up to the end of the published HH series. I know 'Vulkan Lives' is just around the corner, and there are (I'll be honest) more exciting books than that on the way that are makin' my claws flex in anticipation. But... for the first time, I'll be finishing an HH book without saying "Welp, time to start the next one". All I can do is... start all over again. Or maybe... read some non BL books. Yikes. Luckily, there are short stories by Dan Abnett and, yes, Aaron Dembski-Bowden still between me and that dark, curséd point.

Hoping to illustrate how empty my life will be without new HH books, I googled 'sadness'. This was one of the first images to come up. Yeah, Sanguinius is a little more voluptuous than I pictured him...

So here we are in the Underworld War, back to the Word Bearers perspective. At this point, these chaps have been fighting the Ultramarines for... wait, seven years?! That means the Age Of Darkness is pretty much done. For you, Word Bearer, zee war iss over! And these poor schmucks don't have a clue. At this point, I'm there, "I knew the Ultramarines were a long time bringing relief to Calth, but I didn't realise the shit dragged on this long."

This story focuses on a single Gal Vorbak warrior who decides to leave the arcology behind and travel the surface of Calth. It's great seeing the long-term ruin that was made of Calth firsthand. Our hero, Kartaul, gives himself a mission is to gather artefacts of each destroyed Word Bearer Chapter that Lorgar sacrificed at Calth. I don't know what he plans to achieve in attempting to shame his Primarch - does he think Lorgar's just going to start weeping or something? But it's an oddly noble goal, and it's well told. And of course, Aaron is the guy who's handled the Word Bearers story for much of the Heresy, so naturally he's not content to just do a simple battle story - he wants to progress the character of the Legion.

I used to read White Dwarf magazine.

'The Underworld War' has a nasty sting in its tale, nasty for the reader more than the characters, something that is in some ways the equivalent of ending a lengthy story with "...but then I woke up". But it's not quite that awful and hacky a device; split between prophecy and alternate reality, I'll admit it fucking pissed me off at first, but I got to like it. Somehow, it's all the more poignant for never really having happened. And of course, being an Aaron story, this is one of the better-written stories in the whole collection, which counts for a lot. All in all I'd give this 8/10.

Athame: A bit of a curveball this. Of course, the athames are quite an important part of the Horus Heresy and Word Bearer cultures. But I'm not sure they're as 'Calth-specific' as merits a solo story in 'Mark Of Calth'. Accordingly, this is the least Calth-centric story in the collection. Athame takes it back... WAY back. What I love about the HH line is it's unafraid to fuck around with allusions to modern day myth or events, something that 'modern day' 40K tends to blanket with "oooh nobody in the Imperium REALLY knows about what happened 100 years ago, let alone 38,000 years ago!" type shit. So Athame takes us from pre-historic/mythical Earth through ages of darkness into the 'modern day' of Word Bearers sticking their dicks into the immaterium and finally, whaddya know it, the damn thing ends up on Calth (with a bonus little allusion to 'Prospero Burns', as well). This facetious review makes it sounds like a mere diversion but I don't think Athame could have been any more masterfully done. This almost makes me want to pick up Ahriman: Exile as soon as it drops (though I'll probably wait for the paperback tbh). I give Athame 9/10. Oh yeah, and ultimately this athame is picked up by Oll Persson (at the end of 'Know No Fear'), which leads us nicely to...

Unmarked: He's an odd bird is Oll Persson. At first, I figured his name to just be a clumsy pun on 'Old Person', since he seems to have been around since the beginning of Earth's history. A reincarnating, forever-living 'everyman' isn't really a new concept. Perhaps he's an Eternal Champion riff. Perhaps he's the ultimate form of Orlando. But we do know he's not the only one of his kind. It's heavily implied the Emperor himself is one. We know John Grammaticus was one (and I'm sure we haven't seen the last of him) and we know that creepy/rapey dude who snatched up Cyrene at the end of Betrayer is one. And fuck knows what that guy has planned. But Oll Persson might be more than just some reincarnating hosejockey. He's special in his own special way. There's a throwaway line in this story where we find out he used to be known as 'Pious' for his adherence to the old Catheric faith (which I guess is Catholicism for offensive oriental stereotypes). Hmm, I thought, remembering a video where Dan Abnett talks about adding the myth of Ollanius Pius AKA the Patron Saint of the Imperial Guard who fought (and died) at the side of the Emperor during The Ceremonial Blazin' Of Terra. Doing a bit of research on Pius, I found out he was just a normal Imperial Guard dogshit trooper (with 2 days til retirement) who leaped in front of a psychic blast from Horus meant for the Emperor. It would appear that he took the brunt of the blast and shielded the Emperor (which makes no sense anyway. If this blast can't just go through a human like wet paper and in fact a human body robs it of its deadly force... what's it gonna do against the King of Kings?). Apparently his last words were "My one regret... is... being flayed alive hideously... ow."

He had just two days until retirement.

As you might have realised, taking this fruity-ass story and turning it on its head is probably the worst thing that GW have ever done. Quite frankly, the chatty rooms are going nuts over this shit. You would think that Dan had applied spicy BBQ sauce direct to the rectums of every IG player. "Dan Abnett is just a bad writer, period" and "The Horus Heresy series is the worst thing to ever happen to 40K" and "How did this clown get anywhere near Pius? I may just smash up my whole Guard army - FOR SHAAAAAAAAME!" are just some of the nicer stuff that's being said.

I've been butthurt about this kind of stuff before, granted. 'Butthurt For The Abyss', for one thing. But ultimately, the thing I feel is kind of cool about the Games Workshop fandom is the way it's frequently willing to pull the rug from under you. And that's been the watchword for HH all this time. Horus and Lorgar were a couple of assholes? The Loyalist Primarchs were all flawless dudes? The Emperor was always the God-King of Mankind and revered as its galactic saviour? This is some shit that we don't take for granted anymore. Ignore for a second that you feel it's all a gigantic conspiracy to sell more GW models. What do you think they gain by changing this fluff? Do you think they believe by stopping this minor character from being some random chode who yells "NOOOOOOO" and dives across a corridor in slow motion, and changing the guy into Elric van Jesus, they're going to increase revenue by 200%?

The face of the devil, apparently.

Besides, Abnett doesn't exist in a vacuum. Any 'fluff-fucking' he wants to get into, you know, he has to put past the other HH writers and the Black Library (and Games Workshop) head honchos. And sure, they can all say they hate it and shoot it down and he can be forbidden to write it, and then write it anyway while cackling and masturbating cause he's Dan foch'n Abnett ye ken but that's probably not what happens, is it? It probably wasn't even his idea to write it like that. So maybe let's try stop being such utter cunts to Dan, shall we?

Anyway, 'Unmarked' carries on the story where 'Know No Fear' left off. Oll and his rag-tag group of adventurers are on some Philip Pullman shit, cutting through realities, falling into different worlds and different times, desperately trying to reach Terra in M31 in time for their graduation speech. I've ranted too long so I don't really want to give much away about 'Unmarked', but it's pretty fucking mental. There are dark hints about John Grammaticus (motherfucker is definitely Into Some Shit), dark hints about Maloq Kartho or what he may come to be known as, and of course, dark hints that Oll's death may be coming (well, we already knew that). If you're already an Oll hater, then this isn't gonna help you out much, since there's some more stuff about him being one of Jason's original Argonauts (which seems to be one of the primary causes of anal fissures among "PIUS WAS JUST A NORMAL DUDE" shippers). For those who are already down for The Pius Cause, the shit will just about make you weep boy. Oh boy, I can't wait for these crazy kids to continue their adventures!!! Naturally, I give Unmarked 9/10.

In conclusions... I've already gone on for waaaaaaay, way too long. But I give 'Mark Of Calth' a 7/10. It probably could be an 8/10, but I was a little disappointed by some of the stories I had, perhaps, unrealistic hopes for. This was balanced out by some stories I was expecting to be trash, being kind of fun. I certainly don't think this is proof the Heresy series has irrevocably stalled, and I'm glad that it looks like the story collections will be published with increasing frequency ('The Shadow War' and 'The Shattered Legions' are the next pencilled-in releases for the series). I hope we can start to move away from Calth now, though. Getting mighty sick of that planet.

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