"The Lion" by Gav Thorpe

I suspect (though, of course, cannot confirm) that ‘The Lion’ was supposed to be immediately followed by ‘Prince of Crows’ to close out ‘The Primarchs’. Chronology-wise, the two stories are as firmly linked, in their way, as ‘Feat of Iron’ and ‘Promethean Sun’; arguably more so, as ‘Crows’ seems to follow ‘The Lion’ by a matter of days. But, of course, that’s not how the table of contents ended up. It’s not impossible to believe that Aaron was a little late with the story – but then, if this was the case, one looks at the sheer quality of ‘Prince of Crows’ and thinks “Well, I don’t mind waiting.”

Still one of the cooler Legion sigils.

‘The Lion’ is a sequel to ‘Savage Weapons’, and we join the First Legion as they continue to prosecute the Night Lords in the Thramas crusade. It’s also a sequel to ‘Fallen Angels’, as it picks up Nemiel’s storyline again. However, ‘The Lion’ goes to some places you might not expect from those two starting points. Mere pages in, we’re off to a planet called Perditus (Oh, Games Workshop, I do so enjoy your creatively named planets) as the Lion chooses to go and interfere in a conflict between the Iron Hands and Death Guard, leaving the bulk of his Legion to keep fighting in Thramas. Aside from a brief cameo, Kurze’s mob aren’t here, though by the novella’s close, the Lion has procured the device necessary to break the Thramas deadlock – hence tying this story in to the terrific drubbing the Angels give the Night Lords not once but twice in ‘Prince of Crows’, the impact of which would only have increased if ‘Crows’ had been the last novella here – but I’ve said enough about that already.

I don’t think I’m alone in considering AD-B’s ‘Savage Weapons’ the best Dark Angels Heresy fiction so far. Gav tries hard to follow up that compelling portrait of the secretive First Legion and their mercurial Primarch, but by making the Lion a viewpoint character, the mystery is dispelled a little. Historically I’ve been more in favour of Primarch viewpoints than Primarchs being shown as remote and unknowable (‘The First Heretic’, ‘Angel Exterminatus’ and ‘The Unremembered Empire’ being some prime examples), but I really feel that with his near-pathological aversion to showing his motivations, the Lion is incredibly poorly suited to being a narrator, perhaps only second to Alpharius. So what does Gav do? Shows the Lion’s motivations all over the place. Rather than building on Aaron’s compelling but (by necessity) rather sketched portrait of an arrogant, imperious templar-king in space, Gav takes it back to the end of ‘Fallen Angels’: the Lion’s motivation here seems to be little developed beyond “I’M P-NOID, MY HOMIES SAY I’M P-NOID!” (A bit of Clipse humour there.) He also has apparently unexplained swerves in temper – sure, he was always stern with his Legion, but going from slightly paranoid doubts about his subordinates to straight up executing one of them over a dispute of ethics? It seems a rather dramatic swerve, but more on that later. It feels like Gav wrote with the words ‘Mystery’ and ‘Reveal nothing’ above his desk but only looked up at them from time to time – during one period of soul-searching, the Lion notices a blade from Luther on the ship, but his inner monologue gives no indication of how he feels about that character; shortly after he kills Nemiel we’re privy to a moment of the Lion’s quiet reflection, but he doesn’t even vaguely consider the ramifications of what he just did.

The Lion is a patronising egotistical bastard with poorly hidden doubts as to the superiority he trumpets; he’s also a genius strategist and a superlative warrior even for a Primarch. It’s safe to say he’s a fascinating character and while I don’t think this is a bad portrayal of him, it’s a shame it took until ‘The Unremembered Empire’ for his character to reach three dimensions. (And even there, he was mostly shown from the outside – we weren’t given much insight into his thoughts.) Perhaps it would be best for us to NEVER be inside the Lion’s head. It’s still hard to read where his character is going in the Heresy-era – though his conversation with the Lord of Change during this story seems to offer some hints.

Sadly, the ‘little brothers’ take some hits as well. Corswain goes from one of the best Loyalist characters I’ve ever read (honourable, bleak-humoured but dour, someone whose heroism seems genuinely warranted rather than lazy SUPERCOOLGUY plot armour) to a generic, habitually-bowing Space Captain Man. The others, primarily created for this story, aren’t any better. And Nemiel – well, Nemiel was always kind of shite, so I can’t say this book is worse for him, but fuck, I’d hoped they would somehow improve on him before shuffling him off. In terms of making the Dark Angels an interesting Legion dramatically distinct from their 40k-era incarnation… nope. The only slightly interesting element in the dialogue here is the Dark Angels’ overuse of “my liege” in deference to the Lion. In fact, in one three-page scene, “my liege” is used no less than eight times. A clever lampoon of the Dark Angel’s pomposity and lack of imagination, or lazy writing? You decide. Am I just an asshole for wanting Dark Angels to always talk like gloomy monastic knights, possibly ones from France or Germany? It’s fluff-appropriate, but it’s also difficult to pull off without them sounding stilted and awkward.

The Night Lords do appear here, briefly. For a while I thought this was the worst Night Lords portrayal in the whole series, but that’s unfair. It’s too short to be called bad. It is, however, a bit of a plot failure. They track the Dark Angels through the warp in a way which should be impossible (barring warp trickery) before destroying their own ship in an apparent suicide attack which allows daemons to manifest on the Invincible Reason. Since it’s been established that the Eighth had a general disdain for magic and daemons during the Heresy, this seems unusual (and also – maybe this is the Legion least likely to mount a suicide attack?) but the Night Lords also had mad enough ‘fringe elements’ to make it far from impossible. What I resent is the complete lack of an attempt to even halfway explain it. Just a few sentences on how this Captain was a radical, crazy former psyker who went mad following Isstvan, or something like that, would be enough to shut me up on that regard. But no, just more navel-gazing from the Lion.

This plot point leads into a significant action in First Legion history, the first time they face daemons (well, I guess some of those monsters on Caliban were pretty suspicious) and a wonderful opportunity to explore the Legion’s their grip on the secular Imperial Truth – but that’s an opportunity Gav seems to ignore. In fact, the daemon fights in ‘The Lion’ have the same problems the majority of daemon fights have for me in the Heresy fiction:

1) No dialogue or possibility of the two sides relating in any way other than a full-on brawl. It’s tough to get too invested in a conflict where one side will remain voiceless and receive no viewpoint narration and the other side has no emotional response beyond shocked revulsion (as opposed to the myriad other reactions traitor v loyalist battles can play with).

2) There are only so many times I can read the same old rundown of the various daemon types and then get descriptions of their basic attack methods. Yep, those are Nurgle daemons doing Nurgle shit; yep, there’s some Daemonettes being all seductive; and look, a Lord of Change for the boss battle. Now, obviously GW’s product line restricts what the writers can do – but think about the variations and fresh character the writers can give to that old Tactical or Assault squad of Space Marines. Couldn’t daemons be similarly varied in their approach? Even the language used feels like each writer is cribbing from the same hopelessly understocked pool of adjectives; from my recall, only ‘Damnation of Pythos’, ‘First Heretic’ and, weirdly, ‘Battle for the Abyss’ have been remotely creative in their physical descriptions of daemons.

3) I feel like I’ve read ten or eleven “This is the first time we’ve fought daemons!” scenes and absolutely no “We’ve fought daemons before, so let’s use that knowledge” scenes. It’s getting real fucking old. I try to suspend my disbelief a lot with Heresy books, but with daemon fights, each time I read a “NEVER SEEN THIS SHIT BEFORE” statement, I think Guess what? I’ve seen this shit too many times.

Of course, the most memorable thing to come out of this sequence is the summary execution of Nemiel. After a forceful but brief argument about the Lion’s proposed breakage of the Nikean Edicts, El’Johnson karate-chops the Redemptor’s head off. Remember what I said in my last review about Graham’s brutal murder of high-ranked characters making the point that the Heresy was perilous and plot armour was in short supply? Well, this ain’t that. I don’t know what it is. For a while I thought this ‘interrupt’ of the Nemiel/Zadkiel arc was really clever and subversive – but now, in a wider context, it just looks horribly confused. Perhaps it was a way for Gav to distance himself from ‘Descent of Angels’ and ‘Fallen Angels’, which were not necessarily the best received books in the early Heresy. But by truncating this character’s storyline so dramatically, and then apparently leaving the drama to go stale (none of the Dark Angels work since this has referenced Nemiel’s execution), it feels like a flagrant waste of a character with a little bit of potential. As it stands, it looks like Nemiel’s murder is just going to give Zadkiel some motivation to rebel against the Imperium – but he’d kinda already done that by the time 'The Lion' was published, sooooooo... hm.

One thing I do really like about ‘The Lion’ is Calas Typhon popping up, and I think it’s the first time he’s been shown since ‘Flight of the Eisenstein’. While the character is a long way off being the best-developed equerry in the series, Gav’s portrayal of Typhon at this point of the Heresy made sense – he’s not full-on corrupted yet, but he’s openly vowing to ‘the Father’. I suppose that as he’s a former Librarian, it makes sense that he’d be gifted with some knowledge of the dark powers behind this war. The physical corruption and the gifts of Nurgle are beginning, as well – all in all, ‘The Lion’ is a nice development for Typhon following the initial impressions we got in ‘Flight of the Eisenstein’. Around the same time that Typhon shows up, we get some Iron Hand characters, but they’re of minimal interest, being fairly bland Loyalists rather than the psychotic sadomasochists the 10^th seem to always be portrayed as these days. One kind of cool thing about these guys: Midoa, the Iron Hand warrior, has extensive facial augmetics which make him speak in a “sing-song cadence”. I don’t know if Gav intended for me to hear all Midoa’s dialogue in the autotuned voice of T-Pain, but that’s what I did.

Gav is a little like Nick Kyme, in that he’s written stuff for the Heresy which I really like, and stuff I very nearly despise – and it’s difficult for me to articulate what the difference is between the two types of work. In both, you’ll find overblown battle scenes, fairly shallow characters, a healthy respect and knowledge for 40K’s ‘lore’, a willingness to disregard or revise that lore when it best serves the story, and the distinctive White Dwarf writing style. ‘The Lion’ is not a great novella, and it doesn’t leave me massively optimistic for Gav’s HH Dark Angels novel supposedly coming this year, ‘Angels of Caliban’. But it’s not terrible either. It’s exactly the standard I expect from the Black Library, and that’s a little depressing, but it’s not enough to make me give up forever. Yep, you guessed it: 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.

"Corax: Soulforge" by Gav Thorpe

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"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.

"The Imperial Truth" (short story collection)

Today, exclusive to PurpleHeresy, a review of the just-announced HH limited edition novella "The Purge"! I hope you're ready for a lot of anorexia jokes!

Ahh, I'm just fucking with you. Today I'm reviewing 'The Imperial Truth'.

"And over there, you can see some horrible fucking compression."

‘The Imperial Truth’ was a stand-alone, limited-edition novella available only to attendees of the 2013 Horus Heresy Weekender, and for a long time ‘TIT’ (jeez I better not use THAT acronym) was one of my primary reasons to curse Black Library for a bunch of bastards. Why were they so keen to dry-fuck the fans who weren’t able to spend £70 for admission, plus train fare, to go to Nottingham and buy a bunch of limited editions in the £20-£30 range? Ah, I guess my question answers itself. We live in a capitalist democracy, so we always have a choice of “to buy or not to buy”. I think I was angrier because of the fact people said these stories were really good. BL release schedules being what they are (and ‘exclusive’ basically being meaningless with them) I knew that we’d get these stories eventually, but I wanted them now, now, now, right now! Luckily, when the ‘last few hundred copies’ went on sale in the Black Library vault, I managed to snap one up pretty quick. It’s now sold out, which I think means we’ll either get these in e-book form in the next few months, or they’ll bring it out as a non-limited novella next year – so take heart if you didn’t get a chance to buy it. Hopefully, the 2014 Weekender anthology ‘Perdition’s Gate’ will also be added to the vault this time next year, as I hear that one’s pretty fucking good as well. Without further preamble let’s get into the stories in this collection.

Hands Of The Emperor by Rob Sanders: In the context of the HH series, Rob is seen as one of the key Alpha Legion authors, but instead of XX Legion shenanigans, here he tackles one of my favourite areas of the Heresy: Age Of Darkness-era Terra. Our main character is a Custodian Guard called Stentonox, one of Constantin Valdor’s immediate subordinates, and we follow him as he tries to get through his 24-hour shift as Master of the Watch for the Imperial Palace. We learn this position is cycled between a different member of the Custodes every day, which is a pretty cool detail I think. Anyway, shit gets pretty outta control for Stentonox fairly quickly as he attempts to fulfil his role (apparently somewhere between police chief, air traffic controller and diplomatic envoy). Before long he’s in direct conflict with a complement of Imperial Fists who are manoeuvring an airborne ‘continental plate’ into the restricted airspace above the palace, and refuse to acknowledge his authority, saying only that Dorn’s word will be carried out. These continental plates are basically Bespin’s Cloud City, so you can understand the Custodes’ concern over not being in control of their movements. So how far will each side go to assert their authority, and will the long-simmering mutual resentment between Astartes and Custodes come to the fore? Sheeeeeit, do you even have to ask?

I really like these glimpses of the Imperial Palace. Rob Sanders brilliantly evokes the galactic capital’s atmosphere of desperation, mistrust, and frantic activity, with the defenders hoping they will be able to shore up Terra before the storm comes. It shows that even warriors who would normally be seen as upstanding and forthright can be drawn into intrigue and shadowplays simply by circumstance. And I like the way that the story isn’t neatly resolved in all aspects by the time it finishes; you get the feeling that its consequences will linger, particularly in the festering grudges of the Imperial Fist captain who opposes Stentonox. For my money this is a much better Custodes story than ‘Blood Games’ – but then I never loved that story too much. I give this 9/10.

Phoenician by Nick Kyme: A first-person monologue from the perspective of a mortally wounded Iron Hands Morlock Terminator on Isstvan V, this is the first of two ‘microstories’ in the collection, only lasting for a few pages. Who cares about some dying, flesh-spare bastard’s miserable last thoughts, right? Except… he’s watching the duel between Ferrus Manus and Fulgrim. Due to its length there’s not much to say about this one, except that I loved it. I feel the quality of the writing here is far above Nick Kyme’s usual standard (which I find capable, but bland). Thanks to their portrayal so far, as well as their general ‘fluff’, I don’t really like the Iron Hands at all as a Legion, but Kyme made me sympathise with his viewpoint character before I’d even finished the first paragraph. We’ve read about the Fulgrim/Manus duel in a few places before, but here it’s given a fresh lick of paint so it doesn’t feel too repetitive. And hey, the Morlock was lucky enough to die before witnessing that clumsy dumb-shit ‘What have I DDDDOOOOOONNNNEEEE’ moment Graham put in ‘Fulgrim’. Hey, you might like that moment, but I personally hate it. A lot. Overall I’d give this 8/10. I’d say Nick should be given a shot at another Iron Hands story, but ‘Feat Of Iron’ was… not my favourite. Maybe just ask him to write ‘microstories’ from now on?

By The Lion’s Command by Gav Thorpe: So I guess Corswain is now just a Gav character. I wouldn’t mind, but the drop-off in characterisation is comparable to the Torgaddon drop-off between ‘Horus Rising’ and ‘False Gods’. Ahh well. This is another Gav Thorpe Dark Angels story. I liked ‘Call Of The Lion’ a lot, but ‘The Lion’ was a little problematic for me (a few too many ‘why the fuck…’ moments). With Dan Abnett now the author associated with Lion El’Jonson for the HH storyline, Gav takes the plot strand of “what happened to the rest of the Dark Angels after the Lion went to Ultramar?” No Night Lords here (thank fuck, after that horrible bullshit in ‘The Lion’), so I guess Thramas is done. Instead, the First Legion are chasing Calas Typhon and the Death Guard from system to system; on this occasion, the two sides square off near a planet which has seceded from the Imperium, but not declared for Horus, and whose governor makes his contempt for both sides fairly clear. An interesting moral conundrum which is dealt with… fairly ambiguously by the Dark Angels.

Despite Corswain now just being a cardboard cut-out of a high-ranking Dark Angel rather than a black-humoured badass, there is little wrong with ‘By The Lion’s Command’. It moves along at a good clip and there’s a nice heel-turn by Corswain at the end. My only minor complaint was that there were absolutely no Death Guard characters here, but it was a short story and really, a lengthy Typhon scene would have served little narrative purpose. What’s most interesting is the direction hinted at in the last few pages. Corswain is splitting the Legion, with some of them most likely continuing to hunt Typhon (perhaps setting the First as the antagonists in the hopefully forthcoming Death Guard novel?) and searching for Leman Russ’ forces to combine their strength (setting up thousands of ‘culture shock’ buddy comedies with Adam Sandler as the blue-collar Space Wolf and Andy Samberg as the clean-cut Dark Angel) but others heading to… Caliban. I admit my dick twitched at that news, as I’ve been craving a Fallen Angels novel since ‘Grey Angel’. And the loyalist First will be headed up by Belath, which sets things up nicely for a possible Astelan/Belath showdown (what do you mean “no one cares”? I CARE!!). I assume Gav will tie this story strand in to the Cypher story he’s apparently writing for ‘Legacies Of Betrayal’.

In another anthology, with less impressive neighbours, my hype levels might have pushed this to a 8/10… but it’s 7/10 for me now. I still think Gav is much better suited to the Raven Guard, but maybe that’s because I think it takes a LOT to make the knightly pomposity of the Dark Angels interesting. Only Aaron and Dan have done it for me so far.

The Devine Adoratrice by Graham McNeill: As of yet, the only story in the collection which has been released as a standalone e-book. A prequel set some decades before ‘Vengeful Spirit’, this is concerned with the Devine noble house, who play a major part in that book as Knights on Molech. You don’t need to read ‘The Devine Adoratrice’ before you read ‘Vengeful Spirit’, but maybe you should, as I think it deepens the characterisation of the repulsively arrogant Devines, and adds more gravitas to their fall. Granted, none of these characters develop hugely as a result of the events which unfold here. They’re massive shits in ‘VS’, they’re massive shits here. But Graham writes smoothly and evocatively about an unusual, interesting culture that’s not quite the Imperial norm, and ALSO puts in some stuff where a big robot does the Hulk Smash.

The end reveal – Raeven and Lyx’s affair is even more taboo because THEY ARE TWINS! – was more of an eyeroll moment for me than a shock. I guess ‘Vengeful Spirit’ mentioned this plot point and I read that first, but I must have forgotten since then, since my reaction wasn’t “Oh yeah, I remember that now!” but “What? That’s weird and kind of dumb.” I guess Slaanesh loves incest, but we already knew that shit. As I’ve pointed out before it’s dumb to assume authors are reading the same books that I am, and the ‘degenerate incestuous nobles’ is kind of a common trope, but I REALLY feel like there’s a Jaime/Cersei theme with this shit. But hell, who cares? Me being a whiny little bitch isn’t enough to stop ‘TDA’ being a comfortable 8/10.

Lord Of The Red Sands by Aaron Dembski-Bowden: Remember that brief introductory vignette in ‘Betrayer’ with a few pages of Skane on Isstvan III, finding Kharn’s almost-dead body? This microstory is in a very similar vein. (Heh, vein.) A deepening of the World Eaters culture and way of war in just a few pages. Aaron writes about Angron’s mad rampage through the Loyalist survivors of the virus-bombing with panache and skill. It’s AD-B, of course he does. But it’s not all flying blood and viscera. Angron’s almost tender treatment of a dying Loyalist World Eater centurion he sees as worthy of respect shows that Aaron is the master of bringing dimension to characters who GW often treated as paper-thin before the HH series started. And our peek into Angron’s internal monologue regarding his ambitions and motivations… well, you might be surprised what we find. 8/10 for this; I think the writing quality is perfect, but it’s just too short to call it compulsory reading – though if you liked ‘Betrayer’, you need this story in your life. I believe you can buy it as part of the ‘Angron’ audio/ebook bundle from Black Library.

All That Remains by James Swallow: A story of Loyalist human soldiers, survivors of rebellions on their own worlds which led to them facing daemons. Shell-shocked (or warp-shocked) yet still unbroken, they are determined to carry on the fight against Horus… until they drop out of the Empyrean, becalmed for NO RAISIN. I’ll be brief here, because it’s not a heavily plot-focused story. The emphasis is on building the characters and this is done brilliantly. It’s not just humans in this story. Halfway through we are introduced to a Knight Errant formerly of the Thousand Sons Legion, and I am going NUTS trying to work out if we’ve seen this character before. The story is resolved nicely, with some more humans for Malcador’s ‘Silent Army’, and… what’s this… the hundreds of psychically capable young boys in the hold may be redirected to Titan and turned into Space Marines? FFFFUCK. If Jim Swallow gets to do a Grey Knights Founding novel, especially if he writes it to the standard shown here, I will BREAK OFF MY DICK with all the pounding. Having said that, sometimes I feel that Swallow is better at the short stories (‘Forgotten Sons’ was also excellently written). However, this feels like something from towards the end of the HH timeline – the soldiers here have seen Thousand Sons standing with Horus’ forces and summoning daemons, which certainly hasn’t happened ‘yet’ in the main HH timeline. Still, the fact that Titan is on the table at all at the moment is very encouraging and I hope they follow up on it – even if it’s set post-Heresy, I’ll buy that shit fo sho. This is a 9/10 story for sure.

All I can say in conclusion is “Shit yeah”! This reminds me of ‘Age Of Darkness’, back when it felt like almost every story was an awesome set-up for an exciting novel that would come further down the line. I continue to have reservations about BL pushing ‘event only’ anthologies – imagine what it’s like for HH fans in Brazil or Japan – but as long as we get them EVENTUALLY, I can’t be too mad. I give ‘The Imperial Truth’ an overall score of 9/10. It’s releases like this that remind me the Horus Heresy is probably my all-time favourite series of books.

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