"Censure" by Nick Kyme

It is almost two years since the events of ‘Know No Fear’, and the Underworld War still rages on Calth between the remnants of the XIII and XVII Legion left to fight it out by their Primarchs. The surface of Calth is a rad-soaked wasteland and even Space Marines can’t stay out there too long – not that Aeonid Thiel is one to accept what ‘can’t’ be done. When their underground base is overrun by Chaos forces, Thiel’s commanding officer commands him to escape and plan a rescue for his comrades. But how effective can a lone Space Marine really be? And is the lone mortal soldier accompanying Thiel going to be a help, or a hindrance?

NEVER LOOK AT THE CAMERA

‘Censure’ is written in third person present tense, much like ‘Know No Fear’. While I found ‘Honour To The Dead’ annoyingly transparent in its attempt to be just like Dan Abnett’s Calth masterpiece, ‘Censure’ feels like its own beast – the setting and plot would have fit nicely in the ‘Mark of Calth’ anthology, and probably would have made that compilation seem a bit more varied.

After some short stories I was indifferent about and a novel I really struggled to get through, ‘Censure’ was the release that convinced me Nick Kyme had something important to offer to the Heresy series. He writes Thiel to a standard arguably equal to Dan, though I suppose it’s an unfair comparison. While Thiel was an interesting character in ‘Know No Fear’, he was just one man in a rather large cast. Here, Nick is able to focus on him almost exclusively, and the ways his character grows are sometimes unexpected, but always welcome. An important part of Nick’s writing is that Thiel in ‘Censure’ seems to be the same person as the forward-thinking, insubordinate hero we liked in ‘Know No Fear’. It’s not a complete copy of course – that would mean there was no character growth at all – but inconsistency of characters when an authorial switch happens has been one of my main annoyances in the Heresy series, so this was a nice surprise.

The drama begins with Aeonid Thiel outwitting two invader militia troopers in a deadly ambush using rather unconventional means. In fact, Aeonid is breaking convention all over the place here: out above ground in Calth’s wasteland operating solo is not exactly the kind of thing Ultramarines are renowned for being cool with anyway, and to spice the pot he’s kind of going a bit nuts here, almost daring his superiors to slap him down with his defiance of ‘standard’ protocols. Yet with the Shadow Crusade rampaging away elsewhere, Thiel knows the pressing threat of complete annihilation has passed for the Ultramarines. As he states, “There are no true daemons left on Calth anymore… just the Unburdened”. But the possessed are danger enough, as we will come to see.

Our lead antagonist is Kurtha Sedd, “Apostle of the Third Hand”, a Word Bearer waging the Underground War with a small cadre of other Legionaries who were also left behind. If there’s any dominant theme that disappoints me about ‘Censure’, it’s that Sedd and his homies are just A. N. Other group of Seventeenth Legion loonies – their attitudes to being left on Calth aren’t really explored, beyond a brief hand-wave that they went a bit crazy in their denial of Lorgar’s betrayal. (A bit? Well, for Word Bearers, this level of insanity probably is just “a bit”.) Nick writes evil bastards well, and if any portrayal of a monomaniacal zealot was going to be justified, it’d be the Word Bearers – but this could have been handled a little better.

As an audio drama, ‘Censure’ is certainly a neater package than some of BL’s Heresy offerings. The Gal Vorbak effect of Astartes and daemon voices speaking simultaneously works much better here than in ‘Butcher’s Nails’. And the cast do good work. Gareth Armstrong, I believe, plays Thiel here, and does a good job – though I get the feeling Armstrong was told that Thiel was something of an anti-establishment rebel but didn’t really grasp the nature of how mentally focused and physically strong an Ultramarine is. He comes across as an insouciant smart-ass and it’s fun to listen to, but he sometimes sounds a little effete to be a giant hulking superman. I think Chris Fairbank – famously the portrayer of Kharn in such dramas as ‘Chosen of Khorne’ and ‘Butcher’s Nails’ – is Sedd. He’s somehow at once gravelly and slimy; a great performance, but you do wish for slightly better writing for the character – Fairbank certainly deserves it. I'm not sure who plays him, but Raud is the other primary lead. In an occasionally homogenous voice cast, Raud has a strong West Country accent (I think!) and is well played as an honourable, earnest and brave warrior. It could have easily been a caricature but good writing and a great performance make him an interesting presence, not just a human to throw Thiel’s ultra-brilliance into relief. The exploration of his origins is nicely handled as well – brief enough not to seem drawn out, but powerful enough that you get a sense of who is he is, beyond just another gun. Lastly, Voltius is excellently played, the embodiment of the Ultramarines’ devotion to order and regulation – as well as their arrogance. Raud is a good foil for Thiel, but I can’t help but wish Voltius got more of an opportunity to bounce off his rebellious subordinate. Heavy Entertainment are the production studio behind this, and they bring out some of their better atmospherics. The ominous but proud fanfares as Thiel travels into the Arcology are particularly good, and the deafening after-effects of a stun grenade are nicely reproduced.

‘Censure’ is not perfect by any means. There are a few holes in the more slapdash actions scenes. Thiel getting trapped under a load of rubble with Raud, as well as the method used to escape, really feels like it stretches the suspension of disbelief a little too much and it’s hard to shake the feeling that this would have left Raud dead twice over. Later in the story, our heroes commandeer a wrecked Rhino. Nick needs Raud to see something sinister in the rearview mirror, so never mind the fact a Rhino probably doesn’t need anything like that – we’ll put a ‘rearview reflector’ in. And of course there seems to be one fairly massive oversight at the end of ‘Censure’ – so Ultramarines can apparently now travel to and from Calth and Macragge with little issue? Then why aren’t the Word Bearers trying to escape?

And that’s not quite all. Just like in most stories set in an environment like this, as soon as a character (Raud, in this case) starts coughing, you know he’s a goner, because BL and Heavy Entertainment have very little regard for subtlety. Fair enough, I suppose, but it kind of ruins any dramatic tension this storyline could’ve had. A slow death from radiation poisoning is hopefully something I’ll never experience and I don’t know much about the realities of it – but would you still be able to walk (and fight) mere minutes before it suddenly became fatal? I kind of wish they’d gone in another direction with the poignancy and bleakness that massive rad-poisoning is given in, say, ‘Edge of Darkness’, but whatever.

While some of the fights are a little interminable, the final confrontation between Word Bearers and Ultramarines in the contested underground base is a great one. Sure it ends pretty predictably – Sedd gets Spawn’d, Thiel is triumphant, Raud dies a hero’s death – but the writing is up to a good standard. Thiel’s tearful eulogy for Raud is the only time ‘Censure’ approaches the creamed corn of ‘Honour To The Dead’, so that’s a triumph. And that one weak moment is followed immediately by Thiel’s incisive observations on the continuing war for Calth, a high point in the drama, and a high point for the character in general.

The ideal time for you to listen to this (or, nowadays, read this – it’s in the ‘Legacies of Betrayal’ collection in print format) is before you read ‘The Unremembered Empire’, since the teaser ending will make a certain scene in ‘TUE’ that little bit more shocking. If you’ve already read ‘Unremembered Empire’ and spoiled the surprise, I beseech you to seek out ‘Stratagem’, the twenty-minute audio drama which sets up where Thiel’s character arc might go in the next few years of the Heresy.

Would I like Dan Abnett to take sole custody of damn near everything in the Heresy series? Kind of, but that’s not going to happen. If Kyme takes stewardship of Thiel for the rest of the Imperium Secundus arc – or if he does what I hope he does, and makes him a prominent part of ‘Deathfire’ – then I’ll be far from dissatisfied. 8/10

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

Horus Heresy Weekender - Part Five

Forge World Book V: Tempest

Due for release in Spring 2015 – “optimistically”, said Tony Cottrell. It’s not quite out of the studio yet, and it hasn’t been printed. There will, hopefully, be early copies at the Warhammer World re-opening in May, so we can expect hopefully by the end of June it’ll be widely available.

Key points it will include:

• Ultramarines (People booed)
• Word Bearers (More people booed)
• Mechanicum (Nobody booed)
• Imperial militia (Absolutely no reaction)
• Warp Cults

In more detail:

• The story of the Word Bearers’ assault on Calth.
• Background on the XIII Legion, the largest of the Legiones Astartes at around a quarter-million Marines. (THIS is the bit I’m really interested in. I think the main fault of ‘Conquest’ was that it lacked a pre-Crusade/pre-Primarch history of a Legion and I think that’s something I really need to enjoy one of these books.)
• Further background on the Word Bearers as the changes in their Legion continue.
• Background and narrative for Knight Houses and Titan Legions both loyalist and traitor.
• A new campaign system (Ugh. Every fucking book.)
• Imperial Militia and Warp Cults army lists and background.
• Additional Legion units and rules.

‘Tempest’ will show FW trying to capture the scale of ‘Know No Fear’. Similar to that book, in ‘Tempest’, they’ll try to focus on the first 30 hours or so of this fight. The Underworld War will follow in the book after this (which wasn’t named) – as well as the continued war on Calth, it’ll also deal with the Shadow Crusade, Ultramar (Imperium Secundus?), and the World Eaters. It will hopefully be with us before Christmas 2015.

Coming up next for Forge World books, they plan to release a Horus Heresy masterclass book – in fact there will be a series of them. After that, they will probably deal with Prospero and start building all the Tizca pyramids (possibly out of Ferrero Rocher) for the dioramas of the Burning. That will most likely begin 2016. The book will feature Thousand Sons AND Space Wolves (presumably including full army lists and background for both Legions, as well as an account of the assault on Prospero).

Tempest

Calth is a microcosm for the Imperium at its height of its powers – smashed by the Heresy. Its destruction is symbolic, which of course, the Word Bearers appreciate. Expect to read a bit about Macragge. Speaking of which, Alan pronounced it “Macraije”? I’ve always said “Mah-krag”. Guess I’m an idiot. In terms of other stuff in ‘Tempest’, the Knight Houses include the loyalist House Vornherr (I can’t be sure how it’s spelled) who rallied at Ithraca (hey, remember that fight from ‘Honour To The Dead’?). They will not survive the book. They are the largest Knight House in the segmentum.

There will be extensive background on the Ultramarines and also on Ultramar – why the XIII are allowed to have an empire within an empire.

As people were expecting, the next Forge World Primarch work in progress was shown – but people weren’t expecting it to be Guilliman. The model showed him looking very noble and handsome, perhaps in a more rugged way than you might have seen him before – maybe even Dorn-esque. FW’s sculptors have come a long way since the grotesque-looking face of the Fulgrim model. There is a lot more work to do on him, especially the base – they’re hoping to get him ready for purchase at the Warhammer World opening (broken record alert). Guilliman will carry a sword and a power fist. Like all Primarchs he had an extensive armoury, but they had to limit themselves to two weapons. It might not be in line exactly with all the books or artwork, but it will be in line with his appearance in ‘Betrayer’.

The Warp Cults are meant to reflect the huge number of mortal units brought along by the Word Bearers in this conquest. It’s not going to be a giant, deep army list, but you’ll be able to put together a pretty good non-elite force flexible for multiple purposes. The list is going to represent the diversity of Imperial worlds. You could even field muskets against Space Marines, if you really want. To the Word Bearers, Calth is a mass ritual killing and it was “great fun” to add extra stuff to all aspects of the background.

They didn’t pay much attention to how Ultramarines are in 40k, as they aren’t yet transformed by the Codex. No exploration of the “We’re the best” mentality in Heresy-era. The Luna Wolves had really been the most successful pre-Heresy, not the Ultras. They did explore some origin sections of the Successor chapters.

They plan to do gladius upgrade packs for Ultramarine models.

Daemons will be present in the story parts of ‘Tempest’, but not the rules. In the follow-up there will probably be rules for them.

The new campaign system will partly be familiar, some will draw from the novel. It’ll be about small scale stuff in comparison to the massive scale of the Battle for Calth itself – you can’t stop Calth from falling, obviously. There is a scenario included which could tie in to the fight on the Macragge’s Honour.

We will see a lot of Ultramarine character rules – Guilliman, a Dreadnought that fell from space (Telemachon?), a captain (Ventanus?). As well as that, there will be some new Word Bearer characters and revisits of old Word Bearer characters (I guess Lorgar and Kor Phaeron?).

The Mechanicum in Tempest will be extra units – not a new list.

Tempest follow-up

There will be a Calth slipcase like there was an Isstvan slipcase.

Argel Tal will be in the Shadow Crusade book, probably, as will Samus. Maybe it will also feature daemon Angron.

Prospero

They do anticipate challenges for Prospero. The Sisters of Silence and Custodes will probably be the biggest challenge as there’s no framework for them yet. The Thousand Sons will probably require the most playtesting. They want to get the magic and the sub-cults feeling right (As I’ve said before, this is an area I always thought was kind of a shortcoming in Graham’s book, so it’ll be nice to see that get fleshed out, in both rules and background).

Other stuff

More Shattered Legions stuff is coming. It was meant to be in ‘Conquest’. FW would love to put them in a smaller book or perhaps into the ‘Tempest’ follow-up. It will deal with small disparate groups of loyalists, even some Marines from traitor Legions who remain loyal.

They do want to do a Mars book. It keeps getting away from them in the schedule. It wouldn’t just deal with Mars, it would deal with the wider Solar War.

At the very beginning of the project, Alan Bligh and John French tried to map out strengths and weaknesses of each Primarch and Legion. Alan Merrett also helped.

Corax will be done – work has been started on sculpting him. They reiterated that they do plan to get models out for every Primarch there are rules for, but they can’t really comment on the timeframe for that.

There probably won’t be rules for Oll Persson, though they may do a book focusing more heavily on agents of the Emperor and Warmaster – but that’ll need a stronger narrative reason for an Oll feature.

Shifting/corrupted Traitor Legions will be represented by both all-new lists and updated lists. Both sides will change as their method of war changes. We can expect more stuff like the Mhara Gal dreadnought.

While I would have preferred a bit more emphasis on Black Library through the Weekender, I definitely could see that this was the most positively received seminar of the whole schedule. The book looks very exciting and I'm really looking forward to it.

"Honour To The Dead" by Gav Thorpe

Oh boy, here we go with another AUDIO DRAMA REVIEW!! As with all audio dramas, spelling of character names is going to be a bit of a fudge. Be warned.

MAKE THE ROBOTS FIGHT MORE

When the HH anthology 'Mark Of Calth' came out, we were told 2 additional stories were on the way, linked to this collection, in audio form. Here's the first in terms of the Calth timeline, Gav Thorpe's 'Honour To The Dead'. This drama takes place in the city of Ithraca, which is in upstate Nrew Yrork. Ahhh, geography based humour. Is this thing on? I kid. 'Honour To The Dead' is set on Calth, of course.

Our main "character" is the Titan, Invigilator. Unfortunately, its princeps, Mikal, is an incredibly dull character from the very first time we set ears on him. His dialogue is standard princeps techno-gabble; fair enough. It's also delivered in an unbelievably wooden way. The beginning of the drama is extremely impressive, with a quite dispassionate description of the Betrayal and the commencement of hostilities. Definitely influenced heavily by the writing style of 'Know No Fear'; while Gav isn't quite as good at capturing the sheer weight of horror that Dan did so well, it's still compelling. While we're talking about what's good here, David Timson's narration is excellent, as usual. While hammy, Timson has nowhere near the gammon levels of Toby Longworth. The smooth, declarative style of his narration is completely suited to the 'Know No Fear' aping, present tense 'factual' approach of this story.

The sound effects here - screaming crowds of civilians, explosions, bleeping Titan command consoles - struck me as excellent. I'm not crazy about the SFX that strangle a lot of Black Library dramas. But if you gotta do it, do it right, and Heavy Entertainment DO THIS SHIT. I gotta say, the Titan battle horns are very similar to the Reaper horns from Mass Effect 3... but hey, they probably stole that from somewhere else. (Inception?) The thing is, the sections with the Legio Praesagius loyalists are by far the best thing here. The 'good guy' Princeps is hella wooden, but that's kind of a nice gear shift from the rest of these over-emoting clowns. The real star is the narrator who keeps it pretty steady throughout, and Thorpe's actual description/exposition is very good.

Unfortunately, when the drama reaches Verinia, the second of our characters, it chokes. Oh boy, does it choke hard. Ugh. This is really gonna be painful...

So, the story takes a massive turn for the worse with the introduction of Verinia, a woman caught in the terrible ground war between Titan brigades. Concerned about the fate of her husband (in a military unit in the centre of the now-burning city) and her infant son, tears just burst out her wig. In fact, all she does is weep and moan and while that's an understandable reaction, it's... a little overplayed. I quite respect Gav Thorpe as a writer... usually... but my opinion of him took a real pounding during these sections. They're horrendously overacted, but I can't put the blame on the voice actors. How the fuck are they gonna have one of the only female characters seen on Calth - nay, in the whole HH series! - be just some screaming damsel in distress? In the grim darkness of the far future, womens be takin care of business themselves yo. Like Lotara... or Euphrati before her character was neutered and given a halo... not THIS fucking bullshit!

Ugh, the part where she has to hide from the (Russian-sounding) Colchis/Chaos Cultist looters and plugs up the baby's mouth to stop it from making a sound is soooo contrived. Has she killed him??? That'd be the sort of thing to happen in an Abnett book, but no risks of that type are going to be taken by Gav.

How to put this? It feels like Gav decided to focus on the "human aspect" of the Calth atrocity, and to do this by tracking the struggles of a civilian woman to regain her infant son Paxilius. Reasonable, though they totally could have had a dude for this character instead... since the Imperial Army is hella equal ops after all. "Everyone's welcome to become a flesh-cog in our hideous death machine!" The problem is that the actor portraying Verinia seems to have been given the direction "MORE HYSTERICAL, I WANT YOU TO SOUND LIKE EVERY HIDEOUS FEMALE STEREOTYPE POSSIBLE. What's that? You think that'll make your lines harder to hear? Don't worry, you've got like 3 lines in this whole script, it's just you repeat them again and again, so the listeners will pick up what you're saying eventually." So yeahhhhh, bad acting exacerbates shitty characterisation in the writing. A bummer all round.

Much like Tom Jane, Verinia just wants her kid back.

We then go to princeps Tai, or Tigh maybe. Fuck it, I'm calling him Tai. Urgh, this guy is basically just Zadkiel from 'Battle For The Abyss'. With one line and its terrible delivery, my interest in the character is killed dead: "Seeeee the ants spilling from their nessts to be crushed, sooo weak and pathetiiiiic!!"

Luckily, for a great deal of this drama (probably 40-45 minutes of it?) we're just with Mikal seeing Titan battles. He may be as interesting as a breadcrumb sandwich, but Mikal sees some interesting shit. I've never been a huge fan of Titan battles in the 40K/HH stuff I've read, but these were pretty dope. Maybe I would have liked them even more if there was even a single good character involved.

But then we get the Ultramarines characters. Shock: They don't want to disregard their search-and-destroy defense against the Word Bearers in order to safeguard one civilian to an evac point. Worse shock: after a bit of crying, they relent and agree to play nursemaid. Even the XIII can't resist when a dame turns on the waterworks, am I right boys! Crimony! I'm really not good with this plot point. Though the 'autism conditioning' wasn't as intense in 30K, even at this point, the Astartes would have reacted to a screaming, terrified human making irrational demands of them with disdain and repulsion at best. Even a noble, humanitarian chapter like the Ultramarines. I guess the cynical, world-weary Brother-Sergeant Aquila learned about the nature of hope and faith from this weak human!! What horseshit.

The last battle here is very well done in terms of action, but motivations and characterisation are suspect. Once again, an Ultramarine sacrificing himself to protect a human seems like bullshit. Practical: Hundreds of thousands of humans have died on Calth already. Theoretical: Denying an Ultramarine's death will hurt the XVII more than denying a 'mere' human's death. Despite the lengthy explanation the surviving Ultramarines give about how babies make it all worth it, I don't give a shit. But that's NOTHING compared to princeps Tai looking at a tiny baby's unafraid eyes (wow, those Titan viewscreens have good resolution obviously) and having a huge spiritual epiphany, or if you prefer, a fit of intense stupidity, and ALLOWING himself to be killed. What the fuck? Boy, the archenemy lost one of its stupidest soldiers that day.

Continuing the Arrested Development theme, TAI IS A MONSTERRRR!

Only Mikal's valedictory speech gives the drama a little bit of dignity back. The last five minutes of unassuming heroism almost makes it worth it. It's a pale echo of the cathartic moments in 'Know No Fear' where the Ultramarines finally rallied and started to hurt the traitors. But at least it's trying.

'Honour To The Dead' would have worked much better as a print story. In fact, this would have got rid of the largest impediments it has (terrible voice actors for two of the three main characters, and one who's passable but boring). Yet that couldn't have changed the hideously manipulative attempts at pathos, Ultramarnes who jump in front of laser blasts for dying humans, Chaos princeps who are taught a lesson in appreciating the smaller things in life, and, well, HORRIBLY DULL CHARACTERS. Now, 'Deliverance Lost' was surprisingly good but I'm starting to think that Gav should be relegated to short stories buried in collections, nothing 'flagship' like this.

I give this 5/10. And dudes... fucking step up your attempts at making good female characters. Jeez.

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

"Battle For The Abyss" by Ben Counter

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Skraal kept watching with abhorred fascination

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"The Unremembered Empire" by Dan Abnett

'The Unremembered Empire' is, on balance, probably the least impressive book Dan Abnett has contributed to the Horus Heresy series. It's arguably also an incredibly necessary one.

OMG SPOILERS.

Now, 'least impressive' seems like stark terms to describe a book by one of my favourite authors, but like my opinion of his short story 'Blood Games', just because I feel it's nowhere near as good as the others, doesn't make it bad, by any definition. Dan's the victim of his previous track record here. 'Horus Rising' started the ball rolling and we've probably all got very fond memories of it. 'Legion' is seen by many as the pinnacle of the entire series and I definitely agree that it's a masterpiece. 'Prospero Burns' is probably my favourite work of Space Marine fiction ever, in HH or outside of it. 'Know No Fear' is incredible and I doubt we'll see any subsequent book in the series able to sustain its intensity; even the Siege of Terra will probably be spread out across several books. In comparison, 'The Unremembered Empire' just doesn't stack up. Perhaps my expectations were too high but Dan was four-for-four until now, which might be why I pre-ordered this in hardback and finished reading it less than 24 hours after I ripped the cardboard packaging open.

Let me explain why I'm using the word 'necessary'. While many HH Abnett books (and also quite a few HH books from other authors) are better and more enjoyable than 'Unremembered Empire', they don't always give us this much narrative thrust. From 'Legion' and 'Prospero Rising' we got a shitload of incredibly interesting background, but in terms of plot points that were relevant to the larger series, only a few (OK, it was a BIG ONE for 'Legion'...). I know I've said in the past that people who want to shove the narrative forwards, and have no patience for 'world-building' interludes, are what is killing the Horus Heresy series. But sometimes it is a good thing for a book to be overcrowded with significant events - it won't necessarily be too great to read, but subsequent books will build on its revelations and, given more space, they'll be able to put more detail and art into what we first read. Like 'Galaxy In Flames'. I wouldn't say I enjoyed that book at all, but the events and characters have been used as a foundation for much more interesting stories by a lot of authors in HH series.

'The Unremembered Empire' is a follow-up to the events of 'Know No Fear', the 'Mark Of Calth' anthology, and 'Betrayer'. What transpired in those books shapes the story here, though don't expect to see a return of characters like Ventanus, Lorgar, Angron, Kharn, Kor Phaeron, Tetrarch Nicodemus, etc - it's more like, this centres on a Guilliman incredibly scarred by the monstrous events of Calth and the Shadow Crusade, and haunted by fears for the sons he left to fend for themselves in the Underworld War, which began over two years ago. However, in terms of stories and characters being picked up, 'Unremembered Empire' is a follow-up to... so many things. Most significantly, 'Vulkan Lives', but it also draws on 'The Lion', 'Rules Of Engagement', 'The Iron Within', 'Prince Of Crows', and 'The Crimson Fist'. And I'm not saying you get a brief glimpse of one character from each of these stories as 'fan service' and then they're never mentioned again. Dan does his best to integrate all these storylines naturally into his own. It's a massive task and he manages it very well; at no point was I thinking "You're here? But why?" A plot-heavy book, tying together a lot of the diverging storylines which have been left dangling or vanished in previous books, may well be exactly what the Horus Heresy series needs right now. However, the combination of all these different storylines comes at the expense of a lot of the things that made the previous Dan books so great: a clearly defined and fast-moving narrative, lashings of gallows humour, excellent dialogue, superb action sequences. All these things are THERE, certainly, but... less than I'd like. Power struggles and squabbling between Loyalist legions seems like a meaty topic Dan could really get his teeth into... so I'm not sure what happened.

My first, and most petty, complaint is that the cover of the book is misleading (this isn't exactly Dan's fault, I know). I mean, correct me if I'm wrong, but that's Guilliman and Sanguinius, right? Yet Sanguinius makes no appearance until the end of the book, making this cover an actual spoiler (since it depicts an event which is literally a couple pages from the end of the book). DANG YOU BLACK LIBRARY! You made me think Sanguinius was going to be a major character here!

The lengthy introduction of this book is a bit of a slog, I won't dress it up. At first, I thought a novel entirely about Roboute Guilliman playing politician while slowly losing his mind would be a fun time. What can I say, sometimes I love it when series totally de-rail and also piss off their more inflexible fans. (For this reason, I also love the Star Wars Rogue Squadron book 'The Krytos Trap', which pauses a series about dramatic, high-stakes starfighter dogfights to... tell the story of a lengthy, politically motivated court case.) But this book drags a little. For a lot of the story setup, Guilliman and co. are just sitting around, going stir crazy, wondering what's going on at Terra, and arguing amongst themselves about the direction 'Imperium Secundus' will take. (The difficult second album, eh? It was doomed to be poorly received.) This is topped off by Guilliman seemingly having to convince himself constantly that he's not secretly hoping to usurp his Emprah, and thinking about the temptation to do that A LOT. This whole storyline does certainly shed light on his comments at the end of 'Rules Of Engagement' though. You can't accuse these HH dudes of not planning ahead!

While not every scene is gripping stuff, the actual writing is excellent; an early highlight is a brutal fight between Guilliman and a ten-strong kill squad of Astartes, one of the best action sequences in the series, outside, well, 'Know No Fear'. Guilliman's heightened reactions and superhuman ability to calculate the current 'practical' make this one of the best uses of on-page 'bullet time' (for want of a better phrase) I've ever read. But much of the first half of 'Unremembered Empire' is just... setup. Characters and events being manouvred into place, slightly clumsily, for when the plot can finally kick into gear. 'Vulkan Lives' felt like it followed the same school of thought - pages 0-200 set 'em up, pages 200-400 knock 'em down - and that wasn't my particular favourite book either. Having said that, around the time of the Lion's arrival, and the near-simultaneous arrival of John Grammaticus (and... some others) things do finally step up in pace. Sluggishly at first, but the feeling of quickly-increasing tension is very well done. It's just a shame we're nearly 200 pages in before the shit starts flyin'. And then, when the action starts, the problems don't exactly stop, though the book certainly becomes much more enjoyable.

SHIT JUST GOT REAL (pg. 200)

There were a few odd choices made in the writing of this book. In place of Abnett's trademark biting down-to-earth wit, the dialogue seems oddly stilted and... Shakespearean. Weirdly, it works very well. I wonder if it's because some people felt 'Know No Fear' showed the Ultramarines being too 'normal' in their speech? I'd much rather have that style as Dan is superb at it, but I can't deny that the more ornate language fits in with the 'family tragedy' theme the book has. Another strange thing is that Abnett sometimes refers to single Astartes as plural ("the Ultramarines sat with his feet up, eating an ice-cream sandwich" "the Dark Angels was an expert at karaoke"). Is this how they're meant to be referred to? Or a search-and-replace spellcheck gone wrong?

Also, there's a chronology issue I'm hella confused by. 'Vulkan Lives' ends with Vulkan escaping Kurze and teleporting to Macragge. This teleportation happens very near the beginning of 'Unremembered Empire'. 'Prince Of Crows' begins with Kurze in a coma after being badly wounded by the Lion; he's in a coma for most of the story, which ends with him teleporting onto the Lion's flagship. We're told in 'Unremembered Empire' that he ran amok on the flagship for around three months and is still loose down there when the Lion comes to Macragge. So... 'Vulkan Lives' takes us right up to the beginning of 'Unremembered Empire' in terms of Kurze's actions. And 'Prince Of Crows' and the Lion's exposition do the same... but the two timelines don't reconcile in my head. The only way I can understand it is if the entirety of 'Prince Of Crows' plus another 3 months transpired in the apparently split-second gap between Vulkan thumbing Dawnbringer's teleportation switch and Vulkan appearing in Macragge's atmosphere. I suppose that's not impossible, with the nature of time being famously fluid in the 40K universe... but I'd like a little bit more explanation on this... I'm sure they'll clear it up eventually (or maybe they'll just say "Ahriman is responsible"). Just like the timeline fuckery in 'The Outcast Dead', this didn't have any impact in my actual enjoyment of the story; in fact I only realised the weirdness after I'd finished the book. But you know, that's gonna make SOMEONE pretty angry... someone out there. 40K nerds seem VERY hot on this shit.

HH chronology confusion? The chickens are coming home to roost, y'all.

So the 'day-to-day running of a new Empire' aspect of the book is something of a non-starter. It sort of feels like Abnett could have dealt interestingly with the plot of the first third or so of this book as a novella, and then the high-octane action stuff could have been handed off to a Gav Thorpe or a James Swallow. However, that would cut out perhaps the most interesting plot point here: the troubled relationship between Guilliman and Lion El'Johnson. A Primarch groupie such as myself is always on the lookout for expansion of these characters and Abnett certainly delivers in that regard. Their rivalry is presented in a way that makes it easy to be sympathetic to both sides. Part of Guilliman's great unease at the Lion's presence is not knowing how his brother will react to the overturning of the edict of Nikaea. Yet we already know from the novella 'The Lion' that Johnson has gone far further in acting against their father's anti-psyker rule than Roboute had even dreamed of. This is just one of many plot points that reinforce the fact these two brothers just can't talk to each other maaaan. The increasingly tense confrontations that they have in this book make you wish that any other Loyalist Primarch had been the first to answer Macragge's call.

Does 'Unremembered Empire' feature the tragic infamy and mind-breakingly huge battles of 'Betrayer'? Is it a fast-paced page-turner like 'Angel Exterminatus'? Is it an edge-of-your-seat masterwork of storytelling like 'Know No Fear'? Is it an uncomplicated, ceramite-splintering romp that requires almost no effort to enjoy like 'Fear To Tread'? No fucking way. But it does seem a hell of a setup. With Kurze still at large on Macragge, with Vulkan... possibly... not being dead, with the three loyalist brothers here consolidating their power, and with John Grammaticus' story taking a new and strange turn, it definitely sets things up nicely for the next few books. But I'm hoping that for his next chapter in the HH saga, Abnett doesn't bite off more than he can chew.

In my ideal world, he'd return to writing about the Sons Of Horus ('Little Horus' really piqued my interest in Abnett writing about those dudes again) but if this book tells me anything, it's that it might be a good idea for Dan to be given a new Legion to write about every time he does a book, as this is the first time he's 'returned' to a Legion he's already written about and it sometimes seems like he's a little... bored. So... remnant Iron Hands, or perhaps the Death Guard, could be a nice idea... but hell, it's probably a little early for all this - I'm sure we've got several more volumes to come before we get another Dan HH novel. Since Gaunt's Ghosts and the Eisenhorn/Ravenor sagas are getting better and better, maybe he should focus on those for a while... and considering how good 'Embedded' was, non-Black Library fiction by him would be just as interesting to me.

I will give 'Unremembered Empire' 7/10 for now. 8/10 is a strong possibility the more I think about it, but we'll see. Depending on how the setup in this book is actually utilised, perhaps I'll look back on this as the foundation for something great. Or perhaps as another slightly disappointing HH book, from an author who can do much better.

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.