The Outcast Dead

The Outcast Dead by Graham McNeill is the seventeenth installment in the Horus Heresy series. Set entirely on Terra, it follows the ordeals of astropath Kai Zulane after he becomes privy to a secret that could alter the fate of the war. Hunted by Imperial forces, he falls in with an unlikely band of protectors: a group of condemned Space Marines dubbed 'the Outcast Dead'.

The Outcast Dead breaks the mould of the Heresy series in several ways. Firstly, its main viewpoint character is not a Space Marine or a primarch but a lowly Imperial servant thrust by fate into events beyond his control. Secondly, it features no pitched battles or fleet clashes, but rather a prison escape and hunt through the slums of the Petitioner's City. Thirdly, it is set entirely on Terra in districts in and around the Imperial Palace, providing a fascinating look at life in the Imperial capital during wartime. Lastly, it contains a massive continuity error.

The Outcast Dead opens with the arrival of Kai Zulane in the City of Sight, home of Terra's many and varied astropaths, but the plot itself begins before this with the off-page loss of the Argo, an Ultramarines vessel to which Kai was attached, to daemons of the Warp. One of just two survivors, Kai is left psychologically damaged by the trauma and is sent back to the City of Sight for retraining. The first part of the novel introduces various secondary characters over the course of Kai's rehabilitation until the action is triggered by Magnus the Red's hubristic breaching of the Imperial Palace's psychic shields in an attempt to warn the Emperor that Horus has fallen to Chaos. Graham McNeill is not above using up more than a hundred pages with leisurely introductions of his characters and themes, and while it worked in A Thousand Sons in this novel it simply wastes words. The characters introduced in the first section are the novel's least interesting, and the story would have been better served with an earlier introduction to the Outcast Dead. Poor pacing, however, takes a backseat to the novel's enormous continuity error.

In the events of the Horus Heresy, Magnus the Red broke the Edict of Nikaea banning psyker powers in order to intervene in Horus's fall to Chaos, and when this failed he broke the Edict a second time in order to warn the Emperor. Unfortunately his breaching of the Imperial Palace's psychic shields badly damaged the warp-portal connected to the Golden Throne, forcing the Emperor to spend the rest of the war holding back tidal waves of daemons and judge Magnus a traitor. He sends the Space Wolves to capture Magnus, but Horus uses his influence as Warmaster to alter Leman Russ's orders and the Space Wolves invade Prospero instead. In The Outcast Dead, however, word of the Dropsite Massacre on Isstvan V has already reached Terra when Magnus breaks in, meaning the entire Imperium is already painfully aware of Horus's betrayal and Magnus's warning is totally irrelevant. This completely contradicts the established timeline in which Magnus barely escapes Leman Russ's attack and is forced to side with Horus after the Dropsite Massacre. The Outcast Dead punches the series' continuity in the face, and this is its greatest flaw.

Thankfully things pick up in part two. As a repercussion of Magnus's psychic breaching a vision of how the heresy will end becomes lodged in Kai Zulane's mind. Servants of the Imperium perform invasive psychic interrogation in order to extract it, but the vision is hidden within Kai's guilt over the fate of the Argo and cannot be reached until he resolves his own feelings. The Outcast Dead, seven Space Marines from the Crusader Host imprisoned because of their parent legions' treachery, break out of a high-security prison and led by Atharva of the Thousand Sons rescue Kai. They then go on the run in the Petitioner's City, a slum that abuts the Imperial Palace, where a kill-team of Imperial hunters chase them down. The Outcast Dead's flight eventually brings their story together with that of the Argo's other survivor, its Navigator Roxanne, who is able to assuage Kai's guilt even as Imperial forces attack. All of the Outcast Dead bar one are killed, and Kai finally witnesses the vision stored in his mind and conveys it to the Emperor before taking his own life to prevent the Imperium from falling into despair over the knowledge that the Emperor will be killed in the final battle.

Despite some glaring flaws The Outcast Dead is an excellent novel. There was not enough space here to describe the gripping characters of the Outcast Dead or detail the sumptuous secondary plots that reveal hidden gems about the 30K universe. You may simply have to go read The Outcast Dead and find out for yourself.
 

Tales of Heresy

Tales of Heresy, edited by Nick Kyme and Lindsey Priestley, is the tenth installment in the Horus Heresy series. The series' first anthology, it collects seven random short stories from the length and breadth of the Heresy setting and timeline. 

Blood Games by Dan Abnett follows Custodian Guard Amon Tauromachian as he infiltrates the Imperial Palace on Terra as part of an exercise to root out weaknesses in the palace's defences. After completing this 'blood game' he and a fellow Custodian are given an even more dangerous assignment, gathering evidence against a continental ruler suspected of trafficking information to Horus. This mission turns out to reveal an even greater flaw in the Imperial defence when Rogal Dorn reveals that, unknown to the Custodes, the ruler is an Imperial triple agent - moments before an assassin strikes. Blood Games is a tale of espionage, but it fails to build real tension - the setting is more interesting than the story or characters.

Wolf at the Door by Mike Lee follows a strike force of Space Wolves as they discover an isolated human colony that is periodically preyed upon by Dark Eldar. Despite the misgivings of his retinue Wolf Lord Bulveye is determined to save the people of Antimon from the alien raiders and reclaim this lost strand of humanity for the Imperium - but the people of Antimon feel differently, and even defeating the Dark Eldar side by side cannot prevent this story's tragic outcome. Wolf at the Door is an entertaining-enough diversion, but it is of no real import to the series.

Scions of the Storm by Anthony Reynolds introduces us to Sor Talgron, Captain of the Word Bearers 34th Company, as he joins his legion in making war on a deviant human world that employs lightning-shooting robots in combat. The action here is compelling but the significance of the events that occur once Sor Talgron breaches the enemy palace is easily lost on those unfamiliar with the Word Bearers' timeline. Scions of the Storm occupies a delicate place in the chronology, after Erebus and Kor Phaeron have persuaded Lorgar to turn against the Emperor but before any of the regular Word Bearers have been corrupted. It really should not be read before The First Heretic, for all that it was published first.

The Voice by James Swallow is a rare insight into the activities of the Sisters of Silence, a key facet of the Heresy setting that have gone mostly overlooked. It follows Amendera Kendel, an Oblivion Knight of the Storm Dagger cadre first introduced in The Flight of the Eisenstein, plus her second-in-command and protege as they investigate a Black Ship commanded by Kendel's old rival that has been lost in the Warp. There they find a rogue amalgamation of psykers that brings a desperate message that might end the Heresy before it begins - but thanks to the actions of Kendel's rival everything goes to hell. The Voice is mildly interesting if you're into Sisters of Silence, but if you chose to skip it you wouldn't be missing much.

Call of the Lion by Gav Thorpe introduces Chapter Master Astelan of the Dark Angels, commander of a small expeditionary fleet that encounters an unknown human world. The story is less about what happens next than it is about the rivalry between Terran-born Astelan and his Calibanite opposite number, Belath, who seems to have skipped class the day they explained that the Great Crusade is about more than invading every place you find. This short story explains how Astelan wound up on Caliban in time to appear in Fallen Angels and links in to Gav's 40K work, but unless you're desperate for that small puzzle piece there's little to be gained here.

The Last Church by Graham McNeill is a truly unique short story. Set during the tail-end of the Unification Wars in the last church on Terra, it follows the theological debate between Terra's last priest and a stranger named Revelation who arrives at midnight. It really is unlike anything else the Heresy series has produced, and to reveal any plot details would be to spoil it completely. All I will say is that it is brilliant. Utterly brilliant.

After Desh'ea by Matthew Farrer is set amongst the War Hounds Legion shortly after they have been reunited with their raging primarch, who inhabits a darkened room, consumed by grief and rage and killing all who try to speak to him. Knowing that he is almost certain to die, Kharn goes to speak with Angron and over the course of a drawn-out beating discovers the facts about his gene-sire's background and gains a glimpse into his tormented psyche. After Desh'ea is a juicy vignette of a small but important moment during the Great Crusade and humanizes one of the series' most bestial and two-dimensional characters, making it a classic of Heresy canon.

As an anthology Tales of Heresy is mostly mediocre, its first five stories occasionally rising to just okay. If anything it is an example of why original anthologies need a unifying theme in order to work, as the stories within it have nothing to do with each other or, in some cases, the rest of the series. It is saved by its final two entries, both of which are excellent shorts for very different reasons. I don't normally advocate for the digital editions of anything, but because these stories are available separately just download The Last Church and After Desh'ea and forget the rest.

Limited-edition novella review: The Purge 

Every now and then Black Library decide to raise revenue by releasing a Horus Heresy story as a limited-edition novella, printing a small number of copies and charging exorbitantly for each. These novellas are then given a mainstream release years later, finally making them available to the vast majority of fans. The Purge by Anthony Reynolds was the eighth of these novellas released, and continues the story of Sor Talgron both within the Imperial Palace and on the battlefields of Ultramar. 

Sor Talgron is not your typical Word Bearer. Practical, pragmatic and uncomfortable with zealotry, Rogal Dorn even says he would have made a good Imperial Fist. This, of course, is what made him such a good candidate to be the face of the Word Bearers in the Sol system, maintaining a pretence of loyalty whilst secretly paving the way for the invasion of Terra.

The Purge follows Sor Talgron in two different times, the main story taking place on Percepton Primus in Ultramar where he leads the 34th Company in battle against the Ultramarines, with flashbacks taking us back to his time in the Imperial Palace. The main story is quite compelling and could easily have been the crux of a novel, but by contrast the palace flashbacks seem flat and uninspired. It is definitely the action on Percepton that steals the show here, the points of view of the censored Ultramarines kill-team adding depth of character to the engaging fight scenes. Events play out fairly predictably, but are written well enough that this doesn't matter.

After waiting a long time to read it, The Purge was not what I expected. It was however an engaging and satisfying read that has turned a character I have always been interested in into one of my favourites. Whatever the Chaos Gods have in store for Sor Talgron, I will be there to read it.

Vengeful Spirit

Vengeful Spirit by Graham McNeill is the twenty-ninth installment in the Horus Heresy series. Set during the height of the civil war, it follows the Sons of Horus as they invade the heavily-defended Imperial world of Molech, whilst a team of Knights-Errant infiltrate the Vengeful Spirit on a recon mission.

The Horus Heresy series began with the Sons of Horus, and for the first three books we followed them as they fell into damnation along with their primarch. Moving forward however the series had a lot of ground to cover, and thus twenty-five books came and went with Horus and his Sons only making infrequent appearances as antagonists. Graham McNeill rectifies this in Vengeful Spirit, putting Horus and his legion front and centre once more as they spearhead the invasion of Molech, an Imperial world hiding a dark secret.

Graham McNeill named his novel for the Sons of Horus' flagship, but it could just as easily have been titled Warmaster (if only there wasn't an audio short of the same name). Horus is the main character here, the driving force behind the action even if we don't get inside his head. In this book he is as he is depicted on the cover, a towering god of war come to crush all who dare resist him. Whether he is seizing control of an enemy flagship simply because he wants it or taking on ten battle-walkers single-handed, Horus is an unstoppable avatar of battle. That said, he doesn't get it all his way. A gunship attack orchestrated by Shadrak Meduson comes close to killing Horus and his brothers Mortarion and Fulgrim on the planet Dwell in the novel's opening sequence, and he is nearly killed again during the bloody landing battle on Molech when Imperial governor Raeven Devine fires a thermal lance at him at point-blank range. House Devine are the rulers of Molech, and despite being staunch Imperials they more twisted and sadistic than some of the traitors, Raeven murdering his father Cyprian in order to become governor of Molech and he and his sister-wife Lyx tormenting their crippled half-brother Albard for pleasure. It is the ordinary citizens of Molech we feel sorry for as the traitors roll over their defenses, House Devine falling into ruin after Albard gets revenge by murdering first his stepmother, then Lyx, and then finally Raeven. There is a certain justice in a crippled man getting revenge on his tormentors, but unfortunately for Molech's defenders Albard's fragile sanity is destroyed in the final battle thanks to Fulgrim's seductions and he goes rogue, destroying the Molechite Mechanicum's most powerful war machine and securing Horus's victory.

Vengeful Spirit is a big, heavy-metal track of a book, full of planet-scale war and titanic battle scenes. However, its secondary plot is one of infiltration, an elite team of Knights-Errant penetrating the Vengeful Spirit itself in order to mark out targets for a future Space Wolves attack. Leading this team is none other than (SPOILER ALERT) our original hero Garviel Loken, recovered from his madness after nearly dying on Isstvan III and given a new purpose as one of Malcador the Sigillite's elite Space Marine secret agents. Unfortunately for the team Loken's psyche remains fragile and they are discovered aboard the ship, leading to a climactic confrontation with Horus and the death of Iacton Qruze. Thankfully, most of the team manage to escape.

If there is one criticism to be leveled at Vengeful Spirit it is that it tries to do too much. There is two books worth of material within its pages, and the Knights-Errant plot suffers from flat characterisation and an inconclusive ending as a consequence. Two different groups of Space Marines are introduced in the beginning then don't turn up again until the end, where their only role is to die for the sake of the plot. However, this book's flaws are heavily outweighed by its virtues. Vengeful Spirit packs an apocalyptic invasion narrative and several smaller story strands into one engrossing read, carries the plot of the series forwards and ends with a revelation that strikes the heart of the fictional universe. It is one brush-stroke short of a masterpiece.