Lord of Ultramar starts off The Primarchs series with a dud note. The problem isn't David Annandale's writing (if anything he is improving steadily), nor is it that the series begins with a primarch and legion widely seen as overrated. It is simply that this story didn't need to be told.
There is nothing about the Ultramarines campaign on Thoas that makes it noteworthy, so the military aspects of the story barely registered my interest. Yes, we like stories about Space Marines making war, but that doesn't mean we need hundreds of pages dedicated to every inconsequential battle of the Great Crusade, which is what this felt like. Furthermore, the fact that the 22nd Chapter's issues with their new commander form the main conflict of the plot is laughable; who cares about a few Ultramarines getting their noses out of joint? The story of Lord of Ultramar is pointless and flat.
Part of my frustration with this novel comes from the huge opportunity it misses. The Primarchs series is clearly Black Library taking advantage of the Horus Heresy's popularity, and so in return it should at least offer us insights into interesting and formative parts of each primarch's history. I wanted this book to be about Guilliman's war to unify Macragge or the campaign against the Osirian Psybrids that nearly broke the Ultramarines and forced them to re-examine themselves as a legion. What we got was an inconsequential waste of words.
Right off the bat, The Great Wolf improves upon Lord of Ultramar by being about a pivotal and interesting part of the Space Wolves backstory. The novel opens somewhere in M32 with a newly initiated Space Wolf who has been given an important axe and encounters Russ deep in the Fang, who tells him the saga to explain its significance. The bulk of the novel is a straightforward military story that follows the Space Wolves and Dark Angels conquest of Dulan, but it benefits from crisp writing and having two different legions to follow. A side-plot follows a few members of the Wolves trying to retrieve a captured comrade who has succumbed to the Curse of the Wulfen before the legion's secret gets out, but this felt a little contrived. The Great Wolf is a good enough story without it.
The climax of the novel comes when the Lion executes the Tyrant of Dulan whom Russ had claimed as his own, resulting in their famous duel. The details differ quite a bit from the legend it has become, but the result is the same. The axe is the initiate bears was wielded by the Lion in that famous fight and used against him by Russ, making it a legion relic.
The Great Wolf was a satisfying novel, and its frame story in particular is excellent. It is proof that The Primarchs series can live up to its potential.
The Ladder
Choosing the rankings for these two novels was easy, as it was a simple case of deciding which was better. My decision will not surprise anyone.1. Leman Russ, the Great Wolf by Chris Wraight
2. Roboute Guilliman, Lord of Ultramar by David Annandale
