Galaxy in Flames

Galaxy in Flames by Ben Counter is the third installment in the Horus Heresy series. It is the final part of the series' opening trilogy, which chronicles the events leading to, during and immediately after Horus's fall to Chaos.

With Horus's allegiance now sworn to Chaos but not yet revealed to the galaxy, the Warmaster begins putting his plans into action. When rebellion is discovered on the world of Isstvan III he is given a perfect opportunity. Gathering those legions already secretly sworn to his cause, Horus deploys an assault force made up of members of the four legions whose loyalty to the Emperor their primarchs have deemed too strong. When the loyalist Sons of Horus, Emperor's Children, World Eaters and Death Guard deploy on Isstvan III they have no idea that soon they will be battling but their former brothers-in-arms in the first, furious battle of the Horus Heresy.

While the previous two novels in the trilogy focused on the Sons of Horus, Galaxy in Flames has a broader scope. We spend as much time with Captains Saul Tarvitz and Lucius of the Emperor's Children (who we first met in Horus Rising) as we do with Loken and Torgaddon, and Nathaniel Garro gets his introduction in this book as well. Human remembrancers Kyril Sindermann and Mersadie Oliton have their own tense secondary plot as they go into hiding within the Vengeful Spirit as the protectors of the comatose Euphrati Keeler, who now has a cult following among the growing number of Lectitio Divinatatus faithful who believe she is a saint. Ben Counter's writing is crisp and well-paced in this novel, the action engaging from the first pages until the apocalyptic final battle scenes. Partly as a consequence of this novel's split focus Counter doesn't portray the characters as deeply as the previous novels, most notably Loken and Torgaddon who feel like little more than names, but given the amount of character development they've already received this doesn't matter too much and it doesn't interfere with the emotional stakes of the trilogy's final confrontations.

Unfortunately this is not a story where the good guys win. Warned of Horus's imminent virus-strike thanks to Tarvitz's heroism and Garro's faith, the loyalists make it into shelter and fight a protracted last stand amidst the ruins of the Choral City. Saul Tarvitz emerges as a prodigal leader who denies the enemy in order to buy time for Garro to bring a warning to the Emperor, but this is too much for Lucius who cannot handle his friend getting all the glory and sells out the loyalists for a place amongst his traitor kin. Their confrontation ends inconclusively with Lucius fleeing like the coward he is, and Tarvitz and the surviving loyalists go down in a blaze of glory as Horus finally loses patience and bombs the city from orbit. Absent from this last stand are Torgaddon and Loken, who go to confront their traitor Mournival 'brothers', Ezekyle Abaddon and Little Horus Aximand. In the climactic final fight of the trilogy our heroes become martyrs, Aximand's blade parting Torgaddon's head from his shoulders and Loken crushed beneath rubble as the building is brought down on top of him. The only bright note in the final chapters of this novel is the escape of Sindermann, Mersadie and the saint, who win the heart of Iacton Qruze and with his help escape to Garro's ship, leaving Ignace Karkasy's murderer dead on the hangar floor. Their's and Garro's story is continued in the next book in the series, James Swallow's The Flight of the Eisenstein.

Galaxy in Flames is a superb book, containing the highest emotional stakes and most climactic battle scene in the series until Dan Abnett's Know No Fear sixteen books later. It is a fitting end to the dramatic epic that is the Horus Heresy's opening trilogy.

If you haven't already, check out my reviews for the first two novels in the trilogy, Horus Rising and False Gods. To continue following the Sons of Horus as they wage war against the Imperium go to my review of Graham McNeill's Vengeful Spirit, but it is set a long way ahead so beware of spoilers.                    

False Gods

False Gods by Graham McNeill is the second installment in the Horus Heresy series. It is the second part of the series' opening trilogy, which chronicles the events leading to, during and immediately after Horus's fall to Chaos.

False Gods is the book wherein Horus falls to Chaos, so even by Warhammer standards it's not exactly bursting with warm fuzzies. Graham McNeill takes the reins for this second part of the opening trilogy and true to style it is dark and gritty with a powerful storyline and no shortage of violence or death. There is a palpable sense that the noose is closing around the necks of our heroes in this novel as Chaplain Erebus guides the newly renamed Sons of Horus to the moon of Davin, ostensibly to bring justice to a rebel governor but in truth as part of a much larger plan to bring Horus low before swaying him to Chaos to topple the Emperor from his Golden Throne.

On Davin's moon the Sons of Horus have the Warhammer version of a picnic: a life-or-death struggle against Plague Zombies in a decomposing swamp. In the depths of traitor governor Eugan Temba's crashed starship Horus takes the wound that will alter the fate of the galaxy, a blow from a semi-sentient anathame that is absolutely inimical to anything it has been used to slay. With their primarch on the verge of death the Sons of Horus are driven to desperate measures and entrust Horus to the care of a Davinite serpent cult on Erebus's recommendation. He's a good guy, that Erebus. I'm sure he has no ulterior motives.

The mythical symbolism of Horus's spiritual journey whilst interred within the Temple of the Serpent Lodge is obvious: in a voyage beyond the edge of life, Horus's spirit is tested in order to determine his fate. Unfortunately Erebus is the tour guide for Horus's metaphysical journey, and it is visions of the very Imperium his rebellion will bring about overlaid with Erebus's deceitful commentary that ultimately sway Horus into heresy. He emerges from his underworld sojourn physically healed but with betrayal hidden in his heart, and sets about planning the rebellion that will light the galaxy aflame.

The final portion of the novel sees our heroes Loken and Torgaddon marginalised within their own Legion for the sins of seeing things truthfully and not being massive dicks. Horus begins to express his new nature by instigating an unnecessary war with a human civilisation and silencing the dissenting voices within his fleet. Our truth-loving poet Ignace Karkasy is the first casualty of the Horus Heresy, but as battle-lines form an undercurrent of forbidden faith finds an icon in Euphrati Keeler after she channels the Emperor's power to banish a daemon then falls into a coma, and Loken and Torgaddon vow to oppose the spreading darkness.

False Gods is a powerful novel; tense, dramatic and dark. By its final page the stage has been set for the civil war that will see Legions clash, worlds burn, primarchs fall and heroes rise. You're up, Ben Counter. It's time to bring this story home.

Check back for my review of the final book in the opening trilogy, Ben Counter's Galaxy in Flames, and if you haven't yet, follow this link to read my review of the first part of the trilogy, Horus Rising.               

     

Horus Rising

Horus Rising by Dan Abnett is the first installment in the Horus Heresy series. It is also the first part of the series' opening trilogy, which chronicles the events leading to, during and immediately after Horus's fall to Chaos.

The Horus Heresy series is Black Library's flagship franchise. To date it spans thirty-three novels and anthologies, as well as numerous other short stories, novellas, e-shorts, audio dramas, supplementary rulebooks and inscriptions hidden inside dust jackets. It has made the New York Times bestsellers list on multiple occasions and launched its own subset of the tabletop war-game to which it owes its genesis. It is hard to imagine Rick Priestley believing that so much would come from the few lines he included in the earliest codexes to explain the origin of the feud between two of his game's main factions. Today the Horus Heresy is one of the most prominent facets of Warhammer, and yet it had to start somewhere, with a few of Black Library's established authors sitting down and deciding to have a go at chronicling the origins of the ten-millennia civil war that defines the Warhammer setting. The result was plans for a trilogy of novels that would explain how it all began. The result was Horus Rising.

If you are reading this blog I assume that you are familiar with the Horus Heresy, but I would like you to imagine for a moment that you aren't. Imagine everything you know about the backstory of Warhammer has come from battered issues of White Dwarf loaned from local libraries and the war-cries shouted by the tiny digital figures in Dawn of War. Imagine you are scanning the shelves in a bookstore that no longer exists and spot the first book in an intriguing-looking series. Imagine you skim over the dramatis personae and, turning the page, are met with this:

'I was there, the day Horus slew the Emperor.'

With its very opening line, Horus Rising tells us that it is the start of something vast and sweeping, and that the character speaking these words at its very beginning must surely be there to witness its very end. Of all Black Library's authors Dan Abnett is the one who most brings the setting to life through the depth of his world-building and richness of detail, and in Horus Rising he creates a galaxy at the height of a Great Crusade to reunify the lost colonies of Man after the terrible Age of Strife. The Horus Heresy is a story about Space Marines, but Abnett also provides human perspective through the eyes of various remembrancers sent to chronicle the Great Crusade through art. The story begins on a planet designated Sixty-Three Nineteen, where the Luna Wolves Sixteenth Legion Astartes and their primarch Horus fight a battle written by the sheer genius of Dan Abnett to be a parable for the Siege of Terra. The main protagonist is Garviel Loken, an honourable Astartes raised the ranks of the Mournival, Horus's informal advisory council, to replace a former member slain by underhand foes. Level-headed and dutiful, Loken embraces the Emperor's secular creed but has his faith shaken by the daemonic possession of an underling and cares enough about the truth to seek answers with Kyril Sindermann, an ageing human iterator who acts as his mentor, and Ignace Karkasy, a drunken but honest poet whom he takes under his wing. As the Sixty-Third Expeditionary Fleet moves across the stars battling giant insectoid beasts and encountering alien cultures Loken recounts his experiences to documentarist Mersadie Oliton, and together she and Karkasy keep an eye on their friend Euphrati Keeler who, after witnessing the daemonic horror that was once Loken's sergeant, turns to forbidden worship of the Emperor to find solace. 

Horus Rising is not drop your bolter and praise the Emperor fantastic. The overall plot is somewhat disjointed, and there are one too many scenes where characters scoff at the possibility of Horus's turning on the Emperor or the Space Marine Legions fighting each other. We get it, it's funny because it does happen. That said, it is only the first part of a trilogy, and it does a masterful job of introducing the setting and starting plot threads that will be resolved with interest later. While it ends with no more revealed from the overall plot than the identity of our first villain, Horus Rising is a quality novel that's true value lies not in its own story, but in the story it begins.

Check back for my next post, in which I continue the review of the opening trilogy with Graham McNeill's False Gods.      

Death and Defiance / Blades of the Traitor

Death and Defiance is a limited-edition Horus Heresy anthology which was first released as an event-exclusive publication at Games Workshop's Warhammer Fest event in 2014. It contains five short stories from various authors.

Imperfect by Nick Kyme shows Fulgrim and Ferrus Manus playing regicide. It is clear from the start that there is more to the game than two primarch brothers sharing friendly rivalry, and soon the twist is revealed: Fulgrim had Fabius Bile create many clones of Manus after he killed him and now plays regicide with them to see if he could ever have succeeded in turning Ferrus against the Imperium. This is a neat little tale that packs a lot of twists into a short narrative.

Howl of the Hearthworld by Aaron Dembski-Bowden is about the squad of Space Wolves that were sent to Terra to keep watch on Rogal Dorn. Some interesting names hint at a new take on Space Wolves' culture, but there isn't much more to this story than the Wolves throwing a dignified tantrum about being sent away from the front lines.

A Safe and Shadowed Place by Guy Haley follows a single Night Lords commander who has been abandoned by his comrades on the very edge of Ultramar itself. Determined to return to the fight, he is able to point a more powerful arrival towards the Sothan beacon. This short story is really just setup for Haley's upcoming novel Pharos.

Virtues of the Sons by Andy Smillie is a character of study of two Blood Angels commanders, Azkaellon and Amit, who are sent by Sanguinius to learn something of themselves in combat with Lucius of the Emperor's Children and Kharn of the World Eaters respectively. The duels are the only interesting part of the story.

Gunsight by James Swallow follows Eristede Kell, the Vindicare Assassin who led the Imperial kill-team sent after Horus in Nemesis, as he tries to survive in the bowels of the Vengeful Spirit itself and plans Horus's assassination. The best of the five stories, it ends with Kell psychologically overpowered and suborned into turning on his old masters, hopefully heralding his return in a future novel.

Blades of the Traitor is a limited-edition Horus Heresy anthology that was released as the event-exclusive publication for the third annual Horus Heresy Weekender. It contains five short stories from various authors.

Daemonology by Chris Wraight follows Death Guard primarch Mortarion fresh from his defeat at the hands of Jaghatai Khan in Scars and seeking eldritch knowledge for the controlling of daemons. Capturing one in a planetary raid, he is forced to employ a part of himself that he loathes in order to achieve his goal. This short story is a fresh look into the psyche of a rarely examined character.

Black Oculus by John French is the prime navigator of the Iron Warriors Legion relating his experiences guiding their fleet through a spacial anomaly. That's it.

Twisted by Guy Haley follows Maloghurst the Twisted, equerry to Horus, as he deals with a plot to gain power from the Davinite contingent aboard the Vengeful Spirit. It provides an interesting insight into the day-to-day plotting that goes on in the Warmaster's court and the perilous existence of a decreasingly influential and physically crippled character that hasn't had page time since the opening trilogy.

Chirurgeon by Nick Kyme is the observations of Fabius Bile as he performs surgery on an unknown patient that turns out to be himself. His reminiscences on the early days of the Emperor's Children and the revelation that the legion suffers from a debilitating disease are both interesting, but it is not clear how this plot point will effect future events.

Wolf Mother by Graham McNeill follows Alivia Sureka, a human Perpetual, as she teams up with rogue Knight-Errant Severian to rescue her daughter from the remnants of a Chaos cult aboard a refugee ship. The most action-oriented of the short stories, it is truly nasty in some respects but still well-written and engaging. The amount of Perpetuals in the series seems to be steadily rising, and we can only hope that these immortals will all have important roles to play in its conclusion.               

The First Heretic

The First Heretic by Aaron Dembski-Bowden is the fourteenth installment in the Horus Heresy series. Spanning almost half a century, it chronicles the galaxy-shaking events that lead to the Word Bearers Legion embracing Chaos. Dembski-Bowden's debut Heresy novel, it became the third novel in the series to make the New York Times bestsellers list.

As highlighted in previous posts, the Horus Heresy series has its share of bad novels. What makes it a wildly successful franchise worth dedicating a blog to is novels like The First Heretic. These novels don't just chronicle certain events in the war, they take their characters on transformative journeys through crucibles of change and betrayal and leave us sympathising with their protagonists no matter their choices or allegiance. The First Heretic does all of this, as well as illuminating very beginnings of the Heresy.

The journey of Argel Tal, Captain of the Seventh Assault Company, Serrated Sun Chapter, begins in the ashes of Monarchia, a perfect city taught by the Word Bearers to worship the Emperor and destroyed by the Ultramarines for the selfsame blasphemy. This humiliation is the catalyst for the legion's primarch Lorgar to set out on a quest for new gods to worship, and despite all the atrocities the legion will later commit the sense that the Imperium brought its own doom upon itself echoes throughout this origin tale of the civil war. This is a story of the Word Bearers, the generic bad guys in so much of Black Library's fiction, but where Dembski-Bowden excels in telling this story is in creating characters that are likeable and whose choices we sympathise with. Lorgar's actions damn the entire Imperium, but are driven by feelings of betrayal and a simple desire for the truth. Argel Tal is a soldier with a conscience who damns himself in the name of a greater cause. His journey into the Eye of Terror is the passage that defines the book, the events he and his sergeants witness and the secrets they allude to sheer gold for any Heresy fan. Guided by the lies of the daemon Ingethel the Word Bearers turn against the Emperor, and in that moment it seems perfectly right that they do so. Such are the circumstances of their fall to Chaos that was do not lose sympathy for them even as Argel Tal and his men come to share their bodies with daemons that possess them.

After decades of keeping the truth hidden the Word Bearers finally reveal their true allegiance in the great betrayal at Isstvan V. By this time nearly half a century has passed since the Word Bearers were set on the path to Chaos by the destruction of Monarchia, and for the first time we see that the heresy is a tragedy for the traitors as well when Argel Tal thinks back on how far he has come since he was a little boy chosen by Erebus to join the legion and silently asks his long-dead human family for forgiveness, before ordering the Word Bearers to open fire. In the apocalyptic fury of the Dropsite Massacre Argel Tal almost meets his death, but in the end it is his human companion, a blind girl named Cyrene he rescued from Monarchia, who meets her end at the sword of a vengeful Custodian. The Gal Vorbak's final confrontation with the fleeing Custodes ends the book in the tone it has held throughout, equal parts violence and tragedy.

The First Heretic is the origin story of the heresy, which by itself makes it an essential read for fans of the series, but on top of this it is superbly written in its scope and depth. It is no wonder Aaron Dembski-Bowden has become one of Black Library's most popular authors.

The story of Argel Tal, Lorgar and the Word Bearers continues in Betrayer.

Limited-edition novella review: Aurelian

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. Aurelian by Aaron Dembski-Bowden was the second of these novellas released, and follows Word Bearers primarch Lorgar Aurelian as he journeys into the Eye of Terror and stares into the heart of Chaos. 

Lorgar Aurelian was never a badass primarch. He was leader of a shamed legion, the only one among his brothers who didn't want to be a warrior. All of that changed with his fall to Chaos, and this novella details just that. Journeying into the Eye of Terror with the daemon Ingethel as his guide, Lorgar walks the surface of Eldar worlds scoured lifeless by the greatest cataclysm the galaxy has ever known and comes to embrace the Chaos Pantheon that has had its eye on his since creation. In the ruins of an Eldar Craftworld he slays a dying avatar of Kaela Mensha Khaine. In the halls to the Imperial Palace he witnesses the final battle of the war he will unleash upon the galaxy. On the sands of a dead world he faces the mightiest Bloodthirster of Khorne and crushes its skull with his mace. Aurelian is pure and simple awesome from beginning to end, and though we don't see the actual moment Lorgar turns to Chaos, we see more than enough to know that he will be a force to be reckoned with in stories to come.