Deliverance Lost

Deliverance Lost by Gav Thorpe is the eighteenth installment in the Horus Heresy series. It follows the Raven Guard Legion as they escape Isstvan V and attempt to rebuild, whilst Alpha Legion infiltrators plot to bring them down from within.

The Raven Guard are my favourite Legion. My liking for them dates all the way back to 2002, when I first read about the sons of Corax in a battered second-hand edition of White Dwarf. Something about these black-armoured underdogs who struck from the shadows resonated with me. I was consequently rather disappointed by Deliverance Lost.     

Deliverance Lost is the first Heresy novel written by Gav Thorpe, best known for his 40K Dark Angels fiction. In Deliverance Lost he tackles the Raven Guard at their lowest ebb, the vast majority of their Legion destroyed in the Dropsite Massacre and the survivors divided into those who were there and those who came to rescue them. The novel starts slowly with the rescue fleet's agonisingly tense flight from the Isstvan system and then takes the Raven Guard to Terra, where Corax seeks an audience with the Emperor and the means to rebuild his Legion. Much as the action is shown from the perspective of Alpha Legion marines who have infiltrated the Raven Guard, and since they all call themselves 'Alpharius' you have to pay close attention to realise there is more than one infiltrator narrating events. The best part of the book comes when the Raven Guard are forced to navigate a complex labyrinth beneath one of Terra's mountains in order to retrieve the gene-tech that created the primarchs, a gift to Corax from the Emperor so that he can rebuild his Legion. The Raven Guard then return to Deliverance and begin using the tech to create new Space Marines even more enhanced than the old kind, a project that the Alpha Legion operatives are soon required to sabotage.

The second half of Deliverance Lost is rather lackluster, and part of the reason is Gav Thorpe's basic and at times boring writing. It was this flaw that made Deliverance Lost the first Horus Heresy book I didn't finish on my first attempt. Furthermore, the Corax Thorpe creates is rather different from the one I read about all those years ago in White Dwarf, single-mindedly pursuing the creation of new super-marines even after one of the infiltrators poisons the gene-tech with daemon blood, mutating the next generation of Raptors into hideous monsters. Guilt over this act is what is supposed to have forced Corax to flee into the Eye of Terror after the Heresy, but in Deliverance Lost he stands by the project until his commanders convince him otherwise. The mutated Raptors are inspiring characters, loyal despite being monsters and defending the Raven Guard gene-seed store from the infiltrators during the final battle, but the final battle itself is full of illogical sequences like the revelation that commander Agapito, a red-herring who is implied throughout the book to be one of the infiltrators, has actually just been hunting them down himself rather than simply telling Corax what he suspects. Another move that makes no sense is Omegon engineering the entire battle so that he can steal the gene-tech himself, the same gene-tech that he had poisoned and is now presumably useless.

Deliverance Lost is not a bad story, but it suffers from being ordinarily written and having a few plot holes. This muddies up the Raven Guard's debut into the Heresy, meaning that no matter how much I love the boys in black Deliverance Lost will never be my favourite Heresy novel.

Limited-edition novella review:  Corax: Soulforge  

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. Corax: Soulforge by Gav Thorpe was the fourth of these novellas released, and follows the Raven Guard Legion as they seek to overthrow an alliance between Word Bearers and traitor Mechanicum on Constanix II. 

Corax: Soulforge continues the story of the Raven Guard where Deliverance Lost leaves off, putting them on the offensive for the first time as they take the fight to the traitors across the stars. Corax: Soulforge recounts just one of their battles, an action on the backwater Forge-world of Constanix II where a Word Bearers warband fleeing from Calth have entered into an alliance with the ruling Magos and by combining their Warp-sorcery with Mechanicum technology are creating the first Defilers. 

The action begins on a stricken Word Bearers vessel, where Agapito endangers the mission by hunting down Word Bearers instead of following orders and the brutalised Navigator agrees to help the Raven Guard for freeing her from her tormentors. She takes the ship to Constanix II, where Corax conveniently overhears a coven of tech-adepts providing exposition about their ruling Magos having sided with the traitors. Corax rallies their forces to his cause and takes over the city-barge Atlas, which he then uses to directly attack Constanix's capital Iapetus. The final battle sees Agapito manage to let go of his revenge and follow orders that help the Raven Guard win the day, whilst Corax kills the traitor Magos and the Word Bearers' leading sorcerer. The action is engaging and the outcome satisfying, but overall the final battle is rushed and bits are left out to fit the story into the novella page-count. Corax: Soulforge is a good novella, but I would recommend it only to Raven Guard fans or die-hard completionists.  

Legion

Legion by Dan Abnett is the seventh installment in the Horus Heresy series. Set on the desert planet Nurth, it follows two officers of the Imperial Army who become embroiled in the Alpha Legion's secret operations.

Dan Abnett never writes anything ordinary. Tell him he can write a book about an Imperial compliance action and he'll pit his protagonists against Chaos worshiping heathens that ride giant reptiles. Tell him he's got free reign to explain why the Alpha Legion chose to side with Horus and he'll invent a whole alien Cabal who are trying to defeat Chaos by engineering the extinction of humanity. Let him write a Heresy book at all and you'll get something like Legion: original, gripping, and containing secrets that profoundly alter the canon of the Warhammer universe.

Legion is the first (and so far, only) Heresy book to foreground the Imperial Army, the billions of fighting men and women organised into thousands of different regiments that fought alongside the Space Marine Legions in the Great Crusade. In Legion the most prominent regiment is the Geno Two-Five Chiliad, one of the hundred regiments from Old Terra allowed to continue under the Emperor's rule, and its two main characters are Chiliad hetmen (senior captains) Peto Soneka and Hurtado Bronzi, both of whom by twists of fate become covert operatives working for the Alpha Legion. Dan Abnett writes ordinary fighting men well, as testified by the immense success of his mind-blowingly fantastic 40K Imperial Guard series Gaunt's Ghosts, but in Legion he has less room to play and Soneka and Bronzi go unsupported by the plethora of minor characters that make Gaunt's Ghosts Black Library's best 40K series.

The other Imperial force focused on in Legion is Alpha Legion themselves, on Nurth to help the Imperial Army defeat the savage Nurthene. We only ever see them from an outsider's perspective, however, a deliberate approach that leaves their inner workings as inscrutable as you would expect for a legion of espionage agents. The Alpha Legion are the masters of secrets but in this book they they themselves are being manipulated, by the Cabal, Warhammer's version of the Illuminati, who have foreseen the galaxy's destruction by Chaos unless Horus wins the impending civil war. The Cabal's agent on Nurth is John Grammaticus, a universe-weary human psyker who poses as an Imperial Army intelligence agent in order to obtain the Alpha Legion's cooperation, but his mission is compromised when the real Army intelligence starts to pursue him and soon his fate becomes wound up with Soneka's. There are layers upon layers of deception and confusion within this book, and in places it becomes difficult to keep straight who everyone is suspicious of and why. The Cabal do eventually get an audience with the Alpha Legion, but only after the Nurthene commit cultural suicide with the activation of a doomsday device that brings the Imperial compliance effort to a catastrophic end.

Legion is essentially a spy vs spy tale set during the lead-up to the Heresy. The setting is interesting and the action is intense, but the plot is convoluted and hard to follow. It is a relief when everything finally comes together at the end and the Cabal reveal the future of the galaxy to the Alpha Legion, leading them to side with Horus in the imminent war while almost everyone else is killed. Legion is an intriguing and masterfully written book, but it is not vital to the plot of the overall series.  
 

Betrayer

Betrayer by Aaron Dembski-Bowden is the twenty-fourth installment in the Horus Heresy series. It documents the Shadow Crusade, following the World Eaters and Word Bearers legions as they invade the Five Hundred Worlds of Ultramar.

Betrayer is Aaron Dembski-Bowden's first Heresy novel since The First Heretic and here Argel Tal returns, prosecuting the Shadow Crusade at Lorgar's right hand. This time, however, Tal is not the main character. That distinction goes to Kharn, Captain of the World Eaters Eighth Assault Company and equerry to primarch Angron. Kharn is infamous in the fortieth millenium as an unstoppable Chaos beserker and champion of the Blood God Khorne, but in Betrayer we see him ten thousand years earlier, having turned against the Imperium with the rest of his legion but not yet fallen into blood-soaked madness. In fact, the Kharn Dembski-Bowden writes is the most human of the World Eaters, restrained and clear-thinking when not lost to the Butcher's Nails and concerned by the degeneration of his primarch and legion. His friendship with Argel Tal also serves to humanise both characters, making likeable, complex protagonists out of a butchering marauder and a Chaos champion sharing his soul with a daemon.

Dembski-Bowden also creates a batch of engaging secondary characters for Betrayer, from Lhorke, the Contemptor Dreadnaught who was once Legion Master when the World Eaters were still the War Hounds, to Lotara Sarrin, the fearless commander of the World Eaters' flagship Conqueror who is unafraid to shoot a Space Marine captain in the head for dereliction of duty. Dembski-Bowden is a genius at crafting engaging and, simply put, cool characters; he is to character creation what Dan Abnett is to world-building. The secondary characters in Betrayer help push the action along and deepen the plot, and this is fortunate because if there is one area in which Betrayer falls down, it is plot. It doesn't really have one.

The first half of Betrayer is taken up entirely by the Battle of Armatura, a heavily-defended Ultramarines world. The action is relentless and varied, making this part of the book an absorbing read, but the battle only seems to occur as a way to facilitate a few really cool scenes rather than to serve a larger purpose in the story. Angron emerging from the rubble of a fallen building to brace against a descending Titan leg about to squish Lorgar into paste is an unforgettable moment, but overall the first half of the book contains little plot development. The action slows down somewhat after this to allow us more time with the characters, but by the time the traitors reach Angron's previously unknown homeworld Nuceria little more has happened than Cyrene Valantion's resurrection, Kharn requisitioning Angron's old axe and Erebus manipulating Argel Tal with hints of a prophecy. The climactic battle on Nuceria brings the story to an apocalyptic finale with a duel between primarchs and the transformation of Angron into a daemon prince, but is underscored by the death of a excellent character as Erebus murders Argel Tal to further the Chaos Gods' agenda. As if we didn't hate him enough already.

Overall Betrayer is an excellent read, gripping and pulse-pounding with some of strongest characters ever written for the traitor legions. By the end we are left feeling that a lot of things have happened, but unfortunately there isn't much sense that those things mattered. Betrayer suffers a little bit from middle-of-the-trilogy syndrome, but like The Two Towers or The Empire Strikes Back it remains an excellent story.                

Pharos

Pharos by Guy Haley is the thirty-fourth installment in the Horus Heresy series. Set on Sotha at the edge of the Imperium Secundus, it follows the defenders of the Pharos as they seek to protect the beacon from a surprise assault by the Night Lords.

Pharos is the first novel-length foray into the world of the Heresy by Guy Haley, who has previously only written short fiction for the series. A relative newcomer to the Heresy Haley reveals both skills and shortcomings in Pharos, which is at times a gripping story of defiance and survival, at times a lukewarm siege narrative rendered down to a handful of action scenes. And do not be fooled by Alexis Polux posing dramatically on the cover - this is very much a story of Ultramarines versus Night Lords, with a smattering of other characters there to fill in the margins. Those who came hoping for the three loyalist legions of the Imperium Secundus teaming up to deal the traitors some pain will be disappointed. Those who came looking for interesting characters and a pivotal new chapter in the civil war will not.

Pharos is a story set well into the timeline, detailing events that have sprung out the series as it expands rather than anything mentioned in the background canon. This rollicking tale follows the varied defenders of the Pharos, an alien beacon used by Roboute Guilliman for communication and travel within his Imperium Secundus, as they defend the mountainous device against an opportunistic attack by a fleet of Night Lords led by Krukesh the Pale. Despite the Heresy series now being over thirty novels and anthologies long most of its installments need only a general understanding of the setting to read, but Pharos is set so far into the series those who have not read at least The Unremembered Empire would be lost. While many of the books in the series have short stories that set them up the shorts are usually not required reading, but in the case of Pharos I felt the absence of A Safe and Shadowed Place, The Laurel of Defiance and Heart of the Pharos, all of which provide background on important characters.     

Speaking of characters, Pharos is very much an ensemble story and this proves to be a double-edged sword. By providing us with point of view characters from every camp Haley is able to weave a multi-layered narrative that explores multiple perspectives, but also dilutes his plot and leaves less room for important scenes that glue the action together. The story of Oberdeii and the other Ultramarine neophytes who escape from the orbital station and are left stranded on Sotha has massive potential, but the scouts disappear into the forest partway through the story and do not play a large role in its conclusion. The unlikely friendship between Imperial Fists captain Alexis Polux and loyalist Iron Warriors Warsmith Barabas Dantioch is a similar goldmine, but we see little of their time together and less of their actions to defend the Pharos. Among the Night Lords the relationship between blood-brothers Kellenkir and Kellendvar and the tensions among their villainous commanders are both given enough page time, but sometimes distract from the siege of the Pharos, which is not covered in much detail. One of the few plotlines that does receive enough attention is that of the human soldiers led by Mericus Giraldus who get caught up in the invasion. Mericus is a likeable character who injects much needed humanity into the story, and his horrific death at the hands of the Night Lords left a bad taste in my mouth.

Overall Pharos is a good book, exciting and action-packed enough to carry the story through to its universe-damning conclusion. Issues with focus break up the narrative, but at the end of the day there is just enough here to satisfy.                  

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.