Nemesis

Nemesis by James Swallow is the thirteenth installment in the Horus Heresy series. It follows two assassination missions, one by a strike team of Imperial Assassins sent to kill Horus, the other by a daemonic entity named Spear sent to kill the Emperor.

Nemesis is an interesting departure for the Heresy series, in that it features very few Space Marines, foregrounds human characters and tells the story of shadowy covert ops taking place far from the main theatres of war. It is also the closest the Heresy series comes to being a police drama; one of the early protagonists, Yosef Sabrat, is a law officer on the planet Iesta Veracrux who investigates a string of grisly murders. Nemesis's tone is bleak, even for the Heresy series, and in many ways its horrors foreshadow the grim darkness of the forty-first millenium. Its plot, while interesting, is ultimately a side-show to the main story, and for me this makes it one of the less notable Heresy novels.

The main plotline of Nemesis follows a team of Imperial Assassins put together and sent on a mission to assassinate Horus. The team's leader and novel's main protagonist is Eristede Kell, a grim Vindicare sniper, and he is joined by five others: Koyne, an arrogant Callidus shapeshifter; the Garantine, a brutal Eversor butcher; Iota, a cloned Culexus Pariah; Fon Tariel, an inexperienced Vanus Infocyte; and Jenniker Soalm, a Venenum poisoner and Eristede's sister. Each of the six is introduced in an extended recruitment montage, which is one of the book's most enjoyable sections. However, a large part of the book also follows Yosef Sabrat as he investigates a string of murders committed by Spear, a monstrous Black Pariah bonded to the skin of a daemon, and it here that the plot gets very dark. Spear's kills are gut-churningly gory and James Swallow doesn't shy away from the details, nor from brutally killing most of his characters as Spear murders and assimilates them one by one. Spear's ultimate mission is to kill the Emperor, but to do so he needs the drop of the Emperor's blood preserved on House Eurotas's Warrant of Trade. Throughout the book he works and kills his way towards this goal, ultimately becoming such a threat that the assassin team divert to take him down.

For the six assassins, their mission to kill Horus takes them to Dagonet, a planet neighbouring Iesta Veracrux that is in the throes of falling to the Warmaster. In order the complete their mission the team aid the loyalist resistance, forcing Horus to come to Dagonet in person, but are foiled when Horus sends Luc Sedirae to impersonate him and the they assassinate the Sons of Horus 13th Captain instead. Jenniker and Iota go off on their own mission to protect the Warrant of Trade and are both killed by Spear, while the Garantine sacrifices himself so that Eristede, Tariel and Koyne can escape. Tariel's own foolishness gets him killed by Spear and Koyne falls the monster as well, before Eristede finally puts him down and makes a suicide run at Horus's flagship in a desperate last bid to complete his mission. The two assassination missions cancel each other out and both end in failure, though stopping the sheer horror that is Spear seems like victory enough.

Nemesis is by no means a bad novel, it is well-written and tightly plotted, but the story is too bleak and convoluted for my taste and overall the events have little effect on the main series plot. Readers of the series can take it or leave it.

Eye of Terra

Eye of Terra, edited by Laurie Goulding, is the thirty-fifth installment in the Horus Heresy series. It is an anthology of fifteen previously published short stories by eleven authors, and also includes the novella Aurelian.

David Annandale's Iron Corpses is set in the aftermath of the Battle of Tallarn, and follows an Iron Warrior Warsmith as he hijacks a loyalist Titan in order to survive the irradiated wastelands.

Aaron Dembski-Bowden's Massacre was originally published in segments on the Black Library website, and follows the characters from his Night Lords series during the events of the Isstvan V Dropsite Massacre. The Long Night takes place during Sevatar's imprisonment aboard the Invincible Reason, and sees him befriend one of the ship's Navigators and escape in order to kill another Navigator who beat her.

Matthew Farrer's Vorax is his first story for the Heresy since After Desh'ea. It follows a traitor Mechanicum being who is killed by deadly Vorax constructs.

John French's The Eagle's Talon was originally paired as an audio drama with Iron Corpses. Told through a non-linear sequence of vox recordings, it follows a strike team of Imperial Fists as they infiltrate and bring down an enemy ship during the Battle of Tallarn.

Guy Haley's The Final Compliance of Sixty-Three Fourteen follows the Imperial Governor of a world brought to compliance by the Luna Wolves who is faced with Horus's return and his demands to join in his rebellion.

Nick Kyme's Red-Marked chronicles the founding of Aeonid Thiel's Red-Marked squadron, forged in battle as they foil a plot by Word Bearers and World Eaters dregs left over from the Shadow Crusade. Stratagem depicts Thiel's first meeting with Roboute Guilliman since Calth and reveals Thiel's influence on the proto Codex Astartes.

Graham McNeill's The Wolf of Ash and Fire features Horus and the Emperor fighting side-by-side against an Ork empire prior the Heresy, and a point-of-view from Hastur Sejanus as he leads his squad to Horus's rescue after he falls down a chasm at the heart of the Ork junk-asteroid.

Rob Sanders' Ironfire features the return of Idriss Krendl after his crippling in The Iron Within, as he tests a new siege tactic against a fortress of Emperor's Children using two of the siege cannons gifted to Perturabo by the Lion.

Andy Smillie's Sins of the Father features Sanguinius brooding on the fate and character of Amit and Azkaellon as they duel. The Herald of Sanguinius describes the selection ritual to decide the first Sanguinor during the time of the Imperium Secundus.

Gav Thorpe's Inheritor follows the actions of Eliphas the Inheritor on Kronus during the Shadow Crusade, linking to the Dawn of War game Dark Crusade. Master of the First was originally paired as an audio drama with The Long Night, and follows Astelan of the Dark Angels as he sets up and then turns against an anti-Luther uprising on Caliban.

Chris Wraight's Brotherhood of the Moon joins Allegiance in being a sequel to Scars, and follows Torghun Khan as he faces trial for his traitorous actions in that novel.

Angels of Caliban

Angels of Caliban by Gav Thorpe is the thirty-eighth installment in the Horus Heresy series. It follows two branches of the Dark Angels Legion, those in the Imperium Secundus as they go to extremes in the hunt for Konrad Curze, and those on Caliban as various factions manoeuvre for power.

Angels of Caliban is the Dark Angels novel I've been waiting for since Fallen Angels, and Gav Thorpe did not disappoint. The basics of the Imperium Secundus are well-established by this point in the series but Gav manages to present a new take on it, foregrounding the tensions between co-rulers Jonson, Guilliman and Sanguinius and writing Angels of Caliban as much like a political drama as a war novel. Caliban, on the other hand, has been out of the series' eye for a while now and Gav returns to it in triumph, weaving together a complex plot of scheme and counter-scheme as secret rebels Luther, Astelan and Zahariel pursue their separate agendas. Both plots are tense and engaging, but I found myself more drawn to the events on Caliban because they were a completely new segment of the story, revealing that there was much more to Caliban's rebellion than simply Luther's fall.

One of Angels of Caliban's biggest selling points was that it reveals hidden secrets about the history and traditions of the Dark Angels, and Gav Thorpe has done something very different in regards to this by exploring the ancient history of the Space Marines. Through Astelan's memories, readers learn that the Dark Angels Legion existed in a different form before any of the other Legions were made, as an army of the very first Space Marines that was divided into specialist battlegroups called 'wings' and commanded by the Emperor himself. These 'Angels of Death' became the First Legion after the other nineteen were created and then the Dark Angels after discovering Lion El'Jonson on Caliban, but the 'wings' system was preserved and continues to exist, marines from different wings scattered across the companies but ready to form into their battlegroup when the command is given. Most prominent in Angels of Caliban are the Dreadwing, who specialise in total war and have access to archaic and devastating weapons. Their methods prove to be the undoing of the Imperium Secundus, when with the Lion's sanction they breach a rule made by Sanguinius and go to extremes in order to hunt down Konrad Curze, who is loose on Macragge. The final battle sequence between the Lion and Curze is epic, and I derived great satisfaction from Jonson beating Curze into submission, but Angels of Caliban makes it clear that in his own way Jonson is just as bad a villain as Curze, and his actions destroy the alliance that held the Imperium Secundus together.

Events are no less drastic on Caliban, where the fist ever visit by loyalist Dark Angels throws the rebel Angels into a frenzy of scheming. The novel provides us with a welcome return to Zahariel, a character we haven't seen for twenty-seven books, who becomes enthralled to the Chaos power buried beneath Caliban and is well on the way to becoming a Chaos sorcerer by the story's end. Just as interesting is the character of Astelan, who sided with Luther's rebellion because he hates the Lion and the changes he has made the Legion but holds no loyalty to Luther and considers himself a loyal warrior of the Emperor, believing that the Dark Angels should return to the old days when they were the Angels of Death. All the scheming comes to fruition with Caliban formally declaring its rebellion, and the revelation of a long-held secret as one of the characters becomes the new Lord Cypher.

Angels of Caliban is a fantastic novel, full of intrigue, drama and revelations. and it has repercussions not just for the Horus Heresy but the entire 40K universe. It is absolutely essential reading.
     

The Unremembered Empire

The Unremembered Empire by Dan Abnett is the twenty-seventh installment in the Horus Heresy series. It documents the creation of the Imperium Secundus among the five-hundred worlds of Ultramar.

The first thing you need to know about The Unremembered Empire is that it is not really a story so much as a space where lots of unresolved plot threads come together and then are spun off in new directions. In broad terms, Unremembered Empire chronicles the beginning of the Imperium Secundus, a kind of backup Imperium created by Roboute Guilliman who, cut off from the rest of the galaxy by the Ruinstorm, believes that Terra has fallen and the Emperor is dead. Central to this undertaking is the Pharos, a xenos beacon on the planet Sotha that is able to pierce the warp storms and draw scattered loyalists to Macragge. This is where the first of our unresolved plot threads pops up, with loyalist Iron Warrior Warsmith Barabas Dantioch, last seen in The Iron Within, operating the beacon for Guilliman. The activation of the beacon draws in many scattered loyalists, including Alexis Polux and his contingent of Imperial Fists last seen in The Crimson Fist, and, eventually, half of the Dark Angels Legion led by the Lion himself. Guilliman and the Lion form an uneasy alliance, with the Lion more than prepared to annihilate Imperium Secundus if he thinks Guilliman is attempting to usurp the Emperor. However, it is not the Lion but his unwilling passenger who is the biggest threat, as Konrad Curze, trapped in the bowels of the Invincible Reason since Prince of Crows, escapes the ship and makes his way down to Macragge to cause havoc.

The Unremembered Empire is the sequel to many books, including Vulkan Lives. In one of the more bizarre plot threads that the Heresy writers have come up with, Vulkan's teleport at the end of that novel deposits him in the atmosphere above Macragge. His flesh seared away by the heat of re-entry, Vulkan dies again and his corpse crashes into Macragge Civitas. He returns to life in a medical centre but is now completely insane, mind unhinged by the torments he has endured. Other characters from Vulkan Lives arrive on Macragge as well, John Grammaticus sent there by the Cabal to kill Vulkan with the fulgurite and Barthusa Narek following him to steal the weapon for his plot to kill Lorgar. Damon Prytanis, Perpetual assassin last seen in Betrayer, rocks up to ensure John completes his mission, but everything is put on hold when Curze rampages through the Fortress of Hera in a night of blood and death.

The action sequence of Curze marauding through the fortress is the climax of the novel. He almost manages to kill the Lion and Guilliman, but they are saved by Pharos ex machina. A sequence in which he terrorises Guilliman's adoptive mother Euten is clearly inspired by horror movies, but she is saved first by the watch-pack of Space Wolves sent to observe Guilliman and second by insane Vulkan, who breaks out of containment to confront Curze. Their brawl across the rooftops is brutal and visceral, and of course Vulkan dies a few more times. By this point I think Vulkan is just the HH writing team's stress ball, constantly killed and revived for their gratification. Despite all the odds Curze manages to escape, and both he and Vulkan are present for the final scene with Grammaticus, Prytanis and Narek. Vulkan gets killed a few more times, Prytanis deals with Curze by chucking a daemon at him and Grammaticus stabs Vulkan in the heart with the fulgurite, seeming to permanently kill him but in fact sacrificing his immortality so that Vulkan will eventually be resurrected (see Deathfire). Narek, knocked out of the fight by Curze, is caught at the scene and imprisoned by the Ultramarines. Then, just as things are finally winding down, Sanguinius and the Blood Angels arrive and Guilliman and the Lion crown Sanguinius as the new Emperor.

The Unremembered Empire is a fantastic book, even if it stretches credulity at points. Functionally it is like a fist that gathers up a bunch of loose plot threads and clenches them together into a book, something which the Heresy series sorely needed. In terms of entertainment it is engrossing and like all of Dan's work superbly written. For both of these reasons, is it is an absolute must-read for any fans of the Heresy.

War Without End

War Without End, edited by Laurie Goulding, is the thirty-third installment in the Horus Heresy series. An anthology, it gathers together twenty-one short stories previously published in the event-exclusive anthologies The Imperial Truth, Sedition's Gate, Death and Defiance and Blades of the Traitor.

In this post I will review those stories from War Without End that were originally published in The Imperial Truth and Sedition's Gate. For a separate review of Death and Defiance and Blades of the Traitor, please go here.

From The Imperial Truth: 

Hands of the Emperor by Rob Sanders follows a day in the life of Enobar Stentonox, a Custodian Guard rotated to command of the Imperial Palace's security. A crisis arises when the Imperial Fists move an orbital station into the palace's airspace, the two sides working at cross-purposes in their separate attempts to keep the palace secure, and Stentonox ends up invading the station. This is an entertaining little vignette of a particular crisis, but it lacks the detail and dynamism that make some of Sanders' other stories great.

The Phoenician by Nick Kyme is a fluff piece, a few pages describing Ferrus Manus and Fulgrim's fateful duel from the point of view of a dying Iron Hand. The Iron Hand dies and that's it.

By the Lion's Command by Gav Thorpe follows Corswain of the Dark Angels after the events of The Lion, as he negotiates with a neutral planet whilst a Death Guard fleet bears down on him. There is a lot of potential to examine the motivations and allegiances of ordinary people in the face of the Heresy here, but instead the shades of grey are spoiled by a trite black and white ending when the planet comes to Corswain's aid just in time only for him to dismiss them as cowards for not siding with him from the start.

Lord of the Red Sands by Aaron Dembski-Bowden is another fluff piece, this time a few pages of Angron philosophising about war whilst he butchers loyalists on Isstvan III, but it is saved by ADB's writing which is excellent as ever and makes this an entertaining if brief read.  

The Devine Adoratrice by Graham McNeill introduces us to the corrupt Knight House Devine of Molech and its scions Raeven and Albard on the day of their ritualistic bonding with Knights. The manipulations of Raeven's sister Lyx and a terrorist attack provide some drama, but the climax of the piece is glossed over, with Raeven and Albard's bonding ceremony explained in exposition at the end instead of being shown on the page. Still, this is overall a well-written piece that enticingly sets up Vengeful Spirit.

All That Remains by James Swallow follows a handful of Imperial Army troopers, all shell-shocked veterans of encounters with daemons, as they investigate a mysterious power-outage on their refugee ship. Each of the men is interesting in their own way and the little we are shown of their diverse characters is what makes this story entertaining. The most intriguing part, however, is their encounter with a Knight-Errant formerly of the Thousand Sons, who reveals to them their futures as agents of Malcador and turns the ship towards Titan at the end of the story.

From Sedition's Gate: 

Artefacts by Nick Kyme follows a conversation between primarch Vulkan of the Salamanders and his forge-master T'kell just before Isstvan V. Vulkan, dismayed by Horus's treachery, determines to destroy his arsenal of weaponry so that their power won't fall into the wrong hands. T'kell, desperate to preserve these examples of Vulkan's craft, objects. In the end they compromise, and Vulkan allows T'kell to preserve just seven: the seven artefacts of Vulkan.

The Harrowing by Rob Sanders is a blow-by-blow description of an Alpha Legion strike force taking over a Mechanicum ship. Rob Sanders knows how to write Alpha Legion well and the action is excellent, though sometimes devolves into too much jargon. There is no real narrative significance to this story, but it is a great showcase of the Alpha Legion at their most duplicitous and lethal.

Allegiance by Chris Wraight is a short follow-up from Scars, focused on Revuel Arvida as he adjusts to life among the White Scars. As a healing and adjustment narrative it contains little action and Wraight shoehorns some in for the climax, but it is ultimately pointless and the story would probably have been better without it.

The Laurel of Defiance by Guy Haley follows Captain Lucretius Corvo of the Ultramarines 90th Company, who is due to be honoured for his role in taking down a Word Bearers Titan during the Shadow Crusade. The story moves back and forth between the preparations for the ceremony and the events for which Corvo is being rewarded, blending crisp action with introspective character development. Haley really makes this work, and The Laurel of Defiance is one of the best short stories in the anthology.

Sermon of Exodus by David Annandale is a prologue to The Damnation of Pythos, showing the events that led to the cultists of Davin undertaking their mass exodus. The piece is suitably creepy for a culture steeped in Chaos, and the quality of it reaffirms my suspicion that David Annandale is better at writing short fiction than novels.

Deathfire

Deathfire by Nick Kyme is the thirty-second installment in the Horus Heresy series. It follows a group of Salamanders led by Artellus Numeon as they brave the Ruinstorm in order to return Vulkan's body to Nocturne.

As Nick Kyme points out in this novel's afterword, the Heresy series began with a tightly linked trilogy and then expanded into the vast story we know. Recognising that this expansion was dragging at the momentum of the overall plot arc, the High Lords of Black Library decided to begin weaving their novels more closely together, establishing a stronger continuity and mapping out the route to the Siege of Terra. Key to this endeavour is the work of Nick Kyme, who has set about creating a new trilogy within the Heresy, a trilogy that provides continuity by chronicling the fate of the Salamanders within the wider war. This trilogy began in ignominy with Vulkan Lives, which introduced Artellus Numeon and revealed Vulkan's fate after the Dropsite Massacre on Isstvan V, but in Deathfire Kyme's writing lifts as he reveals Numeon's miraculous survival and places him at the head of sixty-six Salamanders attempting a deadly voyage through the Ruinstorm in order to return Vulkan's body to Nocturne.With a heavy focus on faith, Deathfire pits everything from Death Guard to daemons against the Salamanders as they cross the Warp to Nocturne, ending in a climactic battle and a fateful resurrection.

Deathfire is a novel of three parts. The first part is set in Imperium Secundus where Numeon, captured by Word Bearers and rescued by Aeonid Thiel's Red-Marked, comes to believe that Vulkan is not truly dead after his body disappears from its casket and mysteriously reappears in a memorial garden. Gathering a remnant of the Salamanders who have managed to escape Isstvan V and regroup in Ultramar, Numeon leads them on an epic quest to return Vulkan's body to Nocturne in the hope that the magma of Mount Deathfire will resurrect him. Part two takes up the bulk of the book as the Salamanders endure a harrowing journey through the Ruinstorm, plagued by daemons and hunted by Word Bearers and Death Guard. The theme of faith rises to the fore here as Numeon's near obsessive belief in Vulkan's resurrection creates friction among the others, strung along by a series of seemingly miraculous events. Part two is the slowest, and while I appreciate Nick Kyme slowing down to let us get to know his characters he drags the tension out too far, extending one action sequence over nearly a third of the book. However, the twist that Magnus the Red is somehow influencing the events around Vulkan was completely unexpected, and adds another intriguing facet to an already suspenseful series. Kyme's writing is at times vague, but is still a big step up from the monotonously austere Vulkan Lives. Unfortunately, the number of times he uses the phrase 'Vulkan lives' is simply excessive. It drove vulkan lives insane with vulkan lives constant repetition vulkan lives of the vulkan lives vulkan lives vulkan lives.

Deathfire ends satisfyingly enough with a battle on Nocturne itself that sees the end of the Word Bearers and Death Guard and (MAJOR SPOILERS) Numeon sacrificing himself to resurrect Vulkan. The final part seems rushed compared to the middle section and would have benefited from more time, but overall Deathfire is a satisfying read which sits somewhere above the middle of the scale of Heresy novel greatness.

Limited-edition novella review: Scorched Earth 

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. Scorched Earth by Nick Kyme was the fifth such novella released, and follows a pair of Salamanders Dropsite Massacre survivors as they search the scarred battlefield for Vulkan. 

I bought my copy of Scorched Earth at the same time I bought Pharos, as proof against it going out of stock, but left it on the shelf until I could get my hands on Deathfire, thinking that a novella about Salamanders searching for their lost primarch would pair well with a novel about Salamanders bringing their primarch's body home. I read it expecting a fluff piece about the aftermath of the Dropsite Massacre. I did not expect it to be what it was: a superbly crafted tale of desperation, fallout and madness.

Scorched Earth is essentially the tale of two Salamanders, Ra'stan and Usabius, on a quest to find Vulkan in the aftermath of the Dropsite Massacre. Part of a desperate group of survivors based in a crashed Stormbird, they make regular forays into the traitor-haunted wastes. The novella is full of tense, dark moments as the pair do whatever it takes to fulfill their mission, such as crushing the throat of a delirious Raven Guard to prevent him from giving away their position and encountering a mad World Eater in a canyon made of skulls. Scorched Earth saves its best twist for the end, however, when Ra'stan discovers the cave Vulkan was teleported away from and his psyche collapses, revealing a twist straight from Fight Club that he and Usabius are one and the same, Ra'stan a Librarian who has succumbed to madness and Usabius his former captain who was killed. Scorched Earth is an excellent novella that epitomises the bleakness of post-Massacre Isstvan and makes me long for more fiction set there. Bravo, Nick Kyme.

Mark of Calth

Mark of Calth, edited by Laurie Goulding, is the twenty-fifth installment in the Horus Heresy series. An anthology of seven short stories and one novella it expands the story of the Battle of Calth begun in Know No Fear, taking the Ultramarines and Word Bearers into the darkness of the Underworld War.

The Shards of Erebus is Guy Haley's first contribution to the series. It follows Erebus as he breaks up the anathame that wounded Horus (see False Gods) and hands out the shards as smaller athames to a collection of Word Bearers commanders. The story also cuts to Erebus's time learning Warp teleportation from Akshub on Davin, before ending just prior to the attack on Calth. It is a nice little intro, but nothing of significance.

Calth That Was, a novella-length piece by Graham McNeill, is essentially the sequel to Know No Fear. following Remus Ventanus and his allies as they continue their battle against the Word Bearers. However, the real force behind the action is not Ventanus but Maloq Katho, Dark Apostle to Hol Beloth, whom we quickly learn cares nothing for the outcome of the Underworld War and is instead pursuing his own path to daemonhood. Kartho orchestrates the bombing of several underground civilian centres to provoke the Ultramarines into attacking Foedral Fell, but after leveling Fell's fortress Ventanus realises too late that he has fallen into a trap. Fell and his warriors are already dead, having committed ritual suicide, but then reanimate and attack. The Ultramarines manage to fight their way out, but Ventanus barely returns in time to stop Kartho and Beloth as they attack his base with a virus bomb. Ventanus kills Beloth but Kartho escapes into the Warp just before the bomb goes off, and the day is only saved when Ventanus uses a flying speeder to knock the bomb into the Warp portal Kartho created. This is a neat novella that ties off all the loose ends from Know No Fear but cannot match it for brilliance.

Dark Heart by Anthony Reynolds is the origin story of Dark Apostle Marduk from Reynolds' 40K novels. A rogue legionary with little respect for his superiors, Marduk is uses his Warp talents to mutate a fallen Ultramarine during the orbital battle above Calth, and kills his mentor when he attempts to execute Marduk for such a blasphemous use of his power. Brought before Kor Phaeron, Marduk convinces him of his worth and joins Phaeron's inner circle. Dark Heart is an interesting portrayal of conflict within the Word Bearers with enough twists and turns to hold interest until the end.

The Traveller is David Annandale's first contribution to the Heresy series. It follows a man named Blanchot living in one of Calth's underground refugee communities who begins to hear voices and becomes a messiah for the group, directing their murderous attention towards supposed Chaos collaborators whilst slowly going mad. Eventually Blanchot is the only one left alive, and it is revealed that he became possessed by a daemon during the orbital attack. Having used him to direct the slaughter of thousands of innocents, the daemon moves on to possess an Ultramarine when Blanchot is finally rescued. This is a nasty little tale that perfectly illustrates the dark side of religion in the Warhammer universe.

A Deeper Darkness by Rob Sanders follows Ultramarine 'Honorarius' Hylas Pelion as he fights under Tauro Nicodemus in the Underworld War. Learning of a hidden cave network which the Word Bearers are using as a base Pelion leads a scouting force through submerged tunnels to reach it, but once there they discover their foes turned to stone. They then begin to fall prey to a hideous daemon, the sight of which is so horrifying it petrifies its victims. Pelion ultimately defeats the creature by deliberately cutting his visual feed then using his suit lamps to show the creature its own reflection. The references to the Greek legends of Medusa and the Cretan Labyrinth work well, and A Deeper Darkness succeeds as a chilling footnote in the tale of the Underworld War.

The Underworld War by Aaron Dembski-Bowden follows Word Bearer sergeant Jerudai Kaurtal on a pilgrimage across the devastated surface of Calth several years after the initial battle. Kaurtal's desire to commemorate the Word Bearers that fell in the surface battle becomes self-destructive as the radiation riddles his body with cancer, but as one of the Gal Vorbak the daemon inside Kaurtal rouses to heal him. Ultimately, however, the daemon abandons Kaurtal to die. The whole sequence is then revealed to be a vision of the future Kaurtal received during a failed attempt to bond with the daemon prior to the Battle of Calth, an attempt which resulted in his ignominious death. The Underworld War is not what you'd expect from its name, but it is an interesting piece regardless.

Athame by John French traces the story of a single athame dagger through history, from its primordial creation through ownership by barbarian killers and dark scholars to its entry into the series as the ritual weapon of a cultist leader in Know No Fear. The journey of the athame and the tales of its successive owners are fascinating, and there are hints throughout of a greater purpose awaiting it in the future. The story ends with the athame in the hands of Oll Persson as he uses it to escape Calth with his band of refugees, leading straight into the final short in the anthology. Athame is a fascinating and unusual take on one of the Heresy's most fascinating and unusual sub-plots.

Unmarked by Dan Abnett picks up the story of Oll Persson and his ragtag band where Know No Fear left off, following them on a journey through time, space and Oll's own past. Using Warp portals cut by the athame to move between locations and following the mysterious winds of the aether, Oll and his band journey through swamps, woods and empty cities on their way towards an unknown goal, pursued by the malevolent daemon M'kar that is destined to join with Maloq Kartho. The story is replete with references to history, from Oll's journey as one of the Argonauts to his fighting in the battles of Verdun and 73 Easting. The conclusion of the story is rather too neat and cliche, but Abnett's writing makes this short so rich and engaging that it doesn't matter. Unmarked is all of Abnett's genius distilled into one short story.

Limited-edition novella review: The Unburdened 

The Horus Heresy series has enjoyed enormous success since its inception, and that success has translated into its launching a new subset of the Warhammer tabletop game. To be clear, a series based on the lore of a tabletop game has inspired a tabletop game based on the lore of the series. The mainstream launch of the Horus Heresy tabletop game was marked with the release of the 'Battle of Calth' starter set, which featured a pair of novellas as well as miniatures and rulebooks. The Honoured by Rob Sanders and The Unburdened by David Annandale are both set during the Underworld War that followed the Battle of Calth, each showing the perspective of one of two mortal enemies, Ultramarine Captain Steloc Aethon and Word Bearers Chaplain Kurtha Sedd. 

Those who have read my review of The Honoured (and if you haven't you should read it first) will know that I was counting on The Unburdened to save this duology. It did, just. 

I'm not a fan of David Annandale's writing (just wait for my review of The Damnation of Pythos) and so I came into this novella with low expectations, but I was pleasantly surprised by what I found. Annandale's Kurtha Sedd is far more complex than the moustache-twirling villain Rob Sanders portrayed him as in The Honoured, full of conflicting convictions and a desperate for vindication. His inner conflict can and does make him seem weak, at least in the eyes of some of his followers, but he still has the charisma and depth to pull off the role of main protagonist. The amount of internal agonising in this novella was a little high for me overall, but thankfully the inner conflict is matched by the outer as the battles from The Honoured play out through the Word Bearers' perspective. The match-up is not exact and there were a few times it took me a while to realise what I was reading, but overall it works and more importantly The Unburdened does a far better job of contextualising the conflict. Sedd's hatred for Aethon is explained (Aethon played in a role in the Word Bearers' humiliation on Monarchia, see The First Heretic), and yet Sedd shies away from killing him until the final realisation that only by symbolically casting off his ties to the past via murdering Aethon can he ascend into the waiting arms of Chaos. This, as we know, is exactly what he does. 

The Unburdened is not a perfect novella; it begins to lose cohesion at the end as Calth's arcologies come tumbling in, but it is an engaging read that succeeds in bringing some clarity to the jerky randomness of The Honoured. Furthermore it is proof that David Annandale can write well when given the proper subject matter, and I hope to see more like this from him in future.         

That's all for now, denizens of the thirtieth millenium. Apologies for the delay in getting this post up, a new job has come my way recently and gobbled up my free time. Check back in a week or two when I return to the Sons of Vulkan, with a review of Nick Kyme's novel Deathfire and novella Scorched Earth. Happy reading.