David Annandale

Warhammer 40k stories are stories of heroes fighting against impossible odds, stories of legendary warriors fighting unimaginable horrors [and sometimes failing], grand epics of humankind's constant struggle among the stars.... and sometimes pure bolter-porn as it is colloquially known. Horus Heresy books (and quality-wise this is also case with newer Warhammer 40k in general) tend to avoid the bolter-porn approach and present very rich HH background, Primarchs and Imperium at its peak. show more Military actions, while present, are usually given in broad strokes, as actions set in the background of greater undertaking - Great Crusade or actions against Traitor legions. Even when Legions clash on the battlegrounds of Istvaan V battle is broken down to numerous conflicts between champions and veterans of Space Marines legions.

This is the first time I came across Warhammer 40k military conflict described in a similar vein as in [b:Hammers Slammers|1355339|Hammer's Slammers|David Drake|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1227562577s/1355339.jpg|2530540], [b:Insurrection (Starfire #1)|504366|Insurrection (Starfire, #1)|David Weber|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1205768715s/504366.jpg|492420] and [b:Crusade (Starfire #2)|260987|Crusade (Starfire, #2)|David Weber|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1321607575s/260987.jpg|252956] to name the few well known military SF novels.

Troops deployed are moving to the battlefield with the both air and armored support, direct contact of sole infantry (be it even famed Space Marines) against artillery and heavy tanks has the expected outcome, navy ships get pounded until they can move away from the devastating planetary defenses and space stations are true space castles capable of withstanding anything thrown their way. Boarding torpedoes are a gamble - those that get through need time to organize their surviving forces and move on with boarding actions. In space even the small freighter on a collision course is great threat even to the mighty battleships of the Imperium.

Actions of the small element of Iron Warriors with all the traps, use of terrain to their own advantage and sheer determination to fight to the last man are more than it is required to stop the furious Ultramarines' progress and delay Guilliman's overall progress towards Terra.
I liked Iron Warrior's determinism and ingenuity - their fall to the Chaos was truly a great loss for the loyalists. Although their fall started long before in my opinion - with Perturabo as Legion master and his total attrition approach to war thousands of capable and loyal were lost years before HH. After such terrifying losses it is not surprising that remaining Iron Warriors turned against the Empire (although company fighting the Ultramarines holds Horus in same regard as the Emperor).

Although final result is never brought into question - Ultramarines outnumber the Iron Warriors completely - Guilliman is tested and bloodied. More than anything else he is brought to the verge of destroying the whole world in order to move on towards Terra. Where does one stop with attrocities if he justifies his actions as necessities to achieve set goal(s)? If one fights monsters for too long does the one become the monster in the process?

Excellent story showing that loyalists are not the only ones feeling that time is slipping away - traitors are aware that they are losing the initiative and are pressed into final push to Terra before their momentum is completely lost.

Highly recommended to all fans of Horus Heresy and Warhammer 40k. show less

After the first book of this duology I was not expecting this to pop out of the Warp, put a Vengeance Cannon against my head and absolutely blow my mind!

I truly cannot fathom why so many ratings and reviews for this are so tepid.

I've listened to around 40 hours of audiobooks and audio dramas covering Monarchia through the Battle of Calth and the Underworld War to Gage's Wild Ride and Kor Phaeron finding new digs, and this is absolutely up there with Know No Fear, Calth That Was, and The show more Underworld War, as well as having some of the greatest reflections and reactions to the razing of the Perfect City and the shaming of the XVII, a Son of Lorgar with enough depth, character, and emotion to rival Argal Tal, and just some of the richest and visceral touches and details around the rituals of Chaos and all things heretical.

I am flabbergasted that this literally did everything I said the last book lacked and eschewed everything I took issue with. I no way does this feeling like a rushed, unplanned tie-in to a box set.

I absolutely intend to do more of a deep dive review because I have a lot to say and I truly think this book deserves the praise and recognition I think it deserves because I am positively giddy with how good this was and how happy it made me! show less

After so many years and collections the number of Horus Heresy audio dramas I haven't heard at least once is rapidly dwindling, but this was one I knew absolutely nothing about before going in and I absolutely loved it.

Tallarn is a theatre I'm not too familiar with, but inferring from this there was a big war between the Iron Warriors and at least Mechanicum/ Legio Titanicus with the IV Legion taking the day, only for the Loyalists to virus bomb the battlefield, including their own show more survivors? That seems to be the perspective of one battered Warsmith who makes a desperate march hoping to do something before he dies a horrible death of disease.

I really enjoy these small focus stories that make for wonderful audio dramas and would make spectacular short films. The impossible nightmare situation, the horror of the battlefield and ashes of victory, and the indomitable will to survive are visceral and consuming. The vast majority is just inside the head one dying Astartes deteriorating by the moment but determined to keep on keeping on.

Sean Barrett's tense, terse, almost breathless narration is utterly perfect for this.

One other aspect I really appreciated about this story is that it is from a Traitor Extremis perspective, but it doesn't treat the Warsmith as an explicit baddie, until something towards the end. This is great to see because the Loyalist and Traitor Legions, and even the Space Marine Chapters and Chaos Space Marines 'are not so different you and I'. There is a zeal and relish that's actually more honest, if not better with the Traitors as the Imperium--they are both utterly awful and cause untold unnecessary and totally unjustifiable suffering and death--but everything is always from the Imperium's perspective, so they are painted as good. Sometimes even otherwise great Black Library authors forget this fact... There is only war. It is grimdark and everything is awful. It's only individual actions and situations that can contain any goodness and light.

I really had a cracking time with this and there are some incredible moments I'll mention in spoilers below. It definitely is more of a mood/ survival piece that adds a little colour to the end of a battle, so it isn't essential listening. However, I absolutely do recommend it, especially if you enjoy Riddick and that one great Star Wars fan film about the Rebel pilot shot down and left behind on Hoth. This is one where it seeks apparent tour mileage may vary.

***SPOILERS***

This fucking dude almost kills himself with radiation to nuke the virus, so much so that it's revealed Space Marines excrete a weird snot pus bubble from their pores to protect them from dangerous atmospheres!
The reveal of allegiances was always going to be the case, but I was not expecting the double Titan dreadnought mode and I love to see the utter wildness of machine spirits as the WTF entities they are! show less

Re-Listen February 2024 as part of a Heresy Omnibus+ complete readthrough of the Horus Heresy series, as additional to the Shadow Crusade II The Underworld War (https://www.heresyomnibus.com/omnibus/vi-shadow-crusade-ii-underworld-war):

Just like Hubris of Monarchia, I listened to this randomly as part of the Horus Heresy Audio Collection, Treachery and Betrayal, which made me want to re-listen and finally complete the whole Horus Heresy, but unlike Hubris, I absolutely remembered every show more moment of this because it is an incredibly short and practically perfect audio drama with tight writing, powerful performances, and the kind of reveal that answers some and raises so many more questions, in the best of ways, for both the listener and Lorgar himself.

I really can't add much to what I previously said, beyond reaffirming just how much I love this little audio drama that seems to hit every serious, brutal, silly, and comical note of Warhammer at once, while reckoning with some of the biggest themes at the Horus Heresy and all Dark Millennia's core.

It's impressive dense, nutritious, and thoroughly entertaining.

I did have one question occur to me on this listening, which I will put way down at the bottom, below the previous review that I very much stand by, as it kinda spoilery.

***

I don't know if it's impacted by the fact I found Illyrium repulsive and galling in its apologia, but I absolutely loved this extremely short, but incredibly important snapshot of Lorgar's life.

Aurelian does some pontificating into a servo skull, before being brought to the surface of the latest planet of Ultramar the Word Bearers have conquered in his name and in service of Chaos to see something extremely surprising - an underground fane dedicated to the Emperor and what will become the Imperial Creed. The bulk of the audio drama sees Lorgar in dialogue with the bearer of his own words, the Lectitio Divinitas, the holy nook of the Emperor that saw Monarchia burn.

Just getting to the see the absolute WTF moment of Lorgar realising that people are using his book in defiance of the Emperor's edicits and the horror in the devout that their book was written by a traitor is wonderful. The exchanges are written and performed wonderfully.

There's very little I can say without spoiling things, but also it's a very short, sweet, simple, and incredibly effective tale that highlights the many odd mirrors in the lives and wishes of father and son, as well as the contradictions, paradoxes, and complications around divinity and worship in the galaxy. Lorgar's reflections are fascinating.

Most importantly, especially after Illyrium, the only thing shown on any kind of positive light was the faith of the congregation. That faith being their own feelings, not the religion itself. Lorgar is so obviously an evil, religious extremist, and yet we still see the hurt he still feels over his rejection and punishment at Monarchia.

Great stuff!

***

***Potential Spoilery Lore Question Below***

So, it occurred to me on re-listening that the congregation have no weapons and make no attempt to defend or even run away or hide, in fact, they simply raised their arms to the sky as the Word Bearers descended on them. Why?

A simple answer could be that they didn't know about the Traitors or specifically the Word Bearers, so they thought they were heralding the Emperor's Angels. But with this being set at after the scouring of Calth, they may already be aware through communications, if not their faith. This might also not be possible because of the difficulty communicating with Calth, as shown in the garbled message from the Ultramarines off fighting Orks shown in Hubris of Monarchia being one of the Interstitials in Mark of Calth.

What if the Emperor allows this congregation, planet, and who knows what else to be destroyed with his name in their hearts, possibly making their deaths a sacrifice to him as either a deity, aspiring deity, or simply conveying a Warp Charge to him for his work, boosting his power, etc. in a way that is analogous to the way a thousand or more psykers are sacrificed to keep the Astronomicon lighthouse shining (and/nor the Golden Throne) in the 41st Millennium. I realise that this isn't a one for one, as I may be wrong, but believe the light of the Astronomicon without the Emperor is literally the Warp Presence/ souls of the psykers burning as fuel for the Astronomicon beacon.

Anyways, just a thought. Religion in the Dark Millennia, the actual pinning down of what a deity actually is, and whether power of faith is enough to be the means to an ends, i.e does the Emperor, either alive in 30K or dead/ semi-alive in the Golden Throne in 40K, actually have anything to do with the power wielded by saints and clerics (is he a god or Patron in the Divine or Warlock sense in D&D) or is the Imperial Creed and the veneration of the Emperor simply a convenient focus for bajillions of people affecting the Warp and a way for those with the capacity for it to wield power through the intensity of their faith, regardless of whether he's involved at all or if it would still work if you had the same structure and focused on anyone else, saying Ciaphas Cain? Lmfao.

Finally, I know he's long gone in lore and copyright, the most powerful of Warp Entities, but the Emperor either being the manifestation of or at least somewhat related to Malal, like a chosen one or Avatar is something I think is a fun idea and seems to fit with the Anathema title. (I have only ever gotten as far as Vulkan Lives, so if any of this is answered, or more likely, speculated on in the later books, please do not post spoilers, please and thank you!) show less