John French (2)

Presented as a report by an Iron Warrior and excerpts of vox communication between Imperial Fists squads, this audio drama is the story of how the big baddaboom that ended the battle on Tallarn came to be.

Three Imperial Fists recon squad leaders communicate as they infiltrate the macro-carrier, the Eagle's Talon, to stop the ship before it can reach the planet and unleash its deadly cargo. Facing overwhelming defences, the officers face difficult decisions and moral quandaries.

I genuinely show more appreciated a bit of an original presentation of a story, especially when it works so well. French does a fantastic job of telling a coherent and gripping narrative purely through the dialogue of the reporting Iron Warrior and the Iron Fists vox recordings.

The juxtaposition of the deadly atmosphere of Tallarn, the pitched battle, and the inhuman atrocity of the actions of everyone involved with the incredibly human and emotional conversation is something special. The questions of right morslitu, honour, duty and loss that make up much of the Iron Fists' dialogue is powerful. If I am interpreting it correctly, the final action and sentiments of the Iron Warrior whose report is the framing device for this story also reflect a level of humanity and respect to his enemies.

Astartes are inhuman monsters built for slaughter and it is important for that to be remembered, but this individual isolated moments and reflections on the havoc they wreak and their interactions with one another ate wonderful. As I've said before, grimdark means everything and everyone is awful on macro level, but what the Horus Heresy does so well (most of the time) is to have these individuals and moments who can act and reflect in more complex and emotional ways, in spite of the utter horror. That's what I'm here for baybee! show less

Fel Zarhost, one time Chief Librarian/ Drean of the Night Lords is having a bad day. Honestly, it's been a difficult life, as the legionary with the bolter to his head is about to find out.

Told through Zarhost's fractured, and honestly rather confusing, memories, forced into the mind of his unknown assailant, including memories of others he used to torture and punish another (because fuck you, memories, dreams, trauma, and psyker powers are wild!), Child of Night is the nightmare This Is show more Your Life of the former Chief Librarian. We see a moment of being hunted in his youth, lowing a friend and the unleashing of his power - could this have been a Thunder Warrior or Techno-Barbarian? Black Library, never change with your wondrous subtlety - his friend was called Calliope (can I be honest? I genuinely thought this was taking place in the Warp for a minute and imagined Calliope as one of the Davinite priests Erebus and Lorgar love so much), a real Event Horizon nightmare showing the VIII Legion were horrifying long before the Heresy, and most importantly, that time he and Sevatar had a tête-à-tête and he was told ta-ta. Sadly, possibly because he was acting in Night Haunter's stead, Sev doesn't appear to have put on his sassy pants that day and is just a grumpy gus.

But wait, what colour is the ceramite of the legionary with the bolter...

I love a Horus Heresy story that isn't glorified bolter porn or perfunctory scenes and dialogue that feel like the line between dots, rather than their own story, and Child of Night is definitely doing more than that. The memories/ visions are appropriately strange and haunting emulating the feeling of disorientation having having a veritable turducken of memories jammed in your brain. They confusion can definitely be distracting, but it is effective and the Event Horizon/ Hellraiser memories are both the most perplexing and effective in how horrifying they are. We get a look at Zarhost's life and the physical and other devisions of the Terran and Nostromon Night Lords, as well as a look at how they have always been a horrible legion, even by galaxy conquering human supremacist fascist empires go...but not all of them felt great about all the torture.

I would like to see more about the Night Lords, their Librarius, Nikea, and the aftermath, especially with the lightning bolters being one of the legions/ chaos space marines who eschew psykers, which seems especially odd for an essentially agnostic Undivided group who simply adore psychological warfare and inducing terror. Nevertheless, the brief glimpses of the argument with Sevatar and its revelations about the legion is interesting, even if I need more.

This definitely isn't absolute top tier Heresy goodness, but it's definitely up there. More than worth reading for anyone, especially fans of the VIII legion, but also not really necessary reading in the grand scheme of the Horus Heresy.

What can I say? Outcasts from the traitor legions are my precious babies babies. show less

A super short and sweet amuse-bouche (or rather amuse-oeil) with the lead Navigator of Perturabo's flagship recounting their journey "threading the needle" through the Eye of Terror after the playdate the primachs of the Iron Warriors and Emperor's Children ended in tears.

A nice, creepy monologue that threads that needle of seeming okay, while hinting at just how harrowing the effects of the warp were on them told from the dungeons they are now kept in between voyages where they whisper show more blasphemous secrets into Perturabo's dreams though he doesn't hear them. Just a wonderfully unsettling mutant whose mind and body have been wracked by the Realm of Chaos and now perceives weakness in their demi-god leader.

Gareth Armstrong excels in bringing these kinds of monologues to life and this is no different. show less

This is another classic Black Library Advent Calendar super short audio drama that is a character study on Horus reflecting on how he never had any clue what he was going and everything's going tits up even as he continues to roll on to Terra because the Galaxy is a mess and he has to rule it!

I enjoyed it more than a few years ago. It's a pretty great reflection of where Horus' (and another's) head is at. It didn't rock my world, but it did exactly what I want from these teeny tasters, add a show more little colour and depth to something, even if it's self-indulgent moping.

I actually felt so inspired I rewrote it as a teenage diary entry. Technically this has spoilers and goes through the whole thing, but the story really is more of a mood piece with no new information in it.

Dear Yorrick Morrick,

It's a tough old time being the Warmaster, you know? But I'm a big boy with a big ole mace. Why doesn't daddy love me? He gave me the special title, but there was no job description and he didn't even stick around to train me. It's been decades and a galactic-wide civil war, but is too kate to check with HR?

I'm really falling behind in keeping up with all the everything, you know the war I have to master? I hope you don't mind me listening to live feeds from all the Heresy everywhere at once, while I write to you. Write in you? Nope! That sounds weird! LOL.

Oof. I'm feeling really overstimulated and like there's always so much tension. I don't remember the last time I really had any time to myself.

You know who I hate? Robute. Always such a big brained brave boy that daddy loved more. I can't believe he survived Calth. What a loser... I wish he was here.

Maybe listening to my most deceitful and duplicitous bros about how to get shit done was a baaad idea, but they just seem smart and cool and confident. I wonder what being given a big hug by Alf and Egon at the same time would be like? If only my sneaky beaky sibling were here, he'd how to be a sneaky without being such a lying prick. Welp.

None of the cool kids want to play with me, which is like ughhhhh! I'm stuck with all the suckiest brothers with big daddy issues and stuff. Not like me. I'm so cool and edgy and misunderstood. My family just don't get me!

Anyways, I can't sit around typing all day like a gossiping Admistratum clerk. Some of us have a galaxy to burn. Blep.

Keep your head up! Miss you.

Love,

Nergui

P.S Will be thinking of you when I totally go all J. Nelson on fleashweak, untempered blade boys. show less