Guy Haley

This is a very disturbing novel on many levels.

First is Curze himself. For all means and purposes emotionally unstable and fatalistic to the core he is disgusted with himself and what his role in the Imperium is. Relying on fear and fear alone to both govern the worlds under his dominion and his legion it is no small wonder that he slowly loses grasp on his Night Lords as they slowly degenerate into psychopathic murdering lot that moves on to kill and maim for killing and maiming alone. This show more again proves to Curze that everything is falling apart and only thing to do is to go around killing and butchering puny humans because .... anxiety is difficult you know :)

Curze, being a fatalist sees what he takes to be guaranteed future where everybody dies ... well he dies and therefore he sees no point in aiming for anything. So he just becomes madder and madder until he finally decides to end his life through the assassin sent by Imperium but in the process makes sure his father (Emperor) gets the finger because .... why not, I guess, if Curze goes down lets drown everybody in blood.

Second level is Emperor - what did he truly see in Curze and his ever increasingly psychopathic legion? As time goes on I truly wonder what Emperor's end-goal is because he must be heading somewhere with all his actions... right? If not then this is truly epic tragedy.

Excellent book, highly recommended to all fans of Warhammer 40K and Horus Heresy especially. show less

I have to admit that Cawl and Alpha Primus are becoming my favorite story arc in W40K universe.

Cawl, ever working on new projects, has a plan how to stop the Chaos Warp infestation from further spreading. But to achieve his goal he will need to tinker with dangerous xenos technology and he will definitely need assistance from Mechanicum, in a big way. Of course his previous actions are sufficient to draw attention from people from Imperium who want him burned as heretic (Frank is ..... show more hilarious :)), but Cawl manages to organize a meeting to see if he can get any help.
To make things worse, nefarious forces have heard of the meeting and possible great loot to be acquired, and person leading the strike is no other than crazy Chaos scientist Fabius Bile (although in the background some very disturbing Dark Mechanicum forces are working on their schemes). All ingredients are in for a showdown of likes neither Cawl nor Mechanicum expect.

Author's style is very fluid, and conversation between characters are witty and very human (even Bile's lines). I mean, just take Cawl's simulation discussion to ascertain how his actions will be viewed by others (and I wont go into details in here but this is huuuuuge thing, pure genius). This had me in stitches, same as Cawl's explanations of his actions and scientific approach to Frank of Inquisition :) I mean, it was like straight from Monty Python.

Dialogues and even inner voice discussions bring to life all the characters, from Qvo, Cawl, Alpha Primus and numerous Mechanicum magos and engineseers, to Chaos warlords and of course Bile. Bile comes across like more crazy version of Wagner's Kane or Star Trek Khan, man so obsessed with himself in role of the Creator, uncrowned ruler, almost disgusted he needs help from what he sees as inferior creatures to achieve his goals. But even in his psychotic behavior it is visible that he still has something akin to human emotions, especially to his ultimate creation, so called New Men (which are again something new to me, entire concept being wiiiiiild to the core).

It is visible that author wants to make parallel between Bile and Cawl, as two science geniuses on the opposite sides, both willing to do some very questionable or even outright bad things to achieve their goals. I dont think Cawl ever fell so low to be equaled with Bile (who is at least on level of evil as Hannibal Lector), but considering that Cawl himself has lost and forgotten much more than he currently has, question remains what was he involved in the past that he cannot recollect. Fact is that everything he does, he does with a purpose and noone knows what that purpose is.

Excellent book, with lots of intrigue between the characters and very well put action sequences, both in space and on ground.

For fans of W40K highly recommended. If you are not at least familiar with the lore, book can still be very interesting but it does require some additional knowledge to fully enjoy it, so keep that in mind.

Highly recommended. show less

This one really stuck with me. The narrative alternates between one of the first scientific research outposts on Mars somewhere in the near future and the strange discoveries there, and a Mars in decline thousands (if not millions) of years into the future, with powerful AIs, symbiotic armor, and all sorts of crazy far-flung-future pulp goodness. We also (along the way) get brief glimpses of Martian history from numerous points between past and future, culminating in one final scene that show more ties everything together and reframes the entire thing as a love story. Fascinating, beautiful, and quite affecting. Best read of 2016, and it will demand a reread sometime soon. show less

The last HH novel by Guy Haley that I read was Titandeath, released shortly after this novel. It was an absolute stinker, dull and overlong. Now I understand why it was such bobbins - this book sapped Haley's creative juices! This is a great genre novel; nothing in here is the remotest bit important or philosophical, nothing to make you think or change your life. But it is a great science fantasy novel of a desperate suicide mission full of action and adventure, with a cool sub-plot for an show more occasional change of tone. Great work. show less