I love Dan Abnett [Spoilers]

[Phoebus]

Exactly, FB. You took the words right out of my mouth.

Any author faced with the prospect of continuing this storyline would have struggled to figure out a way wherein Curze survives entire months in a battle barge full of hundreds of Dark Angels, tens of thousands of humans, and a Primarch. I often wonder if I'm inserting too much "reader's prerogative" in criticizing the characters' decisions, but you're right: if Curze realized escape was imminent (once they translated to the materium), the Lion should have known as well. Especially given that the inability of his warriors to kill contain Curze in his absence had already been painfully demonstrated!

And again, given that Dan was able to (much more) plausibly insert four different characters (and in one of those cases, a nine-man entourage to boot!), and given that Curze really wasn't even central to the story (the real angles are the Lion and Guilliman, and the Cabal trying to kill Vulkan), I found myself wondering why this situation was needed to begin with. Hindsight is always 20-20, but I wonder if it wouldn't have been better to insert a short story that details how Curze escaped following the disastrous defeat of his Legion at the end of 'Prince of Crows'. Rather than worrying about buffing a single adversary, he could have easily focused on so many other potential antagonists. The Alpha Legion, for instance, were over and done with as a one-shot assassination attempt against Guilliman... when they could have been much more pivotal in doing whatever they could to keep the Dark Angels and the Ultramarines from coming to an accord!

Brass tacks, for anyone that's wondering... I did enjoy this novel. My enjoyment came much more from my perspective as a Dark Angels fan looking for more Dark Angels fluff, though, as opposed to as a reader enjoying a novel in its entirety. The interactions trump the plot in terms of quality. It's a good book, but it's not (in my humble opinion!) up to the standards of Dan's other works in this series, which featured not just excellent characters and interaction but very smart storylines as well.