Nineswords Posted November 11, 2014 Share Posted November 11, 2014 The Seventh Serpent Cut off the head and the body dies (Part 1 of 2) SPOILER FREE SYNOPSIS: The Shattered Legion aboard the Sisypheum are joined by another Iron Hands task force on the hunt to take out a vital part of the Alpha Legion’s operations. ‘I’m hoping that the story will twist your assumptions,’ says McNeill as he signs my copy at the BL Weekender III. He looks a little tired, and I’m one of his last signings of the day - McNeill has just sat through three signing sessions in a row without a break. I nod and shake his hand. I’m confident he’ll do a good job, considering The Seventh Serpent appeared at the Weekender without any fanfare at all. Secrets and lies and all that. In truth, some of us over at the The Serpent’s Lair have been getting really excited about McNeill’s forthcoming characterisation of the Alpha Legion for about six months, ever since McNeill made an offhand comment on Reddit back in May, which was then confirmed a few weeks later on Twitter. The book itself is limited to 4000 copies, and will no doubt available on Black Library’s website soon, featuring (very apt) artwork by Neil Roberts. On paper and publicly, McNeill states this is a direct sequel to 2012’s Angel Exterminatus, and whilst this is largely true, the biggest revelation in The Seventh Serpent is that McNeill has managed the rare feat of crafting two completely different stories, expertly woven together into a single novella. All told, I’ve had to read it cover to cover three times. It’s a complex book, and like any good film with a twist where you have a completely different interpretation after you’ve seen it once, new details leap out at you on a re-read. WARNING: MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD. As such, this review will be split into two parts: the first focuses on the novella sequel to McNeill’s novel Angel Exterminatus and the fate of the Shattered Legions on board The Sisypheum. The second half is the same tale re-told, this time from the perspective of a narrative that serves as a mirror counterpoint to Rob Sanders’ excellent Alpha Legion short The Serpent Beneath found in The Primarchs. ------ PART 1: THE IRON HAND THAT HOLDS THE SERPENT Picking up after the Sisypheum’s exit from Iydris following Fulgrim’s apotheosis to the Primordial Pantheon at the end of Angel Extertinatus, The Seventh Serpent opens with the crew of the Sisypheum raiding the Alpha Legion vessel Zeta Morgeld for supplies. The fight to scuttle the ship picks up its pace when it is discovered that the Alpha Legion are in the process of deleting its navigation logs, containing the location of an upcoming conclave with none other than the XX Legion Primarch Alpharius. Eventually the Shattered Legions emerge victorious, and begin to transfer materiel to the Sisypheum. Salamanders apothecary Tarsa requests five bodies for further examination to see if he can locate any genetic taint in the XX that explains their actions. Their victory is short lived however, as another Alpha Legion ship, the Theta Maliquent appears and begin an attack run on the Sisypheum, stranding Iron Hand veteran Setpus Thoic upon the Morgeld. Facing off one another around the dead hulk of the Morgeld, the sudden appearance of X Legion ship the Iron Heart destroys the Maliquent in a broadside volley. To the amazement of the Shattered Legions, their leader is none other than the Tenth Captain hard as-nails Shadrak bloody Meduson, last seen (chronologically) marshalling the Imperial forces on Dwell against the Sons of Horus in Dan Abnett's short Little Horus from 2011’s Age of Darkness. With the destruction of both Alpha Legion vessels, Cadmus Tyro, acting captain of the Sisypheum in place of the mortally wounded Captain Brantham welcomes their Iron Hand brothers aboard. To the delight of of the loyalists, Septus Thoic is the first to exit the Thunderhawk followed by Shadrak Meduson, Thoic having been rescued from the Morgeld by the Iron Heart, who now suffers from a number of radiation burns. An otherwise joyous rennion is soured by the distrust of Raven Guard all round badass Nykona Sharrowkyn. Rebuked by Tyro for his suspicion, Meduson reveals that they had been tailing the Alpha Legion vessel Maliquent on a mission to assassinate Alpharius (a nice nod to Little Horus here as the Xth and the V Legion had hoped to kill Horus on Dwell), their trail at a dead end after they were forced to destroy the Maliquent. Using the navigation data provided by the Zeta Morgeld decrypted by a Kryptos engine nestling safely in the holds of the Sisypheum, the loyalists join forces and set course to the Alpha Legion's secret conclave. During their resupply, Sharrowkyn sneaks aboard Meduson's ship the Iron Heart, his suspicion deepening as the interior of the Iron Heart little resembles it's sister Iron Hands vessel, despite the damage it sustained by the Sons of Horus during the Dwell offensive. The overall impression was of a starship that had been completely rebuilt from the inside out. Despite Sharrowkyn's ability to wraith-slip, he is discovered by an impressed Shadrak Meduson, who promptly takes him back aboard the Sisypheum to the displeasure of Tyro. ’He's right, Cadmus,’ said Shadrak Meduson. ’And, were our circumstances reversed, I'd have done the same.’ ’So why didn't you?’ asked Sharrowkyn. ’Who says I haven't?' By this point at the end of the middle act, not all is as it seems, and McNeill does a credible job of using Sharrowkyn (and apothecary Tarsa) as a device to deepen our own suspicions as to what is really going on as the story moves into its final act. Voyaging to the very remote planet of Eirene Septimus, the two Loyalist forces deduce that the planet’s unique atmospheric composition provides a near limitless supply of ship grade promethium harvested by an airborne processing station - a facility of strategic importance, no doubt. ‘But it’s those clouds that make Eirene Septimus valuable’ ‘Valuable to who?’ said Tyro, looking like he was imagining how it would be possible to fight within such a biosphere. ’To anyone who knots its truth’, said Wayland. ‘Eirene Septimus was entered into the Carta Imperialis by the Twentieth, yet the aestimate describes it as a dead world of no value.’ ‘Keeping it for themselves,’ sneered Meduson, his image wavering with static. Deciding the best course of action would be to await Alpharius’ arrival, a combined force of forty Iron Hands from Meduson’s Iron Heart, and twenty from the Sisypheum (fifteen clad in recovered Alpha Legion armour) infiltrate the Alpha Legion’s promethium facility, which the loyalists assess has a smaller complement of Legionnaires. To their surprise, the facility is run by thousands of Mechanicum, and they head (and eventually fight their way) towards a curious pyramid building at the facilities centre. With the meeting point secure, Frater Thramatica rigs a number of e-mag tethers responsible for re-fueling an Alpha Legion vessel (later revealed to be the Sigma) as a number of surface craft deploy, carrying Alpharius down to the surface. As this happens, his analysis of the earlier void fights confirm a nagging suspicion to his horror. On board the Sisypheum, Tarsa also experiences a terrible revelation upon examining an Alpha Legionnaire body, which is timed with Captain Brantham’s stasis field failing. On the surface, things don’t seem right as Sharrowkyn observes the meeting from a high vantage point, and the meeting between Alpharius and the legionnaires in disguise is fraught with confusion: Thoic stepped past Cybus and addressed his words to Alpharius. ‘Who do you think is waiting for you?’ asked Thoic. Alpharius narrowed his eyes, as though he might make able to see through Thoic’s helm to the burn-scarred face of the warrior beneath. ‘You’re not Skovola,’ said Alpharius. ‘No,’ agreed Thoic. ‘I’m not’. ‘You’re one of his, aren’t you? Seyhan?’ Thoic gave a short bow. ‘At your service, Legate Chaitin’. Cybus gripped Thoic’s shoulder guard. ‘What is he talking about?’ he demanded. ‘What are you talking about?’ ‘I’m talking about a betrayal of trust,’ said Thoic, with a nod towards Alpharius. ‘His mainly. But also mine.’ In the ensuing firefight, things to reach fever pitch as the readers suspicions are confirmed: Firstly, ‘Alpharius’ is a decoy. Second, if you haven’t guessed it by now, the real Alpharius is none other than the Iron Hands Tenth Captain Shadrak Meduson, which means that all of the Iron Hands aboard the Iron Heart were Alpha Legionnaires in disguise (revealed by apothecary Tarsa). It is revealed that Thoic was killed in the void fight when he was trapped on the Zeta Morgeld (he was blown out the ship, and swapped with Seyhan, the one named Alpha Legion infiltrator). In effect, the Shattered Legions were used by Alpharius to take out an opposing Alpha Legion faction, their strategically important facility and their ships. If this makes little sense now, the second half of this review will attempt to piece this together. ‘So who came down on that Thunderhawk?’ said Tyro. ‘One of your captains who refused to follow you into treachery?’ Alpharius said, ‘Legate Chaitin. A good man in his own way. Honourable to a fault and possessed a great deal of sensitive information, which is why I needed to find him before he reached the Imperium. Thank you for helping me with that, by the way…’ ‘So the Alpha Legionnaires aboard these moored ships. Their crews still hold true to the Emperor?’ With this revelation, the cover artwork by Neil Roberts makes sense: Iron Hands disguised as Alpha Legionnaires, Alpha Legionnaires disguised as Iron Hands; and even more confusingly, one or two Alpha Legionnaires disguised as Iron Hands who are disguised as Alpha Legionnaires. Their mission effectively complete, all that is left is to destroy the Shattered Legion warriors. Sharrowkyn attempts to face off against Alpharius and protect a heavily wounded Thramatica and Tryo. Alpharius walks away, with a cryptic message for the Raven Guard, foreshadowing McNeill’s upcoming novel The Crimson King. ‘As much as I want to, I’m not going to kill you, Nykona. At least, not today,’ said Alpharius. ‘Magnus asked me not to.’ With the death of pretty much everyone around bar Alpharius who disappears, the loyalists make their escape - the Sisypheum fighting its way out under the guidance of a newly-interred-into-a-Dreadnought Captain Brantham. … and breathe. On the surface, the novella is a fairly simple narrative complicated by a twist in which McNeill liberally sows many seeds in making you increasingly suspicious as the story picks up its pace. After the main twist is revealed and we’re left with a cliffhanger ending, no doubt readers will want to pick out the clues as to how the Alpha Legion successfully infiltrated the Iron Hands, and there are many (a few of which I’ve quoted). If you have little interest in the Alpha Legion and you saw the end coming, then I’d probably give this a 6.5/10. Full marks for a solid action story and a good twist that is expected. However, the self confessed Alpha Legion fanatic I am, the real intrigue of McNeill’s multi-layered novella is that a completely different story is told if viewed from the mindset of the Alpharius himself; which throws up more questions that it answers, and at the very least explains why in the Dramatis Personnae the Alpha Legion personnel is on the light side. A new timeline emerges that stretches back into previous Heresy stories, not just Angel Exterminatus and brings threads from both Little Horus and the Serpent Beneath, and even further back to Dan Abnett’s 2008 novel Legion. A more detailed analysis in Part 2, here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iron-Daemon Forge Posted November 11, 2014 Share Posted November 11, 2014 The Seventh Serpent Cut off the Head and the body dies What will follow is a detailed review and analysis of McNeill's latest novella. WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD On paper and publicly, McNeill states this is a direct sequel to Angel Exterminatus, and whilst this is largely true, the biggest revelation in The Seventh Serpent is that McNeill has actually managed to craft two completely different stories expertly woven together into a single novella. Just wanted to ask - Is this focuses on the shatter legion side of thing or does it also go onto the Iron Warriors side of things? I enjoyed Angels Exterminates & want to see what happen to the IV Legion after the end of that. Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nineswords Posted November 11, 2014 Author Share Posted November 11, 2014 It's a tale of the Shattered Legions on The Sisypheum, the IV aren't mentioned. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nineswords Posted November 11, 2014 Author Share Posted November 11, 2014 Part 1 is now up, it's full of spoilers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gogmagog Posted November 11, 2014 Share Posted November 11, 2014 Wow! Looking forward to part 2! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jarl Kjaran Coldheart Posted November 12, 2014 Share Posted November 12, 2014 from what i've read of the summary, this is why I hate the Alpha Legion WLK Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Veteran Sergeant Posted November 12, 2014 Share Posted November 12, 2014 from what i've read of the summary, this is why I hate the Alpha Legion WLK I used to really like the Alpha Legion, back when they were arrogant jerkwads who turned to a 10,000 year long guerilla war because their hubris had caused them to side with Horus, and now they were bitter and had no choice. The Scooby Doo Marines are lame as hell. "Let's see just who you really are!" You know what? Let's not. ‘I’m hoping that the story will twist your assumptions,’ says McNeil By writing a story where the Alpha Legion have somehow, impossibly impersonated another Legion, yet again, like every time we see them in a Horus Heresy novel? What was the twist? That there'd be guys pretending to be Alpha Legionnaires? So we can take what's already laughably stupid and make it bad comedy? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phoebus Posted November 12, 2014 Share Posted November 12, 2014 You know, I think there's potential for those Alpha Legion stories to be great. My issue with them is the uncompromising emphasis of secrecy. It's fine in some cases; Legion, for instance, is by and large considered a classic and none of us really knew exactly what was going on with Alpharius and Omegon until the end. In fact, most readers couldn't agree if it was Alpharius, Omegon, or their lieutenant who fought Chayne at the end of that novel. After a while, though, it gets tired. Worst, it becomes a contrived way to allow the Alpha Legion pull off amazing stunt after amazing stunt. It gets to the point where the impact of The Seventh Serpent is lost because everyone is expecting the Big Twist. How much more fun would it be if we occasionally got a story told from the Alpha Legion's perspective - where we get to see the planning, plotting, and scheming that goes into these missions of theirs? The thing is, the stuff the Alpha Legion tries to pull off is pretty difficult stuff. The annoying veneer of invincibility and omniscience that goes with them is a result (IMHO, at least) of us never getting to see just how difficult it is. Case in point, I don't think it's a coincidence that Rob Sanders' The Serpent Beneath seemed to get (again, based on my incomplete perspective) the most favorable reception out of all the post-Legion stories on the various fora.'' So maybe that was the real story that needed to be told: not how the merry crew of the Sisypheum got hoodwinked by Alpharius, but how the Primarch of the XX Legion took out Shadrak Meduson and figured out how to use his death to take out two birds with one stone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iron Father Ferrum Posted November 12, 2014 Share Posted November 12, 2014 By writing a story where the Alpha Legion have somehow, impossibly impersonated another Legion, yet again, like every time we see them in a Horus Heresy novel? Really? Like their appearance in Scars? Or for that matter, Legion? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Veteran Sergeant Posted November 12, 2014 Share Posted November 12, 2014 Okay, so how we saw them in Unremembered Novel, Deliverance Lost, The Serpent Beneath, "Face of Treachery"... should I go on? It's a boring, stupid, overused trope that has ruined the majority of Alpha legion fluff written about the Heresy. Didn't read Scars. Legion has it's own host of other problems, even if the Alpha Legion weren't busy impersonating Space Marines. So not every novel. Welcome to the English language concept of hyperbole. Either way, finding two examples that don't use the Alpha Legion as a gimmick plot device doesn't really disprove what I said anyway. How do we not guess the Alpha Lesion is secretly the Iron Hands guys? Because honestly, short of a self-applied drill press lobotomy, there's no way I didn't see the end of that story. I didn't even read his review, so I knew nothing about the story other than the brief synopsis at the beginning. I literally skipped to the end, just to see if I was right. That's how predictable Alpha Legion stories are. And they aren't getting any better. It's an arms race to see who can write the worst Alpha Legion story yet with the flimsiest premise, with each author who takes up the scaled mantle resolving to do his damnedest to be the one. It's like Highlander. Except you only get to watch Highlander 2 over and over again. I am, however, very proud of that picture. It really does capture just how stupid the Alpha Legion fluff is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
b1soul Posted November 12, 2014 Share Posted November 12, 2014 from what i've read of the summary, this is why I hate the Alpha Legion WLK I couldn't agree more. The Alpha Legion are subtle and devious. I think that's a great idea. They take the tenet "war is deception" and really run with it. I like that. What I don't like is "All Your Base Are Belong to Us" Marines. Abnett's Legion didn't portray them as such. It's a result of ridiculous sh*t like "Long Games at Carcharias" and "Deliverance Lost"...inferior writers handling the material. Other legions shouldn't be reduced to imbeciles when dealing with the ultra-smart smart smart Alpha Legion. If the Alpha Legion are geniuses to the other legions' retards, the Emperor would've just created 20 XXth Legions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
b1soul Posted November 12, 2014 Share Posted November 12, 2014 how the Primarch of the XX Legion took out Shadrak Meduson and figured out how to use his death to take out two birds with one stone. I we sure Shadrak is dead...it sounds like it but what a waste of a character IMO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Perrin Posted November 12, 2014 Share Posted November 12, 2014 I think this sounds pretty good actually, am I the only one? Part 2 will probably shed more light on it, but when Alpharius says that the AL that he had destroyed were loyal to the Imperium and knew too much, is it possible that the truth is they were loyal to Omegan? Also I like that the Alpha Legion just mark really valuable planets as dead worlds so they can keep them themselves Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gogmagog Posted November 12, 2014 Share Posted November 12, 2014 It sounds fantastic! Well stoked to read it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nineswords Posted November 12, 2014 Author Share Posted November 12, 2014 I'm still working on it. The hard bit is getting a load of stuff about why the legion is at war with itself, not just that it is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
weycon Posted November 12, 2014 Share Posted November 12, 2014 thank you for the synopsis. While it is nice for the Alpha Legion to be every legion, but how do Graham McNeill get around the Iron Hands over use of bionics? They all have minimum a bionic hand, and a senior Captain as Medusan would be more machine than flesh. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iron Father Ferrum Posted November 12, 2014 Share Posted November 12, 2014 Okay, so how we saw them in Unremembered Novel, Deliverance Lost, The Serpent Beneath, "Face of Treachery"... should I go on? It's a boring, stupid, overused trope that has ruined the majority of Alpha legion fluff written about the Heresy. Didn't read Scars. Legion has it's own host of other problems, even if the Alpha Legion weren't busy impersonating Space Marines. So not every novel. Welcome to the English language concept of hyperbole. Either way, finding two examples that don't use the Alpha Legion as a gimmick plot device doesn't really disprove what I said anyway. How do we not guess the Alpha Lesion is secretly the Iron Hands guys? Because honestly, short of a self-applied drill press lobotomy, there's no way I didn't see the end of that story. I didn't even read his review, so I knew nothing about the story other than the brief synopsis at the beginning. I literally skipped to the end, just to see if I was right. That's how predictable Alpha Legion stories are. And they aren't getting any better. It's an arms race to see who can write the worst Alpha Legion story yet with the flimsiest premise, with each author who takes up the scaled mantle resolving to do his damnedest to be the one. It's like Highlander. Except you only get to watch Highlander 2 over and over again. I am, however, very proud of that picture. It really does capture just how stupid the Alpha Legion fluff is. Oddly enough, I was just yesterday explaining hyperbole to Jeske in a thread since he didn't seem to grasp the concept. . . Oh, and they weren't dressed up as a different Legion in The Serpent Beneath, either. You're right, some authors have boned up doing Alpha Legion stories. Yes, this one seems (I haven't read it yet) like the twist was no twist at all (like the campaign from COD:AW; it's obvious from the start that Kevin Spacey knew what was coming...). Would it have been a better story if Sharrowkyn was wrong, that Meduson was himself, and Alpharius popped up some different way? Maybe. We'll never know. The problem with writing a really good infiltration story about the Alpha Legion is that it's not your average 40K novel. Look at Legion compared to False Gods or Mechanicum or almost any other novel in that series. They're bolter-porn, chock full of epic fight scenes. Helsreach is almost universally lauded, but it's full of bashing in ork faces. Priests of Mars interrupted a training exercise so that a Titan could go bonkers and blow a hole in the side of the ship. Every other chapter is full of explosions and the whir of chainblades. Legion has exactly five fight scenes: the ambush of the Dancers at the beginning, the escape from Visages, the raid on the House of the Hydra, the counter-attack at Mon Lo Harbor, and the boarding of the Blamires at the end (and of those, only half involved Space Marines). I'll even throw in Grammaticus' one-on-one with the Luficer Black to make six. That's downright paltry compared to your average 30K/40K novel. Spywork -- real spywork, not James Bond stuff -- is really, really boring to read about. It's long periods of waiting, the occasional conversation, hitting a drop point or cut out. . . almost anything except guns, blades, and explosions. Writing about that kind of stuff and making it interesting is really hard. It's also not what people expect from a 40K novel. I pick up a Horus Heresy novel, Alpha Legion or otherwise, and somewhere in there I expect to see a bolter round pasting gray matter all over a wall. A real Alpha Legion-y novel shouldn't have much of that sort of thing in there at all. But it will, and they have to shoehorn it in there somehow, because these are Space Marines. It's what Space Marines do. To give you an idea of what I'm talking about, think back to the story Liar's Due from Age of Darkness. It's an Alpha Legion story. It's about the Alpha Legion doing what they do best and fomenting unrest. Yet it never, ever gets mentioned in the litany of the Alpha Legion, either as a pro or con. Why? Because there's no combat in it. Hell, there's no Alpha Legionnaires in it! So anyway, before I get too wall-of-text-y here, I'll close by saying that we as a fan-base are never going to have our expectations met. This particular subject matter just doesn't mesh well with the point and purpose of 40K fiction. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Death Nikorps Posted November 12, 2014 Share Posted November 12, 2014 Hi everyone, here my review of The Seventh Serpent: https://twitter.com/blacklibrarium/status/532594474992828416 (you can click on the US/UK flag to translate into english) For Alpharius !! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nineswords Posted November 12, 2014 Author Share Posted November 12, 2014 To give you an idea of what I'm talking about, think back to the story Liar's Due from Age of Darkness. It's an Alpha Legion story. It's about the Alpha Legion doing what they do best and fomenting unrest. Yet it never, ever gets mentioned in the litany of the Alpha Legion, either as a pro or con. Why? Because there's no combat in it. Hell, there's no Alpha Legionnaires in it! That's a great story, completely underrated. https://twitter.com/blacklibrarium/s...94474992828416 Link doesn't work :( Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Death Nikorps Posted November 12, 2014 Share Posted November 12, 2014 https://twitter.com/blacklibrarium/s...94474992828416 Link doesn't work Fixed, sorry. :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wade Garrett Posted November 12, 2014 Share Posted November 12, 2014 The Alpha Legion tried to disguise themselves as Space Wolves in Scars , but were instantly found out because of the Wolves plot armor keen senses. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chapter Master Valrak Posted November 12, 2014 Share Posted November 12, 2014 Snip Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nineswords Posted November 12, 2014 Author Share Posted November 12, 2014 Snip I got this. *High five* Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kastor Krieg Posted November 13, 2014 Share Posted November 13, 2014 Still doesn't work, it's shortened in the middle. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
b1soul Posted November 13, 2014 Share Posted November 13, 2014 While it is nice for the Alpha Legion to be every legion, but how do Graham McNeill get around the Iron Hands over use of bionics? Good point I'm guessing "fake" bionics...armour purposefully designed to imitate the appearance of heavy bionic augmentation Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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