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Pharos (Spoilders inside)


Athrawes

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Having just finished Pharos, there are a few interesting points before i'd like to mention before an in depth review.
 
Again spoilers follow:

 

 

- 20,000 Nightlords fleeing from Thramas Arrive and study the Pharos over Months before making a weel planned and devestating assault of the Ultramarine company stationed there.

-There are brief Mentions of the Lion, but most of the Primarch action focuses around Guilliman and Sanguinius. The Lion is "off doing something sneaky." We see a lot of tension between the two as Sanguinius reluctantly flexes his "Emperor" muscles. There is a point near the end of the book, where Guilliman very nearly disobeys emperor Sanguinius and it is made clear that if had done this, It could easily have led to open warfare between the Blood angles and the Ultramarines.

-The confrontation between Curze and Sanguinius has some interesting dialogue. Both as primarchs with premonitions seem to have a sense of kinship between them. The two Primarchs don't fight. Curze is unsure he could defeat Sanguinius, and Sanguinius lets Curze live as he belives anyone can be redeemed. Also, Curze has a great nickname for Guilliman. "The Avenging Beancounter."

-The Ultramarine 199th at the end of the Novel is unambiguously marked with the crossed scythes of the Scythes of the Emperor chapter (as opposed to a single scythe that was mention previously)

-The ultramarines eventually retake Sotha, but only by Dantioc sacrificing himself, destroying the Pharos becon in the process. They make it Pretty clear that this is 5 minutes to midnight for Imperium Secondus.

-Through the Pharos, the surviving NIghtlords on the Flagship NIghtfall are made aware of Sevetar being imprisoned and deside to set out and find Curze who they know know is on Macragge.

-The Book Ends, with a short paragraph unambiguously making it clear that the destruction of the pharos acts like a warp flare which draws the Tyranids attention to our Galexy and specifically to Sotha.

 

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Thanks for the spoilers mate, appreciate the effort. Looking forward to a full review as I'm not keen on e-books but am interested in the content.

 

Any more detail or info on the DA or the Lion? Last I'd read on him was the end of Unremembered Empire and there seems to be a long way to go to get him together with Russ on the march to Terra.

 

Sure thing.

The Lion isn't present in this book but is mentioned a few times. He has been officially titled "Lord Protector" of Imperium Secondus. Whichs to me that:


Sanguinius = Emperor of Imperium Secondus
Lion = Horus/warmaster of IS
Guilliman = Malcador/administrator of IS,

Guilliman seems to responsible for administering the imperium for Sanguinius, although this is a point of confrontation between the two as Sangunius at one moment appears cross that Guilliman would order somthing without his Emperors approval. Behind CLosed doors, Sang tells Guilliamn to drop the pretense, that the 500 worls are really his Empire and Sang is just a figurehead. Guilliman sort of grudgingly concedes this point. It seems to me that Guilliman wants to control his empire, but without being seen as "the guy who made an empire and crowned himself emperor."

During the story, The Lion as the Lord protector is off with the bulk of the Dark angels fleet. Vaguely "patroling the borders of the IS. Both Sang and Guilliman seem to this this explination is bs and have no idea what he is up to.

At the end of the book, afterf Sang and Curze share that both have seen Sanguiniuss dead at Horus' feet. This leads Sang to believe that this is the future.

After the Pharos is badly damaged/destroyed, Sang orders Guilliman to try and use it to contact Lion and he orders both of them to return to Macragge. He says that since they Know Curze is still on Macragge, thet the Lord Protector should return to Macragge and "do his job."

Aside from that the only other Dark Angels mentioned are a half company who sacrifice themselves by using their ship to help save Sotha.

 

Was a fantastic read, most enjoyable HH novel in quite some time for me. Guy Haley is brilliant.

 

Agreed. I particularly like his depiction of Curze and especially Sanguinius. 

 

The scene

 

 

where Sanguinius is flying around and later when he describes how Sanguinius really feels about his mutation is fantastic insight into his character.In earlier books it has been briefly touched on that Sanginius is so loyal because he feels like he has the most to prove (because of his wing mutation), That 'he fears why he has wings.'

 

In this books it is elaborated on that, Sanguinius is made more aware of his own 'taint' by the constant presence of his wings and so is in his mind vigilant against it, ever trying to prove to others and more himself that he is not tainted. This is paired nicely with Sanguinius' clear love for his wings and flight. There is a very "the thing that makes me weakest is the thing I love the most" aspect to him. He is portrayed to be one of the most self aware primarchs and I love that him in this book.

 

Great insight into the characters. Terrible subtlety. Guy could do much better to not make characters super mary-sues by removing some of the questionable just-as-planned moments.

If not for the insights into the good primarchs this would have been a waste.

Tyranids, really? Damn shame. Why do modern GW feel the need to tie everything to the same handful of events/individuals? I really miss the days when they'd leave intentional elements of ambiguity to their setting. The way things are going I wouldn't be surprised if a player in the Heresy (probably Alpharius) ends up seeding life onto T'au and/or sitting down for a chinwag with the Silent King, just to tie every 40k faction to the Heresy in some way.

the scythes of the emperor thing is very intresting

It is interesting to me too.. Concidering they are a 25th founding and not organised until 500.41~

 

That is a 10000 year gap, can we get more info on this if thats alright?

 

EDIT: also

 

 

Does Dantioch die?

 

Please tell me he does!

 

 

the scythes of the emperor thing is very intresting

It is interesting to me too.. Concidering they are a 25th founding and not organised until 500.41~

 

That is a 10000 year gap, can we get more info on this if thats alright?

 

EDIT: also

 

 

Does Dantioch die?

 

Please tell me he does!

 

 

 

 

 

Yep, he does

 

 

On a serious note since this ties things up, does this mean they're going to get back to the long...long road to Terra storyline soon?

 

Not having read it, just looking from a view of the whole plot, yes I believe we will be getting back to the road to Terra I hope, but this is Black Library, so another rather pointless story arc might be there to drag out the money.

 

Also, we still have Dark Angels to act suspicious in and the Emperor to do his even more suspicious stuff before we will be allowed to see it I think.

I really enjoyed this book, this is the right way to portray Night Lords, each way they were shown, via Curze and the legionnaires themselves.

Something for all those readers who take things that characters say as explicit in universe fact (also: a whole chapter Curze talking to sanguinius it's great!)

 

Curze outright tells sanguinius, that he (Curze) outmatches him (sang) in skill at arms, as he does most of his brothers, whilst also stating he could not kill him if he wished to, which relates in part to Curze knowing how sanguinius is going to die as they have shared the same visions.

 

 

Also in case you wonder from the above what other BA where knocking about

 

Curze has made a right mess of Azkaellon, and kills others that attempt to come near

 

Wait, so instead of the Pharos allowing the BA to make it to Terra before being destroyed, it's destroyed and now the Ultramarines/Dark Angels have no excuse for not being at Terra... Again. I thought the whole purpose of the :cuss Pharos was to be destroyed before the UM/DA make it through stranding them away from the battle.

Wait, so instead of the Pharos allowing the BA to make it to Terra before being destroyed, it's destroyed and now the Ultramarines/Dark Angels have no excuse for not being at Terra... Again. I thought the whole purpose of the censored.gif Pharos was to be destroyed before the UM/DA make it through stranding them away from the battle.

I think the reason for the Pharos from a plot stance was to allow for the BA to meet up at a point, rather than just be lost due to having no light to sail to after the events of Fear to Tread. It was just a means to bring the Blood Angles back into the fold. There will be plenty more on the Ultramarines and Dark Angels I am sure.. as much as I hate to say that.

I always thought that the Blood Angels fought there way back to the Imperial Palace on the front lines, being pushed back further and further until the traitors were at the doorstep. As for the Dark Angels, I believe from the revelations above, that the Lion and the DA are going to bugger off soon if they have not done so already.

That was my belief as well about the Blood Angels.

That would be a censored.gif move on the DAs part if they just took off leaving behind the UM/BA. I can see Roboute and the Ultramarines having some bad blood against the DAs. It'll be interesting to see where this leads them to get them back to fighting alongside the Space Wolves.

It says in the afterwood that this is the end of the second act of the Horus Heresy series.

 

 

It does make mention that the final pulse of the Pharos pushes back the storm a bit so it's possible it's cleared a way for BAs to make their way to Terra. I have a feeling the Lion will return with news that the Emperor isn't dead.

 

I also I think the Pharos is a Necron construction.

 

 

As to the Novamarines

 

 

Corvo is a little annoyed his veterans decided to adopt the colours on their shoulder pads, I was going to patriatch's of Ulixis but I'm no longer sure about using their colours on their shoulder pads it appears it's not an allowed act within the Ultramarines

 

It says in the afterwood that this is the end of the second act of the Horus Heresy series.

 

 

It does make mention that the final pulse of the Pharos pushes back the storm a bit so it's possible it's cleared a way for BAs to make their way to Terra. I have a feeling the Lion will return with news that the Emperor isn't dead.

 

I also I think the Pharos is a Necron construction.

 

 

didn't curze partially say the big E wasn't dead in a fashion? Sanguinius wasn't particularly hunt down and kill mode for him, but he's obviously in a bit of a mood about something and I think it's largely to do with what curze said than did. I guess we will find out in the next installment but Curze did leave azkaellon alive, albeit battered for reasons.

 

First off,

 

http://officetan.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/sAGWVio6.jpeg

 

Seriously, it was absolutely brilliant. In my opinion, everything he set out to do with the Night Lords that he talked about in his afterword, he achieved. I mean seriously, he had me feeling really bad for Kellendvar at the end.

 

Also, I'm a little disappointed that Krukesh is dead already since I absolutely loved his introduction back in Prince of Crows, but c'est la vie.

 

Second, @Helterskelter

No, Curze never mentioned that the Emperor was still alive. Sanguinius mentions something about believing Him to be dead and Curze just goes right on by it.

 

There is an instance of a Night Lord, Kellenkir I believe, telling an Ultramarine that the Emperor is alive, but that is about it.

 

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