Deathfire. Done. At last. SPOILERS.

[Phoebus]

I finally finished Deathfire.

 

It's been something like six months since this novel was released. Hopefully everyone's, well, gotten it out of the way (you can probably see where this is going). Either way:

 

**SPOILER ALERT!**

**I MEAN IT. THERE ARE HEAVY SPOILERS AFTER THE NEXT TWO PARAGRAPHS.**

 

If I could use one word to describe Deathfire, it would be "contrived". Because I don't have a personal agenda against Nick Kyme, though, I will add a second one: "ambitious". Unfortunately, the second one struggles to overcome the first one. Reading Deathfire, it struck me that Kyme has some terrific ideas - ones that really deserve space in this series, and that help make the setting a living place - but is still learning (with respect to him and his craft) to translate them into a well-crafted novel.

 

When I say contrived, then, what I mean is that the story idea is great... but the  way the it unfolds, and the plot elements used to support its telling, is often just so much hand-waving. Logic takes a back seat. You can't think too deeply about what is happening, or the hows and whys behind it. You have to take what is given to you and just run with it. Questions lead to frustration.

 

The start of Deathfire was engaging enough for me. Artellus Numeon's trials at the hands of Xenut Sul and Quor Gallek, and his subsequent rescue at Aeonid Thiel make for good reading. That having been said, while the Pyre Captain's pathological refusal to accept Vulkan's death is to be expected (given the situation he was in), but might have been delivered better. As it stands, Numeon comes off more as obstinate than someone who has been psychologically damaged by the challenges and torture he has faced. That, in turn, makes him perhaps less sympathetic to the reader at first (this was certainly the case with me).

 

Where things start going downhill is with how Xenut Sul's capture and arrival on Macragge are handled. I think it's fair to say that the author has a basic responsibility to have his characters act in a way appropriate to the context of their situation and their relative ability. In this case, we have Ultramarines who are well aware of the supernatural forces the Word Bearers have aligned themselves with, and the unconventional forms, powers, and weapons they can bring to bear. As such, when Xenut Sul is delivered in a prison cell gagged and chained*, it feels completely inevitable that he will escape. That Sul escapes, in and of itself, is not a problem. That his captors look like blissfully ignorant fools while he does so, though, is an issue... and it's indicative of problems that plague this book until its end.

 

* Hilariously, Sul's captors never even take his power armour off. Details like that drive me nuts.

 

Vulkan's corpse later disappears, which leads the Salamanders on a wild-goose chase. Its ending is never very satisfying or truly resolved (the teleporter built in to Dawnbringer, Vulkan's hammer, is credited with his disappearance). No one questions what the odds are that teleportation would transport a corpse to a perfect sitting position on a throne... as opposed to, you know, the middle of a wall or a floor, or Macragge's orbit, or Macragge's core. In the end, it's just the excuse Numeon needed to justify leaving Imperium Secundus.

 

Prior to the Charybdis setting sail from Macragge, Numeon refuses Guilliman's offer of escorting them to the system's edge. This makes the Pyre Captain out to be rather petty, but by now I was getting the idea: the Salamanders have to run into trouble, and an Ultramarine escort of ships would make writing in this conflict difficult. Sure enough, Circe (Charybdis's Navigator) and Kolo Adyssian (the battle-barge's shipmaster) practically telegraph the foreshadowing of the coming fight. Thus, when the Necrotor is subsequently detected landing troops against a civilian outpost called Rampart, it comes as no surprise.

 

(Well, one might be surprised that Macragge's alert systems fail to pick up a Death Guard cruiser coming in-system, but whatever. They're only on war-footing.  The Shadow Crusade, left-over Traitor Legionaries, and opportunistic pirates aren't reason enough for the Ultramarines to be patrolling their system.)

 

That "diversion" in turn introduces us to the Kaspian Hecht/Barthusa Narek mess.

 

Narek is Narek when he is deposited in an Ultramarine prison at the end of The Unremembered Empire. He certainly recalls being Narek (albeit with difficulty) after he somehow escapes from the Eastern Keep on Macragge (at some point after Xenut Sul's attempt to kill him). In less time than it took the Charybdis to get to Rampart, though, Narek's persona is replaced by that of Kaspian Hecht: a Knight Errant who believes he is on a mission from Malcador the Sigillite. Not that this mission really matters. Hecht/Narek is in a decidedly "supporting cast" role, his purpose merely to lend an air of mystery to the story, without affecting the plot in any meaningful way.

 

From there we go through a series of fights and "intermissions".

 

The Necrotor catches up with the Charybdis after its first (and aborted) attempt to go through the Ruinstorm. One has to wonder why the Preacher, aboard the Monarchia, and Laestygon, aboard the Reaper's Shroud, are not able to join in on this attack. One has to live with the disappointment of never finding out.

 

Later, it's the Monarchia that has a go at the Charybdis; once more, one wonders why the Traitors opt to take on the Charybdis piecemeal. Both ships knew of the Charybdis, and all three had to have been relatively close to one another (being part of the same fleet). No answer is given, and I was left feeling that it was simply a lot easier to write sixty-six Salamanders taking on a hundred Death Guard or two hundred Word Bearers than the combined total of the enemy fleet.

 

Frankly, the fights are no better than filler. Even at their best, they feel contrived. The good parts are to be found in between the battles, and I wonder when it is that many of Black Library's authors will realize that, setting for toy soldiers or not, the action should support and enrich the stories they tell - rather than drive them. For instance, I enjoyed seeing some well-handled instances of Deus Ex Machina in the form of Vulkan's hammer sigil: it saves Numeon from a grisly death by incineration, and the same character uses this ostensibly mundane icon to utterly destroy a Death Guard in Cataphracti armour. I think Kyme deserves kudos for making this talisman seem apropos. It works with the story, it's usage is dramatic, and while it "solves a problem" in the historic fashion, it doesn't feel contrived.

 

There's also the daemonic infestation of the Charybdis. It's a well-done series of scenes, though it is unfortunate that the "sirens" (actually, daemonettes) felt more like something out of a Japanese horror movie than a simulacrum of Adyssian's daughter. Part of this, of course, comes down to the fact that we've never seen Adyssian's daughter before - and that Adyssian himself is a new character to us. While the shipmaster's grief feels genuine, I find myself wondering if the novel would not have benefited more from him and Circe being more prominent characters. That in turn leads me to wonder if Kyme might not have benefited from just having the same cast from Vulkan Lives somehow escape Traoris and make their way to Ultramar. The first four novels of the Horus Heresy series benefited from having some well-written mortals to act as counterparts to the Astartes protagonists; were I Nick Kyme, I might regret not starting off with some of Charybdis's mortal crewmembers from the get-go.

 

And then finally, there's the defining moment of the novel: the revelation of Magnus the Red. This was probably a controversial moment to many. I personally didn't mind it. It seemed apropos that Vulkan's fate would eventually attract the attention of someone more powerful than a couple of minor commanders of the Traitor Legions. The fact that Magnus seemingly believes that Vulkan is truly dead is odd*, but his intervention was satisfying. It's at once touching, capricious, and non-committal. Magnus does seem to care about his brother, but at the same time he's clearly at a moral crossroad.

 

* In fact, it feels like a weak attempt to convince the reader that maybe Vulkan won't come back to life after all. Thus, when Vulkan does make an appearance at the very end, Magnus's proclamation feels like a contrived attempt at Obi-Wan Kenobi logic: "So, as you see, he was dead, Numeon - after a fashion."

 

The arrival of the Charybdis at the edge of the Sol System brings us back to headaches. It's all well and good that Numeon believes that Vulkan Lives, but it takes a healthy heaping of plot armour for him to genuinely believe that his resurrection is only to be found in Nocturne. Let's recap real quick:

 

1. Numeon, in case Kyme forgot, is Terran.
2. Numeon had personal encounters with the fulgurite before this novel; he had felt the connection between it and the Emperor.
3. Now Numeon finds the fulgurite again - embedded in his primarch's chest.

 

It thus feels very forced, ham-fisted even, that this individual, who consistently defies the "logic" pushed on him by a primarch, his chaplain, one of his sergeants, and more than one of his subordinates, misses the very real connection between himself, the Emperor, and the artifact that has impaled his father. I found myself asking, what was the point of this scene? Why even come by Terra? Numeon's commitment to getting to Nocturne had been questioned and tested numerous times already. How did this benefit the story?

 

The Salamanders eventually do get to Nocturne, but by this point the story is in full "cruising speed" mode, and everything that happens feels like an afterthought. The battles shown, such as they are, are bereft of reason and defy the context of the setting at every turn. I struggled to provide a recap for them. It wasn't fun. They're just not fun. I try to picture Nick Kyme writing the last six-seven chapters of Deathfire, and I see someone with unquestionably good ideas and a burgeoning talent eventually, succumbing to... I don't know. Malaise? Boredom? A compulsive need to aim for the outrageous? The ultimate effect boils down to, "Screw it, dragons!"

 

One of the most interesting aspects about the Vulkan story arc (which has to include The Unremembered Empire), is what the primarch's disappearance and "death" meant to the larger setting. We certainly felt the pain felt by the Salamanders, but we also got some "Oh, wow" moments - such as the Cabal's revelation that they needed Vulkan dead because he couldn't be allowed to rejoin with the Emperor and be the "Keeper of the Gate". Webway anyone? Magnus was probably meant to be a piece of the grand puzzle (on the Golden Throne), but his sorcerous gamble pre-Isstvan III led to the Emperor losing him. Now here was another key piece lost.

 

And that's why, in closing, Vulkan actually coming back to life - at least now - was kind of anti-climactic and disappointing. A third book in this trilogy could very well have been about the Salamanders' spiritual resurrection, with Numeon actually realizing his destiny: getting himself and his followers to shed their collective baggage. Taking a page from the Raven Guard's book and getting back into the fight. Instead, Kyme is now yoked with the burden of re-introducing Vulkan... in a way that won't allow him to do precisely what the Cabal doesn't want him to.

 

There are yet more headaches to be dealt with. Barthusa Narek's story is, of course, not complete. He certainly did not die on the Charybdis. His could have been a decent side-plot: a traitor to the Traitors, intent on winning back something that could never be recovered. Now, however, Kyme may have bitten off more than he can chew. There are only so many ways the Sigillite can be involved; only one of them doesn't come off as redundant, and that way is going to be very hard to play out convincingly.

 

Deathfire was hard reading. It's hard to slog through something that's coming off as pedestrian and even contrived.

 

But there is promise. There really, really is.

 

I thought Vulkan Lives was poor, and I thought the Salamanders trilogy was not even that - just bland despite attempts to make it unique by way of repetitive catch-phrases and fire/smithing-related terms.  Deathfire, however, strikes me as Kyme's best attempt thus far to put a character through a journey that forces him to grow and overcome. It's not always done well, and one could argue the character's growth is going from the mildly ridiculous to just the relatively sympathetic. You can see his growth as a writer, though, and you can see that he's anxious to introduce ideas that go beyond "Let's get this Heresy to Terra" AND add to this setting.

 

I don't know that I was happy to spend $17 (or so) on this eBook. I can, however, say that I will be intrigued to do so on the sequel... and it won't be just because I want to have read every Horus Heresy novel (as was the case this time).

[Flint13]

Thanks for the run-down, man. You put a lot of work into your thoughts here, and it shows. 

 

It's really really good to hear that someone had my exact same thought pattern on the novel as a whole. 

[Izlude]

Yes I totally agree with the review. In general Kyme is very hit or miss. I personally think his short stories are quite good such as all the relevant Sallie stories like scorched earth. I also enjoy other non sallie stuff like Gates of Terra. I just don't think he does full length novels well, as most people have said he tries to cram in too much stuff and/or rushes via. I will say I put off reading Vulkan lives due to what appeared to be really mixed reviews but I will say that book was not bad and I enjoyed it. Narek is definitely a cool character and I enjoy reading about him. The things about this book I disliked which is echoed by many:

 

1. "Vulkan lives!" yes we get it. Numeon's belief in his primarch is sort of touching and annoying at the same time. I just wished this wasn't their battle cant...Numeon has so much potential to be a badass 1st captain/equerry like Khârn or Sigismund but he does come across as having a pathological hard-on for Vulkan. 

 

2. The whole knight errant/Narek thing: Maybe I missed something between when he was captured by the ultra in UE to this book, but I really don't know how this whole event with narek happened and seems sort of random. 

 

3. Primarchs: Man poorly done is all I can say. Dan handled all the multiple primarchs well and even made the Lion awesome compared to Gav who is supposedly the DA's main author. They all lacked personality and were boring.

 

4. Word bearers and Death guard: Wow...if they were to make a cartoon with villains tying up people to train tracks...the WB and DG were so one dimensional and lacked character it was painful to read. Oh and let's take our one ship and attack the sallies homeworld...plus teleport down and assault it! The NL had like what 20K marines and assaulted Sotha and still got their butts kicked.

 

5. Magnus: Hmmm....that was random. Maybe some guest appearance for Crimson King?

 

I really wanted to like this book as it does attempt to advance the story but so many issues that made it hard to read. Speaking of which did this book really have 60 chapters? Okay maybe not but it seemed like alot! 

[Flint13]

1.) Could have been worse. "IT'S ALSO A HAMMER!" was what got me.

 

2.) Super weird right? I feel like I missed a short story somewhere.

 

3.) It's hard to make the Lion awesome, but Mr. Abnett managed.

 

4.) Is it better or worse than teleporting a single terminator on board the Charybdis?

 

5.) Never have I seen a Primarch act more like a celebrity sitcom guest. It felt like Kyme was instructed to get Magnus in there somehow no matter what, and that was the best he could settle on. 

 

*POOF* "Your quest is futile, Numeon. But maybe noooooootttttt..." As he disappears back into the ether... 

[Roomsky]

Great review, you are a braver person than I to read this book. Once I heard about the flamers vs life-eater thing I didn't want to touch this thing with a 10-foot pole. I'm glad Kyme shows some promise though, I'd like to see an entire novel of his at the same quality as Imperfect, or even Censure.

[caladancid]

Very good review of the novel.

 

I can't tell if you forgot this or not, but people seem to forget this when reviewing Nick Kyme's novels (and I am no Kyme apologist). Vulkan has to be alive by the end of the Heresy. So far the new HH books have done nothing that changes established fluff of what the end result of the heresy was. I can't remembe how many editions this goes back, but in multiple editions Vulkan is described as being part of the drama over reorganizing the Legions. Kyme had to bring him back.

[Phoebus]

caladancid,

 

I didn't forget it, per se, but I wouldn't have blamed Kyme (or, really, the editors and the authors in general, since they convene to discuss big decisions like this) had he opted to keep Vulkan dead. What Vulkan does post-Isstvan in the old lore amounts to nothing, and his contributions post-Heresy are, if I recall correctly, limited to some mediating over the Codex Astartes and his scattering of the Salamanders' treasures. We have to remember, though, that this time period is so lost to the 41st millennium that it's become more mythology/religious belief (in the way that someone who reads the Old Testament reads about Noah's Ark) than a well-documented historical period.

The larger point I wanted to focus on, though, was that giving Vulkan an "intended special role" makes it that much harder now to keep him away and keep him alive for the duration of the Heresy... and do so in a satisfying manner. Whereas Magnus, to cite him again, was already condemned by his own actions and those of Horus. The writers and the editors didn't have to worry about how they were going to keep him from helping the Emperor.

[caladancid]

Ok yeah I totally agree with all of that. I think the handling of Vulkan has been not ideal. Personally I'm glad he is alive bc I've always been a Salamanders fan. And Nick Kyme has written him very well a couple times.

[Augustus]

Great review Phoebus.

[veterannoob]

Convenient, I just listened to this audio book again last week. I like your review and agree on several points but I'm wondering for those who have read the printed version, did you get annoyed at times with way too much "Vulkan Lives!! or just plain "VULKAN!!" because I did. Maybe just because I can hear a narrator but at several points it was a bit too much.

[Phoebus]

It is annoying - to me, at least. "Vulkan lives!" has replaced the various battlecries (e.g., "Unto the anvil, brothers!") that aggravated so many readers of Kyme's works set in M41.

[Carach]

i echo the earlier poster who says he does good work with short stories, but he just can't seem to make a novel work.

 

i decided against buying this one because Vulkan Lives was just... terribly repetitive, so its kinda irritating that i read Narek is in there, because i really wanted to see how his story went. I like that chap. Fortunately it seems they've completely left out a rather large jump of logic so there must be a short story about it that will turn up at some point

[Plasmablasts]

I quite liked Deathfire (which sometimes makes me feel like I'm in a club of one).

 

I think Nick Kyme may have left some of the plots deliberately ambiguous or under-explained. For example, all we gather about the Narek/Hecht thread is what the character has pieced together.

 

Regarding Vulkan's disappearance on Macragge, there are, I think, three possibilities: the teleporter in his hammer, Magnus (according to Magnus...) and, although I don't think it's mentioned, Hecht, acting as a conduit for Malcador. If the latter could spirit Narek out of the prison, he could probably shift Vulkan. Why to do that? Not sure...

 

I thought the scene with Magnus was actually pretty strong. I think Kyme conveyed Magnus's ambivalent character very well: arrogance, Tzeentchian deviousness and lingering good-will to one of his brothers. I felt convinced both of Magnus having a residual affection for Vulkan and that one couldn't take anything he said at face value.

 

Regarding the final battle on Nocturne, I'm not sure that the criticism that Kyme wrote it in a slapdash, can't really be bothered manner is apt. I think he was aiming for an effect like the "high", somewhat detached style Tolkien uses at the Pelennor Fields. Clearly, there will be opinions about the success of his attempt...

 

Any way, those are a random selection of my thoughts. Now I'd better get to bed...

[Loesh]

My general stance on Nick Kyme is this: Nick Kyme has the potential to be an awesome writer, problem is he's an awesome writer when it's the Emperors Children and he should never touch anything else. It's kind of odd really because when it comes to my favorite Black Library authors my favorites are Graham Mcneil, ADB, and Nick Kyme when it comes to popular online consensus on who writes best one of these things is not like the others, one of these things does not belong.

 

Honoruable mention to: Anthony Reynolds, I only read his Word Bearer Omnibus but I truly treasure that book.

 

But hey, Authors are gonna write what they are going to write. I'v met a couple people who like Deathfire and much as i'd like to live in a magical universe where the Black Libraries authors worked only what I thought was good, that's sadly not the case.

 

If it was, ADB would be writing that Zorbulon trilogy about now.

[Phoebus]

I quite liked Deathfire (which sometimes makes me feel like I'm in a club of one).

Opinions are ultimately subjective. There are books that I champion in one fashion or another that leave me feeling like a definite minority on various fora. At the end of the day, if we're all able to qualify our differences in a respectful manner (as opposed to "This sucked!"), it's all good.

 

I think Nick Kyme may have left some of the plots deliberately ambiguous or under-explained. For example, all we gather about the Narek/Hecht thread is what the character has pieced together.

My issue with this side-plot is that there is no foreshadowing to it, nor any allusion, or even so much as a hint about it. Thus, when Hecht's true persona is revealed to him by the Preacher, the scene is jarring - and not in a good way. And let's be blunt here: Malcador the Sigillite - or one of his agents - infiltrating Macragge to psychically brainwash Narek of the Word into trying to kill off a primarch is a huge deal. Doubly so if it actually is Malcador doing the deed.

 

EDIT:  heck, Malcador just KNOWING what's going on in Ultramar is a huge deal. The way this plot is handled, though, it's simply assumed... and not given any consideration.

 

Regarding Vulkan's disappearance on Macragge, there are, I think, three possibilities: the teleporter in his hammer, Magnus (according to Magnus...) and, although I don't think it's mentioned, Hecht, acting as a conduit for Malcador. If the latter could spirit Narek out of the prison, he could probably shift Vulkan. Why to do that? Not sure...

Exactly - who knows? And again, the fact that this is never followed up in the story is only half the problem. The fact that no one seems to give a damn that this happened is what really grates on me. Really, is "The Sitting Position Teleporter" a thing?

 

I thought the scene with Magnus was actually pretty strong.

Agreed.

 

Regarding the final battle on Nocturne, I'm not sure that the criticism that Kyme wrote it in a slapdash, can't really be bothered manner is apt. I think he was aiming for an effect like the "high", somewhat detached style Tolkien uses at the Pelennor Fields. Clearly, there will be opinions about the success of his attempt...

I can't even give him that. I found it to be a self-contradicting mess that relies on omission of detail to allow its highlights to seem plausible:

 

1. Laestygon's approach on Nocturne goes unnoticed by the Salamanders' fortress monastery and flotilla on Prometheus... which is a moon of Nocturne. 
2. The Reaper's Shroud can't knock down the void shields of the outpost, but a couple of paragraphs later that's precisely what the ground assault force is expected to do.
3. The Death Guard and their armour, artillery, etc., are of an unknown number; they are as many as the author needs them to be.  
4. A similarly unknown number of Nocturne monsters emerge from an unstated number of ravines, of unknown dimension, to attack Laestygon's invasion force in a remarkable demonstration of inter-species cooperation. They are conveniently impervious to  Astartes armour and artillery, and are able to gore, trample, and otherwise destroy such vehicles. They decide to vacate the battle for no apparent reason.

I could go on. The point is, this felt a lot less than "detached overview of a battle" than just avoiding coming up with a good one to begin with.

[hutch2mutch]

I have the general feeling of everyone else, and I've never been a UM fan but the way Nick Kyme presents Guilliman, is so out of character from what I've previously read in other novels.... It infuriated me haha. It's a shame because the first part of the book started really well too...

[Chaeron]

 

I quite liked Deathfire (which sometimes makes me feel like I'm in a club of one).

Opinions are ultimately subjective. There are books that I champion in one fashion or another that leave me feeling like a definite minority on various fora. At the end of the day, if we're all able to qualify our differences in a respectful manner (as opposed to "This sucked!"), it's all good.

 

Absolutely agree on that!

 

I thoroughly enjoyed the 'horror' aspect of Deathfire, as I've stated in other threads - I don't recall another BL book that had that specific style/genre approach, and I thought it was very effective when weaved through and worked well within the context of the story.

[HeritorA]

I found it to be a crappy mess that relies on omission of detail and brings absent logic to bear!

 

Flaming life-eater, standing 1 meter from it from a HAND FLAMER,  absent shipment in the system, @Avatar@ stolen scene with the Nocturne mosnters, 'Vulcan l...... :cuss it' - you call that a good read?

[Echidna]

I am halfway through it and I already want to throw it in a bin. Not only that I feel the book as a very poor portrayal of the awesome Salamanders legion, but the characterization, the blunt cut-scenes and the poor dialog really makes Deathfire unremarkable. I will grind to the end but I am not enjoying this book, at all. 

[Valdr Fell-fist]

One of the most difficult books I've ever read. The ideas were fairly interesting, but the execution let them down.

Anybody catch the mention of 'Gereon' as a World with a Salamander presence?

[Augustus]

No, would you mind elaborating, Valdr?

[HeritorA]

Gereon - world from Abnett's 'Sabbat Worlds' Gaunt Ghosts setting

[Valdr Fell-fist]

It's almost at the end of the book, when Numeon is talking to Rhy'tan about how many Salamanders are left.

Rhy'tan says 'Gereon remains silent, although there could be Drakes there still.'

 

I don't remember any mention of Salamanders in Traitor General or Armour of Contempt, so that's quite interesting.

[God-Potato of Mankind]

Are you sure you're getting the spelling g right? There is a permanent garrison at Geryon's Deep. It's in HH book...2 I think.

[Valdr Fell-fist]

That is exactly how The author spelt it, which I suppose could have been a mistake in writing. But it does raise interesting questions about the Sabbat Worlds.