HH Book 44: The Crimson King

[HeritorA]

Heritor A, its Nagasena, just a typo my mistake lol

 

I think Promus had a very brief mention in one of the books dealing with imperium secundus, not 100% sure though.

1 sentence that he 'was' a Chief Librarian of the Ultramarines, lol.

If it's a mistype - then ok, minus 1 rage point for me.

[Robbienw]

ok, i am up to page 70 so far

 

Nothing that exciting has happened yet, just buildup really

The first couple of pages are from the Magnus Shard that was left on Terra after he broke through the web way gate. He is residing in the Primarch villa under the palace where corax was that time. He thinks on how his subtle body was broken into shards by leman russ and what the other shards and the primary magnus are thinking, and if they know what they are. I presume this is the magnus shard that was combined with Arvida to make Janus, i haven't read that short yet.

Then we are with the main Thousand Sons characters and Lucius on the Torquetum, some kind of geometrically strange weird warp powered orrery that observes the eye of terror. Magus has sent them there to retrieve a bound prophesising daemon called the Iron Occulus. there are a group of human that are the keepers of it, and a load of daemon-pwered robots they use to defend it.

On the way through the structure they go through some mortuary rooms full of dead stuff, various relics and other weird exhibits. They come across an Eldar warrior that is clearly Jain Zar locked in statsis in one exhibit.

Ahriman goes to where the iron occulus is and retrieves it after killing some of the keepers. The daemon is bound in an iron box.

Whilst ahriman is doing this the keepers in the mortuary room and the daemon robots turn on the thousand sons. They and lucius kill a large amount of the robots but its not looking good.

Sobek, ahrimans equerry, does some kind of spell to unleash some really nasty murder daemons that where mentioned in the Chronicles of Ursh. This works and the keepers are killed, and the daemons powering the robots are vanquished.

However sobek isn't powerful enough to control the deamons and they turn on the thousand sons and lucius. They try to use a kind of spell to defend themselves but it doesn't work, and then Sobek is overtaken by the flesh change.

Ahriman arrives in the nick of time and sees the daemons off with the help of the Iron Occulus. BTW the daemon in the Iron Occulus tells ahriman it is to be referred to as Aforgomon.

Ahriman and Hathor Maat freeze Sobek mid flesh change, to see if they can find a way to cure him. They have unsuccessfully tried to cure other thousand sons of the flesh change already, despite Magnus banning them from doing it.

They head back to their ship and go back to the planet of the sorcerers.

Amon is on the planet of the sorcerers. He is considering the ever changing nature of the planet; It is always changing its environment no two vistas or locations are ever the same. The only constant is magnuses tower of the cyclops.

Magnus is talking to Lorgar in the warp. This is Lorgars latest visit and he is proselytising to magnus again on why he should turn to chaos and declare for Horus. Magnus knows of Horuses ascension on Molech. Magnus is fed up and after some talk he suddenly seizes Lorgars iessence in a silver thread and threatens to cut it and let daemons of the warp feed on his essence. Lorgar is powerless to stop him aand pleads with him not to do this, and Magnus lets him go. Lorgars spirit flees back to his body.

Ahriman and Co arrive back at the planet of the Sorceres, and Ahriman takes the Iron oculus to magnus in a thunder hawk.


Thats it so far. Lucius being there but not in the Dramatis Personae makes me think that other characters not listed in it might turn up later.

[Robbienw]

Up to page 110

Ahriman goes to see Magnus in his tower. Amon is there. Ahriman and Magnus argue; Ahriman want him to save the legion, all Magnus want to do is collate and save all the information he has learned for the future of mankind, after so much was lost on prospero, before he dies. There are scribes in the chamber that are splintered parts of Magnus

Lucius and sanakht are stalking each other near sanakhts tower. Lucius came to the eye to find out why he is still alive after being killed by sharrowkyn. Sanakht beats Lucius down this time, although Lucius has his blade to sanakhts ribs so really it's a draw.

Then all of a sudden the lost fleets of the thousand sons arrive. Three battlebarges, including the flagship Photep, and a host of other ships and storm birds bearing many full companies of thousand sons possibly as many as 5000 legionnaires. These are the ships that Magnus sent away on the eve of the battle of prospero.

Magnus and Amon talk whilst watching the fleet arrives. Amon explains he knows what is happening to Magnus and why he is dying (Magnus has already realised he is dying before this point)

Ahriman, sanakht, Hathor maat and an apothecary are attempting a ritual to restore sobek. Initially it appears they were successful, but then sobek incinerates. Magnus arrives and is not happy that Ahriman has disobeyed him again, but does not punish him. He orders Ahriman to go to then ruins of Tizca to assist Amon with something.

Edited June 1, 2017 by Robbienw

[b1soul]

Sounds pretty awesome so far...thanks Robbienw

[Ashur]

Sounds promising. Finally Lorgar gets schooled by Magnus for a change.

Edited June 2, 2017 by Ashur

[Robbienw]

up to page 135, it is getting exciting now

 

 

Ahriman and his cabal land at the ruins of Tizca.  There are several hundred other thousand sons there as well.  Ahriman notes how rather than an ordered gathering of the legion, they are in warbands. Ignis and his warband are present. 

 

Amon is at the centre near the pyramid of photep with some scarab occult.  He announces, to the shock of the thousands sons present that magnus is split into shards and dying, and they need to do this to find a way to save him.  He initiates a ritual which summons warp echo daemons in the form of space wolves and molten rock wolves and things in between!

 

A massive battle ensues, many warbands fall back to their gunships, but ahriman and cabal head for the pyramid of photep after amon, follwed by several other warbands including that of ignis.

 

An immense daemon echo of Leman Russ appears inside the pyramid alongside the other daemon wolves and starts smashing things up!

 

Amon does a staff slam down and is possessed by magnus.  Magnus and the Russ daemon fight a recreation of their battle that took place at the burning of prosepero.

 

With some help from Ignis, Ahriman realises that they are there to observe, not to intercede in what is happening.  He stops the other thousand sons from doing anything psychic, and watches as the daemon russ breaks magnus' back just like on prospero.

 

He sees magnus' soulform being split into shards from the damage inflicted by russ, which is not limited to the physical plain.  Most shards form close to magnus and stay near him, forming in the obsidian tower (remember the magnus scribe shards from earlier).  But 5 shards are fully seperated and go out into the galaxy.  Ahriman senses in some way where they have gone, and knows how to save magnus.

 

The wolf daemons disappear and the pyramid of photep begins to collapse.  Most of the thousand sons are out of the building, except for Ahriman, Amon and the scarab occult.  Ahriman rushes to save Amon, but he is not powerful enough to stop the pyramid collapsing. 

 

Suddenly Aforgomon (the iron occulus daemon) appears and stops the collapse, saving them.  It is now freed from the iron box, and is in one of the robot bodies from the Torquetum (ahriman brought some back with him).  It also want to save magnus.  They exit Tizca.

 

Now we are back in Amons tower.  Amon is broken and paralyzed from the neck down following the events in the pyramid.  Magnus is there talking to him about it.  He states that ahriman and his cabal have gone out on a quest to find the shards.  He states to Amon that the war between the Emperor and Horus is the greates event to happen in a long time and cannot be avoided, and must be welcomed.

 

 

Edited June 2, 2017 by Robbienw

[HeritorA]

up to page 135, it is getting exciting now

 

 

Ahriman and his cabal land at the ruins of Tizca.  There are several hundred other thousand sons there as well.  Ahriman notes how rather than an ordered gathering of the legion, they are in warbands. Ignis and his warband are present. 

 

Amon is at the centre near the pyramid of photep with some scarab occult.  He announces, to the shock of the thousands sons present that magnus is split into shards and dying, and they need to do this to find a way to save him.  He initiates a ritual which summons warp echo daemons in the form of space wolves and molten rock wolves and things in between!

 

A massive battle ensues, many warbands fall back to their gunships, but ahriman and cabal head for the pyramid of photep after amon, follwed by several other warbands including that of ignis.

 

An immense daemon echo of Leman Russ appears inside the pyramid alongside the other daemon wolves and starts smashing things up!

 

Amon does a staff slam down and is possessed by magnus.  Magnus and the Russ daemon fight a recreation of their battle that took place at the burning of prosepero.

 

With some help from Ignis, Ahriman realises that they are there to observe, not to intercede in what is happening.  He stops the other thousand sons from doing anything psychic, and watches as the daemon russ breaks magnus' back just like on prospero.

 

He sees magnus' soulform being split into shards from the damage inflicted by russ, which is not limited to the physical plain.  Most shards form close to magnus and stay near him, forming in the obsidian tower (remember the magnus scribe shards from earlier).  But 5 shards are fully seperated and go out into the galaxy.  Ahriman senses in some way where they have gone, and knows how to save magnus.

 

The wolf daemons disappear and the pyramid of photep begins to collapse.  Most of the thousand sons are out of the building, except for Ahriman, Amon and the scarab occult.  Ahriman rushes to save Amon, but he is not powerful enough to stop the pyramid collapsing. 

 

Suddenly Aforgomon (the iron occulus daemon) appears and stops the collapse, saving them.  It is now freed from the iron box, and is in one of the robot bodies from the Torquetum (ahriman brought some back with him).  It also want to save magnus.  They exit Tizca.

 

Now we are back in Amons tower.  Amon is broken and paralyzed from the neck down following the events in the pyramid.  Magnus is there talking to him about it.  He states that ahriman and his cabal have gone out on a quest to find the shards.  He states to Amon that the war between the Emperor and Horus is the greates event to happen in a long time and cannot be avoided, and must be welcomed.

 

 

Nice - ty Robbienw. It's good to confirm that I was right.

135 pages in and 'nothing' happened.

Need to simply put clock alarm to wake up, then some 'movement' forward will happen again  - probably in a year

[Morovir]

Just finished it.

 

Magnus, all his shards reunited but the one in Arvida, declares for Horus at the end of the novel.

A shard of Magnus is bound into Lemuel using the Malus Codicium, and after it is released from him, he changes his name to Promeus.

[DarkChaplain]

 

up to page 135, it is getting exciting now

 

 

Ahriman and his cabal land at the ruins of Tizca.  There are several hundred other thousand sons there as well.  Ahriman notes how rather than an ordered gathering of the legion, they are in warbands. Ignis and his warband are present. 

 

Amon is at the centre near the pyramid of photep with some scarab occult.  He announces, to the shock of the thousands sons present that magnus is split into shards and dying, and they need to do this to find a way to save him.  He initiates a ritual which summons warp echo daemons in the form of space wolves and molten rock wolves and things in between!

 

A massive battle ensues, many warbands fall back to their gunships, but ahriman and cabal head for the pyramid of photep after amon, follwed by several other warbands including that of ignis.

 

An immense daemon echo of Leman Russ appears inside the pyramid alongside the other daemon wolves and starts smashing things up!

 

Amon does a staff slam down and is possessed by magnus.  Magnus and the Russ daemon fight a recreation of their battle that took place at the burning of prosepero.

 

With some help from Ignis, Ahriman realises that they are there to observe, not to intercede in what is happening.  He stops the other thousand sons from doing anything psychic, and watches as the daemon russ breaks magnus' back just like on prospero.

 

He sees magnus' soulform being split into shards from the damage inflicted by russ, which is not limited to the physical plain.  Most shards form close to magnus and stay near him, forming in the obsidian tower (remember the magnus scribe shards from earlier).  But 5 shards are fully seperated and go out into the galaxy.  Ahriman senses in some way where they have gone, and knows how to save magnus.

 

The wolf daemons disappear and the pyramid of photep begins to collapse.  Most of the thousand sons are out of the building, except for Ahriman, Amon and the scarab occult.  Ahriman rushes to save Amon, but he is not powerful enough to stop the pyramid collapsing. 

 

Suddenly Aforgomon (the iron occulus daemon) appears and stops the collapse, saving them.  It is now freed from the iron box, and is in one of the robot bodies from the Torquetum (ahriman brought some back with him).  It also want to save magnus.  They exit Tizca.

 

Now we are back in Amons tower.  Amon is broken and paralyzed from the neck down following the events in the pyramid.  Magnus is there talking to him about it.  He states that ahriman and his cabal have gone out on a quest to find the shards.  He states to Amon that the war between the Emperor and Horus is the greates event to happen in a long time and cannot be avoided, and must be welcomed.

 

 

Nice - ty Robbienw. It's good to confirm that I was right.

135 pages in and 'nothing' happened.

Need to simply put clock alarm to wake up, then some 'movement' forward will happen again  - probably in a year

 

 

Oh dear no, Robbie is a quarter through the novel and nothing earth-shattering has happened yet? Damn McNeill. Damn him to Calth.

 

Honestly, there is so much room in that novel left, and even what spoilers Robbie shared seem like pretty interesting build-up. Why are we upset already?

[NKCougar]

Just finished it. That was like reading a fever dream. May have just been me, but was very disjointed. Some very out of character moments for the Legionaries, and more unresolved plot.

 

Can't figure out how to use spoiler tags on mobile so will write a little more thoroughly when I get access to my computer.

 

OK, time to get to it. There are parts of this story that just make me want to ask "why?".

 

Outside of actual plot elements, this book, like I said above, reads like a fever dream. It feels disjointed, randomly hopping perspective to perspective, and the story of Amon chasing his father on Sortiarius exemplifies this. I'm not sure if I like of dislike it yet - I'm sure that the feeling was intentional, but I think the execution leaves something to be desired.

 

First off, Lucius -

He was entirely irrelevant to this story. Remove him and the story doesn't change at all. That being said, while everything about him was just extra, the scene where he has Hathor Maat fix his face and make it Fulgrim's was very amusing. Lucius' only real moment in the story was distracting Sanakht so that Hathor Maat could alter the book of Magnus (why? That was entirely unnecessary - from what I understand of the Rubric, it was never supposed to work in the first place, but Ahriman couldn't accept that, did it anyway, and the rest is Tzeentch laughing for the next 9,999 years).

 

What happened to the XIX's ship? That ship was supposed to play a fairly important role, if I understood correctly, in the final battle over Nikaea. Unless I missed the resolution of that plotline (and it would have only been a sentence or two at most, was very thorough when reading) there's still a stealthed Raven Guard ship floating around somewhere.

 

Out of character Legionaries: the VI legion understands the burden of duty more than most, and they very clearly despise maleficarum to the point of not listening to anything they say (Prospero Burns, Lemon RUST Leman Russ and Eada Haelfwulf) - so Bjarki 1. Listening to Aforgomon and 2. Killing Dio Promus for doing his Emperor-given duty on the word of Aforgomon really threw me off. Yes, Promus killed loyal Legionaries, because it was ordered - something the VI legion may not like, but should understand.

Fighting the shard of Magnus on Aghoru: I thought this had been done fairly well. A shard of Magnus should dominate anything short of either another primarch or way, way more Legionaries than they brought with them.

 

Trusting Uexkull after Aghoru: why they had him perform such a vital duty (keeping hold of a shard of Magnus that was in Lemuel) after the debacle on Aghoru makes no sense. They were already wary after his machines were turned by WarMagnus, and Nagasena even made note that if they had been turned once, they could be turned again. You have a demi-watchpack of wolves and Dio Promus - any of them would have been less corruptible and more resistant to psychic attack, but instead, have the one person with a massive chink in his mental armor that any psyker could exploit hold him.

 

Speaking of Promus, I know many people will think he is a brand new character, but he isn't. Reading back to Nikea in A Thousand Sons, he, Elikas, Fel Zharost, and Umojen are all mentioned as Chief Librarians of their Legions.

 

Overall, this book wasn't horrible. I didn't like it, but it definitely wasn't Battle for the Abyss or Deathfire. It wasn't nearly as good as A Thousand Sons by any means, and I don't think I will reread this more than once or twice to absorb the whole story.

Edited June 4, 2017 by NKCougar

[Nazguire]

I finished reading it through the first time today and I enjoyed it. A lot of it tried to be abstract and weird like French's Ahriman novels (and included multiple characters from those books) but didn't quite achieve that mindbuggery.

 

Ahriman has visibly changed in his personality and actions - he's no longer the compassionate teacher with an arrogance streak a mile long but ultimately good intentions. That's been corrupted and he's much more of the vindictive vicious wizard we are used to in 40k.

 

Magnus' shards coming together was pretty cool and I liked how all of a sudden various books and minor scenes in those books come together subtly. You don't think anything of them when you are reading them at the time and then this book throws something out there and you have a lightbulb 'ahhhhhh!' moment.

 

I didn't quite comprehend Magnus' motives at the end of the book for joining with Horus. He says its to preserve the future of seeking knowledge to enlighten humanity etc but decides to still join with Horus, the guy who was ultimately responsible for his current situation? I guess you can hand wave it as 'Chaos has corrupted him' but that's not really good enough.

 

Lucius is in the book for... some reason. Ultimately feels superfluous and only there for Sanahkt to play off of - almost like fan service. Hathor Maat 'cured' his facial scarring by transforming his face into Fulgrim's but then it gets scarred to buggery again in the Tzeentch's realm. Utterly superfluous unless I'm missing something.

 

Ignis is my favourite - his obsession with numerology and mathematics is very cool and bounces off nicely the more ostentatious of the Thousand Sons.

 

The Book of Magnus, which Ahriman studies to cast the Rubric of Ahriman after the Heresy, was a pivotal point there - Hathor Maat altered one of the footnotes, essentially, and this is what buggers up the Rubric. I don't mind this idea, but at the same time the complete futility of trying to defeat Tzeentch's flesh change curse and Ahriman's determination to cure it by the Rubric didn't need this plot point - it sorta cheapens the story because he would have solved it, most likely, if that alteration hadn't been made.

[Taliesin]

Very favourable review from Track of Words.

 

http://www.trackofwords.com/2017/06/02/the-crimson-king-graham-mcneill/

[Withershadow]

I hope we get more insight into the splitting/shattering of Magnus' essence...as touched upon in Scars and Last Son of Prospero

Seems to be the case judging by Crimson King's synopsis

Man, there is so much background reading I need to catch up on before I get to this book. I did read the Primarch: Magnus book, but it was a bit disappointing in its brevity and lack of significant revelations (looks cool on my shelf though). I haven't touched the Scars stories yet, nor even the resolution of the Imperium Secundus story thread. Then I just received the Ahriman Omnibus paperback (I prefer paperbacks to my ipad).

 

I just hope the rumors that Hathor Maat changed the Rubric's footnotes, and that resulted in the failure, is not true. Making it a fact that Ahriman was right all along and would have succeeded sucks a lot of the gravitas out of his damnation character arc.

[b1soul]

Completely disagree...I think it makes Ahriman's failure even more tragic. It's quite Tzeentchian IMO Edited June 5, 2017 by b1soul

[NKCougar]

Completely disagree...I think it makes Ahriman's failure even more tragic. It's quite Tzeentchian IMO

I think it would be even more so to have been flawed from the start. Tzeentch is THE planner - it would make more sense to me for it to have already known and planned accordingly.

[HeritorA]

DarkChaplain

Crimson King is even worse then 'Vengeful Spirit' (where McNeil :cussed up Horus return to the main scene).

Here he simply :cussed up Magnus. All story is said in one sentence - all story is about one sentence

  Magnus, all his shards reunited but the one in Arvida, declares for Horus at the end of the novel. 

 

Another filler of a novel. Sometimes plainly naive and sometimes plainly stupid. I already see the influence of a League of Legends on McNeil from the first 150 pages.

While doing MOBA fluff you can't write W40K. Case closed.

[Nazguire]

DarkChaplain

Crimson King is even worse then 'Vengeful Spirit' (where McNeil up Horus return to the main scene).

Here he simply up Magnus. All story is said in one sentence - all story is about one sentence

  Magnus, all his shards reunited but the one in Arvida, declares for Horus at the end of the novel. 

 

Another filler of a novel. Sometimes plainly naive and sometimes plainly stupid. I already see the influence of a League of Legends on McNeil from the first 150 pages.

While doing MOBA fluff you can't write W40K. Case closed.

 

 

 

Lol. Turn it up son. It wasn't a bad book by any means. It was fun to read. Magnus wasn't messed up by any means - the entire thing was relatively good and apart from a few plot holes or misteps that every book has, was otherwise a pleasant read.

[HeritorA]

 

DarkChaplain

Crimson King is even worse then 'Vengeful Spirit' (where McNeil up Horus return to the main scene).

Here he simply up Magnus. All story is said in one sentence - all story is about one sentence

  Magnus, all his shards reunited but the one in Arvida, declares for Horus at the end of the novel. 

 

Another filler of a novel. Sometimes plainly naive and sometimes plainly stupid. I already see the influence of a League of Legends on McNeil from the first 150 pages.

While doing MOBA fluff you can't write W40K. Case closed.

 

 

 

Lol. Turn it up son. It wasn't a bad book by any means. It was fun to read. Magnus wasn't messed up by any means - the entire thing was relatively good and apart from a few plot holes or misteps that every book has, was otherwise a pleasant read.

 

Good book is TS. Good book is Storm of Iron and maybe just maybe AE.

 

Bad books are Outcast Dead, Vengeful Spirit and Crimson King. And the last 2 are his lately contributions.

So yes - his relocation to LOL to Riot office removed him from the BL authors equation for me.

[DarkChaplain]

Just to make sure: You still haven't read it and still do not intend to, right? You said so before but I'd rather ask again.

[Tymell]

A quarter of the way through so far and I'm liking it. The descriptions of everything are all suitably psychedelic (in a Chaos kind of way), it feels like a natural follow-on from A Thousand Sons despite the long time between the books, and I'm a sucker for a good old "quest for X number of things", which is the direction it seems to be going in.

[Taliesin]

Just to make sure: You still haven't read it and still do not intend to, right? You said so before but I'd rather ask again.

 

He must have read it, he just said he thought it was just as bad in his opinion as Outcast Dead and Vengeful spirit. He also said McNeill screwed Magnus up and also that all the book was filler. No one in his right mind would say these things if they actually haven't read the book...

 

If it now turns out he has not in fact read it, that would be an enormous embarassment and a huge discredit to whatever value one might put on his opinion.

Edited June 5, 2017 by Taliesin

[Emperor's Furor]

I can't decide whether to get this or Dark Imperium, what do you think?

[Athrawes]

Great Book, one of McNeils best, and an in depth look at the Thousand Sons during the Heresy.

 

The prose and pacing of the book seems to be blend of McNeils 'A Thousand Sons" and John Frenches Ahriman series , so it forms a nice bridge between both books. And while it has some incredible, and freaky/weird battles (Like a telekinetic bridge in space, for a Chaos Reaver to walk/fight on), the most is 90% an exploration of the psyche and character of how the Sons are copping after Prospero and during the early Heresy. It's always nice to see these books veering away from bolterporn and this one does it well.

 

It also incorporates major revelations for a few 30k era characters, that will be meaningful for people who enjoyed the Ahriman series.

 

At the  End of the day I'd recommend it to anyone who is a Thousand Sons fan, or who is curious about what leads Magnus from the Loyal martyr at the end of Thousand Sons, to a Traitor Primarch Allied with Horus by the siege of Terra.

 

I can't imagine how anyone who has read this would call it filler, as it basically bridges A Thousand sons up to the prelude to the siege of Terra.

Edited June 6, 2017 by Athrawes

[HeritorA]

Just to make sure: You still haven't read it and still do not intend to, right? You said so before but I'd rather ask again.

I read it now to be in line with info here. Dreadful read. Space Wolves shaking hands with 'maleficarum', quest boss fights, human fighting 'sword fight' with Space Marine etc. etc. All the 'best' from McNeil. And I thought Sharrowkyn overdone.... sigh

Taliesin

I do forget how Charming forums could be. Thank you for reminding me

Edited June 6, 2017 by HeritorA

[NKCougar]

 

 

Just to make sure: You still haven't read it and still do not intend to, right? You said so before but I'd rather ask again.

I read it now to be in line with info here. Dreadful read. Space Wolves shaking hands with 'maleficarum', quest boss fights, human fighting 'sword fight' with Space Marine etc. etc. All the 'best' from McNeil. And I thought Sharrowkyn overdone.... sigh Taliesin

I do forget how Charming forums could be. Thank you for reminding me

 

N vs Lucius was probably the most laughable thing in the book. That guy chews up and :cuss out Astartes, what on earth was that.

 

Did you ever figure out what happened to that extra Raven Guard ship?

Edited June 6, 2017 by NKCougar