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HH Book 47: Old Earth


hopkins

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Spoilers, I beg you!

 

Vulkan is alive!!

This ranks up there with "You wanna live? Come on!" from Terminator 3 in terms of missed-opportunity misquotes.

 

Vulkan lives!

 

 

if i'm being pedantic, the phrase "Vulkan Lives!" is also a cry taken up by the legion  :cool.:

I might get the details wrong because I've long since given up reading Kyme's works in the HH and just skimmed rapidly through the novel but the gist as I understood it was during a fleet action between Tybalt Marr's detachment and the gathered strength of the Iron Hands Meduson launches a boarding action against Marr's flagship. The supporting parties never make it onto Marr's ship due to mysterious accidents or whatever (oops, torpedos/launch bays didn't launch or didn't open correctly, sorry boys, that kind of thing) and he gets captured then executed by Marr. The Iron Hands then withdraw from the fight, as it was going a bit poorly (although they could have still won, it probably would've cost them a lot of fleet- and man-power)

....didn't Abnett write a while ago in one of those short stories that Meduson ended up killing Marr? If I'm remembering this correctly - nice retcon for what, the sake of a retcon?

 

Why would the Iron Hands not be about Meduson?

 

I'm pretty sure that's a no. Dan Abnett foreshadowed it in his short in the Meduson anthology, where IIRC Meduson swears to take Marr's head. But that same anthology ends with a short about Marr where he echoes the same "I'll have his head" line or something similar. Some of us speculated they'd end up killing each other.

 

Meduson dying was always pretty likely, though. He's too mentally healthy for an Iron Hand!

I guess in a way it was a bit disappointing but someone had to go. In the grand scheme of things, though ... that's where the IH start down the all-consuming 'flesh is weak' mantra, truly. I mean yeah, sure, it was going on while Ferrus was kicking and even a little while afterwards but Meduson being gone and the only people left being the ones who were also borderline-worshipping an effigy of Ferrus guiding the Legion (and then Chapter) down this bionics-first path became the path all IH would follow the moment the IH betrayed Meduson.

It's ok though...IRON FATHER STRONOS WILL SAVE THE IRON HANDS YEAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

I guess in a way it was a bit disappointing but someone had to go. In the grand scheme of things, though ... that's where the IH start down the all-consuming 'flesh is weak' mantra, truly. I mean yeah, sure, it was going on while Ferrus was kicking and even a little while afterwards but Meduson being gone and the only people left being the ones who were also borderline-worshipping an effigy of Ferrus guiding the Legion (and then Chapter) down this bionics-first path became the path all IH would follow the moment the IH betrayed Meduson.

It's ok though...IRON FATHER STRONOS WILL SAVE THE IRON HANDS YEAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

if BL could stop encouraging people to kill off/sideline actual good characters I'd be really happy to continue buying the series

Things that Happen :

 

- Vulkan Lives, he has a shint necklace he does not remember forging.

- Eldrad dresses up as a mountain and sends him on his merry way to Terra through the Webway, they go to Aelindrach/Eternal City/ Webway safari/etc.

- Meanwhile, Eldrad teams up with Narek to hunt down the Cabal and Perpetuals, who mess up the threads of fate.

- The Shattered Legions fight on, Meduson is sick of the pirating/scavenging, wants to reforge the Legion anew. Autek Morr is there. But the Iron fathers do shady :cuss with Manus's corpse and try to take back power, they fail. Vulkan pops out of the Webway near Meduson's fleet, they talk, stuff happens, Vulkan smashes contemptors, Vulkan leaves.

- During battle with Marr's forces, Meduson boards a SOH ship, gets betrayed by iron Fathers, get's his head chopped off by Marr.

- Vulkan reaches the Impossible city, Bolter Porn, Oh no the gate is besieged by Deamon Army they cant reach Terra that way. Eldrad pops and teleports them to the outskirts of the Palace.

- Vulkan and Dorn Talk, " could you kill one of them ?" . Vulkan says he could not, Dorn says he would kill them all and bear the guilt.

- Vulkan and Big ETalk, turns out the reason Vulkan had to reach Terra was to deliver the necklace, forged by E through Vulkan's hands. Necklace meshes with the Throne, it's a big red button. if the Throne fails, all of Terra burns as a final fugg u to the big 4.

 

All in all, better than the previous Sally books, but reads like a fanfic.

 

Things that Happen :

 

- Vulkan Lives, he has a shint necklace he does not remember forging.

- Eldrad dresses up as a mountain and sends him on his merry way to Terra through the Webway, they go to Aelindrach/Eternal City/ Webway safari/etc.

- Meanwhile, Eldrad teams up with Narek to hunt down the Cabal and Perpetuals, who mess up the threads of fate.

- The Shattered Legions fight on, Meduson is sick of the pirating/scavenging, wants to reforge the Legion anew. Autek Morr is there. But the Iron fathers do shady :censored: with Manus's corpse and try to take back power, they fail. Vulkan pops out of the Webway near Meduson's fleet, they talk, stuff happens, Vulkan smashes contemptors, Vulkan leaves.

- During battle with Marr's forces, Meduson boards a SOH ship, gets betrayed by iron Fathers, get's his head chopped off by Marr.

- Vulkan reaches the Impossible city, Bolter Porn, Oh no the gate is besieged by Deamon Army they cant reach Terra that way. Eldrad pops and teleports them to the outskirts of the Palace.

- Vulkan and Dorn Talk, " could you kill one of them ?" . Vulkan says he could not, Dorn says he would kill them all and bear the guilt.

- Vulkan and Big ETalk, turns out the reason Vulkan had to reach Terra was to deliver the necklace, forged by E through Vulkan's hands. Necklace meshes with the Throne, it's a big red button. if the Throne fails, all of Terra burns as a final fugg u to the big 4.

 

All in all, better than the previous Sally books, but reads like a fanfic.

 

 

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It appears that I haven't read enough HH stuff to completely understand this book....

Easily the best HH book Kyme has done. The multiple plot threads help, and nice to see Terra and its associated characters towards the end

 

Never been a huge Shattered Legions fan, but it was handled well to show the genesis of Iron Hands into those we know today

 

Plot firmly advanced towards Terra

Was going to do ebook thinking jt was going to be okay but sounds like should get the hard cover now. Better than ruinstorm (mildly disappointed).

 

I am avoiding the meduson spoilers but does it do justice to the abnett story as well as Wraight’s related stuff?

 

Looking forward to it!

By far the best HH novel Nick Kyme has written.  There is a lot going on in the book, and maybe that is what drives it forward.  I actually found this book more important to the overall series than Ruinstorm.  Bad things happen to lots of people though....it is also easily the most grimdark since the Corax novel/novellas.

Its an interesting choice for the Iron Hands, but its one that makes sense in the context of the Shattered Legions stories. The Iron Fathers are deeply unsympathetic, but they have a valid underlying point in The Hand Elect story, its dangerous to combine their forces or rely on one leader. Meduson developing a personal feud with Marr, when the Iron Fathers think (somewhat correctly) that that was one of the causes of the disaster at Isstvan, (Ferrus vs Fulgrim), was only ever going to make him look like a menace. 

Its an interesting choice for the Iron Hands, but its one that makes sense in the context of the Shattered Legions stories. The Iron Fathers are deeply unsympathetic, but they have a valid underlying point in The Hand Elect stories, its dangerous to combine their forces or rely on one leader. Meduson developing a personal feud with Marr, when the Iron Fathers think (somewhat correctly) that that was one of the causes of the disaster at Isstvan, (Ferrus vs Fulgrim), was only ever going to make him look like a menace. 

 

Yeah, the Shattered Legions conclusions makes me both sympathetic and not to the Iron Hands.

 

I should add, that when I described the book as grimdark this is certainly part of it.  Kyme does a great job of matching good with bad.  Vulkan a hero guarding the Gate? Awesome, but yep he did just build a mega nuke. Really cool. Like I said, this book is almost like a new person wrote it.  

I'll make a big speculation now, that seems to make a great deal of sense

 

The Terminus Decree, as handed to the Grey Knights, is directly related to the necklace/emergency boom button on the Golden Throne. Denying Terra to the traitors/Chaos at all costs.

 

Remember how it was supposed to only be used if the Grand Master of the Grey Knights feels that "all hope for the human race is lost", when nothing else will do? That's basically exactly what the necklace is for. A plain denial against Chaos, with the added bonus of taking its champions with the Throneworld.

If that is the case. I hope that it has an automatic trigger and not a manual one. Too many things can go wrong if they have to go about it manually. On the other hand, if it is automatic, Cypher might end up picking himself a whole bouquet of oopsie-daisies. Unless that is his plan.

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