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Watchers of the Throne: The Emperor's Legion


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  • 2 weeks later...

I just finished Carrion Throne, which was very good.

 

This, however, is off to an AMAZING start. The quality of Wraight's prose is not just good for BL, it's some of the best fiction I've read in a while...and I've been reading quite a bit.

 

His first person narration had me hooked with the first paragraph.

I just finished Carrion Throne, which was very good.

 

This, however, is off to an AMAZING start. The quality of Wraight's prose is not just good for BL, it's some of the best fiction I've read in a while...and I've been reading quite a bit.

 

His first person narration had me hooked with the first paragraph.

psh. chris wraight gets me hooked onto his novels with the amazon synopses 

Guest Triszin

I enjoyed this

 

 

I thought it showed why the Talons of Emperor are dangerous.

 

A small strike force, a few custodes and a few sisters of silence and the custodes trasnport.

 

put a hole in a massive void ship and held the blackstone in place while killing tons of black legionaries.

 

If but a few can do this, then a legion of them is truely terrifying.

 

 

I also liked that they tried to focus on the politics and detective/philospher stone kngits side instead of 100% bolter porn

 

I think I might want chris Wright to write a tau book as I think he could portray both sides as comptent

Not that dissimilar to their depiction in Master of Mankind either, where they've been holding the line against unnumbered hordes of daemons in the Webway for over half a decade and plow through legionaries by the mortuary full.
 
If anything, their depiction in The Emperor's Legion is toned down, considering

the deployed Custodes force at the Battle of Lion's Gate takes greater than 50% losses. The boarding action at Vorlese also heavily plays into the Custodes' strengths, with enclosed, close-quarters combat funneling Astartes into smaller-scale confrontations unable to bring heavier weapons to use.

 

That's like... it's like how in the grand scale of things, humans win against bears. We've hunted them to near-levels of extinction in some cases, driven most species out of their original habitats, etc. I can shoot a bear from a hundred meters away with a high-powered rifle and there's not much it can do about that. However, if you send me into a bear's den with a knife to take it down, I'm not going to look like the stronger one in that situation.

Agreed...the Custodians have to be somehow wrong-footed or distracted at the Siege.

 

If even a few hundred Custodians, including Valdor himself, are running around at the Siege, frankly it's a bit odd that Sigismund is remembered as the great slayer of traitor SM.

 

Valdor or any Custodes prefect or shield-captain would utterly obliterate any traitor champion, e.g. Abaddon, Sevatar, Lucius, Typhon, Khârn, etc.

Well, Sigismund might be the great slayer from the Astartes ranks, acting as an example for others, Astartes and mortals alike.

 

The Custodes are more of a silent bunch. They don't proclaim loudly their deeds and achievements.

 

I can somehow imagine that the Talons fight in a certain spot during the siege, maybe the Webway entrance or the inner sanctum of the Emperor? At least separated from the majority of the defending forces.

I would assume the Majority of the Custodes joined the Emperor in assaulting Horus Ship.

Also I would keep them as a reserve for the last stand.

Let the Army and the Astartes thin down the opposition, and keep the elite units fresh as a last line of defence, or to use them as counter attack force.

I'm pretty sure the Webway portal has been shut down, with Ra the only living Custodian on the other side.

That's what I thought as well

 

The War in Webway is effectively concluded as far as I know...

 

On a related point, not sure what Vulkan's role on Terra is going to be

You don't think the traitors and wider daemon kind are gonna make attempts on the back door whilst assailing the front?

 

Magnus has been that way before...

 

Magnus hasn't though. Unless I'm mistaken then Magnus shatters the wards protecting the Webway, thus causing parts to collapse and allowing demons to flood into the Webway. The traitors get access to the Webway towards the end of the War in the Webway, but it's explicitly stated that the Webway gate under the palace is now sealed, with a massive psychic sun vaporising any demons who get close enough. So it's possible, but unlikely that that webway gate will play much of a role from the webway side itself. It's important strategically though as if the traitor forces get access to it then they can presumably re-open the gate. I expect that this is partly why there are always the 300 Companions inside the Throne room itself, and why the Custodians hardly ever let people have an audience with the Emperor.

"If I lock and bolt this door, *forever*, burglars will definitely not be able to get in."

 

It's not entirely how doors work. Not even magic mystery doors.

Not every door has an actual nuclear deterrent though

Finally read this. Absolutely brilliant as others have mentioned. I especially love how it integrates with the Carrion Throne in small but meaningful ways. The throwaway reference to Inquisitors 'wandering the hives of Terra like deathworld jungles' makes me hopeful Wraight will showcase the daemonic attack from Crowl and Spinoza's perspective as well.

 

My only complaint about the novel was that I sometimes lacked a sense of how much time was passing between chapters, but that did nothing to detract from the beauty of the plot and prose.

I have a confession.

 

There's one part of the novel that I can't stand, and it's this:

 

"What is important? I do not know any more. My belly was full, as it was so often then. I was dining well from a table set with silver platters. All of it was real – fruits conveyed from the farthest reaches of the Segmentum in cryo-tanks. I felt the tight berries burst in my mouth as I chewed. One of those alone would have bought a hive spire on a lesser world, but we were on Terra, at the top of the pyramid, and barely gave it a thought."

 

Carrion Throne also made mention of grapes being a treasured rarity, and that was in the personal fortress of an Inquisitor. Come on. Terra may be an overcrowded hellhole of a city planet, but it really isn't that difficult to grow stuff like grapes indoors, and with the huge palaces and citadel's Terra's rulers possess, each and every one of them would have more than enough space for personal gardens and orchards. 

There is no water on Terra. No farmable soil.

It's a blasted irradiated desert, being fed by daily by cargo ships.

 

That's Imperium for ya. Can transport trillions of cubic meters of water daily to the Throneworld, but can't grow grapes.

 

Grimdark is dumb.

 

But the novel is pretty good.

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