Sons of the Emperor - Primarchs Anthology

[Warpmiss]

Apparently this anthology was available during the last weekender and it was either an event-exclusive release or Warhammer World exclusive (I think, from what I have found online).

I just heard about it and from what I have been able to read on the wiki the stories seem interesting, however since it's an exclusive release for now I can't read it. Has anyone who was at the weekender bought a copy? If so, how is it?

[dcye]

Just bought a copy of this on ebay today. Being Australian sucks with all these Weekender exclusives, but those are the breaks I guess. Don't do this stuff often but I'm all in on the Primarchs series so figured I should grab this as well.

[DarkChaplain]

I'd appreciate it if anybody who gets this one could share a full list of the contents. I expect Grandfather's Gift and the advent audios to be included, but there's still a bunch that hasn't been published digitally yet.

[R_F_D]

Track of Words got a copy and has been working through reviews of the stories. 

 

Passing of Angels by John French

The Abyssal Edge by AD-B

Mercy of the Dragon by Nick Kyme

Shadow of the Past by Gav Thorpe

The Emperor's Architect by Guy Haley

Prince of Blood by Laurie Goulding

The Ancient Awaits by Graham McNeil

Misbegotten by Dan Abnett

 

*edit - updated to include all reviews.*

Edited February 15, 2018 by R_F_D

[m_r_parker]

The book was described as a "Weekender Exclusive", not a "Event / WHW Exclusive", so I imagine the next time this will be available will be the Black Library Weekender.

 

Here's the contents, with a brief description on the real cover:

 

http://i.imgur.com/4cQUmTn.jpg

 

I've only read a few so far, the first two and the final one (I like to pick and choose) and I would say that so far my impression is mixed.

• The Passing of Angels - very short, mixes together Sanguinius and some Destroyers launching from aerial transports to engage a non-compliant world, and the Angel going to one of his legionaries (who happens to be an artificer) and delivering him a silver death mask as it's his turn to serve within the Destroyer Host. One glaring thing that got me during this story was that the name of the race of people who the Imperium are fighting never get a name, it's almost like it's been redacted as all that's ever listed is "H________" - part of me feels like somewhere in the editing a search & replace function has gone wrong, or perhaps this was a placeholder the author used because he couldn't think of a good name but never actually filled it in. I hope it's an intentional redaction, but a large portion of this is done from the Angel's veiwpoint or memories so it would be weird to do it like that. 
• The Abyssal Edge - I love this one, it's fantastic. An archivist of the Night Lords Legion uncovers a report listing a schism between the Night Lords and the Thousand Sons on a world they are bringing to compliance, suggesting that the two were close fighting. The archivist, who was previously an ace pilot who was involved in a serious crash and now has half of his body made up of cybernetic replacements and is constant pain, heads over to the flagship to find out more - and comes to the attention of Sevatar. Sevatar gives him a choice, either he can file the report he's seen as it is, or he can simply 'misplace' it so that no-one else sees it - the end result isn't really different, as Sevatar makes it clear that whilst he may move up the promotional ladder and maybe even someday take command of a frigate-level ship, he'll never experience the thrill of being in a fighter again and ultimately resent what he's been left as and will only live on in regret and pain. Sevatar gives him a third option, and places his own recording of the event on the table - the archivist can instead look at the full story... 
• Misbeggotten - A different story, but not necessarily brilliant. The Luna Wolves are performing compliance on a system, and whilst the majority are accepting compliance without incident there is one encampment that refuses to even listen to the offers made of Hastur Sejanus. When 'Illumination' is required, the 4th Company starts taking heavy losses from a force that only reads as 400 individuals, and Horus decides to join his captain to hasten the defeat of the enemy. The enemy turns out to be led by an ancient bio-engineer of the Dark Age of Technology, who fled Terra at the coming of the Emperor, who sees the Primarchs and the Astartes as more grotesque than anything he could possibly create, and sees in them the destruction of mankind itself.

[Taliesin]

When I saw this came out I ordered a copy off Ebay, it's got a superb table of contents, pretty much all those stories appeal to me.

[bluntblade]

The three detailed there are the stories that interest me.

[Reldn]

Definitely sounds interesting. I need to obtain a copy of this book somehow.

[AndyNoMore]

Such a shame it's limited release, as I would like to read most of these shorts. Hopefully one day.

[hopkins]

how much was it? 

 

50 quid for wolfsbane on ebay is eye-watering

[m_r_parker]

how much was it? 

 

50 quid for wolfsbane on ebay is eye-watering

 

Literally the price (in various currencies) is at the bottom of the pic I took ... £15 / $24 / €20

 

I didn't have my thinking head on during Sunday, or else I would have picked up a few more. They literally had an entire stash of them behind their table wrapped up in cling-film, and I it didn't click that these books were so limited in availability. There's a few of Sons of the Emperor up on eBay for £40+, with a few sellers having multiple copies - it does make me a little sick to see people profiteering off of events like this.

[b1soul]

Ah ADB with another legion interaction story...I sense a gem

[ShadowSwordmaster]

Ah ADB with another legion interaction story...I sense a gem

It sounds very interesting.

[Warpmiss]

 

how much was it? 

 

50 quid for wolfsbane on ebay is eye-watering

 

Literally the price (in various currencies) is at the bottom of the pic I took ... £15 / $24 / €20

 

I didn't have my thinking head on during Sunday, or else I would have picked up a few more. They literally had an entire stash of them behind their table wrapped up in cling-film, and I it didn't click that these books were so limited in availability. There's a few of Sons of the Emperor up on eBay for £40+, with a few sellers having multiple copies - it does make me a little sick to see people profiteering off of events like this.

 

 

Also looked myslef, all ofers were around 50€ + shipping costs. I want a copy, but there's no way I'm paying triple the original price. It's a very scummy practice and I rather wait till these are made avalable at some later point tan spend my money like this.

[Marshal Loss]

Damn the availability. I would really like to get my hands on this.

[Biscuittzz]

Shadow of the Past...... Anyone read this? Something is hunting them.......

 

Possible Corax hunting WB in the Eye of Terror after the Scouring? Trying to find Lorgar to finish the job? (obviously he won't).

 

Not to mention it is Thorpe writing it too. 

[m_r_parker]

Yeah, the A-D-B story is very good. It’s very difficult to see a standoff between the Night Lords and Thousand Sons and be on the Night Lords side. Plus any opportunity to have more Sevatar is greatly appreciated. There’s a gem of paragraph where the archivist is telling Sevatar who wrote the initial report, Khanyon, and is reciting off the various titles that he has as detailed in the report. Sevatar is very dismissive of this, telling the archivist that their brother Legion is very theatrical in the many names and titles they give themselves, and the archivist thinks to himself “this, coming from the ‘Prince of Crows”... ‘. After he finishes his thought he sees Sevatar staring directly at him with the slightest glint of a smile on his face, and the archivist is left wondering whether Sevatar can read his thoughts...

 

Hopefully there’ll be some made available at the Black Library Live event in June, in which case we as a forum might be able to get some ‘not for profit’ purchases going and sent out.

Edited February 12, 2018 by m_r_parker

[Marshal Loss]

Do post what you think of 'Prince of Blood,' if that isn't too inconvenient - haven't been impressed by Goulding's other work so I'm curious to see how he handled Khârn.

[m_r_parker]

So I did manage to get another three stories read last night and this morning, I think I’ve got two left.

 

Shadows of the Past - not one of the better stories, and actually I’m confused because I have no idea when it takes place. I think this is pre-Siege, but could be post for all I know. The basic premise is that the Word Bearers are building an infernal tower on a moon, in the name of the Gods, and a number of their Legionnaires are being brutally killed leaving their human slaves untouched. When confronted it appears as a daemonic shadow that appears out of nowhere and dismember the Word Bearers and forces them to run away to a camp where Lorgar is present. Marduk makes an appearance as first acolyte to Erebus, and is in Terminator armour for some reason. The warp is strong on this moon, as Lotgar is able to project himself as being three times the height of a Word Bearer when confronting the shadowy Daemon.

After pleading to Lorgar to banish or bind the Daemon attacking them, Lorgar reveals it isn’t a Daemon. It turns out to be Corax, who is using the warp energy of the place to assume the image of a shadow creature, as has been preying on the Word Bearers to be led to Lorgar so he can kill him. Eventually Lorgar and the Word Bearers escape through a portal to Sicarus, which Corax can’t pass through, but does swear to Lorgar that he will hunt him down and kill him, and that he “has his scent” - which is a very canine thing to say for a Primarch that resembles a bird...

 

The Emperors Architect - the bulk of the story focuses around two remembrancers who are assigned to write about the history of Perturabo, and arrive on Olympia shortly after Perturabos adoptive father dies and the planet begins to fall into anarchy. They never meet the Primarch, but do see some elements of how he was from the grandson of one of Perturabos adoptive brothers. They are also shown a battle from one of the Iron Warriors pict feeds of an early Perturabo at the head of the Legion taking on the Black Judges. We also get, as an aside, some POV parts from Perturabo during his early time in Olympia, including a few pages from his viewpoint as he crashes down on Olympia for the first time. I may actually have to pick up Guy Haley’s Perturabo book based off of this short story, it’s very good.

 

The Prince of Blood - the best of the theee, and up there alongside A-D-B’s story. Angron has ascended and is in the bowels of the Conqueror, as they travel behind the Word Bearers on the way to Terra. Something happens to their navigator, and the World Eater fleet is forced to drop out of the warp into real space, as the Word Bearers adopt the ‘Top Gear’ protocol and leave them behind. The Conqueror is in a bad way, it’s succumbing to the warp and is changing - the human crew are suffering from dehydration as all the available water is being turned into blood. The Legion is suffering too, as the nails are becoming more of an issue. Khârn goes into the belly of the Conqueror to speak to Angron to seek orders. There’s a lot from Kharns point of view, including him blaming Lorgar for what’s happened to Angron, and wanting to take the World Eaters after the Siege and make the Word Bearers pay for what they’ve done. Angron is having a hard time coming to terms with his new patron, and the demands that are now coursing through his soul. He hates being coupes up in the Conqueror, and wants to get back to a planet to relieve the pressures building, which the Legion do. This is the second story in this book with major traitor characters wanting to see Lorgar killed, so I’m guessing it’s not going to end well for him.

[Marshal Loss]

Shadows of the Past - not one of the better stories, and actually I’m confused because I have no idea when it takes place. I think this is pre-Siege, but could be post for all I know.

 

The blurb on the back mentions Lorgar being a Daemon Primarch, so I'd say it is post-Siege. Thanks for the summaries!

[mc warhammer]

i'll just say that i don't think that just because a primarch takes some visual inspiration from a bird, that it means that he can only act and think...like a bird.

 

i'm cool with him having wings, less cool with him laying eggs.

[b1soul]

"Sevatar is very dismissive of this, telling the archivist that their brother Legion is very theatrical in the many names and titles they give themselves, and the archivist thinks to himself “this, coming from the ‘Prince of Crows”... ‘. After he finishes his thought he sees Sevatar staring directly at him with the slightest glint of a smile on his face, and the archivist is left wondering whether Sevatar can read his thoughts"

 

Very clever of ADB, well done...

[Warpmiss]

So I did manage to get another three stories read last night and this morning, I think I’ve got two left.

 

Shadows of the Past - not one of the better stories, and actually I’m confused because I have no idea when it takes place. I think this is pre-Siege, but could be post for all I know. The basic premise is that the Word Bearers are building an infernal tower on a moon, in the name of the Gods, and a number of their Legionnaires are being brutally killed leaving their human slaves untouched. When confronted it appears as a daemonic shadow that appears out of nowhere and dismember the Word Bearers and forces them to run away to a camp where Lorgar is present. Marduk makes an appearance as first acolyte to Erebus, and is in Terminator armour for some reason. The warp is strong on this moon, as Lotgar is able to project himself as being three times the height of a Word Bearer when confronting the shadowy Daemon.

After pleading to Lorgar to banish or bind the Daemon attacking them, Lorgar reveals it isn’t a Daemon. It turns out to be Corax, who is using the warp energy of the place to assume the image of a shadow creature, as has been preying on the Word Bearers to be led to Lorgar so he can kill him. Eventually Lorgar and the Word Bearers escape through a portal to Sicarus, which Corax can’t pass through, but does swear to Lorgar that he will hunt him down and kill him, and that he “has his scent” - which is a very canine thing to say for a Primarch that resembles a bird...

 

The Emperors Architect - the bulk of the story focuses around two remembrancers who are assigned to write about the history of Perturabo, and arrive on Olympia shortly after Perturabos adoptive father dies and the planet begins to fall into anarchy. They never meet the Primarch, but do see some elements of how he was from the grandson of one of Perturabos adoptive brothers. They are also shown a battle from one of the Iron Warriors pict feeds of an early Perturabo at the head of the Legion taking on the Black Judges. We also get, as an aside, some POV parts from Perturabo during his early time in Olympia, including a few pages from his viewpoint as he crashes down on Olympia for the first time. I may actually have to pick up Guy Haley’s Perturabo book based off of this short story, it’s very good.

 

The Prince of Blood - the best of the theee, and up there alongside A-D-B’s story. Angron has ascended and is in the bowels of the Conqueror, as they travel behind the Word Bearers on the way to Terra. Something happens to their navigator, and the World Eater fleet is forced to drop out of the warp into real space, as the Word Bearers adopt the ‘Top Gear’ protocol and leave them behind. The Conqueror is in a bad way, it’s succumbing to the warp and is changing - the human crew are suffering from dehydration as all the available water is being turned into blood. The Legion is suffering too, as the nails are becoming more of an issue. Khârn goes into the belly of the Conqueror to speak to Angron to seek orders. There’s a lot from Kharns point of view, including him blaming Lorgar for what’s happened to Angron, and wanting to take the World Eaters after the Siege and make the Word Bearers pay for what they’ve done. Angron is having a hard time coming to terms with his new patron, and the demands that are now coursing through his soul. He hates being coupes up in the Conqueror, and wants to get back to a planet to relieve the pressures building, which the Legion do. This is the second story in this book with major traitor characters wanting to see Lorgar killed, so I’m guessing it’s not going to end well for him.

Pert's story was the one I wanted to read the most (but I am biased, hahaha) followed by Angron's and that sounds pretty interesting! Thanks for the summaries!

[m_r_parker]

Well I got round to reading one of the last two stories I had left in the anthology - The Ancient Awaits by Graham McNeil.

 

If I was confused to the timeline in Gav’s story this time it’s made very clear - the Thousand Sons have been on the Planet of Sorcerrors for a couple of centuries, and a couple of millennia have passed by outside of the warp. Magnus dispatches theee of his Sons to a dead world where something is lying and waiting to be discovered. Upon landing on this unknown world they find it to be truly dead, all life completely wiped from it in an age past. Searching through the rubble they find the first clue of who was here, a spent bolt casing manufactured for the World Eaters.

They delve further into the heart of the planet, and find an old Imperial compound from back of the time of the Great Crusade, the only visible structure despite having large portions caved in by the mass of the planet above. In a largely intact hangar bay they find the body of an Astartes Dreadnought buried under the rubble, with all identification eroded away from the passage of time.

 

The story itself is fairly slow for the first half, clealry Graham is trying to impart on us that there is still division within the Thousand Sons as to what happened during the razing of Prospero and the subsequent Siege of Terra. But truly this story comes into its own in the second half, where you’re hit with three surprises in quick succession. The surprises will be the main takeaways from this story, rather than the story itself, which is a little disappointing. However if does provide some closure for a specific event from the time of the Heresy.

[Indefragable]

m_r_parker top work again, as usual.

 

If you’ve read other BL works like Fear to Tread, any of the Imperium Secundus stuff or Ruinstorm: how does John French’s Sanguinius compare to other portrayals of the Angel?