Wolfsbane HH49

[Indefragable]

So...based on this thread:

 

http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/topic/330618-upcoming-bl-stuff/?p=5065980

 

...there is this quote in a (translated) preview for Slaves to Darkness:

Hidden Content

"After long and difficult battles, warlord Horus's armies have finally conquered the heavily defended Beta Garmon system and are now approaching Terra. But not everything went according to plan. Horus was wounded and near death, and he is hurriedly brought back to the spirit of vengeance. During his absence, his deputy Maloghurst must enforce the will of the Primarch.

But the traitors are running out of time. Guilliman and the lion both rushed to Terra, and their armies could turn the fortune of war. The armies of the warlord must unite, because only then can they attack the throne world. While Mortarion forms the vanguard of the fleet, Lorgar and Perturabo are forced to line up their brothers Fulgrim and Angron, both of whom have become demons and may oppose the warlord's orders. On the eve of the greatest conflict the galaxy has ever seen, it is up to Maloghurst to hold together his fragmented legion and bring Horus back from the abyss of destruction.."

 

Emphasis added by me.

 

 

So, I gotta know...I gotta bite. What's the deal with Russ' spear in Wolfsbane? What exactly do does it do? What exactly is the effect on Horus?

 

Just go ahead and spoiler it for me. Spoiler tags are [ spoiler ]  blah blah blah [/ spoiler ]  with no spaces in between.

 

Thanks!

[carlisimo]

My own speculation (I haven’t read Wolfsbane): Russ’s spear is a mirror image of the anathame and Horus slips into a coma where he’s visited by various Warp entities, some of whom try to turn him back to the Emperor’s side. The title of the book tells us who wins the battle for his soul.

[m_r_parker]

Hey @Indefragable - from what I can tell the wound that Slaves to Darkness talks about is actually caused in the previous (presumably) novel Titandeath, which takes place at Beta Garmon.

 

For what the spear in Wolfsbane does, I included it somewhat in the previous thread, but for brevity here it is:

It's a weapon crafted by the Emperor and gifted to Russ, and by being crafted by the Emperor it has a small amount of his power imbued in it. Specifically, this weapon is able to reveal the truth to whoever is wounded by it, no matter how much they try to resist hearing it. 

When Russ wounds Horus on the Venegeful Spirit, it's almost like a veil is lifted from Horus' eyes and he's once again the pre-Davin Lupercal. He's aware of everything that he's done as the Warmaster during his fall to Chaos, and he is shocked at how far he has fallen. It stops the Warmaster from landing the killing blow on an already badly injured Russ, and gives the remainder of his retinue to put themselves between their lord and Horus to enact a full retreat. Russ is able to talk to Lupercal (I'll try to use Lupercal and Warmaster to differentiate between the two elements of the Horus psyche) and question why he was doing this. The veil quickly comes back over Lupercal's eyes again and the Warmaster sends his legionnaires and Lupercal after the retreating Russ. 

This is going to be a recurring thing as well, as during the aftermath of the fighting with the wolves the Warmaster is preparing the fleet to move on to Beta Garmon and giving Abaddon the authority to go after the Wolves he slips again away from the Warmaster, as watches himself as Lupercal fighting off and endless wave of daemonic forces whilst Lupercal screams back to him about the betrayal and murder he's committed. Physically back in the room Lupercal mutters about there being so much blood, before the Warmaster retakes control and orders Abaddon to pursue the wolves. 

 

Whether this will play a part at Beta Garmon I don't know, maybe this slip from Warmaster to Lupercal will be the point that allows Horus to become injured, but I think this will ultimately be what happens at the end of the fight between the Emperor and Horus at the end of the Siege.

[Indefragable]

Hey @Indefragable - from what I can tell the wound that Slaves to Darkness talks about is actually caused in the previous (presumably) novel Titandeath, which takes place at Beta Garmon.

 

For what the spear in Wolfsbane does, I included it somewhat in the previous thread, but for brevity here it is:

It's a weapon crafted by the Emperor and gifted to Russ, and by being crafted by the Emperor it has a small amount of his power imbued in it. Specifically, this weapon is able to reveal the truth to whoever is wounded by it, no matter how much they try to resist hearing it. 

When Russ wounds Horus on the Venegeful Spirit, it's almost like a veil is lifted from Horus' eyes and he's once again the pre-Davin Lupercal. He's aware of everything that he's done as the Warmaster during his fall to Chaos, and he is shocked at how far he has fallen. It stops the Warmaster from landing the killing blow on an already badly injured Russ, and gives the remainder of his retinue to put themselves between their lord and Horus to enact a full retreat. Russ is able to talk to Lupercal (I'll try to use Lupercal and Warmaster to differentiate between the two elements of the Horus psyche) and question why he was doing this. The veil quickly comes back over Lupercal's eyes again and the Warmaster sends his legionnaires and Lupercal after the retreating Russ. 

This is going to be a recurring thing as well, as during the aftermath of the fighting with the wolves the Warmaster is preparing the fleet to move on to Beta Garmon and giving Abaddon the authority to go after the Wolves he slips again away from the Warmaster, as watches himself as Lupercal fighting off and endless wave of daemonic forces whilst Lupercal screams back to him about the betrayal and murder he's committed. Physically back in the room Lupercal mutters about there being so much blood, before the Warmaster retakes control and orders Abaddon to pursue the wolves. 

 

Whether this will play a part at Beta Garmon I don't know, maybe this slip from Warmaster to Lupercal will be the point that allows Horus to become injured, but I think this will ultimately be what happens at the end of the fight between the Emperor and Horus at the end of the Siege.

 

Aside

Hidden Content

I haven't read the book, so I don't want to judge it based simply on these snippets you have provided, but in general it sounds like the spear represents what I find annoying about the HH novel series in general. Its a macguffin. In the context of this story, the spear makes perfect sense because we happen to have a fallen primarch turned chaos almost-god. But what other applications are there for the spear? It's not like you can interrogate a mortal person with it, right? Can you use it on a referee to find out if they threw the big game on purpose? The jealous lover finding out if their significant other was really working late those nights... Was it always designed specifically as an insurance policy against fellow Primarchs?

 

Again, not judging, but if this is the first time we've ever heard of the spear and it happens to have a single purpose for a single extremely unlikely scenario that just happens to have happened....yea....

 

Still going to get this and read it.

 

 

[drooling blood]

A mucguffin is what it is.

So I guess the chink in the armour is now due to Russ and the woluves.

Fine, whatever.

Guess Sangy changes his mind in da big fight. Joins Horus. Stabs the Emp in the back. Walks out wings spread, middle fingers in the air.
FU to all.

 

Cawls bits were completely unnecessary and stupid tbh. But they had to shoe horn him in somewhere.

On no the heresy is going no where, cause we have to flog Girllyman to the plebs. So heres a one booker of 3 primarchs and a 3 parter with another macguffin, thats user managed to travel the universe, life and death. Faster than, well, what ever. And is full of .

Haley shouldve stuck with Guard and Kyme needs to off.  

[bluntblade]

I don't see anything in that to say that Sanguinius can't make that chink in Horus' warplate.

[m_r_parker]

 

So I guess the chink in the armour is now due to Russ and the woluves.

 

Nope, that's in the process of getting fixed at the end of the novel, before they even get to Beta Garmon let alone the main Siege. I've no doubt that that central piece of the lore will remain unchanged.

[Fang_Guard23]

 

Hey @Indefragable - from what I can tell the wound that Slaves to Darkness talks about is actually caused in the previous (presumably) novel Titandeath, which takes place at Beta Garmon.

 

For what the spear in Wolfsbane does, I included it somewhat in the previous thread, but for brevity here it is:

It's a weapon crafted by the Emperor and gifted to Russ, and by being crafted by the Emperor it has a small amount of his power imbued in it. Specifically, this weapon is able to reveal the truth to whoever is wounded by it, no matter how much they try to resist hearing it. 

When Russ wounds Horus on the Venegeful Spirit, it's almost like a veil is lifted from Horus' eyes and he's once again the pre-Davin Lupercal. He's aware of everything that he's done as the Warmaster during his fall to Chaos, and he is shocked at how far he has fallen. It stops the Warmaster from landing the killing blow on an already badly injured Russ, and gives the remainder of his retinue to put themselves between their lord and Horus to enact a full retreat. Russ is able to talk to Lupercal (I'll try to use Lupercal and Warmaster to differentiate between the two elements of the Horus psyche) and question why he was doing this. The veil quickly comes back over Lupercal's eyes again and the Warmaster sends his legionnaires and Lupercal after the retreating Russ. 

This is going to be a recurring thing as well, as during the aftermath of the fighting with the wolves the Warmaster is preparing the fleet to move on to Beta Garmon and giving Abaddon the authority to go after the Wolves he slips again away from the Warmaster, as watches himself as Lupercal fighting off and endless wave of daemonic forces whilst Lupercal screams back to him about the betrayal and murder he's committed. Physically back in the room Lupercal mutters about there being so much blood, before the Warmaster retakes control and orders Abaddon to pursue the wolves. 

 

Whether this will play a part at Beta Garmon I don't know, maybe this slip from Warmaster to Lupercal will be the point that allows Horus to become injured, but I think this will ultimately be what happens at the end of the fight between the Emperor and Horus at the end of the Siege.

 

Aside

Hidden Content

I haven't read the book, so I don't want to judge it based simply on these snippets you have provided, but in general it sounds like the spear represents what I find annoying about the HH novel series in general. Its a macguffin. In the context of this story, the spear makes perfect sense because we happen to have a fallen primarch turned chaos almost-god. But what other applications are there for the spear? It's not like you can interrogate a mortal person with it, right? Can you use it on a referee to find out if they threw the big game on purpose? The jealous lover finding out if their significant other was really working late those nights... Was it always designed specifically as an insurance policy against fellow Primarchs?

 

Again, not judging, but if this is the first time we've ever heard of the spear and it happens to have a single purpose for a single extremely unlikely scenario that just happens to have happened....yea....

 

Still going to get this and read it.

 

 

 

Hidden Content

the spear does reveal the truth, as it did for Horus, but it also did the same for Russ when he was in the Underverse trying to get answers.

 

Russ was stabbed with the spear, in a way. It revealed to him truths of what he is and what the other primarchs are. the truth of Gungnir is a double edged sword as are all gifts from the Emperor.

[bluntblade]

 

 

So I guess the chink in the armour is now due to Russ and the woluves.

 

Nope, that's in the process of getting fixed at the end of the novel, before they even get to Beta Garmon let alone the main Siege. I've no doubt that that central piece of the lore will remain unchanged.

 

 

It would be quite astounding for the would-be Emperor, attended to by the very best of the Dark Mechanicum, to leave a hole in his warplate unattended.

[Apothecary Vaddon]

Based on how Russ goes from completely broken Gothic to learned Gothic in the space of a few sentences spoken back and forth between him and Horus is awesome to read.

[BLACK BLΠFLY]

Horus thinking to himself...

 

"I will just leave this big ole hole in my armor this time as a badge of pride coz Russ wounded me with a spear but just couldn't get the job done... yeah! It looks so BA too."

[Manchu warlord]

Maybe it eventually gets fixed and made whole, but is imperfect. Sanguinius would then see the imperfection and strike there.

[BLACK BLΠFLY]

For sure he would .

[Marshal Loss]

Russ leaves a chink for Sanguinius who leaves a chink for the Emperor? That's silly, no thanks. Let's just let Sanguinius (try to) do his thing when the final battle comes around, Russ made his impact in a different - but equally tangible - manner.

[BLACK BLΠFLY]

That works for me.

[b1soul]

"He has conquered half a world a hundred times more savage than Cthonia."

- Emp on Russ, to Horus

I agree Fenrisians are more primitive than Cthonians. Cthonians are techno-barbarians, Fenrisians are just barbarians.

I agree Fenris likely has more tectonic upheaval than Cthonia.

I don't think Fenrisian culture is more savage than Cthonians culture. Therefore, I found Horus' reaction to Fenrisians to be rather off.

At one point, he thinks to himself that the Fenrisians smell bad. Umm...would Cthonians smell better?

Back to the Emp's remark...if the Emp means the planet of Fenris itself is much more "savage" (i.e. more geologically turbulent) than Cthonia, I could agree. Still, Horus' initial disdain of Fenrisians strikes me as nonsensical. Does he simply look down upon low-tech warriors who use plain steel? Why?

[bluntblade]

I suppose the lupine factor might have an associated odour that a Primarch could pick up on.

 

Also, it seems Cthonians are more easily moulded into a relatively typical Astartes than Fenrisians. But perhaps it's simply the narcissism of small differences.

[Manchu warlord]

So, are their wolves on Fenris? Because, remember... Their are no Wolves on Fenris.

[Apothecary Vaddon]

Having finished it, I must say I enjoyed Wolfsbane a lot. Written well, I loved Cawl's sequences (kinda want more of him, a lot more), and sets the backdrop for their appearance in Weregeld nicely.

[b1soul]

Stinky man or stinky dog...which is stinkier? You decide!

[Sandlemad]

Having finished it, I must say I enjoyed Wolfsbane a lot. Written well, I loved Cawl's sequences (kinda want more of him, a lot more), and sets the backdrop for their appearance in Weregeld nicely.

 

Yeah, I was pleasantly surprised by the Cawl stuff after reading some of the reactions here. It definitely felt grafted on and had minimal relevance to the novel but in itself it was decent. Made him something like a fleshed-out character at the start of a long life.

[Manchu warlord]

Stinky man or stinky dog...which is stinkier? You decide!

Man. Thank evolution for making tiny holes in our skin so we can sweat

[malika666]

Someone got a plot summary?

[Manchu warlord]

The wolves of Ice go to war against the wolves of Luna, and lots of wolves die... Wolf wolf.

[Roomsky]

Horus Heresy 49: Wolfsbane

Guy Haley is a talented writer.

Guy Haley is a frustrating writer.

Guy Haley is the reason this will be a schizophrenic review.

 

There’s a lot to like about Guy Haley. For me, personally, it’s his vision of the setting: while it doesn’t always line up with mine, it’s quite consistent across all his books. Haley, like Abnett, is someone who could easily work his own macro-narrative, and already seems to be doing so with his post-GS 40k work. This isn’t to say his work meshes all that well with other authors, but we’ll get to the specifics of that later. The important point is that I don’t think he’s a very good fit for Heresy-era stories.

 

Wolfsbane is as good a backdrop as any to explore why.

 

So, here we have it, and event built up for years, ever since they put Russ back on Terra and sent Loken and pals to mark the Vengeful Spirit. Russ tries to assassinate Horus, wolves die, similar but separate wolves die, and Bellisarius Cawl is there too.  So, how did it turn out?

 

The Plot

 

If nothing else, Haley knows how to fill his pages. Structurally, I was against this book the moment it became clear we were oscillating between Cawl on some backwater mining colony and Russ` personal journey. Somehow, though, it won me over well before the plotlines actually met up, as both stories were served best by short bursts that Haley could cut away from before Bellisarius or Russ became annoying.

 

The pacing is great as a result, and the beats moved at about the speed I’ve come to enjoy in the Heresy series. It’s as much about the events as the people within them, and Haley knows it. The action, too, is long enough to be satisfying but brief enough to never overstay its welcome. Over all it’s a quick, satisfying read that I’m eager to put on my shelf once the paperback lands.

 

As an aside to something specific, Russ undergoes the Trials of Thor in this, and while the scene is well executed I hope this isn’t a sign of a trend with Haley. Such references weren’t especially clever when Graham did them, though I suppose I should be happy he’s not blatantly stealing like back in Perturabo.

Damnit Pert get out of here

 

The Prose

 

Offsetting Haley’s story telling ability is his prose. He literally has no style. He describes what’s happening in the most flavourless way imaginable, and that’s saying something when he shares an author stable with Gav Thorpe. It’s not all bad, to be sure, when he’s forced to go into greater detail it reads well, mostly the large-scale action and the by its nature complex Mechanicus society, but the spaces in between are filled with stacks of uninspired description.

 

One wonders if this is a result of his workhorse reputation, and that maybe if he dropped 1 or 2 of his ludicrous yearly output he might tighten everything else into something more pleasant. As it stands though, Haley rides on his content rather than his style, which is certainly the more important factor, but it does nothing for literary flavour.

 

 

Leman of the Russ

 

The central character of this story, Haley’s Russ is multifaceted, well-realized, and the final nail in the coffin for Mcneill and Abnett’s original work on the character. The warrior-king of Fenris remains the king but is questionably the warrior, the frightening lethality that used to hide beneath his oafish exterior has apparently evaporated. This, combined with his legion’s portrayal slotting home into their 40k selves as well, is frankly more than a little frustrating.

 

My favourite part of Abnett’s heresy work is how foreign everything is to its 40k counterpart. Astartes speak their minds and have constant maverick streaks, the Ultramarines are free-thinkers rather than hidebound zealots, and the Space Wolves are the Vylka Fenrika, The Rout, a legion of killers who are more than happy to be the emperor’s personal hounds. Now, much like the Ultras, they spout their token Heresy-era titles in empty lip service to the personalities they used to have. They’re fine 40k wolves, to be sure, but if you expect me to believe they went from how they are in Prospero Burns to how they are in Wolfsbane in like, 6 years and then remained stagnant for a further 10,000, well, I’ll have to disappoint you.

 

Russ, on the other hand, comes across as just another wolf lord rather than a primarch. All of the primarchs featured in this book are treated the same. The mystique and majesty they once exuded is just gone, and it does nothing for them to be so open. A primarch making a strange call is at least helped by their being rather opaque, their thought process clearly alien to our own. Here, they’re certainly understandable, but they aren’t as impressive when coming up with plans and arguments any of us might have off the cuff.

 

Russ does have a nice arc, though, and I again applaud Haley for turning something I thought would be boring and predictable (we know how the story ends), and turning it into something tense again. Russ` goal to wound Horus rather than kill him is a neat idea, and shows growth for the wolf lord in accepting that he can’t do everything; but just as much keeping in character in his need to do something.

 

Bellisarius of the Cawl

 

Props again to Haley for making the part of the novel I’d expected to be the most obnoxious into some of my favourite portions. Admittedly, this is in part to Cawl’s sections failing to trample all over much of what I enjoyed about the setting (he doesn’t do that for another 10,000 years), and while the mad inventor is hardly a new trope, Cawl remains surprisingly sympathetic. The guy is a walking civil war waiting to happen, and Haley plays off that well to form the man’s past: daring, brilliant, and surprisingly selfless.

 

Dominaria too was quite cool, I’m always down for monstrously inhuman adepts in my stories, and her ease of letting Cawl off the hook for his heretical experiments is nice foreshadowing for her eventual betrayal.

 

The Real hype was obviously the return of Sota-Nul. In fact, I was more than pleased by the return of a significant Mechanicus presence in this story, period. This is the first time Kelbor Hal has done anything since what, Mechanicum? Sota-Nul’s at the warmaster’s side, Kelbor Hal is calling for membership in his “true” mechanicum, the main setpiece occurs around a Mechanicus-occupied world for Horus’ resources. It’s the sort of thing I would have liked to see more of in the series at large.

 

Horus and his Sons

 

Horus, what have they done to you? I walked into this hoping Haley might finally be the author to give the titular primarch and his legion a bit more focus. Clearly I was mistaken.

 

Horus, to borrow a term from the Vomkrieg Blog, “Couldn’t orate his way out of a paper bag.” He’s written the entire book like a spoiled child. If Russ was only half of what he was before, there is nothing left of the Warmaster. Yet still everyone bows to him and comments on his magnetism and yada yada yada, come on Haley, the informed awe needs to be built on something. I honestly preferred Vengeful Spirit Horus, and I hated Vengeful Spirit Horus.

 

Abaddon fairs no better. True, he gets a nice scene where he executes Bror and co, but its counterbalanced by him shooting a surrendering tech-priest for not bowing quickly enough, all while shouting. I had hoped for maybe some reconciling of Heresy-era Abaddon with Black Legion Abaddon, but sadly we are without.

 

Most of all I’m disappointed by their lack of focus. They’re a solid half of the novel’s selling point, and they only show up as distant antagonists, sinister but without depth.

 

I will praise the scene in which the Spear of the Emperor dispels Horus’ Molech-buff. Aside from being somewhat well described, Horus` reaction was unexpected enough to excuse its otherwise clichéd execution. Horus doesn’t repent, but neither does he feign regret  over his course. He laments all the atrocities he’s committed, but reaffirms that he still believes his cause just. That is Horus Lupercal, that is the character I would have liked to see in the rest of the novel.

 

In Summation

 

I always end up :cussting on novels I enjoy and praising novels I dislike. Emperor only knows why. Wolfsbane is worth a read and a buy, moreso if you’re one of Haley’s fans. The pacing is good, the plotting is good, and those two combine to make the action good as well. It’s a strong piece with characters that are all over the place and a total lack of artistry with the written word. If such things are forgivable to you, all the better.

 

Arbitrary Numerical Rating: 6/10