HH 51 - Slaves to Darkness

[bluntblade]

I'd just like to note that Perturabo's tactics on Deluge are

a more sophisticated take on Russ' gambit from Gehenna

[b1soul]

Indeed...in that Perturabo doesn't charge the gladiator primarch and engage in a true 1 on 1

 

 

Also note how it's easier to deliver a point to Angron when Angron is bested (rather when you just had to crawl away on all fours)

[bluntblade]

Well that's true. I suspect that on Gehenna Russ's warriors pretty much improvised that method, and also the Primarchs were already up close.

[b1soul]

Perturabo was a lot smarter about it IMO...Russ was half following a plan, half led by his emotions

[bluntblade]

I think Russ had gone in not understanding how damaged Angron was. The plan was improvised by his lieutenants, I reckon.

[bluntblade]

I want to see some SoH modelled on Aximand's war-clan now.

[m0nolith]

I want to see some SoH modelled on Aximand's war-clan now.

I want to see a actual model of Aximand.

[bluntblade]

I wouldn't get hopeful. SoH already have a heap of Independent Characters.

[bluntblade]

Did nobody mention the Telemachon cameo yet? Surprising. That one actually sprung out to me.

I've been over the bit where the TSons rock up and I just don't see it. Care illuminate me?

[Fire Golem]

 

Did nobody mention the Telemachon cameo yet? Surprising. That one actually sprung out to me.

I've been over the bit where the TSons rock up and I just don't see it. Care illuminate me?

Telemachon is Emperors Children.

he says about just shooting Horus’s transport down when they’re waiting for him to land on Ullanor, from what I remember.

[bluntblade]

Wow, I derped there (scrambles for Kindle)

 

Cheers

[Phoebus]

It would be like writing a series of books about WWII. You have the Western European front, the Eastern European front, the Balkans, the Mediterranean, the Atlantic, North Africa, the Pacific, South East Asia, all happening simultaneously. So if a novel was covering a time period instead of a particular war front, say August 1942, then that novel would have to cover most of the war fronts I listed with a huge range of characters. It would be completely episodic and the different storylines almost completely unrelated.

 

Properly telling us about the HH presents the exact same problem.

And that’s fine when we’re talking about, e.g., The Crimson King, Ruinstorm, and Old Earth not matching up chronologically. One is all over the place (thanks to the Warp), while the other are all over the galaxy. On the other hand, absent evidence to the contrary, it’s hard to imagine any reason other than Black Library author logistics for Wolfsbane, Titandeath, and Slaves to Darkness to not be in order. Note, that doesn’t mean other titles can’t be between them; just that Titandeath being released the better part of a year after Slaves to Darkness doesn’t help the series at all.

[Tymell]

 

It would be like writing a series of books about WWII. You have the Western European front, the Eastern European front, the Balkans, the Mediterranean, the Atlantic, North Africa, the Pacific, South East Asia, all happening simultaneously. So if a novel was covering a time period instead of a particular war front, say August 1942, then that novel would have to cover most of the war fronts I listed with a huge range of characters. It would be completely episodic and the different storylines almost completely unrelated.

 

Properly telling us about the HH presents the exact same problem.

And that’s fine when we’re talking about, e.g., The Crimson King, Ruinstorm, and Old Earth not matching up chronologically. One is all over the place (thanks to the Warp), while the other are all over the galaxy. On the other hand, absent evidence to the contrary, it’s hard to imagine any reason other than Black Library author logistics for Wolfsbane, Titandeath, and Slaves to Darkness to not be in order. Note, that doesn’t mean other titles can’t be between them; just that Titandeath being released the better part of a year after Slaves to Darkness doesn’t help the series at all.

 

 

Not that I disagree with the general point, but (unless my dates are wrong), Slaves to Darkness came out in August and Titandeath is coming in November, separating them by about 3 months?

[Phoebus]

Is it coming out in November, or is that just the event-only release? Either way, good catch on the time difference.

[Taliesin]

Regular release for Titandeath is early December.

[Phoebus]

Thanks!

[Tymell]

Aye, they had it down for November at the time of my post, but have since shifted it to December (it's possible the original upload was a mistake, since other things in that November slot have moved too, and November would break the 2 month pattern anyway).

[Ascanius]

I don't really get being worried about the timeline at this point, considering how much we've jumped around since the fifth book in the series, but if you are it's easy enough to wait for Titandeath before reading Wolfsbane or Slaves to Darkness, yeah?

[Tymell]

I think you'd be fine for Wolfsbane anyway, as I believe the order for those three would be Wolfsbane -> Titandeath -> Slaves to Darkness

[Ascanius]

Oh, yes, good point.

[Indefragable]

Without devolving into another favorite-author-pissing-match, I will say that I think the writers that stand out are the ones that can take any idea and make it plausible. And we're talking about the most fantastical of settings. Some add that plausibility by bringing over-the-top concepts back down to as (relatively speaking) realistic level, while others bring up the other parts of the setting to normalize some of the over-the-top aspects. Either way it adds credence to characters' actions and reactions, especially if we're supposed to be reacting a certain way alongside the characters.

 

**************

 

Finished the audiobook of Slaves to Darkness.

 

It took me a while to get through, far longer than I expected (over a month). Don't know if it's because I had trouble getting into it or if it was because I wasn't doing as much hobbying and chore work that I typically do when listening to audiobooks. So that's just a neutral datapoint, and a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy.

 

Anyways, overall I thought it was decent. Not great, killer, wowzers! good, but by no means bad. Best part of it was getting first hand views into some of the Traitor Legions especially as they have (de-?)evolved a bit more into the chaos-y entities we know in the 41st Millenium. Worst part of it was the fact that it was released before Titandeath. That's not entirely the author or narrative's fault, but I can't deny it was jarring at times. I kept thinking it was happening prior to Beta Garmon and every time I had to stop and pull myself back to be like "oh yea, that blank will be filled in later" it took me out of the story and I had to go back and re-listen to a part. Never a good thing.

 

The highlights for me:

-Fulgrim being Fulgrim. You pretty much know what he's going to be like before you ever actually see him and then behold, you see him and he's pretty just what you thought. And it's delightful in a guilty pleasure kind of way. Slaanesh would be proud.

 

-Perturabo: if Perturabo: Hammer of Olympia was his breakout moment, this was his Oscar-bait performance. Of all the characters in the book I felt the most compelled and drawn to Perturabo. Say what you will, that dude's got his together. All the more impressive considering his allies in the cause.

 

-Going off of the above, the fact that

Hidden Content

Perturabo is Grand Marshal (or whatever) of the Traitor forces headed to Terra, basically Horus' 2nd in command now

is so obvious in hindsight, it made me grin. Well done indeed.

 

-Volk: although it starts getting obvious that he is meant to be the proto-

Hidden Content

Obliterator

, I relished the moments when I thought he was a Khornate Iron Warrior. The idea of a shooty Khorne worshipper--like a kamikaze fighter pilot--was a nice breath of fresh air that in context makes complete sense. Khorne wants blood. Iron Warriors like guns. Why wouldn't Khorne want blood from those guns? That sort of  "hmmm....oh yea!" reaction is the sign of a good author

 

-the teases about life on Chtonia, homeworld of Horus. Can't wait for that Netflix series.

Hidden Content

in case I actually have to say this, NO, it's not actually becoming a Netflix series

 

-Lorgar: I liked him in this book. I've never really cared for him at all. Never hated, never loved, just honestly didn't care. But in this story he seemed quite plausible. His arc in the story makes quite a bit of sense and is all the more tragic (is it tragedy if the "bad" guys lose?) since he's kinda not wrong. He would get a Best Supporting Actor nod since he could very well be earnest the entire time or he could just be manipulating things. Or both? That's what makes me like him in the book. Perhaps even he doesn't realize how dastardly he is being.

 

-Alpharius/Omegon

appropriately brief, cryptic, yet powerful. Tantazingly good cameo. Does Horus know Alpharius is dead now? WHAT DOES IT MEAN?!?!?

 

-Ullanor

(paraphrased) on Horus: "he's on Ullanor. In his mind, he's always back on Ullanor."  <respect nod> Well -ing done.

 

-the Blood Angels make an appearance

 

The neutral points for me:

-Maloghurst (sp?): despite all the time and attention on him, I just sort of watched him do his thing without caring that much. There could have been some touching? (see comment above about "tragedy") moments with him and dad, but they just didn't do anything for me

 

-the Blood Angels make a brief appearance

 

The low points for me:

-Angron: for a dude that is supposed to merc anyone.....who is now up-daemoned....he does not come off as that badass. Somewhere between a case of Tell Don't Show and a Worf moment.

Yes, it makes Perturabo look all the better, but for once in my entire life, I wish there was some macguffin kryptonite he could have used. As it stands it just lessens Angron's character all the more to me if he can be so "easily" neutralized with basic tactics

 

-Horus is still hurt from Wolfsbane? Again, this is what kept taking me out of it considering we skipped over what is being hinted as an engagement even bigger than the Siege of Terra itself. What the heck was he doing that whole time then?

 

-Horus doesn't seem powerful enough. Yea yea, spear, yea yea warp yea yea.

for a moment I thought we would get a surprise Primarch kill with Horus beating Lorgar to death to show just how effortless it was for Super Saiyan IV level Horus

If we're being setup to see Horus take on the Emperor himself, it seems less and less like an even match the closer we get (as in, no wonder the Emperor killed him).

 

-the Sons of Horus politicking. I really liked the snippets of culture and Chtonia, but IMO, this whole part seemed like filler. It was not that interesting to me and seemed more macguffin then geniuinely important to the plot other than to have a reason for a certain character

Maloghust

go away.

 

-partially a matter of misinformed expectations on my part, but I was hoping to see more of the Sons of Horus at war and their particular ways of war, but instead it seemed more infighting

 

-kind of the thesis of "Slaves to Darkness" got a bit muddled, for me. I get the concept the author was going for, but it didn't seem to really get that part across the finish line

i.e. if Maloghurst died trying to revive Horus, only to have Horus callously devour Maloghurst's soul because the chaos gods will level him up for the act of treachery, then the whole "gotta serve somebody" theme would have been better driven home, IMO

 

-the Blood Angels make a brief, somewhat nondescript appearance.

 

 

Overall I'd give it a 7/10 (and I'm a tough grader)

 

My grading comparison:

Hidden Content

Path of Heaven: 9/10

Scars: 8/10

Know No Fear: 8.5/10

Betrayer: 8.5/10

Unremembered Empire: 3/10

 

 

My side-tracked BA commentary

Hidden Content

As I've said so many times the audience is probably sick of hearing, I find it genuinely weird just how little the BA are even mentioned in the course of the whole HH series. Throughout the course of the novel series, we have all sorts of in universe motifs or recurring mentions about different factions such as "sneaky like a Raven Guard," "obtuse as the Alpha Legion," "vicious as the Luna Wolves," "feral as the Space Wolves," "aloof as the White Scars,"  "graceful as the Emperor's Children," or other somesuch (paraphrased) commentary. But we have no mention of the BA at all. It's like they're a DLC character that the base game hasn't been programmed to react to yet.

 

Enter Slaves of Darkness where the Sons of Horus (the warmaster's own) encounter <gasp!> a Blood Angels ship defending some starforts alongside an Imperial Fists (master's of fortification) ship. The BA proceed to mange to board the Vengeful Spirit and fisticuffs ensue. The following reactions happen:

 

-when told that the SoH forces sent to fend off the "fifty" BA have failed, Maloghurst comments "that's not good."

-when some face-to-face action happens between some Reavers and the BA boarding party, the BA (Sgt?) strikes first with his power sword and the Reaver leader thinks "Swift. So very swift."

 

...and that's about it for commentary. Based on the context of the narrative (and also the narrator of the audio book), I can't tell if those few comments are supposed to mean anything about the Blood Angels specifically, or if you could replace the "red ones" with the "yellow ones" or the "darkish-blueish ones" and the comments would have been pretty much the same.

 

Compare to the parts of the novel where the Iron Warriors (masters of the cold mathematics of war) fleet is attacked by an Ultramarines (reliable, calm and collected) -led fleet and there's commentary every few lines about how the UM are abc or def or how the "sons of Guilliman excel at gehijk" and so forth.

 

It's become a pet peeve of mine, despite my own efforts, and I can't help but notice it. Also one of the reasons I have grown increasingly resentful of the XIII Legion since not only do they seem to show up in every book in some way shape or form, but there's always a glowing epiphet of sorts to accompany them. I have no problem with epiphets, especially for other factions and so forth, but please make it consistent and give them ALL a little something rather than constantly harping on the same few ones all the time.

 

Anyways, side-gripe over and it's just a personal thing of mine. Doesn't really take away from the book overall. I am sure the lack of BA commentary is due to not yet having the Forgeworld treatment for them, and thus author's have less base material to go off of.

 

[Morovir]

With regards to Horus still being hurt, it explicitely states that the wound only reopened as he led the final speartip on Beta-Garmon, thus suggesting that he did heal after Wolfsbane.

[Indefragable]

With regards to Horus still being hurt, it explicitely states that the wound only reopened as he led the final speartip on Beta-Garmon, thus suggesting that he did heal after Wolfsbane.

 

....which is kinda my point. So much for all-powerful-take-on-the-Emperor. Is he gonna duel Sanguinius and Big E with a crutch now?

 

I'm being harsh, but I just found it a bit jarring, especially without yet knowing what happened in between the two novels.

[TheRealMcCagh]

It seemed to me Horus wasn't allowing himself to fully heal by not committing fully to Chaos. He was in a ':cuss or get off the pot' scenario, and being conflicted about the path he has chosen to walk was keeping him from really get his mojo going. At the very end Mal convinces him to take the leap, and he returns fully healed on Ullanor. Horus at Beta-Garmon was still kind of caught in limbo

[Lord_Caerolion]

Yeah, I'd thought that was basically the plot-arc of the story for Horus, that if he submits fully to Chaos, he'll have all the power he needs, but at the moment, he's being almost literally torn apart by his indecision.