Severed - Nate Crowley

[Sandlemad]

Anyone else get this yet? Really enjoyed it, simultaneously deeply sad, very funny, and a good inner view of necrons waging war. Jeeves and Wooster merged with Goodbye Lenin. I don't think there have been many books from the necron POV besides Damnos and maybe some of the Shield of Baal stuff.

 

Zahndrekh’s fantastic. He was already a brilliant character and this adds so much. His voice is captured perfectly, like an elderly aristocratic British general who's losing his marbles, everything is ‘dear boy’ this and ‘how unsporting!’ that. He gestures with his goblet so much that if there were anything in it, it would spill. He cheers on his warriors (“A fine blow struck!“) when they mindlessly do something well. He writes bad poetry between battles. He recites rhymes and mnemonics he learned in his upper crust military academy and slaps other necrons on the back effusively. He is extremely likeable.

 

Obyron is also great as the POV. He’s stoic, weary, a former necrontyr commoner, now masterful warrior and bodyguard who finds himself all but running the show for Zahndrek. There’s a wonderful banquet scene where all the other necron lords are glaring daggers at him over empty plates while Zahndrek rambles on. Every one of them has tried to assassinate the nemesor and Obyron has foiled them all, repeatedly. When Zahndrek leaves the room, Obyron lingers just a moment after to meet all of their gazes as a reminder that he knows. And he knows that they know that he knows and they’re all going to sit down and indulge their overlord or it will go badly for them. And they can’t do a thing about it, they just have to sit there fuming and pretend to enjoy a feast.

 

And he loves Zahndrek. He’s constantly sighing internally and proverbially grinding his teeth at the nemesor’s nonsense but he really, really loves him. It’s more than just duty or his own identity - though he tries and initially fails to envision what his life would be like without Zahndrek - it’s a flicker inside, something which remains for him the main argument that he’s not just a soulless machine with a functioning mind. 

 

The speech Zahndrekh gives where he says that he sometimes fears he’s losing his wits, that perhaps he doesn’t see the world for what it is… but that it doesn’t matter as long as he has Obyron by his side. “I will always know my Obyron” got a surprisingly emotional reaction out of me. It’s very sweet.

 

There’s this repeated idea of the necron’s obsession with eternity and permanence, born out of their short mortal lives, which still gives pathos post-sleep. For nobles and great lords, this accounted for their lust for conquest, for a common soldier like Obyron, it’s just the chance to get remembered in a marching song. 

 

But one of the things that makes him such a good warrior is that he has esoteric senses. He can slow down subjective time massively with his internal chronosense and run rapid divination programs to predict the enemy’s moves. Bullet time plus, basically. But the effect this has on his memory engrams is stressful and if he does it too often, he’ll irreparably damage his own mind, not a million miles from Zahndrekh’s trouble. So when Obyron pushes himself too much in a fight, maybe he permanently forgets the name of the city he was born in. Again, and he forgets the taste of water. To stay ‘alive’, to do his soldierly duty, to ensure the permanence of his achievements, what is he losing? Is it worth it?

 

And ultimately, and this is a big spoiler for the emotional peak of the novella,

when he’s in a tight spot and the only thing standing between Zahndrekh and destruction, will he sacrifice the memory of meeting Zahndrekh in the first place, his most precious memory, to keep him safe? And he does. Because he knows that he will always be by his nemesor’s side and Zahndrekh will inevitably tell him the rambling story of how they met, for the millionth time. He’ll learn it afresh with his maddening, wonderful old nemesor.

Boom, right in the feelings.

 

Also of interest here is the fact that the majority of the novella is necrons fighting necrons. There’s a battle with the AdMech at the start, which affords Obyron many opportunities to grimly reflect of the ironies of what these humans have done to themselves, but otherwise it’s all necrons. The fascinating thing is that this is not at all a surprise to the lords. This is portrayed as far more important and proper than fighting orks or humans or tyranids. This is actual war, serious business, the rest is just putting the lesser species in their place. There’s also a lot about the practicalities of necron politicking and the details of how they deploy their legions and make decisions.

 

It’s also very funny! Even apart from Zahndrek’s charming rambling, it manages to take the tragedy and work it for humour. Case in point

when Zahndrek realises what has happened on this necron world, that the planet’s automatic protocols have taken over the awakening legion’s bodies. He was expecting simple separatists and is shocked and horrified to realise that something is wrong here… somehow these necrontyr have all been turned into soulless machines! Blood and starfire Obyron, how horrid!

 

The ending felt a little rushed, I'm still undecided on how much I like a particular possible revelation, and the actual plot isn't as interesting as the wonderful dynamic between the two main characters but I can’t think of a BL book I enjoyed this much since Lords of Silence.

[cheywood]

Very excited to read this. Empra’s probably my favorite short story to come out of Inferno so far. Crowley seems like someone to watch. He has a novel coming next year according to his Track of Words bio.

[Tyriks]

I haven't picked this up yet but I am looking forward to it, even moreso now.

[aa.logan]

So I came into this thread, release to write a nice long review, only to find that Sandlemad had written a much better one than I possibly could.

 

If the rest of this years’ novella series is half as good this one, it’s going to be great...

 

I’m always impressed when a story manages to do a lot with a small word count, this book managed to convey that the Necrons are damn old, and the existential weariness that must come with that rather well. The protagonists are imbued with bags of character and personality, but remain distinctly alien; every so often I was dragged in the text back to the notion that Obyron’s experiences are so massively removed from mine, however much I was starting to relate to him- this is a very good thing, however bad I might have made it sound. Crowley also manages to convey the feeling of futility an individual must feel engaging in a planet-wide War, let alone one that spreads across the stars over millions of years, which is a really interesting and neglected concept in 40k.

 

I will say this, regarding the emotional peak

having read the two characters compared to Stewart and Mckellen, I mentally went to them as Vladimir and Estagon from waiting for Godot; the idea that Obyron has made that very same sacrifice before and is unaware of it is quite a pleasing one. Who knows how many times these two have been in similar situations before? Heck, maybe the Nemesor set it all up to give his old friend a sense of purpose again and he’ll do it once more in a millennia or two when his companion is getting jaded again...

 

I’m not sure I’d want a full novel featuring just these two, but as part of a cast featuring more rounded opponents? Yes please.

Edited November 19, 2019 by aa.logan

[Sandlemad]

I am shocked and appalled that the idea of these guys being like Vladimir and Estragon - and especially Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart - didn't occur to me.

[grailkeeper]

Read this novella.on the strength of your review. I really enjoyed it. Thanks for the heads up.

[Tyriks]

Just read this. As a die hard Necron fan, it was nice to finally have a good story about us. The only other one I've read that was comparable was Devourer, another novella that was part of the Shield of Baal campaign. Most Necron stories aren't from a Necron perspective and they don't seem to capture the essence of Necrons, they just use them as a faceless opponent to be overcome. This did a great job of it - it simultaneously made characters understandable and drove home how utterly inhuman they are.

 

I would love a continuation of this, either as more novellas or short stories or a longer piece (with more characters, as aa.logan said above). I would love to see more information on Dynastic hierarchies and the interaction of leaders from multiple Dynasties.

[Lord_Caerolion]

Originally I hadn't been planning on getting this, but I think that's just been changed. I'm always a massive, massive fan of xenos races being portrayed well, something that is unfortunately far too rare. 

[Moonreaper666]

This novella is pure gold. It's suspenseful, gritty, emotional, philosophical and insightful. It is interesting...

 

That the duo are basically fighting against the Old-crons from older lore like in Dawn of War Dark Crusade