The Revelation of the Word by David Annandale

[DarkChaplain]

Surprised this hasn't been talked about yet, as it was yesterday's Advent story.

 

 

Long ago, the primarch Lorgar was humbled by his brother Guilliman for his belief in the Emperor's divinity. Led down a dark road by this shaming, Lorgar embraced Chaos. Now, he and his Word Bearers rampage across Guilliman's realm, burning his 500 worlds in the name of their new gods. But on such world, Lorgar finds a mystery that brings his past into the present and shines a new light on his endeavours. It seems that Lorgar's legacy may be greater than even he could have ever imagined…

 

Written by David Annandale. Running time 24 minutes. Performed by John Banks, Cliff Chapman, Emma Gregory & Stephen Perring.

 

https://www.blacklibrary.com/prod-home/advent-home/the-revelation-of-the-word-2019.html

 

This one was pretty fun and addresses an elephant in the room that the Heresy has so far avoided. It's a good little story and character piece for Lorgar, dealing with what has to be Annandale's favorite subject matter / theme in fiction.

[Marshal Loss]

Very interested in the content matter but very disinterested in David Annandale. Dialogue seemed a bit campy in the sample but Lorgar is a difficult Primarch to write for and not many people can pull it off. If people give this favourable reviews I might throw some money at it

[DarkChaplain]

The sample is right from the start of the drama, and features Lorgar having his meditations recorded by a serf, I would hesitate to take that as any indication of the dialogue for the remaining 24 minutes.

 

Lorgar having to confront his past errors and their consequences was pretty nifty.

[StrangerOrders]

Fantastic.

 

I can't say much, but this was the most deliciously karmic thing I have read in ages.

 

I can almost image the Emp smiling as he died with the knowledge that the events of this audiodrama happened to Lorgar.

 

Highly recommend it.

[Marshal Loss]

The sample is right from the start of the drama, and features Lorgar having his meditations recorded by a serf, I would hesitate to take that as any indication of the dialogue for the remaining 24 minutes.

I am aware what the sample is. I listened to it. It also isn't at all a stretch to assume that the quality of the dialogue contained within said sample is representative of the quality in the remaining 25 minutes. That's what samples are for.

[DarkChaplain]

My point is rather that there is very little actual dialogue in the sample to begin with - a simple exchange with the scribe to set the scene, then the rest is Lorgar delivering a monologue on his lessons to Guilliman for posterity, and only a brief bit of that. It's a self-satisfied sermon on Lorgar's own righteousness and Guilliman's failings, not true dialogue between characters.

 

As for samples in general, yes, ideally they'd be a representative excerpt of the drama, or novel. With Black Library, they rarely are, and generally are just the first minute(s) of the first chapter, or if that's tackling a wholly different perspective / characters, maybe the second. With audio dramas, they rarely go beyond the start, right around the title announcement. Illyrium for example doesn't even touch upon the actual narrative, and showcases more of the sound effects than Euten.

 

In other words, BL's samples for audio dramas are rarely indicative of what you're actually getting out of the whole thing, and usually lazily taken from the first scene, and don't even cover that fully. They're not a good way to judge what to expect.

[aa.logan]

Another bout of cooking, another Heresy audio advent short.

 

This is a great piece- like folk have said, the karmic slap that Lorgar receives is lovely.

 

rightly or wrongly, I’ve always harboured the idea that Lorgar nurtured the Imperial Cult after his turn to Chaos in order to further weaken the Imperial Truth/the Imperium generally. Despite this bit of headcanon, I’m more than happy with the direction that this story took and the nature of the revelation.

 

It’s a great piece, and I’d say worth listening to rather than waiting the year or so it’ll take to be anthologised in print.

[Carach]

i'm not sure someones opinion on the piece is valid if one has only listened to the sample. That's like me lingering in one of the novel threads and reviewing a book off the spoiler tags i've opened.

 

 

It was a nice little audiobook. I liked Lorgar's voice. 

 

Can be jarring some times going into an audio book that has a different actor for a character to previous offerings, or just generally a different voice to what one pictures in their mind when reading, but the guy doing Lorgar in this one was decent.

Edited December 15, 2019 by Carach

[Indefragable]

I read the first three words of a post and based on them I decided not to read the full post.

[mc warhammer]

any word on if this will be collected in prose form in an anthology? sounds interesting

[DarkChaplain]

None whatsoever. They've been deadly silent about all those scattered shorts and novellas ever since the Siege started.

 

Chances are they'll roll it into a Calth-themed anthology alongside the two Betrayal at Calth short novels (The Honoured & The Unburdened) plus Hubris of Monarchia, potentially with Illyrium and Spear of Macragge thrown in to wrap up the currently published and left over Ultramarines stories (either way Illyrium needs to be bundled with Spear of Macragge, since they both happen as part of the post-Ruinstorm journey to Terra).

 

I'm starting to doubt they're even going to do an anthology during the Siege's runtime, though. That entire project seems hellbent on ending plotlines in the big novels, rather than having a companion anthology or two to wrap up the small stuff...

[mc warhammer]

Appreciate the educated guess, I have zero idea of how BL does these things and it's no secret their "coming soon" projects can be confusing, so I guess I'll just be patient.

 

Yeah, I'm one of those no audiobook philistines.