Siege of Terra - Fury of Magnus

[DarkChaplain]

So.... does it actually span til after the Siege breaks, or....?

[Scribe]

lol, someone get a breakdown of the whole thing stat, that spoiler is hilarious.

[Scribe]

 

 

 

Spoiler synopsis? I doubt I even know all the plotlines around Magnus at this point.

I mean the ultra-basic thing that folk take from this is going to be that

the Emperor tricks Magnus into killing Malcador and asks him to come back to his side but Magnus turns him down and he has a fight with Vulcan

, but that does the book a massive disservice, so no-one should read what I wrote. Seriously.

 

Now I'm always a proponent of the just and good attitude of "read the book before passing judgment."

 

But that happened in a novella?

I told you not to click on it!

 

Loads of mad stuff happens, for example-

 

Fenris and Nocturne manifest to have a fight with Magnus in the first half of the book, too

 

But the first spoiler is going to be the big takeaway. It’s done really well, too.

 

 

Huh? lol.

 

Good ol' McNeill eh? Going all out at the end...

[Marshal Loss]

My eyebrow went so high at that spoiler my better half thought I was doing a Carlo Ancelotti impression. Goodness gracious

[Lord_Caerolion]

This is certainly sounding... interesting.

[b1soul]

Say what? Uncle Malcador

 

ain't perma-dead is he?

[MegaVolt87]

Those spoilers, BL authors these days must be closet jojo fans. WARPO POWA! Did Magnus also try to kill the Emperor with construction equipment also in their fight lol. 

[DarkChaplain]

....now I want an edit of the "You're approaching me?" scene featuring the Emperor and Horus on the Vengeful Spirit....

[mc warhammer]

there goes my theory that

malcador lowered the shields on the vengeful spirit while also rushing out in between the humbled emperor and the triumphant horus, only to be horrifically slain while also ending up on the golden throne in the emperor's place for the next few millennia

[m_r_parker]

I’ll write a more detailed review later this afternoon - but for those jumping on that spoiler, it’s not the whole story and there’s more to it. In fairness, he did warn you not to read it...

[Kelborn]

Haha, true

Emperor be praised that I'll have forgotten those spoilers until I'll start reading it somewhen in the future . ;)

[Sandlemad]

 

Loads of mad stuff happens, for example-

 

Fenris and Nocturne manifest to have a fight with Magnus in the first half of the book, too

 

But the first spoiler is going to be the big takeaway. It’s done really well, too.

 

 

Oof. That's exactly the kind of thing I don't like to see McNeill (or any other author, in fairness) doing. 

World spirits and magical planets are worse than perpetuals to my mind.

 

But yeah, the first one seems like a bigger deal.

[Jareddm]

 

 

Loads of mad stuff happens, for example-

 

Fenris and Nocturne manifest to have a fight with Magnus in the first half of the book, too

 

But the first spoiler is going to be the big takeaway. It’s done really well, too.

 

 

Oof. That's exactly the kind of thing I don't like to see McNeill (or any other author, in fairness) doing. 

World spirits and magical planets are worse than perpetuals to my mind.

 

But yeah, the first one seems like a bigger deal.

 

It's funny.  I'm the complete opposite.  The best thing perpetuals have done imho is the short story called, "Perpetual."  Everything else about them I'd happily toss or simply replace with regular humans.  I'm glad to see more Fenris World Spirit though because for me it felt like an acceptable compromise on the whole, "Rune Priests don't use the warp" thing with an answer of a resounding "Maybe/Depends on how you look at it."

[m_r_parker]

I did promise to do a more comprehensive spoiler review, so here it goes.

As always, if you want to go into this novella fresh - you probably shouldn't be in this thread, let alone reading the below. I'll try to nest Spoiler tags throughout this post, so if you want to catch the main plot-thread without going into the details then you should be able to, but again; tread with caution, and please don't openly discuss spoiler-heavy topics without the use of spoiler tags.

First off, the Dramatis Personae of the novella:

There's only a single page:

As for the timeline that this novella is set, the events of Saturnine are discussed between some of the characters - so it is the furthest point in the Siege series thus far. There aren't any flashbacks to earlier periods, it's set in the present.

There are four main thrusts of the novella, divided into groups of characters / factions:

The positions of these groups at the start of the Novella are thus:

Magnus & The Thousand Sons:

It is made very clear at the beginning of the novel that Magnus and the XVth Legion have been holding back from the main thrusts of the the Warmasters campaign, leaving the main action to the likes of the Death Guard, Iron Warriors, World Eaters and Emperors Children. Magnus has his own reason for wanting to be on Terra, separate to that of the Warmaster; there is a shard of Magnus hidden away within the Imperial Palace - a shard that Magnus refers to as the best of himself. He is still being held back by the Emperor and the warding around the palace to get inside, and is actively looking for a foothold to get himself inside and retrieve the shard.

Malcador & Perpetuals:

At the beginning of the Novella Malcador has been given a task to complete, by the Emperor no less. In the scope of the ongoing Siege it is considered an extremely risky action, but if successful could result in the tables beginning to turn against the Warmaster before the fleets of Guillman and the Lion arrive in the Sol System. As such, we see Malcador in a meeting within the Imperial Palace with Alivia Eureka, and the watch-pack lead by Bodvar Bjarki along with Promeus / Lemuel Gaumon. The presence of a Silent Sister, and the lack of any Custodians or members of the main Astartes forces manning the Walls, shows that the proposed action is considered too dangerous for the likes of Dorn or Valdor to permit.

The Space Wolves:

Starting from the meeting with Malcador, the Watch Pack head off towards a section of the Wall that is about to come under attack, with Promeus following behind. Eventually meeting up with the Salamanders.

The Salamanders:

The Salamanders start off separate from the other factions within this novella, but quickly one of them gets an impression / feeling / prophecy / vision that Vulkan is in trouble, and they make their way across the battlefield - eventually teaming up with the Watch Pack and facing off against the Thousand Sons and Magnus.

Within the four main groups there are two main narrative threads along the novella, one from Magnus' viewpoint, and the other from the Imperial / Malcador viewpoint:

Magnus' Gamble

Magnus has been holding his forces of the XVth back from the front lines of the Siege, and he has his own desire in retrieving the last of his Shards in an effort to make himself whole again. But Magnus also has an ulterior motive in keeping his legion forces in reserve:

He believes that Horus will ultimately win the Siege, but the powers of the Chaos Gods have corrupted him too far to be any kind of leader. When the Warmaster finally succeeds, Magnus will look to strike out against the Warmaster and place himself on the Throne to lead mankind in a more glorious age. He already concedes that the bulk of the Warmaster's forces are too corrupted and his brother Primarchs are in no fit state to rule, but believes that he himself has the qualities to bring the Imperium back to what it should be. At this point he is not fully in the camp of the Warmaster, even though he believes that this is the only camp available to him based on the razing of Prospero at the hand of Russ and Valdor.

As for Malcador

In discussion with the Emperor, he knows that ultimately the Warmaster will win the Siege before the relief force of Guilliman and the Lion arrive, and with it the Emperor will be killed by the Warmaster's hand. As such he has been tasked with a strategy perceived to be so risky that even the Siglitte himself would face execution by the Custodes should they find out, all in the effort of ultimately saving the life of the Emperor.

Malcador is looking to switch the allegiance of one of the traitor Primarchs, in the hope of depriving the Warmaster of one of his lieutenants and bolstering the Imperial defence against the daemonic forces railing at the gates of the Palace. That Primarch is Magnus, and the hope is for Malcador to negotiate with Magnus within the Imperial Palace - using the Shard to lure Magnus into the Palace - and ultimately trying to bring Magnus back into the fold with the prospect of redemption and forgiveness. Should it fail, this would result in a traitor Primarch being present within the walls of the palace and within striking distance of the Emperor himself - a risk so great that the Custodes would never allow.

The bulk of the early - to - mid book focuses on a single section of the wall, one of many coming under continued assault and bombardment from Perturabo and the Warmasters forces. This section of the wall is ultimately where the Salamanders and the Wolf Pack head to, and where Magnus brings the force of not only himself but his XVth Legion too.

In traversing the Emperyean with Ahirman, looking for weaknesses in the walls that Perturabo would not be able to see, he manages to see a tiny sliver of a crack emanating light from this one section of the wall. Magnus knows immediately that this is the crack he's been looking for, and seeks to exploit it.

The light emanating from the crack is something Magnus has not seen for a while, and not since before the start of the Siege, it is the light of the Emperor himself.

The second half of the book takes place within the walls of the Palace itself.

The Sigilitte:

Malcador leads Alivia door through Imperial Palace through the Halls of Leng, to an ancient part of the palace that had been refurbished with housing, at which Malcador stops to await Magnus.

There are 20 houses in total, designed to accommodate the Primarchs had they not been swept away by the Chaos Gods. The Shard of Magnus had spent time in this section of the Palace as a guest of Malcador and the Emperor.

Magnus:

Magnus makes his way through the Halls of Leng, after gaining access to the Palace, using the memories of the Shard that he is seeking to reunite himself with, and finds Malcador plain regicide with Alivia. Malcador invites Magnusto take a seat and play, against Alivia.

Malcador and Magnus talk about the Shard, the fact that Magnus believes the Shard is the 'best' part of him (in his own words, untouched by the poison of Horus), and how the game of regicide unfolding is nothing more than a metaphor for the gambit that Malcador is playing at the moment. Malcador reveals that the Shard is no more, but more importantly that the qualities Magnus believed were in the Shard are present in Magnus, and have been all along. Magnus refuses to believe this and begins to physically choke Malcador to reveal where the Shard is. In an attempt to escape Alivia is shot by Atrahasis, against Magnus' wishes - to which Magnus detonates every atom of Atrahasis' body simultaneously. Ahirman points out that they would be wise to withdraw as repercussions will surely be coming.

In his rage Magnus has burned Malcador to death in psychic fire, an event that would surely resonate with every psychically attuned being in the Palace, and no doubt the Emperor himself. Magnus decides against this action, and instead decides to continue further into the palace, to kill the Emperor himself.

The final part of the book continues in the depth of the Imperial Palace:

Magnus is approached by the Emperor, in the guise of Revelation, to further discuss what had been brought up by Malcador. The Emperor wanted Magnus to see the crack in the wall, to come into the Palace, and to speak with him. Revelation brings Magnus and the remaining Thousand Sons into the Throne Room itself, with the physical form of the Emperor sat on the Throne, deep in concentration to keep the daemonic forces at bay. To further bring Magnus back to the Imperial side, Revelation shows Magnus a vision of the future, where the war has ended and Magnus has been redeemed. Magnus is sitting on the Throne, at least the physical side of him is - the psychic side is in the Great Ocean with the Emperor at his side, his physical body has a smile on his face as a golden light emanates from the immense doors of the throne room. Magnus wants to believe, but still cannot reconcile that this is still an option for him given all he has done up to this point.

Revelation seeks to sway Magnus further by offering him a new Legion for him to command. The first of a new type of legionnaire who are stronger and more resilient than the current Astartes, and free from the flesh change that has been ravaging the XVth since their inception.

There is one catch to this, as there always is. Magnus would have to have the remainder of the XVth Legion killed, as they have already become too corrupted by the Chaos Gods, and the flesh change going through them would inevitably kill them off within a matter of years. Magnus refuses, he cannot bring himself to kill even one of his Sons, even for what is being offered. He decides there and then that if he can't go back then he might as well go all the way, and takes the opportunity to kill the Emperor whilst he is still in the Golden Throne - only to be stopped by Vulkan.

At the end of the fight between Magnus and Vulkan, Magnus finally lets go of the last part of him that binds him to the physical world, and becomes a pure psychic being. With nothing left to connect Magnus to the physical realm he is expelled by the wards of the Imperial Palace, along with his remaining Sons. Outside of the Walls and inside the Crimson Kings camp, Magnus is approached by the Warmaster's Equerry with word that new front is opening in the Siege, with the Warmaster wondering if Magnus is with him in this. Magnus is now fully committed to the Traitors cause, and even any desire to usurp Horus from the throne appears to have gone. Any chance of redemption has disappeared for him, and he now accepts his fate.

Malcador

Alivia, as a perpetual, comes around in a newly formed body in a pool of her own blood. Looking around her she sees the carnage wrought by Magnus and the Thousand Sons. She sees the remains of Malcador washed up in a pool of water, and gathers them.

As she cradles the remains, Malcadors body begins to come back to life, as Alivia dies a final time.

There is still plenty more in this book - but this is the most important thrust of the narrative. There's a ton of discussion points, but please be aware that some people only want to discuss certain points and not tread to heavily down the path of spoilers.

Also, nesting this many spoiler tags is difficult to keep track of!

[Jareddm]

Right then.

Having read ALL the spoilers...

I am content.  Seriously, that feels like a very solid story to solidify Magnus's siding with Horus.  I like the gamble idea.  I like the shard lure but the sadness that it's already gone.  Not super in love with the Primaris reference but overall, not bad...not bad McNeil.  Between this and Sons of the Selenar I might be turning around on you...maybe.

[Scribe]

Hmm. Based on the spoilers, this book seems to be almost everything I seek to avoid in the series.

 

The hardest of passes.

[Sandlemad]

Thanks for writing that up mr_r_parker, fair play on keeping that many wheels spinning with the tags. So... those two core narrative threads -

a secret mission to attempt to turn a traitor primarch and Magnus's sorting through his options with a plan for a post-siege coup of Horus - are pretty dang cool.

 

The faintest chance at Magnus's redemption is also great. I kind of feel like we've seen two or three of those already, spots where he has to make a final decision but still, to get it from the Emperor's own mouth is something. The image of Magnus on the throne, that's good stuff, little bit surprised it didn't come back earlier in all the other more recent stuff about the Emperor's secret plans.

 

Everything else sounds considerably less great and I've read enough McNeill to know how much subtlety he'll exercise here. More hyperliteralised shard stuff isn't my idea of a good time, retreading French's stuff for considerably less interesting ends. And sounds like Malcador's death was pointless except as a plot motivator for why the TS need to retreat and might even have been... accidental? Alivia was an interesting character but again it sounds like she's reduced to a plot device here.

 

That's just off the hip quibbles and lack of faith in this being executed well. Throwing in primaris though, that's particularly cheap. I think it's the simplicity of the concept that's the problem. What could Magnus want? A new legion, one he won't mess up while trying to save them, fair enough, something interesting there. Emphasising that he's unlikely to mess them up because, get this, they're more 'resistant to chaos'™ undermines the tragedy and emphasises the boring idea that having marginally better marines (a foot taller and have some extra organs, wow) is a big or meaningful deal on a galactic scale. It comes off as more toyetic, you know? Magnus, try this new hotness, that's what I'll bribe you with.

 

Also... am I reading it right that Magnus is overcome with horror at the idea of killing even one of his sons only a relatively short time after literally exploding one of his sons? And killing one of them in A Thousand Sons, as well as willing them all to die at an earlier juncture in his character arc. If he's meant to be a hypocrite or if there's some emphasis on him taking a stand, cool and all, just so I have that straight.

 

Core ideas there sound cool and heavy with ironic pathos because we know how it'll all end (decent subversion can include a view of what might have been) but overall sounds like some of the worse aspects of recent heresy/siege stuff: mashing concepts together, trimming plot threads in an unsatisfying way, and linking it more directly to the post-8th ed. 40k metaplot

Edited September 28, 2020 by Sandlemad

[Marshal Rohr]

That’s not... that bad.

[Kelborn]

Well

 

I'll get that one for sure! :O

 

Thanks for the awesome work, M R Parker! :tu:

[Noserenda]

Not read it but my first assumption was the Grey Knights, not Primaris, seeing as those exist as an Emperor secret project whilst the Primaris are still just a theoretical Emperor secret project.

Edited September 28, 2020 by Noserenda

[Roomsky]

Thank you muchly m_r_parker, that definitely alleviates my main concern about the earlier spoiler. I didn't peep the other ones but it looks like a fun book. I hope Mcneill gets a novella anthology in softback down the line.

[Sandlemad]

 

Not read it but my first assumption was the Grey Knights, not Primaris, seeing as those exist a an Emperor secret project whilst the Primaris are still just an Emperor secret project.

 

 

You know what, that is better, if true. More in line with bringing Magnus into the fold and defining his role in a post-crusade imperium, much better than "here's these new toys". Not wild about the rest but that's not bad. Interestingly in line with some fanmade alternate heresy scenarios too, stuff like the Dornian heresy.

[Bobss]

In fairness to Graham this doesn't sound too bad, and he gets to play with some of his own characters once again

 

This doesn't particularly affect the outcome of things to come because it's very self-contained, but... it seems pretty unnecessary and skippable in all fairness. As others have already stated, that is what a good novella ought to do, I guess...?

 

Not too bad, and I hope those who have bought it have enjoyed it, but for now I'm pretty content with skipping this between Saturnine and the next book :)

[DarkChaplain]

 

 

Not read it but my first assumption was the Grey Knights, not Primaris, seeing as those exist a an Emperor secret project whilst the Primaris are still just an Emperor secret project.

 

 

You know what, that is better, if true. More in line with bringing Magnus into the fold and defining his role in a post-crusade imperium, much better than "here's these new toys". Not wild about the rest but that's not bad. Interestingly in line with some fanmade alternate heresy scenarios too, stuff like the Dornian heresy.

 

 

Now also consider that the Grey Knights are LED BY IANIUS! He is Arvida merged with the Shard Magnus "just missed" on Terra!

 

It's basically the Emperor offering Magnus to be reunited with his lost itty bitty of self in a roundabout way, alongside a new "Legion" of highly psychic Marines immune to the taint of Chaos, and disciplined to the max to be able to actually wield their powers at minimum risk to the rest of the galaxy - and Ianius's teachings will be instrumental to the entire recruitment drive, adding a distinct Thousand Sons background to how they do things.

 

It also makes the Emperor's appearance in The Buried Dagger, when the chosen few are leaving, much more important - because it indicates that He himself was setting things up there, too, and the Grey Knights weren't merely Malcador's "worst case" cleanup crew for later. If we take the Grey Knights founding as a gambit in itself, not just for the future, but for the present war, it makes a lot more sense.

Edited September 28, 2020 by DarkChaplain

[aa.logan]

Sorry all, I lack Mr_R_Parker’s deft and nuanced touch. There is a reason I’m not a fan of including spoilers in my posts, I guess...

 

I’m with Nosrenda’s interpretation of what was offered.