Scions of the Emperor: An Anthology

[Izlude]

Was curious to see what people thought about the stories. I forgot I pre-ordered this one and as I start to read Avenging Son (about 3 chapters in and excellent) I figured this one would be a fast and easy read since it is just a collection of short stories. Overall a good read and can't beat the ~20 dollars or whatever it was on Amazon. Here are my thoughts without giving spoilers (not that there was anything profound).

 

1. Canticle by David Guymer

 

This one is about Ferrus in his youth on Medusa exploring the area. Honestly I have not enjoyed anything written by Guymer. I thought his Ferrus Primarch book was downright awful. This short really didn't change my opinion. IMO there was not point to this short and dry. I would say easily the worse short in this collection. 

 

2. The Verdict of the Scythe by David Annandale

 

A story of Morty bringing a planet to compliance in his earlier days in the Great Crusade. It is fairly straight forward with no twists or anything. It centers around his hypocritical view on sorcery which is the main point of the short. Again Annandale isn't a particular favorite author but marginal better than Guymer. I would say this one was average but readable. 

 

3. A Game of Opposites by Guy Haley

 

This one takes place around the time the Lion, Sangy and Guilliman are racing off to Terra. It centers around a group of IW building up defenses on a planet to stall the three Primarchs with the White Scars trying to disrupt their defenses. A particular IW captain has made it his thing to predict their tactics to stop them. Overall a really good read, I like how Guy doesn't do the whole "we are the misunderstood barbarians so people underestimate us" thing. It is well written and would say top 3 short in this collection.

 

4. Better Angels by Ian St Martin

 

I am not as familiar with St Martin but I recall reading some World Eater stuff which I thought was very good. I have to say this one is my favorite out of the 8 shorts in this collection. It is straight forward and really just follows a BA legionnaire through different phases of the time period from the Great Crusade, their betrayal and the siege. We see Sangy taking an interest in said legionnaire and through his eyes we also see the change in Sangy. It was very well written and I thought that St Martin captured the BA really well.  

 

5. The Conqueror’s Truth by Gav Thorpe

 

Focuses on a remembrancer and her trip to see Curze and a compliance. It takes place early crusade and first hand witnesses Curze's methods and his "justification." It is fairly straight forward with no twists. Otherwise it is well written and I enjoyed this one. 

 

6. The Sinew of War by Darius Hinks

 

As the XIII is my favorite I had high expectations coming into this one. For those familiar with Guilliman's childhood with Konor via the various codexes over the years the story "twist" will not surprise you. Not familiar with Hinks but I think the story was well written and I like how he makes Guilliman much more human with anger as opposed to how he is now. While it is obvious the XIII has a strong Roman influence, in this short, Hinks basically makes the society pure Roman with cohorts, the two consuls, senate, etc. Not a major complaint just seems little lazy. Anyways, maybe I am being critical but it was okay.

 

7. The Chamber at the End of Memory by James Swallow

 

A total tease with no outcome for two legions we would all love to know about. It centers around Dorn looking in the deaths of group of people in the palace. Dorn activates one of his librarians to investigate the deaths. Swallow is hit or miss for me. I have to say this story seemed little odd and out of character for Dorn. Did he even use his librarians during the siege? I see what Swallow was trying to do with said legions but just came across as trite. One of the weaker shorts here.

 

8. First Legion by Chris Wraight

 

Saving the best for last Wraight did good here. I have generally not liked the DA stuff. I think they suffer from the whole "we are super mysterious" and the Lion vying for Primarch of the EMOs with Curze. This is centered around a compliance in the early crusade where we see the XX coming onto the scene (presumable before Alpharius was found or took over....or at least that is what is seems...you never know with them). Mostly just dialogue with a alternative future where there could have been a new Warmaster and the Lion is faced with a choice. Not surprisingly, Wraight does the Lion good with this one. The Lion does not karate chop anyone's head off for disagreeing with him (yeah that scene was super lame). 

Edited September 2, 2020 by Izlude

[byrd9999]

Here's my review from the ...Necromancy thread:

 

http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/topic/349680-rate-what-you-read-or-the-fight-against-necromancy/?p=5588081

 

tl;dr it's a 5/10.

[Indefragable]

I recall liking most of these, but especially Better Angels, and Canticle.

 

Better Angels sneaks up on you with just how good it is, considering not a single bolt shell is fired.

 

I thought Canticle was cool. Yes, not a lot happens, but it puts Medusa as the second-most creepy-cool-I-wanna-know-more-man-that-would-be-a-creepy-cool-TV-show homeworld just behind Barbarua. 

Edited September 5, 2020 by Indefragable

[Bobss]

Everything Chris Wraight touches turns to gold

[b1soul]

Thorpe did both the Lion and Nemiel dirrrty with that

 

Unintentionally hilarious (well, maybe not hilarious just very surprising but not in a good way):

 

The former Librarian said nothing, but looked up at the primarch and nodded. ‘Interesting,’ said the primarch, his green eyes fixing on Corswain as if to see into his thoughts. ‘I have seen first-hand what these things can do. They are…’ said the seneschal, hesitating to use the word. He took a breath and continued. ‘We face nephilla, my liege, or something akin to them. They are not wholly physical and our weapons do little damage to their unnatural flesh.’ ‘They are creatures of the warp, lauded primarch.’ The group of Dark Angels turned as Lady Fiana approached. ‘They are made of warp-stuff, and the breach has allowed them to manifest in our world. They cannot be destroyed, only sent back. The gaze of our third eyes can harm them.’ ‘Is this true?’ asked the Lion, stooping to lay a hand on the shoulder of Asmodeus. ‘Were your powers capable of harming our attackers?’ ‘From the warp they come, and with the power of the warp they can be banished again,’ said the Librarian. He stood as the Lion changed his grip and guided the legionary to his feet. He met the primarch’s gaze for a moment and then looked away again. ‘Brother-Redemptor Nemiel is right, my liege. I have broken the oath I swore.’ ‘A grave crime, and one that I will be sure to prosecute properly when the current situation has been resolved,’ said the Lion. He looked at Nemiel. ‘There are two others of the Librarium aboard: Hasfael and Alberein. Bring them here.’ ‘This is a mistake, my liege,’ said Nemiel, shaking his head. ‘The abominations that attack us, these nephilla, are a conjuration of sorceries. I swore an oath also, to uphold the Edict of Nikaea. To unleash further sorcery will endanger us even more. Think again, my liege!’ ‘I have issued an order, Brother-Redemptor,’ said the Lion, drawing himself up to his full height. ‘One that I cannot follow,’ said Nemiel, his tone hard, though Corswain could see the Chaplain’s hands were trembling with the effort of defying his primarch. ‘My authority is absolute,’ the Lion said, clenching his fists, his lips drawn back to reveal gleaming teeth. ‘The Edict of Nikaea was issued by the Emperor, my liege,’ said Nemiel. ‘There is no higher authority.’ ‘Enough!’ The Lion’s roar was so loud it caused Corswain’s auto-senses to dampen his hearing, as they would if he was caught in a potentially deafening detonation. The seneschal was not entirely sure what happened next. The Lion moved and a split-second later a cracked skull-faced helm was spinning through the dull-glowing lights of the strategium, cutting a bloody arc through the air. Nemiel’s headless corpse clattered to the floor as the Lion held up his hand, pieces of ceramite embedded in the fingertips of his gore-spattered gauntlet. Corswain looked at the face of his primarch, horrified by what had happened. For a moment he saw a vision of satisfaction, the Lion’s eyes gleaming as he stared at his handiwork. It passed in a second. The Lion seemed to realise what he had done and his face twisted with pain as he knelt beside the remains of the Brother-Redemptor. ‘My liege?’ Corswain was not sure what to say, but as seneschal he knew he had to act. ‘We will mourn him later,’ said the Lion.

Edited September 17, 2020 by b1soul

[DarkChaplain]

https://gavthorpe.co.uk/spoilers/

 

 

Book: The Lion
From Blog Post: More Dark Angels Secrets Revealed

Marcus Pitt asked: What made you decide to kill off Nemiel and whose idea was it?

 

It was a combination of my idea, and then-editor Christian Dunn’s input. I wanted the Lion to lash out in a moment of stress, Christian suggested it should be Nemiel. The reason was three-fold. Firstly, to confound the expectations of a stereotypical and narratively inevitable confrontation between Nemial and Zahariel, and secondly to show that characters aren’t safe just because they are named or even have a storyline. Lastly, I wanted to hint at the notion that the Lion’s civilisation is a mask he wears, that the beast of the forests still lies in there somewhere trying to escape. This is a theme that I have been developing ever since

Angels of Darkness

and the consequences of that act start to show themselves in

Angels of Caliban

.

 

Book: The Lion
From Blog Post: June 2017 – Q&A (Part 2)

Jon replied to my newsletter: I have a question about the death of Nemiel. Throughout Descent of Angels, he is set up to be a counterpoint agent to Zahariel, the stalwart Legion loyalist as a Chaplain vs. his errant brother the Librarian being subsumed by the Ouroboros. Then abruptly, the Lion beheads him and the story of Nemiel seems to be done. It feels jarring that Nemiel was done away with so quickly. Did the Dark Angels story arc and that of Zahariel change somewhere in the process, resulting in Nemiel no longer being needed?

 

It was very deliberately Nemiel because he looked so fated to play a bigger part! In discussion with the BL editors it was decided to take the Dark Angels storyline in a different direction from that predicted by the Nemiel / Zahariel set up. Also the death of a seemingly ‘plot-armoured’ character serves to remind readers that not everyone that they are gets to survive these tumultuous events. The act itself serves to demonstrate the underlying tensions and character of the Lion, and if the act had been carried out on any lesser individual (one invented just for that occasion) it would have lacked any gravitas.

It also gives rise to ‘What if…?’ scenarios for readers to speculate. What if Nemiel had survived, how would it have changed the course of Zahariel’s arc? Nemiel’s death plays a major part in what happens in Angels of Caliban – I don’t know if you’ve reached that far in the series yet… Let’s just say there are always consequences to actions.

 

So to pin it all on Gav is plain inaccurate. Even the choice of it being Nemiel was suggested by Dunn, and it wasn't simply Gav taking a dump on a character established by other authors.

You can argue about the scene's execution (which was quite abrupt and baffling in a sense), but it was a deliberate Heresy "team" decision at the time, rather than an author pushing for it.

Edited September 17, 2020 by DarkChaplain

[Indefragable]

I am reluctant to crap on authors (writing is harder than it looks) but that scene is just not well done at all. It feels like a B movie or a high school play where they go through the motions of a scene rather than lending real world weight and experience to the emotions and motivations. 
 

Its easy to say this in hindsight, but a bit more foreshadowing would have gone a long way. The Lion yelling “Enough!” at a subordinate without hitting him....the Lion slamming a fist on a table when someone questions him (and leaving a dent in the table)....flashes of him losing control of his temper ever so slightly. And/or moments where he slips away somewhere and then surprises his sons (like in Dreadwing) or barely stops from killing a son (like Alajos or Corswain) in practice because he let the forest instincts take over for a split second...

 

...moments like that sprinkled in ahead of time would give the reader the sense of what the Lion was capable of so that there was a constant tension whenever someone disagreed with him. But of course the reader’s mind would think “yea he could snap, but he’s not going to actually harm Nemiel...” which is where you are setup for surprise in a good way. Good foreshadowing is stuff that feels organic when you read it and don’t think it really means anything, but when you go back and look the signs are there in hindsight.

 

My belief is that you can do anything in a story, but it’s how you do it that makes it good.

 

I don’t recall actually reading the Lion and Alpharius one from this book. I’ll have to dig out my copy.

Edited September 18, 2020 by Indefragable