Astorath: Angel of Mercy by Guy Haley

[Taliesin]

https://www.games-workshop.com/en-NL/Astorath-Angel-of-Mercy-HB-2020

 

Sold out in 5 minutes but I got a copy. Looking forward to it.

[aa.logan]

First LE that I tried and failed to get; the website wouldn’t let me complete checkout before 10am on three separate occasions.

 

Only *slightly* annoyed.

[Fire Golem]

Well, I forgot. Ah well. Already spent too much on myself this near Christmas. 

[JH79]

Well, I forgot. Ah well. Already spent too much on myself this near Christmas. 

This, on both counts! 

[Lord Nord in Gravis Armour]

I got my copy here in the US, but the book is sold out now.

[Blindhamster]

Surprised nobody has done a review yet.

 

I'll write something up tomorrow if there is interest.

 

Key takeaway - I found it very enjoyable and as always Guy has fleshed out the blood Angels and their successors even further as well as... other things.

Edited December 25, 2020 by Blindhamster

[rookie40K]

Surprised nobody has done a review yet.

 

I'll write something up tomorrow if there is interest.

 

Key takeaway - I found it very enjoyable and as always Guy has fleshed out the blood Angels and their successors even further as well as... other things.

I am very interested in a review (spoilers include). I’m guessing I’m not the only one and I would greatly appreciate it.

[Blindhamster]

I'll write one up later today once family leave :)

[rookie40K]

I'll write one up later today once family leave :)

Thank you and merry Christmas!

[Blindhamster]

Okay

Summary Part 1

Okay so the story starts with us being introduced to the red wings chapter, a fleet based chapter that were decimated in the defense of baal. The chapter retained their larger ships as the former chapter master had foresight enough to hold them back, apparently making them one of the few successors to immediately have the facilities to create primaris apparently.

We see current events where the red wings are facing a major issue, their captain has been killed by one of the primaris battle brothers and the red wings have an incline of why but arent really clear. Thankfully they're going to the embarcation deck to meet their visitor, none other than Atorath. When they meet the high chaplain we learn he travels with a priest and a veteran sergeant (their roles are explained later but it's a permenant secondment and there should be a librarian too but none have been worthy since the last died at diamor). The blood Angel's sergeant admonishes the red wings for not knowing the signs of the thirst or rage but the red wings shoot back that they were given no real guidance. Astorath and his sanguinary priest aid examine the body of the fallen blood angel and confirm effects of both the rage and the thirst. Astorath then has the ranking red wings, a veteran sergeant and a sanguinary priest explain what happened.

The red wings were sent to dulcis, a swamp and marsh world to essentially take stock of imperium nihlus current position. The world is very close to the rift and it soon transpires that there are flares coming from it which is causing an increase in psykers from the world. The worlds governor and the adeptus administratum representative persuade captain Ares, one of the few surviving firstborn of the chapter to prosecute a culling of the witches.

We have a side story about a very very powerful girl who can perform mental manipulation, the importance of her becomes more clear with the other side story we see... strange entities that live in the warp and need to come to the material realm for reproduction and are being drawn to dulcis.

The red wings used technology aboard their ships to scan for psykers, they lack any librarians but do have the mortal servants who know how to work the machinery, albeit not so well. When the flair happens the red wings in close proximity of the machinery are given visions of sanguinius fighting on the vengeful spirit, including the primaris lieutenant Jadriel. This troubles Ares but the effects seem to pass.

We then see the red wings persecuting the execution of psykers in the city and generally causing a commotion. This results in many of the populous panicking, but we do see how skilled the marines are at performing these executions without collateral damage which is pretty impressive. The result though, is that many of the psykers begin fleeing the city to rigs out in the swamps.

We then have a scene of literally hundreds of psykers being executed by the red wings at what amounts to a prisoner camp. The red wings find it distasteful and leave the cleanup to the mortals who had not the courage to perform the act itself.

The psykers on the rigs are drawn to the rooves where they have some kind of meeting with the entities in the warp, the result of this we learn the following day when ares, jadriel and a squad of intercessors go to start the execution of other witches.

Jadriel and a demi squad arrive at the site of the most powerful psyker signature, the girl we met earlier in the story.. who is now apparently very ill. The girl literally splits open and an enslaver bursts from her, it causes jadriel and half the demi squad to fall to the rage and flees with the squads sergeant managing to get away with another marine and regroup with the captain and the other demi squad. However Ares refused to leave and goes to find jadriel, who he attempts to talk down but fails and is slain. The squad are collected by the sanguinary priest via thunderhawk after they get the captains body and the bodies of a couple primaris marines. The priest and sergeant decide they need help as the situation goes out of control with literally hundreds of enslaved being born.

Which brings us back to the start of the book. The red wings are shown to barely be the chapter they were, they're now majority primaris and struggling to adjust to the new place they have. But they're still shown to be skilled warriors and have interesting characters. Ares is depicted as being determined to live up to Dantes expectations, the primaris of the red wings think dante is too old. Astorath is portrayed as grim but has another side that is shown more in the second half of the book. His attendant, sergeant dolomon is an amazing character. Hes totally disrespectful and had me laugh out loud a few times. His role is explained in the second half but effectively he is astoraths naysayer, his role is to keep astorath on the light path and his skill at quips is exactly why he was chosen for the role as there is no hope without laughter. The red wing sergeant with a similar attitude refers to dolomon as a jester lol.

The red wing are clearly struggling with all the information they didnt have due to them having 16 (15 after the events of the book?) Firstborn marines left and otherwise only brief words of warning from the ablood Angel's.

That said they still have the trepedition and uncertainty wy Atoraths presence.

Anyway sorry but I'll write the rest in the morning as my wife requires I put the phone away.


If you have questions on anything so far I can and detail. This is a very brief overview of the first part of the book

Edited December 26, 2020 by Blindhamster

[RedFurioso]

Thanks! Any interesting bits of Red Wings lore?

[rookie40K]

Okay so the story starts with us being introduced to the red wings chapter, a fleet based chapter that were decimated in the defense of baal. The chapter retained their larger ships as the former chapter master had foresight enough to hold them back, apparently making them one of the few successors to immediately have the facilities to create primaris apparently.

 

We see current events where the red wings are facing a major issue, their captain has been killed by one of the primaris battle brothers and the red wings have an incline of why but arent really clear. Thankfully they're going to the embarcation deck to meet their visitor, none other than Atorath. When they meet the high chaplain we learn he travels with a priest and a veteran sergeant (their roles are explained later but it's a permenant secondment and there should be a librarian too but none have been worthy since the last died at diamor). The blood Angel's sergeant admonishes the red wings for not knowing the signs of the thirst or rage but the red wings shoot back that they were given no real guidance. Astorath and his sanguinary priest aid examine the body of the fallen blood angel and confirm effects of both the rage and the thirst. Astorath then has the ranking red wings, a veteran sergeant and a sanguinary priest explain what happened.

 

The red wings were sent to dulcis, a swamp and marsh world to essentially take stock of imperium nihlus current position. The world is very close to the rift and it soon transpires that there are flares coming from it which is causing an increase in psykers from the world. The worlds governor and the adeptus administratum representative persuade captain Ares, one of the few surviving firstborn of the chapter to prosecute a culling of the witches.

 

We have a side story about a very very powerful girl who can perform mental manipulation, the importance of her becomes more clear with the other side story we see... strange entities that live in the warp and need to come to the material realm for reproduction and are being drawn to dulcis.

 

The red wings used technology aboard their ships to scan for psykers, they lack any librarians but do have the mortal servants who know how to work the machinery, albeit not so well. When the flair happens the red wings in close proximity of the machinery are given visions of sanguinius fighting on the vengeful spirit, including the primaris lieutenant Jadriel. This troubles Ares but the effects seem to pass.

 

We then see the red wings persecuting the execution of psykers in the city and generally causing a commotion. This results in many of the populous panicking, but we do see how skilled the marines are at performing these executions without collateral damage which is pretty impressive. The result though, is that many of the psykers begin fleeing the city to rigs out in the swamps.

 

We then have a scene of literally hundreds of psykers being executed by the red wings at what amounts to a prisoner camp. The red wings find it distasteful and leave the cleanup to the mortals who had not the courage to perform the act itself.

 

The psykers on the rigs are drawn to the rooves where they have some kind of meeting with the entities in the warp, the result of this we learn the following day when ares, jadriel and a squad of intercessors go to start the execution of other witches.

 

Jadriel and a demi squad arrive at the site of the most powerful psyker signature, the girl we met earlier in the story.. who is now apparently very ill. The girl literally splits open and an enslaver bursts from her, it causes jadriel and half the demi squad to fall to the rage and flees with the squads sergeant managing to get away with another marine and regroup with the captain and the other demi squad. However Ares refused to leave and goes to find jadriel, who he attempts to talk down but fails and is slain. The squad are collected by the sanguinary priest via thunderhawk after they get the captains body and the bodies of a couple primaris marines. The priest and sergeant decide they need help as the situation goes out of control with literally hundreds of enslaved being born.

 

Which brings us back to the start of the book. The red wings are shown to barely be the chapter they were, they're now majority primaris and struggling to adjust to the new place they have. But they're still shown to be skilled warriors and have interesting characters. Ares is depicted as being determined to live up to Dantes expectations, the primaris of the red wings think dante is too old. Astorath is portrayed as grim but has another side that is shown more in the second half of the book. His attendant, sergeant dolomon is an amazing character. Hes totally disrespectful and had me laugh out loud a few times. His role is explained in the second half but effectively he is astoraths naysayer, his role is to keep astorath on the light path and his skill at quips is exactly why he was chosen for the role as there is no hope without laughter. The red wing sergeant with a similar attitude refers to dolomon as a jester lol.

 

The red wing are clearly struggling with all the information they didnt have due to them having 16 (15 after the events of the book?) Firstborn marines left and otherwise only brief words of warning from the ablood Angel's.

 

That said they still have the trepedition and uncertainty wy Atoraths presence.

 

Anyway sorry but I'll write the rest in the morning as my wife requires I put the phone away.

 

If you have questions on anything so far I can and detail. This is a very brief overview of the first part of the book

This was perfect. At the end my wife required I put my phone away. I look forward to part II. Thank you!

[nagashnee]

Thanks the summary, much apreciated!

[Blindhamster]

Thanks! Any interesting bits of Red Wings lore?

Not too much, we know their chapter colours and emblem (red and white armour, a red symbol that otherwise sounds a bit like the 3rd company blood angel symbol of a single wing with blood coming from it).

 

We know they had traditions, but due to all but 15 members of the original chapter being dead, they're in a bit of limbo. They WANT to get closer to their old ways but are struggling to do both that and fully understand what it means to be one of the blood. They have sanguinary priests but those priests are all primaris and are somewhat out of touch when it comes to the curse, for now.

 

We know they dont follow the 5 virtues and 5 graces the blood angels do, but do have some other approach, but it isn't detailed what exactly.

 

An interesting tidbit about pre baal and the primaris blood angels - some apparently did go into strange berserk rages in battle and usually died, it was incredibly rare and nobody knew why, but hints that the rage may have been a thing for them all along but was so isolated and nobody with knowledge was there to guide them that it effectively got overlooked... which is interesting.

 

We also know that the desire for blood has always been a thing for them it didn't suddenly appear post baal either.

 

Main takeaway of the red wings is they're a primaris chapter more or less. They're unusual in that they have the tools to make a lot of primaris fairly quickly, something many successors apparently lack, this is attributed to the fact that while the chapter went en mass to baal, they specifically left skeleton crews with what amounts to their fleet based fortress monestary as the previous chapter master wished to secure their future whilst defending baal. I liked that a lot, it is a nice nod to the hope aspect of the blood angels and their successors.

 

oh another thing, the book never refers to things by their kit names, which i found weirdly nice tbh.

[nagashnee]

 

 

oh another thing, the book never refers to things by their kit names, which i found weirdly nice tbh.

 

Yes yes yes, a thousand times yes to this. 

Edited December 26, 2020 by nagashnee

[Blindhamster]

Okay

Summary Part 2

The next part of the book is back in current time, Astorath, Sergeant Dolomen and Priest Artemos of the blood angels finish listening to the story told to them by Sergeant Bedevoir and Priest Lamorak of the Red Wings before retiring to a private room to discuss options. Bedevoir says they will leave the decision of what to do to Astorath as clearly the Red Wings have failed. Bedevoir also says he wishes to go with Astorath to the surface to find his lost brothers, he holds Astoraths eyes long enough that Astorath seems intrigued.

 

We see in the discussion that Astorath is only really concerned with the finding of the fallen brothers and giving them the angels mercy. Dolonen makes it clear the world itself needs to be considered and Artemos backs him up. It's a very interesting relationship we have as basically Astorath doesn't want advisors but has them due to decisions made by a previous High priest 3000 years earlier. That said it's clear that the approach works, Dolomen is a wise-ass but he clearly does also represent the light of the blood angels, as well as the broader duty of space marines. Eventually it is agreed that the enslavers can't be stopped here and the threat to the broader imperium nihlus would be too great to simply leave. They do not have the fascilities to appropriately ensure all people are clear of enslaver larvae. Astorath wants to perform an exterminatus, Dolomen persaudes Atorath that the world could be a genuine asset in the future so instead it is agreed to "depopulate" the world, this is what Artemos works on, creating a viral weapon to specifically wipe out human population. A small portion of the population would be evacuated first but everyone is told to head for the main cities in an effort to get the populace located in specific locations... its quite a grim approach but the arguement of not wiping out a world needlessly was interesting.

 

Astorath explains the plan and agrees Bedevoir can join Dolomen and himself as they head to the surface.

 

On the surface we see the human governor get cowed instantly and quite badly brushed off by Astorath, he agrees to the depopulation plan almost without complaint which causes Dolomen to look upon him quite negatively. We also have some fun scenes where Bedevoir is quite shocked and the total lack of deference Dolomen has for Astorath, fun things where Dolomen has lines like "he pretends he does not like me, but clearly he does" or referring to how Astorath pretends to not have a sense of humour (we get a brief moment of a wolfish grin from Astorath here, which Bedevoir isn't sure if he imagined lol).

 

The three marines get an escort in the form of two guardmen and their patrol boat, one of the guardsmen is shown to have a total lack of fear, though Dolomen recognises it as not the "pure" fearlessness of an astartes, instead its the total lack of emotion. During this we know the enslavers are spreading rapidly and that there is a good chance they'll spread off world quickly as well as a good chance of demonic incursions. The group head to the rig where everything went wrong before, during which we have an enslaver control the mind of one of the guardsmen and then get killed by Dolomen before the guardsmen attacks, Astorath says it was not the guardsmens fault, the marines are hardened to such attacks but not immune to them.

 

At the rig the humans are told to wait whils the marines go in, they kill the remaining psykers who were being used to protect the rig from orbital attacks and also kill a lot of enslavers and enslaver eggs, dolomen is briefly controlled by an enslaver that attempts ot make him shoot himself before astorath does a cool flying chop attack and kills it. Then the group continue searching for the fallen red wings after confirming they were not on the rig.

 

This leads them into deeper waters which the guardsmen warn them is dangerous due to the eels there, they find a ship and the guardsmen are told to wait again, however the marines make enough noise to draw the eels in and one of the guardsmen comes aboard and sees what the marines have found - dead humans, not killed by enslavers or eels, they have puncture wounds to their necks... before anything can be said however, the eels attack and get larger and larger till a giant one appears and swallows astorath after a brutal fight. Astorath then literally rips his way out from inside after simply telling Dolomen over vox "I'm coming out" lol.  They defeat the beast by Astoraths armour is ruined, he removes it and just has his executioners axe.

 

We then get a bit more on Astoraths point of view, he explains he doesn't view himself as an executioner, he will not leave the fallen brothers to die in any way other than by his hand because they deserve mercy, if he must die in the process, so be it. The guardsmen are worried because of what they saw but continue to the next likely location for the fallen brothers.

 

Here is where things get a bit sad. The three marines go onto an island and are attacked by two fallen red wings. During this Bedevoir starts having visions, he'd been warned against it by Dolomen and attempts to fight them off by repeating mantras about who he is, Dolomen is almost killed by one of the fallen primaris marines, it makes a point to note that the primaris marine is physically larger and stronger and would have proven difficult normally but under the effects of the black rage Dolomen is being strangled to death. Bedevoir comes too enough to kill that one brother whilst Astorath fights the other and wins thanks to simply being more agile and more skilled. Pretty cool having Astorath fight the other one with just his axe and bodyglove tbh!

 

Astorath then fights Jadriel which is sad because we have Jadriel with enough faculties to fight with skill rather than pure rage, he asks why his brother has betrayed them and various other hints at how the scene may go down in siege of terra books. Astorath obviously wins the duel but does so with something of a heavy heart, Jadriel dies believing he is talking to the emperor, I think Guy did a great job of portraying the emotion involved in this scene honestly.

 

We then learn that Bedevoir's mind has cracked and he is just mumbling to himself, Astorath is going to grant him mercy too but Dolomen notes he has enough of himself remaining he should be allowed to fight and die in battle. So technically Bedevoir becomes the first death company manrine of the red wings.

 

The story ends with Astorath leaving with his retinue and the depopulation being a "success". Astorath promises to send chaplains from the blood angels to the red wings and other chapters to help them cope with these new changes, he must give word that the hopes that primaris are immune to the effects of the black rage have proven false.

 

So this book is set a little way into the events of Darkness in the Blood from a timeline perspective.

 

 

 

 

Overall, I found the book very enjoyable, it had combat but Guy never lingers on it more than is needed for the scenes, so doesn't feel like bolter porn, we had interesting portrayals of a variety of characters and an interesting look at the enslavers, which I don't think we've seen much of before so that was cool, i wonder if there is more relvevance to that as I believe there was also a picture relating to them in the new core rulebook.

 

Showing the struggles and considerations of the blood angels successors post baal with primaris and limited firstborn was good too, identity crisis was a nice angle.

Dolomen was my favourite character in the book because his attitude was just very different from waht we're used to seeing from marines, it was refreshing without feeling out of place.
 

[b1soul]

Sounds promising...will give this a spin when I can

[Blindhamster]

i really feel like Guy "gets" Blood Angels, he gets a good balance of their different aspects and has fleshed them out in ways nobody else has done so far, the result is that the last few books about them have gotten more and more consistent and its even bled into the Darius Hinks mephiston books so that they don't feel out of place either. I really hope Guy continues to be the main Blood Angel's author going forward and also REALLY hope he gets given the Sanguinius Primarchs book instead of Swallow at this point.

[b1soul]

I thought it was already confirmed that Swallow will be doing Sang. One can pray to the Emperor.

[theSpirea]

For me, this was quite disappointing. Astorath doesn't show up for the first half of the book, and it's a short book, and even when he does, there's not much about his character. I think the short story the Redeemer did much better job at that.

 

Easily forgettable book, I would give it 6/10. Don't regret buying it but I don't see a reason reading it again.

[Blindhamster]

For me, this was quite disappointing. Astorath doesn't show up for the first half of the book, and it's a short book, and even when he does, there's not much about his character. I think the short story the Redeemer did much better job at that.

 

Easily forgettable book, I would give it 6/10. Don't regret buying it but I don't see a reason reading it again.

Interesting, I agree it didn't focus on him in the same way Dante did for Dante, but I disagree that it doesn't look at his character much.

 

- we saw how the high chaplain role works, and, importantly, how it works in relation to successors, kind of like we did in the short story that came with the limited ed Dante book.

- we saw his view on his role, how he feels about it and what it means to him.

- we saw his determination to fulful his duty despite setbacks

- we saw his view of the death company and those that have fallen (he views it as a blessing due to the closeness it brings to sanguinius as much as a curse due to the loss of the marine in question).

- we saw how calm he is in battle and also how skilled he is (the scenes with the giant eel and the fight with Jadriel respectively.

- we got some insight into things relating to his role such as the erelim and apparently his three attendants, we can also see that he holds them to high standards as no librarian has been worthy to pick up the role as his third advisor since the last one died at Diamor.

- we saw how he treats humans and his view of general imperial citizenry.

- we saw that some things fascinate him. Particularly individuals that are neither afraid or disturbed by him

- we even saw he has a sense of humour

 

So yeah, not sure how much more insight into the character was desired, another book like Dante focusing on him gainin gthe role might have been nice, but this was touted as a novella, and for a novella, its long at 150ish pages.

 

Personally I found the way the Astorath stuff was linked to a successor very good, I also found the side characters to be very compelling, especially the blood angels sergeant.

 

For me it's a solid 8/10 (in relation to other GW books and in the context of a Novella, I do think there are novels about different subject matter that are better obviously, and a longer story could have expanded things more, but as a Novella, it was frankly excellent IMO).

Edited December 26, 2020 by Blindhamster

[Blindhamster]

I thought it was already confirmed that Swallow will be doing Sang. One can pray to the Emperor.

Yeah he said he was doing it at the HH weekender a few years ago (spoke to him directly). But I'm hoping as it still hasn't happened... maybe, just maybe, things might have changed. I don't hate Swallow, I just don't think he does a particularly good job of Blood Angels personally.

[DarkChaplain]

....or Death Guard.

[Urauloth]

This sounds extremely good and way more interesting than I expected for a book about a character I don't normally like much. I'm catching up on Devastation of Baal right now, actually, and I think Haley has a knack for Blood Angels, so I'm looking forward to being able to read this one. Any idea when we might see it in ebook form?

[rookie40K]

Can’t wait for audio version. Sounds like a really good book. Humor added to grim darkness are my favorite moments (RIP Tarik Torgaddon).