Mortis

[Lord Lorne Walkier]

 

 

Lord Lorne Walkier and Blood-worms Master:

 

 

Unknown who the baby is, just appears to be a random infant that Cole the army officer rescued

 

The House Vyronii Knights focused on it the book start off patrolling beyond the mercury walls at the horizon watching for incoming enemy, and then are in combat in support of the Legio Solaria Warhound pack under the command of Abhani Lus Mohana. There is a Castigator and its 3 armiger attendants. There is some conflict between the Knight and his Armiger pilot half sister, which appears to be coming to a head at the end of the book.

 

 

Did that kid get a name?

Janus

 

 

 

Some link to GK, GM, Janus?

[aa.logan]

Full name Janus Vangorich Thor. Don’t know if those names have any significance though.

[DarkChaplain]

....I don't know what it says about my experience of the Siege so far that I entertained that statement as a truthful answer for a moment.

[Marshal Loss]

Finally finished, after a lengthy wait for delivery & then a busy schedule. I enjoyed Mortis, although I will say that I don't think this was anywhere near as good as Solar War. It took a very long time to kick into gear. French accomplished the goal he outlines in the afterword - detailing the transition from conventional war to utter chaos, and I always enjoy his take on the setting. But I think this novel could have been a lot more than what it was. The lack of Legion & Traitor content was a surprise, and I think a little bit more may have actually been beneficial, especially with regards to how the Emperor's Children and Legio Mortis were treated on the traitor's side (or, rather, how they weren't). Given that Slaanesh & Nurgle are the gods in ascendancy in Mortis, it feels like a major missed opportunity, especially for the former, as we already know that Mortarion and his children are going to get their time to shine. Wish we'd gotten more of the Slaaneshi Ruinstorm DP. French handled the macro far better than he handled the micro.

 

Legio Mortis were present right at the beginning of the HH series; we even had POV characters in the opening trilogy. To not loop back around to them was a missed opportunity. At a practical level, while Legio Mortis certainly aren't a blank slate, to see Ignatum get fleshed out so comprehensively while Mortis remain virtually mono-faceted was a mistake. Lots of lore in the AT books and in IA13, etc, could have been drawn on here, even if only briefly. It's even worse than what we got in Titandeath, where we received tons of Solaria and relatively little of Vulpa. Ignatum were great though, really cool stuff.

 

I disliked all the perpetual nonsense as usual but that's really just a litmus test for one's views, so I won't complain. It at least meshed well with the "journey" theme that is relentlessly hammered into nearly every chapter.

 

One thing which I found really funny was the blatant product placement near the end:

 

The Warmaster...Titan(s). There's a really hilarious moment where it looks like the battle is destined to end in mutual annihilation, and then suddenly...KABLAM! The Warmasters are here! After being kept under wraps for so long - the Mechanicum apparently hid them for 200 years (?) and Ignatum evidently don't have any (?) but now these super bad ass robots are here to save ruin the day for the good guys.

 

It wasn't a bad scene, but it was the kind of product placement I'd expect in a GW studio campaign book, not a Siege of Terra novel.

 

No real shocks here, ultimately. I quite liked the Perturabo/IW content, and look forward to French's inevitable Iron Cage novel.

[DarkChaplain]

I'm still baffled that we have such a lack of short stories to accompany the Siege. There's so much in the last few novels that really would benefit from a few asides from the main narrative. The way various Traitor characters in particular are barely even ont he pages so far is especially annoying, but something that could be counteracted reasonably well by having a short story about their actions away from the "big screen" moments the novels give us. Stuff like Endryd Haar between the third Reynolds audio drama and Saturnine, or what Eidolon, Typhus, and so many more are doing to stay relevant. For all we see, most of the characters might as well be sitting this one out, for all the glimpses at the various fronts we're not getting.

 

Frankly, I feel like they should take a stop with the main novels between 5 and 6 and at least do one anthology in between to round off a lot of character arcs or scenes that just happened in-between chapters, where we only got the conclusion told to us but weren't privy on any of the action - or worse, where the last view we got was pretty much the opposite of how we were told it ended.

 

There are too many air bubbles in the narrative to make me happy with it. For a series finale consisting of 8 novels, I am seriously missing a lot of the long-anticipated character moments and drama. Which I admit is difficult to deliver when characters get executed willy nilly like Haar was.

 

At the same time as I feel that the minutiae of the war are kinda lacking, I also don't think the framework being built is all that solid. The macro-war is being tackled in a way that's just too opaque. We often only hear about sections of the Palace and Terra when they're about to fall anyway. It's an issue I have with the world building of the Siege so far. Unless something significant is about to happen somewhere, we hardly even know that somewhere is a thing at all, let alone have a good grip on the spheres of battle.

 

....and shorts could help with this, too. I'd love to have a collection of short stories just to flesh out the wider war for the Throneworld. Vignettes about hives, walls, ports, regular people conscripted into the army without being the hero-type we see in Katsuhiro or Piers, for example. Just seeing the horrors of war through the eyes of those with very little relevance or involvement on the meta narrative. It's something that made me love the much-maligned plotline from The First Wall.

 

As far as the horrors of war angle goes, I feel like we're still seeing the "heroic" parts of the Siege far too much, rather than really being made to appreciate the sheer devastation that it was on a societal and cultural level. Short stories, again, could also help convey the overwhelming and unrelenting chaos of the war, creating a network of PoVs that, on their own, are insignificant, but taken as a group, encapsulate the Siege far more accurately than stuff like Camba Diaz drawing a line in the sand, or Titans walking from A to B while shooting at other Titans.

 

Going by the reviews and spoilers for Mortis, I'm honestly worried that book 5 will be the novel that I'll relate to the least.

Edited February 14, 2021 by DarkChaplain

[DukeLeto69]

@DC I agree. 8 core novels with gaps filled in by a few novellas and novella sized short story collections (so it looks uniform on the shelf lol)

 

I think you have coined the title for the volume as well...

 

WAR FOR THE THRONEWORLD

[Cerbero666]

I'm still baffled that we have such a lack of short stories to accompany the Siege. There's so much in the last few novels that really would benefit from a few asides from the main narrative. The way various Traitor characters in particular are barely even ont he pages so far is especially annoying, but something that could be counteracted reasonably well by having a short story about their actions away from the "big screen" moments the novels give us. Stuff like Endryd Haar between the third Reynolds audio drama and Saturnine, or what Eidolon, Typhus, and so many more are doing to stay relevant. For all we see, most of the characters might as well be sitting this one out, for all the glimpses at the various fronts we're not getting.

 

Frankly, I feel like they should take a stop with the main novels between 5 and 6 and at least do one anthology in between to round off a lot of character arcs or scenes that just happened in-between chapters, where we only got the conclusion told to us but weren't privy on any of the action - or worse, where the last view we got was pretty much the opposite of how we were told it ended.

 

There are too many air bubbles in the narrative to make me happy with it. For a series finale consisting of 8 novels, I am seriously missing a lot of the long-anticipated character moments and drama. Which I admit is difficult to deliver when characters get executed willy nilly like Haar was.

 

At the same time as I feel that the minutiae of the war are kinda lacking, I also don't think the framework being built is all that solid. The macro-war is being tackled in a way that's just too opaque. We often only hear about sections of the Palace and Terra when they're about to fall anyway. It's an issue I have with the world building of the Siege so far. Unless something significant is about to happen somewhere, we hardly even know that somewhere is a thing at all, let alone have a good grip on the spheres of battle.

 

....and shorts could help with this, too. I'd love to have a collection of short stories just to flesh out the wider war for the Throneworld. Vignettes about hives, walls, ports, regular people conscripted into the army without being the hero-type we see in Katsuhiro or Piers, for example. Just seeing the horrors of war through the eyes of those with very little relevance or involvement on the meta narrative. It's something that made me love the much-maligned plotline from The First Wall.

 

As far as the horrors of war angle goes, I feel like we're still seeing the "heroic" parts of the Siege far too much, rather than really being made to appreciate the sheer devastation that it was on a societal and cultural level. Short stories, again, could also help convey the overwhelming and unrelenting chaos of the war, creating a network of PoVs that, on their own, are insignificant, but taken as a group, encapsulate the Siege far more accurately than stuff like Camba Diaz drawing a line in the sand, or Titans walking from A to B while shooting at other Titans.

 

Going by the reviews and spoilers for Mortis, I'm honestly worried that book 5 will be the novel that I'll relate to the least.

 

That's my problem with the Siege so far, it seems lacking of true drama or interest except for some parts. 8 novels are not fit to finish all the character arcs that were built during 54 novels plus dozens of short stories. Khârn has been pretty meh so far, Eidolon is absent, as is Typhus or Lucius, Sigismund has been nerfed (though he has two novels to shine yet), the traitor primarchs except Perturabo and Magnus (thanks to a novella) have been waiting on backstage. Sevatar is still imprisoned (since 2014) and no one cares. Haar appeared on Terra just to die, no information about how he reached there or dialogue with another characters about his motives or who he is. Calleb Decima and Crysos Morturg vanished, so is Crios and the Iron Hands revenants. All of them are irrelevant.

 

I thought the Siege of Terra was going to be a macro-event with at least 10 novels, a handful of novellas and many short stories, so we could get deep into the war and the characters, to ground level. But it ended up being an extended version of the story we have known for decades. It has some great moments and revelations, but in general it lacks the epicness I was expecting. I wanted to see epic duels between great characters (more like the trap in Saturnine), the traitor Primarchs releasing their powers, legends being forged, new civilian characters being massacred after we get to care about them. But now I mainly see masses of unnamed troops throwing themselves against each wall and news that some unkown section of the palace never seen before, has fallen or has been retaken without actually being present. Night Lords are mentioned only by passing, there are mentions of World Eaters as berserkers doing berserker things, Emperor's Children doing nasty things, Death Guards being creepy, etc... But most of them are just descriptions, mentioned like something distant. "Remember those Blood Angels fighting on that wall section against the Iron Warriors? Well, that wall section has fallen, and Zephon was there by the way, and maybe Kroeger, not sure. Uh, maybe Angron wiped them all. Now let actually see how Random Soldier number 2304 is killed by an unnamed World Eater on a not so decisive trench section. All the while the Iron Warriors has abandoned the Siege, because of something we delivered last chapter"

 

My impression is that I'm seeing the Siege from the sky, far away, not on the ground feeling the tension. Is like when I play Total War and move away the camera from the troops on the ground to get a bigger perspective. I only see masses of troops but don't get any emotion about them. 

Edited February 14, 2021 by Cerbero666

[Bobss]

 

I'm still baffled that we have such a lack of short stories to accompany the Siege. There's so much in the last few novels that really would benefit from a few asides from the main narrative. The way various Traitor characters in particular are barely even ont he pages so far is especially annoying, but something that could be counteracted reasonably well by having a short story about their actions away from the "big screen" moments the novels give us. Stuff like Endryd Haar between the third Reynolds audio drama and Saturnine, or what Eidolon, Typhus, and so many more are doing to stay relevant. For all we see, most of the characters might as well be sitting this one out, for all the glimpses at the various fronts we're not getting.

 

Frankly, I feel like they should take a stop with the main novels between 5 and 6 and at least do one anthology in between to round off a lot of character arcs or scenes that just happened in-between chapters, where we only got the conclusion told to us but weren't privy on any of the action - or worse, where the last view we got was pretty much the opposite of how we were told it ended.

 

There are too many air bubbles in the narrative to make me happy with it. For a series finale consisting of 8 novels, I am seriously missing a lot of the long-anticipated character moments and drama. Which I admit is difficult to deliver when characters get executed willy nilly like Haar was.

 

At the same time as I feel that the minutiae of the war are kinda lacking, I also don't think the framework being built is all that solid. The macro-war is being tackled in a way that's just too opaque. We often only hear about sections of the Palace and Terra when they're about to fall anyway. It's an issue I have with the world building of the Siege so far. Unless something significant is about to happen somewhere, we hardly even know that somewhere is a thing at all, let alone have a good grip on the spheres of battle.

 

....and shorts could help with this, too. I'd love to have a collection of short stories just to flesh out the wider war for the Throneworld. Vignettes about hives, walls, ports, regular people conscripted into the army without being the hero-type we see in Katsuhiro or Piers, for example. Just seeing the horrors of war through the eyes of those with very little relevance or involvement on the meta narrative. It's something that made me love the much-maligned plotline from The First Wall.

 

As far as the horrors of war angle goes, I feel like we're still seeing the "heroic" parts of the Siege far too much, rather than really being made to appreciate the sheer devastation that it was on a societal and cultural level. Short stories, again, could also help convey the overwhelming and unrelenting chaos of the war, creating a network of PoVs that, on their own, are insignificant, but taken as a group, encapsulate the Siege far more accurately than stuff like Camba Diaz drawing a line in the sand, or Titans walking from A to B while shooting at other Titans.

 

Going by the reviews and spoilers for Mortis, I'm honestly worried that book 5 will be the novel that I'll relate to the least.

 

That's my problem with the Siege so far, it seems lacking of true drama or interest except for some parts. 8 novels are not fit to finish all the character arcs that were built during 54 novels plus dozens of short stories. Khârn has been pretty meh so far, Eidolon is absent, as is Typhus or Lucius, Sigismund has been nerfed (though he has two novels to shine yet), the traitor primarchs except Perturabo and Magnus (thanks to a novella) have been waiting on backstage. Sevatar is still imprisoned (since 2014) and no one cares. Haar appeared on Terra just to die, no information about how he reached there or dialogue with another characters about his motives or who he is. Calleb Decima and Crysos Morturg vanished, so is Crios and the Iron Hands revenants. All of them are irrelevant.

 

I thought the Siege of Terra was going to be a macro-event with at least 10 novels, a handful of novellas and many short stories, so we could get deep into the war and the characters, to ground level. But it ended up being an extended version of the story we have known for decades. It has some great moments and revelations, but in general it lacks the epicness I was expecting. I wanted to see epic duels between great characters (more like the trap in Saturnine), the traitor Primarchs releasing their powers, legends being forged, new civilian characters being massacred after we get to care about them. But now I mainly see masses of unnamed troops throwing themselves against each wall and news that some unkown section of the palace never seen before, has fallen or has been retaken without actually being present. Night Lords are mentioned only by passing, there are mentions of World Eaters as berserkers doing berserker things, Emperor's Children doing nasty things, Death Guards being creepy, etc... But most of them are just descriptions, mentioned like something distant. "Remember those Blood Angels fighting on that wall section against the Iron Warriors? Well, that wall section has fallen, and Zephon was there by the way, and maybe Kroeger, not sure. Uh, maybe Angron wiped them all. Now let actually see how Random Soldier number 2304 is killed by an unnamed World Eater on a not so decisive trench section. All the while the Iron Warriors has abandoned the Siege, because of something we delivered last chapter"

 

My impression is that I'm seeing the Siege from the sky, far away, not on the ground feeling the tension. Is like when I play Total War and move away the camera from the troops on the ground to get a bigger perspective. I only see masses of troops but don't get any emotion about them. 

 

 

I thought Saturnine handled grounded, individual-soldier perspectives wonderfully well and served as a strong, mid-series anchor. It was the earlier entries that came across as White Dwarf battle reports (though the spaceborne nature of The Solar War suited this). Saturnine might've been bloated, meandering mess with issues of scale and yet another consequence-less episode of The Sindermann & Keeler Show, but Abnett nailed guys like Piers (could've done without the tiresome rant about the Emperor's divinity #1301 though), Hari, Diaz's boys, Niborran/Cadwalder etc. and uplifted the series from where Thorpe left it: plastic models punching each other in front of resin battlements. I'm also very pleased Abnett didn't pander to the billion stories that came before his. Loken's adventures in Vengeful Spirit aren't mentioned and are implicitly written around IMO, Sanguinius' stint dressing up in his dad's clothes is briefly mentioned once, the events of The First Wall are recalled at a minimum, Shiban adopting Torghun's mantra wasn't and doesn't need to be explained, Archamus2 isn't constantly pining over Archamus1, and Dorn's Expendables all play their part without needing reams of exposition as to how and why they're hanging out in a reinforced basement

 

tl;dr I think the Siege series exists as a clear attempt to ape the first five books of the Horus Heresy series, and while those weren't perfect and these aren't perfect, I would take this any day over how things existed post-2012. It's going to please some people and it's going to disappoint others. I belong to the former, as does a bunch of my circle, but I know a lot of the big guns on here and what I would class as hardcore Black Library fans necessarily aren't

[m_r_parker]

Well I finally finished reading my copy last night, for some reason I couldn't really read more than 2 chapters at a time. I like French's work, but this felt a bit more of a slog than some of his other stuff. Maybe it was more to do with some of the side-story arcs that left me a little bored. 

I enjoyed Perturabo's exit from the warzone, considering everything that was going on it felt like the right move for him. The reveal of Ordo Sinister was particularly interesting, not just from the impact of the princeps arriving to speak with Dorn, but from other titan princeps on the ground who only ever heard rumours / stories about the Emperor adapting some titans for his own purposes. 

I could have done without the perpetual, Keeler and Shiban side stories - they just didn't do anything for me but take up page count.

[Allart01]

I'm 200 pages in and enjoying the book, despite having to admit it is very slow to pick up.

 

I'm not sure how I feel about having completely new "POV" characters introduced after 54 books of Heresy and other 4 for the Siege.

Mauer and Acastia are very enjoyable; I am liking them a lot, and of course having new characters widens the scope of the series.

At the same time, it feels rather wasteful of what has (or hasn't?) been built so far, especially when we are seeing so little of the characters we have spent a decade and more caring about.

Edited February 14, 2021 by The_Bloody

[RedFurioso]

 

At the same time as I feel that the minutiae of the war are kinda lacking, I also don't think the framework being built is all that solid. The macro-war is being tackled in a way that's just too opaque. We often only hear about sections of the Palace and Terra when they're about to fall anyway. It's an issue I have with the world building of the Siege so far. Unless something significant is about to happen somewhere, we hardly even know that somewhere is a thing at all, let alone have a good grip on the spheres of battle.

We often only hear about planets of Imperium when they're about to fall anyway. Unless something significant is about to happen somewhere, we hardly even know that somewhere is a thing at all.

 

Sorry not sorry  

[DarkChaplain]

As a counter point, we learn about those planets mostly through Codex timelines, and novels cherry-pick those timeline entries to expand them into stories. They're usually either part of a faction or character narrative, but function as standalone plots.

 

The Siege is not that. The Siege IS the stage. Everything has some sort of relevance to the conflict at large. There are no bystanders on Terra. They can tell myriad stories on this stage without them directly contributing or detracting from the main conflict, character arcs or conceits - but they'll still contribute to the wider war for the Throneworld anyway.

 

We are supposed to appreciate the scale of the devastation to Terra, the earth-shattering effects the Siege had on the planet for the coming ten millennia - both environmentally, structurally, and culturally & societally. But we're not shown here, not really. We're shown the earthshattering, so to speak - and only the major strikes - but not the effects they really have. That's because everyone's perspectives are deeply involved with those earthshatterings, too close to the action and main actors to provide a notable, different perspective.

 

And let's be real: A story, character, planet may be, on its own, insignificant or irrelevant to the wider scope of the setting or stage. But they still contribute to the way we perceive that setting and stage, and whatever is happening to them still holds significance to themselves.

Jim the Farmer may not be the protagonist of Fall the Wall Part 49, but he is still the protagonist of whatever his part within the Fall the Wall series would be, even if it's just ploughing the fields to keep the heroes of Fall the Wall fed. His hardships factor into the war as well, and are worth pointing out to make the war itself feel more substantial and remind the audience that it's not all superheroes and giant warmachines all day every day.

 

That's what the Siege is failing at for me. Even when it introduces characters that used to be Jim the Farmer, their rendition in the story as Jim the Soldier is so disconnected from their past as Jim the Farmer, they might as well have been Tina the Tailor or Bob the Builder, for all that their individual histories and conflicts inform their perspectives as they are presented. Their new role dominates at the near exclusion of all that came before - and that results in a lack of appreciation for the loss inherent in them having to acquire the new role, and that happening on the scale of an entire society of billions if not trillions of people. We may be told that civilian sector XY was lost to the Emperor's Children being nasty, but it's just a namedrop, not an actually relatable loss.

[Scammel]

As a counter point, we learn about those planets mostly through Codex timelines, and novels cherry-pick those timeline entries to expand them into stories.

This is why the off-screening of the ultimate conclusion of Mortis is acutely disappointing; this book - and indeed the entirety of the Siege series - is meant to be the all-laid-bare payoff for those decades of conservative, drip-feed world-building. This story won't ever get the opportunity to be truly told now.

Edited February 15, 2021 by Scammel

[Allart01]

400+ pages in.

This book is a weird one. As I go forward to the climax, it is becoming more of a slog.

I don't know what it is, really: technically, I should love it.

I like French as a writer; I'm an enthusiastic Titanicus player, Shiban and Corswain are two of my favourite characters in the Horus Heresy.

I even find the new ones, Mauer and Acastia, quite fascinating.

Paradise is one of the best and darkest representations of the true peril of Chaos to date.

And yet... as I approach the end of the book, something hasn't clicked yet.

 

Part of this is probably due to the fact that I can't get over the Perpetual storyline. 

I disliked them ten years ago and I dislike them now. 

So many pages with so little actual meaning and payoff... quoting some (obvious) mythology to make the reader feel smart is well and good, but having to spend so much time with Oll Persson literally moving at random across Terra leaves me burned out for the actual good parts when they come.

 

I sincerely hope that all of this Perpetual nonsense has the best resolution ever in the history of storytelling. Truly, I do. It has to.

Edited February 16, 2021 by The_Bloody

[Bobss]

Not to promote negativity, but what do people here dislike the most or, like the least, out of A) the Perpetual journey or Bee) the episodic The Sindermann & Keeler Show that peppers almost every book?

 

For me it is definitely the latter. I'm not a big fan of the Perpetual concept, but they can be interesting characters if they're written about properly (the scene with Erda and John in Saturnine is very tranquil and cool IMO, and partners well with Valdor.), meanwhile TS&KS smacks, every single book, as being episodic and consequence-less (yes, I know they pretend to be the origins of the Inquisition and the acceleration of the Imperial Cult but whatever). I enjoyed Oliton's flight in The Solar War because it had believable origins (spying on Loken pre-Isstvan Atrocity, before being a vessel for Samus) and wrapped up her character arc decently well for an author who didn't start it, plus it acted as a nice civilian perspective on the rolling, creeping chaos engulfing the Solar System. I also thought the Nihilus thing was pretty clever, although some people sh*t on it. The Lightbearers/Lightkeepers of The First Wall meanwhile aren't mentioned and are very lightly touched on in Saturnine, and I doubt they will be again. I doubt Dorn's/Sindermann's Siege Remembrancer Order will amount to anything in later books because it played its part in Abnett's book, and then there's Basilio Fo - an interesting nugget of lore, but this whole plot to kill Horus... who cares? From the Mortis spoilers I've hoovered up, French seems to be guiding the Emperor Vs. Horus confrontation down somewhat traditional lines, but we can't ignore the Perpetual storyline that has been building up since Know No Fear. There's also rouge actors who might be present like Loken, idk. But this? I don't care and it bugs me

Edited February 16, 2021 by Bobss

[aa.logan]

With regards Fo, and the question of ‘who cares’

 

I’ve got a feeling that the threat of the anti-astartes lurgy will be what prompts the Emperor to go to the Vengeful Spirit/Horus to drop the shields or whatever.

 

I’d have said before reading the above post that I was equally pro-perpetual and pro-Sinderman storylines. I’m not shifting from my enjoyment of the perpetual stuff, but you have put your finger on what I was not quite getting with the Keeler and Sunderland stuff; while interesting in showing the origins of two key organisations, narratively I’m finding it pretty dull. Maybe the arc will have a spectacular pay-off, but right now it doesn’t feel like it’s going anywhere...

[SchultzChaos]

Can it be that Oll, in regards to their pre-Unification relationship, will resurrect the Emperor after his battle with Horus like in Fury of Magnus? That would be a twist and not completly be a "golly gee?" situation for Horus, when a random dude enters his command bridge and charges him after he's laid the Emperor bare.

[m_r_parker]

Not to promote negativity, but what do people here dislike the most or, like the least, out of A) the Perpetual journey or Bee) the episodic The Sindermann & Keeler Show that peppers almost every book?

 

Again, not to jump on the negative bandwagon or anything, but here are some Mortis specific examples.

 

Ultimately, I wanted this book to be focussed on the Titan level warfare that we aren't really seen so far in the Siege - the defence of the Mercury Wall. In the whole it is very well done, as was the bulk of Solar War that French also wrote. It is however a very large book (nearly 550 pages of novel), and this is where I didn't enjoy some of the time spent with side-characters and sub-plots of Keeler, Oll, Shiban, etc - there's very little connecting them to the actual heart of the story, and that page count could have gone to exploring some of the Titanicus characters in more depth.

 

Although I would say that the thing that grated me the most during the novel was the feeling of a shoehorn cramming more references into my head whenever the perpetual storyline came into focus - specifically there being this constant need to show Oll as being present at key parts of Earth history and tales from mythology. The constant namedropping of mythical characters such as Ariachne, tales of the minotaur in the labyrinth, locations like the Tower of Babel. I get it, it highlights just how long a 'life' Oll has had, but all it did was drop me out of the story I was here to read. I'm sure some people will love the references to ancient mythology, and find it endearing to see the characters from the Heresy be a part of those stories, but for me it just rang a little hollow.

With Mortis the Keeler storyline isn't as left-field as it has been previously. One of the themes through the novel is that as the Siege continues there is now a pessimistic gloom hovering over the remaining loyalist defenders, specifically the humans. There are increasing reports of people committing suicide through various acts (even just giving up and lying down to die) through to gruesome acts of violence seen as saving their victims from what is coming. And it plays into the Keeler / proto-inquisition / religious aspects of the novel series, as something "greater" is needed to keep the loyalists hopeful. But as arc's go this one is a slow-burn rather something thrust to the fore, and when there are other plot lines with a greater sense of urgency (such as a full-scale Legio conflict outside the city walls) this feels somewhat unimportant.

 

Considering we've had two novellas outside of the main novel arc (Selenar and Magnus), these plot lines feel more suited to be explored there than rather in the main novel series, at least in my eyes anyway. At least then these plot lines can have a more concentrated focus and higher page count to develop, rather than having a couple of pages every other chapter in the main series - not having a lot of time to develop (or pay-off) and distracting from the key focus of the novel they're in.

 

Almost as a counter-argument, the content with the Dark Angels could also be seen with a similar lens, that they're on a side plot line that doesn't really interact with the main story of the novel - much like the Perpetuals and Keeler. This didn't earn as much of an ire from me in this novel for a number of different reasons. Firstly, I'm biased - I'm a Dark Angel player, and ultimately what is this entire series (Siege + HH) if not a story focussed on the Primarchs and their Legions? Secondly, they don't get as much page time as the Perpetual story arc, which feels like a constant drag back to. Thirdly, there feels like a greater tie-in to the overarching storyline; the advance into the orbital blockade of Terra, breaching through the traitor defences and onto the surface, and breaching the hollow mountain. It feels (in my eyes at least) that there's a more substantial pay-off narratively in the next novel, but can the same be said for what Shibhan went through?

 

Those are just my views and thoughts though, your own mileage may vary.

[Sandlemad]

I haven't read Mortis but overall I'd agree with mr_r_parker. The perpetuals are particular manifestation of small universe syndrome. They're supposed to be incredibly important but then in practice they come off as just a mediocre rehash of Highlander, you know? None of the weight of deep time stuff shines through. I get that all 40k is built on a weave of pastiche/theft of other ideas and properties but this has increasingly felt like seeing it in real time and not done in a terribly interesting fashion.

 

As individual characters though, they're often enjoyable enough. I like Oll Persson in Know No Fear.

[Preliminary Bombardment]

I think I preferred Fury of Magnus to this

[Marshal Loss]

Perpetuals for me. Don't like them at all, the whole setting would have been better off without them.

 

The perpetuals are particular manifestation of small universe syndrome. They're supposed to be incredibly important but then in practice they come off as just a mediocre rehash of Highlander, you know? None of the weight of deep time stuff shines through.

 

 

Although I would say that the thing that grated me the most during the novel was the feeling of a shoehorn cramming more references into my head whenever the perpetual storyline came into focus - specifically there being this constant need to show Oll as being present at key parts of Earth history and tales from mythology.

These are both really on the money. French clearly tries to add some of the "deep time stuff", as Sandlemad puts it, into Mortis - that's at the core of the Perpetual content in this book. Didn't do anything for me beyond reiterating "Oll is super old" and "the universe is surprisingly small", which was at odds with some of the broader, sweeping concepts that stress the import of contemporary events which French executes elsewhere in a much more effective manner.

[Lord Lorne Walkier]

Full name Janus Vangorich Thor. Don’t know if those names have any significance though.

 

Who gave the kid his name?  Also now that I've finished Fury of Magnus I have a question about the Fate of the White Scar who brought him to safety.  Did he rejoin the Legion or wind up in the company of Garviel and Nathaniel?

[Cerbero666]

For me, I want to read about Primarchs. Every book where they are in a scene, my interest just elevates. They are so unique, and are so absent now from current lore that getting to be in their presence is exhilarating. I don’t want to read about a Navy pilot, or old remembrancers, or a merchant, or an army line sergeant. There’s dozens of books that can and do have those.

 

I get primarchs are hard to write, and that human interaction is needed for narrative, but I come to the HH and SoT series for primarchs and when they’re not in it, my attention glazes over. I notice what you are talking about in Mortis in my own read through of Solar War. Perhaps others feel the same way?

 

Agree. Primarchs and Astartes heroes should be the primary focus of the Siege. I want some civilians and other non-astartes characters to add to the world building and the perspective of the Siege as a cataclysmic event, but this is the ending of the Legions Civil War. It should be about those heroes that have been developed for more than 50 novels, short stories and novellas. I want more revenge like in the Saturnine Wall trap, I want more like Abaddon crying because he wanted to die as a warrior, more like Sigismund fighting solo against Aximand ploughing through his warriors, more like Dorn facing a Prince Daemon, or the Khan and his White Scars striking the enemy lines on an epic charge. So far, all that have been a small percentage of the Siege. 

[mc warhammer]

so far none of the mortis spoilers sound bad to me:  all the plot points seem fine, things happening "off page" can sometimes be more powerful depending on the skill of the writer. french is hit or miss for me, that being said, i'm looking forward to this more than tFW or tLatD.

 

on perpetuals, well... i don't hate them. but i'm also not excited by them. if you removed them from the HH series altogether, i wouldn't miss them. so far. i'm reserving final judgement till the last book.

 

with the "deep time stuff", i think abnett attempted that with erda in an almost galadriel kind of way. i don't think they remove agency from humanity, since they are humanity, and the level and success of their interference has so far only been implied not explicitly put to paper. at worst, they're an illuminati presence.

 

similar to tolkien's elves (elfs? idk) though, i think the perpetuals would have had more impact if they were less active in the actual plot but i feel that way about the primarchs too.

 

on the siege in general, i agree with most of the points here. it doesn't feel any more epic or horrific or civilisation shattering than any other conflict i've read in 40k. honestly? i was more on the edge of my seat with devastation of baal and helsreach than the series so far. i was expecting a war unlike anything that humanity had ever faced up to that point, a conflict that almost broke us as a species. not sure if we'll get there.

Edited February 17, 2021 by mc warhammer

[b1soul]

The most civilization-shattering scene IMO was when Oll led his band to the broken planet at the end of the DAoT. Ironically, the HH was mentioned as being much more existential