Mortarion, the Pale King

[cheywood]

2 hours ago, Ubiquitous1984 said:

I've just finished listening to this, it was decent but that is all.  The star of the book for me was the evil Order, alongside 'Digger' and her companion (whose name now escapes me).  Can somebody with better knowledge of the lore please let me know if 'Digger' (after the finale when she converses with Mortarion) is ever mentioned again?

Pretty certain this is her first and only appearance in the lore.

[Tymell]

"Come on, Morty, just one quick compliance, in and out, no problem."

 

I finished this myself today, and it wasn't bad…but I can't say it was good either. Along with Vulkan and Guilliman's books, this really seems to cement that David Annandale should have steered clear of the Primarchs series, sadly.

 

It's not a complete train wreck by any means, and there are elements of it I like. Mortarion's character is good: his resolute certainty and the grim pride he takes in being a destroyer. Plus we get some initial sowing of seeds of discontent with his brothers and father, without it going too overboard and making him feel like a traitor already.

Indeed, another thing I like about this book is that it doesn't get fixated on loads of Heresy foreshadowing. That's something I always feared with the traitor Primarch books. I prefer to see these Primarchs as they were before all that, to see (in at least some cases) how far they fell, and Annandale certainly keeps that to a minimum. He paints Mortarion's flaws without heavy-handedly setting up the future.

 

But ultimately, I'd echo cheywood: I liked the start of the book, the parts showing the Death Guard charging headlong at Galaspar through space moved at a good pace. But when they landed, I remember thinking, "I really hope the remaining 150 pages aren't just going to be one long battle…", and that's exactly what it is. I don't really like the term "bolter porn"…but that's kind of what this is, or at least gets the problem across. Most of it just feels like an unnecessarily bloated version of a Forge World "exemplary battle" description. Marines slaughtering their way through an endless stream of weaker enemies, occasionally coming up against a challenge but inevitably overcoming it with a slog that unfortunately echoes the slog through the descriptions of those struggles.

 

Elements of the ending are also a bit odd, or perhaps frustrating. Through most of the story we have this emphasis on needing to reach the Order's leaders, push, push, push to get to them. But in the end, capturing them isn't what wins Mortarion the war. It's the arrival of the Death Guard fleet and reinforcements.

 

Additionally, Sanguinius and Horus' complaints seem woefully out of place, or even downright hypocritical. From how they were at the start, I was expecting that Mortarion would become enraged and slaughter the civilians or some such. But no, he doesn't. He mercilessly slaughters the rulers and armies of the Order, sure…but they're so cartoonishly monstrous and evil, I can't say I disagree with him doing so.

 

Plus, this is the Great Crusade for Emperor's sake, and these are Space Marine Primarchs. They're the generals of legions of genetically perfected super soldiers whose entire existence and purpose is to brutally put down the Imperium's enemies, including those who refuse compliance. Horus and Sanguinius then getting their knickers in a twist over Mortarion basically just doing what Astartes do, and what has no doubt been done a thousand times before within the Crusade, is laughable. Hell, he showed more restraint than Curze or Angron probably would have (indeed, Mortarion points out that inflicting terror is the Night Lords' whole schtick, but we get the usual "character you're supposed to disagree with made a good point, so let's just ignore that"). Demanding "nuance" in a compliance seems especially galling coming from ole "speartip" Horus, and it's not as if Galaspar was some blissful paradise world before the Death Guard got there.

 

So…yeah. Mortarion as a character is decently done, but the actual story is equal parts dull slog and confusing tone.