Black Library Siege of Terra - Garro: Knight of Grey

[darkhorse0607]

This is one of those times where I feel like BL needed to communicate more and put an asterisk when they debuted it and said "Hey guys, this book takes places in between Mortis and Warhawk. Due to unforseen delays in publishing we are going to go ahead and release it now"

 

I dunno. I'm interested to see how they conclude Garro's arc, but I am not nearly as excited as I have been for the last few Siege novels. I don't mind Swallow as an author (even though I would say most of his novels barring Flight of the Eisenstein aren't anywhere near the top of my lists), it is just the timing of it all that feels like we are pumping the brakes before The End and the Death rather building momentum

[Felix Antipodes]

James Swallow tells the story of Nathaniel Garro’s final hours during the Horus Heresy in Garro: Knight of Grey.  The heroic warrior is drawn into an inevitable confrontation with his father Mortarion. This limited edition is a gorgeous artefact, bound in deep-red faux leather with an inlaid metal emblem, and features the author’s signature plus interior art. It’s limited to 2500 copies.

 

If the section I bolded above is correct (and not misleading hype) it makes this book even less necessary.  It could have been mentioned in passing in Warhawk.

[wecanhaveallthree]

We can still hold out hope that it's going to be an important insight into future events, like the nascent Imperial Cult or the Inquisition. And if nothing else, Garro deserves a decent send-off for carrying Loken on his back through the series.

[Moonreaper666]

Strange that Keeler doesn't mention Garro to Loken in Warhawk

 

Isn't it lore that Garro becomes a venerated saint like Keeler and Loken?

 

My guess is that Garro becomes a matyr just like Ollianius Pius and Kage from the Last Chancers

 

I bet Keeler will be on the Vengeful Spirit to aid Olly and Emps against Horus. Had Mortarion killed her prior to Warhawk perhaps it changes the outcome of all the storylines in Warhawk, Echoes plus The End and The Death

 

Keeler's faith magic is something that Horus hasn't dealt with before. Same with Basilio Fo's Genevirus

[Ubiquitous1984]

On 1/9/2023 at 6:03 AM, Felix Antipodes said:

James Swallow tells the story of Nathaniel Garro’s final hours during the Horus Heresy in Garro: Knight of Grey.  The heroic warrior is drawn into an inevitable confrontation with his father Mortarion. This limited edition is a gorgeous artefact, bound in deep-red faux leather with an inlaid metal emblem, and features the author’s signature plus interior art. It’s limited to 2500 copies.

 

If the section I bolded above is correct (and not misleading hype) it makes this book even less necessary.  It could have been mentioned in passing in Warhawk.

 

Yeah the only hope IMO is that WarCom are deploying their usual level of insight into the SoT and that there is more to this novella than just Garro hunting down Morty and inevitably getting killed in the process.  

Edited January 11, 2023 by Kelborn
making fun of others

[Sothalor]

I'll reiterate what I've said in a prior thread regarding Knight of Grey:

 

Quote

 

Garro's beef with Mortarion is perhaps the least interesting aspect of his character to me. Even back in Flight of the Eisenstein he seemed to have such a tangential relationship to the Primarch. The whole path to damnation that Mortarion takes the XIVth Legion down was never core to Garro's story; his was always about an Astartes from the old ways wandering into the new. 

 

Garro's identity as a Death Guard is almost inconsequential. The core of his story is an Astartes of Terra who goes through the Great Crusade, sees his Legion transformed by reuniting with their Primarch, and then being personally transformed by the crucible of the Heresy. Garro is the archetypal forerunner who embodies the change of Legiones Astartes to Adeptus Astartes - of Great Crusade Space Marine to 41st Millennium Space Marine. His story is ultimately about the journey from Imperial Truth to Imperial Creed.

 

And that's what I think the Siege novella should focus on - not some grudge match against Mortarion. My hope is that "Mortarion" in the novella is more metaphorical, like an allegorical embodiment of the downfall of the triumphant icons of the Imperial Truth or something. That Garro's true struggle isn't a sword fight against a superhuman father figure as much as it is a spiritual battle against the fundamental realities of a horrifically broken universe.

 

 

I hope this is a character-focused, introspective piece about Garro the individual as a metaphor for the transformation of the Legiones Astartes - a body of secular soldiers - to the Adeptus Astartes - monastic warrior-knights.

[lansalt]

14 minutes ago, Sothalor said:

I hope this is a character-focused, introspective piece about Garro the individual as a metaphor for the transformation of the Legiones Astartes - a body of secular soldiers - to the Adeptus Astartes - monastic warrior-knights.

 

I'd say that the point of Sigismund's character arc during the series was just that, but Garro certaintly has a lot of overlap between him and the other extreme, Loken.

[Moonreaper666]

5 hours ago, Ubiquitous1984 said:

 

Yeah the only hope IMO is that WarCom are deploying their usual level of insight into the SoT (i.e., around the same level of insight you get from a Moonreaper666 SoT post) and that there is more to this novella than just Garro hunting down Morty and inevitably getting killed in the process.  

 

Mortarion is hunting Keeler

 

Garro is going to matyr himself by slowing down Mortarion at the cost of his own life

 

It would be a dramatic change in Lore if Garro is actually Foulspawn, Mortarion transform him. A fate definitely worse than death and something the Inquisition would bury the truth about

 

The Imperium is built upon matyrs. Garro, Keeler, Loken, Melisadae, Oll Perrson, Malcador, etc

[Kastor Krieg]

What's the page count on this one? The hardback price I'm getting from my reseller is similar to the really thick Siege of Terra hardbacks like Echoes of Eternity (80 vs 90 PLN for Echoes), yet the Limited Edition render seems to indicate it's really thin?

[son of the forest]

The other 2 siege novellas were around 170 and 230 pages 

 

 

[Mjasghar]

1 hour ago, Kastor Krieg said:

What's the page count on this one? The hardback price I'm getting from my reseller is similar to the really thick Siege of Terra hardbacks like Echoes of Eternity (80 vs 90 PLN for Echoes), yet the Limited Edition render seems to indicate it's really thin?

Possibly there’ll be a repack with all the audio dramas and a limited edition that’s just this story 

[Urauloth]

There's a whole daemon who exists purely to patch up how badly Swallow has handled the Death Guard in the past, so having him bury another dagger in the legion at this point doesn't seem like it can have any good outcomes at all.

[DukeLeto69]

I just loved the way Garro and Gang were able to zip around the Galaxy, unencumbered, recruiting people (and finding them), and how it could circumvent the usual laws of the IP and have no regard to warp time dilation, can ignore the requirement for multi kilometre long void ships, and have no impact from the Ruinstorm. It was just so cool to have that Star Wars feel injected into the HH/W40k IP...

 

NOT!

[lansalt]

Yeah, having Garro visit Calth while Guilliman believed the rest of the Imperium and Terra are gone was a huge plot hole. You'd think any of the UM there would have bothered to report about him.

[Sothalor]

8 hours ago, lansalt said:

 

I'd say that the point of Sigismund's character arc during the series was just that, but Garro certaintly has a lot of overlap between him and the other extreme, Loken.

 

Allow me to agree and disagree with you slightly on that, and refine my own position in the process.

 

I think Garro and Sigismund are different enough to work as simultaneous, divergent allegorical representations of Astartes going from 30k to 40k. And I think their respective character arcs could (or should) have been plotted deliberately to emphasize and contrast that.

 

Here's how I would have done it:

 

You could start with who they are as people and how they're seen by those around them. Sigismund is a sort of archetypal "chosen one." He's got the eye of the Legiones and the Primarchs on him, and he's famed as an extraordinarily skilled warrior and duelist. He's got the finger of destiny pointing him out, so to speak. Garro is not; he's one line captain with a history of solid but unremarkable service. Basically, they start as significantly different characters. Sigismund is a hero. Garro is practically faceless and unknown.

 

Then you go into how they become symbols. Sigismund gets specifically called out. The finger of destiny prods him a certain direction. Garro was more a sort of "wrong guy, wrong place, terrible time" situation. At this point, they both sort of fall away from the "public image", so to speak. Sigismund gets sidelined by Dorn while Garro disappears from the broader Imperium whilst working for Malcador.

 

And then you have their reemergence during the Siege. Sigismund embraces his destiny and becomes the Emperor's Champion. Garro... well, he was mentioned as one of the first Imperial Martyrs somewhere, as I recall (could be wrong). And this is where I'd emphasize the difference: Sigismund is more of an "internal", Astartes-centric symbol. He's the Champion, taking on Traitor captains and leaders and going through them like a killing machine. He becomes a symbol predominantly to Loyalist Space Marines - and that's his legacy down the millennia. Sigismund represents a sort of abstract aspirational figure for the Astartes themselves.

 

Garro, on the other hand, I'd argue should have become a symbol to the nascent Imperial Faith and its mortal followers. They've got Euphrati Keeler the Saint - one of them, so to speak - a baseline human transformed by the divine. And next to her, standing as a protector and guardian, is Nathaniel Garro. That's where I would have gone; Garro becomes the proto-symbol of what the Space Marines will eventually become to the masses of the Imperium - a mythological, divine-adjacent figure. He's the representation of Astartes as the Emperor's Angels of Death. Garro should have been the fulcrum between the worldviews of the secular Imperial Truth and the religious Imperial Faith.

 

There's further room for contrast and narrative symmetry here. Look at Sigismund in Warhawk: he becomes the Emperor's Champion not so much by taking an active stand for something, but by discarding everything about himself except the next stroke of the blade. He gives up everything but fighting and killing, his hopes and dreams hollowed out.

 

Garro should have been getting more and more immersed in the growing Imperial Faith. His personal faith and the transformation of his entire worldview should be front and center here. I'd have presented a sort of inverse climax for his character arc here. As the Siege hits its nadir for the Loyalists, Garro reaches the peak of his personal journey. He devotes himself to Keeler and the cult, starts to see a role for the Astartes in this blossoming socio-religious movement, and finds himself with a renewed purpose. In contrast to Sigismund, he's got something to fight for.

 

Of course, in true 40k fashion: Sigismund, having hollowed himself out emotionally and mentally to be nothing but a living weapon, survives the Siege and lives on for a long time. Garro, having found purpose and fulfilment and a reason to live and fight, dies as the forerunner Imperial Martyr - and I'd have it be in defense of Keeler and/or members of the faith. His sacrifice becomes a foundational mythos of the burgeoning Church.

 

And even there you've got the contrast in their arcs coming full circle about who they are as people. Sigismund is and will be a figure of renown, the Emperor's Champion who has cast down so many foes. And Garro becomes a sort of faceless, nameless symbol of the Astartes to a new, zealous Imperium of Man - the God-Emperor's Angels of Death, living embodiments of the creed "The Emperor Protects."

[byrd9999]

At this point in the Siege, unless this gets great reviews, I'm probably going to pass.

 

I don't have a huge amount of interest in Garro as a character, and I don't really need to spend money on another middling mid-series book by James Swallow.

[darkhorse0607]

7 hours ago, byrd9999 said:

I don't have a huge amount of interest in Garro as a character

 

The sad part at least for me, is that I actually do find Garro interesting. It just seems that ever since they brought Loken back from the dead (which is still one of my biggest gripes from the series) BL have done the whole "I don't want to play with you anymore" meme with Garro. Yes, he got the anthology, but then was dropped from Vengeful Spirit which would have fit in for the arc they were building for the team, in favor of Loken. Then you had The Buried Dagger, which for as much as he was in it, focused more on Rubio than Garro (at least that I remember, it's been a minute). Then throughout the Siege they have also largely focused on Loken instead of Garro. Even in Warhawk, which I thoroughly enjoyed, the plot of "track down and protect the Imperial Saint" felt like it should've been Garro's as that is where he ends up anyway, but instead, it was given to Loken again with no mention of Garro since Saturnine unless he popped up in Mortis which I still haven't gotten around to.

 

Just feels like it went from Garro being relatively important in the formation of Malcador's folks, formation of the Imperial religion that would shape the Imperium after the Heresy, and the Grey Knights (since he largely gathered them) to "ok but let me tell you how great Loken is"

[Special Officer Doofy]

I just can't get over how cheesy the title of the book is.

[DarkChaplain]

Fully agreed there. It's even more frustrating when you take into account that in The Buried Dagger, Loken is shortlisted for becoming a founding Grey Knight, with his decision being a big deal in the book.... while Garro was simply told "not you" by Malcador. He did all that recruiting for "his" order and then was just told he wasn't going to be a part of it.

 

I honestly don't think Loken should have been brought back in the first place. I could accept him in Vengeful Spirit due to setup from the shorts, and it being a suicide mission. Him being a thorn in Horus's side and being a foil to Aximand after that i could buy, too. But having him return to Terra, get invited to be a Grey Knight, turn it down, get Oliton, confront Samus again, somehow developing implied psychic abilities by turning into a Giraffe, then slaughtering the Sons of Horus in Saturnine (with a completely anticlimactic end to Aximand)....

 

....and then also going on to look after Keeler, whose protection he tasked Garro with in Book 3 of the series, putting her in his hands and babysitting her (and Katsuhiro) while she's creating a skull-based cult, going right against his own beliefs while actually offering a good counterpoint to Garro's own brand of faith?

 

Loken has no real identity anymore. Garro does, but Loken is simply overloaded with stuff, to the point where he's buried under even under characters' arcs and expectations.

[Ubiquitous1984]

3 hours ago, DarkChaplain said:

Fully agreed there. It's even more frustrating when you take into account that in The Buried Dagger, Loken is shortlisted for becoming a founding Grey Knight, with his decision being a big deal in the book.... while Garro was simply told "not you" by Malcador. He did all that recruiting for "his" order and then was just told he wasn't going to be a part of it.

 

I honestly don't think Loken should have been brought back in the first place. I could accept him in Vengeful Spirit due to setup from the shorts, and it being a suicide mission. Him being a thorn in Horus's side and being a foil to Aximand after that i could buy, too. But having him return to Terra, get invited to be a Grey Knight, turn it down, get Oliton, confront Samus again, somehow developing implied psychic abilities by turning into a Giraffe, then slaughtering the Sons of Horus in Saturnine (with a completely anticlimactic end to Aximand)....

 

....and then also going on to look after Keeler, whose protection he tasked Garro with in Book 3 of the series, putting her in his hands and babysitting her (and Katsuhiro) while she's creating a skull-based cult, going right against his own beliefs while actually offering a good counterpoint to Garro's own brand of faith?

 

Loken has no real identity anymore. Garro does, but Loken is simply overloaded with stuff, to the point where he's buried under even under characters' arcs and expectations.

I wonder if the Garro novella was a late addition to the series, and that his storyline had to be hastily re-planned post book 3 to accommodate its shoehorning in?  I can’t remember there being any explanation as to why Garro doesn’t stay with Keeler.

 

It’s noticeable that there has been very little hype from GW around this book too.  Usually they make somewhat of an effort to promote a new Siege book, even a novella. 

 

[Arkangilos]

On 1/9/2023 at 11:38 AM, Urauloth said:

There's a whole daemon who exists purely to patch up how badly Swallow has handled the Death Guard in the past, so having him bury another dagger in the legion at this point doesn't seem like it can have any good outcomes at all.

I’m out of the loop. Could you explain this?

[Tolmeus]

He means 'The Remnant' from 'SoT - Warhawk'

 

Spoiler

The Remnant explains to Caipha Morarg (Equerry to Mortarion) that the actions that lead to Mortarions and the Death Guards fall to Chaos (Nurgle) were all intended by Mortarion.

 

[Nagashsnee]

Yeah between Death Guard and the wonderful job he did with Sanguinius story line in Fear to Tread its a wonder they let him anywhere near the siege, tho they at least had the sense to keep him to the side stories. 

 

I am finding it hard to hype myself up for this, very curious to see how quickly it sells out and its resale value. 

[Kelborn]

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[Fedor]

17 hours ago, Tolmeus said:

He means 'The Remnant' from 'SoT - Warhawk'

 

  Reveal hidden contents

The Remnant explains to Caipha Morarg (Equerry to Mortarion) that the actions that lead to Mortarions and the Death Guards fall to Chaos (Nurgle) were all intended by Mortarion.

 

 

That was an unneccessary attempt by Wraight to further change the older Death Guard background, to absolutely no improvement thematically. It wasn't like Wraight having to fix McNeil showing him go full Chaos Sorcery out of nowhere. He did that well, but there was no reason to take it any further than showing us Mortarion's bumbling, self-deluded attempts at learning more about Chaos in Daemonology. I get that some didn't like Mortarion being duped, but going down a "he knew all along and actually did it to make them stronger" route (even if Wraight is mildly ambiguous about it) as a potential fix was just stupid. It only makes Mortarion seem even more of an idiotic hypocrite. If Nick Kyme had introduced something like that, odds are it would be a meme laughing stock by now.

 

Even though i thought the details/characterisation in Swallow's depiction of the stranded fleet were often lacklustre and rushed, he at least got it right in a broadly thematic sense, with the end of the book really capturing the layering of Necare/barbarus, the emperor and Nurgle. The feeling of constant insidious manipulation and the bleak inevitability in it all was palpable.