Black Library Siege of Terra - Garro: Knight of Grey

[DarkChaplain]

Properly finished the audiobook now.

 

My impression overall is that this really would have been much better being released as a 2-disc audio drama. Scope and cast are so incredibly limited, it would have worked with little to no changes (apart from condensing exposition somewhat). The setpieces and action scenes struck me pretty much like what Swallow would write for audio dramas before.

 

Had it actually been an audio drama, I think reception would've been better. Even with the audiobook, I think what actually sold it was Toby Longworth's performance, rather than the writing on its own. Toby is Garro, and he sells his martyrdom in a way that at least gave me a sense of closure that the text itself failed to do. When Toby narrates Garro's final moments, it feels impactful. When I read those final pages on my own, I did not feel even close to that.

 

Sticking with Longworth for Garro's story conclusion was also the only decision they could make, as a result. I'd argue that Keeble would have not been capable of capturing Nathaniel Garro's final outing with anywhere close to the same gravitas; Toby is instantly recognizable and feels like a friend coming back for one more show, whereas Keeble, I believe, hasn't even stayed consistent in his own renditions of Mortarion so far.

 

Anyway, there are some additional sore spots for me peppered throughout. Mortarion lets himself be goaded time and again, acts like a fool and... for some reason still remarks about Typhus knowing "true loyalty", unlike Garro. Mate, Typhus literally sold you out to his god last time after ditching you and ignoring your summons for years while pursuing his own elevation. You literally told Eidolon to drag him back to you by any means to punish him (which Swallow had forgotten about during his turn following Wraight's). Typhus is anything but loyal to you, and you still haven't accepted it. No wonder the next thing he does in Warhawk is once again ignore your orders and wait for you to get killed.

 

Then there's the matter of Mortarion making himself look like a fool in front of his Legion again, not just through his decisions, but also because... for a Primarch, and a daemon no less, he's a rather poor show. Even if the whole point is to humble your opponent, the amount of blunders he is depicted as making is just a tad silly. I didn't feel menace from him. I didn't feel surprised when he flubbed. I don't think Mortarion's depiction here is up to the usual Primarch demigod of battle standards, even when taking into account that he wasn't going at it the same way he would with the Khan.

 

A lot of words overall are also utterly wasted on lengthy titles. Instead of just saying "Typhus", how about we just call him "the Traveler" over and over and over. Same for Garro, who isn't named for a good while, going by stuff like "the Legionary" - even later on, Swallow finds ways to not simply call characters by their names. Considering we only have, like, around 10 characters running about in the entire novella, some of which only appear in one or two brief scenes, just call 'em by their names instead of sticking with titles overmuch.

 

And then we have a small moment that made me roll my eyes: A barbaran woman asks Garro why the Emperor wasted resources by not making female Space Marines. The way it was handled seemed pretty much like you'd see on Twitter. It wasn't anything serious, nothing plot relevant (though it helps show the barbarans as a waste-not culture, in a sense), but I'm not sure it was worth including the quip.

 

Again, I believe that all of this stuff, especially the battle and repetitive titles, would have been far less grating had this actually been an audio drama, not a novella. The repetition would've been much reduced by having actors talking through dialogue instead, for one, and the battle's flow, brutality and shifts would have been better delivered with sound effects, grunts and what not, rather than in Swallow's prose. I do not believe there's anything in this book that could not have been achieved in a 2-disc audio drama, like Sword of Truth was back then.

 

Heck, I think the dialogue, for all its camp, would be nearly perfect for the audio dramatization, where it has to carry a lot of the atmosphere, mood and mindsets of characters. You can get away with a lot more there. And even the way it ends would have been a perfect fade to black for an audio drama - heck, it fits the format like a glove.

 

Funnily enough, I enjoyed Keeler's appearance more than I did in Warhawk. There's always been a gap between crazy skull collector Keeler from Warhawk and the prisoner we see freed in Mortis. However, her placement here is awkward, timeline-wise.

Chronologically, Keeler is released at the end of Mortis, and fleeing in Warhawk. In the latter, she is observed by Custodes up to a point, who make it look like her "release" was very recent, as Amon is reporting about it to Valdor. She starts collecting skulls very early.

 

In Knight of Grey, Keeler is decidedly not worshipping skulls yet. She's with a garrison, having drifted to them, telling them to endure and all. She's not like in Warhawk, not telling people to mob the Astartes down, to sell their lives for Him on the Throne. She's actually going around patching up wounds and doubting herself, her role, her actions.

Her appearance here, however, ends with an escape on a shuttle, off to closer to the sanctum, with an escort and the remainder of the garrison. She's not fleeing headlessly, she's not fresh out of the Blackstone (though she mentions it), she's not collecting skulls and she's not on her own.

 

If it's set before Warhawk, there's a contradiction, and if it's set during Warhawk, there is another.

However, as a transitionary piece, I think it works for Keeler. It makes no sense for her to never remark on Garro or Gallor in Warhawk, but oh well. There's a plothole between these Siege stories, but we're used to that by now.

 

But then, the book also addresses some things. For one, Mortarion earns his wings here. He wasn't depicted with them in Saturnine, I believe, even when talking to Ahzek and Magnus. He did, however, have them in Warhawk - where the Khan scoffs at them, and Morty says they're fairly new.

In Saturnine, Mortarion also brings up how he's hearing voices. The realization of what they were comes here, and I thought it was neat to have that point not be forgotten like so many other things in this series.

 

But again, this book is awkwardly placed. It doesn't even make clear reference to when it is actually set - you have to infer that from details that may or may not be actually conclusive. There is hardly anything to reference other events from the Siege novels. Nothing about Mortarion picking up from where the Iron Warriors left off, nothing about his heart-to-heart with Magnus. Nothing even about the Khan, despite them having a bit of a go before. There's a brief mention of having last seen Gallor at Saturnine, but in general it feels very much like a detached one-off story of the Siege. Which, again, would make a lot more sense had it been an audio drama that's traditionally light on such detail - not a novella that is so much shorter than it reasonably should have been. Again, the ebook is around 15-20% done by the time you reach chapter one, and there is no prologue.

Exposition is almost entirely used on setpieces, like the architecture of the arena or walls being rapelled down. It's not used to anchor the story within the Siege on the whole.

 

Then, the first Interval flashback section is almost a play-by-play recap of Mortarion honoring Garro back in Flight of the Eisenstein by inviting him to drink from the poison chalice. The difference is that the perspective is changed from Garro to Mortarion, who was trying to figure out if Garro would follow him into betrayal. Typhon didn't think so (and was kind of insubordinate even here), but overall that flashback was nostalgic. I liked it, especially since it foreshadowed something happening later.

 

The second flashback, which is set about a year after Mortarion was found iirc, also serves to illustrate Garro. Apart from the weird female marines line, I liked this one too, as it showed Garro trying to understand the barbarans and their culture, trying to find a way to become one with them. I also found it pretty clever to have Garro reconciling his brotherhood not with how he's a son of Mortarion, but by Mortarion and the barbarans all being sons of Terra, deep down. Generations removed, sure, but still humans who originally came from the same place he did. He accepted their culture and brotherhood on the basis of their genetic heritage as a species, not simply by gene-father.

 

As a novella, it's very much concerned with itself, and only itself. That's a good thing in a way, but also makes it awkward as part of the series (albeit in a different way than Echoes of Eternity, which deliberately cut off other threads). But if you told me that it was originally written as an audio drama, whether as prose with it in mind or adapted from a script-in-progress, and that's part of why it was seemingly delayed til two books after it should have been published, I'd instantly believe you. If they actually pivoted at some point during the pandemic to not have this be audio but a novella, it'd make sense - and I have to admit that I wouldn't like that.

[Felix Antipodes]

I thought the line about why no female Astartes was a personal dig from an author who may be on his way out of the IP, only hanging on to finish an outstanding storyline.  Obviously just imho of course, but it will be interesting to see if Swallow continues now the HH is finished.

[DukeLeto69]

10 hours ago, Felix Antipodes said:

I thought the line about why no female Astartes was a personal dig from an author who may be on his way out of the IP, only hanging on to finish an outstanding storyline.  Obviously just imho of course, but it will be interesting to see if Swallow continues now the HH is finished.

For all the hate Swallow gets from the fandom, if he stops writing for BL it will be because his original fiction is selling pretty well. So well in fact that he has sold film/TV rights (or an option) for his Mark Dane books. He doesn’t need BL and his payday/royalty rate is probably far better with original fiction than tie-in.

[DarkChaplain]

He's also writing other tie-in fiction, like Star Trek and Doctor Who. Heck, other publishers and IPs hire him specifically for his audio/radio drama work. Just in December, they had a Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell BBC production based on his earlier novel! He gets to write scripts all over the place (and it shows in his skill with the medium), it's just BL that shut that format off. He's also another author for Aconyte, where he tackled Watchdogs alongside Josh Reynolds. He's doing Stargate for Big Finish (who BL once had a working relationship with for audio productions). Even Deus Ex had multiple novels and stories commissioned.

 

Even without going into his original works, he's sought after in the industry, and they let him do what he's good at. BL does not. Heck, BL even killed the entire format and thus never gave him a follow-up on the supposed Corsair series. For all my gripes with his works in the Heresy, he's another of the authors that Black Library is underutilizing / limiting in a tangible way, to a point where he'd need seriously high royalties or a seriously large love for the IP to even make further contributions worth his while.

[DukeLeto69]

38 minutes ago, DarkChaplain said:

He's also writing other tie-in fiction, like Star Trek and Doctor Who. Heck, other publishers and IPs hire him specifically for his audio/radio drama work. Just in December, they had a Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell BBC production based on his earlier novel! He gets to write scripts all over the place (and it shows in his skill with the medium), it's just BL that shut that format off. He's also another author for Aconyte, where he tackled Watchdogs alongside Josh Reynolds. He's doing Stargate for Big Finish (who BL once had a working relationship with for audio productions). Even Deus Ex had multiple novels and stories commissioned.

 

Even without going into his original works, he's sought after in the industry, and they let him do what he's good at. BL does not. Heck, BL even killed the entire format and thus never gave him a follow-up on the supposed Corsair series. For all my gripes with his works in the Heresy, he's another of the authors that Black Library is underutilizing / limiting in a tangible way, to a point where he'd need seriously high royalties or a seriously large love for the IP to even make further contributions worth his while.

 

I *think* therein lies the problem. Swallow and Abnett particularly are very successful tie-in authors for a lot of other IPs. And I think it can show in their BL work.

 

Abnett is better but gets it wrong on occasion (The Unremembered Empire) but I think the influence of other IPs dilutes the approach and deep understanding of the HH/40k IP/setting.

 

In Swallow’s case I think this is most obvious with Nemesis (basically a Manga comic - a good yarn and well written but didn’t feel like HH) and some of the Garro / Knights Errant stories (my hatred of the Star Wars style zipping around the galaxy with no warp dilation affect or impact from the Ruinstorm is well documented on B&C).

[DarkChaplain]

I'd argue against Nemesis being a manga-like (or that there even is something like that, considering the breadth of the medium and the myriad of intricate genres). I experienced it more like it wanted to be a crime thriller on one hand and a heist-style assassination plot on the other... and kind of forgot about both not even halfway through. It's still one of the longer Heresy novels, but the further you get, the less compelling it becomes - because it doesn't stick with what works. The Dagonet murder mystery was extremely promising, but it was just tossed aside for a cheap, early twist.

 

The murder mystery then leaves for shallow action and - indeed - setting-defying new inventions in the form of that Spear-assassin, who was a Pariah daemon host. I am still baffled that this is something the editors and IP lords approved of, because it directly contradicted the established rules.

 

As for the shuttles zipping around the galaxy, I think it could have been established by way of, say, Malcador's personal access to highly classified Dark Age of Technology material, something exceedingly rare and unknown to all but the Emperor's innermost circle.

 

It's not like the setting couldn't allow for it - but it had to a) be a limited piece of technology and b) thoroughly established and explained to be such, to have its exceptionalism remarked upon.

 

I could see why they'd skip this for Garro: Oath of Moment, being one of the first audio dramas they did, limited to a 70 minute CD format. But at the latest, it needed to be added to Garro: Weapon of Fate, where those audio dramas were stitched together. But instead of adding this context, smoothing out the bumps, making sure that the general flow works.... it was a poor man's job of a patch-up "novel" that added very very little, and certainly didn't fix the problems even when it reasonably could and should have. That's why Weapon of Fate always felt phoned in.

[Felix Antipodes]

5 hours ago, DukeLeto69 said:

For all the hate Swallow gets from the fandom, if he stops writing for BL it will be because his original fiction is selling pretty well. So well in fact that he has sold film/TV rights (or an option) for his Mark Dane books. He doesn’t need BL and his payday/royalty rate is probably far better with original fiction than tie-in.

No personal slur on Swallow was intended.  I was referring to his diminishing BL output of late compared to his output elsewhere, as both yourself and @DarkChaplain explained way better than me 

[DukeLeto69]

7 hours ago, Felix Antipodes said:

No personal slur on Swallow was intended.  I was referring to his diminishing BL output of late compared to his output elsewhere, as both yourself and @DarkChaplain explained way better than me 

I was talking generally about the fandom and Swallow bashing rather than any particular post in this thread.

 

Totally my opinion but I don’t think Swallow is a bad writer at all, I just think his work feels less HH/40k than others. My supposition for that is how his creativity and ideas are influenced by the wide range of IP he works in and I think it “dilutes” his 40kness.

[DukeLeto69]

9 hours ago, DarkChaplain said:

I'd argue against Nemesis being a manga-like (or that there even is something like that, considering the breadth of the medium and the myriad of intricate genres). I experienced it more like it wanted to be a crime thriller on one hand and a heist-style assassination plot on the other... and kind of forgot about both not even halfway through. It's still one of the longer Heresy novels, but the further you get, the less compelling it becomes - because it doesn't stick with what works. The Dagonet murder mystery was extremely promising, but it was just tossed aside for a cheap, early twist.

 

The murder mystery then leaves for shallow action and - indeed - setting-defying new inventions in the form of that Spear-assassin, who was a Pariah daemon host. I am still baffled that this is something the editors and IP lords approved of, because it directly contradicted the established rules.

 

As for the shuttles zipping around the galaxy, I think it could have been established by way of, say, Malcador's personal access to highly classified Dark Age of Technology material, something exceedingly rare and unknown to all but the Emperor's innermost circle.

 

It's not like the setting couldn't allow for it - but it had to a) be a limited piece of technology and b) thoroughly established and explained to be such, to have its exceptionalism remarked upon.

 

I could see why they'd skip this for Garro: Oath of Moment, being one of the first audio dramas they did, limited to a 70 minute CD format. But at the latest, it needed to be added to Garro: Weapon of Fate, where those audio dramas were stitched together. But instead of adding this context, smoothing out the bumps, making sure that the general flow works.... it was a poor man's job of a patch-up "novel" that added very very little, and certainly didn't fix the problems even when it reasonably could and should have. That's why Weapon of Fate always felt phoned in.

Maybe “Manga” was the wrong word but it did feel comic book from Japan like to me.

 

I truly hate the “shuttles zipping around the galaxy” thing. Truly hate it. For me one of the cornerstones of the HH/40k setting is that to undertake interstellar travel you require ships that are kilometres long due to needing geller field generators and massive warp engines. These ships are sailing through a “sea of souls” a realm of emotions that transcends time and distance. Star Wars style hyperspace or Star Trek style warp drives have no place in this setting. So I just head cannon it out of existence and would have HATED a “Malcador has access to some DAoT tech” explanation.

[Matcap86]

2 hours ago, DukeLeto69 said:

Maybe “Manga” was the wrong word but it did feel comic book from Japan like to me.

 

I truly hate the “shuttles zipping around the galaxy” thing. Truly hate it. For me one of the cornerstones of the HH/40k setting is that to undertake interstellar travel you require ships that are kilometres long due to needing geller field generators and massive warp engines. These ships are sailing through a “sea of souls” a realm of emotions that transcends time and distance. Star Wars style hyperspace or Star Trek style warp drives have no place in this setting. So I just head cannon it out of existence and would have HATED a “Malcador has access to some DAoT tech” explanation.

 

That's the explanation in one of the FW HH black books on how Garro gets around so quickly to recruit the Nemean Reaver if I recall correctly. Specialised covert-ops ship with top of the line navigators.

[lansalt]

1 hour ago, matcap86 said:

 

That's the explanation in one of the FW HH black books on how Garro gets around so quickly to recruit the Nemean Reaver if I recall correctly. Specialised covert-ops ship with top of the line navigators.

That's also the explanation in BL tales. The problem is that it creates a big plot hole by ignoring the Ruinstorm: Why Malcador didn't send him to speak with the loyalist primarchs in Imperium Secundus and avoid years of the UM, DA and BA waiting for nothing? Garro recruited Tylos Rubio in Calth and nobody reported to Guilliman about it? It doesn't make sense.

[DukeLeto69]

1 hour ago, matcap86 said:

 

That's the explanation in one of the FW HH black books on how Garro gets around so quickly to recruit the Nemean Reaver if I recall correctly. Specialised covert-ops ship with top of the line navigators.

Uuurrrgghhh (personal opinion of course)

[Ubiquitous1984]

There are some really excellent reviews in this thread - thank you to all of the contributors.  DA in particular nails it.  This book was clearly meant to be an audio drama, and suffers for being a novella instead.  It just doesn’t feel like the other entires in the SoT series.  The cast, the length, the premise, the continuity … now an audio drama would have been really enjoyable IMO.  Instead the version that was provided to us felt flat and more like a glorified short story that should have been in a short story anthology rather than as a stand alone, £40 LE novella (for those of us still bothering to collect them).

 

That said, I found the book generally inoffensive, although this involved me having to suspend my disbelief quite heavily at times.  The battle between Morty and Garro just didn’t stack up with the depiction of other Primarchs fighting Space Marines during the SoT.  It was inferred that Morty was holding back, but it still felt setting-busting for a daemon Primarch to be so totally fooled by a Space Marine.  But suspending disbelief certainly helps overcome this.

 

There were some more odd continuity issues which continue to blight the SoT series … I thought that Garro was a Sgt. in the recent Mortarion Primarch novel?  Yet in one of the flashbacks he is already Captain of the Seventh Great Company.  It’s a trivial matter, but I find them frustrating when surely these novels are being proof read by other authors and editors who are in theory on top of the lore?  DA has already mentioned the continuity issues with Keeler.

 

Overall it’s not the authors fault that this story was not picked up as an audio drama, but it felt out of place especially coming between the excellent EoE and what will hopefully be an epic book 8.  One could easily skip this book and not miss anything of significance for the overall Siege plot line.  

[Nagashsnee]

25 minutes ago, Ubiquitous1984 said:

surely these novels are being proof read by other authors and editors who are in theory on top of the lore?  

I read ALLOT of BL, probably more then I should, and NOTHING over the past several years has EVER given me the impression that unless the author cares enough to do it the editor/BL staff give anything but the most hazy dreamlike idea of a car about the lore or how the current work will impact/change/alter it.  If anything the legal team probably are the only one who care and thats over IP  protections issue ( both their own and in case somebody tried to bring a tardis or something). 

 

I read this yesterday, the only thing I can really say is already forgot most of it, and the ending just felt like a worse version of a ending we already got not 2 books ago. Others have already gone into it way better then I could.  Biggest positive is that it was short. 

 

I will say I don't care if this was meant to be audio, or a film or animation or anything else. If you are charging me money for a book, i expect a good book, nothing else, and this failed that goal. (tho i did borrow from a mate rather then buy it so cant really complain). 

[aa.logan]

I had some issues with actually getting my copy, it took way longer to dispatch than it should’ve (my local store had other LE copies delivered last week, but not mine for some reason), but having finally read it, I’m left feeling a little mixed. 
 

In it’s own right, it’s a well-written and entertaining story, that, like others have said, would have made a better audio drama. 
 

Had it ended like I felt it was building towards, with Garro

becoming a daemon host

, I think I’d have absolutely *loved* it, but instead the ending drained much of the goodwill I had for the story. 

[Moonreaper666]

Would have been better if Garro had his Seventy (those left alive) plus Blackshields and other oddsorts of Loyalists to slow down Typhus and let Keeler flee

 

Garro's group takes heavy casualties but then a much larger force of Loyalists arrive, one that is too big for even Typhus to handle along. Unfortunately, Mortarion shows up and massacres them all in just 7 seconds (thise includes the 4 Emperor-class Titans)

 

Garro does inflict a very minor wound on Mortarion before being slain by Typhus. This wound did not heal by the time Mortarion fought the Khan during Warhawk and did play a minor part in the mutual-kill

 

As Garro's soul was about to be devoured by Nurgle Daemons like the rest of the Loyalists in the Novella, Malcador saves his soul and gives it to the Emperor to be protected in the afterlife

 

"Unlike the Lion, I believe Loyalty should be rewarded." Malcador to Garro's soul

 

Keeler unleashes her power to banish a Greater Daemon of Nurgle before fainting. Katsuhiro carries her to Malcador

[DarkChaplain]

....7 seconds for flyboy to wipe out 70 odd Legionaries plus 4 random Imperator Titans that somehow still exist after months of the siege. Ok. You do you.

[wecanhaveallthree]

I do largely agree. There is no sense of urgency in Mortarion's advance. Like, I get it, Death Guard do be implacable and Garro is like 'well they'd hurry up if they wanted to', but Keeler and Gallor do, quite literally, just fly away with no issue. There is no real sense of scope or scale - Marmax isn't portrayed as anything but a random objective that's in their way, there's nothing critical about it, and nothing that suggests the troupe couldn't just cut bait and go. Garro's last stand is very much a narrative conceit, to shuffle him off, rather than a required and necessary sacrifice. It's not even made particularly important in the book itself. 

 

It very possibly could have benefited from more forces. As it is, Mortarion's there because Garro's there, and Garro stays because Mortarion's there. That's the only reason for the book to even happen, and Typhus is pretty much spot-on while he's complaining that it's just a waste of time. It is!

Edited January 29, 2023 by wecanhaveallthree

[Tolmeus]

I only finished the novel now. 

A question: Does the story take place before, during or after Mortis? 

 

In my mind it should go during Mortis, since we get know there that Mortarion is going to take Perturabo's place in the Lion's Gate Spaceport, right?

Edited January 29, 2023 by Tolmeus

[DarkChaplain]

That's the weird part, really. I thought it'd be better slotted during Mortis, too, but Keeler makes that impossible, due to the timing of her release from the Blackstone.

[Tolmeus]

As for the novel itself:

I share the sentiment that it is solid enough if you reagard it as the closing character arc of Garro. 

 

In contrast, if you regard it as another setting piece in the SoT series and consider especially the actions of Mortarion before 'Warhawk', it is not so much of a solid entry. (The logic gaps were already mentioned enough).

 

As for a rating (not considering the price for a LE with a page count of 130), I would go with a 5/10.

 

There is definetly wasted potential, but I think the fight (which the story is really all about in my opinion) is described well enough. 

[Tolmeus]

Just now, DarkChaplain said:

That's the weird part, really. I thought it'd be better slotted during Mortis, too, but Keeler makes that impossible, due to the timing of her release from the Blackstone.

 

That's where my mind was wondering, since I could not recollect when Keeler is 'on the run'. But yeah, happens at the end of Mortis, right?

 

Well, then 'Garro' is set something between 'during' and 'after' Mortis I guess. Makes as much sense as the rest of the Siege 

[DarkChaplain]

Warhawk opens with Keeler on the run, but without ever mentioning Garro or Gallor, and she ends up with Loken. The shuttle in Knight of Grey should've taken them to the inner palace, though, which doesn't make much sense with her on the run further out in Warhawk. AND she is under Custodes surveilance at the start of Warhawk, with the breakout being very recent (where in Knight of Grey, she's supposedly been with the garrison for a while, clearly settled down). It's safe to say that the Custodes would not have allowed her to be taken by Mortarion either way, they'd have killed her instead, even if we were to assume that they were around at all during Knight of Grey.

 

She's either in need of losing Gallor OR Loken in-between stories, while never remarking on any of it. But in Warhawk, we also have her linking up with Katsuhiro and co, so that's the definite end point we have for her arc right now, meaning the shuttle escape fails, Keeler is still on the run from Legionaries, and Garro is STILL being replaced by Loken, who does a better job keeping her safe.

 

So technically, we could say Keeler's story needs to take place in-between her appearances in Warhawk, before she goes full Imperial Cult with her skulls.

 

But on the other side, we can't really fit Mortarion in there without cutting the timeline to shreds, because his position in Warhawk is pretty much static from start to finish. Marmax is being mentioned in passing as something that already happened. Mortarion is sitting it out at the Lion's Gate, with Typhon calling him out AND leaving very early on. We cannot fit Keeler and Marmax in here, without completely unsychronizing the various plotlines of Warhawk. Which is a :cuss:ty solution at the best of times.

 

In other words: Knight of Grey is a true highlight of the Siege's planning and scoping.

[wecanhaveallthree]

Quote

all this griping about quality control and editing

 

Just more fuel for my illimitable 'not our Siege' timelines theory. When the Emperor resets everything with Enuncia at the end of the fifth Abnett book, I'll be right here to say 'I told you so' and 'fools! they called me mad!'. 

 

Seriously, though, the more I've thought on this the more I like it as a 'fable', a story, a heroic tale told by others later on. Tying into the basic untrustworthiness of perspectives and events - see Fury of Magnus and the questions about believing your own eyes through the Heresy - I think the absolute best, absolutely most fantastic thing that would completely save this whole thing is having Loken run into the Lord of Flies again at some point in the finale. Is it in Garro's body, as Mortarion promised? Which account is believable? Was Garro's vision of triumph, victory and the salvation of his body and soul by the Emperor real? Was his heroic last stand against a Primarch? Or was it the product of Keeler's unravelling mental state at seeing her 'champion' defeated and desecrated, just another lie of the Faith? As a reader, you can choose whichever you feel more comfortable with, while Garro's ultimate death remains. It's up to you whether you think it truly was what was presented, or if he met an ignoble fate against his gene-sire.

 

And it means I get to rant about it on the internet and use it as more proof of my crackpot ravings. Win-win! 

[DarkChaplain]

4 hours ago, wecanhaveallthree said:

 

Just more fuel for my illimitable 'not our Siege' timelines theory. When the Emperor resets everything with Enuncia at the end of the fifth Abnett book, I'll be right here to say 'I told you so' and 'fools! they called me mad!'. 

 

Seriously, though, the more I've thought on this the more I like it as a 'fable', a story, a heroic tale told by others later on. Tying into the basic untrustworthiness of perspectives and events - see Fury of Magnus and the questions about believing your own eyes through the Heresy - I think the absolute best, absolutely most fantastic thing that would completely save this whole thing is having Loken run into the Lord of Flies again at some point in the finale. Is it in Garro's body, as Mortarion promised? Which account is believable? Was Garro's vision of triumph, victory and the salvation of his body and soul by the Emperor real? Was his heroic last stand against a Primarch? Or was it the product of Keeler's unravelling mental state at seeing her 'champion' defeated and desecrated, just another lie of the Faith? As a reader, you can choose whichever you feel more comfortable with, while Garro's ultimate death remains. It's up to you whether you think it truly was what was presented, or if he met an ignoble fate against his gene-sire.

 

And it means I get to rant about it on the internet and use it as more proof of my crackpot ravings. Win-win! 

 

The annoying thing is that Swallow could have framed it that way. Heck, Garro: Weapon of Fate had one notable addition to the short stories: Short epigraphs about Garro, which can be taken as Sindermann telling his tale as the first martyr to an audience. I'll quote those sections below.

 

This is legwork already done in the mid-section of Garro's story. It was not continued and expanded upon in Knight of Grey. 

Worse, these sections seem out of place in Weapon of Fate now. Tuck them onto Knight of Grey and they fit better than they did the patchwork "novel" (although the novella should have featured Sindermann in one way or another, frankly). A reference to these sermons, an EPILOGUE after that final scene of light yadda yadda would have been more than needed. Knight of Grey should have had a framing device like this, a way to contextualize it, to work as a print novella. Heck, in a sense these are the logical epilogue to Knight of Grey, published almost exactly 6 years prior: The people he protected recounting his tale as part of their cult.

 

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I will say this about him – when we first met, he was like a rock. Unbreakable and stoic, possessed of obdurate resolve and unwilling to compromise.
He was not a giant among his brothers as his gene-father would have been, but still he carried himself in a patrician manner. Respect seemed to come to him as rain to the ground. He earned it with every step he took, every word he uttered. Every deed he undertook.
I would not have said that to him. He would have thought it hubris, and he never hewed towards such things. It was not in him.
It is strange, is it not? That after so many years have passed, after so many terrible events and moments of import between then and now, I recall this thing so clearly. One would think that our meeting might have sunk beneath the weight of the horrors and glories that were to come, but it never has.
Why?
Call it simplicity. Yes. That will suffice.

 

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When I looked him in the eyes that first time, I perceived clarity. And I must ask you to pause to reflect and consider where my mind was in that instant, and what we had experienced before that point.
What we had seen. What we were running from.
Above all, what we were afraid of.
Then you will understand how exceptional that was. So you see, something as simple as clarity was a prize that I seized upon with all my might.
In our desperation, we who fled had flung ourselves into the Stygian night, had given ourselves fully to faith. Understand that we had no guarantee of survival, and know that with certainty. Death awaited us. We were given only the chance to choose how it would happen, not to forestall it.
But then we happened upon them, upon him. Guided by voices, by braver souls.
His welcome was to show us that all the galaxy had not gone mad. Only some of it. Yes, only some of it.
No, he showed that there were still some things we could grasp that had not changed. Despite what we had experienced, all loyalty was not gone from the universe. Good and right and true, these ideals did not die that day. Thank the Throne. Wounded they were, oh yes. Cut to the quick and bloody, indeed. But still alive. Still fighting.
He showed us that. Affirmed it. And with his actions, he gave us hope.

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We had expected death. Felt its inexorable approach. We prayed and asked our God-Emperor to take us to His side when the end came.
But that was not His gift to us. He had other plans.
Instead He placed this guardian in our path, a warrior who himself was on a journey, seeking an understanding of this new reality. A shepherd who would carry us away from the madness and beyond the reach of evil.
For a time, at least.
I knew it when that scarred face looked down upon me and I saw humanity written there. I saw a noble soul looking back at me through his searching, distant gaze.
Let me tell you about him. Close your eyes and listen. Hear his voice through my words. See his deeds in your thoughts.
Let me tell you about Nathaniel Garro.

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When his name is spoken, it is often in the context of what he meant to those telling the tale. I have been guilty of this. I often speak of what Nathaniel Garro meant to me.
But what did we mean to him?
The legionaries were the creation of the God-Emperor, and they were a part of the Master of Mankind’s great plan. But they were also part of us, of we common humans. Perhaps that was why some of them succumbed so forcefully to the worst of our natures. They magnified all elements of our spirit, the noble and the horrific.
Garro was the former.

 

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But there was more to him. What he allowed few to see was the most human part of himself – his doubt. He questioned his place in the universe, as all of us are wont to do at some time in our lives.
For him, that question came wrapped in the tragedy of Horus Lupercal’s heresy. And when everything he loved was stripped away from him, when Garro’s oath, his brotherhood, his very sense of belonging was made ashes, there was some of him that became lost.
He came to us to find it again. He sought us out, the Saint and I, to find a path that had meaning.
It was the question we were asked over and over again in those days. We struggled to understand what had brought his great tragedy to pass, and what our place was in it. And in many ways, he was the first of the legionaries with the courage to admit he did not know the answer.
For there were many of his kind who simply did not question, who took up arms against their kinsmen because they had been ordered to do so, not through any great enmity or corruption. That came later, at the hands of those among them who were already tainted, who had been so since long before the murder of Isstvan III.
But Garro was the first to make the leap of faith.
He was the first who truly dared to believe.

 

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I am proud to say I saw him at the moments when his spirit was at its most wounded and when he was at the purest height of his selflessness.
And as to those who have asked me, in the years since then, of the price he paid – what can I say that will carry the full measure of that? I will say with no false modesty that my name is known for my oratory on the matters of the Imperial Truth, but even I find it hard to conjure the right words.
His path was the path of this conflict.
A journey from a place of bright and shining unity, a place where all things were possible, into a shadowed valley of darkness and betrayal. Onwards to a future forged by a god.
Euphrati was the first Saint of our new Church, but Nathaniel…
Nathaniel was its first true martyr.
Sorrow clutches at my heart now as I commit these words to the page. Yet it is strangely tinged with a hope, a thin golden thread of it that cannot be broken. It exists now and will exist into eternity, I am certain of this. It may never pull us entirely from the dark, but it was never meant to. Light cannot flourish anywhere else.
There are other stories I might recount, of course. Of hells and heroism. Swords and shields, truth and lies, oaths and Legions. Fate. Faith.
Let me tell you about Nathaniel Garro.