'Siege of Terra - The End and the Death Volume 1' by Dan Abnett

[Corinthus]

Spoiler

From the beginning we've known the end that's comming. Big E defeats Horus somehow and gets enthroned for ten millennia. The question is how we get there. 

 

So the Dark King rises and the book points explicitly at Horus dropping the shields but also his lunatic facade, showing he is ready for the fight with his father.

The Emperor has been called king forever but he is supposed to be an enlighted monarch, leader of his race, striving to finish the Webway project that would save humanity from Chaos. We know this doesn't happen so maybe the Dark King-Emperor is his aspect after being enthroned, where he is more a Warp God than living creature.

 

And... we've got Sanguinius, who has been teased and teased through the series as the key element in the fight with Horus. He has a role to play, he knows it and he wants to change the outcome of his visions. Everyone has been praising him in the books, even Horus says Sanguinius was the best of them all, so maybe... the Chaos Gods are waiting for their real price? The Dark King Rises is the Sanguinius lost to his inner darkness? Ready to take all the power being focused on Terra and ascend as the new God.

 

I don't know but it seems that this Dark King dude is going to be more than important in the final? book

 

[DarkChaplain]

I don't think it's really so much as a red herring and more of a plotline that we simply know won't pay off here. None of the candidates will make it... yet. But as you say, it's likely that the Emperor will, eventually, be stepping up to harness that power in some capacity. Then again, the God-Emperor as the Dark King wouldn't really be something the Chaos Pantheon would relish at all...

 

Then again, the whole ritualistic sacrifice that is the Siege itself has to go somewhere, right?

 

Either way, we're definitely led to believe that Horus and the Emperor are prime candidates here. On the other hand, we also have mentions of said "maniac prophet" by Samus, and potential Lorgar setup by Abnett.

At the end of the day it could also be setup for Bequin.

 

Anyhow, I'm just glad that the book acknowledges that Konrad goes by the moniker too.

[Matcap86]

Spoiler

I found it really cool that Actae basically describes this as the way the chaos gods propagate. With the line about the fall of the eldar not birthing "she who thirsts" but allowing her to come to the forefront, and that this is the end result of every psychic race, with the "Dark King" being mankinds version; already existing but coming to the forefront due to the Horus Heresy. 

I also think it's more abstract than "it's this character that's going to be the Dark King", and more that if Horus succeeds, the resulting cataclysm will allow a 5th chaos god to rise to power. 

 

Edited February 27, 2023 by matcap86

[Osteoclast]

Spoiler

The previous lore has been pretty consistent in the Emperor needing to abandon emotion in order to nuke Horus, but the book is pretty explicit about him seeing it as fundamental to Humanity as a species (which, tbh, makes the toleration of the AdMech even weirder) and also straight up ready to kill Horus. So I’m wondering what will trigger that if they do keep it. 
 

if Abnett’s twist is Dorn (temporarily) falling to Khorne, I’m straight up gonna throw my iPad across the room. 

I am legit tired and bored of “And then Named Character took on a bunch of enemy dudes all trying to kill him and killed 50 of them with his bare hands while they were all shooting at him, but they missed, because despite being supersoldiers just as enhanced as him, he’s just that rad.”

Speaking of which, the “six nanoseconds” for Custodes reaction implies they can achieve significant fractions of light speed on their own and possibly superluminal nervous systems and thought processes. Which is dumb. 

 

Current prediction for Dark King plot: Whoever wins the duel would ascend as the new 5th Chaos God (though Erebus/Lorgar are potentially wanting to hijack it), Emps gets shanked a little by PlotDagger to prevent it, Dorn tossed him on eternal life support cuz if he did die, that would trigger self-immolation of humanity for his ascension. 

 

Edited February 27, 2023 by Osteoclast

[DukeLeto69]

Putting aside the annoyance that the phrase “The Dark King” has been used previously by Curze, I would be very surprised if this isn’t a duality type thing as a mirror to The Yellow King.

 

I also reckon whoever is victorious (Horus/Emp) it was always going to birth a 5th God. 

[wecanhaveallthree]

7 hours ago, DarkChaplain said:

 

  Hide contents

I don't think it's really so much as a red herring and more of a plotline that we simply know won't pay off here. None of the candidates will make it... yet. But as you say, it's likely that the Emperor will, eventually, be stepping up to harness that power in some capacity. Then again, the God-Emperor as the Dark King wouldn't really be something the Chaos Pantheon would relish at all...

 

 

Then again, the whole ritualistic sacrifice that is the Siege itself has to go somewhere, right?

 

Either way, we're definitely led to believe that Horus and the Emperor are prime candidates here. On the other hand, we also have mentions of said "maniac prophet" by Samus, and potential Lorgar setup by Abnett.

At the end of the day it could also be setup for Bequin.

 

Anyhow, I'm just glad that the book acknowledges that Konrad goes by the moniker too.
 

 

 

 

I'm pretty sure that's been set up since way back in Vengeful Spirit. 

Spoiler

The Emperor was always intended to join the Great Game. He's explicitly called a god-in-waiting. But rather than coming through the portal and paying patronage and 'proving himself' as Horus did, the Emperor stole power from the Warp. That doesn't mean it's anything but inevitable that the Emperor will one day ascend. The suggestion that the entire Siege has been a way of backing the Emperor into a corner and embracing his power - as we see in this book - and undergoing apothesis works for me.

 

Regarding further setup:

Spoiler

The most perfectly Abnett thing to do would be to end the Siege by saying 'actually my OC donut steel Bequin is the prophecised superdude!'. In the same way Fo went from an unknown in a short story to being a bigger and bigger part of the narrative. 

 

[Scribe]

26 minutes ago, wecanhaveallthree said:

 

I'm pretty sure that's been set up since way back in Vengeful Spirit. 

  Reveal hidden contents

 

 

The Emperor was always intended to join the Great Game. He's explicitly called a god-in-waiting. But rather than coming through the portal and paying patronage and 'proving himself' as Horus did, the Emperor stole power from the Warp. That doesn't mean it's anything but inevitable that the Emperor will one day ascend. The suggestion that the entire Siege has been a way of backing the Emperor into a corner and embracing his power - as we see in this book - and undergoing apothesis works for me.

 

 

Regarding further setup:

  Reveal hidden contents

 

 

The most perfectly Abnett thing to do would be to end the Siege by saying 'actually my OC donut steel Bequin is the prophecised superdude!'. In the same way Fo went from an unknown in a short story to being a bigger and bigger part of the narrative. 

 

 

 

Well, the former is a logical evolution of the lore.

 

The latter, is an abomination that would likely see me banned from the site.

[Ayatollah_of_Rock_n_Rolla]

Spoiler

I don't belive that the Dark King is anything more than just a narrative mystery device to hype up Horus and rise the stakes. I think that it's as simple as Actae puts it:

 

And the Dark King is our fate. This war, my lord, is not one of loyalists against traitors. It is not about the conquest of Terra and mankind by Chaos. It is certainly not about a son at war with his father. This is the Triumph of Ruin. Horus and the Emperor have taken their conflict to such a pitch, that we are about to suffer the same fate as the cursed aeldari. The human race will die in birth-fire, consumed by blood-rage, pestilence, violent transmutation and blind desire. And from the grave-pyre of our civilisation, the broken galaxy will see Horus rising, absolute and complete, as a new, true and terrible god.

 

The deamons are said to anticipate Dark King, Also in Malcador's vision DK is clearly distinct from the Emperor:

 

I can see Roboute and the Lion, so close yet lost and blind. I can see my lord and friend the Emperor cut down, Sanguinius rotting in a grave-pit, Valdor driven insane, and Dorn lost, alone and cornered. I can see the shadow of the Dark King.

 

Chapter 3:xxxii ends with:

+I am here, Horus Lupercal, and for you, I am the end and the death.+

 

And the very next chapter is:

 

Somewhere, in the outer darkness, four voices start to laugh. It is cruel laughter. They laugh, and begin to whisper the name of the one who is now here.
They lisp and hiss the name.
Over and over.
The name.
The name of the Dark King.

 

I fail to see any subtlety here.

 

[Matcap86]

25 minutes ago, Ayatollah_of_Rock_n_Rolla said:

  Hide contents

I don't belive that the Dark King is anything more than just a narrative mystery device to hype up Horus and rise the stakes. I think that it's as simple as Actae puts it:

 

And the Dark King is our fate. This war, my lord, is not one of loyalists against traitors. It is not about the conquest of Terra and mankind by Chaos. It is certainly not about a son at war with his father. This is the Triumph of Ruin. Horus and the Emperor have taken their conflict to such a pitch, that we are about to suffer the same fate as the cursed aeldari. The human race will die in birth-fire, consumed by blood-rage, pestilence, violent transmutation and blind desire. And from the grave-pyre of our civilisation, the broken galaxy will see Horus rising, absolute and complete, as a new, true and terrible god.

 

The deamons are said to anticipate Dark King, Also in Malcador's vision DK is clearly distinct from the Emperor:

 

I can see Roboute and the Lion, so close yet lost and blind. I can see my lord and friend the Emperor cut down, Sanguinius rotting in a grave-pit, Valdor driven insane, and Dorn lost, alone and cornered. I can see the shadow of the Dark King.

 

Chapter 3:xxxii ends with:

+I am here, Horus Lupercal, and for you, I am the end and the death.+

 

And the very next chapter is:

 

Somewhere, in the outer darkness, four voices start to laugh. It is cruel laughter. They laugh, and begin to whisper the name of the one who is now here.
They lisp and hiss the name.
Over and over.
The name.
The name of the Dark King.

 

I fail to see any subtlety here.

 

Spoiler

As a counterpoint: almost every chapter in the book works this way, with the next chapter starting with where the last one ended. Even if those chapters don't really relate to each other. 

 

Edited February 27, 2023 by matcap86

[lansalt]

41 minutes ago, Ayatollah_of_Rock_n_Rolla said:

  Hide contents

I don't belive that the Dark King is anything more than just a narrative mystery device to hype up Horus and rise the stakes. I think that it's as simple as Actae puts it:

 

And the Dark King is our fate. This war, my lord, is not one of loyalists against traitors. It is not about the conquest of Terra and mankind by Chaos. It is certainly not about a son at war with his father. This is the Triumph of Ruin. Horus and the Emperor have taken their conflict to such a pitch, that we are about to suffer the same fate as the cursed aeldari. The human race will die in birth-fire, consumed by blood-rage, pestilence, violent transmutation and blind desire. And from the grave-pyre of our civilisation, the broken galaxy will see Horus rising, absolute and complete, as a new, true and terrible god.

 

The deamons are said to anticipate Dark King, Also in Malcador's vision DK is clearly distinct from the Emperor:

 

I can see Roboute and the Lion, so close yet lost and blind. I can see my lord and friend the Emperor cut down, Sanguinius rotting in a grave-pit, Valdor driven insane, and Dorn lost, alone and cornered. I can see the shadow of the Dark King.

 

Chapter 3:xxxii ends with:

+I am here, Horus Lupercal, and for you, I am the end and the death.+

 

And the very next chapter is:

 

Somewhere, in the outer darkness, four voices start to laugh. It is cruel laughter. They laugh, and begin to whisper the name of the one who is now here.
They lisp and hiss the name.
Over and over.
The name.
The name of the Dark King.

 

I fail to see any subtlety here.

 

Spoiler

Agreed. This is Abnett basically driving home the point of "Master of Mankind by the will of the gods" and "the laughter of thirsting gods" from the classic 40k intro.

 

[MarineRaiderII]

I have read that the digital copy ends with " the story continues" and the LE ends to be concluded in the next book. I am still trying to figure out how they stretch this to 3 books unless they do a clean-up later-half of a book of what is happening on Mars and the fleeing traitors.

[Moonreaper666]

4 hours ago, MarineRaiderII said:

I have read that the digital copy ends with " the story continues" and the LE ends to be concluded in the next book. I am still trying to figure out how they stretch this to 3 books unless they do a clean-up later-half of a book of what is happening on Mars and the fleeing traitors.

 

Part 2 has the four or more climatic fights, Traitors retreat, Guilliman arrives, etc

 

Part 3 leads to the Scouring and the Dark Gods 'talking' about their backup Dark King, Abaddon

 

This will change the Lore and connect to Pandemonium, which would also change the Lore

 

Spoiler

I can see how Valdor becomes a Heretical Inquisitor like Morianna in the 41st Millenium. The Inquisition is deeply involved in the Siege

 

I will say this. Ynnari Wildheart and The End and The Death are making 40k more like Fantasy and Age of Sigmar (not really spoilers since this has been GW and BL's direction for several years now)

 

Horus is Morkar while Abaddon is Archaon. Vashtorr is Hashut.

 

I wish Madai and Samus are relevant post-Heresy. Those two Daemons would give Grey Knights, Custodes and Silent Sisters a painful headache

 

The Siege needs a scary-pro-Chaos Anthology. Doombreed, Be'lakor and N'Kari each are one-daemon armies that SHOULD be inflicting horrific carnage on the Loyalist

[Aramis K]

Wait, this is out now?

I thought there'd be more promotion... felt like more of an event.

 

Guess I'll get cracking on the ebook then

[Sothalor]

12 minutes ago, Aramis K said:

Wait, this is out now?

I thought there'd be more promotion... felt like more of an event.

 

 

Black Library, promote its flagship line? Don't be ridiculous. 

 

Next you'll be saying they should print more of their products so customers can actually buy them! The audacity - nay, the heresy of it!

[Moonreaper666]

Guess we now know why Dorn is late to the party

 

Spoiler

Samus or another Khornate Daemon has stranded him on a Warp desert, driving him insane

 

Nice how the Warp allows Traitors and a very few Loyalists to break spacetime and reach far away places in much shorter time

 

Horus should have waited. The Vengeful Spirit at this point can take on all of Guilliman's fleet and win! (Especially with Horus's psychic powers at this point)

[m_r_parker]

I managed to pick my copy up from my local GW store today (it was the default address on my web account, and I didn't want to change it and miss out because Wanted it delivered to my home).

The list of characters at the front, yeah.... that's 10 pages of various characters that will be in this book (presumably, unless we don't actually meet some of them until book 2). When that happens it sets off a red flag in my head; you can't give all those characters any sense of development in a single book, especially when the focus is going to be on the heavy hitters (The Emperor, the Primarchs, the various 1st Captains, etc). So either half of these are chaff and aren't supposed to be more than a a single occurrence somewhere, in which case why do they need to be presented in the character list, or they're each going to get some degree of explanation around them, which bloats the book even if you give them the bare minimum. Are half of these characters even going to be necessary? 

I guess I'll find out over the course of the next week.

[Astartes Consul]

Just finished the Audible listen through. Loved it and very much feels like the first half of a larger narrative, which bodes well for Volume 2.

 

Abnett is, as ever, at his best when he is writing suspense for both his characters and the reader. In this case, because we know how it ends, I was worried that the suspense for the reader would fall flat. But he's really outdone himself in keeping the reader guessing as to how things will play out and what is around each corner, while also allowing us to see characters we have become incredibly invested in engage in a struggle against an outcome we know is fixed.

 

The various perspectives used - from loyalists and traitors and major characters to minor ones - of the big narrative moments and how they are viewed are really well executed as well. For example:

 

Spoiler

The various ways that Horus's 'trap' is portrayed. Is it his idea? Has he been manipulated by the four powers because they want him & the Emperor to destroy each other? Does the Emperor realise how fully a trap it is? The way Valdor, Dorn, and Sanguinnius all react to it. Malcador watching it from a distance with both horror but also revelling in the prospect that Horus has overplayed his hand. All of this, provides varying views from the reader and is built on what is simple original source material of 'Horus lowered his shields to tempt the Emperor so he could kill him quickly either because he was arrogant or worried he would run out of time. 

 

One side point that I have noticed over this, and the last few books is:

 

Spoiler

The fact that Abaddon is basically the only SoH character from the main series still alive at this point is a bit jarring. Okay, there is Argonis but he has always been a bit character, introduced late.

 

Anyway, the way Saturnine killed off a lot of remaining named SoH characters served as a very definitive point where the 'old' SoH was gone, which was obviously intentional. And now we basically have Abaddon and then a load of named SoH characters who we know little about and are hardly invested in. Again, this is probably intentional and highlights how far the Legion has come. But I think having a few more of the minor characters from earlier in the main series survive, rise to greater narrative prominence and take various different paths would have been a better choice. In particular, for this book, Abaddon's disillusion with his legion and loss of authority portrayed towards the end of the book would have been more impactful if some of those he's interacting with were characters we knew anything about other than a name.

 

[andes]

1 hour ago, m_r_parker said:

The list of characters at the front, yeah.... that's 10 pages of various characters that will be in this book (presumably, unless we don't actually meet some of them until book 2). When that happens it sets off a red flag in my head;

 

I'm worried about this too, but for a slightly different reason. I've been following the SoT series, but not fanatically. I didn't have the strength of character to stick with Mortis, and am not sure I really remember a lot of the details and smaller characters from most of the rest of the series. With the long list of stories-that-are-wrapping-up, I suspect a LOT of the impact (and implications!) are going to fly right over my head. I don't really want to go back and reread everything but have a nagging suspicion that's exactly what I *should* do. 

[Astartes Consul]

2 minutes ago, andes said:

 

I'm worried about this too, but for a slightly different reason. I've been following the SoT series, but not fanatically. I didn't have the strength of character to stick with Mortis, and am not sure I really remember a lot of the details and smaller characters from most of the rest of the series. With the long list of stories-that-are-wrapping-up, I suspect a LOT of the impact (and implications!) are going to fly right over my head. I don't really want to go back and reread everything but have a nagging suspicion that's exactly what I *should* do. 

 

IMO I don't think you need to worry about that. If you read Saturnine, think about how vast the character list is at the front and how many of them are actually plot essential. 

 

Obviously, it could all go out of the window in Part 2 but I thought the plotting/character arcs ere surprisingly tight for such a monstrous book/story.

[Matcap86]

1 hour ago, andes said:

 

I'm worried about this too, but for a slightly different reason. I've been following the SoT series, but not fanatically. I didn't have the strength of character to stick with Mortis, and am not sure I really remember a lot of the details and smaller characters from most of the rest of the series. With the long list of stories-that-are-wrapping-up, I suspect a LOT of the impact (and implications!) are going to fly right over my head. I don't really want to go back and reread everything but have a nagging suspicion that's exactly what I *should* do. 

 

I wouldn't worry too much about that: Kind of spoilery more in depth on this and other meta-ey stuff:
 

Spoiler

I feel the absurd character list, is a sort of meta in-joke by Abnett, to convey the enormous amount of characters which in most 40k/30k novels would warrant being the main character of the book, which here get side-lined to the main cast, killed in short order, or just shown in their last moments. 

Marine Captains/Khans/Senechals, Custodes Tribunes, mortal Generals, etc. These are all 'Big Names' so they got put in the big names list. But because it's the culmination of the Siege and the Heresy, almost everyone with any screentime is a big name. 

 

On that note I also have a theory that Fo might be a bit of a self insert by Abnett. Spoilerception:

Spoiler

A key plotpoint for Fo is that people think he has all these convoluted plans and ways to get in their head while in reality, he has nothing and their own imagination based on his reputation is making them paranoid and suspenseful.

After finishing the book I thought: could this be Abnett alluding to him being an author known for taking liberties in-universe, and if there is one author to retcon these big story beats; it's him. While actually he's just going to faithfully follow the known lore and expand upon it and part of the suspense comes from us thinking "But it's Abnett... Who knows where he'll take the story??"

 

We'll obviously only know this when the series ends, but I thought it could be a fun little meta-thing. 

 

 

[SkimaskMohawk]

I'm having a hard time getting into it. Part of it was being sick on release day and trying to tackle the early malcador segments, part of it is the jumping around before establishing a more central A plot, part of it is characters whiplashing to act like abnett characters (excellent humans, very weird everything elses). I'm at page 211, where I'll usually read a book on the same day I get it if it's a day off, especially "good" ones like warmaster, anarch , etc...

 

But yea, slow start. 

 

Spoiler

The word choice is a bit irksome. I thought it was just really on malcadors parts to show his timelessness of the character/otherworldly nature of his warp sense, but then corswains bits also started to get them too. It reminded me of some parts of the Ahriman trilogy with ctesias; he's summing the daemons by calling on his vast mental compendium of the word-parts of their names but he can't stop himself from disgorging all the names he's collected at once. That's what's happening here.

 

On the other hand, I'm really invested in the "Argonauts". Shocker that a bunch of Abnett original characters with low screen time from other authors manage to have the best chemistry when written by him. Actae=Cyrene was pretty telegraphed, though I'm a bit sad that my theory of Moriana being an aspect of her is seemingly debunked, just by a character named Moriana being in the same story lol. Otherwise it still works really well, with actae basically being described as a horusian (literally use Horus to trap the power of chaos and use it as a weapon). Maybe she kills Moriana and just takes her name or something lol.

 

Anyways it's shaping up to be another Abnett book; a fantastic read that plays badly with other authors works.

 

Also I don't think I've hated a term faster than "Brightest One" or any of its variants. 

 

Edited March 1, 2023 by SkimaskMohawk

[b1soul]

Found the Malcador, John, Fo, and Horus strands of the story to be the most interesting.

 

Keeler and some of Rann's later bits were more of a chore.

 

Overall, a very good entry in the SoT

Edited March 1, 2023 by b1soul

[Moonreaper666]

I think it makes sense a certain notorious Inquisitor is present as it mirrors a certain Custode's fate in another future Dan Abnett novel

 

Spoiler

Moriana's descent into extremism mirrors Valdor's eventual madness as well

 

Custodes are incorruptible but not immune to mind:cuss:ing

 

Historical and Lore Parallels fit with the Grimdark cyclic history of Real Life and Warhammer. Chaos will always get followers

[Arkangilos]

I just started the Audio last night. 
This makes me feel really bad for the emperor, lmao

[DukeLeto69]

9 hours ago, Moonreaper666 said:

I think it makes sense a certain notorious Inquisitor is present as it mirrors a certain Custode's fate in another future Dan Abnett novel

 

  Hide contents

Moriana's descent into extremism mirrors Valdor's eventual madness as well

 

Custodes are incorruptible but not immune to mind:cuss:ing

 

Historical and Lore Parallels fit with the Grimdark cyclic history of Real Life and Warhammer. Chaos will always get followers

I have a feeling...

 

Your expectations around Valdor may well be subverted!