The End and the Death Part I, II, III, ...

[Blood Angel Scout]

Story's not finished, last lines refer to his body being dragged away to be hung up, Blood Angels have a strange feeling of foreboding and shared visions from Sanguinius , last mention of Zephon about to experience his own personal hell in moments...the last scene is Sanguinius's death...the sword could be busted in the fight with the Emperor and Horus one of them might use it....haven't seen the Blood Angels to see how they react, for all we know they've been sharing the whole fight or if it's going to be reverse-Signus effect of him feeling each individual's death, each BA snaps in the blink of an eye. 

 

As much commentary on it being an extra volume aside, let's hold off on some "issues" being a thing before it's finished. 

[63-19]

The volumes have been split up in a poor way just like how everyone thought Loken could use gate where ever he wanted to. Then immediately in vol 2 its reality breaking down. Just chill for a second.

[Scribe]

5 minutes ago, 63-19 said:

The volumes have been split up in a poor way just like how everyone thought Loken could use gate where ever he wanted to.

 

Everyone? I think you mean one. lol

[Dornfist]

Okay, I finished listening to Volume II. I will read my hardcover in January, before Volume III arrives as I have a lot to chew on before experiencing the story again through another medium. Before I go into my review which I will separate by cons and pros, I wanted to say that while I have not been long in this forum, I have enjoyed engaging with other fraters regarding books we have read in the 40k universe. While we may disagree on the finer details, at the end of the day, we love this universe and that is seen by these active and passionate discussions.

 

Anyhow, on to the review, spoilers and all. I decided to take meticulous notes on a google doc to follow all the jumble carefully (I did the same with Volume I cos a lot happened there too lol).

 

 

Cons

Spoiler

The filler: Okay, seriously, I don't see any justification for it. Agatha, Rann, Zephon, Thane, Amit...these little vignettes should be short stories. They don't contribute to the main plot which is what is happening on the VS. And as other fraters have pointed out, it is weird how Amit apologizes to that random Space Wolf. AMIT: the guy who is known to have a temper and is ruthless as we saw in EoE. And what about the meandering plot threads of the Dark Angels on the Mountain and Fo's weapon? We going to get a payoff in the last 100 pages of Volume III or what? Again, this looks like something an editor needed to clean up...I count seven Fragments chapters and dozens of pew pew chapters of loyalists making desperate last stands against traitors cos "Oh no! This is the end!" Ugh.

 

Repetition of main themes and words/phrases: I'm not amused. I really am not. I get it; we all get it as we have read all the previous Siege books. Yes: time has broken...it's all hopeless, the Dark King is coming, "THE END AND THE DEATH IS NEAR!" I guess an author can be gratuitous, but there has to be a line somewhere or you will annoy your readers. I was comically rolling my eyes at these unnecessary repetitions lol.

 

Limited Emperor page time: I guess we are reserving more time with the big man in the next Volume, as this Volume centered a lot on Sanguinuis. But I would have liked to see that transition to the Dark King a little more...it went from he is becoming so bright to now he is a Black Sphere. Alright...Speaking of Sanguinuis, I refuse to believe "Manus" was Manus for one simple reason: why did he not ask the Angel about the fate of his Legion? The Legion he was fearing were losing their way by going too hard on machines? And who are going down that path? (Side note: so Emps DID GET A MUSHROOM POWER-UP which is why he is taking so long huh?!)

 

Samus: Please don't tell me he will show up again. Even though I didn't mind Loken beating him, I have a feeling he will be annoying our pages in the next Volume. This demon has been overused at this point...

 

Pros

Spoiler

The fate of the Long Companions: I can't say I was surprised when Erebus showed up and killed them. I figured he would once it was clear he was tailing them after he "killed" Erda. I'm certain he is BL's trash man know, as he is cleaning up elements of the Siege series that were not received well lol. I liked some of the Long Companions, but against someone like Erebus, they never had a chance. And it shows the grimness of the Warhammer universe.

 

Ahriman: I liked his appearance at the Hall of Leng.

 

Malcador: Nice of him to still be saying stuff. Loved his witness of the Star Child.

 

Ollanius speaking to the Emperor: I like the idea of the Emperor relinquishing the power of the Dark King as Pius reminds him of his humanity. Now, the execution could have been better as everything did get resolved too quickly when for a few chapters that Black Sphere was all terror and stuff.

 

Dorn and Valdor: I'm glad they finally got out of their traps. The former coming across Actae was neat, and the latter may now engage Ezekyle!

 

Sanguinuis: Probably my favorite arc of this whole Volume of mess. Him fighting forwards, speaking with "Manus" and confronting Horus. I love how for a second, Abnett makes us think the Angel is winning. That he may have a chance...and then boom! It was downright brutal what Lupercal did to him in his final moments when he beat him bloody, snapped his neck, and tossed it to the shadow demons who nail the corpse up. This brutality leads me to believe Sangy is not coming back to the setting: after a death like that, I'd rather he stay dead. His sacrifice is so pivotal in the setting and represents the death of a bright future for humanity.

 

Leetu and Loken: Lovely team up. Let's see what they do next volume. I wonder if this means we said a definite goodbye to Grammaticus and Oll in the meantime...

 

In short, I appreciate the focus on the Angel's last act in life. But this story could have been shorter. Crazy that it is nearly 800 pages on hardcover alone! Again, editing, editing, editing. I now wonder what they will have happen when Emps fights Lupercal.

Edited December 15, 2023 by Dornfist

[System Sound]

Vol 3, first chapter:

 

"Horus stepped on Sanguinius sword and broke it into pieces."

[Nagashsnee]

2 hours ago, System Sound said:

Vol 3, first chapter:

 

"Horus stepped on Sanguinius sword and broke it into pieces."

Post battle they find a tiny shard of the sword in horus foot where it created a tiny weakness in his armor....and a legend is born. 

 

Subvert those expectations Dan! 

 

But its brave of you to think that the first 200 pages will have anything important featured in them other then broken clocks and reminders that THIS IS THE END AND THE DEATH!*

 

 

 

 

*part iii.

Edited December 15, 2023 by Nagashsnee

[Ayatollah_of_Rock_n_Rolla]

22 hours ago, Blood Angel Scout said:

.haven't seen the Blood Angels to see how they react, for all we know they've been sharing the whole fight or if it's going to be reverse-Signus effect of him feeling each individual's death, each BA snaps in the blink of an eye. 

 

 

Judging from the way Abnett dealt with Thousands Sons and World Eaters it's going to be a snap.

[DarkChaplain]

On 12/15/2023 at 6:10 AM, Dornfist said:

  Hide contents

Samus: Please don't tell me he will show up again. Even though I didn't mind Loken beating him, I have a feeling he will be annoying our pages in the next Volume. This demon has been overused at this point...

 

 

I have to say, at this point, I don't even get Samus. He seems both incredibly overused, particularly with two big showdowns in the Siege series, one in Solar War the other here, but also so ill-defined, so ill-explained what his theme is.

 

To me, he stands for nothing. For a named daemon with so much pagetime, from the earliest novel of the Heresy on, and many showings throughout, I just can't grasp him. He's on the page and vomits strings of mysterious / foreboding sentences onto the page, which may or may not hold any meaning at all, but usually come across as repetitive haunting nonsense. At least now he seems fully verbose and has risen to the lofty job of Freelance Author with the suddenly existing "Book of Samus", which he quotes or writes or dictates in the future so we could read it as a prelude to The End and the Death's print edition and Sindermann & co could read it in the library before he actually rambles it to Loken.

 

But what is the bloody point of Samus? Why is Abnett so fixated on him? Why bring him back over and over when he stands for nothing. Heck, back when ForgeWorld decided to put out a model for him, with its dog-like appearance, it was nothing like what I would've expected from his series appearances. Suddenly he was Prince of the Ruinstorm, rather than that basic-trash daemon possessing Jubal. Suddenly he was important and big and royalty but why? What did he even do to earn his spot? Why does he get showered with titles and get leveled up to this degree? He's the herald of a doom that already arrived hundreds of pages ago even for TEATD.

 

I have no idea what he actually, substantially, adds to the novel, aside from delaying Loken and being a "cute" callback to the first novel that Abnett wanted to do, despite him having been wrapped up satisfyingly enough in The Solar War.

[Dornfist]

1 hour ago, DarkChaplain said:

 

I have to say, at this point, I don't even get Samus. He seems both incredibly overused, particularly with two big showdowns in the Siege series, one in Solar War the other here, but also so ill-defined, so ill-explained what his theme is.

 

To me, he stands for nothing. For a named daemon with so much pagetime, from the earliest novel of the Heresy on, and many showings throughout, I just can't grasp him. He's on the page and vomits strings of mysterious / foreboding sentences onto the page, which may or may not hold any meaning at all, but usually come across as repetitive haunting nonsense. At least now he seems fully verbose and has risen to the lofty job of Freelance Author with the suddenly existing "Book of Samus", which he quotes or writes or dictates in the future so we could read it as a prelude to The End and the Death's print edition and Sindermann & co could read it in the library before he actually rambles it to Loken.

 

But what is the bloody point of Samus? Why is Abnett so fixated on him? Why bring him back over and over when he stands for nothing. Heck, back when ForgeWorld decided to put out a model for him, with its dog-like appearance, it was nothing like what I would've expected from his series appearances. Suddenly he was Prince of the Ruinstorm, rather than that basic-trash daemon possessing Jubal. Suddenly he was important and big and royalty but why? What did he even do to earn his spot? Why does he get showered with titles and get leveled up to this degree? He's the herald of a doom that already arrived hundreds of pages ago even for TEATD.

 

I have no idea what he actually, substantially, adds to the novel, aside from delaying Loken and being a "cute" callback to the first novel that Abnett wanted to do, despite him having been wrapped up satisfyingly enough in The Solar War.

Those are good points. Lol, I had no idea the Samus model was a thing, let alone he got the title of "Prince of the Ruinstorm"...I never thought Samus was that powerful. I always wondered if we were supposed to find out at some point Samus is one of the oldest demons in existence, always acting as a herald for Chaos for every civilization/species before disaster strikes...but nah.

 

I have to say, when I learned the "Book of Samus" was a thing, which had the text of the prologue of Volume I, I rolled my eyes so hard like "Woooow: what a COINCIDENCE!".

 

I really don't want to see Samus again either because like you said, we don't know what he stands for at this point which is a shame because he could have been an interesting foil for Loken.

Edited December 16, 2023 by Dornfist

[Lord_Caerolion]

He’s the daemon of horror movie tropes, I guess?

 

But yes, I very much agree. It worked ok as an “introductory daemon”, but now they just keep bringing it back, for no real reason. If it’s supposed to be some sort of Harbinger for Chaos as a whole, it’d make more sense for his horror movie monster song/chant to refer to Chaos at least in part, but it’s all just “Samus is here!” over and over. 
Yes, we get it, you’re here, you’re behind us, but bloody WHY though?

 

If they’d had it as Samus, Herald of the Dark King, it would have made sense to keep it around, and give more foreshadowing to the Dark King arc, but as it stands it really feels like a McNeil-ism, where it’s a reference to an earlier book kept around to the detriment of the story, for the sake of a call-back. 

[TrillionSpiders]

7 hours ago, DarkChaplain said:

I have no idea what he actually, substantially, adds to the novel, aside from delaying Loken and being a "cute" callback to the first novel that Abnett wanted to do, despite him having been wrapped up satisfyingly enough in The Solar War.

 

clearly this is all set up for his 40k novel series "the book of samus" which will flop after one volume.

[Urauloth]

I loved Samus in his first appearances, especially when he appears on Calth and his shout-out in Blood Pact. Bringing him back for the Solar War was fine, but a bit... underwhelming? I agree he's getting run into the ground at this point. Horror movie sequel syndrome, you might say.

 

And yeah, he's very undefined. That worked in his favour early on when it gave him an air of creepy mystery, but not so much when he shows up all the time.

[wecanhaveallthree]

Samus' initial appearance was excellent. He served a very particular, very solid purpose: to be the 'old spirit' of the mountain, the thing behind the door that the superstitious locals had kept locked away with prayer and baubles that the secular, advanced Imperium would stumble upon and be spiritually and psychologically challenged by. The fear of the Whisperheads actually fuels the daemon. It's this amorphous evil presence, a stand-in for the Warp and psychic malaise that cannot be beaten, only fought, only banished, only kept at bay. It's a stand-in for the horror of the Heresy, that indeed the 'man beside you' - a brother you've known for so long, in Loken's case - could be a demon in disguise, whose jealousy and ill-feeling change them inside and out until they're a demon in truth.

 

Like the Interex, or Murder, or - say - Enuncia, these ideas/concepts/plots work really well within their own context, within the purpose-built narratives that give them reason and grounding. Removed from that, they don't work as well. Loken suffers from the exact same issue: he has no real reason to still be such a force in the narrative, so he tends to vacuum up other, more interesting plots or be attached to them like a limpet. When you get Samus and Loken in the same room, two characters so far removed from their context, so thoroughly overexposed, it's not even just tedious, it's utterly without meaning. Samus had a point, fifty books ago, and served that point well.

[Scribe]

47 minutes ago, Urauloth said:

and his shout-out in Blood Pact

 

Oh of course...

[Marshal Rohr]

I was thoroughly glazed over by the fight scene but didn’t Sanguinius cut through Horus’ armor multiple times? His chest, his back, etc? And was his sword even intact after Horus got done smashing him with the maul? 

[Scribe]

43 minutes ago, Marshal Rohr said:

I was thoroughly glazed over by the fight scene but didn’t Sanguinius cut through Horus’ armor multiple times? His chest, his back, etc? And was his sword even intact after Horus got done smashing him with the maul? 

 

Yes, he was able/allowed to land multiple attacks, before Horus decided to 'go for real' and stomped him. I too just skimmed over most of it.

 

I dont remember the sword getting a mention at all.

[TrevorLoLz]

I liked the Sanguinius fight.

 

It was sufficiently brutal for me. We've known since Day 1 that Horus wins, and that Sanguinius dies. This part was one of the highlights of the book for me. 

[Dornfist]

I'm calling it now, Horus will be defeated when the Emperor, Caecaltus, Loken, and Leetu join hands and start singing this song:

 

See, the combined awfulness of this moment will cause severe aneurysms in the Four Chaos Gods that they will stop empowering Horus who in turn will die from a nose bleed. But the feedback from the warp will delete, Loken, Leetu, and Caecaltus from existence, and mortally wound the Emperor.

 

There is a reason this last defiant stand from humanity in this format never made it to the history books...Who knows? Maybe the Emperor is planning a round two with the Chaos Gods who already have PTSD from the first round...

 

Ladies and gentlemen, that is how you subvert expectations!

[System Sound]

Ah yes: "I was there the day that Horus died of Cringe."

[DarkChaplain]

Do we even expect the whole "I was there, the day Horus slew the Emperor" thing for the final volume anymore? It's not like Dan didn't do a full chapter of that in volume 2 as is...

[Scribe]

23 minutes ago, DarkChaplain said:

Do we even expect the whole "I was there, the day Horus slew the Emperor" thing for the final volume anymore? It's not like Dan didn't do a full chapter of that in volume 2 as is...

 

Considering we couldnt get over clocks have run out, and then time has stopped, I cannot fathom we dont get this thrown in our faces again.

[Dornfist]

19 minutes ago, Scribe said:

 

Considering we couldnt get over clocks have run out, and then time has stopped, I cannot fathom we dont get this thrown in our faces again.

Probably Loken will be saying those words as he dies? It seems like he is being set up for a sacrifice. Him and Leetu.

Edited December 18, 2023 by Dornfist

[Lord_Caerolion]

That, or it’s gonna end with Abaddon swearing vengeance and saying “I was there when the Emperor slew Horus”.

[Sabadin]

On 12/18/2023 at 2:05 PM, Dornfist said:

Probably Loken will be saying those words as he dies? It seems like he is being set up for a sacrifice. Him and Leetu.

 

I can read it now

 

Horus stood towering triumphantly. Loken summons the last of his strength to oppose his father. "I..I was there the day Horus sl-". A voice begins to creep out of the shadows. "I am the man besid-". Loken pushes Samus flailing out a nearby airlock. "I don't have time for your games", he grunts. "Now where was I? Ah yes, I was there the day Horus slew The Emperor "

 

It had been 392 seconds since boarding actions began. Valdor looks on solemnly at the scene before him, "I was there the day Horus slew the Emperor". 393 seconds have passed since boarding. 

 

"I was there the day Horus slew the Emperor" proclaimed Khorne as he glanced up from the wagers on how Samus would die next. "Hey, should we be paying more attention?" He asked the rest of the Pantheon.  "It turns out fine" Says Tzeentch, looking back down at the wagers. "Besides, I'm still mad I didn't see 'old man reads book' winning that last round"

[Dornfist]

11 hours ago, Sabadin said:

 

I can read it now

 

Horus stood towering triumphantly. Loken summons the last of his strength to oppose his father. "I..I was there the day Horus sl-". A voice begins to creep out of the shadows. "I am the man besid-". Loken pushes Samus flailing out a nearby airlock. "I don't have time for your games", he grunts. "Now where was I? Ah yes, I was there the day Horus slew The Emperor "

 

It had been 392 seconds since boarding actions began. Valdor looks on solemnly at the scene before him, "I was there the day Horus slew the Emperor". 393 seconds have passed since boarding. 

 

"I was there the day Horus slew the Emperor" proclaimed Khorne as he glanced up from the wagers on how Samus would die next. "Hey, should we be paying more attention?" He asked the rest of the Pantheon.  "It turns out fine" Says Tzeentch, looking back down at the wagers. "Besides, I'm still mad I didn't see 'old man reads book' winning that last round"

10/10. I would hire you for your storytelling prowess!!

 

We also need an Erebus scene of him being like "It was meeee!" all along style. Or an epilogue where he is salty Chaos didn't have their "full victory".

 

I hope we at least get

Spoiler

Valdor duking it out with Ezekyle

or that tease at the end of Volume II will have been for nothing...

Edited December 21, 2023 by Dornfist