Lazarus: Enmity's Edge

[Shadowshand]

Just creating a thread for this new Dark Angels novel for anyone to share their thoughts in relation to this book that has, is currently, or will be reading this novel. Feel free to share any insights, theories, reviews, etc. If posting story beats and spoilers, please use the spoiler tag. 

[grailkeeper]

Here us an interview with the author.

 

https://www.warhammer-community.com/2024/01/17/gary-kloster-interview-master-lazarus-crossing-the-rubicon-primaris-and-his-first-feature-novel/

 

I don't think I've read anything by him. Any good?

[theSpirea]

His Necromunda novella Spark of Revolution was solid and his AoS short stories as well.

[grailkeeper]

Reading that Lazarus died and came back, which seems a little on the nose. 

Also he came back by means of the Rubicon Primaris.

Remember when that was an incredibly dangerous operation which ran a substantial risk of killing the patient? At the time I thought it might be a good way for GW to clear out some disused characters and show the risks in the operation. Has anyone died from it? The apothecaries seem to have gotten it down from an incredible risk to a same day elective surgery and if you are a named character you wont even need to pack an overnight bag.

[The Scorpion]

23 hours ago, Shadowshand said:

Just creating a thread for this new Dark Angels novel for anyone to share their thoughts in relation to this book that has, is currently, or will be reading this novel. Feel free to share any insights, theories, reviews, etc. If posting story beats and spoilers, please use the spoiler tag. 

I am hestitant to give my time to this because of the whole Primaris theme of Lazarus.

You can handwave the Primaris thing on tabletop, but not on the lore. Somehow, everytime the Primaris aspect is focused on, it diminishes the story for some reason. Primaris are their best when they focus on the more traditional Space Marine things like legacy, history, and whatnot (case in point, the Emperor's Spears)

[Blood Angel Scout]

It was a decent read on first time round, good blend of action and character moments, some of the banter between Lazurus and the Chaplain did come across as genuine. 

 

Plot takes a different view on the concept of the Fallen and explores Lazurus's role within the responsibilities of the Inner Circle, that felt fresh enough to keep engaged overall.

 

No Lion as starts with it clearly Azreal in charge and ends with them receiving him calling them back to the Rock so guess it means they weren't around for Vashtorr situation. 

[Nagashsnee]

On 3/11/2024 at 11:32 PM, grailkeeper said:

Remember when that was an incredibly dangerous operation which ran a substantial risk of killing the patient?

No and no one else does either (including you) because it never was. It was one of the greatest tell one thing but show the completely opposite in GW history.  It was the Worf effect x 100. 

 

A thing so dangerous, so risky, so unbelievably hard to achieve that every single named person who attempted it succeeded with 0 negative effects or long term repercussions. 

It could be done at will, any time, and any where any reason! Fought a big ork and almost died? No issues! Are you being possesed by the collective blood madness of your genesires collected bloodlines? No issues! Were mortally wounded by a deamon weapon/talon that has killed multiple primarchs? No issues! Simply want to be taller? Sure my astartes no issues! 

 

The rubicon primaris was a well maintained road network that bypassed all roman defenses and had clearly labeled traveling instructions to ease its crossing to anyone wanting to overthrow the republic and if you failed a nice senate page just leads you back to the start to try again while they all wish you better luck next time and debate maybe leaving caches of arms and supplies along the route to make sure this never happens again. 

 

It has however killed over 9000! non named astartes off page and off screen. Remember when that guy died? Or that other time tactical marine #57  did not make it? What about Ultramarine honor guard #2 AND 4. Still cant believe the studio let BL kill of Captain 'TBD'  of the 'TBD' chapter that other time too. 

 

You joke about it, but even joking about how easy it has become is wrong because it can never get easier then 100% success rate.  Its so easy BL has people doing it for the first time after quickly reading the instructions and pulling it off no problem, that's how easy it is.  The fact that every time they tell us how dangerous it is they merely serve to further reinforce its nature as the ultimate narrative crutch for having your 'people die in fights' and ' no is going to die in this fight'  cake at the same time rather then ANYTHING else is ludicrous.  

 

As you said it had great potential, but that lasted 0.1 secs before they made it into a total farce. 

Edited March 13 by Nagashsnee

[Felix Antipodes]

Technically it has killed every last one.  The very few times they have described the procedure, the patient needs the furnace implant to kick in to revive the patient and kickstart the hearts.

I agree though that they missed the boat when the introduced the concept.  There have been hundreds (possibly thousands) of characters name checked in the codexes, BL and White Dwarf over the years, none of which got a model.   They could have had one of the troops go through and make a list, then offer them up as the unlucky ones who didn’t pass the rubicon.  Hell, half the UM captains are nothing but a name in a codex.  Start there, then promote a couple of worthies along with a shiny new model (or not - that way they are expendable as well).

Now back to finishing Lazarus…

[darkhorse0607]

4 hours ago, Nagashsnee said:

What about Ultramarine honor guard #2 AND 4.

 

I can't believe you brought up #4. That loss pains me

[Nagashsnee]

35 minutes ago, darkhorse0607 said:

 

I can't believe you brought up #4. That loss pains me

Him and Harambe, was simply too soon. 

[DarkChaplain]

I just hope we don't need to expand on that Primaris argument again.

 

For my part, I'm torn between wanting to read Enmity's Edge and still being miffed about how they treated Balthasar. You know, the bloke from Dark Vengeance, who had a model, who had a novella and an audio drama as well as cameos in Eye of Ezekiel and a Deathwatch audio drama. The guy who "Ascended" to Company command in an audio drama, succeeding Zadakiel for 5th, and then got unceremoniously tossed out because GW produced a new model and seemingly forgot that 5th Company already had a named captain with a mini.

....so they just wrote him off as killed during the early Rift days, with Lazarus succeeding him.

 

Yeah, I'm salty. I don't mind that Balthasar got killed, at all. But it happening as a footnote and being handled like that was bad.

[grailkeeper]

Its funny, Blood Angels and Dark Angels have roughly the same amount of characters and roughly the same amount of prominence, but I know way more about the Blood Angels Characters. The only Dark Angels character* I know about off hand is the Interrogator Chaplain and I still thought his name was Ezekiel. (It's Asmodai, Ezekiel is the Librarian).  I can tell you way more about the different Blood Angels Characters, or Ultramarine characters and how they differ, whereas the Dark Angels largely blend into one for me. Maybe its because the chapter has one large driving motiviation. Where the Characters all want the same thing it makes them relatively interchangable. Other chapters dont have the same unique driving force which allows the characters to differ, and therefore have more variation which makes them identifiable.

 

Maybe its just me. I'll admit I haven't read too many of their books (Although I haven't particularly sought out the other chapters). Maybe there is more to the chapter characters than the broody guy with a name from the bible who keeps secrets about the Fallen. 

 

 

*I'm not counting Cypher as a Dark Angels character. He's a great character though.

 

Edited March 14 by grailkeeper

[grailkeeper]

Based on the chapters I relied on maybe this is the secret to a chapter having more varied characters. 

 

[Master Ciaphas]

Bought the book - and looking forward to reading it. 

...also...salty about Balthasar getting"off'ed" off page.  I liked that characted. Was he not also the Dark Angel in "Malediction" audio drama? 

[DarkChaplain]

That one was Tigrane of 6th Company (died sometime during the last few decades of M41, it appears).

 

I think the named Dark Angels characters simply didn't take center stage as much in their novels, whereas the Blood Angels had the prominent heads on display as far back as the Rafen books. Even then, their fortress monastery went unnamed until Dante & Mephiston got their trilogies and again highlighted the big ones in a major way.

 

The Dark Angels trilogy by Gav, for instance, does feature the upper echelons - but your PoV characters are, for lack of better terms, grunts. Yes, they rise through the ranks as the books progress, and get closer to the big characters, but you're still inducted into the inner circle rather than joining it directly.

 

Angels of Darkness likewise isn't concerned with the big names as much as the Chapter dynamics, and the schism. Interrogator Chaplain Boreas isn't Asmodai, and doesn't have a model, but his job is pretty important as far as the Unforgiven are concerned - and Astelan is the star of that book.

 

The Purging of Kadillus is a Space Marine Battles novel of the earliest days, so it put the battle event at the center - but it also serves as a prequel to Angels of Darkness, so it stars Boreas, with some chapters being clearly given to Belial, but also Namaan. And if we go further, the trilogy is pretty much a sequel to Angels of Darkness too, so it follows on from that general plotline.

 

We did have an older Azrael short novel, however. And Eye of Ezekiel, which was a late stage SMB novel. Dark Vengeance is a novella that served as an edition starter set introduction and dealt with the Crimson Slaughter, too.

And then we had, like, Phil Kelly's Space Marine Conquests novel, which not only pushed the Primaris thing as a focus but also had Tau and was generally poor.

 

So I'd argue that Dark Angels haven't focused much on the big names, outside of the Lion, Luther and Cypher - and even those have only recently really gained that prominence with their own books, two of which were of the 40k/HH characters series.

 

On the flipside, we've been blessed with Dante, Devastation of Baal (which even paid service to some successors), Darkness in the Blood, Astorath, two short novels about Amit, an anthology with overarching framework for Gabriel Seth (as well as audio dramas for him), Shield of Baal preceeding Dante, a Lemartes novel, a Mephiston novella from way back when, a Mephiston trilogy parallel to Dante, countless short stories and four Rafen novels (which are probably the closest to the Dark Angels Legacy of Caliban trilogy in format, considering they tell an original story flanked by big names). Heck, Blood Angels even had a tie-in novella for the Space Marine Heroes novels, didn't they? And Space Hulk, too.

[darkhorse0607]

1 hour ago, grailkeeper said:

Its funny, Blood Angels and Dark Angels have roughly the same amount of characters and roughly the same amount of prominence, but I know way more about the Blood Angels Characters.
 

 

Weirdly enough I have the same problem and normally I am generally ok with remembering characters from chapters I don't follow that much. Don't think it helps that for how long some of these characters have been around and the number of Dark Angel books out there, there's surprisingly little information about a lot of them.

 

Even after reading DarkChaplains explanations, I'm still scratching my head a bit about some of that stuff, granted I have only read the Heresy Dark Angels books and Pandorax but still. I think part of it is also the fact that chapters like the Blood Angels have more identifiable characters in their appearance

 

Dante- Golden armor, angry mask

Mephiston-Exposted Muscle armor, vampire cape

Corbulo-Generic Blood Angel Sangiunary Priest armor (mostly)

Karlaen- Terminator armor

 

Even Lemartes and Astorath who you could get confused because of their function (if you aren't super familiar with the Blood Angels) look very different so it's easier to keep track of both from an art and model perspective

 

Dark Angels- Robes and winged helmets. Oh, that's a named character? His character traits are that he hates the fallen. Oh ok.

Sammael at least has black armor and a bike, Ezekiel has blue but they don't feature much from what I gather?

 

There isn't much to grab onto if you're not diving super deeply into the chapter or its books

Edited March 14 by darkhorse0607
edit for more ranting because of DarkChaplains comment

[Nagashsnee]

2 hours ago, grailkeeper said:

Its funny, Blood Angels and Dark Angels have roughly the same amount of characters and roughly the same amount of prominence, but I know way more about the Blood Angels Characters.

I think its because its very very hard for Non DA fans to root for (and hence care in a non meme way) about DA characters. Because GW decided to hyper focus on the fallen and model the whole chapter around their hunt while making the knight aspect much less pronounced to ever increasing degrees, you end up with a group of paranoid, untrustworthy, team killing crazy people. And not the fun Templar in space or viking in space or vampire in space kind. But the will give Xenos information to invade their own successors chapter fortress or launch kamikazee suicide attacks INSIDE the emperors palace for completely crazy reasons. 

 

Like i bought the Cypher book because i knew i would enjoy the mental gymnastics needed for the DA to start firefights inside the palace and likely kill custodes. Not because i for a second thought any of the DA characters would be anything else but a paranoid copium huffing madman.  So i read the book, and i remember NOTHING about the DA characters other then they were paranoid, bat excrement  insane madmen who did the mental gymnastics needed to start gunning down anyone and anything INSIDE THE EMPERORS PALACE cause thats what the book gave me (Cyper was great tho). 

 

Likewise we have the Lion come back, and he has mellowed out and is a cool dude, so GW has to avoid ANY detail of him and his chapter while they work out how to get the new Chill Lion into a chapter who has been made into a caricature of insane fallen hatred and the willingness to do ANYTHING to kill them all.  

 

Dante has his own thing going, Mephiston the same, Calgar in the wake of the Primarch has actual interesting soul searching to do.  Even the wolf lord of wolfy mc wolfy land armed with their wolf claws and wearing their wolf talismans on their giant wolves have angels of writing done to explore some of their aspects other then wolfy wolf. 

 

This is not a attack on the DA or their fans, just a reflection on how GW took a deep dive into the fallen hunt above all else when dealing with the chapter which makes them very much love or hate for non DA players, and their lore*very monotone. 

 

*In most cases.

 

 

Edited March 14 by Nagashsnee

[Roomsky]

I for one adore how traitorous and self-defeating the Dark Angels are; they fit into my views on the Imperium nicely. Flawed characters are also usually the most interesting! That said, while he's written some good stuff with the chapter, I can't help but think Thorpe handling most of their writing is to blame for the lack of memorable characters. Azrael himself remains pretty ill-defined despite how often he appears.

 

All that said, I'm a few chapters in and the book is very good so far, as I'd expect of Kloster. It's shaping up to be the clear winner of "best Dark Angels book," especially if you don't like Brooks.

[StrangerOrders]

Early into this one but I am surprised at how much I am liking it.

 

Brings me to a strange realization that I am niether used to 40k DAngels actually being individuals nor to their being somewhat competent (despite the insetting reputation for extreme competence that is supposed to juxtaposed the lunacy the hunt casts over them).

 

Those are good things, but its sort of jarring whenever I remember that the Fallen are supposed to not take up 90% of the DAngel's bandwidth and that they are supposed to be GOOD at their jobs.

 

Spoiler

I am really pleased to see how much this author emphasizes the day to day of 40k DAngels, something we don't typically see, and the little things about their lives.

 

Lazarus' hobby of translating old tomes and playing with linguistics. The fact frank discussion of how weird the watchers are (and the funny jumpscares they inflict on Marines, made funnier by the next point).

 

This author also goes put of his way to frequently discuss the way their enhancement's change how marines go about things in well-considered ways. Something which shouldn't be noteworthy this far into the setting, but still a surprising and cool thing to see the writer recall.

 

It makes the lowkey surprise of watchers popping up funnier when the book has already established the many ways in which a marine is kind of immune to jumpscares normally (armor sensors being wired to their senses, supervision, etc).

 

Lazarus is also surprisingly interesting. He gives me salaryman vibes in the weirdest ways, being sort of cranky as you'd expect but with his little hobby of being a history dork lending him a facet you wouldn't necessarily expect, even if its pitched in terms of his role in the chapter.

 

His being constantly awkward about his new post-Primaris height, especially after years being used to being kind of short is also really funny and kind of childish. Not in the 'whiney manchild' marine way but in the 'intrusive thought' kind of way.

 

Its done subtle but it makes him come across as a well rounded marine.

 

Fingers crossed it holds up and sticks the landing! The mortal also seems promising, which is always a pleasant surprise from a Marine book.

Edited March 18 by StrangerOrders

[Roomsky]

Lazarus: Enmity's Edge - Gary Kloster (Audiobook)

 

Finished this up, and I would confirm my previous suggestion: if you don't like Brooks, this may be the definitive Dark Angels novel for you. It's well written, it has an actual plot and themes, the Fallen inform the story but are not present, and it portrays the chapter as competent and effective.Kloster has already proven himself a strong author; Spark of Rebellion made me somehow care about Ogryns, and The Last Volari is one of the better AOS novels. This continues the trend on most fronts.

 

There's very little excess fighting, and when the action scenes do come there are usually several kinds of struggle to keep things fresh. There's some very nice world building for the book's setting, and the human POV is a great one. It's well paced, it's interesting, and I was quite engaged throughout. As mentioned earlier, I really need to praise how the Fallen were used here. They don't appear and aren't the antagonists, but they're also in the back of everyone's mind and a bad situation becomes much worse purely by virtue of how their existence needs to remain a secret. They're a part of the legion's identity while finally not subsuming their entire personality. Azrael's argument in favour of continuing the hunt was very believable too: in his position, in this society, an argument from tradition is a much better fit than actually trying to rationalize it.

 

Some good 40kisms going on here too. Many characters die in ways that feel earned by the story, it's largely free of plot armour. The general Imperial hypocrisy and inefficiency is also displayed WITHOUT just making everyone an idiot. Laughed out loud during the scene where a Dark Angel laments how unnecessarily secretive their Imperial allies are being, "unlike the Dark Angels." 

 

The writing is a bit simplistic at times, though it's very smooth. I'd say that it effectively weaves its themes of secrecy and resurrection into the story well enough to make up for it.

 

My issues with the book sort of just come by comparison. I like Brooks, and I find Zabriel much more interesting than Lazarus. Lazarus is still fun in his own way, but being comically serious only gets you so far. Comparing to Kloster's own work, it does several things I liked about Last Volari, but worse. Lazarus' personal struggles aren't as compelling as Nyssa Volari's. The antagonist is not as compelling as Last Volari's, and it doesn't have as many memorable characters. 

 

So… 7/10? To Taste, probably a Must Read for a Dark Angels fan. I hope it gets a sequel.
 

Edited March 20 by Roomsky

[grailkeeper]

Bought it last night on foot of Roomskys review.

 

The opening line is "Lazarus stood on the stony shore, staring up at a sky that we'd the bruised blue of a corpses lips".

 

I'm only a few pages in but the prose is the purple of a Cadian's eyes.

 

Theres also a lot of showing not telling. Its a bit needless like saying a chaplains job is to bolster moral. A) the character should know this and wouldn't really think about it and B) readers should also know this and not need to be told.

 

I'm only at the start so hopefully it improves. 

Edited March 21 by grailkeeper

[Sothalor]

I like me some purple, ornate prose, and I like me some showing instead of telling when it comes my books.

 

This is making me want to find a copy.

[grailkeeper]

Maybe he's writing for a younger reader. It reminds me a bit of the old Space Wolf Novels which were aimed at teens, not readers pushing 40.

[Sothalor]

The... old Space Wolf novels?

 

Okay, I'm sorry, but everything you described about Lazarus makes it seem the opposite of William King's works, from what I recall. King's prose is basic and blunt in a way that almost feels like it lacks any wordsmithing, and he's one of the more egregiously "tell not show" styles of writing I've encountered.

[grailkeeper]

It's 20 years since I read them so my memory may be foggy. But the more I read this the more I think it's aimed at a younger audience than, say, ADB or Abnett. When I first started reading GW books they were aimed at a younger audience.