Ghost Legion by Mike Brooks

[The Scorpion]

I'm liking this one. Is it just me or does it feel like Brooks pours a lot of love into his harrowmaster series?

 

 

Unrelated, but Maccabian Janissaires are mentionned and are truly canon now, I suppose.

[Aramis K]

I want to like it more.

Cool characters, interesting premise, some great lines.

 

I'm looking forward to the Solomon mini, and hopefully waifu Tulava. (I wonder if they're paused as too similar to Huron and friends)

 

I just finished Ghost Legion, and before that re-read Harrowmaster and other recent Brooks Voidscarred.

 

But... it felt light. It's not sticking in my head.

In some ways it reminded me of Rath's Assassinorum: Kingmaker, yet that grabbed the imagination more with both characters and action. 

 

Ghost Legion is lean. Nearly all Plot. There's little downtime or colour, lots of telling and less of the background. And the tempo is predictable, Things Happen in each sequence. It could actually stand to be a bit longer.

 

The main idea is good, the Legion holding ground to undermine the Imperium. I'd love to see Rath or Crowley take a turn with Solomon.

 

I liked Ghost Legion, and I like the lead characters. But I don't think it's infiltrated and subverted my imagination.

 

 

 

 

[The Scorpion]

I agree. It is fun, but it feels entry level.

 

There is a lot of "showing AND telling" for some things, like Brooks is placing traffic signals to navigate the lore in some places and others not.

 

I do like the plot, it does what it needs to do: showcase different brands of Alpha Legion and how they bounce off each other, showing their strengths and their weaknesses both internal and external.

 

I like Solomon. Such a breath of fresh air in that he is an idealistic CSM. He's not bitter or particularly vengeful, more so ambitious, almost naïve despite his constant exercises of self-awareness.

His geneseed, environment, and training make him cynical, cruel, and paranoïd, but without external pressure his true self drifts towards being a dreamer. Deep down this man is not like his legion or Primarch, despite his strenghts and weaknesses being that of his legion and Primarch.

 

We often see grizzled veterans of the old war struggle against newbie upstarts. Here we see things from the POV of the upstart. From a heretic that sees things exclusively in terms of "modern 40k". Myths, legacies, Primarchs, relics, heritage are barely in his mind at all.

The Pale Spear is the relic he thinks most about, but only as a means to an end. The reason he regrets not taking the hilt is not due to legion history but rather because it causes the spear to snap, and the reason he regrets the spear snaps is because others will see it as symbolic, not him.

 

For Harrowmaster Akurra, the long war is just some war. On this system, against the current imperium, for next week's goals.