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.

[grailkeeper]

Just started this. I'd enjoyed the previous book.

 

Theres a lot of exposition and tell don't show. Characters saying what their motivations and abilities are, often by way of introduction.

[darkhorse0607]

Interested to hear what you end up thinking about it, its sitting on my nightstand right now to read, but heard mixed thoughts.

 

Was a fan of the first one 

[The Scorpion]

16 hours ago, darkhorse0607 said:

Interested to hear what you end up thinking about it, its sitting on my nightstand right now to read, but heard mixed thoughts.

 

Was a fan of the first one 

 

If you liked the first one, and you already bough it, might as well read it.

18 hours ago, grailkeeper said:

Just started this. I'd enjoyed the previous book.

 

Theres a lot of exposition and tell don't show. Characters saying what their motivations and abilities are, often by way of introduction.

This is true however, and something I noticed on other books by Brooks but not all. This second harrowmaster book has chunks that are written that way, and chunks that are not.

 

I imagine it must have to do with how much time he has to write or some other quirks of the crwative process.

[grailkeeper]

Supposing there was a Chaos Space Marine Character called "The Hatman". He has a hat which gives him abilities. It was secretly given to him by Horus. 

In an ADB novel he'd be introduced as Fedoran. His personality would be revealed over time along with his background. A justification would be given for the hat about 2/3rds of the way through the book which would make you look a child's toy in a completely new light. There's a meditation on the impact of the death of a Primarch on Astartes  and their psyche. A hitherto largely mocked model would become a fan favourite. 

In this book he'd be something like this

 

"Hello Hatman"

 

"Hello (Protaganist). You know that I wear my hat which was  secretly given to me by Horus as you and I have been friends for many years"

"Yes. You wear that hat because it gives you the power to destroy your enemies. Please do not use it to destroy me."

 

"I won't. As you know I only use it to destroy my enemies and you and I have been friends for many years, unlike the Emperor, who is not my friend and who is someone I want to destroy as he is my enemy."

Edited June 16 by grailkeeper

[LSM]

I really loved Harrowmaster; finishing up Ghost Legion... I liked it.

 

As others noted, it's a good premise that doesn't come together the way that it feels like it could (or should) have. Almost feels slight and overstuffed at the same time? Too many characters for such a simple story, and the attempted dramatic irony (of introducing from the off that the McGuffin - whose search for Akurra has on the backburner - is right under his nose) doesn't really work. 

 

Spoiler

Midway through, I thought that the "Pillar of Dreams" would - twist! - actually turn out to be the shaft of the Pale Spear... which I think would have thematically fit with a bunch of other events in the book. Oh well.

 

I'm still very much into the protagonist and will gladly read a third in the series, but the hope would be that it rebounds a bit.

[System Sound]

While I like harrowmaster, ghost legion felt like a filler episode with some plot hooks at the end.

[grailkeeper]

I get the feel that this book might have been written quite quickly. It might explain the lack of nuance.

[grailkeeper]

Every time a character is introduced it gives a recap of what they did in the last book. Kinda handy way of padding out the word count if he was writing in a hurry.

[The Scorpion]

On 6/18/2026 at 4:18 AM, grailkeeper said:

I get the feel that this book might have been written quite quickly. It might explain the lack of nuance.

My thoughts exactly. I felt the same with the Lelith book. Brooks is not quite Gav Thorpe, who appears as if he can churn out book after book after book at perfectly serviceable quality, making him lowkey the most vsluable writer that BL has.

[grailkeeper]

Finished this. The best bits were all spoiled on reddit. The story is paper thin on top of all thr issues I've already highlighted. Brooks can be a good author, but usually he isn't. This isn't one of those times, which is a shame as Harrowmaster was.

 

[sitnam]

7 hours ago, grailkeeper said:

Brooks can be a good author, but usually he isn't.

I can't comment on this particular book yet nor the width of Brooks work, but I normally find he is a good author; quite good at times. His Ork novels were all very entertaining and Harrowmaster was fun as well. Maybe I missed the rough stuff but I normally look forward to his novels