War of Secrets by Phil Kelly- now available

[Taliesin]

Any thoughts on this? I'm intrigued by the synopsis, hopping there is good stuff about the T'au.

 

https://www.blacklibrary.com/new-titles/featured/war-of-secrets-ebook.html

 

 

We've all been dying to know what happens when the Primaris Space Marines and Dark Angels finally meet – and now that story is finally here.

 

Lieutenant Xedro Farren is a Primaris Marine, stronger and more adept than even the Space Marines his brotherhood is sent to fight alongside. As the Dark Angels and the Primaris Marines fight a trauma-scarred force of T’au hellbent on destroying their former allies, the true quarry becomes clear – the shadowy instigator of a psychic curse that could plunge a string of Imperial planets into madness.

 

As worlds burn in the fires of battle, an unthinkable pact is struck, with the Primaris Marines peeling back layer after layer of deceit to find the appalling truth. Can Farren hope to emerge from this web of lies without losing his honour – or come to that, his life?

 

[DarkChaplain]

Phil Kelly and Tau don't mix well.

[Icarus1138]

Having read it, here's my review:

 

The Dark Angels are jerks.

[Kriegsmacht]

Having read it, here's my review:

 

The Dark Angels are jerks.

 

Shocking

[Cleanse And Purify]

Did a lot of Tau die? I hope so :D

[Sete]

The DA and Tau joined up and killed the Primaris.

[Chapter Master Valrak]

No audio...sad panda :(

[Icarus1138]

The DA and Tau joined up and killed the Primaris.

 

In case anyone was worried about spoilers, this actually isn't the case 

 

To give a little more info though, the story primarily (see what I did there?) follows a Primaris Lieutenant and his guys as they attempt to show their worth to their new battle brothers. All of the Primaris marines are well-trained but not experienced, and are cultural outsiders from the rest of the chapter. The Dark Angels do NOT approve, but are essentially forced to admit the newcomers to their ranks. A lot of the drama comes from, well... a lot of the things Dark Angels do seem entirely normal to themselves of course, but when you take a platoon of marines that haven't grown up surrounded by that culture, a lot of it seems really weird. Why do mission briefings withhold so many details? Why are subordinates that ask questions so unwelcome? Why do certain companies (first and second) vehemently refuse battlefield support, even from idle units? Why do strategic operations abruptly change objectives with absolutely no explanation?

 

We the readers know why of course, but seeing it through the eyes of marines that are used to trusting their fellows and using teamwork to achieve logical goals doesn't make the DA Chapter look great. Which I have no problem with, the Dark Angels are objectively bad at their job in the same way any military unit that takes off in the middle of a battle whenever they feel like it would be. That's right, I said it. 

[DarkChaplain]

No audio...sad panda

 

Give it time. We just got Devastation of Baal in audio a month ago (and it still hasn't been fixed, still lacking the final chapter...), and the Space Wolves one isn't out in audio yet either. If that comes in the foreseeable future as well, we can distinguish a pattern. Right now it seems likely to me that all of them for the time being will be getting audiobooks with around half a year delay, like Dark Imperium. Hoping for Cadia Stands myself...

[b1soul]

I really really wish the DA stop being portrayed as the super secretive legion with deep dark secrets

 

I understand that they're an introverted, mistrusting legion...but could an authour please write a story that does not focus on this aspect...please?

[StellarElite]

More over, can we have a book on this Chapter that actually espouses their tactical and strategic ability instead of the logistically impossible vanishing act they pull the moment they catch a whiff of the Fallen?

 

God, this is so stupid. Half the reason the Lion needs to wake up is so this godawful storyline can be finally resolved and we don't have to deal with the secrecy thing anymore.

[DarkChaplain]

I really really wish the DA stop being portrayed as the super secretive legion with deep dark secrets

 

I understand that they're an introverted, mistrusting legion...but could an authour please write a story that does not focus on this aspect...please?

 

Asking for that in relation to a novel that was supposed to highlight how the Dark Angels deal with the new Primaris dudes suddenly showing up on their doorstep, not knowing jack all about their traditions, history and tragedy is pretty silly, though. I mean, this is literally the place to dig into the secretive nature of the Chapter, because that very nature clashes with the newcomers' perceptions. Unlike even new recruits to the Chapter, they were not indoctrinated to not ask questions from day one, but are basically a 3rd party military force that is completely at odds with its parent Chapter.

 

Frankly, I don't see the appeal in Dark Angels stories that ignore the crux of their being and role in 40k. Not like we didn't have stories like that before.

But to ignore and sideline the most iconic part of Dark Angels lore, which is usually being tackled from a different angle anyway (or as part of a trilogy via Legacy of Caliban - well duh that they'd all spin around the same axis, they're a three part narrative!), seems just so... generic. Like wanting an Ultramarines story with the Marines being green instead of blue.

 

At the same time we could be asking for a Blood Angels novel that doesn't deal with the Red Thirst or Black Rage. Even Dante, which was mostly about the recruitment stuff and journey across Baal, deals with the Thirst. Or a Raven Guard novel where the Ravens don't employ stealth. Or an Ultramarines novel where the Codex Astartes matters not one bit and nobody shouts Courage and Honour. Or a Space Wolves novel without howling, getting drunk and wet leopard growls.

 

The secretive nature and obsession with their ancient shame are the defining aspects of the Dark Angels as a Chapter. They'll always be a concern for them, and they're basically the one thing that sets them apart from all the other Chapters the most drastically. It guides their lives within the Chapter from their induction onwards, affects the way they are organized, respond to the chain of command, or ascend the ranks. You can't take it out without basically needing to rewrite a large part of who they are, by which point you basically don't need to be writing about Dark Angels anymore.

[StellarElite]

 

I really really wish the DA stop being portrayed as the super secretive legion with deep dark secrets

 

I understand that they're an introverted, mistrusting legion...but could an authour please write a story that does not focus on this aspect...please?

 

Asking for that in relation to a novel that was supposed to highlight how the Dark Angels deal with the new Primaris dudes suddenly showing up on their doorstep, not knowing jack all about their traditions, history and tragedy is pretty silly, though. I mean, this is literally the place to dig into the secretive nature of the Chapter, because that very nature clashes with the newcomers' perceptions. Unlike even new recruits to the Chapter, they were not indoctrinated to not ask questions from day one, but are basically a 3rd party military force that is completely at odds with its parent Chapter.

 

Frankly, I don't see the appeal in Dark Angels stories that ignore the crux of their being and role in 40k. Not like we didn't have stories like that before.

But to ignore and sideline the most iconic part of Dark Angels lore, which is usually being tackled from a different angle anyway (or as part of a trilogy via Legacy of Caliban - well duh that they'd all spin around the same axis, they're a three part narrative!), seems just so... generic. Like wanting an Ultramarines story with the Marines being green instead of blue.

 

At the same time we could be asking for a Blood Angels novel that doesn't deal with the Red Thirst or Black Rage. Even Dante, which was mostly about the recruitment stuff and journey across Baal, deals with the Thirst. Or a Raven Guard novel where the Ravens don't employ stealth. Or an Ultramarines novel where the Codex Astartes matters not one bit and nobody shouts Courage and Honour. Or a Space Wolves novel without howling, getting drunk and wet leopard growls.

 

The secretive nature and obsession with their ancient shame are the defining aspects of the Dark Angels as a Chapter. They'll always be a concern for them, and they're basically the one thing that sets them apart from all the other Chapters the most drastically. It guides their lives within the Chapter from their induction onwards, affects the way they are organized, respond to the chain of command, or ascend the ranks. You can't take it out without basically needing to rewrite a large part of who they are, by which point you basically don't need to be writing about Dark Angels anymore.

 

 

I do. Here's the thing-- the whole secrecy and obsession thing has yet to find an author who'll actually handle it with a deft hand, instead of making all the Dark Angels look like complete blithering morons who couldn't possibly function together. The Dark Angels have plenty of things that make them unique; their status as the First Legion, their First and Second Companies, their mobile fortress-monastery, the massive stores of ancient and weird technology, the Watchers, and finally, the fact they secretly keep in contact with the rest of their successor Chapters. Of course, all of this comes back to the secrecy and their ancient shame.

 

The problem is, the secrecy and the obsession and the complete narrow-minded idiocy of it all overshadows all other aspects until it's their only trait, rather than the one that gives them a strong base to work on. Yes, they'll do anything to hunt the Fallen, but how does abandoning an entire warzone make any sense? It's already established that the Ravenwing and Deathwing are the only companies who have an idea of what they're dealing with if a Fallen turns up, so why involve the Battle Companies and risk exposing them to the secret? Even worse, up and leaving like that only calls further attention to their activities, making the cover-up look exceptionally sloppy. For a Chapter descended from a Primarch who was capable of solving Warp jump calculations on the fly, and was espoused as a master strategist, they're amateurs.

 

As Icarus put it, they're objectively bad at their job, and going further than this, straight up murdering people to cover up a secret that they don't even fully understand only leaves even more of a trail for others to find. The smart thing to do would be to integrate the Primaris overtime instead of trying to push them out, on the off-chance that they might not be a hundred percent onboard with the whole Fallen-hunting thing.

 

The Dark Angels are a Chapter with a huge problem, and it's not the Fallen. It's a massive tonal inconsistency; are they supposed to be skilled, stoic space-knights who work alone and shun help from others, or are they some kooky Freemason-style cult with their collective heads lodged firmly in their own asses? As of right now, it's an uncomfortable in-between that doesn't even make them compelling antagonists-- as they stand, they're just... unlikable.

[Icarus1138]

 

 

As Icarus put it, they're objectively bad at their job, and going further than this, straight up murdering people to cover up a secret that they don't even fully understand only leaves even more of a trail for others to find. 

 

 

At one point, the DA Chaplain overseeing the Primaris marines (along with standard marines) mentions to the Captain that he'd prefer to have just refused them entry to the chapter or have them killed now that they're in, but Guilliman is keeping a distant eye on things and any shenanigans would likely invite further investigation. 

[Kriegsmacht]

Their shame isn't really a shame anymore thanks to the Heresy books. It's not unique to them anymore that part of their legion turn traitor now that it's known that every loyalist legion had members side with Horus. So now you're just looking at the Dark Angels thinking "What's the big deal?".

[Orwell84]

I really really wish the DA stop being portrayed as the super secretive legion with deep dark secrets

 

I understand that they're an introverted, mistrusting legion...but could an authour please write a story that does not focus on this aspect...please?

 

Seconded. The only Dark Angels-centric stories AFAIK where the Fallen don't feature prominently are The Purging of Kadillus and the Deathwing short by Bill King. Arguably the latter doesn't count either as it was penned prior to the Fallen's introduction into the background. A refreshing change would be a story that's distinctly DA without having the Fallen at the centre of things. Kind of like asking for an Alpha Legion story where they're actually up-front with their allies and fight without elaborate subterfuge, but still...

 

That said, the first appearance of Primaris marines in the chapter wouldn't be the place for a Fallen-less story. I've never read Phil Kelly's work before, so I might give this a try when the price drops.

 

More over, can we have a book on this Chapter that actually espouses their tactical and strategic ability instead of the logistically impossible vanishing act they pull the moment they catch a whiff of the Fallen?

 

God, this is so stupid. Half the reason the Lion needs to wake up is so this godawful storyline can be finally resolved and we don't have to deal with the secrecy thing anymore.

 

One can hope. Alternatively, if you want to really screw things up for the DA, have Luther escape or be found and interrogated by Guilliman

 

 

Their shame isn't really a shame anymore thanks to the Heresy books. It's not unique to them anymore that part of their legion turn traitor now that it's known that every loyalist legion had members side with Horus. So now you're just looking at the Dark Angels thinking "What's the big deal?".

 

Gav Thorpe addresses this in the intro to Legacy of Caliban. The DA chose to hide any record of their traitorous brethren - easy enough to do, when the traitors were all confined to one planet away from the public eye - and from that stems 10,000 years of paranoia and lies.

[Kriegsmacht]

My thing is that by the end of the Heresy they will have known that the same thing happened within the other legions so it doesn't make any sense anymore that they have to hide their "shame". Just makes them look like jerks doing pointless dickery when they abandon allies because they might have found one of the traitors.

 

The whole shame of their past thing made more sense when they were the only Legion to have part of their marines turn against the Empire.

[m_r_parker]

I picked this up at BLL, and now I’ve finished Slaves to Darkness I’ll give it a read next. Hearing Phil Kelly speak about the book st the event makes me think he’s done it well, but the proof will be in the pudding as they say.

Given my biggest bugbear about Primaris is how more secretive chapters such as the Dark Angels respond to new marines showing up on the doorstep, I’m hoping this is done right.

[Chapter Master Valrak]

 

No audio...sad panda

 

Give it time. We just got Devastation of Baal in audio a month ago (and it still hasn't been fixed, still lacking the final chapter...), and the Space Wolves one isn't out in audio yet either. If that comes in the foreseeable future as well, we can distinguish a pattern. Right now it seems likely to me that all of them for the time being will be getting audiobooks with around half a year delay, like Dark Imperium. Hoping for Cadia Stands myself...

 

 

I thought that was just me, I knew it ended way too suddenly! 

[rendingon1+]

DA can definitely be written without fallen being shoved everywhere. But BL thinks otherwise. Gav's DA prose is certainly insulting but it seems every other author that touches DA as a subject just can't get imaginative enough to NOT include fallen as a main or side plot. Eye of Ezekiel was such dissapointment to me - iconic battle vs orks... with a fallen theme. Book was terrible without it, sure, but seriously?

 

 

Same thing with Andy Smillie's Flesh Tearers. Any of his novel or short story just comes down to how Red Thirst and black rage are a thing and after reading for a thousandth time how FT are almost killing each other (or actually killing each other) on a daily basis, one just wonders how they survived 10000 years let alone one.

[Triszin]

Okay, I'm going to give this my best shot:

 

First and foremost, War of Secrets is a Dark Angels book. Indeed I think it's probably not wrong to say that it's so much a Dark Angels book that you could remove all chapters focused on the T'au side of the story without directly affecting the core narrative. At its heart this is very much a story about the many layers of secrets within the Dark Angels Chapter and how they lead it down pathways that seem utterly bizarre to those without the same perspective, and while the T'au do factor into that it certainly isn't necessary to see things from their perspective in order to understand the story.

 

As for the story itself ... I'm really undecided as to how I feel towards it. It's eminently readable and indeed I found myself enjoying it quite a bit for much of the first half of the novel, but I can't help but feel it gets very bogged down in a number of plot threads that either aren't connected to the main narrative or that are utterly functional and are used solely to get us from Point A to Point B despite feeling like there should be so much more to them. It doesn't help that there are a number of ideas that feel very overused (the significance of one of the Primaris' new organs is a recurring thing and major plot point) and you get weirdness like something to the effect of "[The T'au are] a physically feeble race made formidable by their blasphemous warsuit technology" appearing in dialogue, narration and a character's internal thoughts on separate occasions. It certainly isn't something I would advise seeking out for the sake of the T'au material unless you also have an interest in Dark Angels.

 

So on to the spoiler material:

 

To try and boil down the plot of the novel to its core elements, War of Secrets is a story about collusion between the Inner Circle of the Dark Angels and the command of the Fourth Sphere Expansion in order to quarantine and exterminate some kind of psychic plague. A psychic ague of some sort is present which essentially causes those infected to vomit up white ectoplasm which is capable both of spreading the infection and melting through ceramite on contact. Even the Space Marines are not immune to this infection ... but the T'au are. The psi-inert nature of the T'au physiology seemingly grants them immunity to this nightmarish condition, and through this the two factions end up coming into something of an uneasy alliance.

 

For some time now the T'au have been using stealth suits to eliminate Gue'Vesa on one of their worlds in order to stem the spread of the plague. Naturally they cannot act on this cull openly, both for morale reasons and because they believe the Sept Worlds would censor them for it, and thus the extermination has been carried out solely on the quiet, with the human population referring to these unknown killers as "Takers." When the Dark Angels arrive on-world in pursuit of the individual responsible for the plague (one of the Fallen, naturally) they do so under the guise of taking the fight to the T'au and liberating the planet ... and they're quick to leave in pursuit of their target without actually taking the world back. Their chase takes them Allhallow, homeworld of the Angels of Absolution, and ultimately leads them into a situation where they fight alongside the T'au prosecuting war against those infected with the psi-plague. From this comes an accord of sorts: The Astartes will carry out an extermination campaign on the T'au-held world while the T'au maintain a presence on Allhallow to try and contain the plague, being immune to its effects. Through this both factions can achieve their goals without appearing to be waging war on their own allies.

 

From the T'au side of things that's basically all of the main narrative that matters. Anything beyond that solely concerns the Dark Angels.

 

---

 

Kais was assigned to the Fourth Sphere Expansion in much the same way that Farsight led the Second and Shadowsun the Third, but rather than being intended as a leader for the Expansion he was sent there very much in his role as Tha'hasiro - The Living Weapon. Kais was apparently put back into stasis following his role in the Fi'rios campaign (and all evidence of his role there destroyed by the Water Caste) with the intention of being used solely as a weapon of last resort rather than made into a figurehead as his peers were. Nobody short of the Ethereals and individuals of Commander rank even knows that his stasis pod was brought by the Expansion fleet.

 

At the time of War of Lies, Kais is mentioned to have spent just short of 250 years in stasis awaiting the call to arms ... and all of it fully conscious. The man says himself that he only retained his sanity by planning every possible permutation of how he might kill every last known enemy over and over again within his mind, refining and perfecting Monat strategies for every possible eventuality until he had committed them all to memory. That includes how he might kill his fellow T'au. Kais is a very cold and violent individual who sways between being utterly unemotive and extreme anger; he's the sort of character who says things like "I am a weapon [...] I should be wielded as one" and "I am the sharpest of instruments," and his first course of action upon being released from stasis is to punch the individual who freed him in the throat to shut them up. He's absolutely someone who has ceased to have the ability to play nice with others.

 

Ultimately Kais is unleashed on Allhallow in order to single-handedly purge the fortress monastery of the Angels of Absolution in a Ghostkeel and honestly seems well on the way to doing it. His combat scenes try to distinguish his style by showing the thought process by which he picks apart the scene before him and decides on which pre-determined Monat strategy to use against it (i.e. Mono-Imperial Scenario 2934/E, Mono-Imperial Scenario 2991/D), and while he's not shown to be invincible he cuts a bloody swathe through most of those before him and pushes a Chapter Master, Librarian, Chapter Champion and their supporting elements to the limits, killing all but the first ... and then an orbital strike comes down right on top of the fortress monastery.

 

Kais doesn't die - there's no body in the cockpit of his suit in the wake of the strike - but his ultimate fate is left up in the air.

 

In the epilogue it appears (I'm not going to claim absolute certainty on this) that Kais and those around him have been manipulated by the Ethereals with it being entirely intentional that he remain conscious while in stasis, his mind somehow shielded from decay with time, and information about technological developments and combat data being fed to him between his periods of lucidity. He apparently represents the test case for a plan to create a new generation of Monats through this unusual training method, a test case considered a roaring success. The Ethereal in charge calls for them to aim to create another 64 Monats in his image if they can find adequately promising individuals.

 

---

 

As for the survival of the Fourth Sphere Expansion ...

 

The Fourth Sphere Expansion was saved by a new minor Warp deity formed in the image of the Greater Good as a reflection of the souls of those psychically-active races which have come to serve under the banner of the Empire, predominantly humans. It appears as an entity that falls somewhere between human and T'au concepts of beauty, something of a bulkier Ethereal, with a great many arms of both four and five digits, no face and an aura that intermingles benevolent calm with a ravenous hunger to take the entire galaxy within its embrace and reshape it in its own image. All members of the fleet are mentioned to have seen this entity and we're shown at points in the book that some human cultures have created a cult in its worship with a priesthood and everything, literally praying to T'au'va for salvation. This being created the portal that allowed the Fourth Sphere Expansion to escape after they became becalmed in the Warp.

 

Needless to say the T'au have not taken this well.

 

‘Then we of the Fourth Sphere must eradicate all alien auxiliaries. Anything with the least presence in the sub-realm must die. It is the only way the T’au’va will remain pure.’

 

As I always say when going over these things, what I've put down here is absolutely not the full story. Obviously you're not getting all of the details and what you're seeing is coloured by both my own biases and choices to simplify and express the content, so some things you take away from this may not be truly representative of what's down in print. Nonetheless I hope I've given at least an adequate idea of the information pertinent to the Fourth Sphere Expansion in War of Lies.

 

 

ehh, sounds like Kelly. and not in the good way.

 

Even the Space Marines are not immune to this infection ... but the T'au are.

 

( what could've saved this, is if the plague was created by the tau to kill all non tau, and they secretly field tested it)

 

and kelly keeps trying to make the tau completely immune to chaos, they have dim souls, they do not have inert souls. and even then, machines and inert things can be possessed by chaos.

 

ya, I'm going to pretend that the results of this book happened, but everything that occured in the book is fake.  just like how I view damocles and the other kelly writings.

 

christ, they need to ban kelly from writing tau books, its worse than the fan fiction

[Sete]

So I was half right.

[Commander Dawnstar]

Just for clarity on my post there that got copy/pasted: That's entirely focused on the T'au side of the story and largely overlooks the Dark Angels-centric stuff. It doesn't touch at all on the Primaris plotline (the main focus of the novel) or one concerning the human characters, and the T'au plotline is a very minor part of the overall novel. Hell, it doesn't even touch on the T'au plotline in any more than the most surface of detail.

 

Unfortunately I'm not at all qualified to talk about the treatment of the Dark Angels so someone else will have to take care of that. Sorry guys.

[Cleanse And Purify]

One tau versus an entire fortress monastery? I don't know if there is enough eyerolling in the world to convey my feelings on this matter.

 

Suffice it to say, I hope a lot more Tau died in the novel.

[Commander Dawnstar]

Suffice it to say, I hope a lot more Tau died in the novel.

 

Not really. They're not actually involved in a lot of focal fighting beyond the opening scene and there aren't many of them present for that - just a few Stealth Suits and a Ghostkeel.

 

Kais is only actually shown to encounter thirteen Marines before reaching the heart of the monastery, so make of that what you will.