Siege of Terra - Fury of Magnus

[Lord Lorne Walkier]

Basically:

 

Both the Draaksward and the remnants of the Space Wolf pack from Crimson King are on Terra. When Magnus creates a breach in the defences, both groups rush to help defend it. The rune priest Bödvar Bjarki, feeling how much power there is on Terra, joins hands with Atok Abidemi and uses that power to summon embodiments of both Fenris and Nocturne: a great wolf of ice and a dragon of ash and smoke, respectively. Bjarki uses these spirits to drive Magnus back, but gets so immersed in their power that Abidemi is forced to cut off Bjarki's arm to break them out of it before it kills them both.

 

More generally, they have a good rapport throughout, and it was refreshing to see members of different legions getting along and not being needlessly suspicious of one another. The Wolves' first response on meeting the Salamanders isn't mistrust, just "Draaksward, good name. We're all brothers here, let's go kill some sorcerers!" After the above events, Bjarki isn't raging at Abidemi for cutting off his arm, but acknowledges that he was drunk on the power and the urge to finish Magnus, and later carves a draconic head into his own armour, saying:

 

"You spilled the blood of Fenris to save my life, and that makes us brothers."

 

He wants to carve a matching wolf symbol into Abidemi's armour, but Abidemi insists that only artificers of the Promethean Cult may modify their armour. The rest of the events of the book take place, with both groups taking part in the big fight at the end and losing brothers in the process. By the end, Abidemi and Gargo allow Bjarki to carve the wolf symbol into their armour, to mark what they all went through and honour the brothers they lost. After this, they are approached by Loken and Garro.

 

 

I really liked this book.  Even though I had read a bunch of the spoilers here, I was still surprised time and again.  Maybe I have a short memory...  

 

The Horus heresy, to me, is a big distillation.  A rendering.  My personal passion has focused on the fate of the a certain kind of Astartes.  Loken, Garro, Tarvitz.ect.  I had thought for some time this was leading them to the founding of the Grey Knights.  I could not imagine a purpose cooler, greater, worthy for the likes.  I was kind of right but also very wrong.  When Loken told Malacador to Kick rocks in Buried Dagger, that ship sailed.  Now I see a second coalescing,  What could it foretell I don't know.  Legion of the Dammed perhaps.  Who else could join these warriors?  Perhaps the White Scars from Mortis?

[Carach]

Just finished it. A good read that gets a thumbs up from me.

 

I've always traditionally been a fan of Magnus, partly because of his extra tragic and frustrating "if you just did x y z you'd be cool brah" story. While most things have been reasonably consistent for him throughout the HH, there have been individual actions and lines that irked me somewhat (with somewhat large leaps in character arc)

 

This novella-esque piece though cleans it up and answers questions in a satisfactory manner, I think.

 

It is nice and to the point and doesn't get bogged down with needless bolter porn filler repetition like so many of the full length novels in the SoT and wider HH. Everything flows well. [Most] things have a purpose. Bits of easter eggs also for the dedicated readership.

 

i would though still question why *nobody* simply gives him and his sons a chance to bowl into the webway to do battle with the daemons, considering our *Last Son of Prospero* seems to lose all the effects of flesh change while navigating its depths.

 

Like srsly Emps, if you had tagged on the end of your offer "they're damned but they can still do good in the webway" Magnus likely would have gone for it. He would of gained what was likely to be the GK as *his* legion, *and* been able to go into battle protecting his original possy, allowing them to do what they do best unfettered and unconcerned about warp monstrosities taking their souls

[mc warhammer]

another one i just finished and was...ok...about.

 

i think maybe i'm just over this type of black library tale? at this stage in the HH/siege i want something more than a one eyed red fire drake fighting a green fire drake as my dreamscape metaphor.  i would not have blinked if the red drake started yelling "i never did nothin' wrong!" just to really drive home the point.

 

i'm a little over analagous games of regicide too. malcador please go down into your basement of relics under that palace and dust off that box of snakes and ladders from hasbro. "oh no magnus, you landed on a snake. downnnnn the board you go" would have thrilled me to bits.

 

i also felt like the meeting between magnus and vulcan was a missed opportunity: a bit of surface chat, followed by a fight with 'sadness in their eyes'. swear either i've read that before or the themes have been played out in other forms. the result feels the same.

 

on the plus side, mcneil's magnus is always arrogant, vulnerable, charismatic and blind at the same time.  he's never a chore to read in graham's hands.

Edited May 9, 2021 by mc warhammer

[byrd9999]

 

i'm a little over analagous games of regicide too. malcador please go down into your basement of relics under that palace and dust off that box of snakes and ladders from hasbro. "oh no magnus, you landed on a snake. downnnnn the board you go" would have thrilled me to bits.

OMG, this would have been one of the highlights of not just the Siege, not even the Heresy, but the entire BL fiction output! Brilliant :)