Apothecary Vaddon

Sure, as long as you ignore the fact that Iax was getting dragged into the Garden (or the Garden was getting dragged into Iax, probably both tbh) because of what Ku'Gath and Mortarion were doing, and that the comparison b/w Lucius and the Emperor is hilariously idiotic to begin with, and the fact that ... a Custodian turning into Lucius has nothing really to do with the scene that did happen? But don't let that get in the way of the salt-mobile. Pretty much all of the top 100 posts in that thread are better than...whatever that is.

Definitely is great. Carries the trilogy to its end suitably, furthers Guilliman's characterization, and bridges a few different works including The Great Work and Devastation of Baal. Loved the crap out of it. Couldn't put it down after I got it until I finished it.

I loved it. A great end to the DI trilogy, especially after it unfortunately got shifted in the timelines, some really great lore stuff in it.

I've described it as a 'word salad' in the past. But weirdly enough I don't remember the Ahriman series being like that...maybe it was and I just don't remember, but these days I just skim everything until i get to some kind of lore tidbit that seems pivotal or whatever

Yeah I kind of glazed over everything that wasn't that. Just wasn't invested in anything other than those parts lol

"The Great Work" shows that the Emperor had a hand in setting up Cawl for the Primaris project. He spoke to one of the people who's memories Cawl would eventually acquire, knowing that Cawl would eventually remember the conversation. Having said that, I tend to agree that FOM is referring to the GKs. Oh, he definitely interacted with Cawl (but tbh that's more of a function of just how many specialists Cawl gobbled up and how those were the same people the Emperor had worked with) , but the entire project was never his brainchild, as it were. Even when he spoke to Cawl, he was very non-specific in the discussion. The Emperor had already made his move in response to chaos already in the GK.

Just read it, pretty decent. I do find it funny that so many people thought that one bit was referring to primaris marines, going into it without any context around the spoilers from the book I instantly gravitated to the GK because of how they've been set up (both outside of this novella and within) and who's leading them. AFAIK Primaris marines weren't at all a conception of the Emperor, only a conception of Guilliman/Cawl, and literally along the lines of what DarkChaplain was talking about. The only thing the Emperor had done at this point was sanction the GK with Ianius at their head, which makes the most logical sense for the story. Malcador's regen ability specification was interesting, as was the whole 'what if' bit.

tfw you literally barely remember jarnhammer 1 and 2 so need to revisit them

Not bad. I'll be interested in seeing more of Evangeline, but not so much Ravara. She's not much of an Inquisitor. She is based on Terra, though, so maybe before Crowl leaves for Commorragh/thereabouts he can execute Ravara for gross heresies against the Imperium. Plot was quite predictable. The novel is written well enough to the point where that's not a terrible hindrance by any means, but the twist was very, very obvious. I'll be fine if Harrison starts helming the Sororitas fiction from here on out though. I do also want to see some tie ins or setting ramifications of Our Martyred Lady trickle in through Sororitas fiction, but doubt that'll come through with anything relating to Evangeline's story, since Mark of Faith was really self contained and a pretty tightly wound novel.