Blood Angel Scout

It was a decent read on first time round, good blend of action and character moments, some of the banter between Lazurus and the Chaplain did come across as genuine. Plot takes a different view on the concept of the Fallen and explores Lazurus's role within the responsibilities of the Inner Circle, that felt fresh enough to keep engaged overall. No Lion as starts with it clearly Azreal in charge and ends with them receiving him calling them back to the Rock so guess it means they weren't around for Vashtorr situation.

Part 3 only released this year or were the dates for selection different to calendar year?

I took the end scenes with the Emperor being interred by Dorn and the others, coupled with Malcador's comments about it being the right thing but for the wrong reasoning, in that the primarchs and Valdor's belief that it will heal and restore the Emperor, which the external reader know doesn't happen, and it's that that is the bigger breaking point for them. Could sort of see it as after a couple of days, they're noticing that the wounds still aren't healing, the Emp still hasn't psychically communicated, meanwhile the rest of the loyalists have now arrived and they're slowly realising they are completely alone now, as well as everything they relied on has been torn apart. All the loyalists at this point of the HH have been shown in lore, to have questioned the Emperor's approach, the chink of doubt alluded to in Vulkan's confrontation with Magnus as how Chaos operates and without even Malcador around to help, I see this period of time as a great opportunity to explore and develop will see the beginning grounds for schisms involved with the Second founding.

I thought it was Malcador whose name was missing from the dramatis of Volume 3 though not got my copy handy to double check.

Story's not finished, last lines refer to his body being dragged away to be hung up, Blood Angels have a strange feeling of foreboding and shared visions from Sanguinius , last mention of Zephon about to experience his own personal hell in moments...the last scene is Sanguinius's death...the sword could be busted in the fight with the Emperor and Horus one of them might use it....haven't seen the Blood Angels to see how they react, for all we know they've been sharing the whole fight or if it's going to be reverse-Signus effect of him feeling each individual's death, each BA snaps in the blink of an eye. As much commentary on it being an extra volume aside, let's hold off on some "issues" being a thing before it's finished.

Just finished it and echo the comments re horror elements, was definitely not what I was expecting and all the better for it, pure Grimdark.

I think if you swap Sanguinius and the Emperor on the Vol 2 and 3 covers, the poses would look more natural to the characters. Good to see all the images for comparison sake, even the diorama - don't know how long I spent looking at the artwork, the diorama and the Citadel catalogues trying to work out what bits were used! On the images, the Adrian Smith colour version is iconic though the one Dukeleto69 posted is probably running a close second in my opinion.

Enjoyable expansion to the Dawn of Fire series, been awhile since reading the previous ones so could be wrong but think it was all new cast, instead of continuing plots of other novel, few direct links but more continuing the themes of the series. Only a first read through but seems a little disjointed at a couple of points...the book to me is 95% is "show and tell" then at a few key moments becomes "tell not show" where I had the sense I may have missed something or a page or two, that the "big" action/development/twist just happens with a couple of lines to explain it. Whether this was intensional, to demonstrate the power of faith, the sense of the miraculous, unexplainable, being unexplainable, challenging the logic and order of reality, some of the passages felt a bit thin to me, especially compared to the rest of the novel.

That's what I'm wondering about as we saw Abaddon struggle to get a force together to head to the Vengeful Spirit and as you say the Black Legion novel referenced the retreat plus the short with Abaddon in the warp alone after he hid the Spirit. I'm guessing it will/should be different to how Death Guard felt at Mortarion's death, portrayed as a sense of withdrawal or absence, opposed to the cold fury of the Scars in Warhawk, as it's not the release of the soul or banishment but the complete obliteration of one. It's also going to be interesting to see that hatred among the other legions transpire, as other than Fulgrim and his unconfirmed location on Terra, the rest of the traitor primarchs are gone and said legions are doing their own thing.

How do the Sons of Horus react once the Emperor kills Horus? Anytime a primarch has been killed, we've seen their legion go into rage mode and for me, it's the release of the primarch "soul" (or lesser daemonic/warp spirit trapped in human shell) that is the trigger so will this be the same as all lore up til now is that the Emperor fully deletes it from existance and I'm not sure if any Sons or Black Legion have mentioned that impact on them?

Think the recent lore has Angron being banished only lasts 8 days now due to the rift which explains why he's back so quickly in AoO: Lion.

Wishing John a healthy and happy retirement. Hopefully it's some of his work being used for the Royal Mail stamp tie-ins too.

Yeah, thought this was familiar... As many have said, it was a reach then and in part now, mainly because at this point in the Siege, everything's broken, time and reality. I will acknowledge the current ability shown by Loken could be psychic in nature, yet we still haven't seen him consciously activate, deploy, use it intentionally. Even the descriptions are loose inferences, leading it more to the reader to interpret. If he does turn out have been psychic the whole time, it takes away from any sense of character development as well as raise questions about why he didn't use his abilities from the beginning or throughout the series, his many interactions with daemons, why the fake out for being a GK Grand Master or would he need to be psychic for being one of the possible Inquisition or so many other events that could've went differently All of that may still yet be answered but it still isn't a confirmed thing and is why many of us are trying to say basically you think x, I think y about Loken, based upon the lack of a definitive point of reference. Not trying to be dismissive cause I get it, you want it to confirm your nearly 12 year old theory and if it happens well done, you saw something the majority of us didn't, will admit didn't see it yet until each of us read something otherwise to confirm it either way, we're going to keep going round and round, getting further off-topic. As to Part 2 I'm wondering what order the final events occur, in terms of the impact of Sanguinius's death and the subsequent rage of the BA...is that what turns the battle on the surface or is it a temporary stop gap? Do the DA get the Astronomican lit before or after The Emperor's defeated Horus? Will there be a last conversation with Malcador when they bring him to the Throne? How will Dorn get out and where's his cohort of Fists-no mention of them either?

Lord lorne walker Just reread the latest Angron novel, several mentions by the Grey Knights regarding Emperor's gift. Plenty of them throughout Emperor's Gift novel surprised you can't remember/them, was a fairly big talking point online but Buried Dagger has them going to an existing chapter set up. Ok he lit the sword again, with anger/state of heightened emotion , yet as for scanners not picking him up, not necessarily a use of them as could just be he's set a good ambush point, powered down armour or even just more of the breakdown of reality on Terra that's demonstrated throughout the novel. If there's a line missing from your quote that said something like "Loken saw the patrol flashing through his mind..." or "...he grimly looked down at his gauntlet, ice beginning to crack, tell tale sign of his unwanted gift..." then there's something that no one can dispute. As for the topic, what's the theories on how Dorn gets out of his sand trap? His own will or being rescued, cause can't remember any mention of what happened to his retinue he went up with. Keeler and the people to turn up and help the Dark Angels with the Death Guard, to relight the Astronomican seemed obvious plot point. Abaddon on his way back up to the Spirit so will it be Loken he faces off against or just get back in time for Horus's fall?

The first 8 were Grandmasters of a new chapter, created for them, not from them. For all we know they got implanted with it once Malcador took them to Titan but it has nothing to do with the creation of it. The Emperor's Gift novel claims it's from the Emperor, Watchers of the Throne novel infers it is, by the way Valerian mentions the "rivalry" between the Custodes and the Knights claims to be the Emperor's finest warriors. It will be interesting to see how Loken handles being on the warp infused Vengeful Spirit and whether or not he actually demonstrates some conscious use of a psychic ability as other than triggering Rubio's force sword- as the last gasp action of thought while Loken looked like he was about to die- I can't think of any other moments where he's shown he is anything more than latent level. If even the Emperor struggled with being on the Spirit, Loken shouldn't be able to just walk around til he finds Horus about to kill the Emperor and run into distract him before Olanius Pious walks out of a warp hole from the Anathame... well I hope there's a lot more to it than that but how else will they get there?