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4.0 AVERAGE
4.0 AVERAGE
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
inspiring
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
tense
medium-paced
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
tense
medium-paced
adventurous
dark
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
‘Feeling better?’ asked Yesugei, looking at him intently.
‘The implant took,’
Tamu replied. ‘I was told you were near death.’
Tamu grinned. ‘I eluded it.’
You never know what you will get with Scars. That’s because you’re not meant to. So now I don’t know what to think of it.
The uncertainty principle
‘There is enough uncertainty here without introducing more.’
The easiest criticism to make of Jaghatai Khan is that he is a bad leader. What makes it so easy is that Wraight lays it out for us. His men don’t know his plans.
The lack of direction from the primarch was disconcerting, almost as much as the inexplicable presence of the Alpha Legion had been.
His own plans are not great:
He had been a fool to come, and a greater fool to come down to the surface in person.
He demands absolute loyalty from his own men, yet deliberately conceals his own loyalties, adversely impacting other Primarchs. He’s the archetypical Hamlet, delaying and doubting, and Wraight does not give Khan any payoff from taking his time – rather half his Legion rebels, possibly the worst result on either the traitor or loyalist side. Angron, a psychotic who made his Legion drive nails into their heads, quite possibly has less defectors than Khan, whose sin is that he’s quite vague.
So what should I take from Scars? Wraight says he wanted to bring across the themes of unpredictability and ambiguity - as a mirror to those Legions whose various contingent events led them to turn traitor, certain events instead lead to the White Scars remaining loyal. Sort of. It’s kind of unclear what the White Scars’ moral dilemmas are compared to those that other Legions faced. The book rather weakly paints certain Legion members being wooed by Horus the Warmaster saying some nice(?) things, leading them to believe that the Khan will think Horus is quite nice too. All very confusing if slightly remedied by a solid, if not totally coherent, confrontation with Mortarian about it – the Khan believes in the freedom of his men... ...so long as they are totally loyal.
So Scars is interesting by trying to use grey areas and divided loyalties to show that faith in the EMPEROR OF MANKIND is not automatic. It’s just that the end result is [b:just like the Primarch book Wraight authored|36373731|Jaghatai Khan Warhawk of Chogoris (The Horus Heresy Primarchs, #8)|Chris Wraight|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1507458501l/36373731._SY75_.jpg|58060962] – ambiguity becomes the personality trait, the end rather than the means. If you think ambiguity is an interesting (or even a tenable) summary of a character then, great, Scars is for you. Otherwise, I guess I’m ambivalent.
One hundred years in a day
‘We do not know Horus is a traitor.’
‘Yes, that is the point. We know nothing.’
Scars should be an epic. It covers a long stretch of events, at least equivalent to [b:A Thousand Sons|6465063|A Thousand Sons (The Horus Heresy, #12)|Graham McNeill|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1280757140l/6465063._SY75_.jpg|6655533] or [b:Fulgrim,|957931|Fulgrim (The Horus Heresy, #5)|Graham McNeill|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1403985069l/957931._SY75_.jpg|942841] each both nearly a hundred pages longer. We have Ullanor, Nikea, some lore about Bjorn, the aftermath of the fall of Propero, the Ruinstorm, and the wrapping up of the Chondax campaign – add to that a Primarch who couldn’t even be said to have cameoed in the series to far. He deserved an epic treatment.
Scars is simply too short, too limited in character development. The supposed conflict between Torghun and Shiban isn’t built up convincingly. The White Scars generally barely rise above their “gotta go fast” meme other than Yesugei, who could have been an even more major character in line with his friend Ahriman. We should have seen more of the Khan’s ethos is, what he stands (runs?) for, rather than ambiguity being the centrepiece, rather than some interesting hints. Some of this will be covered later in the series, but the introduction to the White Scars had the chance to have been much stronger.
When the Khan kills, it is beautiful.
The ambiguity of it all is that Scars is a good book. There are fun action pieces. The Khan can talk the talk and walk the walk, notably at Ullanor and Prospero respectively. The Shattered Legions continue to add a “Dudes Rock” element to the series. With some tweaks and more space (to roam), I think Scars could have been great. As it is, it is merely good.
‘The implant took,’
Tamu replied. ‘I was told you were near death.’
Tamu grinned. ‘I eluded it.’
You never know what you will get with Scars. That’s because you’re not meant to. So now I don’t know what to think of it.
The uncertainty principle
‘There is enough uncertainty here without introducing more.’
The easiest criticism to make of Jaghatai Khan is that he is a bad leader. What makes it so easy is that Wraight lays it out for us. His men don’t know his plans.
The lack of direction from the primarch was disconcerting, almost as much as the inexplicable presence of the Alpha Legion had been.
His own plans are not great:
He had been a fool to come, and a greater fool to come down to the surface in person.
He demands absolute loyalty from his own men, yet deliberately conceals his own loyalties, adversely impacting other Primarchs. He’s the archetypical Hamlet, delaying and doubting, and Wraight does not give Khan any payoff from taking his time – rather half his Legion rebels, possibly the worst result on either the traitor or loyalist side. Angron, a psychotic who made his Legion drive nails into their heads, quite possibly has less defectors than Khan, whose sin is that he’s quite vague.
So what should I take from Scars? Wraight says he wanted to bring across the themes of unpredictability and ambiguity - as a mirror to those Legions whose various contingent events led them to turn traitor, certain events instead lead to the White Scars remaining loyal. Sort of. It’s kind of unclear what the White Scars’ moral dilemmas are compared to those that other Legions faced. The book rather weakly paints certain Legion members being wooed by Horus the Warmaster saying some nice(?) things, leading them to believe that the Khan will think Horus is quite nice too. All very confusing if slightly remedied by a solid, if not totally coherent, confrontation with Mortarian about it – the Khan believes in the freedom of his men... ...so long as they are totally loyal.
So Scars is interesting by trying to use grey areas and divided loyalties to show that faith in the EMPEROR OF MANKIND is not automatic. It’s just that the end result is [b:just like the Primarch book Wraight authored|36373731|Jaghatai Khan Warhawk of Chogoris (The Horus Heresy Primarchs, #8)|Chris Wraight|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1507458501l/36373731._SY75_.jpg|58060962] – ambiguity becomes the personality trait, the end rather than the means. If you think ambiguity is an interesting (or even a tenable) summary of a character then, great, Scars is for you. Otherwise, I guess I’m ambivalent.
One hundred years in a day
‘We do not know Horus is a traitor.’
‘Yes, that is the point. We know nothing.’
Scars should be an epic. It covers a long stretch of events, at least equivalent to [b:A Thousand Sons|6465063|A Thousand Sons (The Horus Heresy, #12)|Graham McNeill|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1280757140l/6465063._SY75_.jpg|6655533] or [b:Fulgrim,|957931|Fulgrim (The Horus Heresy, #5)|Graham McNeill|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1403985069l/957931._SY75_.jpg|942841] each both nearly a hundred pages longer. We have Ullanor, Nikea, some lore about Bjorn, the aftermath of the fall of Propero, the Ruinstorm, and the wrapping up of the Chondax campaign – add to that a Primarch who couldn’t even be said to have cameoed in the series to far. He deserved an epic treatment.
Scars is simply too short, too limited in character development. The supposed conflict between Torghun and Shiban isn’t built up convincingly. The White Scars generally barely rise above their “gotta go fast” meme other than Yesugei, who could have been an even more major character in line with his friend Ahriman. We should have seen more of the Khan’s ethos is, what he stands (runs?) for, rather than ambiguity being the centrepiece, rather than some interesting hints. Some of this will be covered later in the series, but the introduction to the White Scars had the chance to have been much stronger.
When the Khan kills, it is beautiful.
The ambiguity of it all is that Scars is a good book. There are fun action pieces. The Khan can talk the talk and walk the walk, notably at Ullanor and Prospero respectively. The Shattered Legions continue to add a “Dudes Rock” element to the series. With some tweaks and more space (to roam), I think Scars could have been great. As it is, it is merely good.
Fantastic read. There has been very little to date detailing the White Scars and this was a great intro for a largely unknown legion. I enjoyed that there was some further details from Nikea and the expansion of the burning of Prospero.
It will not disappoint.
It will not disappoint.