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A review by oneeasyreader
Descent of Angels by Mitchel Scanlon
4.0
He had achieved the ambition of his boyhood.
What new ambition would he find to guide his life.
Descent of Angels isn't just distinct from the Horus Heresy arc so far, it's very un-Warhammer 40K like as a whole.
Descent of Angels is mostly about a bunch of techno knights riding though forests on dangerous quests, different enough in subject and in theme of most of 40K, something the book itself is selfaware of:
Where the knightly orders revelled in their differences and often resorted to combat to see their feuds, the Legions were united in purpose and will.
Solo Kills
'You are where I was, and I am where any one of you can be.'
While I'm sure the style is not unique amongst Black Library novels, it is very unusual. Descent of Angels is a high fantasy story about personal growth while killing beasts...
'You have crossed a line, but it does not change who you are.'
...only to find the real beast is man...
...only to find the real real beast is a tentacle hentai monster of the Warp. It kind of all make sense in this intensely insular tale about rivalries and brotherhood that manifest themselves in thoughts rather than through dialogue or action:
Not that he ever wished harm or failure on his brother, but simply that Zahariel's triumphs would always be more limited in magnitude than his own.
...notwithstanding an atomic weapon detonation.
Russian nesting dolls
There is a wider story to the Dark Angels Legion, something which somehow happened at the same time as Horus's insurrection. 10,000 years between the Heresy and the 41st millennium yet it all happens at once. What did happen was that the ostensibly loyalist Dark Angels had a little whoopsie within their own ranks, something they have famously spent the rest of their existence covering up.
First, we have their Primarch Lion El'Jonson:
'There is no one on Caliban like him. He is the loneliest man in the world.'
...and second, Luther, the unluckiest guy in the world, cursed with being second best:
It had been Luther's tragedy to be born in the same era as a man against whom all his endeavours would be judged and forever found wanting in comparison.
Whether it's all believably portrayed is a little marginal, but it serves as an interesting set up. Luther considers and even briefly acts in betrayal, chooses loyalty, only to suffer punishment for that moment of weakness. It's an interesting situation to weigh up, considering whether someone has been justly treated for the barely more than a thought crime.
'You just beat me in the head, and we live on a world infested by killer monsters. How is that lucky?'
For a story that spends 250 pages mostly riding horses, Descent of Angels has many many many different emotional touchstones, albeit from a monastically male perspective. While that last part sounds like the 40K universe, it is also kind of not, and the distinction here ends up adding some freshness to the setting.
What new ambition would he find to guide his life.
Descent of Angels isn't just distinct from the Horus Heresy arc so far, it's very un-Warhammer 40K like as a whole.
Descent of Angels is mostly about a bunch of techno knights riding though forests on dangerous quests, different enough in subject and in theme of most of 40K, something the book itself is selfaware of:
Where the knightly orders revelled in their differences and often resorted to combat to see their feuds, the Legions were united in purpose and will.
Solo Kills
'You are where I was, and I am where any one of you can be.'
While I'm sure the style is not unique amongst Black Library novels, it is very unusual. Descent of Angels is a high fantasy story about personal growth while killing beasts...
'You have crossed a line, but it does not change who you are.'
...only to find the real beast is man...
...only to find the real real beast is a tentacle hentai monster of the Warp. It kind of all make sense in this intensely insular tale about rivalries and brotherhood that manifest themselves in thoughts rather than through dialogue or action:
Not that he ever wished harm or failure on his brother, but simply that Zahariel's triumphs would always be more limited in magnitude than his own.
...notwithstanding an atomic weapon detonation.
Russian nesting dolls
There is a wider story to the Dark Angels Legion, something which somehow happened at the same time as Horus's insurrection. 10,000 years between the Heresy and the 41st millennium yet it all happens at once. What did happen was that the ostensibly loyalist Dark Angels had a little whoopsie within their own ranks, something they have famously spent the rest of their existence covering up.
First, we have their Primarch Lion El'Jonson:
'There is no one on Caliban like him. He is the loneliest man in the world.'
...and second, Luther, the unluckiest guy in the world, cursed with being second best:
It had been Luther's tragedy to be born in the same era as a man against whom all his endeavours would be judged and forever found wanting in comparison.
Whether it's all believably portrayed is a little marginal, but it serves as an interesting set up. Luther considers and even briefly acts in betrayal, chooses loyalty, only to suffer punishment for that moment of weakness. It's an interesting situation to weigh up, considering whether someone has been justly treated for the barely more than a thought crime.
'You just beat me in the head, and we live on a world infested by killer monsters. How is that lucky?'
For a story that spends 250 pages mostly riding horses, Descent of Angels has many many many different emotional touchstones, albeit from a monastically male perspective. While that last part sounds like the 40K universe, it is also kind of not, and the distinction here ends up adding some freshness to the setting.