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A review by ratgrrrl
Angron: Slave of Nuceria by Ian St. Martin
5.0
March 2024 Read using the Horus Heresy Omnibus Project Reading Order - Omnibus X Shadow Crusade III Chosen of Chaos (https://www.heresyomnibus.com/omnibus/x-shadow-crusade-iii-chosen-of-chaos) as part of my Oath of Moment to complete the Horus Heresy saga and extras.
Really, really good, but I wish it had twisted the rope a little more and made me bawl, but I am a glutton for emotional punishment, especially when it comes to my precious angry babies.
This is an incredible look back at the early days of the World Eaters leading up to the Legion-wide adoption of the Butcher's Nails through a failed (by Angron's exacting standards) scouring of a world and their furious return. Accompanying this epoch of the Legion, we witness the early years of the Primarch's life from his capture to shortly after he had the Butcher's Nails embedded in his skull by the High Riders.
Both narratives are filled with buckets of tragedy and mountains of blood, acting as a heartbreaking mirror as in one the horrifically abused and traumatised Primarch treats his sons with brutal contempt as they suffer at his and each others' hands in a struggle to mutilate the mien of the Legion in the hope of earning the care and respect of their genesire, while we witness the young, innocent Angron so desperate to avoid causing anyone suffering forced into a nightmare of physical and emotional attrition that shape him into the ursine beserker without scope for anything else, even before the nails were hammered into his skull.
The conceit for how and why we see the scenes of Angron's past is impressively simple and clever, working incredibly well, as well as tying into other aspects of Angron that make it a brilliant call.
This truly is a brilliant Horus Heresy novel and easily one of the best and most effective of the Primarchs series, not only showing us the life and significant events and their effects on both Angron and his Legion, but going out of its way to do so through entertaining and engaging narratives that illuminate the character of the Warhounds and the diversity of thought and feelings about the Primarch and the Butcher Nails.
My only real complaint, and this is only minor and because I'm such an emotional masochist, is that I really wanted this book to break me like Betrayer and After Desh'ea do. I definitely got choked up and it is is brutal and sad, but I didn't fall to pieces. That doesn't mean it's not wonderful, regardless of the millimeter of tears per hundred pages quota being less than I hoped for.
A truly solid entry in both the the Primarchs and the wider Heresy series, not quite as Exalted as Sanguinius: The Great Angel by Chris Wraight got me personally, but absolutely top tier and one I will be returning to in the future for sure.
Bloody marvellous!
Through using the Horus Heresy Omnibus Project (www.heresyomnibus.com) and my own choices, I have currently read 19.41 Horus Heresy novels, 11 novellas, 53 short stories/ audio dramas, as well as the Macragge's Honour graphic novel, 10 Primarchs novels, 4 Primarchs short stories/ audio dramas, and 2 Warhammer 40K further reading novels...this run. I can't say enough good about the way the Horus Heresy Omnibus Project suggestions. I'm loving it! Especially after originally reading to the releases and being so frustrated at having to wait so long for a narrative to continue.
Really, really good, but I wish it had twisted the rope a little more and made me bawl, but I am a glutton for emotional punishment, especially when it comes to my precious angry babies.
This is an incredible look back at the early days of the World Eaters leading up to the Legion-wide adoption of the Butcher's Nails through a failed (by Angron's exacting standards) scouring of a world and their furious return. Accompanying this epoch of the Legion, we witness the early years of the Primarch's life from his capture to shortly after he had the Butcher's Nails embedded in his skull by the High Riders.
Both narratives are filled with buckets of tragedy and mountains of blood, acting as a heartbreaking mirror as in one the horrifically abused and traumatised Primarch treats his sons with brutal contempt as they suffer at his and each others' hands in a struggle to mutilate the mien of the Legion in the hope of earning the care and respect of their genesire, while we witness the young, innocent Angron so desperate to avoid causing anyone suffering forced into a nightmare of physical and emotional attrition that shape him into the ursine beserker without scope for anything else, even before the nails were hammered into his skull.
The conceit for how and why we see the scenes of Angron's past is impressively simple and clever, working incredibly well, as well as tying into other aspects of Angron that make it a brilliant call.
This truly is a brilliant Horus Heresy novel and easily one of the best and most effective of the Primarchs series, not only showing us the life and significant events and their effects on both Angron and his Legion, but going out of its way to do so through entertaining and engaging narratives that illuminate the character of the Warhounds and the diversity of thought and feelings about the Primarch and the Butcher Nails.
My only real complaint, and this is only minor and because I'm such an emotional masochist, is that I really wanted this book to break me like Betrayer and After Desh'ea do. I definitely got choked up and it is is brutal and sad, but I didn't fall to pieces. That doesn't mean it's not wonderful, regardless of the millimeter of tears per hundred pages quota being less than I hoped for.
A truly solid entry in both the the Primarchs and the wider Heresy series, not quite as Exalted as Sanguinius: The Great Angel by Chris Wraight got me personally, but absolutely top tier and one I will be returning to in the future for sure.
Bloody marvellous!
Through using the Horus Heresy Omnibus Project (www.heresyomnibus.com) and my own choices, I have currently read 19.41 Horus Heresy novels, 11 novellas, 53 short stories/ audio dramas, as well as the Macragge's Honour graphic novel, 10 Primarchs novels, 4 Primarchs short stories/ audio dramas, and 2 Warhammer 40K further reading novels...this run. I can't say enough good about the way the Horus Heresy Omnibus Project suggestions. I'm loving it! Especially after originally reading to the releases and being so frustrated at having to wait so long for a narrative to continue.