Angels of Caliban: 38 (The Horus Heresy)

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Every post will be filled with Spoilers from the novel so if you haven't read this week's book then proceed with caution. As the book ended, I still found myself feeling sympathy for the Lion's adoptive father-brother, rather than see him as the arch traitor he is considered in the 41st Millennium. With the Dark Angels Legion spread across a hundred systems, Primarch Lion El'Jonson stands as Lord Protector of Ultramar -- though his true motives are known to few indeed, and old rivalries on the homeworld threaten to tear the Legion in half. Caught up in his campaign were elements of the Death Guard led by First-Captain Typhon and Dark Angels led by Luther’s disgraced warriors from Caliban. He essentially argues the case to declare military law on Macragge so he can secure the planet and prevent the traitor’s escape.

If you want to hear me voice my opinions on The Beast Arises in a podcast format, that's the ticket. He is aware of his failings, but also alone in bearing them, with no one to trust or turn to in earnest. And it brought back some great Luna Wolves characters like Tarik Torgaddon and Garviel Loken, whom I’ve missed enormously since they died during the betrayal at Istvaan III.At one point The Lion muses on the power his office within the Imperium Secondus now grants him and thinks about how he is the new Warmaster in all but name now. Tyler is a life long painter and hobbyist and took home his first Golden Demon award at the 2012 Chicago Games Day with a follow up at the 2013 North American Games Day. In the past Dark Angels books the events on Caliban always played second fiddle for me to what the Primarch was doing during the crusade, but here Gav has really made me feel invested in them. In the last HH book, John French wrote a short story about the Watchers in the Dark and an unnamed Dark Angel helping Iacton Qruze and Loken escape Caliban.

Gav does a fantastic job balancing these post-human genetic marvels against each other, and that ultimately is what I thrive on when reading the series. All the same though, there is a payoff for it in the end, and soon we are back on Macragge as the Lion learns just how much of a fool he’s been made by Curze. Sanguinius frustrates me a bit in this as he just takes an apathetic stance on the whole issue and lets his brother’s fight it out instead of stepping in with his power as Emperor. They institute a complete lock down on the planet, freezing many of the civil liberties of the populous, and even disregarding their lives in many cases.

A swirling vortex of warp power was created around Caliban and it eventually broke apart, being pulled into the warp. I love Thorpe writing the Dark Angels and I cannot wait to see the eventual cataclysmic confrontation between Lion El’Jonson and Luther. The spin-off short The Curse of Shaa-dom follows a tangent from Warrior/ Seer and links to the short story Treasures of Biel-Tanigh by Andy Chambers.