A year after Isstvan V, Angron and Lorgar have been tasked by the Warmaster to wreak havoc around Ultramar. Lorgar finally has a chance to take vengeance on Guilliman and Angron gets to do what he loves best. Killing.

It only just occurred to me that the three books Aaron Dembski-Bowden wrote for the Horus heresy are all in my top four favourites. Ontop of that, he also wrote an audio drama (The Butcher’s Nails) which is one of my top three favourite audio dramas and is an immdiate prequell to this book. Does that mean I’m biased? Maybe. Or maybe Aaron Dembski-Bowden is just a fantastic writer.

Both Lorgar and Angron cop a lot of flakk. And for the most part I think it’s deserved. But none of the Primarchs are two dimensional characters, not even Angron, as this book will show. The Word Bearers and World Eaters contrast each other sharply and work really well together from a story standpoint. At this point in the Heresy, both have totally different motivations and battle styles and I loved reading the mess that comes when they try to fight side by side.

I’m always impressed at how the writers manage to make even the loyalist of readers (like myself) feel sympathetic towards the traitor primarchs. Each of them are inevitably more than meets the eye and this book gives great insight into Angron’s character. While the Butcher’s Nails are a big problem for him and his legion, they are far from the only affecting factor on Angron and the chance to see him pour his heart out about his time as a slave on Nuceria is a rare treat.

The attitudes of the World Eaters towards their primarch, the Nails and the rebellion are also shown in this book, and I personally find it fascinating. All of the traitor legions are different and have different motivations but I find the World Eaters to be particularly unique and interesting.

The whole legion, having been essentially lobotomised by the Nails, have a tendency to just go with the flow. As long as they can kill things, they’re not going to complain too much. Especially since killing is the only thing that they can enjoy anymore. The book gives a really vivid description, from Kharn’s perspective, of the effects that the Nails have on a person. Kharn has more control over the Butcher’s Nails than most, and for that I respect him, but he does lose control and there’s a really cool segment where he sort of ‘comes to’ in the middle of a battle, unable to remember the last hour or so of fighting as he’s been lost to the Nails and he’s got to figure out where he is and how to get back to his squad. Kharn is a really well-written character and he really shines in this book.

Another main character is Argel Tal, who readers of ‘The First Heretic’ will know well. This book is a sort of sequel to ‘The First Heretic’ in the same way that ‘Angel Exterminatus’ is a sequel to ‘Fulgrim’. You can read it and understand most of ‘Betrayer’ without reading ‘The First Heretic’, but I think that you’ll enjoy this book a lot more if you read ‘The First Heretic’ first. Argel Tal has become a close friend to Kharn and their friendship (or bromance as some would call it) is really touching. He has grown in power since Isstvan but is still wracked with guilt over something that happened at the end of ‘The First Heretic’. If you liked Argel Tal in ‘The First Heretic’, you’ll like him here too.

Lorgar is less of a focus in this book compared to Angron but people going into this book wanting to see Lorgar will not be disappointed. Both he and Angron have some truly epic moments suited to Primarchs and it would be a crime for me to spoil them for you. Just trust me.

There are a few other fascinating elements in this book and I realise I’m using the word “fascinating” a lot but I think it’s a very good word to describe the contents of this book. We get to see the nineteen remaining psykers in the World Eaters legion after most of the librarius has died in battle or perished to malfunction in the Butcher’s Nails. If you thought the rest of the legion was tragic you will really feel for these guys. We also see some World Eaters dreadnought who spend years sleeping at a time and have witnessed the legion’s decline in increments. And then there’s Lotara Sarrin, Captain of Angron’s flagship, The Conqueror, and a certified badass. Pretty much everyone loves Lotara Sarrin and I’m no exception. She’s one of the best parts of this book. The void combat is really well written and although void combat by its nature has the potential to feel low-stakes, the battles in these books always keep me on the edge of my seat.

On the Word Bearer’s side of things, the Fidelitas Lex is on its way to becoming a full-on daemon ship and the descriptions of it are suitably spooky and fun to read. The ship has become infested with cultists and worshippers of Chaos and they’re crowding the ship like rats. Oh, and Erebus is in this book. He does a lot of his usual scheming and being an insufferable jerk. But hey, we love to hate him, right?

Now I like this book a lot, it’s one of my favourites and I really enjoyed listening to it again, but I do have one big complaint about it. And that’s the monologuing. There are parts of this book that are just huge blocks of text. It’s not always bad. Some of the monologues are really good, but it’s also tiresome at times. It also doesn’t feel authentic. That’s not really how people talk in real life and even when two characters are having a conversation it sometimes feels like it’s just two monologues intercut with each other. Having said that it does feel kind of justified as the Word Bearers love to sermonise and enlighten people on the ruinous powers at the drop of a hat. But as I said, it can feel out of place and repetitive.

So, I’d recommend this book if you like, or are even interested in:

The Word Bearers

The World Eaters

Kharn

Argel Tal

Angron

Lorgar

Void Combat

Titan Combat (a small but satisfying amount)

I know at some point I’m going to need to review some of the books that I don’t enjoy as much, but it was a real treat getting to listen to this one again. I hope you enjoy.

The Emperor Protects