If I had to choose a favourite aspect of this book it would have to be Lhorke. I love the character so much and I wish I could have talked about him more in the spoiler free review. I mean what a great concept for a character! Used to be the legion master, as stand in for the Primarch. And then when they find the primarch, he’s a worse leader than Lhorke. Lhorke has to sleep for years at a time so what appears to others as the slow decline of the legion is, to him, a series of sharp drops. And then he wakes up one day and has to fight his cousins. The World Eaters have betrayed the Emperor and there’s nothing he can do about it. He can either kill the Ultramarines, or they’ll kill him.

What I found curious about him was his apparent lack of loyalty to the Emperor. I guess he just sort of accepts his fate and goes along with it, but I would have expected a former legion master to be alittle more patriotic. Having said that, I loved that moment when Angron and Guilliman fight and Lhorke stops himself from joining the duel because he’s not sure who he’d support. I love the sort of mournful condescension he feels towards Angron and I think his thoughts and his character are a great lens through which to view the tragedy of the legion. It’s something I never could have come up with, despite it being so straight forward and I guess that’s why Aaron Dembski-Bowden is a professional author and I’m not.

The creepiness of Chaos corruption was very well written in this book. The scenes aboard the Fidelitas Lex were suitably unnerving whilst not being excessive or particularly sickening. Sometimes I like to visualise what I’m reading as if it were a movie, but Erebus’ ritual, where the slaves all kill themselves was so disturbing and it made me think that no matter how popular Warhammer may get, scenes like that will never make it to the screen. Because it’s one thing to read something and another to see it. The level of detail that we are given is the perfect amount in my opinion. It’s specific enough that we get a sense of what is going on and what it might look like, but vague enough that we can downplay the gruesomeness in our minds if we want to. A luxury we are not afforded in books like “Konrad Curze: Nighthaunter”. It’s confronting but not overly so.

And I appreciated that Chaos should be confronting, it should be disturbing. But it would be distasteful for the author to bombard us with too much detail. I think ADB managed to get the perfect amount. I’ve been alittle underwhelmed by Warhammer Horror so far and I wish it could be as creepy as some of the scenes in this book.

I’ve found that death scenes can be abit hit and miss in this series. Sometimes authors can overestimate the amount that a reader actually cares about a character and as a result their death scene can become abit overblown. But I think Argel Tal was a genuine fan favourite and his death scene had the perfect amount of emotion to hit us hard but not feel overdone. The interactions between him and Raum were very interesting through the whole book. Especially when Argel Tal says that Kharn is the only brother he has left and Raum replies “You have me.”

Argel Tal doesn’t really see Raum as a brother but when he is banished by Erebus’ blade, Argel Tal is alone, truly alone for the first time in over a year, and he dies alone. The prophecy about Argel Tal dying “In the shadow of great wings” was used really well. I think Argel Tal expected, as did many fans, that he would die at the eternity gate, possibly as the hands of Sanguinius, and he’s made his peace with that. Everyone dies eventually, all a Space Marine can hope for is a glorious death, and who can hope for a more glorious death than that? So when Argel Tal is dying this unceremonious death on an abandoned battle ground, after being stabbed in the back, it hits hard. It’s the opposite of the glorious death he’d been expecting. I also liked how the great wings turned out to be the Imperial Aquilla. It was an effective way of portraying the ambiguity of prophecy and the fickle nature of the gifts of Chaos.

The role of the titans and the Mechanicum play a small but enjoyable role in this book. I quite enjoy the way Aaron Dembski-Bowden writes titan combat and I liked the comical relief that came from The Ninth and Vel-Kheredar. Especially when Vel-Kheredar says something that’s so clearly a lie, and when he gets called out on it he says he’s better at lying in binaric.

Lotara Sarin had a strong potential to become an overpowered character. She’s cocky and fearless and it’s earned her the respect of the legion, but I like that she makes mistakes and that those mistakes have big consequences. I don’t think anyone would have liked the character nearly as much if she was completely perfect all the time. Angron also points out that she is always very bold and outspoken with him when he’s thousands of kilometres away and can’t hurt her. It may seem unrealistic that a primarch could form such a genuine friendly bond with a mortal, but I think it makes sense in Angron’s case, as he doesn’t really want to be a lord or a ruler. He wants to be the first among equals like he was among The Eaters of Cities. And Lotara is one of the few people who talks to him like an equal. The memory of her sick brother that she didn’t like to visit was a strong piece of character development as it shows us why she’s become so fearless and unhesitant, as it’s implied that she was too afraid to say goodbye to her brother before he died.

Angron’s monologue at Desh Ea is definitely the selling point of this book in my opinion. It’s the reason I bought it and got so excited to listen to it. The raw emotion is very profound and kind of unexpected of Angron. It’s a great reminder that even though he’s been lobotomised, he’s still a primarch and it smarter than any normal human, something he points out to Lorgar when he gets tired of being talked down to. I’m sure I don’t need to spend too long talking about why the monologue was great but one thing I’ll touch on is that it makes Angron’s betrayal make more sense.

Previously it has seemed that Angron is a mindless butcher who just wants to kill for the sake of killing. But his monologue shows two finer points that give far more depth to his character. He sees the Emperor as a slaver, just like the ones who put the Nails in his head. And the only time he’s ever felt free when he was leading a rebellion. So, with those two things in mind, it seems obvious that Angron would have turned against the Emperor and I’m inclined to think he may have done it even if it weren’t for the nails.

Another thing we see is the loyalty he felt towards his fellow slaves, even going so far as to carry their skulls with him as he destroys Nuceria. This is a loyalty he has never shown to his legion but by the end of the book, he goes and saves Lorgar from Lhorke. And the way he cries “My brother” is reminiscent of the way he refers to his rebel friends. It shows that he now feels the same loyalty towards Lorgar and although he couldn’t save the rebels, he has taken a step towards redemption by saving Lorgar, and not counting it up like a tally as he does in the beginning of the book.

Whenever a Primarch is a main character in a book, it is all but obligatory that they make some big show of their epic combat prowess, and this book definitely checks that box multiple times. Angron holding up that titan’s foot is an obvious one. Another is when Lorgar is having a psychic battle against the Communion and then instantly transitions into a fist fight with Lhorke. I am pretty much always down for a psychic battle and the way it’s written in this book was quite good. Especially when Lorgar reaches inside the Communion and crushes something, and then one of the psykers just drops dead.

Not only that, it’s also strangely heart-warming to see that the psykers have found brotherhood with each other where they could not find it with the rest of the legion. It was also nice to see Lhorke step up to defend them when no one else would. I couldn’t really figure out who to root for in that fight and I think in this case, that’s a good thing.

This review went for longer than I intended but I suppose that’s a sign that there’s a lot to love about this book.

The Emperor Protects