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I’ll keep this short (like the book should have been) because I think a lot of the key stuff was already discussed in the Spoiler Free Review.
I was excited by the opportunity to see more of Saul Tarvitz in this book, but I was ultimately disappointed. It was cool seeing that same scene where he voxes Garro, but from Garro’s perspective. I wish we’d gotten more of their relationship though. ‘Galaxy in Flames’ paints them as really close friends but I don’t really feel like that comes through in this one. As I said in the Spoiler Free Review Garro doesn’t really seem to get emotional about anything which I think detracts from his character. Not to mention it doesn’t really seem consistent, given that he later goes to such lengths to save the life of Katanoh Tallery.
His coming to faith also feels…well I want to say half-baked but let’s be honest, it’s pretty much raw. I don’t have much more to say about it than that. A religious epiphany does not feel earned and it feels out of character for the Garro that this book has established. That’s not a complaint about his faith, I think it’s an interesting aspect of his character, it’s a complaint about how he’s written in this book. I don’t want to hate on James Swallow too much, I thought ‘Fear to Tread’ was great, I just don’t think he did a great job overall on this book.
Now this was not my first exposure to Dorn. My first exposure to Dorn was in the Garro audio dramas when Dorn his talking about the events of this book. And you know what they say about first impressions. What an absolute jerk. Now I know a lot of people love Rogal Dorn. And maybe it’s just because I had such a bad first impression of him. But honestly, what a jerk. I get it, someone was bagging out his brother. But almost killing them is alittle harsh.
Even if that’s forgivable, the way he talks to Garro after Dorn has been proven wrong is just horrible. Even much later in one of the audio dramas when he’s had plenty of chance to cool down, he’s just a complete tool about it. I just don’t think this is a great scene of Dorn, and considering it’s the second time we see him in the whole series, the first time being rather token, I kind of feel like we’re being set up to hate him for some reason.
‘The Lightning Tower’ was one of the first Audio Dramas I listened to and we get a real insight into his character and we see beyond the hard exterior, but I still just can’t get past how mean he is to Garro. I can’t remember which Garro audio drama it is that they meet again (they all sort of blur together) but you can be damn sure that when I review it, I’ll talk about it.
One thing I do love about Dorn though is his how his hair is often described as unruly or messy. This novel describes it as a “white shock of hair”. It just cracks me up that he’s the most strict, serious and regimented primarch, but he can’t get his own hair to sit down flat.
I guess I lied about keeping this review short. Sorry about that. Atleast it was shorter than the book, right?
The Emperor Protects