I often wonder
what the Salamanders would have been like had Nick Kyme not been their
custodian in printed format. I must hasten to add, it is not only Mr Kyme’s
work I think this about. What would a different authors take on Corax be like?
How would Fulgrim have been portrayed by someone other than Graham McNeil? And
so on. Nonetheless there is no denying that the 18th Legion are
claimed by Nick, along with their 40k counterparts, and he has now produced a
series of books for both. Sons of the Forge, for better or worse now attempts
to bring the two series together.
The first
thing that you will notice is that Sons of the Forge is pretty big, twice the
length of some of its predecessor novellas. Now this caused me some
consternation as I have personally found that this particular author's quality
of work diminishes the more pages he writes, with short stories and novellas
(and his SUPERB Blood Bowl comic) being generally very good and his full length
novels not so much. It’s not that his writing changes so much that his
attention seems to wander and the plots and characters become rather
fantastical and silly (and yes I say that even despite the giant alien
monsters, walking fungi with guns and green skin, Egyptian Space Robots and
other such craziness that permeates the 30k/40k universe) to the detraction of
the overall narrative. Particularly with his Tome of Fire series which this
book effectively serves as a prequel to. Hopefully this will be different and
more like the scintillating Scorched Earth than the dolorous Deathfire.
The story
begins with Vulkan commanding his Forgefather T’Kell to destroy all the
artefacts he has created for fear that they could be captured and used to serve
the enemy. Vulkan is accompanying the vast bulk of his legion to Isstvan V and
with no small amount of premonition It would seem, senses that should he fail
to return that his creations could be seized and subverted to Horus’s cause.
Following T’Kells protestations he concedes to spare just seven. But that these
are to be guarded at all costs. Thus ends the prologue which is basically a
repeat of the short story ‘Artefacts’.
Fast Forward
and it is after Isstvan and indeed after the events of Deathfire, Vulkan is
dead, his body brought back to Prometheus and T’Kell knows that the remaining
seven relics must be removed lest they be attacked and taken. To this end he
takes the ‘Chalice of Fire’ (which along with its mounted defence laser ‘Eye of
Vulkan’ is another relic itself) and goes off to hide the relics away,
unwilling to destroy the last of his father’s work. He doesn’t go alone,
instead taking a force of Salamanders that did not travel to Isstvan, ‘The
Unscarred’.
Now, anyone
who has read any of the other Salamander heresy novels will know that the they
are an emotional bunch. Somewhere along the line I think the only way that Nick
decided that he could portray they compassionate nature of the XVIII was to
make them full of all the emotional frailty of humans. And so it follows that
these particular Salamanders are WRACKED with guilt that they did not travel to
Isstvan and fight and die with their brothers and father. It makes them feel
like failures and lesser Salamanders for it. Add to this some frankly
horrifying individual personality flaws and you have your usual Nick Kyme
Salamanders. A band of damaged and defective misfits.
Let me get
something straight, I certainly don’t want to sit reading a bunch of mindless Bolter Porn about soulless automatons (kind of ironic given what happens later)
but the Salamanders are just TOO much. I had a conversation a LONG time ago
with Dan Abnett regarding Space Marine characterisation as I was writing some
fanfic at the time and was struggling to individualise the marine characters.
Dan said that it characterisation is driven by actions, that it is what a
character DOES that sets them apart from each other and other chapters (This was a long time before the Heresy started!)
Batman said
this too, ‘It is not who I am underneath but what I do that defines me’ and I’m
sorry but if Dan ‘the man’ Abnett and Batman say it then it then that’s good
enough for me.
That said, the
characters are a bit of a step up from pervious works. Well, most of the
Salamanders are, the Sons of Horus are the worst type of ‘Diabolically Evil’
Two dimensional villain I have read since ‘Fear to Tread’ and the urge to shout
‘He’s behind you!’ when they appear is overwhelming such is the OTT nature of
their antics. There is no depth or overriding motivation to their actions, it
is simply nasty for nasty’s sake. As I have said the loyalists fare a little
better, Captain Obek of the Salamanders is a highlight as are a few of
the others (Xen with his twin blades is memorable) but overall these Marines
are far too psychologically damaged to be of much note. At least none of them
are crying this time.
So anyway, the
Sons of Horus are already at the vault where T’Kell intends to hide the
artefacts and the vast majority of the book deals with them fighting in a
progression of dull conflicts as the traitors try to gain access to the armoury
in the vault. There are a few good scenes here and there but overall the
interaction between the two fizzles rather than sizzles and the book starts to
drag. It’s at this stage that a familiar and foreboding feeling starts to kick
in, halfway through the book and there is noticeable lack of flow and focus.
Certainly the narrative and construction could do with some tightening.
Things do pick
up at the back of the book as the Shattered Legions make an appearance and Nick
gets to write about the Iron hands for a bit. I actually think that he writes
these a bit better than the Salamanders (probably due to the lack of emotions)
as it happens. Included in this lot is a Raven Guard who is such an unstoppable
ninja you do rather wonder how he hasn’t won the war all by himself. This
latter stage of the book is really rather compelling as the disparate
ideologies of the Iron Hands and Salamanders are bought to the fore. I try to
keep these reviews spoiler free but let’s just say the Iron Hands are hiding
something.
Of course this
all comes to a head as all three factions and super black ninja clash. There
are some excellent action scenes here and it all gets pretty messy but at
the end when the dust has settled you do rather get the feeling that nothing
has really been achieved and no progress has been made to the overall goal.
It’s a problem I had with Deathfire, lots of meandering and not a lot of
result. An overall lack of focus.
And that sadly
is a symptom of the books increased page length resulting in increased
disparate threads and a tangible lack of focus, though as I have said, it is
better than Deathfire. You just feel that he would be better handling just one
or two of these plot points rather than being too clever and trying to tie
everything together in a neat bow. I won’t even comment on the Aliens-esque
epilogue.
Overall how do
I feel about Sons of the Forge? Well, I don’t feel like it is a book that needs
to exist and although it tries to tie into the overall narrative of the Horus
Heresy it is the very definition of filler, serving as a link between sets of
Salamander books and nothing more. Despite the good work that is done with the
Iron Hands (an enduring story arc that commenced some time ago is resolved in emphatic
fashion) little is done to advance the march to Terra at all, this is a side
story in its purest fashion. In fact I wish more had been done with the Iron
Hands as I found them to be a much better foil for the Salamanders than the
Sons of Horus. To be honest the Iron Hand’s mission is actually more compelling
than the Salamanders Quest which seems to go absolutely nowhere. At least not
in this book, does that threaten more of these stories, set mid timeline?
Well, time will tell I guess.
At the end of
the day it is typical Nick Kyme fare for the page length. If you really enjoy
his novels then by all means pick this up and chances are you will enjoy it. If
like me, you read his work with a sense of frustration as the highlights (which
are in no short supply in Sons of the Forge) are overshadowed by the shonky
characters and plot then I would advise more caution.
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