The Talon of Horus (Volume 1) (The Black Legion)

Product Information

Fantastic Racism: Some of the other Chaos Marines feel that Khayon's friendship with Nefertari is wrong. Nevertheless, they tolerate her and a few (such as Ugrivian) actually strike up a sort of friendship. Ugrivian Calaste - XII Legion warrior, born of Nuvir’s Landing. Soldier of the Fifteen Fangs warband.

No-Sell: What Daravek is able to do to Khayon's psychic powers, much to the latter's bewilderment. Abbadon simply assumes that Khayon is just psychically outmatched and cannot admit it due to pride. Khayon has to tell him that even if Daravek was stronger than him, their powers would still clash and they would fight. Being able to utterly ignore another psyker's power isn't normally possible unless you have a fragment of their soul. Lheor and Khayon, considering that Lheorvine is from the Legion of berserkers who traditionally hate psykers and sorcerers with a passion, and Khayon is from the Legion who has psykers and sorcery as their hat. Cool Starship: Vengeful Spirit, especially after Anamnesis bonds with her, if one's willing to forget about tortured souls embedded in its hull. It's enormous, sturdy and mounts truly impressive firepower. Chaos Space Marines have always been favourites of mine and given the talent of Aaron Dembski-Bowden, not only for writing them but bringing them to life and fleshing them out, I was most eager to read this. The details of what happened in the 10,000 years between the end of the Horus Heresy and the present timeline of the Warhammer 40,000 universe and the activities of the Traitor Legions in that time has always intrigued me, and it's a subject that's quite murky in terms of lore, so this book piqued my interest in giving a bit more illumination to that.Though Dorn acceded to his first captain's request to stay by his side, Sigismund had kept the real reason to himself, sensing that the primarch would not understand. Sigismund barely understood it himself, but he had made his decision. That deception had weighed on Sigismund like penitent chains ever since. Khayon: Screaming marred the duel, throaty wrathful roars that I didn't realize, until I ran out of breath, were rising from my throat. All serenity and meditative thought was lost, replaced by a red focus. I advanced on Ulrech, laying my entire weight into every blow. Ceraxia - Mechanicum Adept, born of Sacred Mars. Governess of the foundry world Gallium, and Lady of Niobia Halo. Throughout the book we primarily follow, former Thousand Son and Sorcerer, Iskandar Khayon and he is a fantastic main character. All of the characters in The Talon of Horus are great with time spent to develop each. However, we spend the most time with Iskandar getting to understand why he left his legion and what his motivations are for helping the Sons of Horus find Abaddon. It fleshes out what happened between The Horus Heresy and the main 40k timeline and gives us some awesome characters to love/hate along the way. Meaningful Name: Nefertari means "Beautiful companion" in Tizcan Prosperine. Khayon says that she called herself like that without his imput, but wonders what she meant by it. Khayon is actually a little relieved that Abaddon doesn't know her true name, as it means he isn't omniscient.

However, the protagonist and his personal conflicts are amazing. His voice of telling is captivating all on its own. Watching the disrupted warbands of the nine traitor legions find common ground in the Eye of Terror, that galactic anomaly where warp and reality blend into an unholy purgatory of hell, is amazing. Though the storyteller is phenomenal, yes, the book itself is fantastic too. Slowly, GW is filling in the gaps left in the fluff. It feels like Lord of the Rings, an epic quest to reach a goal with a rag tag group of heroes (villains) and you get a front seat to the action. Amazing storytelling coupled with just darn good writing. I mean, you really feel like you're a part of the quest to find the flagship "Vengeful Spirit" and it's evil captain. The characters are all likable (Telemacon and Gaia in particular being my favorites) and their motives all make sense. There's breaks in the fighting, sure, but each chapter is as interesting as the last, weather words are exchanged or bolter fire. Red Oni, Blue Oni: Lheor and Khayon. Lheorvine is red - hot-tempered, always wanting to fight and outspoken - while Khayon is blue: more inquisitive, introspective and nostalgic. They even have appropriately-coloured armour. Another thing is the side characters. Each and every single one of them were fleshed out in some manner and were both unique and interesting. There were points where I felt that perhaps they were too unique, pushing the boundaries of believability of the story, almost crossing into the Mary Sue area of things. Patricide: Abaddon kills the clone of Horus, who still has memories of the original, in the finale.Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Lampshaded and deconstructed as part of Khayon's explanation of Chaos Legions to the Inquisition. Despite the enormous power given by sorcery, god-blessings, daemonic allies, experience, and corrupted technology, Chaos Astartes are... well, chaotic and this has huge disadvantages - they have no formal supply lines, no dedicated manufacturing ability save for Dark Mechanicus forge-worlds that tend to serve single patrons or themselves, and very little ability to build, repair, or rearm their fleets within the Eye. This is all before you take into account that practically all Chaos warbands in the Eye of Terror have longstanding grudges or feuds with each other, and are usually fighting and stealing from each other. Khayon emphasises this by saying that the Chaos Legions can't even feed their forces because they don't have any real agriculture or food production. Valicar, ‘The Graven’ - IV Legion warrior, born of Terra. Guardian of the foundry world Gallium, and commander of the warship Thane. Panthera Awesome: After losing Gyre, Khayon's next Daemon familiar, Nagual, takes the form of a Prosperine lynx, an extinct Smilodon-esque apex predator from Prospero the size of a horse, with canines the length of short swords capable of biting through Space Marine armour. Khayon: He did not answer, nor did he watch as I left. He was seeing Sigismund again, dwelling on replies he could never speak to a brother he had once admired and who had died despising him. This claw has killed two primarchs, it wounded the Emperor unto death. I would have spared him the taste of your life a well, if you could have only seen what I have seen..."