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

Product Information

Fabius, ‘The Primogenitor’ - III Legion warrior, born of Chemos. Former Chief Apothecary of the Emperor’s Children, and commander of the warship Pulchritudinous. Born on Terra and raised to the Legiones Astartes as the Great Crusade was at its height, he ascended in rank and renown thanks to a simple fact: he was a warrior of unparalleled lethality and ability. Beneath the primarchs there has perhaps never been a more skilled warrior in combat. 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. Half the Man He Used to Be: The killing blow Abaddon strikes him with the Talon of Horus all but rips Sigismund in two. Abaddon: The only way to kill me was to welcome his own death, and he did it the moment the chance arose.

The prose was excellent, it was very well written. My biggest problem is that just... not much happens.

Contents

Blunt "Yes": When Abaddon asks why they're on the Vengeful Spirit, Lheorvine outright states that they're there to steal it. No Body Left Behind: Khayon kills Eyarik Born-of-Fire, a Space Wolves champion, during the Battle of Prospero by dismantling his body at the genetic level. Anthropomorphic Personification: The Solar Priest is a personification of the Astronomican's light and appears to Tlaloc's crew as a spindly man in a golden mask. He mentions another aspect of the beacon, called the Warlord, but we don't get to see it. After hearing about Vengeful Spirit from Sargon, Falkus is immediately willing to go find it, despite low chances of success. Museum of the Strange and Unusual: Abaddon's collection in the Hall of Titans aboard the Vengeful Spirit looks like this. He even gives Khayon and the others a tour around it. While the Talon of Horus and Abaddon's own terminator armour hold the places of honour, he's also got the skeleton of a whale-sized serpent that tried to kill him (apparently its jaws are big enough to swallow a Land Raider tank whole), Guardian Spears left by Adeptus Custodes who died aboard the Vengeful Spirit when the Emperor boarded it to confront Horus, and the remains of an aborted experiment trying to synthesize Warp energy. Khayon later calls it a "monument to madness".

Brown Note: The Talon of Horus, to anyone with psychic senses, due to the fact it was used to kill Sanguinius and mortally wound the Emperor. Khayon also notes that in its presence, Space Marines of the Blood Angels and their Successors are driven into berserker madness by proximity to the weapon that killed their Primarch.

Navigation menu

The Solar Priest calls itself several ways apart from this - the Avatar, the Astronomican, the Imperious, the Voice and the Ghost among others. Betrayal by Inaction: Why Khayon hates Telemachon initially: Telemachon's forces were supposed to reinforce Khayon's during the Siege of Terra, but instead they broke off to join the rest of the Emperor's Children in massacring Terra's civilian population, leaving the Thousand Sons under Khayon's command at the mercy of the Blood Angels. When Khayon confronts him about it, Telemachon is indifferent, even pointing out that at least the Thousand Sons who died because of his inaction died warriors' deaths fighting to besiege the Imperial Palace, rather than being reduced to undead automatons by the Rubric of Ahriman. 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. Ezekyle Abaddon, first captain of the Sons of Horus and his Justaerin Terminator elite fought their way through squad after squad of yellow-armoured Imperial Fists Terminators to the command centre of the starship, but they were too late. 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.

Clone Degeneration: We get to see Fabius Bile's failed attempts to clone Horus. Then we see that not only had he succeeded, but he had moved onto the other Traitor Primarchs. At the conclusion of the Horus Heresy during the Siege of Terra, Sigismund was chosen to serve as the first Emperor's Champion. Personally singled out by Rogal Dorn himself, Sigismund was bestowed with the high honour of serving as the personal champion of the Emperor. Though humbled by the honour, he was disturbed by only one thing -- it seemed wrong to him to obscure the sacred colours of his Legion.Works about chaos Space Marines were never my forte. They would almost always be presented as total maniac wizards or blood soaked butchers. Just Before the End: Invoked in that the story is set at the very end of 999.M41, the most advanced stage in the story-line GW reached at the time of publication, The Time of Ending. The most recent edition of the game does advance the timeline by almost 200 years, showing that both Khayon and Abbadon's plans have not succeeded...yet... Dorn then disowned Sigismund as one of his sons, for no matter what his future held, Sigismund would never again be one of his own. 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.