Deliverance Lost: Ghosts of Terra (The Horus Heresy)

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Gav Thorpe is the author of the Horus Heresy novel Deliverance Lost, as well as the novellas Corax: Soulforge, Ravenlord and The Lion, which formed part of the New York Times bestselling collection The Primarchs. The story itself is quite interesting, sadly it lacks deeper descriptions, emotion, also character variety and development. Upon arrival in the Sol system the Raven Guard are stopped by an Imperial Fists force led by Captain Noriz. His Warhammer 40,000 repertoire further includes the Path of the Eldar series, the Horus Heresy audio dramas Raven’s Flight and Honour to the Dead, and a multiplicity of short stories. One might argue that surely most of the Heresy books should suffer from this but somehow for me this is the only one where it has been a problem.

Story progresses with Corvus trying to bring his legion back from near destruction, only to be thwarted by Alfa-legion scheming. While the Alpha Legion scenes were great and well-done, throwing the reader off on multiple occassions and seeing their perspective of their host-Legion (and the effect the memory-implantations have on them), it is the Primarch of the Raven Guard that was best characterized.Band der 'Horus Heresy' Reihe, und konzentriert sich auf die Nachwirkungen des Istvaan V Massakers auf das Imperium. The book should be for at least 14+ because of how detailed the story can get, and plus just violence in general. Two characters thought whose little side stories felt unnecessary or built up to nothing were imperial commander Marcus Valerius and former librarian Balsar Kurthuri. Still, I cannot help but feel that this final part was an afterthought, thrown in to show Corax and co in action, as the majority of the novel didn't have much bolter activity to show.

Omegon launches his attack on Ravendelve, the location of the secret gene-project on Kiavahr, and amidst the battle the three undercover Alpha Legionnaires reveal themselves, killing several real Raven Guard including Vincente Sixx. Things start well enough, but deep down we know they cannot end well and we spend the entire book waiting for the hammer to fall and shatter all hope. The Raven Legion was one of the three legions that were in the Isstvan Dropsite Massacre during the Horus Heresy. In a way Corax beat his brother to this, with the creation of the Raptors, ultimately the Alpha Legion got in the way of that.

I similarly wished a bit more storybuilding on the relation between the "fallen or flawed" raptors and their other battle brethren who at first are kept secret but overnight become an accepted part of the legion. Corax becomes obsessed with the creation of new legionaries and once the Magos Biologis and Raven Guard chief apothecary Vincente Sixx figure out how to use the gene-technology a new breed of Raven Guard legionaries is quickly bred and nicknamed "the Raptors. The interactions between the dual Alpha Legion primarchs and their confederates/erstwhile bosses are fun. As might be expected, the Traitor Legions are present, as are the Imperial Fists, which is something I always like to see and although the story focuses on Corax's struggles to rebuild his legion, a lot of the book is spent in flashbacks, which focus on the backstory of Corax.