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

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ABD the author stayed on point with a focused storyline about brotherhood, sense of purpose and portraying the leaderless multiple legion spacemarines as not just being mindless, heretical, blood lust killing machines but a large group of soldiers who were human enough too be more then they felt after the fall of the warmaster Horus at the Battle for Terra. This is a story about the scrap of humanity each Genetically altered spacemarine has and his sense of brotherhood. Honor, duty and self-worth I felt were the focus in this story and the author too me portrayed that well. The story flowed very well and each chapter when finished was cohesive naturally with each following chapter. This story had a strong human element portrayed by the characters and especially Abaddon. The story was so much more then Abbadon and every aspect of the story was very clear. The proper editing was evident with each chapter. Ugrivian Calaste - XII Legion warrior, born of Nuvir’s Landing. Soldier of the Fifteen Fangs warband. 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. Iskandar Khayon - XV Legion warrior, born of Prospero. Sorcerer of the Kha’Sherhan warband and commander of the warship Tlaloc. But with all that said, there were some issues with this book, beyond the before mentioned toeing of the Mary Sue line. My biggest has to do with the clone of Horus. It is mentioned time and time again in 40k fiction that the primarchs were to the space marines as the space marines are to normal humans. This can actually be seen in the current release of the primarchs in the game itself. Yet in the confrontation with the cloned Horus in this, the way everything plays out not only downplayed the primarch (maybe a cloning flaw?), but also made him sized the same as Abaddon in his terminator warplate, which shouldn't have been the case. Most people wouldn't have noticed this, but it really took me out of the story.

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.Later on, before leaving for Mars, Sigismund felt that he must reveal to his gene-father his true reasons for returning to Terra and why he couldn't take command of the Retribution Fleet. He shared with Dorn the truths revealed to him by the Remembrancer Euphrati Keeler. Enraged by his son's revelations, the primarch rebuked Sigismund. They were made to serve, he explained to the first captain, every primarch and every son of a primarch existed to serve the Imperium. Their existence had no other meaning. Their choices were not their own, their fate was not theirs to choose. I find myself unable to describe any scene without adding more spoilers. The story is magnificently captivating, the new realisations about the WH40K universe are numerous; the finale blows your mind both with the adrenalin of the action, and the emotionality of the statements and conclusions being drawn. Leave No Witnesses: After the First Battle of Cadia, Khayon personally eliminates any surviving witnesses to Sigismund and Abbadon's duel, the Ezekarion having decided it was too dangerous letting anyone outside their ranks know how close Abbadon came to dying in that battle. In Chosen of Chaos Abaddon is now one of these due to carrying both the Talon and Drachnyen (as well as receiving a variety of blessing from the Chaos Gods). Khayon, a powerful warp sorcerer himself, finds it difficult and unpleasant to even look at him.

However, we learn some interesting things about the way the warp is. The WH40k universe is redefined to be even more grim and bleak than it already is. (Honestly though, it is getting a ~little~ nihilistic. Is the Astartes vs Cthulhu story that far away? :) ) And there are a lot of really neat little character moments that I enjoyed very much. Instead I was really surprised at how this story unfolded. First this story began from the perspective of a Thousand Son Legionary and not a Luna Wolf. The legionary gathers fellow Astarte’s to a cause that embodies a sense of purpose. Talon of Horus as most of us know is a special power claw of five blades one for each finger with a storm bolter mounted on the top… or another description for how I perceived this book is each blade can represent a heretic legion that is now fractured after the death of Horus. This Talon or similar to a fist being a fist is weak while missing a finger or a broken one but when the hand is whole then the first is strong. These Heretic spacemarines needed a reason or a common goal, possibly a proof of existence too not just fight but fight as a legion comprised of fractured and leaderless soldiers but as a Legion. Through the help of this Thousand Son, a few World Eaters and some other Astarte’s. So together they went to find Abbadon who possibly was on the Vessel Vengeful Spirit in seclusion. The Idea of the main character and his brothers is too find Abbadon who would take all the war bands and leaderless Astarte’s who fought for Horus and Install Abbadon as Warmaster and give direction and instill a sense of purpose into the thousands of gene enhanced soldiers of war who have no sense of purpose or beliefs besides killing for the sake of killing. When Khayon is approached by an old comrade of his with word of a dire threat, that the body of Horus has been stolen from its tomb by the Emperor's Children, he finds himself caught up in a quest across the Eye of Terror to find the one person who might be able to put an end to whatever obscene plans the Third Legion has for Horus's corpse, a warrior who has long disappeared into the depths of the Eye in the wake of his father's great failure, Ezekyle Abaddon...

Buy The Talon of Horus by Aaron Dembski-Bowden

Reassured, Sigismund strode across the war-torn scenes of carnage, of hell on Earth, challenging any and all Champions of Chaos to single combat as well as anyone else unfortunate enough to cross his path. When Rogal Dorn accompanied the Emperor and Sanguinius in the boarding of Horus' flagship, the Vengeful Spirit, he left most of his Imperial Fists behind to look to the defence of the Imperial Palace. Heroic Sacrifice: Mekhari remembers enough to stand in Horus' clone's way and protect his erstwhile friend from dying. Gyre, a daemon, and Nefertari, a Dark Eldar Scourge. One would think that they'd hate each other, but Gyre has been forbidden to slay Nefertari (and doesn't show any particular inclination to want to anyway), and as a daemon, Gyre offers no sustenance for Nefertari. A friendship formed around not being able to kill each other could only happen in 40k.

His face was only marred by a scar from under his right eye that ran down his cheek all the way to his jawline. His eyes were coloured a bright, sapphire blue that matched the colour of the ocean.

Unusually Uninteresting Sight: While talking about the other ships at Gallium, Khayon offhandedly confirms the existence of the Fallen to the Inquisition (something the Dark Angels and their successors have spent ten thousand years trying to prevent) and moves on without a second mention of it. Collector of the Strange: Abaddon has a wide collection of trophies from his centuries-old pilgrimage, from the talon of Horus to the skull of a giant serpent creature. After only a few hours' worth of fighting both Mondus Occulum and Mondus Gamma were burning, and vast swathes of machinery and manufactorum capacity had been destroyed. The loss of such irreplaceable technology and knowledge would be felt by the Imperium for millennia to come. Like comets launching from the surface of Mars, the Imperial transports fled into the heavens. Astartes and Imperial Army vessels jostled in the sky in their haste to depart the crimson world. But the mission was successful and the Loyalist Astartes had secured a large number of the new marks of Power Armour in preparation for the oncoming campaign against Terra by the Traitor Legions of Horus. Supernatural Gold Eyes: Abaddon's eyes are colored gold, which he claims is a result of staring into the light of the Astronomicon. Telemachon Lyras - III Legion warrior, born of Terra. Subcommander of the Emperor’s Children 16th, 40th and 51st Companies warband, and captain of the warship Threat of Rapture.

A sculpture of First Captain Sigismund of the Imperial Fists Legion around the time of the Siege of Terra Demonic Possession: After escaping the III Legion ambush, Kibre's surviving warband have become daemonhosts. Khayon later uses an incomplete version of this as one of his many, many ways of bringing down fortresses singlehanded. 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...

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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. Some apocryphal sources claim it is actually an antediluvian relic that was found deep on the planet Clthon, and was a product of Humanity's lost Age of Technology. Whatever the truth, the Talon played a dark role in the Imperium's history. During the Siege of Terra aboard his flagship Vengeful Spirit, Horus used his taloned claw to kill his own brother Sanguinius, the winged primarch of the Blood Angels Legion, and to mortally wound the Emperor Himself. Old Soldier: Sigismund. Whilst plenty of traitor marines are, technically, as old as him, Sigismund was verified as being close to 1000 in realspace verified years - not warp-dilated time. Abbadon struggles to beat him in spite of this. Look on My Works, Ye Mighty, and Despair: Invoked; while attending a armistice with Daravek upon a destroyed craftworld at the edges of the Eye of Terror, Khayon takes a moment to admire the architecture. When Abaddon questions Khayon about his fascination with the Eldar, Khayon replies that he considers them a warning of what happens when a species doesn't exercise sufficient caution in dealing with the Chaos Gods. The Talon of Horus is now an icon of evil incarnate to the Imperium, causing terror in Imperial forces, except for the Astartes of the Blood Angels Chapter who are affected with an implacable hatred for the weapon that slew their gene-sire. Over the last ten millennia, Abaddon has tested the strength of the Imperium many times in the Long War, and with each victory his power grows.