Audio Review 123 // Throne of Lies by Aaron-Dembski Bowden

What a non-Flesh Tearer story!! What is happening, sound the alarm, I've gone off the deep end. This week's listen was Throne of Lies by Aaron-Dembski Bowden, set within the Nightlord trilogy by the same author, a book currently sitting on my shelf waiting its turn to be read.

Title: Throne of Lies

Author: Aaron Dembski-Bowden

Blurb: The Night Lords are among the most feared Chaos Space Marines in the universe. They prey on their victims from the shadows, stalking the faithful of the False Imperium in their ultimate quest to destroy the Emperor. The Warband of the Exalted, travelling aboard The Covenant of Blood, are recovering from the events at Crythe Primus. But their dark crusade against the loyal Imperial forces continues, and they will leave a trail of blood and terror behind them.

Review

The audio adventure starts strong, with an introduction to a Navigator struggling to control her craft through a rough warp trip. Soon we are dumped into real space, and the story unfolds. Unsurprisingly we follow a Night Lord's Warband who is searching for a relic that contains information valuable to the Night Lord Legion. But this is a tale of two halves, so let's split it and go from there.

The opening half describes a Callidus Assassin working her way to a target, manipulating her body to morph from character to character until she is within striking distance of a Cultist High Priest. As the priest starts to spew hatred of the Imperium, he is mysteriously struck down as if by the will of the God-Emperor, putting fear into all who witnessed it. As the Callidus makes good her escape, the sound of Space Marines arriving is heard, and soon the Callidus is fleeing for her life as the Night Lords chase her down. She is ultimately captured and tortured, revealing the location of the relic the Night Lords seek.

The second half of the drama is the seeking of the prize, which is hololith recording. It must be rather significant as multiple Warbands have gathered for the attack in a show of strength not seen by this legion since the great crusade. As the forces make landfall, they are disappointed to discover the Assassins fortress is abandoned and seemingly so for many years. But within its heart lies the recording they seek. At this part, I fall for the bad guys again. As the images play out, it shows the final moments of Konard Kurze's life as recorded by the Assassin who killed him. Turns out the Legion is trying to collect all known recordings of their father and finally seek out the master copy so they can hear his final words.

Aaron-Dembski Bowden does something few authors can do, he makes me like the "Bad Guys". I love it! Let me know your thoughts and reach out!

Book Review 83 // The Talon of Horus (Black Legion Book #1) by Aaron Dembski-Bowden

The final week of my Thousand Sons books has arrived. What a trip here is a list of the titles I've managed to complete for this project:

Ahriman: Sorcerer

Ahriman: Unchanged

A Thousand Sons

Magnus the Red: Master of Prospero

It's definitely been a month of two halves. The Ahriman titles fell flat for me and left me dis-hearten but then A Thousand Sons and Magnus lifted my spirits and renewed my faith in this reading project. Having now read the most common titles linked to the legion I was struggling as to were to go next. The obvious choice was another Horus Hersey title called the Crimson King but it is 30 titles further along into the series, and I didn't wish to go that far ahead. Lucky for me a friend had a good suggestion and led me to The Talon of Horus. How can a Black Legion book fit into the Thousand Sons month? Let's jump in and find out.

Book Details

Title: The Talon of Horus (Black Legion #1)

Author: Aaron Dembski-Bowden

Publisher: Black Library

Type: E-book

Page Count: 352

Commercial Fluff: When Horus fell, his Sons fell with him. A broken Legion, beset by rivalries and hunted by their erstwhile allies, the former Luna Wolves have scattered across the tortured realm of the Eye of Terror. And of Abaddon, greatest of the Warmaster's followers, nothing has been heard for many years. But when Horus's body is taken from its resting place, a confederation of legionaries seek out the former First Captain, to convince him to embrace his destiny and continue what Horus began.

Review

So how did it tie into the Thousand Sons you ask? Well, this entire story is told by Iskandar Khayon an ex-Thousand Sons sorcerer. It follows on in the wake of the Horus Hersey (by about 1000 years) and how the various traitorous Legions are in a constant state of warfare, for resources, slaves and territory. In this mix of constant warfare Khayon and a mixture of other Astartes hear of a rumour about the resting place of the Vengeful Spirit and go in search not knowing they were taking the first steps in building a new legion and creating a Warmaster.

Ultimately this is a story of how the Black Legion became an all-powerful force within the Eye of Terror. It shows how not all the Astartes are slaves to the dark gods and how some just want to be lead and reclaim past glories and right wrongs. The story is full of great characters and interesting locations, it deals with themes I haven't heard before like aldari serving Chaos Lords and it even has a cameo from Fabius Bile!

A great opening tale to the story and great Thousand Sons read as Khayon is neither a loyal son to Magnus or a follower of Ahriman, he and his followers are claiming their own path and leading the traitor legions into new glories. As soon as I finished this tale I picked up the next novel, which is the highest praise I can give. It is weird to read this tale and find yourself rooting for the villains to win but in a location like the Eye who is to say who the real villains are?

This was a great read to fit in with my timely decision to build a Chaos Army, though not Red Corsairs it does show how different legions can merge to form one force. It has got me thinking of possible characters I can build and create to bring my Corsairs to life and how each might form a separate part of the whole.

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