Tuesday 21 November 2017

Conclave of Har Horus Heresy Novella Review: Sons of the Forge by Nick Kyme



I often wonder what the Salamanders would have been like had Nick Kyme not been their custodian in printed format. I must hasten to add, it is not only Mr Kyme’s work I think this about. What would a different authors take on Corax be like? How would Fulgrim have been portrayed by someone other than Graham McNeil? And so on. Nonetheless there is no denying that the 18th Legion are claimed by Nick, along with their 40k counterparts, and he has now produced a series of books for both. Sons of the Forge, for better or worse now attempts to bring the two series together.

The first thing that you will notice is that Sons of the Forge is pretty big, twice the length of some of its predecessor novellas. Now this caused me some consternation as I have personally found that this particular author's quality of work diminishes the more pages he writes, with short stories and novellas (and his SUPERB Blood Bowl comic) being generally very good and his full length novels not so much. It’s not that his writing changes so much that his attention seems to wander and the plots and characters become rather fantastical and silly (and yes I say that even despite the giant alien monsters, walking fungi with guns and green skin, Egyptian Space Robots and other such craziness that permeates the 30k/40k universe) to the detraction of the overall narrative. Particularly with his Tome of Fire series which this book effectively serves as a prequel to. Hopefully this will be different and more like the scintillating Scorched Earth than the dolorous Deathfire.

The story begins with Vulkan commanding his Forgefather T’Kell to destroy all the artefacts he has created for fear that they could be captured and used to serve the enemy. Vulkan is accompanying the vast bulk of his legion to Isstvan V and with no small amount of premonition It would seem, senses that should he fail to return that his creations could be seized and subverted to Horus’s cause. Following T’Kells protestations he concedes to spare just seven. But that these are to be guarded at all costs. Thus ends the prologue which is basically a repeat of the short story ‘Artefacts’.



Fast Forward and it is after Isstvan and indeed after the events of Deathfire, Vulkan is dead, his body brought back to Prometheus and T’Kell knows that the remaining seven relics must be removed lest they be attacked and taken. To this end he takes the ‘Chalice of Fire’ (which along with its mounted defence laser ‘Eye of Vulkan’ is another relic itself) and goes off to hide the relics away, unwilling to destroy the last of his father’s work. He doesn’t go alone, instead taking a force of Salamanders that did not travel to Isstvan, ‘The Unscarred’.

Now, anyone who has read any of the other Salamander heresy novels will know that the they are an emotional bunch. Somewhere along the line I think the only way that Nick decided that he could portray they compassionate nature of the XVIII was to make them full of all the emotional frailty of humans. And so it follows that these particular Salamanders are WRACKED with guilt that they did not travel to Isstvan and fight and die with their brothers and father. It makes them feel like failures and lesser Salamanders for it. Add to this some frankly horrifying individual personality flaws and you have your usual Nick Kyme Salamanders. A band of damaged and defective misfits.

Let me get something straight, I certainly don’t want to sit reading a bunch of mindless Bolter Porn about soulless automatons (kind of ironic given what happens later) but the Salamanders are just TOO much. I had a conversation a LONG time ago with Dan Abnett regarding Space Marine characterisation as I was writing some fanfic at the time and was struggling to individualise the marine characters. Dan said that it characterisation is driven by actions, that it is what a character DOES that sets them apart from each other and other chapters (This was a long time before the Heresy started!)

Batman said this too, ‘It is not who I am underneath but what I do that defines me’ and I’m sorry but if Dan ‘the man’ Abnett and Batman say it then it then that’s good enough for me. 

That said, the characters are a bit of a step up from pervious works. Well, most of the Salamanders are, the Sons of Horus are the worst type of ‘Diabolically Evil’ Two dimensional villain I have read since ‘Fear to Tread’ and the urge to shout ‘He’s behind you!’ when they appear is overwhelming such is the OTT nature of their antics. There is no depth or overriding motivation to their actions, it is simply nasty for nasty’s sake. As I have said the loyalists fare a little better,  Captain Obek of the Salamanders is a highlight as are a few of the others (Xen with his twin blades is memorable) but overall these Marines are far too psychologically damaged to be of much note. At least none of them are crying this time.

So anyway, the Sons of Horus are already at the vault where T’Kell intends to hide the artefacts and the vast majority of the book deals with them fighting in a progression of dull conflicts as the traitors try to gain access to the armoury in the vault. There are a few good scenes here and there but overall the interaction between the two fizzles rather than sizzles and the book starts to drag. It’s at this stage that a familiar and foreboding feeling starts to kick in, halfway through the book and there is noticeable lack of flow and focus. Certainly the narrative and construction could do with some tightening.



Things do pick up at the back of the book as the Shattered Legions make an appearance and Nick gets to write about the Iron hands for a bit. I actually think that he writes these a bit better than the Salamanders (probably due to the lack of emotions) as it happens. Included in this lot is a Raven Guard who is such an unstoppable ninja you do rather wonder how he hasn’t won the war all by himself.  This latter stage of the book is really rather compelling as the disparate ideologies of the Iron Hands and Salamanders are bought to the fore. I try to keep these reviews spoiler free but let’s just say the Iron Hands are hiding something. 

Of course this all comes to a head as all three factions and super black ninja clash. There are some excellent action scenes here  and it all gets pretty messy but at the end when the dust has settled you do rather get the feeling that nothing has really been achieved and no progress has been made to the overall goal. It’s a problem I had with Deathfire, lots of meandering and not a lot of result. An overall lack of focus.

And that sadly is a symptom of the books increased page length resulting in increased disparate threads and a tangible lack of focus, though as I have said, it is better than Deathfire. You just feel that he would be better handling just one or two of these plot points rather than being too clever and trying to tie everything together in a neat bow. I won’t even comment on the Aliens-esque epilogue.

Overall how do I feel about Sons of the Forge? Well, I don’t feel like it is a book that needs to exist and although it tries to tie into the overall narrative of the Horus Heresy it is the very definition of filler, serving as a link between sets of Salamander books and nothing more. Despite the good work that is done with the Iron Hands (an enduring story arc that commenced some time ago is resolved in emphatic fashion) little is done to advance the march to Terra at all, this is a side story in its purest fashion. In fact I wish more had been done with the Iron Hands as I found them to be a much better foil for the Salamanders than the Sons of Horus. To be honest the Iron Hand’s mission is actually more compelling than the Salamanders Quest which seems to go absolutely nowhere. At least not in this book, does that threaten  more of these stories, set mid timeline? Well, time will tell I guess.


At the end of the day it is typical Nick Kyme fare for the page length. If you really enjoy his novels then by all means pick this up and chances are you will enjoy it. If like me, you read his work with a sense of frustration as the highlights (which are in no short supply in Sons of the Forge) are overshadowed by the shonky characters and plot then I would advise more caution. 

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