Perhaps the most surprising thing about Clonelord was that we even got one. That's hardly a knock against the quality of Primogenitor, nor the skills of its author, simply that the first Fabius Bile book seemed like an open and shut case. It granted a detailed look into Bile's life, established a very elegantly pieced together depiction of the villain's life, goals and ambitions, then closed it out on a perfect note. It seemed like there was little else to tell, and any sequel would be superfluous. Clonelord thankfully proves that assumption to be utterly wrong.
Synopsis
Set a relatively short time after the events on Lugganath, Bile's small assembly of former Apothecaries have returned to their lives. While the daily status quo is disrupted by the odd power grab from new arrivals, the former leader of the Emperor's Children seeks to focus once more upon gathering lost knowledge. Yet, a being of his creativity and skill rarely goes unnoticed by more powerful forces. The Harlequins still seek him out at every turn, and an ancient figure from his past seeks to bring him before his brothers. One whose power and authority is second only to Fulgrim himself.
The Good
The most obvious point to celebrate about Clonelord is how easily the book gets back into the swing of things. It can be remarkably difficult for some series to have an easy transition from one tale to the next, and even the likes of Gaunt's Ghosts has suffered from the odd jarring transition. Clonelord, however, quickly uses its atmosphere and presentation to pull you back into its world of eloquent words and body horror. Before the first major challenge of the book is done, you remember just what stood out in its predecessor and where it managed to push the envelope on so many Chaotic concepts. This is as much due to Bile's oddly pragmatic yet polite nature as it is the descriptions of his ship and companions.
Everything from remnants of the Eldar Empire to the power struggles of mortals arises through the book, and it often touches on subjects most authors would either avoid or ignore entirely. Much like Talon of Horus, the Eye of Terror is treated like a disturbingly altered world of lords, leaders and power hungry minions, but there's a twisted internal logic to it all. This makes it far more engaging than some works which simply throw a few Bloodthirsters into the mix and call it a day. Especially when Bile's past comes back to haunt him in more ways than one. While the actual problem cannot be revealed due to considerable spoilers, the bombshell dropped at the first act's conclusion is one few people would have ever seen coming. Fewer still would have trusted any authors to tackle it, but in this case it worked out for the best.
Warp mutations and modifications were always going to be a key part of the book, but Josh Reynolds has elevated the body horror in his books to a fine art. It's over the top, highly detailed and creatively disturbing, but he manages to make sure it never seems gratuitous. Even if it's something so minor as serving as a conversation piece, it's either worked into the world at large or the plot ahead. While many points are worked cleanly into the ongoing prose and major story, the book isn't afraid to stop and explore a few points at any one time. In a manner somewhat akin to how Graham McNeill will occasionally have paragraphs at a time delving into the larger situation or describing an environment, Clonelord manages to explore its settings. It creates vivid yet surreal imagery of ruined bastions, lost cities and even Bile's down ship in these moments. These are often used to kill time or cover the general passing of events, giving some sense of wait and weight (No, I will not apologise for that) to preparations and the length of journeys. It works as it favours Bile's meticulous and focused nature in a way, focusing upon the incredibly detailed qualities of his world above all else.
More interestingly, however, while the book does explore and examine far more than many would expect of it, there's a sense that it knows just where to draw the line. Rather than delving so deep or delivering so solid a depiction of a single subject that there is no room to further explore it, the subjects here seem to only follow them up to a set point. This means that there is a room for creativity or thought on the part of tabletop gamers still to be had, for anyone who does wish to explore its ideas or build upon them. It's a welcome change from some of the more unfortunate trends of the past few years, and it's the sort of depth-with-room-to-maneuver that Warhammer 40,000 has always benefited from.
Perhaps the most curious quality here is Bile himself though. In the previous book, the tale largely followed another former Apothecary, Oleander, and depicted events through his eyes. While Oleander himself was a brilliantly realised figure, and the use of him allowed Bile to retain a legendary quality which suited his reputation, there's no denying that his removal for a sequel has definitely helped the book. We see far more events from Bile's perspective, and more pages are spent on his relationships with others and thoughts on their environment. While it rarely stops to have him reflect on his past for chapters at a time or drive the story away from ongoing events, there's a definite sense of history to his behaviour and a "seen it all before" personality more irritated at the Long War than anything else. He's less the sympathetic monster Talos Valcoran proved to be or Byronic villain that Marduk evolved into than he is a classical figure. He's a Hammer Horror creation paired with the creativity and nightmarish imagination of a John Carpenter film - Utterly polite and remarkably reasonable, right up to the point where he removes your legs in the name of his scientific studies.
The secondary figures are granted a level of depth that the previous book lacked in some areas. While it did offer a number of interesting points on them, it was clearly favouring the members of some legions over others. This could be largely put down to Oleander's personal biases and histories with certain figures. By switching over to Bile, we get to see far more of the individuals who were otherwise overlooked, giving them more well-rounded personalities.
The Bad
More than anything else, the issues with Clonelord stem primarily from how it is forced to work itself around other creations now. Exploring the past it a two-edged sword, and even the greatest of stories can have negative repercussions in the long run. This is true of the aforementioned Talon of Horus, as a substantial part of Clonelord's first act is spent referring back to that book. We need to see Bile thinking back to those events, referring to key figures and the experiments which were taking place at that time. Normally this would not be an issue, and it does tell you all you need to know to keep going. Unfortunately, it manages to suffer the strange flaw of being too detailed. As if it's referring so clearly to events and ideas, that they might as well have been in a previous chapter of this book. So, it ends up making you feel as if you are missing out on something or even overlooking a crucial thing. It's like the book has phantom narrative syndrome in a sense, where it refers to something so repeatedly and in such detail, you're irked to find it not there.
Another definite mark against the work is how a few key sub-plots are so rapidly set up and resolved surprisingly quickly. We have three major events arise at the end of act one across a few brief paragraphs and separate events. They're short, arise quickly and are clearly intended to lead into a much larger work, but a couple, in particular, are so rapidly resolved that you might end up thinking you missed out on some notable subtext or idea within the work. The middle is certainly good and it helps to hook in the reader for the next section, yet it can seem as if the resolution is just too easy in some ways.
Another definite issue which mars Clonelord somewhat is how it needs to handle its villains. They seem to be more of a tool, and a general means to an end than anything else here, present primarily to drive the story onward. With the Eldar in the previous book you could at least cite some of their more entertaining moments and the benefit of a surprising twist at the end. With this lot though, not only does the cover, unfortunately, spoil a very atmospheric reveal, but most of the interesting character elements stem from other figures entirely. The use of one of the lesser seen factions of the universe in this book is certainly something to be praised and celebrated, but it nevertheless still makes them feel too much like a tool to make way for bigger things.
Finally and most prominently, the conclusion seems like it is setting up for later stories here. It resolves many of its points and it offers a single cohesive plot, but the closing chapter seems a little too-sequel baity for a story. The issues stem more from how it keeps hinting and promising more rather than leaving existing ideas unresolved, but it's hard not to feel cheated in a few ways that there's such a notable emphasis placed upon these areas. Admittedly, above all the others, this is a very much an opinionated flaw, so if you have no issues with this quality then that's one less problem for you.
The Verdict
There's very little to seriously hold back Clonelord from becoming a modern classic, and it's still a very strong follow up to Primogenitor even with its issues. Like any good sequel it takes what worked best and opts to try an enhance it as best it can, and careful efforts are made to avoid retreading the same territory time and again. It's also self-contained enough from its direct predecessor that you could likely start here and - aside from the issue cited above - enjoy it just as much from the start as with prior knowledge of the past book. Overall, if you have the slightest interest in Chaos and a brilliantly (and unrepentantly) villainous take on the Traitor Legions while still making you want to root for them, definitely buy this one before the month is up.
The Verdict: 8.5 out of 10
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