Betrayer (Book Review)

As with the last book review this is posted in full on http://thefoundingfields.com/ and this is simply a preview. If you want to see it in full then please follow the link through to there.

Following on from Butcher’s Nails and the events of Know No Fear, Betrayer is a novel exploring the war in Ultramar. Focusing the roles played by both Lorgar and Angron in crippling worlds who might come to the Imperium’s defence and the aftermath of their failure at Calth. However this defeat is not the greatest concern of the Word Bearers primarch. Angron is visibly becoming less stable by the day as the mental implants continue to drag his tortured into a perpetual blood frenzy. Worse still is that they are not only driving him insane, they are beginning to kill him. Determined to keep him alive, Lorgar focuses his efforts on saving his barbarous brother through corruption.

In many ways the novel is very similar to Graham McNeill’s preceeding title in this series Angel Exterminatus. You have two very different legions working towards the same goal, one legion being shown its downfall to Chaos entirely, a primarch ascending to a greater power and with it linking directly into a multitude of other novels.

However Aaron Dembski-Bowden goes about covering events of prior Heresy installments in a very different way. In this, much of what is seen makes you want to go back to re-read titles and look at them again with the revelations now known. Right in the first few pages there are scenes which seem to address a number of criticisms and fan objections to Battle for the Abyss and the actions of Magnus the Red. Nothing so extensive that it smothers the opening of a very good tale. Instead feeling like it’s addressing older flaws on short notice while managing to make them feel at least somewhat meaningful. These scenes never last more than a few pages at a time but on almost every occasion they offer new insights into events, characters and even the primarchs themselves. Best of all none of them ever feel like they’re betraying said characters, simply expanding upon what was previously told.