Horus Heresy: Scars: Episode II (Ebook 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.

With the crux of the plot having been fully established in Episode I, Scars Episode II continues with the setting up of characters and issues. Both Tamu and Haren, now renamed Shiban and Torghun by the White Scars, are present within the chapter we only see them comparatively briefly and time is instead spent looking into the other players who will soon become involved in events while exploring the groups they are linked with.

Ilya Ravallion is introduced, a counsellor newly attached to the White Scars who has served the Imperium as a codebreaker and Departmento Munitorum, and Yesugei is more formally introduced to the reader. Believe it or not he is a character we have seen before briefly in A Thousand Sons, the White Scar Librarian who argued against the outcome of Nikea. The former is used more to establish certain details about the Imperium and the White Scars legion itself. The very fact they had codebreakers working against xenos encrypted transmissions is an entirely new revelation, but the reason why she has been attached gives some insight into how the legion operates. They’re more than happy to go out of contact with the Imperium for long periods of time to do their own work, causing no amount of strain on those keeping them supplied. As their stories are told, they’re used more to give certain facts than really delve into their characters with information about the legion and state of the galaxy delivered inbetween personal thoughts.

While this is something we have seen done before in other books, it’s balanced far more effectively within the prose. There’s no long sections purely exploring the legions or devoted completely to one subject, they instead appear in small mentions at a time and are gradually built upon. While this feels more natural, there is the flaw that it feels like it is gravitating a little too much towards making the White Scars space samurai. With lots of poetic labels and traits which seem more at home with Japan’s feudal times than a force with Mongolian influences.