Primarchs - Angron: Slave of Nuceria by Ian St. Martin (Book Review)

We return once again to the Primarchs series, and once more with one of its odd figureheads. Angron himself is a character who has suffered from a lack of exposure while also being featured in no shortage of books. Much like Mortarion and - to a lesser degree - Vulkan he is one of those figures who ultimately has shown up in no shortage of books, but has often been left playing second fiddle to other characters. Part of that is likely down to how Betrayer is considered a high point, and near perfectly covered Angron's entire story in one volume. Part of that might also be due to the fact that - much like a few others - Index Astartes gave him a simple tragic tale which was not the easiest work to adapt into a fifty book long series. As such, Angron: Slave of Nuceria was a book which was both going to face an uphill battle while also being desperately needed to flesh him out a little more.

The end result of Ian St. Martin's efforts is a book which partially accomplishes its intended goals. When taken on its own it does benefit from a strong structure, surprisingly memorable characters, a good twist and a number of great individual moments. However, when taken into account with the rest of the series, it leaves something to be desired. Unfortunately, its very structure means it's something which cannot be judged without comparing it with other works.


The Synopsis


Set mere months into Angron taking leadership of the Legio XII, he is still a stranger to many of his sons. Isolating himself for long periods of time and typically appearing only to issue insults or executions, morale among the former War Hounds is ebbing with every passing victory. Bled dry and losing ever more of their number to his mass cullings, some among them question if their gene-father is a creature broken beyond repair.

Divided and seeking answers, some among the legion's number are going to ever greater lengths to unify themselves with the primarch. One among them believes that the Nails themselves are the answer to appeasing the Red Angel...


The Good


The greatest thing which works in the book's favour stems from the chosen time period in which the story is set. A fair number of fans have constantly wondered just what the War Hounds were like prior to Angron's ascension, and how they differed in culture, temperament and attitudes to their later World Eater incarnations. As the story is set so soon after their re-naming, there are many among their number who still remember their traditions and creeds. This is exemplified very early on when we see the legion utilising phalanx formations, favouring the use of power spears and calling upon one another with ranks which will soon no longer exist. 

Furthermore, we have viewpoint characters who can directly contrast their thoughts with those of their more bloodthirsty kin. The majority of the focal characters among the legion help to examine this evolution as they favour their lives as the War Hounds, as it more accurately depicts their nature as a legion inspired by the Spartans or Greek hoplites than the berzerkers that they would become. This serves to compare and contrast each state of the legion, but curiously it is left up to the reader as which was truly better. While Angron himself is certainly at fault, and many cite shortcomings among the World Eaters attachment to the Nails, it doesn't forget their strengths. As such, you're never left with the book hammering down on the "THIS IS A MISTAKE! THEY ARE NOW THE JOKE LEGION!" angle other stories resorted to.

More curiously still, there are multiple arguments made in favour of the Nails even by sane members of the legion, some of which are fairly compelling. Kharn, even without citing any attachment to Angron himself, brings up a multitude of points in their favour. It shows why he was one of the best suited to their inclusion, and how certain minds much more easily adapted to the enhanced aggression than others. Plus, this leads to one of my favourite visual displays of them taking hold that I have seen to date, where the page itself runs red with blood over the descriptions. No, seriously, as Kharn is lost to the haze for the first time, the bloody rage literally blots out his initial reactions over three pages. It sounds heavy-handed, but with the build-up it is fairly effective.

Several other forces are also at work within the World Eaters legion, and the book helps to show how the Nails' inclusion wasn't quite so cut and dry as one imagined. For one thing, it took multiple prototypes for anyone to get a working set, and even then it was only accomplished by an outside source taking interest in the work involved, and a discovery from a lost planet. It makes for the dynamic and downfall much more tragic, as it makes it clear that if any one of the things leading up to this had failed, the World Eaters would have likely avoided their fate.

None of this is to say that Angron is left out of the focus either, and Ian St. Martin utilised a fairly inventive take to examine this and shed further light on his time among the gladiators. We learn some very interesting details, notably where his name originated and potentially why he never utilises his surname (no, I can't reveal that due to spoilers). The circumstances which led to the Nails being forced upon him are another critical element among his story, as we see so much of the person that he could have been. Ironically, what little is shown makes him closer to a much more stable version of Perturabo or an odd balance between Guilliman and Russ. It's fairly engaging, and it makes for some of the story's best parts.

Unfortunately, for all the good it does there's almost always a "But" added onto the end.


The Bad


Let's deal with the elephant in the room first - This is treated like a prequel to Betrayer. Other stories did similar things, such as Angel Exterminatus utilising many characters from Storm of Iron, but that worked as it did offer more depth and detail to each one, including a proper introduction. With Slave of Nuceria, you repeatedly run into the problem of Betrayer being treated as required reading. Many characters from that book show up with little true introduction, such as Lhorke and Delvarus, but they are just there. Other events, meanwhile, take place but lack the further descriptions in Betrayer which makes them more impactful. So much of this is presented seemingly with the intent that the reader should be familiar with what is going on. This can work in a direct trilogy, but these are supposedly from separate series in the same timeline.

Another notable problem stems from a few logical issues and quirks within the timeline, especially in relation to Angron. One thing which the Forgeworld books noted very clearly is that Angron started in a poor place, but did improve for a time. There was a period of relative lucidity between his acceptance of his role in the legion, and the Horus Heresy. This is even noted in a number of books as well, but here he's stuck at the end of his development. He's a furious rage monster, but lacks many of the more human quirks which he supposedly lost over time. For example, he's already treating the Devourers as an unwanted addition, despite supposedly appreciated by him at first. He even treats them as expendable fodder, and his restructuring of the legion is turned into a ludicrous act of self-destruction. Initially, there was some odd brutal logic behind it, but now he keeps saying "You have 24 hours to conquer the entire world. Even if you are successful but exceed that, I will slaughter one in ten of you."

The problem is only made worse by the fact that Angron's history on Nuceria is changed in one crucial way: He only gains the Nails after he has been a gladiator for some time. The impression many works offered was that he was implanted with these while young, and thus it interfered with any efforts to foster rebellion. instead these were forced upon him early into his adult life, so it comes across as him just never making the push they needed to get out. That's also without getting into the issue of how the hell they pinned down/kept confined a demigod who could likely slaughter entire stadiums with just his fists. Even with these new additions, his current self is given little more depth or detail beyond wanting to die; something already expressed in Betrayer.

The book sadly suffers from an extremely weak opening. While you can see why it was a chosen move on the part of Ian St. Martin early on, it interferes with the pacing. We only get any substantial interaction between Angron and the legion, and much of it is instead devoted to combat between the War Hounds and an enemy which is barely expanded upon. it helps to show their style of warfare. However, there should have been better ways to balance out a good mix of character development and action without letting the latter eclipse the former for one-third of the work.

Finally, elements of Ian St. Martin's writing style made it difficult to keep up with broad, sweeping events. His form of describing scenes is excellent when it comes to individual duels, and is best suited to moments of character drama or conversations. It's why the book is often strongest when there are two or three people in a scene at a time. However, the massive battle scenes fall somewhat short, and he tends to skim over key details in places. It reached the point toward the end when, once an enemy stronghold had been overwhelmed, I honestly stopped to check if I had accidentally skipped over several pages thanks to a rapid resolution of events.


The Verdict:


Overall, Angron: Slave to Nuceria has promising points but it still falls prey to a few problems which held back previous books. It's decent on the whole, with no small number of great moments and good ideas, along with a solid effort to flesh out Angron's personal history. However, not enough of the book is about the primarch himself, and it tells us little about him that we did not already know. It skips over a stage where he should have been undergoing development, or one of the more interesting eras where he was at a more lucid state despite the Nails. Between this and repeating the mistake David Annandale in structuring Guilliman, it makes for a book which is only a good short story when it could have shed light on something wholly new.

Verdict: 6 out of 10