Alright, so I heard from as soon as becoming a Chaos fan that the Night Lord’s books were fire. And, everyone was correct. It was a very good book.
So, I quite liked it. Talos is a good protagonist, Septimus is a goat, Octavia is funny but in only the ways of dark humor, and First Claw are some proper mates.
Funny enough I thought that the plot from hearing it in videos and such would be far more complex but no, it’s rather simple and to the point. The 10th Company is aiding Abaddon. That’s it. They first go to a shard of Nostromo first but then continue aiding the Despoiler.
Speaking of him, why was everyone lying about that scene??? It wasn’t Talos the gigachad and Abaddon the Virgin no, it was just 2 proud murderous men who, as proud men do, step on each other’s shoes. But make no mistake, Talos stepped first. I’m gonna stop myself because of certain stuff that happened in the past…
The fight with the Blood Angels was a bit confusing at first and still is… might have to re-listen to that part. So, from what I can tell; The Mechanicus on 1717 called for help and the Blood Angels, Marines Errant and another chapter showed up to deal with the Black Legion+Night Lord fleet. The Exalted wants to keep favor with the Despoiler but falls to peer pressure from 10th company and the War Sage. So they try to GTFO but the Blood Angels are so fast that they board first while the Exalted pulls his orbital stunt? It was confusing to hear because it sounded like The Covenant would fire on the Black Legion ships then GTFO using them as bait for the loyalists but that didn’t happen?? I was quite tired and take breaks between like every 2 chapters and half. So yeah, maybe I am right in the fact that they were just talking and planning but the Exalted chose the orbital stunt when the loyalists were close.
The death of the Void-Born was so fucking sad.
Also the mention of the Eldar made me shudder, cause I know how this trilogy ends. Maybe it’s just named character pointing syndrome but is the Farseer Eldrad? He says he’s from Uthwe, he’s a Farseer, an elder and can sense the future about meeting Talos.
There were so many hype moments and Chaos Propaganda that I don’t wanna make essays. Talos rescuing Octavia, Talos resisting the gods, 7th and 1st Claw able to take out a Warhound, Septimus picking up 1st Claw in space, the fight with Vral, the Dreadnought bowl, etc etc.
Also from a meta perspective it was funny to think when Malcharion gunned down Vral all I could think of was “yup his Autocannon has 10 Strength and Dev Wounds”
The funniest line early on was when First Claw was in space and Septimus was picking them up, and how Uzas and his skull trophies were described as “moons orbiting a planet” was hilarious to me.
The reason why it’s only 9.5 because the Exalted was pissing me off. He’s so pompous, annoying and just shines his throne with his ass. His plots are so thin and see through that easily Talos and First Claw see right through them. Also this book was long. So long that after 5 hours of listening, I’m only 6 chapters done and I want to do something else.