I'm re-reading the Horus Heresy, and this is my review of Heralds of the Siege , book 52 in the series. Heralds of the Siege is an anthology, consisting of several short stories, and I'm going to review each one. The Last Son of Prospero is the ninth short story in the book, written by Chris Wraight.
The story is really simple. Revuel Arvida is dying, having guided Jaghatai Khan and a bunch of White Scars through a devastating warp storm called the ruinstorm.
Malcador the Sigillite is enlisted to revive him, but seems to be struggling to succeed.
Most of the story is a sort of vision quest Arvida must undertake to recover. There's not really a surprise twist or even a plot. The events just sort of happen, Jaghatai Khan yells at Malcador a lot, there's a bunch of sagely advice and weird and disorienting visions, and then the story's over.
There's a spectrum of how much a story in this anthology serves as "historical documentation" and how much a story can be enjoyed as a short story with next to no prior knowledge of Warhammer. This story is mostly historical documentation. It's interesting historical documentation, and I enjoyed reading it, but if you're looking for a gripping story this probably isn't it. If you're just eager to read more about the Thousand Sons and maybe the origins of the Blood Ravens, then this absolutely a must.
All images in this post copyright Games Workshop.