I'm re-reading the Horus Heresy, and this is my review of The Buried Dagger by James Swallow, book 54 in the series. It's also the last book in the series, or at least the last book before the start of the Siege of Terra series. This book (weirdly?) splits its time between two distinct stories, one about Malcador the Sigillite and the other about Mortarion of the Death Guard. I find the two-storyline split really odd, because it really feels like two different books stuffed into a single volume. I'm not complaining about getting two books in one, but I guess I'm not convinced that the book knows it's two books in one. Regardless of structure, it's a good entry in the series, with lots of insight into Mortarion and the Death Guard, and plenty of intrigue around Malcador.
Before Horus Heresy, I didn't know Malcador existed. I don't know whether he's a famous character from really early 40K lore books from the 90s, or whether he was invented for the Horus Heresy series. Whatever his real-life history, he's become one of my favourite characters of the series. I consider him a little bit Gandalf, but also a little bit Raistlin and so I know that in the end all his power isn't going to save the 40k universe from Chaos. He has to fail, ultimately.
But in this book, he's assembled something of a dream team. Garviel Loken is back in the picture, having been saved by Nathaniel Garro. And speaking of Garro, he's also on Malcador's team of Knights Errant. They spend most of the book foiling a very cool plot by Horus to assassinate Malcador. I'll leave the details unspoilt, because it's very good.
In the end, though, the critical moment occurs and the Knights Errant are gathered in the Emperor's Palace, assigned new names, and sent on a super secret mission to save humanity. It's implied that they're not going to be saving humanity from Horus, but from some even greater threat, probably something far far into the future. This is essentially the establishment of the Grey Knights, the strike force of the daemon hunting Ordo Malleus. It's a really exciting moment, but also a little bit of a roller-coaster ride. Up front, it seems pretty simple (er, as simple as anything Malcador cooks up), but by the end of the encounter things have changed yet again, and the story goes in a few new directions, and I'm absolutely ready to find out how the new teams that emerge affect the war.
(I'm trying to avoid spoilers, here, so I'm being intentionally obtuse.)
Imagine now that you flip the book over, turn it upside down, and find a second book. This one is split into two stories (I mean, two more stories), one being the history of Mortarion's life on Barbarus before he was recovered by his father, and one being the story of how the Death Guard eventually succumbs to the Dark Powers. These stories are real revelations if you only know the Death Guard as disgusting and evil chaotic traitor space marines.
Mortarion, for all his brutality, is a highly sympathetic character after you've learned his backstory. While some Primarchs ended up as nobility on nominally prosperous worlds, others didn't get so lucky. Mortarion landed on a mostly toxic planet where humans have been enslaved by mutant or alien overlords. His adopted father is abusive and manipulative to the point that even I was suspicious when the ship obviously from the Imperium eventually dropped to help the humans take back their planet. Who's to say this wasn't yet another cleverly designed test of Mortarion's strength?
Even after Mortarion has turned against the Emperor in the present storyline, he's not a pawn of the Dark Powers. In fact, he hates the mysticism of the Warp, and he is wary of Horus's collaboration with it. But Typhon is busy infilitrating the ranks of the Death Guard with the gifts of Nurgle, and eventually Mortarion must decide between saving his legion and resisting the Dark Powers.
The Buried Dagger progresses the story in some suprising ways. Even when it looks back, it feels like we're progressing along with Mortarion. Malcador and Mortarion are the obvious protagonists because they're the authority figures, but for me the "real" story is actually mostly Garviel Loken. It was Loken who brought me into Warhammer. He was the first the Astartes I knew when I read the first book, and so to me he's the central character of the series. I honestly don't know how his story ends yet, but I enjoyed getting more time with him in this book.
And that's the end of the Horus Heresy. Except, of course, it's not. Next up is the Siege of Terra series!
All images in this post copyright Games Workshop.