Descent of Angels: Summary and Review

Well...I finished Descent of Angels and as promised here is the Summary and Review:

Descent of Angels

(Horus Heresy)

By Mitchel Scanlon This Edition: Mass Market Paperback
Publication Date: October 30, 2007

The Summary:

The story obviously is about the Dark Angels...the First Legion of Astartes during the Great Crusade. The story is told from the perspective of Zahariel, an "Aspirant" to a knightly order on the planet Caliban. The story progresses through his youth, training, questing and knighthood...all set under the eye of the Primarch Lion'El Jonson. The tale details the beginnings of the Order and how cool the Primarch was, surpassing even the greatest living Legends of the Age, Luther, Ramiel and others and how impressive even the mere mortals were...much less the nigh-godlike Lion.

Early on you can see where tension would arise between The Lion and his Knights. One of the main characters is Luther. Easily the greatest hero of all time. A knight who had surpassed all who had come before in honor, fighting ability, sheer charisma. "A Perfect Knight" by any measure. Luther is the one who found the child Lion'El Jonson. The story details how The Lion was found, how he somehow survived alone on a deadly planet full of "Great Beasts" which were usually the object of numerous "Quests". Of course...with the arrival of The Lion, everything changed.

Being a Primarch, The Lion surpassed everyone rapidly and soon became a knight, created "The Order" and through this "Order" changed the shape of Caliban's politics and civilization forever. Being a world of Knightly Orders...the Lion's "Order" ...called "The Order" BTW, soon consumed or destroyed all competition and set about a quest to rid the planet Caliban of all Great Beasts. This of course was revolutionary.

In the end The Lion's quest was successful, the main characters, teenagers become knights and the last vestiges of the old regime were wiped away.

Soon after the completion of his Great Quest (and about 2/3 of the book) was the "Descent of Angels". The 1st Legion, Angels in Black, Astartes...coming to herald the coming of The Emperor of Mankind. The story fast forwards to the point where Zahariel, his best friend and cousin as well as several others are prepared for their transformation to astartes.

As the reader may understand, only the young can become astartes, so many members of The Order are given surgical improvements, but cannot become astartes. This leaves out many, including the Great Hero Luther.

Fast forward again to the arrival of the Emperor. There is a plot hatching within The Order. Some members don't like what The Emperor and his Imperium mean...a loss of their identity, of their traditions, their religion...etc. Zahariel is brought in by his cousin to join this secretive cabal of rebels, but he won't be a party to it.

Zahariel foils the plot, and and the story fast forwards again to the Legion taking over the conversion towards compliance of a planet currently held by the White Scars. A brief interlude and the Dark Angels as they are now called relieve the White Scars so they can move to another area to continue the Great Crusade.

Of course, there is a plot and soon a nice, simple, peaceful transition becomes open warfare. The war goes quickly, and through the use of some psyker power and some of the newer astartes and older knights (non-astartes) the planet is certified "compliant". The Lion, seemingly uncomfortable with some of the members of the expedition and the way the campaign was concluded...sends some prominent members back to Caliban to gather more recruits and train them...including Luther, who at this point is starting to chafe in the shadow of The Lion as well as several older "Knights" as well as younger ones like Zahariel.

The Review:

That's it. They introduce a new character and we see him grow to be a superhero...and then he becomes an Astartes. A latent psyker to boot.

The Lion isn't much more than a background superhero who instigates a conflict with the other orders in order to get what he wants, as well as easily alienates his best and brightest.

Although you can see how dissent could easily form, there is little of it. A few veiled glimpses from minor characters, and a few understandable questionings from characters such as Luther are it. The one threat came from the secret cabal and that was put down immediately.

I guess you can see how some turned away from The Lion, but the book doesn't really get in to it. No split in the ranks, no "Fallen" and "Unforgiven". None of that. Just the merest glimpse of how the dissent began...barely.

Honestly, I wanted to see less of Zahariel as a teenage wonderboy and more training as an Astartes. More Dark Angels as a Legion and more meat as far as why the split happened.

In reading Descent of Angels, I kept wondering...when are we getting to him becoming an Astartes, and then wondering when the mutiny would happen. It never did.

Maybe the book was too subtle. Maybe I've been led down the primrose path by too many Black Library books that lay it out all nice and neat in four-color style. I kept thinking there just HAS to be a sequel in order to finish the story.

It wasn't a bad book. I did enjoy it. I was let down though. I expected more. Maybe that is on me.

Summary:

Of all the Horus Heresy series, I'm grading this one the Lowest thus far. That being said, on a scale of One to Five Stars, One meaning it Truly Sucked and Five being an All-Time Classic....I'm giving Descent of Angels Three Stars. (***)

ooooOOOOOOooohhhh...gotta have it!

...the only thing I want for Christmas (well...in January at least.)

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WARHAMMER 40,000 ROLEPLAY DARK HERESY COLLECTORS EDITION RULEBOOK

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PLEASE NOTE: Mock-up images, not final product.


Deluxe Hardback : UK £65.00 : January 2008 : 400pp : ISBN 978-1-84416-496-7

I'll gladly pay the UK £65.00 if someone could secure me a copy. (I don't have a "real" cc so I can't buy stuff from BL directly.)

Seriously folks...if ANYONE can secure a copy I'll gladly pay for it, even in advance.

Horus Heresy...

Descent of Angels arrived today.
I can't help but let out a bit of a schoolgirl *SQUEEE*

What a day...

Met some cool folks for lunch. Embarrassed the hell out of myself by power-talking for 2 hours (see...this is what happens when we don't get normal human interaction on a regular basis: I talk at 90mph until people get weirded out by me. Go Team Preston!). It's not likely that these folks will ever call back. I imagine they are weirded out by us/ me.

So on the way home, picked up a set of White Lions of Chrace that was on clearance and headed home.

OH...and I hit my first deer on the way home. Car coming on the other side, so I got technically sideswiped by a deer. Saw him coming, but couldn't jerk the wheel or anything...focused on keeping the car even and going forward...and not putting us in the ditch or causing a head-on collision. The Volvo has a dented up door now. Great!

I'm gonna go paint some Inquisitorial Henchmen now.

Been busy as hell lately...

So work is interesting. Interesting in a good way, not in a fortune cookie "May you live in interesting times" kind of way.

I took a massive pay cut, leaving the last place and coming here. The last place I told them I wasn't extending my contract and they cut me on the spot. It was an un-ethical place, with folks interested in only doing as little as possible. Really crappy place to work and I wasn't going to be a party to it. Besides...it was so unbelievably political.

Now THIS place...night and day different.
Work. Getting the job done right as fast as humanly possible. The folks I work with are pretty squared away. Small crew. Smart technical mother-fuckers. For the first time in years I'm busting my ass to keep up and get it all crammed in my head-meats. I'm putting forth more effort than I have in a long time. They are most certainly getting their money's worth out of me. Actually, it's kind of a gyp, but thus far it's all good.

NO time for websurfing, forums, chat. No time for any goofing off at all.

When I get home, I'm smoked. Haven't been playing any 40k or WFB. Haven't played anything in weeks.

I'm getting some Space Marine Veterans (MKI and MKII) as well as Masters of the Chapter assembled. Leman Russ Tanks are being assembled and painted by assembly line. IG Steel Legion as well as an Inquisitorial Retinue etc. Big Apocalypse game on the 17th at 6pm till the wee hours of the morning.

Went to a buddy's house for some D&D action. I actually didn't play, which sucked. Observing isn't as cool as playing by any stretch. It's a very gamist, tactical type game, light in the RP. Haven't actually been invited to play, and I might not. We'll see. I liked the folks, they seemed all pretty cool.

Today we're meeting with some folks we met via MySpace. Not exactly my favorite method of meeting folks, but these folks seem pretty solid. Maybe get a game started. We'll see. Right now I'm looking forward to some deep-fried pickles and hefeweisen.