While I was at the Memphis Games Day I couldn’t help but pick up a copy of the newest Horus Heresy novel, Vulkan Lives. Lets take a look at the first novel to deal with the Salamander’s Primarch.
The Story Vulkan Lives has three main story lines, two of which intertwine. We follow Vulkan, a rag tag group of Isstvann V survivors and the Word Bearers hunting them. It is very hard to review this book without giving away some minor spoilers, so be warned, skip over the SPOILERS SECTION if you want to know nothing about the story line of this book.
Are you still with me? Okay then, I warned you.
+++SPOILER START+++
Vulkan’s story is much more of a psychological one as he is tormented by his brother Konrad Curze. After seemingly being obliterated in the dropsite massacre Vulkan is actually recovered by the Night Haunter and thrown into a prison. One of the most interesting parts of his story is that it is told in the first person and so we only get to see what Vulkan perceives. This leaves you questioning a lot of what is true or not as he is clearly becoming slowly unhinged. A favorite of mine was the specter of his recently deceased brother Ferrus, who plays the devil’s advocate, constantly cajoling and pushing him. As his torment continues a major secret is revealed about Vulkan that will change everything you thought you ever knew about him. I would put this on par with the Alpharius reveal in Legion.
+++SPOILER END+++
Now some minor details that won’t ruin anything…
Elsewhere, the novel cuts back and forth between chapters to the group of loyalist survivors consisting of mostly Salamanders but also some Raven Guard and Iron Hands. This part of the story is told in the third person which is kind of jarring at first, switching between the two different story telling perspectives but you quickly get used to it. They are tracking a host of Word Bearers, seemingly just for the point of revenge and being a nuisance. While doing this they run into another major character from previous novels whose entrance I don’t want to spoil, but I will say he is a fan favorite. I don’t mention any character names here because quite frankly I don’t remember them or who was who. All of the Space Marines here are pretty dull and interchangeable while the majority of the Word Bearers come off as mustache twirling villains. The two stand outs for me are a Word Bearer recon marine who can’t stomach all of this Chaos worshipping and is just a cold hearted killer and wants to do a good job at killing the loyalists and an Iron Hand who is a crack shot with a sniper rifle. One of the several inconsistencies is the inclusion of a Raven Guard Librarian who none of the other loyalists have a problem with while he uses his powers. Erebus makes an appearance and is pretty sinister in a convincing way. I feel like Nick Kyme wrote the ending first and then just filled in the blanks till he got there.
Overall it was interesting but does not live up to the recent fare from the Heresy series. I wasn’t expecting too much from Mr. Kyme to be honest. I read the first Salamander novel and it felt rather bland and stilted at parts. I feel as though one day he will be a pretty good writer for the Black Library but right now he is still just starting out and needs to work his way up to the bigger stuff. It seems as though Vulkan will be handled by fan favorite Dan Abnett in a future novel though, at least in part so he will have sometime to be fleshed out more.
Score – 3 stars (out of 5)
Its worth a read and explains a lot about Vulkan and what happened to him, but wait for the paperback version maybe. Not the worst in the series but not the best, it’s right in the middle.
The Presentation
This was also my first time buying one of the hardcover editions of the book. I usually just wait for the paperback since I don’t see the point of shelling out $30 for an addition to a series that I already have all the other novels in a different format. All in all I like it, the dust jacket is nice and the artwork printed on the actual cover adds even more to the value. The internal artwork I have heard so much about is okay. Some of the scenes that they chose to illustrate seemed kind of random and I don’t know if I agree with how some of the characters were depicted but there is an awesome drawing of the Night Haunter. I do really like the cover art for this book though, to be honest its what convinced me to buy it t Games Day. I would only buy the hard cover version is its a book in the series you really are looking forward to, Unremembered Empire maybe…
Presentation score – 4/5
Get the hardcover for the ones you really like.
Did you read Vulkan Lives, what are your thoughts on it? How do you feel about the hardcover format?
Tyler is a life long painter and hobbyist and took home his first Golden Demon award at the 2012 Chicago Games Day and his second in 2013. More of his work can be found at his blog, Mengel Miniatures.
Tyler Mengel, the man behind Mengel Miniatures. He is a well-known tabletop miniatures hobby and painting enthusiast. Tyler's work has appeared on Warhammer-Community.com on multiple occasions. He began writing for BoLS in 2012.
