There Is No Kill Like Overkill: Khayon recalls that he obliterated Eyarik Born-in-Fire by dismantling him at the molecular level. Mind you, he was in no condition to actually fight the VI Legion champion at the time. Brown Note: The Talon of Horus, to anyone with psychic senses, due to the fact it was used to kill Sanguinius and mortally wound the Emperor. Khayon also notes that in its presence, Space Marines of the Blood Angels and their Successors are driven into berserker madness by proximity to the weapon that killed their Primarch. Though the storyteller is phenomenal, yes, the book itself is fantastic too. Slowly, GW is filling in the gaps left in the fluff. It feels like Lord of the Rings, an epic quest to reach a goal with a rag tag group of heroes (villains) and you get a front seat to the action. Amazing storytelling coupled with just darn good writing. I mean, you really feel like you're a part of the quest to find the flagship "Vengeful Spirit" and it's evil captain. The characters are all likable (Telemacon and Gaia in particular being my favorites) and their motives all make sense. There's breaks in the fighting, sure, but each chapter is as interesting as the last, weather words are exchanged or bolter fire.

The Talon of Horus was an interesting read. It was my very first book told from the viewpoint of the Traitor Legions. Iskandar Khayon is a Chaos Marine and a sorcerer. Embroiled in the conflict between the various Traitor Marines, also known as the Nine Legions, Khayon and a mixture other Astartes from various Traitor Legions decide to try to change things. It's an especially unsafe place for Nefertari, as the Eye is pretty much the most dangerous place an Eldar can go. The fact she is there ought to be a heavy indication of how desperate she is to hide away from her kin in Commoragh.

Anti-Villain: Khayon is a lot nicer than most other Chaos space marines and even loyalist Astartes. He's troubled by the memories of the Burning of Prospero and his goal is not as much domination as it is to find a cause - and brothers - worth fighting for.

Khayon: He burned with life...and I realised then just how it was that Sigismund still lived after all this time. He had survived for a thousand years because he refused to die. He hated us too much to sleep in his grave with his duty undone. Mirror Character: Despite his hatred of Ahriman for destroying and enslaving his legion, Khayon acts in a similar way by binding Telemachon to him and removing all his ability to feel. Abbadon calls him out on this, and Khayon is self-aware enough to realize that not only would Ahriman point out the hypocrisy, but that the most galling thing is that Ahriman would be right. Khayon does reverse the process despite being aware Telemachon may try to murder him. Character Development: It has been explained by BL authors that the named characters often are portrayed different, Depending on the Writer being in full effect. Abaddon however clearly is different from the Horus Heresy series, this due to his voyages through the Warp since Horus defeat. Helmets Are Hardly Heroic: Exploited by Khayon during the battle of Prospero, when he uses the fact that Space Wolves don't wear helmets to kill them. Abaddon also invokes this when asked why he disappeared after the end of the Horus Heresy: he states that Horus's death made the campaign to overthrow the Emperor and claim the Imperium (the only war that mattered in Abaddon's view) a failure, and he had no desire to embroil himself in the petty squabbling over territory and resources at the core of the Legion Wars.Defector from Decadence: Moriana, Abaddon's pet seeress is implied, by both her own admission and Khayon's insinuations to have been a member of the Ecclesiarchy, the Inquisition or both before she abandoned the Imperium and turned to Chaos. Moriana even admits that she still believes the Emperor is a god, albeit one no longer worthy of worship. Khayon: Screaming marred the duel, throaty wrathful roars that I didn't realize, until I ran out of breath, were rising from my throat. All serenity and meditative thought was lost, replaced by a red focus. I advanced on Ulrech, laying my entire weight into every blow.

Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Lampshaded and deconstructed as part of Khayon's explanation of Chaos Legions to the Inquisition. Despite the enormous power given by sorcery, god-blessings, daemonic allies, experience, and corrupted technology, Chaos Astartes are... well, chaotic and this has huge disadvantages - they have no formal supply lines, no dedicated manufacturing ability save for Dark Mechanicus forge-worlds that tend to serve single patrons or themselves, and very little ability to build, repair, or rearm their fleets within the Eye. This is all before you take into account that practically all Chaos warbands in the Eye of Terror have longstanding grudges or feuds with each other, and are usually fighting and stealing from each other. Khayon emphasises this by saying that the Chaos Legions can't even feed their forces because they don't have any real agriculture or food production. Continuity Snarl: Both Khayon, Ashur-Kai, and their Rubric Marines are described as wearing the blue armor associated with 40k era Thousand Sons. However, other material (including John French's Ahriman novels) indicate that only the Thousand Son's under Ahriman underwent this change whilst the rest of the legion kept their old red colour or chose their own. It's possible that it's just a coincidental repaint. Dieser erste Band beschäftigt sich vor allem mit ersterem, also der Gründung und vor allen Dingen der Entstehung der Idee hinter der Schwarzen Legion. Abaddon taucht persönlich erst spät im Roman auf, die von im personifizierte Ideen der Einigkeit im Hass und der Bruderschaft unter Verrätern zieht sich jedoch durch die gesamte Erzählung.Ezekyle Abaddon, first captain of the Sons of Horus and his Justaerin Terminator elite fought their way through squad after squad of yellow-armoured Imperial Fists Terminators to the command centre of the starship, but they were too late. I will largely agree with the previous reviewer: this book is a good one. It is also very original in many respects. The problem I had when finishing it was to assess how good it was. It took me a few days to make up my mind, compare it with the Night Lords’ trilogy (the author’s best in my opinion) and decide whether it was “as good as” and whether it deserved five stars. I believe it is and it certainly does, and I will attempt to explain how I reached this conclusion in the rest of this review.

Khayon: He did not answer, nor did he watch as I left. He was seeing Sigismund again, dwelling on replies he could never speak to a brother he had once admired and who had died despising him. If you want to get the best out of your time in the warp, you need this book. When there's so many slaves to take and so little time, you really need to maximise your killing"- Falkus Kibre. Sigismund was the first captain of the Imperial Fists Legion during the Great Crusade and the Horus Heresy eras. Sigismund was a name that echoed through the Great Crusade even before the darkness of the Horus Heresy made him the stuff of legends.The second element of originality is the narrator’s perspective, which largely mirrors that of his Primarch Magnus and that of Ahriman, but without the huge arrogance displayed by both of them, and the catastrophic consequences that this arrogance has had on their sons and brothers. This perspective includes a very human-centred view of what the Warp really is and what all of the daemonic creatures that “live” in the “Sea of Souls” are really made of. The Ragged Knight, a powerful but barely controllable Daemon bound to Iskandar and coming straight from the Crusade against the Albigeois and the sac and burning of Beziers in 1209 was a particularly nice touch. Hellhole Prison: The Eye of Terror, naturally, albeit a more literal example than most. Discussed at length by Khayon, who even calls it a "convenient hell to throw your enemies into" for the Imperial perspective.