Garro: Knight of Grey

By James Swallow

This Horus Heresy Novella serves to tie up the story of a central figure: Nathaniel Garro. We’ve had plenty of adventures since Flight of the Eisenstein, so it would be nice to see him get a good send-off. He confronts Mortarion, and we all know that both of them cannot survive that intact…so let’s see if it’s a good story.

Characters are important for this one. It’s Nathaniel Garro’s swansong. And here lies the principle problem of this book, that the characterisation isn’t developing them; instead, it’s inconsistent with what we know already of the characters:

"I did not wish this," he said quietly, his words caught on the wind. "To turn against the Legion I pledged my life to. I did not want to draw weapons against my brothers. It is anathema to me."

Garro in this book is portrayed as having a deep moral dilemma of fighting his own legion. Of course, we’ve seen this across the Horus Heresy, but as far as I’m aware it was far more prevalent with Loken, who felt far more embedded. Garro, by contrast, has always been stoic and unyielding.

"You were one of my best. I have not forgotten. You can be again. You can rejoin your battle-brothers. There is still time."

This comes up at a few different points in the book – Mortarion trying to sway Garro. In fact, this feels like something new. But isn’t it a little late for that? And why, when Garro has done so much by now for the Emperor, does Mortarion think he can now sway him? Is he that blind? This also seems at odds with his revelation in the book that Garro must be destroyed utterly, as if it was news that Garro is so resilient and steadfast – traits we’ve seen him display from the very beginning!

Dead-Inside Guard

There is some emotional connection between Helig Gallor, Garro and Euphrati Keeler, and maybe this is one of the few redeeming aspects of this book. But even Keeler seems quite different to how she is portrayed in Warhawk. Gallor, in this book, switches from being angry to Garro for choosing for everyone what was to happen on the Eisenstein, to then acting as they were always long lost brothers. The connections here feel inconsistent rather than being well fleshed out or multi-faceted. To achieve steady development of characters, time needs to be invested in it, and in such a short novella, this is difficult. I’d probably argue that shouldn’t be the focus, maybe other than Garro, as there just isn’t the room to do it in.

Garro’s encounter with Mortarion feels drawn out, and not in a good way. The encounter also sees a very similar physical act that we saw in Warhawk between two principal characters The repetition here doesn’t feel significant, it just feels unimaginative. The fight also feels drawn out unnecessarily. Sometimes writers unsuccessfully try to have a fight twist and turn, and instead it just feels belaboured. To be honest, I got this feeling with the whole novella.

The outcome tries to have Mortarion get his own way, but also to let Garro be immortalized in a way I shan’t explain further. Garro, for sure, is a crucial character, but he was already immortalized for his actions in Flight of the Eisenstein. We don’t need him necessarily to avoid an ignominious end. Although he doesn’t fully avoid it, he is somewhat vindicated as Mortarion is. I’m being vague here to avoid spoilers, but suffice to say as written it feels like fence-sitting to me, trying to please all fans.

This book is also so focussed on the characters that there isn’t much time devoted to exposition (it’s a short story, in fairness) or the Horus Heresy setting. In fact, it makes it hard to find positive points, because Swallow is capable of so much better. There are moments of standard fare, such as the fight against a certain metallic beast, but even these are just average and par for the course. To compound this criticism, the hardback novella retailed at £18 GBP and is only 144 pages. That is an expensive price for about two hours reading.

Final score

This book was a big miss for me, the worst Siege of Terra book so far. It feels inconsistent, unnecessary and like it was trying to appease fans, rather than it being well thought through. It was a book focussed on characterisation that did it poorly. The redeeming features were average or less than, meaning that this book, if anything, muddies Garro’s legacy rather than giving him the ending he deserved. Even worse, it’s short and had an expensive recommended retail price for only 144 pages. One that is worth avoiding.

3/10