Review: Saturnine

By Dan Abnett

Book four in the Horus Heresy Siege of Terra sees the defenders, led by Rogal Dorn, having to decide where to prioritise their defences. There’s several gates to defend but they cannot possibly hold them all, so some difficult decisions will have to be made. We see characters and forces from the previous books feature, as well as some new introductions such as humans fighting on the frontline.

Dan Abnett wrote the very first Warhammer books I ever read, and has been chosen from the large cast of Horus Heresy writers to write the very final book, titled The End and the Death, which will come in two volumes. On the evidence of this book, he was a good choice.

A frantic fight

The pacing felt slightly slow at first, but this might be a bit pedantic – it wasn’t as if Abnett spent too much time on particular characters or scene-setting. Descriptions of the scale of the Throneworld do have a feeling, but it never delves overmuch into the imagery. Once the action develops, it rattles along at a great pace.

Engagements feel frantic, holding the gates feels desperate, and the power of fan favourite characters is displayed well. Dorn, the Khan, Zephon, the Mournival and more all have interesting moments and fights. Camba Diaz organising the imperial army defences before the World Eaters, hit, knowing that they aren’t going to be able to hold, then his valiant duelling with them, never taking a backward step. Valdor charging out, the imperial troopers facing untold horrors, and the remembrancers caught in the middle of all the chaos.

Redacted had put down World Eaters less berserk, and Night Lords less energetic. Redacted was more tireless than Iron Warriors he had slain, more rapid than Emperor’s Children he had duelled. It was blunt trauma like a Salamander’s Warhammer, cold fury like an Iron Hand’s mind, seething rage like a Wolf of Fenris, zealous hatred like a Bearer of Words. It was the terror of the shining Angels, it was the unknowability of their darker cousins, it was the invincibility of Ultramar, it was the swift death of Deliverance.

(Pp.408 character names redacted to avoid spoilers)

The ending crescendo of the book is great. There’s a good degree of build-up, and the action and characters do not disappoint.

Big battle, big characters

This is slightly larger than some of the previous Siege of Terra books (at 465 pages for the large paperback), and there are many characters. As a result there is some variation to how strong the plot and characters are, with some feeling slightly unimaginative and others being more engaging.

As well as the imperial army troops, remembrancers feature heavily, space marines and primarchs. Avoiding spoilers, we even encounter some characters from the earlier times of Terra. I loved the interplay between Olly Piers and Hari Harr, the grizzled veteran soldier and the historian placed on a battlefield where he probably shouldn’t be present. Sigismund and Dorn feel outright hostile to each other, developing a trend from the last few books.

There was, to add to these interactions, as well as from characters like the Custodes taking on the role of detective, Amon Tauromachian, a lot of investigation and exploration of the emperor as god taking place. It is implemented naturally in the story, and within different plot strands to get different perspectives.

Some characters deaths felt thick and fast, maybe a little too fast for their provenance to be acknowledged. Although it is difficult, one traitor character seemed to get killed off without much fanfare despite their prominence. It is hard with legion affiliations for writers to stay unbiased, but I did feel the Emperor’s children were portrayed in a far less favourable light to other legions in this book. But is it fair to compromise the story to ensure every legion gets equal treatment? Probably not. I do think, from reading a lot of Warhammer books, writers would be smart to vary their treatment of a particular legion by utilising different angles. For example, if a legion seems to lose a lot, occasionally show that there was some kind of wider plan or that it the losing of such battles were strategic withdrawals. Unfortunately, I tend to see that either a writer ‘likes’ or ‘dislikes’ a legion, rather than making the portrayal deeper and multi-faceted, which would add layers of depth to the lore.

There are some references to Magnus’s plan, which is covered in the siege of terra novella – fury of magnus. Although not a part of the numbered siege of terra books, its place in the story fits in before Mortis, and therefore it is recommended to read fury of magnus before continuing through the numbered series with Mortis.

Slightly more so than other Horus Heresy and Siege of Terra books, there was some advanced language here and of course all the usual Warhammer terminology.

Final Score

This feels like one of the best Siege of Terra book so far, and Abnett’s writing has a feeling of refinement I haven’t seen in the previous books. Having said that, it still feels there’s a lot of characters and slight meandering in the early part of the book, but the later action was full of tension and drama, and the challenging struggle to hold the gates ensured the book didn’t slow down. The strongest Siege of Terra book so far, with a refinement unmatched by the preceding books.

8/10