Mortarion: The Pale King (Volume 15) (The Horus Heresy: Primarchs) [Hardcover] Annandale, David

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The prologue starts with the aftermath of the before mentioned short story in which Mortarion accepts surrender and tries a more peaceful approach to The Great Crusade at his second action in charge which is the planet Abysrtus. In the parts where we get a glimpse into the thought processes of the characters, both good and bad, we see a depth and a complexity that the author is capable of reaching.

As well as establishing Mortarion’s character as a stoic puritan, it also hints at where we know his arc will go. Readers will almost certainly have come across Morty at some point in the past, but possibly not as we see him here in his pre-Heresy days as a newly-enlegioned Primarch looking to make his mark on the galaxy and impress his father and brothers. They manage to blow them up, but many die after the tunnels are filled with molten ore from the factories afterwards which earns Typhon a promotion. But the Pale King brooks no challenge to his methods, for when the scythe falls, it reaps a gruesome toll.Most of the book follows the Death Guard as they fight through the hallways and wider rooms of the arcology that contains the seat of power in the Galaspar system. He brought the cast of characters to life as he always does and conveyed the barrage of emotions brought to bear in the finale perfectly. Non-chronological telling of a brutal compliance (and Morty being knocked by Sanguinius and Horus for said brutality, which may or may not have been justified). I try to not judge books by their authors, but bias can not be avoided so I had low expectations for this one especially because Annandales other entries in this series were poor. You don't need to have read other Mortarion stories like The Buried Dagger, Lantern's Light or Verdict of the Scythe whatsoever to understand this book but whether you're a diehard Death Guard fan or a complete beginner to the Legion, there's plenty to enjoy here.

As is often the case with this series, a hundred or so more pages would really help- the hints at the Legion’s preparation for this war are tantalising hints that id love to have seen more of, and likewise for the mentions of blending the Terran and Barbarus drawn recruits. The parallels between the enemy that he fights in this book, the tyranny that he fought on his homeworld in the past, and the monstrous entity that the Imperium later becomes is a clever plot device which works really well in this book. One of the things I’ve always enjoyed about Mortarion is that he shared Corax’s distaste for oppressors. Exploring those developments, and the upbringing of each Primarch seems to be the overall purpose of the novels in this series.A few really keen moments where we get a peek at Mortarion’s personal character flaws and the beginning of his descent into treachery.