Horus Heresy:
Hunter's Moon
written by
Guy Haley
I think I
made a mistake yesterday. I chose an audio from the Space Marine
Battles line which tends to be very action oriented (and not terribly
well-suited to audio) from an author I didn't know about an army that
doesn't much interest me. Today its a Horus Heresy story, which tend
to do better on audio, by one of my favourite Black Library authors
and featuring two of my favourite Space Marine factions ever: the
Space Wolves and the Alpha Legion. Certainly a better recipe for
success. Also its only half an hour long so wouldn't try my patience
it if didn't live up to its pedigree.
Haley
certainly knows how to make a story like this work on audio. He
crafts a small incident in the greater sweep of the Heresy rather
than trying to write an entire battle into a short script. He also
employs a more intimate narration style as an old fisherman on the
planet Pelago tells his young pupil of the day the “star giants”
came to their world. As well as providing us with characters from
grimmest, darkest Mummerset this allows us an unusual glimpse into
the Horus Heresy setting. Several, actually.
First, the
Heresy is normally either presented as the present day or as ancient
legends, not the recent past. This is someone narrating the lived
experience of seeing the dream of Unity end before his eyes, having
the illusion that the Space Marines are perfect defenders of mankind
shattered. We also get to hear something of how this more liberal and
forward looking Imperium affects the worlds under its banner. Pelago
is clearly a primitive world where flashlights are an imported
miracle but one of the characters mentions attending a collegium
where he's learnt some science and knowledge of other worlds,
spaceships and the existence of the Legions. Its clear that the
presence of the Imperium is actually doing something for the
population rather than the grinding exploitation more commonly shown
in the forty first millennium setting.
Its actually
a little disappointing when the Alpha Legion ship crashes in the sea
and the fishermen go to investigate. Now, obviously, there has to be
some point to the story rather than just some fishermen telling tales
and filling us in on random worldbuilding and I don't begrudge it
that. Rather, its that there's a limited number of places the story
can go after that. I enjoyed the interactions of Torbjorn with the
fishermen once he loosens up enough to tell them things (he's all “do
not speak to me of it” for a little too long given the brevity of
the story, to be frank) but a lot of the exposition is just to
reinforce that his squad was one of those dispatched by Leman Russ to
look in on the Primarchs to see if anyone was thinking a bit too much
about rebellion in the wake of Prospero.
As with any
good Warhammer short there's a twist of the knife ending. Not a
terribly surprising one but one that has a lot more punch than you'd
expect thanks to the narration style.
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