Traitors and Loyalists, those in-between and those who refuse any such label: I finally have it. My copy of Horus Heresy Book Eight: Malevolence has finally arrived!
This is the first book in the series that does not have Alan Bligh as one of the leads on it. Of course, Alan is sadly no longer with us and we grieve for his loss to the Horus Heresy. As the afterword in the book states, he truly was a driving force behind the series.
The most obvious side effect of this is that the language used in book 8 is slightly different to what Alan used. Sure, on the surface it is very similar, but dig a bit deeper, and the differences start to show. I do not consider this to be a negative. I want to be clear about that. All I am saying is that I miss his nuances and tempo, in the sense that Alan's writing was familiar to me.
As will be known to fans, Malevolence contains rules for two new Legions to the series: the Blood Angels, and the White Scars. In addition, there are army lists for the Legio Custodes, as well as the Daemons of the Ruinstorm. For me, this is enough for this book to really rank up there very high with some of the previous ones in the series. I'm not going to lie, I am a rather biased reader. When the first book (Betrayal) came out, it was a real revelation to me, and to many other players. It was a shining light. I would also evaluate the third book (Extermination) to be very high on my list as well. After all, it did deal with the Alpha Legion in depth for the first time. But more than that, I have long felt that Extermination had one of the most fascinating campaign ideas the featured the Raven Guard trying to stay alive on Isstvan. I loved that campaign a lot more than many others. I'd even rate it possibly higher than the Conquest rules set for campaigning, and that's saying something. As a result, I want readers to believe me when I say that for me personally, Malevolence ranks close up there with Extermination and Betrayal. Thank you Forge World. Sincerely.
In addition to the army lists, there are two campaigns included in the book: one for Signus (Blood Angels and Daemons in the main part, but also elements of Space Wolves, Legio Custodes, Word Bearers) and one for Chondax (White Scars and Alpha Legion in the main part). Both of these are well thought through, but they don't approach the levels seen in Conquest or Extermination. Of these, I would contend that Signus is the better, as Chondax is more sequential and, arguably, generic.
As for the background details, I welcome the addition of the Psyarkana, and the extra details gleaned about the internal Alpha Legion civil war that comes along with the description of Chondax. The Blood Angels and White Scars are detailed like never before - leaving only the Dark Angels relatively untouched for now and no rules for the Lion (he has to be next in book 9!). The details of how the legions viewed daemons is also really, genuinely interesting to me.
In future posts, I will start the more formal review of the units contained within this volume, and get in to more detail about the new daemons from the ruinstorm. But for now, I am a very happy reader.
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