REVIEW: The Dark King/The Lightning Tower

WARNING!

This review contains spoilers.

The Horus Heresy Chapbook contains two short stories; The Dark King and The Lightning Tower, by Graham McNeill and Dan Abnett respectively. It is a limited edition of 1500 copies.

The stories concern themselves with two Primarchs who have developed a bitter enmity; Rogal Dorn of the Imperial Fists and Konrad Curze of the Night Lords.

Part 2 - The Dark King by Graham McNeill

Konrad Curze, Primarch of the Night Lords, is haunted by visions of Astartes fighting each other and a golden eagle cast from the heavens. As he comes to his senses he realises that he has attacked Rogal Dorn, Primarch of the Imperial Fists. Curze is imprisoned.

Curze and Dorn had quarreled about the purpose of the Great Crusade; Curze thought it was to conquer, to force obedience through fear, while Dorn thought it was to liberate and govern with benevolence. The Night Lords Primarch tries to illustrate his point. Curze gave a gun to a prisoner. While Curze intimidated the prisoner, he was compliant. As soon as Curze turned his back, the prisoner attacked him. Curze mercilessly killed the prisoner. Dorn is disgusted and orders that the Night Lords stand down from the conflict on Cheraut.

Curze told Fulgrim, Primarch of the Emperor's Children, about his tormenting visions. Fulgrim breaks his confidence and tells Dorn. Dorn confronts Curze. This leads to the fight between Curze and Dorn described earlier.

Curze learns that the Night Lords are to be recalled to Terra to account for their methods. He also discovers that Nostramo, their homeworld, is rife with corruption and lawlessness. Curze escapes his prison and slaughters many marines in the event. He uses the shadows and relishes the fear he causes in his victims. He becomes the Night Haunter.

Curze returns to Nostramo. The Imperial Fists follow him. Society on Nostramo has broken down. Curze belives that without the fear of reprisal, humanity has reverted to it's basest desires and that the Emperor's belief in the goodness of mankind is folly. Curze reads the Tarot cards and gets the same reading as Malcador in The Lightning Tower. Curze destroys Nostramo in the belief that it's sacrifice is what is required to preserve the galaxy for humanity.

Konrad Curze has always been one of the most interesting Primarchs to me, largely because of the literary and film links with Kurtz from Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness and Colonel Kurtz from the film Apocalypse Now. I loved both the book and the film and the Kurtz character is integral to both of them. He is an ambiguous figure who exists to critique progress and the nature of civilization and seems able to connect to some base, animal will within himself and humanity.

Of course the other reading is that he is simply insane. His visions are true, though...

It's good to see an outing for Curze and a glimpse into his tragedy. It's also good that he doesn't descend into the typical pantomime villain, evilly cackling as he hatches his nefarious plans. Instead he is plagued by troubling truths and is betrayed and forced out by those around him. His twisted relationship with Dorn is well drawn and McNeill's writing is as solid and dependable as ever.

I give the The Dark King and The Lightning Tower 8/10.

Scores

All of my reviews end in a score out of ten for the product. The table below explains what that score means.

• 10/10 Perfect, absolutely nothing better
• 9/10 Excellent, highly recommended
• 8/10 Very good, recommended
• 7/10 Good
• 6/10 Above average, some problems
• 5/10 Average, some good points some bad points
• 4/10 Below average, some redeeming features
• 3/10 Poor, major flaws
• 2/10 Very poor, avoid if possible
• 1/10 Absolutely appalling

REVIEW: The Dark King/The Lightning Tower

WARNING!

This review contains spoilers.

The Horus Heresy Chapbook contains two short stories; The Dark King and The Lightning Tower, by Graham McNeill and Dan Abnett respectively. It is a limited edition of 1500 copies.

The stories concern themselves with two Primarchs who have developed a bitter enmity; Rogal Dorn of the Imperial Fists and Konrad Curze of the Night Lords.

Part 1 - The Lightning Tower by Dan Abnett

The Lightning Tower finds Dorn fortifying the Imperial Palace in expectation of the traitor attack. He broods over the real reason why he is afraid of the traitorous primarchs. He is not afraid of the coming fight, but why the Primarchs have turned, and if he will agree with their decision. He fears the unknown.

Malcador the Sigillite tries to convince Dorn that ignorance will be his salvation and that it is better not to understand Chaos. Malcador shows Dorn some Tarot cards that were used by Curze. Dorn tells Malcador abot his clash with Curze in the Cheraut system, about how he rebuked Curze for going too far. Fulgrim of the Emperor's Children tells Dorn that Curze has been plagued by visions of a coming war, the Emperor's legacy overthrown, and the Astartes turning on each other. Dorn confronts Curze and is almost killed by him. Curze destroys his homeworld and takes his Night Lords off into the stars.

Malcador suggests that Dorn is really afraid of Curze because he is fear incarnate; he is afraid of the fear that sides with him, of the fact that Curze was right. Malcador makes a divination with the cards which confirms Curze's visions. One card is the Lightning Tower, which Malcador explains could mean knowledge or achievement through sacrifice, a flash of inspiration, a world destroyed leaving you with a greater gift.

The Emperor tells Dorn not to let fear get in the way. Dorn broods on the Lightning Tower card. If it means achievement obtained through sacrifice what will the sacrifice be?

This is an interesting story and the main reason is the light it sheds upon parts of the Horus Heresy not yet seen. The Imperial palace/fortress is impressively described (it is so large that parts of it have their own climates), and the investiary has plinths with statues of the Primarchs (the two from the missing legions have been removed). We also hear the Emperor's first spoken words in the whole Horus Heresy saga. Malcador also reveals a little of his character.

Rogal Dorn is the main character, though, and his troubled relationship with Konrad Curze forms the substance of the story. Dorn is already beginning to despair at the direction the Imperium is taking, at the damage he is inflicting upon the aesthetics of the palace as he turns it into a fortress, and what will come after the war. To this extent, he has already been affected by Curzes's terror tactics. Abnett creates a convincing bond between these two very different characters.

This is an excellent short story.

I'll review the Dark King in my next post.