Deliverance Lost: Ghosts of Terra (The Horus Heresy)

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After his badass, but ultimately having to retreat, showing at the Dropsite Massacre there have only been scattered bits of Corax here and there about who he is and what is going on with his Legion, and most of that stuff was just rehashings of what we already knew. I can't really put my finger on what makes him the most intriguing Primarch to me but everything in here just solidifies why he, his philosophy, and his tactics are just the cat's pajamas in my eyes.

Fear of slipping up, doubts over the mission, how to manipulate events to his advantage (and even his fate), are all worthwhile reading. The Raven Guard simply do not stand on ceremony, and they are allowed a fair degree of lateral thinking, which causes Corus some headaches towards the end but introduces tension and drama that simply couldn't happen with any other Legion. It gave some valuable insights into the Primarch Project and the Emperor's plans and showed his genius via the mechanical labyrinth guarding the gene-tech. Two characters thought whose little side stories felt unnecessary or built up to nothing were imperial commander Marcus Valerius and former librarian Balsar Kurthuri. And while this story is obviously a sequel on Raven's Flight, it is at the same time a sequel on Legion.

Deliverance Lost tries to add some layers of explanation as to why they don't really get back into the game and why Corax will go where he goes. This book covers the impact the Dropsite Massacre had on the Raven Guard legion, in particular its Primarch, Corax and follows his desperate need to rebuild his legion at almost any cost.

It talks of the leader of the Raven Guard, and is the first book to really focus itself around the Raven Guard. Under instructions to sabotage the creation of the Raptors one of the undercover Alpha Legionnaires taints the gene-code with a poison distilled from daemon blood.

Currently living in Nottingham, Gav shares his home with his loving and very understanding partner - Kez, and their beautiful little boy - Sammy. Being a primarch of the Raven Guard and a son of the Emperor and having some of his abilities, I would think it would be easy to detect spies or at least take the possibilities of spies into account. Marcus Valerius, now promoted and in charge of a new cohort of Therion soldiers after his last group was sacrificed as a diversion to escape Isstvan, takes the brunt of the Emperor's Children resistance until the Raven Guard launch their planned attack and take control of the fortress.

Kniha přináší dvě akčnější pasáže, jinak jde spíše dost předpovídatelně vpřed a často jsou problémy dost násilně vymýšlené, jen aby se něco dělo (celá ta rovina s labyrintem). The characters just don't quite drive the story enough, nor are they memorable on their own, though there is one in particular I should cover. Omegon launches his attack on Ravendelve, the location of the secret gene-project on Kiavahr, and amidst the battle the three undercover Alpha Legionnaires reveal themselves, killing several real Raven Guard including Vincente Sixx. The (very) good Warhammer books punch you in the face with unrelenting bolter fire then end before you realized that there wasn't that much story or what was wasn't actually very good.

Fortunately there are no whining, attention-grabbing remembrancers here, they're all dead, along with SEVENTY-FIVE THOUSAND Raven Guard. Some people still go on and on about Corax being "emo" and like an edgy teenager, but that's not at all how he is. Corax becomes obsessed with the creation of new legionaries and once the Magos Biologis and Raven Guard chief apothecary Vincente Sixx figure out how to use the gene-technology a new breed of Raven Guard legionaries is quickly bred and nicknamed "the Raptors. While it's true he lacks some of the depth of Lorgar for example, Corus does not display the tortured anguish every other Primarch has so far - which is actually a breath of fresh air. Dort erhält der Primark ein wertvolles Geschenk: das Wissen und die Technik das Primarken-Projekt auferstehen zu lassen.

The novel also features a reappearance of the Cabal (Book 7), and of other well-known characters from previous books in the series. Deliverance Lost' ist höchst komplex, und wendet sich daher eher an erfahrene Leser die mit der Heresy schon vertraut sind. This entry had all of those things - it even had a brief encounter with the Emperor, which is always exciting (so long as they keep them brief)!Along with a small force of Legio Custodes and the Mechanicum's Magos Biologis Corax and his honour guard enter "the Labyrinth," a complex underground maze created by the Emperor to protect the Primarch Project. On page 272, it talks of Corax interrogating a chaplain of traitor legion, ending up killing him, as Corax leaves, he states something to two of his commanders, with one asking what he means, the page goes on to state, “Corax blinked rapidly with surprise and wiped a hand across his face. He keeps making demands of the apothecary and magos working on the gene-tech that are unreasonable and too much, too quickly, and when Branne confronts him about the rash, overzealous nature of the first batches of Raptors, Corax gets significantly angry and shrugs it all off - instead of listening to the sound advice of his senior staff, he wants to expand the recruitment instead of doing a thorough job, to hit some arbitrary goals he set for his Legion. Firstly as a neccessary sequel to a massive world shattering event like The Dropsite Massacre there is a dearth of action and impetus from the start.