Deliverance Lost: Ghosts of Terra (The Horus Heresy)

Product Information

There is a good amount of exploration into the origins of gene seed and primarch DNA, which just doesn't make compelling reading. As usual this is a Heresy story that balances on a knife edge between hope and tragedy and while you suspect what's going to happen, you are never quite sure. I was also underwhelmed by both of the Dark Angels books in the Heresy series, and for some reason I was expecting this to be very similar, although I'm not sure why.

Little do they know that their ranks have been infiltrated by the Alpha Legion who seek to bring them down once and for all. 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. They don't know what their mission is and they don't even recognise each other, and at least one of them becomes more sympathetic to the Ravens as he shares death and fear with them. However, covert operatives and the Primarchs Alpharius Omegon of the Alpha Legion ( Book 7) play prominent roles.However, I personally don't think he's overly reflective about why things go wrong for him, for the story ends with him committing to an attack that he originally planned to undertake with far more of his Legion. His Warhammer 40,000 repertoire further includes the Path of the Eldar series, the Horus Heresy audio dramas Raven's Flight and Honour to the Dead, and a multiplicity of short stories. This book made me think about my own loses in my life and how others have reacted and how I have dealt with it. Gav Thorpe's stuff is always worth a read, at least in my opinion and he manages to humanize Space Marines in a way that some authors struggle with. So, this time we pickup the story right at Isvtan, rescuing the Raven guard Primarch from a certain death.

The rating is a little harsh, but at some stage I have to distinguish between the books that will stick in my head, and those that won't. Deliverance Lost tells you more about how the Alpha Legion works than the book devoted to the Alpha Legion.

Thorpe's Last Chancers trilogy has always been among my favourites because they introduce such likeable characters; considering their horrible natures and desperate situation, this is a big compliment to Thorpe's writing, and to his understanding of his fellow man. His shame is more than losing his Legion, disappointing the Emperor and screwing up his recruits in the later batches.