Day seven of Black Library’s 2016 Advent Calendar features The Grey Raven, the first of two Horus Heresy Raven Guard stories from Gav Thorpe. Closely linked to the novella Weregeld (part of Corax, book 40 in the numbered series) it picks up the story of Balsar Kurthuri, Chief Librarian of the Raven Guard, as he returns to Terra to face the Sigillite’s judgement having broken the Edict of Nikaea. Accompanied by the rest of the ‘Long Shadows’, those who Corax couldn’t or wouldn’t count on, he finds little in the way of welcome from the defenders of the Sol system.
Kurthuri has played a small but important part in Gav’s Raven Guard arc so far, and is an ideal candidate for the short story form – this doesn’t finish off his arc by any measure, but instead nicely signals the end of one part and the beginning of the next. It’s a story about loyalty and the different shapes that can take, and about the importance and dangers of trust. Not quite as grim as Weregeld, it’s still a pretty dark story that pulls no punches, but fits in nicely with what else is going on in the series at the moment. The clue is in the title…
Click here for an overview of the Black Library Advent Calendar 2016.
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