Old Earth – Nick Kyme

Nick Kyme’s third full-length Horus Heresy novel, Old Earth is book 47 (!) in the series, and the third and final book in the Salamanders arc that began with Vulkan Lives. If you haven’t yet read Deathfire, be warned – spoilers abound. The main thrust of the novel is the journey from Nocturne to Terra made by the reborn Vulkan, accompanied by just three Salamanders, his Draaksward. Meanwhile Shadrak Meduson tries to hold his Shattered Legions together in the fight against the Sons of Horus, while Eldrad Ulthran pulls strings (as usual) working towards his own hidden goals.

For a book ostensibly about Vulkan, there’s a lot about other characters – luckily all three of the main story arcs in Old Earth are interesting in their own right, and are nicely tied together to make a cohesive whole. The Shattered Legions arc has been pretty dark right from the beginning but Kyme takes it further here, putting Meduson through absolute hell in the name of a single voice for the Iron Hands. It’s unlikely to change anyone’s opinion if they’re not fans of the Shattered Legions, but it’s powerful, unpredictable stuff. To say much about Eldrad’s involvement would be pretty spoilerific, but suffice to say it’s maybe not what you’d expect. Kyme handles the seer and his actions very well indeed, tying in a thread from way back that’s occasionally been tweaked, but now feels primed for further exploration.

Of course Vulkan is still the main focus of the book, and it’s great to see the big man filled with purpose and running at (almost) full strength, arguably for the first time in the series, after all he’s been through. This isn’t a detailed depiction of his inner thoughts – we don’t see inside his head that much, instead seeing him mostly through the lens of his sons. Even so, his quiet confidence and powerful presence comes through nicely as he comes to grip with his rebirth and his fast-approaching fate, whether battling daemons or forging a path through the void and the Webway. His three Draaksward are fun characters, albeit perhaps a touch under-developed, but again the focus is – rightly – on Vulkan, his character and his destiny. It’s not just a simple ‘reach Terra and everything will be fine’ destiny, either – there’s some good stuff here around Vulkan’s core nature, and his purpose among the primarchs.

Perhaps because of properly seeing Vulkan in action, or maybe as a result of the tight plotting necessary to weave in the multiple storylines, this feels like the leanest and most enjoyable of the three Salamanders novels. Kyme’s prose does sometimes veer towards overly flowery descriptions and a few too many fancy words where simpler ones would do, but for the most part it’s effective and enjoyable. The inclusion of the Shattered Legions arc in particular adds variety to what might otherwise have been a story with too many similarities, structurally at least, to Deathfire – that book was all about the mythical journey, while this one ends up a bit broader. Is it a bit convenient that Vulkan and Meduson link up? Perhaps, but it works nonetheless, both storylines are nicely defined, and the plot rattles along nicely. This might not be the book that everyone expects, especially with so much of it given over to the Shattered Legions, but overall it’s a really satisfying conclusion to this part of the series, and another step closer to the Siege of Terra.

Click here for the main Horus Heresy page on Track of Words.

If you enjoyed this review and want to read Old Earth for yourself, click here to check it out on Amazon and support Track of Words while you’re at it.