The second instalment of John French’s brilliant The Horusian Wars series, Incarnation follows on pretty directly from Resurrection to continue the story of Inquisitor Covenant and his pursuit of the shadowy cabal known as the Triumvirate. Guided by the Imperial Tarot, Covenant and his warband journey to the shrine world of Dominicus Prime where, amidst the secrets and machinations of the sprawling Monastery of the Last Candle, a terrifying power is about to manifest. The Triumvirate seek to use that power to raise a weapon against Chaos whilst Covenant – ever the puritan – is determined to see them fail.
It almost entirely takes place on or in orbit of Dominicus Prime, and mostly within the Monastery of the Last Candle; it’s such a huge, Gormenghast-esque setting, however, that the scale is still impressively vast and its various inhabitants, from pilgrims to priests, suitably varied. This is ‘domestic 40k’ at it’s strangest and most fascinating, a world away from the big battlefields but no less dark or dangerous for that. Covenant’s warband are all present and correct, albeit with slightly different emphasis this time, while most of the new faces are drawn from the Monastery or from the warband of another inquisitor, Memnon. It’s a big cast, and there’s a lot going on, but as you’d expect from French it’s all carefully plotted and cleverly constructed to keep you guessing as to the true intentions and ultimate role of each character. These are all dark and complex characters, willing to do terrible things in service of their goals, and even the likeable ones are flawed and liable to not be quite what you expect.
Barring one scene featuring an unusually expositional discussion of Horusianism, it once again doesn’t spend too long actively talking about the different branches of the Inquisition. Instead, the differences between Covenant and Memnon’s ideologies are explored through their actions, and those of their warbands. Style-wise it all feels very consistent with Resurrection, although tonally it’s slightly different. Obviously Covenant and co. are more familiar now, but they’re also a bit more on the front foot, and as a reader the picture is (deliberately, one assumes) a little clearer in terms of what’s at stake and who’s involved. Relatively little time has passed between the two books, but characters are developing and reacting to events in interesting and often unexpected ways, all of which helps to shed light on their past actions and behaviour – especially the von Castellans, but even Covenant has had to adapt.
There’s no getting around it, it’s really important to have read Resurrection before tackling this (less so the accompanying short stories, although they’re great), as it’s more like the middle third of a single story than a standalone tale in its own right. That’s not to say it doesn’t have a start, middle and end of its own – it does – just that it doesn’t spend time recapping or reminding you what’s going on. It’s a book that rewards careful reading and challenges you to pay attention. It’s as pacy as you’d expect from Black Library, with inventive (and often just really cool) action scenes aplenty, but the real implications of what’s going on are only slowly revealed and require some thought to properly process. Put the effort in, however, and you’ll be rewarded with another fascinating story that builds on what’s gone before, raising the stakes and delivering a powerful example of what the 40k universe really has to offer.
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