Chris Wraight’s first ever ‘bad guy’ Black Library novel, The Lords of Silence takes a close look at the actions and outlook of the Death Guard in post-Cicatrix Maledictum 40k. As the galaxy reels in the wake of Abaddon’s successes and the changes they’ve caused, the old Legions – including Mortarion’s Death Guard – are faced with different challenges to overcome. When the Lords of Silence, led by the strangely philosophical Siegemaster Vorx, are knocked off course they find themselves deep in Imperial territory and faced with the unexpected decision of what they ought to do next.
Wraight is justifiably renowned for his characterful explorations of the factions he writes about, and this is no different. There’s a wealth of detail concerning the realities of life in and around the Legion, but beyond that it really digs into the mindset of the Death Guard in terms of how they (or at least these particular characters) think and how they view the galaxy they inhabit. To say much more risks spoilers, but suffice to say these are characters both informed by their Heresy-era incarnations, and vastly changed, and with strong, intriguing opinions on both their past and future.
Vorx gets the bulk of the attention, and while there’s no doubting his corruption – in body, mind and spirit – he’s a strangely endearing, and sometimes even benevolent, character. Though worn down and weary from incredible age, he’s also calm and almost fatherly, sometimes even (sort of) honourable, despite the horrors he oversees and represents. It’s fascinating to see how he perceives the ‘now’ of 40k, what’s changed and what his – and the Legion’s – role is in relation to the Imperium and the Long War.
It’s almost solely told via these Death Guard perspectives, taking in not just Vorx but several of his lieutenants – including a key character previously seen in the short story Endurance – who between them offer an intriguing range of variations on what you might expect such characters to believe in and value. It’s all beautifully written as you’d expect, although told in a rather less conventional fashion than his work tends to be, with multiple present-tense viewpoints and a non-linear structure which requires the reader to accept what’s taking place and why, and trust that it will all make sense by the end (which it does). As such, it’s a touch less accessible than most of his other writing – still highly enjoyable and brilliantly insightful, just a little different.
Along with the back and forth narrative there’s a deliberately measured pace, perhaps representing the slow and methodical approach of the Legion, and it’s heavily weighted towards inter-warband dissent and intrigue over battlefield action, though when the Lords of Silence do take to the field it’s equal parts horrifying and fascinating. A huge amount of research and consideration has obviously gone into this, resulting in characters and structures which feel vibrant and beautifully fleshed-out, and contextualised for an updated setting that still feels genuinely new.
By stepping away from the main thrust of the ongoing 40k narrative – this definitely isn’t the Nurgle side of the Dark Imperium story, for example – focusing on a smaller scale story and slowing things down to really layer on the detail, it’s resulted in a slightly unconventional but endlessly fascinating book.
If you’re at all interested in the Death Guard – if you want to know what exactly a Tallyman does, what the importance of numerology (and the number seven) is, or how the Legion sees Nurglings, for example – then this is a must-read, it’s as simple as that.
