The second of two Siege of Terra prequel novellas (see also Spear of Ultramar), David Guymer’s Dreadwing explores a little of what Lion El’Jonson and his Dark Angels were getting up to that prevented them from reaching Terra. Engaged in a campaign of harassment against Traitor-held worlds, tensions within the I Legion are rising as the question of whether to return to Terra becomes ever more important. While the Lion broods in silence, his lieutenants Redloss and Holguin – of the Dreadwing and Deathwing respectively – are at odds, one keen to continue the campaign and the other desperate to head for Terra.
Despite its brevity, this tries to cram in a lot of characters and tie into a lot of the different arcs which have made up the Dark Angels’ overall depiction in the Heresy so far. It definitely rewards the reader who’s fully up to speed on what’s gone before for this Legion and familiar with the existing characters, although it does also go into some new detail around the politics and leadership of the Hexagrammaton, the Dark Angels’ six ‘wings’. It also brushes past some big snippets of lore in terms of what’s actually happened during the Dark Angels’ attacks on Traitor worlds, and while it’s understandable that they don’t get more attention considering this book’s length, it’s a real shame there couldn’t have been more consideration paid to them. Perhaps they’ll be covered in a future book instead.
There’s lots that needs covering, and it could probably have done with being a full novel to give everything the attention it deserves. Individual scenes are largely well done, and there are some nice touches with the strained relationship between Holguin and Redloss, while the Lion’s motivations and thought processes are kept intriguingly at a remove. As a whole, however, it’s just a bit disjointed and lacking a clear through-narrative. Is it about the pressures that two key Dark Angels are under as the Lion’s distance grows? Or the growing implications of the Lion’s mistrust and paranoia? The mysterious influence of the Watchers in the Dark? These themes and more are touched upon – and all are interesting – but none of them are fully explored.
Therein lies the difficulty with this book – there’s just too much going on for such a short page count, and as a result it doesn’t quite know what it wants to be. It perhaps doesn’t help either that Guymer’s prose can be a little over-complicated and difficult to follow at times, and the overall narrative just doesn’t quite fit together perfectly. It’s also a little puzzling as to why it’s called Dreadwing, given that there’s as much focus on Holguin and his Deathwing as there is on Redloss. It’s hard not to think that a narrower focus dealing with fewer characters might have worked better for a novella, with the bigger picture tackled in a full-length novel. With many questions still unanswered – not least regarding the fate of Caliban – there’s clearly more story to be told.
Dreadwing is book 5 in the Black Library Novella Series 1. You can read reviews of the rest of the books in this series by following this link.
Check out the main Horus Heresy series page on Track of Words.
Great review