Book 54 in the Horus Heresy, James Swallow’s The Buried Dagger brings the main-range series to a close as the final book before the Siege of Terra begins. It’s a deserved moment in the spotlight for the Death Guard both past and present, told across two narratives with similar themes. One strand features the long-awaited ‘doom of the Death Guard’, the moment when Mortarion and his sons are becalmed in the Warp and turned to Chaos, while the other focuses on ex-Death Guard Nathaniel Garro and Malcador’s Knights Errant as they unravel a series of complex, unexpected mysteries back on Terra.
On the surface it might not look like there’s much connecting Garro’s arc with Mortarion’s, beyond a shared legion, but the two strands fit together thematically – as well as preparing each side for the Siege, both arcs feature characters forced to choose who they want to be, faced with compromises and decisions about how far they’re prepared to go. Mortarion’s arc includes flashbacks to his youth on Barbarus and the brutality he suffered under his adopted father, his history with Calas Typhon, the campaign he led to rid Barbarus of the Overlords, and his first unhappy meeting with the Emperor. Even after seeing what he went through in his youth, Mortarion isn’t exactly sympathetic, but he’s at least more understandable in terms of what drives and motivates him.
Fans hoping for a lengthy, sustained depiction of the Warp’s slow corruption of the Death Guard might be a touch disappointed, as while that’s definitely present it’s not the sole focus of the book – or even of Mortarion’s arc within it. The inclusion of his origin story does mean that there’s less time spent dealing with the ‘now’, but it needs to be there as it informs and contextualises the decision he eventually makes in order to save his sons, and adds weight to the depiction of a moment that we know is coming yet still manages to be powerful. It’s particularly valuable to understand how the despair and isolation he felt on Barbarus translated into a real blind spot for Calas Typhon, with whom he formed an unusually strong bond – and the way in which his stubbornness and aversion to weakness poisoned him and became his own greatest flaw.
Meanwhile Garro is a very different character, but he goes through his own agonies as he deals with his difficult relationship with Malcador and the conflict between his mistrust of the Sigillite and his still-developing faith. His arc has been ongoing for a while – since book four, The Flight of the Eisenstein – so it’s worth being familiar with his journey so far (i.e. make sure you’ve read Garro: Weapon of Fate), but there’s a lot to enjoy watching straight-arrow Garro wrestle with the changing landscape of the war, and see how Knights Errant like Loken and Rubio are faring too. The future of the Knights Errant, Malcador’s perspective on the war and the possibilities for the future – these are important moments for so many characters before the Siege begins, but as you might expect from the Heresy there are plenty of hints and teases without too much in the way of full-on reveals.
This is a book about journeys reaching crucial moments, not necessarily endings but tests, revelations and turning points – for the characters and for the series as a whole. There’s an awful lot for it to cover, and while it might not be to everyone’s taste it manages to combine a lot of threads – including a few really big ones – into a narrative that’s entertaining, intriguing and complex. In an ideal world then perhaps the two arcs would have been told in separate books, but then Swallow’s Garro stories have always been about gradually digging into his motivations and the lengths he’s prepared to go so it makes sense to bring his story almost to a close alongside a fascinating character study of his estranged Primarch. After this, all that’s left is to watch as the Siege unfolds.
Check out the main Horus Heresy reviews page on Track of Words.
