The third in Josh Reynolds’ series of Horus Heresy audio dramas featuring ex-World Eater Endryd Haar, Blackshields: The Broken Chain sees Haar and his second in command – former Death Guard Erud Vahn – at the mercy of the Sons of Horus sent by the Warmaster to track them down. Betrayed, imprisoned and stripped of his weapons and armour, Haar languishes in chains while Vahn bargains with their captors, but the Sons of Horus want more than just prisoners. The Warmaster wants his weapons back, but the Blackshields’ loyalties and objectives remain unclear, while Haar knows he’s escaped from worse prisons in the past.
After the initial setup of The False War and then the psychological conflict of The Red Fief, this time around Haar’s character is pretty well established, and there’s less of a focus on what’s driving him – beyond an underlying sense of trauma at what he’s been forced to go through in his past. His overall purpose remains the same – he fully intends to kill Horus – but what’s at question in this story is his ability to see things through, to keep his men together and lead them to victory…or at least to find a way out of his cell. In the process of learning whether he can indeed achieve these goals, fans of this series will likely be delighted to learn a few juicy (if only tantalisingly revealed) details of Haar’s early history.
In essence it’s an action-light, dialogue-heavy story of loyalty, determination and the nature of the chains that bind people together, as Haar (played once again by John Banks) and Vahn (Toby Longworth) are each interrogated by one of their Sons of Horus captors. Right from the beginning it’s clear that something isn’t quite as it seems, and while there are no huge surprises in the ensuing narrative (no spoilers) it nonetheless proves satisfying and enjoyable. There’s more of Vahn this time around, as his conflicted loyalties are put to the test, and while it’s a touch unclear what the Sons of Horus’ structure is, and how the two main antagonists – Richard Reed’s Gamos and David Seddon’s Tyrad – relate to each other, the cast all turn in strong performances and it works, structurally, to pair the characters up this way.
You could probably jump into the series with this story and still enjoy it, but it definitely rewards an understanding of Haar and Vahn’s characters, and what they’ve gone through up to this point. It maintains the same format as the previous instalments, with Gareth Armstrong as narrator and a remarkably small cast with everyone bar Armstrong pulling double (or more) duty, but the narration doesn’t feel intrusive and the whole thing hangs together well with the usual excellent standard of audio production from Black Library. Stick some headphones on and sit back, and you’ll soon lose yourself in this satisfying extension of the Blackshields arc. If there’s more to come in this series then all the better, but despite not taking these characters to the very end of their arc, this would nevertheless close things off nicely if it’s the last one.
Check out the main Horus Heresy reviews page on Track of Words.
Click here to buy Blackshields: The Broken Chain on Audible.