Guy Haley’s 40k short story To Speak As One is an unusual tale of conflicting Imperial jurisdiction, and the ongoing repercussions of Guilliman’s return and Belisarius Cawl’s unorthodox genius. Inquisitor Cehen-qui isn’t best pleased to receive orders to hand off a xenos prisoner to one of Cawl’s lieutenants, Magos Qvo-87, so refuses and hunkers down in an abandoned Ordo Xenos void station to defend his prize. To his mind, the Inquisition’s remit supersedes the authority of Cawl, or even Guilliman. Undeterred, Qvo deploys his forces – including Alpha Primus, a Space Marine of ambiguous origins and unusually dour demeanour – to press the issue.
It’s a simple premise but there’s a lot more to this story than a straight-up fight. For all that it features a void-borne assault upon a decrepit space station, it’s primarily a character-driven story, the prissy, arrogant Cehen-qui and his small retinue largely pitting their wits against the idiosyncratic figures of the Mechanicus forces, particularly Qvo and Primus, both of whom are clearly more than they seem at first glance. There are plenty of questions left unanswered, but it’s a lot of fun seeing the interactions between these characters and speculating upon their origins and motivations. As long as you don’t mind a little mystery and ambiguity, there’s lots to enjoy here – not least a few hints of where Haley might be taking these characters in future.
Thanks for the review!
How do you think, is it a prequel to the upcoming novel ‘Belisarius Cawl: The Great Work’?
In a way it is a prequel but you won’t miss out if you haven’t read this before reading The Great Work.