A quiet, low-key 27-minute Horus Heresy audio drama featuring Barnaby Edwards, Jonathan Keeble, Penelope Rawlins and Andrew Wincott, Darius Hinks’ Illyrium explores the character of Rouboute Guilliman through the memories of his chamberlain, Tarasha Euten. With the Macragge’s Honour under attack, Euten and Ultramarines Sergeant Ammon find themselves cut off and trapped as fires rage all around. While they wait for assistance to reach them, Euten tells Ammon the real story behind one of Guilliman’s early campaigns on Macragge, demonstrating how the reality of Guilliman’s genius differs from the official history books.
It’s a story about how Guilliman’s strengths encompass not just martial power but the insight and understanding which allow him to inspire loyalty and devotion in others, which on the face of things is fairly standard for a Guilliman story. What sets it apart is Hinks’ choice to tell it by way of a physically frail but still razor-sharp woman teaching a powerful lesson to one of Guilliman’s own sons, and the way Rawlins imbues Euten with a delightful sense of almost motherly exasperation as she nudges Ammon towards a dawning understanding of what she’s getting at. Almost the whole thing consists of the two of them stuck in a room talking, so it won’t be for those who like their action front and centre, but for everyone else it’s a characterful delight.
This was released as part of the 2019 Black Library Advent Calendar – click here to see the main page for the Advent Calendar, with links to all of the reviews.
Check out the main Horus Heresy reviews page on Track of Words.
I am slightly confused by when it’s set.
One assumes it’s set during Know No Fear as the Macragges Honour was missing in the Warp from the end of that book until after Gulliman went into status (pretty sure that’s right but I might have to refer back to Dark Imperium)
We know she is around during the events of the Imperium Secundus, so it implies that the end of the story is not what is suggested.
I was confused by this too the macragges honor according to dark imperium limps home almost a hundred years later
Also. Why is she on a ship anyway. Shouldn’t she be running the government…. why would Guilliman take a purely political leader on campaign