The third book in John French’s Horusian Wars series, Divination is not a novel but rather a collection of short stories, exploring some of the key characters in Inquisitor Covenant’s warband to add depth and emotional weight to the series as a whole. Covenant himself remains a slightly distant figure, always seen through others’ eyes (as per the novels), but over the course of these eleven stories French delves into the backstory and/or mindset of all the inquisitor’s key companions, and even an old ally. Each story takes a very different approach, some more action-packed than others, but they’re all united in shedding light on these intriguing characters and through them Covenant’s philosophy.
French’s naming convention for these stories – each one inspired by a card in the Imperial Tarot – is perfectly in keeping with his thoughtful, nuanced style of writing, and straight away hints at what to expect from the anthology. A couple of stories (The Absolution of Swords and The Thief of Chalices) provide a little narrative continuity with the novels while featuring multiple members of the warband in action at once, but the overall purpose of the anthology is to provide deep, thought-provoking studies of individual characters. Covenant hasn’t collected happy, well-adjusted souls so there are some emotionally tough moments on display here, from the family history of the von Castellans to the events which brought Koleg and Severita into the inquisitor’s orbit (and lots more).
While this isn’t aimed at the reader who wants a clearly defined picture of what’s going on or straightforward action stories, there’s a wealth of information to be absorbed in the little details of each story for those willing to look closely, and content to take away as many questions as answers. There aren’t really any standout stories, because they’re all so good, but The Mistress of Threads is notable for its epistolary structure (told exclusively in the 40k equivalent of letters), while The Maiden of the Dream is classic French with its psychic twistiness and seriously bleak underlying concept. Meanwhile The Purity of Ignorance offers the only prose appearance (thus far) of Lieutenant Ianthe, who primarily features in the incredible Agent of the Throne audios, but really each one is memorable and compelling in its own right.
This really feels like 40k in microcosm, each story worth reading purely for the chance to explore the weird little corners of the setting that French brings to life so well, in fleeting glimpses of intriguing locations, characters and haunting, harrowing Imperial life. Of the eleven stories six (at the time of writing) are available separately as e-shorts, while two were included in the Limited Edition hardbacks for Resurrection and Incarnation, but there’s so much depth to each story that they really reward multiple readings. In particular, it’s fascinating to revisit stories in context of the other tales around them, and experience the way reading one can inform a re-read of another. Ultimately there’s nothing here which is essential to the narrative in any way, but if you want to experience the full nuance of the story French is building – and if you’ve enjoyed the novels and want to know more about these characters – then all of these stories are valuable additions to the series.
The full list of short stories included in Divination is as follows (click the links to read reviews where available):
- The Absolution of Swords
- The Knave of Stars
- The Mistress of Threads
- The Circle of the Sword
- The Spirit of Cogs
- The Thief of Chalices
- The Maiden of the Dream
- The Purity of Ignorance
- The Son of Sorrows
- The Father of Faith
- The Blessing of Saints
Check out more reviews and interviews for the Horusian Wars series.
