Edoardo Albert’s Warhammer 40,000 novella Lords of the Storm is his first longer-form story for Black Library, a tale of the Primaris-only Fulminators chapter of Space Marines exploring their relationship with the mortals whose lives they safeguard. On the shrine world of Chevreuse, home to the sacred bones of Saint Blaise, the forces of the Ruinous Powers move ever closer to victory. Montalte, of the loyal Faithful, is tasked with guiding a small force of Fulminators (Sergeant Augustin and his Reivers) to the saint’s remains, navigating the dangers of Chaos cultists, traitor Guard and a living storm apparently conjured up by the saint himself.
On the surface it’s a fairly straightforward ‘get from A to B without dying and save the day’ story, complete with youthful protagonist, fearless heroes and villainous enemies, but the relative simplicity of the plot allows Albert to spend plenty of time developing his characters and exploring the world of Chevreuse. All of the world building feels perfect for 40k, a compelling blend of deep-rooted faith and wild, intense nature, as the lethal power of the storm is fundamentally tied into the saint’s presence and history. To Montalte and the Fulminators, forced to walk the stations of the saint, the storm is a danger (or series of dangers, really) to be factored into their plan. To the Chaos forces – predominantly the traitor Guard led by Captain Donatus, overseen by a somewhat more lethal commander – it has a sentience that frustrates and terrifies in equal measure.
While the Fulminators are nominally the subject of the novella, Albert focuses on human viewpoints, portraying events through the eyes of Montalte and, to a lesser extent, Donatus. This helps reinforce the sense of danger posed by the storm – the Fulminators are fundamentally comfortable with storms, but their arrogance isn’t always well-founded, and as the young and somewhat sheltered (in galactic terms) Montalte grows accustomed to their presence, their strengths and their tendency to assume they know best, so too does Augustin find himself reevaluating both the value and importance of his mortal guide and the humans he represents. While the human and posthuman loyalists develop a deeper appreciation of each other, Donatus and the traitors – though appearing to be in the ascendancy – find no such balance.
Albert gives Augustin and his Fulminators plenty of the spotlight, showing them in action in all their ultra-efficient glory, fighting alongside and against a range of allies and enemies both expected and a little more unusual…but the heart of the story is much more about the role that they play in the context of humanity as a whole. It’s an interesting approach to a Space Marine-focused novella, exploring Albert’s rhetorical question of whether the Astartes are (or should be) wolves or shepherds in relation to the human flock, set to the backdrop of a world defined by a faith to which the Space Marines don’t adhere. This isn’t the paciest or most action-packed of stories, and doesn’t go deep into the background of the still largely unexplored Fulminators, but every aspect of it feels both thoughtful and thought-provoking, and very human.
Check out my Author Spotlight interview with Edoardo Albert for more about this novella, or my quick review of the short story Born of the Storm for more Fulminators action.
Thank you, Michael, for the lovely, thoughful review. I’m glad you enjoyed Lords of the Storm and visiting Chevreuse – I enjoyed thinking about this world.
Thanks for another great story! Chevreuse was a really interesting setting, I liked that a lot 🙂