This is the limited edition of the Konrad Curze novel, the latest in the Primarchs series, which are a bunch of short novels dedicated to explore some of the mysteries behind the greatest of the Emperor's sons; their origins, philosophies and characters in a way that the Horus Heresy series, already having these characters active as a part of the ongoing Heresy story line, sometimes had to gloss over.
With this novel included, I have only read two of the Primarch novels, mainly because I do not have the money to buy everything I want and never enough time to read them in. The Primarchs series also didn't appeal to me so much, because I'm a collector who needs to read what he collects, which would mean 18 new novels, of questionable quality, which would inevitably include some duds.
As such I just went after the ones that interested me the most; Angron, because I like the insane rage of the legion, because my first models were World Eaters and because Kharn is a badass. Hell, even my PSN name takes its name from the legion. Lorgar, because of his religious background and reactionary faith in the Chaos Gods, is very close to me, given my own past and struggle with my faith. And of course Konrad Curze, because Night Lords are cool, Aaron Dembski-Bowden's Night Lord trilogy is the best complete story to come out of the Black Library, their colour scheme is awesome, their doctrine is radical, Konrad is the most tragic figure in the Heresy and so on. Needless to say, I was very much looking forward to this novel.
The edition is simply gorgeous. It of course helps that my favourite colour is blue.
The embossing is of course a little over the top (see the first picture), I mean the lightning and skull with wings are on point and pretty cool, but the ropes and bones, and the hooded cloak are just a bit much. But then this is Warhammer, isn't it, a frequent byword for over-the-top baroque ornamentation, grimdark excess and a cool-factor that pretty much is always paid more attention to than decent, surprising storytelling.
The artwork of Konrad is really nice; Mikhail Savier has delivered probably my favourite artwork of the Night Haunter. He looks as noble as only a Primarch can look, yet with a slant to his expression that makes him look as cruel as only Curze can be. This is Konrad at the height of his nobility, but I do have to say that those lightning claws are really unimpressive. Doesn't matter that they take their cue from the Forge World model, and aren't Savier's design, I just don't really picture those when I read 'Lightning Claws'.
But. The novel itself has the very worst of what is derided about the Warhammer license: Excessive gore, violence and brutality to the point where it becomes immersion-breaking, a depiction of evil and insanity that is laughable, a sorely lacking depth of character and a story that reads more like a linked series of event/character-vignettes; it is a novel of the Night Lord Legion's greatest hits. You'd think that this sounds good but, if I'm honest, I'd rather have not read this one.
Now, Konrad Curze is fascinating. He is the Primarch that let himself be assassinated just to make a point. He is a practical demi-god, gifted with prophetic powers, driven mad and cruel by his knowledge of his eventual death and the epic brother-war that would rip the newly blossomed Imperium of Man asunder. He is the lord of the legion of fear, grown into adulthood, friendless and alone, on a planet governed by crime syndicates and gangs, that he rose to be the ruler of, solely through a one-man guerrilla-war of terror and violence.
And the novel does tell some of this, but the way in which it does this, is fragmented. It is disconnected, delivered to the reader as Konrad remembers his past and regales it to an audience of one: A meat-statue of his father, molded together from spit and the bodies of slaughtered underlings.
This in itself is hard to swallow, as it is fucking silly and pretty much constitutes a child's depiction of evil and insanity.
Insanity in the Warhammer universe is frequently given a raw deal, with any exploration or investigation into the origins of that insanity usually relying on the Deus Ex Machina of the malign influence of the Chaos Gods.
And though of course, this is somewhat true here as well; Chaos as the influence that gifts Curze with his gift of prophecy, thus eventually leading him down the path of extremism, Konrad's insanity has always been about his visions having driven him insane, and about his benign and noble Primarch nature having been ruined by a complete lack of nurture and a life of cruel and violent adversity.
But this is simply not what Guy Haley depicts. Haley writes the tale of an insane and cruel child. A superhuman psychopath from birth, who was always fucked up, but who was driven over the edge, into the realm of the ridiculously insane (and I mean that both ways), and who only at a certain point in his life was cursed to see the coming brother-war and his own horrible ending.
This does not stroke with everything I have read, seen and thought of Konrad Curze.
I'm being too harsh. I know. This is because I am extremely biased. I love this primarch. He is Batman and the Predator rolled into one. He is the rule of cool trumps all, an absolute a fan-favourite character who rose to crazy heights of popularity with Aaron Dembski-Bowden's depiction of him in his Night Lord series. And that is probably the problem: Fan-sentiment.
There is always a problem when one starts to reveal the mystery behind a beloved character. The audience will have a bunch of associations and preconceptions in place already, and will frequently find those upturned by whichever writer has been chosen to tackle his origins. This is pretty much what always happens. It is what happened with me here. So, this is on me. Maybe.
But there are other problems; some are fundamental, some are here because this is how Guy Haley chose to deliver his story, some are here because of a blatant unconcern with how the laws of reality work, but the most important one: the worst failure of this novel is that this story and this character that are based on the ideas and questions behind an immutable fate, free will and the gift of prophecy, should have been a god damn masterclass in storytelling and structure, and this novel simply isn't it.
If you love it, however, then you go ahead and enjoy yourself. Good on you for settling for the easy fare, for the third rate fiction, for the vapid and fleeting stories that you enjoy so much.
Just know that it's because of you that I can't have nice things.
Seriously though. It's not quite this horrible, but I genuinely am disappointed and annoyed.
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