In a setting filled with malevolent gods turning people into sex slugs or rotting fly babies it's interesting to see that the horrors wrought on Angron were entirely human in nature. And even the tiniest glimpse on the slave of Nuceria, before he became the Eater of Cities, of Worlds. But at the same time, there were many missed opportunities, underused characters and a cliffhanger that only makes sense if you still remember another novel from the early 20s of the HH series proper, and even then the significance may pass you by due to how tacked on it feels. However, not enough of the book is about the primarch himself, and it tells us little about him that we did not already know. Though his backstory is explained, namely why he has a head full of angry wires instead of brains, I would say the story is focused far more on the consequences of that on his Legion-- on the exploration of the impending damnation of the entire Legion and its culture.

Other events, meanwhile, take place but lack the further descriptions in Betrayer which makes them more impactful.

There are two main threads to the novel: flashbacks to Angron’s time as a slave on Nuceria, and a campaign during the Grand Crusade surrounding the time of the World Eaters’ adoption of the Butcher’s Nails. As the Emperor travels the galaxy at the head of his Great Crusade, few events are as important as rediscovering his scattered sons, the primarchs, and bestowing them as the masters of their Legions.

This book tells both the story of how the XIIth legion fell to the butchers nails, and the story of how Angron gets his own infamous implants. Not only do we get insight in the legions past, we also get several important moments in Angrons past. All of this is written in a nice pace, focussing on the important moments without dragging them out. Surprisingly, the Angron we saw here is compassionate and had quickly build a bond with his fellow gladiators, saying that it was a farcry from the bloodlust Angron in the days of the Great Crusade is merely understating it. Even though the quality of its individual stories may vary slightly, Horus Heresy: Primarchs – the ongoing set of tales about the greatest of the Emperor’s children forging the fate of a whole galaxy – is one of my favourite Black Library series.I don’t doubt World Eaters go on perform some outrageous feats of savagery during the Horus Heresy arc, but St.

Martin utilised a fairly inventive take to examine this and shed further light on his time among the gladiators. Essentially, the World Eaters’ tale is the chronicle of desperate ambitions and false choices, paternal indifference and filial mistakes, shattered brotherhoods and subsequent lies of the decaying Imperium too ashamed to remember the truth. Initially, there was some odd brutal logic behind it, but now he keeps saying "You have 24 hours to conquer the entire world.Since the Heresy series has investigated and uncovered the Legion’s “history”, however, we have got a far more interesting, complex picture of Angron and his sons. The way the story weaved back and forth from the past to the present through Tethys eyes was really unique and I enjoyed it quite a bit. Sadly, for me, this book did not have as much emotional impact as "Betrayer" had, but that was pretty impossible to beat, to be honest. These last parts are written through the perspective of the psycher who follows Angrons mind from the very beginning through to the part where the nails are implanted in him, reawakening them both.

Angron’s empathy causes him pain, until the nails his enslavers drill into in his head replaces that hurt with rage. Angron and the World Eaters are a hilarious group of losers, who go on to replace dissension with cannibalism.

But still, whether Angron wants it or not, he is his Legion’s gene-father, the sire they all look up to with utmost deference and trust, and anyway he is not to be blamed for what had been done to him – which is, I suppose, one of the most poignant tragedies of the entire Horus Heresy. For example, he's already treating the Devourers as an unwanted addition, despite supposedly appreciated by him at first. From here on out we follow two different stories: The one in the present, where different factions within the world eaters argue over the butcher nails and wether or not to accept them. He's a furious rage monster, but lacks many of the more human quirks which he supposedly lost over time.