Bookworm Speaks!- Angels of Darkness

Bookworm Speaks!

Angels of Darkness

A Warhammer 40,000 Novel by Gav Thorpe

Acquired: Half-Price Books

Series: The Dark Angels

Paperback: 288 pages

Publisher: Black Library

Language: English

Subject: Fiction

****

The Story: When Dark Angels Chaplain Boreas captures and interrogates one of the Fallen, the past collides with the future with tragic consequences.

The Dark Angels Space Marines are amongst the most devout of the God-Emperor's servants. Their loyalty is seemingly beyond question and their faith almost fanatical. Yet the Chapter harbours a dark and horrific secret that stretches back over ten thousand years to the time of the Horus Heresy. When Dark Angels Chaplain Boreas captures and interrogates one of the Fallen, the past collides with the future with tragic consequences.

The Review: Warhammer 40K is a vast and diverse universe. That is what makes it so much fun. The obvious downside to this is that it can be really intimidating for a neophyte to join up and have any idea where to begin. 

For the Adeptus Astartes as well as the Dark Angels, this book is a good place to start. And what a journey it begins…

The novel sets itself apart from other Warhammer 40k books in that a good portion of the text takes place over conversations. 

There are two main plots which both involve Dark Angels Interrogator-Chaplain Boreas. The first takes place in the past where Boreas is interrogating/torturing a Fallen named Astelan and is recounting his tale and Boreas is trying to make him repent. 

The Fallen are group of corrupted Dark Angels that fell to Chaos after the Horus Heresy and were scattered through time and space by the Chaos Gods after their homeworld was destroyed by the loyalist Dark Angels. They in turn have dedicated themselves to hunting them down, all the while hiding their shame from the wider Imperium.

The second story takes place years later and Chaplian Boreas and his companions are a small squad manning a Dark Angels outpost in the Piscina system, which serves as both a recruitment ground and industrial base. Here the book shines in how we get to see a band of Space Marines being themselves and not warriors. The banter between all of them feels very authentic. Like they are truly brothers instead of fellow soldiers. Also, Chaplain Boreas must interact with normal human beings on a fairly regular basis. Those scenarios are always a favorite and again pushes the humanity of Adeptus Astartes. 

So much of Space Marine fiction takes place over the course of battles that is a refreshing change to see the Astartes not shooting something and killing it for the majority of the book. 

Like a lot of arch-fiends, Chaos Space Marines are oftentimes oversimplified. They are just a dragon for the main character/knight to slay. But the best villains are those who are the heroes of their own stories. Astelan is one of those characters. 

Its never even made clear wether Astelan is even truly corrupted, at least in the traditional Warhammer manner. He dosen’t have spines or extra mouths erupting from his flesh. He is not spewing infected pus from his mouth and he is not chanting words that make Boreas’ ears hurt. He seems pretty, darn sane. He may simply be someone with a different point of view, something that is not tolerated in the Imperium. Both characters make valid points. A classic no-win scenario and it is crafted well. 

Astelan also provides a perspective not often seen: a reaction to the power of the Space Marines. The Dark Angels and any other chapter may be justified in their battling ways but they do leave a lot of pain and suffering in their wake. It is surprising that is not brought up more often. 

This book is not without its flaws, though, and they are the main reason this book did not receive a full five. Ironically, what is wrong with this book is what most people love about Warhammer 40k.

Bookworm clearly remembers the first half of the book but then it gets fuzzy around the second half when the fighting starts. It is not poorly written or boring by any stretch but it ironically gets dull when it gets back to standard Warhammer 40k fair. The first half was good in that it was different from most tale of the Space Marines. It was actually pretty thoughtful. Then we get right back to the fast paced action sequences so beloved by the Black Library. They aren’t bad but they aren’t anything new. This is not helped by the way the whole deal basically goes in a circle. It has the reader asking ‘what was the point of all that?’ 

There is a twist at the end and ending itself is rather uplifting (As uplifting as grim darkness of the far future can be) if bittersweet, which makes it all worth it in the end but this was the main reason this book got a four instead of five. 

Final Verdict: Angels of Darkness is a perfect place to start for fans of the Dark Angels or anyone interested in Warhammer 40k. Morally gray characters collide and test themselves in ways that neither imagine and loyalties are put to the test. 

If it was possible, Bookworm would have given this book 4.5 stars but alas he cannot. 

Four Dark Angels Badges out of Five

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