Angels of Caliban – Extract
If you’re still undecided whether to pick up my new Horus Heresy novel, Angels of Caliban, you can read a short extract below.
You can read the full extract over at the Black Library website in either ePub or mobi.
“The lord of the First Legion sat as he so often sat, leaning back in his ornate throne of ivory and obsidian. The chair was part of him, a relic of Caliban that kept him connected to his home world, but also a statement of continuity. Even here, aboard the battle-barge Honoured Deeds, the throne assured his subordinates, and the Lion himself, that all was in order and as the primarch intended. His elbows rested upon the throne’s sculpted arms, while his fingers were steepled before his face, just barely touching his lips. Unblinking eyes, the brutal green of Caliban’s forests, stared dead ahead, watched a flickering hololith depicting the Five Hundred Worlds.
The great realm of Ultramar. The Kingdom of Guilliman. Bastion of the East. The Outer Wall. There were names to spare for the confederacy of worlds created by Roboute Guilliman and his Ultramarines of the XIII Legion. Now it had another.
Imperium Secundus.
A second chance at mankind’s survival or an act of treachery that rivalled the rebellion of Horus? The Lion was still not sure, but he had sworn oaths upon his blade to act as its Lord Protector.
Sanguinius, the new emperor, the leader that Horus was meant to have been. A brother worthy of such oaths, perhaps the only one. The figurehead. If not for him, the Lion would have ended Imperium Secundus before it had begun as the act of heresy it could so easily have been.
Guilliman, the architect of the great project, statesman and administrator. The Lion could not argue against the achievements of Macragge’s son; they were unparalleled except by the Imperium itself, possessed of grand vision, attention to detail and relentless energy.
For all his qualities, Guilliman lacked the steel to wield the empire he had created. Too prone to diplomacy, too eager to compromise. Too pragmatic, on occasion. Of all the primarchs, only Guilliman could have conceived of Imperium Secundus, and made it happen in so short a time. In others, such planning might be seen as cynical, but Guilliman’s doctrine of the theoretical and the practical was an ideal, a principle he held dear.
Five Hundred Worlds. Lost among them was the Lion’s prey. Konrad Curze, the Night Haunter, another of his demigod brothers. A madman in a superhuman body. A present danger to everything that they hoped to achieve with Imperium Secundus.
More than that, the matter between Curze and the Lion had become personal the moment the Night Haunter had tried to kill him at Tsagualsa. The shame of losing the primarch on Macragge still gnawed at the Lion. Death and anarchy had followed. Humbled him before his brothers, shown up his weakness.
Somewhere in the Five Hundred Worlds, Curze hid. The Lion would find him. He had grown up hunting down the worst beasts Caliban had harboured, with nothing more than his guile and strength. This was no different.
This time he would not let the Night Haunter escape.”
I’m going to publish an Angels of Caliban specific Q&A blog in a couple of weeks, after people have had a chance to read the book. If you have any questions, comments or observations, just get in touch. I’ll reply to you directly, and combine all responses into one blog post.
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