This story is amazing, and I don't want to say much to avoid spoilers. However we get the Lion facing his failures, learning from them and forging a tiny island of peace inside a Maelstrom of chaos. Flashy Teleportation: The Lion's emergence from the forest is always accompanied by the forest briefly manifesting at his destination.

Let's use this one to talk about our expectations and fears about the upcoming and certainly highly expected novel!After retaking Camarth in full, Lion is dismayed to discover there are no navigators and no astropaths left on the planet, leaving him seemingly trapped here. Before he can dwell on it, though, he feels something calling for him from the nearby forest. He goes there, along with Zabriel and Lion Guard (a dozen or so humans who proclaimed themselves his honor guard). The group finds itself in Lion's odd like-Caliban-but-not forest, and eventually emerges on a completely different planet, Avalus. Halflings don’t make natural Blood Bowl players, but with enough gumption and a good lunch even the shortest soul can rise to league stardom. Take Cindy Piewhistle for example – once a master baker, now a Star Player who weaponises her delicious wares, while Puggy Baconbreath is an elite athlete by usual halfling standards, with the skill and discipline of a champion twice his size. Not So Above It All: Due to spotting inconsistencies in its disguises (ex. Magnus punching too hard) and being skeptical by default, the Lion recognizes the shapeshifting Warp entity as the deadly, living test that it is. However, even knowing it's an impersonator, he relishes the chance to trounce Alpharius as he never got to do so while the smaller Primarch was still alive, and when it transforms into Konrad Curze, he takes the opportunity to have one final venomous conversation with the "Night Haunter", talking to him as if the creature was the real thing.

Without providing spoilers, my only one gripe was that I expected some more resistance from the characters than such an easy acceptance and understanding of where each character stands. I expect the novel will probably end in the current timeline, with the Lion making the choice to go and see his brother and father. The Primarch of the Dark Angels made his first appearance in 10,000 years at AdeptiCon. Awoken into the nightmare known as Imperium Nihilus, where humanity is beset on all sides by darkness and Chaos is on the rise, even the mighty Lion El’Jonson could not hope to prevail on his own in such a hostile environment.Apparently, you can only use "they" and "ze/zir" to refer to techpriests in Warhammer 40,000 now. Out of the two tech priests that are in this book, one is referred to as "they" and the other is referred to using a neo-pronoun (although the former case has shown up in books like Mechanicum, but for a good reason). If you do not know what a neo-proun is... well... let's just say that even some leftists disagree with their existence. They are, essentially, a way to affirm someone's mental illness... Number Two: Zabriel gets roped into becoming the Lion's right-hand man as the first Fallen to be recruited to the cause. Heel–Face Door-Slam: Baelor turns on Seraphax at the last moment, helping the Lion break free. Unfortunately, while the Lion was willing to forgive and forget, Seraphax stabs Baelor with a corrupted blade before expiring, forcing the Lion to Mercy Kill him. Big Bad Duumvirate: While Seraphax is undeniably the leader of the Thousand Eyes warband, Markog and Baelor share equal focus with him.

Combat Pragmatist: Unlike the Thousand Eyes, who issue formal challenges and try to have individual duels, the Lion's Fallen absolutely fight dirty and do not much care for notions of honor and glory. The massive Cerberus Heavy Tank Destroyer is an armoured beast , mounting a triple-barrelled neutron laser battery onto a rugged Spartan hull to create a devastatingly focused anti-tank weapon. It can detonate tanks in a single blast while shrugging off return fire like it’s nothing – everything you want in a Lord of War. Sicaran Venator Tank Hunter Only Sane Man: Of the Thousand Eyes warband, Baelor is the only one who has not given himself over to Chaos powers; in fact, Seraphax values him in the capacity as the one sane man who can keep Seraphax from spiralling too badly. I'm a 37 year old man, and this book written to sell a resin model of a toy soldier made me smile. Because it's a good rip-roaring tale about an ancient chivalric knight awakened at the end of all things, it's got some nice bits about forgiveness and brotherhood and having to change your outlook.This novel takes the Lion on a quest through the shadowed paths between stars to gather loyal knights to his side once more, though many have long since been hunted as members of the Fallen. Unsure of who to trust, and without the aid of his Legion, his father, and his home, the Lion will need to find his place in a galaxy even less forgiving than the one he left. The Lion gave up after Ruinstorm. He went for a scorched earth strategy because he couldn't think of anything else to do. Unlike Guilliman, who kept pushing forwards even as the Astronomican was faint or extinguished, with Guilliman's usual methodical planning, the Lion stopped trying to get to Terra for a while.