The difficulty of pinning down Alpharius and his legion extends beyond that, all legions have a "thing" going for them; the space wolves are vikings in space, the white scars are mongols, thousands sons have that Egyptian thing going for them. These are the most in your face examples off course but still the Alpha legion at first feels like an odd one in the bunch. Reading this book made me reflect on that conundrum for longer then before and then it hit me. The Alpha legion is probably the most realistic of the legions. In writing this I’ve steered away from talking too much about the plot, and quite deliberately so. I went into this knowing next to nothing about the story and I think I enjoyed it all the more as a result. However one thing I will say is that the more familiar you are with the 40k canon the more you’re likely to enjoy this. If you’re completely fresh to 40k then this really isn’t the best place to start, a degree of familiarity with the big players of the pre-Heresy era is vital to save yourself a lot of frustrating head scratching. If on the other hand you’re well versed in the story of how the Imperium came to be, the Great Crusade and the finding of the Primarchs, then prepare to enjoy having some well established “facts” revealed as falsehoods, key events turned on their heads and major players re-examined from a uniquely insightful perspective. After hearing things from Alpharius’s point of view I don’t think I’ll ever trust Rogal Dorn again! PDF / EPUB File Name: Alpharius__Head_of_the_Hydra_-_Mike_Brooks.pdf, Alpharius__Head_of_the_Hydra_-_Mike_Brooks.epub Brooks writes a pretty decent primarch—something I see as incredibly difficult to do as they are as a level of intellect above the post-human astartes as the astartes are to us mere humans. Their imagination, innovation, motivators, and such are somewhat removed from our own, but at a base level driven by the same foundational emotional stalwarts: loyalty, friendship, exclusion, jealousy, betrayal. In many of the primarchs, these things are thrown at you with the force of a thunder hammer, but with Alpharius’ blunt, pragmatic, and duplicitous point of view, you can never be sure, and I liked that. For the uninitiated, Alpharius is one of twenty demi-god like post-humans gene wrought by the Emperor of Mankind to re-take the stars about 28,000 years from now. While his nineteen brothers specialise in one form or another of brute force warfare, Alpharius and his Alpha Legion use the shadows to sow dissent and destabilise entire planets before the other primarchs and their legions arrive to bring the light (or death) of the Emperor to the lost arms of humanity.

Alpharius: Head of the Hydra by Mike Brooks | Goodreads Alpharius: Head of the Hydra by Mike Brooks | Goodreads

Legends abound of the glorious - or infamous - deeds of the Emperor's sons. Yet almost nothing is known of Alpharius, the most mysterious of them all, for the Lord of the Alpha Legion is unparalleled in the art of obfuscation. Such are his gifts of secrecy and deceit that even his rediscovery has remained an enigma - until now. But when the tale comes from the serpent's mouth, where does the deception end and the truth begin. [1] Sources I Horus Rising • II False Gods • III Galaxy in Flames • IV The Flight of the Eisenstein • V Fulgrim • VI Descent of Angels • VII Legion • VIII Battle for the Abyss • IX Mechanicum • X Tales of Heresy • XI Fallen Angels • XII A Thousand Sons • XIII Nemesis • XIV The First Heretic • XV Prospero Burns • XVI Age of Darkness • XVII The Outcast Dead • XVIII Deliverance Lost • XIX Know No Fear • XX The Primarchs • XXI Fear to Tread • XXII Shadows of Treachery • XXIII Angel Exterminatus • XXIV Betrayer • XXV Mark of Calth • XXVI Vulkan Lives • XXVII The Unremembered Empire • XXVIII Scars • XXIX Vengeful Spirit • XXX The Damnation of Pythos • XXXI Legacies of Betrayal • XXXII Deathfire • XXXIII War Without End • XXXIV Pharos • XXXV Eye of Terra • XXXVI The Path of Heaven • XXXVII The Silent War • XXXVIII Angels of Caliban • XXXIX Praetorian of Dorn • XL Corax • XLI The Master of Mankind • XLII Garro • XLIII Shattered Legions • XLIV The Crimson King • XLV Tallarn • XLVI Ruinstorm • XLVII Old Earth • XLVIII The Burden of Loyalty • XLIX Wolfsbane • L Born of Flame • LI Slaves to Darkness • LII Heralds of the Siege • LIII Titandeath • LIV The Buried Dagger We get a cameo from the navigator house seen in some of the authors other stories which was a fun wave.Never before have I been this sold on a Primarch. Alpharius thinks, talks and acts in a way that simply makes me adore his character. He is so multifaceted: at one point he is calmly and efficiently destroying xenos creatures, and at another point he is musing on how it is often beneficial to be kind to humans. He actually comes across to me as remarkably human, with all the traits of kindness, humour, cunning and arrogance - which makes his prowess in planning and battle all the more terrifying. He is one with his Legion, both its Astartes and human elements, and that makes him even more effective and interesting to read about. Off all the primarchs, Alpharius(Omgeon) has been the most difficult to pin down with exception of the two "lost" primarchs. This, off course, has been by design. The Alpha legion as a whole is made to be impossible to pin down; are they still loyal in the 40K setting? Is Alpharius still alive in the 40K setting? How many of them are still left? Are they still one force with one goal? Who can tell?

Alpharius: Head of the Hydra (The Horus Heresy: Primarchs) Alpharius: Head of the Hydra (The Horus Heresy: Primarchs)

Roboute Guilliman: Lord of Ultramar • Leman Russ: The Great Wolf • Magnus the Red: Master of Prospero • Perturabo: The Hammer of Olympia • Lorgar: Bearer of the Word • Fulgrim: The Palatine Phoenix • Ferrus Manus: Gorgon of Medusa • Grandfather's Gift • Perturabo: Stone and Iron • Malcador: First Lord of the Imperium • Konrad Curze: A Lesson in Darkness • Jaghatai Khan: Warhawk of Chogoris • Vulkan: Lord of Drakes • Sons of the Emperor • Corax: Lord of Shadows • Angron: Slave of Nuceria • Scions of the Emperor • Konrad Curze: The Night Haunter • Ghost of Nuceria • The Passing of Angels • The Abyssal Edge • Mercy of the Dragon • Lion El'Jonson: Lord of the First • Illyrium • The Revelation of the Word • Morningstar • Will of the Legion • Embers of Extinction • Alpharius: Head of the Hydra • Blood of the Emperor • Loyal Sons • Mortarion: The Pale King • Rogal Dorn: The Emperor's Crusader • Sanguinius: The Great Angel • Heirs of The Emperor I The Solar War • II The Lost and the Damned • III The First Wall • Sons of the Selenar • IV Saturnine • Fury of Magnus • V Mortis • VI Warhawk • VII Echoes of Eternity • Garro: Knight of Grey • VIII The End and the Death ( Volume I • Volume II • Volume III) It’s a really good book. The use of Alpharius as first-person narrator works really well- it seems such a natural fit for learning about the character. The scope of the book is more ambitious than others in the series- we get rich snapshots of several parts of the nascent Imperium, and the methods of the Alpha Legion are showcased in suitable fashion. Brooks handles the action scenes well, and Alpharius is charismatic enough while not fully human. By showing us each of his brothers through Alpharius’ eyes, Brooks gives us one of the most convincing sketches of why the Primarchs were created. None of the big ‘reveals’ seem egregious to me, and I savoured the nuggets of lore and tie-ins with other stories. For all it's 80ties metal and coke infused madness, every warhammer 40K fan has to admit that space (werewolf) vikings are just a bit silly. The beauty of warhammer 40K is making you forget that while reading the lore/stories or playing the games. As is the whole cult of the primarchs that sprouted in the legions which made the Horus Heresy possible or the cult of the divine emperor at that. Suspending your disbelief is absolutely obligated when you dive into this crazy sci fi world and setting. But with the Alpha legion, this suddenly is a whole lot less necessary. Their tactics, operations, ethics, mindset and methods feel as an extension of modern contemporary warfare rather then bizarre "just roll with it" warfare most other legions have. An Alpha legionnaire is something like a green beret or american ranger mixed in with some KGB/CIA shenanigans, something I did not fully appreciate until reading this book.With Alpharius: Head of the Hydra Brooks got most of the key things you want in a 40k novel right. Technology, action, the universe (with some lesser known factions popping up which is cool AF), but what didn’t land were the astartes that made up the Alpha legion. While in this book the legion is far more pragmatic than most, either by design or by accident, there is little bond between the astartes underneath Alpharius. There was little punch when they died in combat—they felt two dimensional and hard to invest in. As the resident Goonhammer Chaos Guy, you might expect that I’d jump at the chance to read a book about Alpharius’ origins. And well, you’d be about half right. While I’m generally big on reading more about all the traitor primarchs and each of their fallen legions is one of my special, unique boys, over the last few years I’ve grown more and more fed up with the Alpha Legion’s bullshit. Over the last twenty or so years, the Alpha Legion have gone from “the one legion that specializes in guerilla warfare and subterfuge” to “the guys who were just pretending to lose this whole time and are actually behind you and also it turns out your dog was a covert operative working for them the whole time.” In the process they’ve gone from “interesting” to “tiring,” as the twists often seem to fire from out of left field and their triple- and quadruple-crosses just feel convoluted and unnecessary, while new plot revelations around the Alpha Legion tend to feel like similarly unnecessary tweaks that make them even more special and secret.