The Talon of Horus (Volume 1) (The Black Legion)

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The Corrupter: Khayon believes Moriana to be this, considering her, rather than Drach'nyen, the first bribe the Chaos Gods offered Abaddon to convince him to take the power they offer. He also vocally expresses his dislike for Moriana's growing influence over Abaddon. Kureval Shairak - XVI Legion warrior, born of Terra. Warrior of the Duraga kal Esmejhak warband and member of the Justaerin. The Talon of Horus was an interesting read. It was my very first book told from the viewpoint of the Traitor Legions. Iskandar Khayon is a Chaos Marine and a sorcerer. Embroiled in the conflict between the various Traitor Marines, also known as the Nine Legions, Khayon and a mixture other Astartes from various Traitor Legions decide to try to change things. Stepford Smiler: Telemachon. Beneath an exterior of your typical indulgent, contemptuous and self-righteous Emperor's Child, he's Desperately Looking for a Purpose in Life and remembers times when his legion was much more.

Unusually Uninteresting Sight: While talking about the other ships at Gallium, Khayon offhandedly confirms the existence of the Fallen to the Inquisition (something the Dark Angels and their successors have spent ten thousand years trying to prevent) and moves on without a second mention of it. ADB again succeeds in portraying traitor marines in such a way that you symphatise, no matter the horrors they willingly inflict upon their victims. Also, this character is that interesting, together with his retinue that even the "real" main character, the current bearer of The Talon of Horus, becomes a bit boring.

Buy The Talon of Horus by Aaron Dembski-Bowden

Iskandar Khayon - XV Legion warrior, born of Prospero. Sorcerer of the Kha’Sherhan warband and commander of the warship Tlaloc. Fetus Terrible: The unborn Primarch clones aboard the Fleshmarket, especially those which didn't succeed.

Khayon is a warrior with unique skills recognized by Abaddon. What Abaddon offers is purpose, start of formation that will unite all Chaos Marines and remade them into weapon with a single goal - finishing what Horus started. To achieve this he needs command cadre and Khayon is identified as one of them, warrior, soldier, able to lead and inspire his troops. Ezekyle Abaddon, first captain of the Sons of Horus and his Justaerin Terminator elite fought their way through squad after squad of yellow-armoured Imperial Fists Terminators to the command centre of the starship, but they were too late. Old Soldier: Sigismund. Whilst plenty of traitor marines are, technically, as old as him, Sigismund was verified as being close to 1000 in realspace verified years - not warp-dilated time. Abbadon struggles to beat him in spite of this. It's an especially unsafe place for Nefertari, as the Eye is pretty much the most dangerous place an Eldar can go. The fact she is there ought to be a heavy indication of how desperate she is to hide away from her kin in Commoragh.

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Abaddon also invokes this when asked why he disappeared after the end of the Horus Heresy: he states that Horus's death made the campaign to overthrow the Emperor and claim the Imperium (the only war that mattered in Abaddon's view) a failure, and he had no desire to embroil himself in the petty squabbling over territory and resources at the core of the Legion Wars. Told from the perspective of Iskandar Khayon, a former Sorcerer of the Thousand Sons, both as the events happened as he relates them to Imperial captors, the picture you get as the book opens is a bleak one; the Horus Heresy has become all but an apocryphal myth. Horus is long dead, the remaining Primarchs of the Traitor Legions have ascended to Daemonhood and left the concerns of their sons behind, and what's left of the Traitor Legions have devolved in fractious warbands fighting amongst themselves for territory and resources. The Long War to cast down the False Emperor has been forgotten. Trapped in the roiling depths of the Eye of Terror, the only thing that matters to the Traitor Legions anymore is survival.

And in all honesty, the way they fight for survival and ultimately reach their incredible strategic goals, finding purpose after losing everything up to and including their identity, is also working much to the credit and impact of this novel. Wow. Just wow. Jonathan if you're reading this, brilliant job mate. You did more than read this fantastic work of fiction, you read between the lines to deliver an incredible experience. I'm pretty new to audio books, most i've heard of them are dull retellings with little inflection. You've earned a lifelong fan. It is an oath that every subsequent High Marshal has renewed, and so the greatest and longest Imperial Crusade in Imperial history was begun, a crusade that has continued unbroken for ten thousand Terran years. Weak, but Skilled: Sargon's psychic powers compared to Khayon. Khayon has a massive edge in raw power and overall mastery, but Sargon is able to achieve incredibly subtle effects with a great degree of control. In ADB's previous series, Night Lords, First Claw meets Falkus Kibre and the remains of the Justaerin, noting that they reek of corruption and possession. In The Talon of Horus we find out how it happened.Betrayal by Inaction: Why Khayon hates Telemachon initially: Telemachon's forces were supposed to reinforce Khayon's during the Siege of Terra, but instead they broke off to join the rest of the Emperor's Children in massacring Terra's civilian population, leaving the Thousand Sons under Khayon's command at the mercy of the Blood Angels. When Khayon confronts him about it, Telemachon is indifferent, even pointing out that at least the Thousand Sons who died because of his inaction died warriors' deaths fighting to besiege the Imperial Palace, rather than being reduced to undead automatons by the Rubric of Ahriman. Another is just the ease at which the protagonist and his warband solve some of the issues of this story. Sure, there will be readers who will read these events and go: 'That was so cool!!', yet really, the way the events play out are just so... glossed over to the point where they seemed easy for the group to achieve. It robbed the tale of a lot of character building and weakened the tale overall. It felt very much deus ex machina. However, the protagonist and his personal conflicts are amazing. His voice of telling is captivating all on its own. Watching the disrupted warbands of the nine traitor legions find common ground in the Eye of Terror, that galactic anomaly where warp and reality blend into an unholy purgatory of hell, is amazing. Panthera Awesome: After losing Gyre, Khayon's next Daemon familiar, Nagual, takes the form of a Prosperine lynx, an extinct Smilodon-esque apex predator from Prospero the size of a horse, with canines the length of short swords capable of biting through Space Marine armour.

Fate Worse than Death: Being handed over to Nefertari is considered to be this, presumably because as a Dark Eldar, she can and will make your death as slow and drawn out as possible. No-Sell: What Daravek is able to do to Khayon's psychic powers, much to the latter's bewilderment. Abbadon simply assumes that Khayon is just psychically outmatched and cannot admit it due to pride. Khayon has to tell him that even if Daravek was stronger than him, their powers would still clash and they would fight. Being able to utterly ignore another psyker's power isn't normally possible unless you have a fragment of their soul.Telemachon strives for more than just raiding and the Emperor's Children's rampant indulgence, but hides it beneath a literal and figurative mask of contempt. At the conclusion of the Horus Heresy during the Siege of Terra, Sigismund was chosen to serve as the first Emperor's Champion. Personally singled out by Rogal Dorn himself, Sigismund was bestowed with the high honour of serving as the personal champion of the Emperor. Though humbled by the honour, he was disturbed by only one thing -- it seemed wrong to him to obscure the sacred colours of his Legion. The Oath-Breaker: Khayon realises this is why Sigismund will never be convinced not to fight Abaddon. To Sigismund, loyalty to the Emperor is inextricable as breathing, and the fact the Traitor Legions broke their oaths to the Emperor means Sigismund will never listen to their reasons why they sided with Horus, no matter how valid. Wont go into any more details but .... let me just say Fabius Bile also shows up here, and what a cameo.