Scars review

The legions of space marines are in a violent civil war. There have been horrendous losses on both sides. The Warmaster is marshalling his forces. The Emperor is silent. The legions loyal to him are either on Terra or stranded in space. Lines have been drawn. Everyone seems to know where everyone stands. Well….except for the White Scars, those crazy fast non-Mongol Mongols lead by quasi-Genghis Khan.

 

Holy Crap! We get an White Scar Heresy novel?! I didn’t expect this at all. I mean they fought against Horus on Terra, but we never really know the how or why of their involvement. All I ever found was the bit where Jagahti Khan leads this sweet counter charge against the traitor legions. A cool bit, but there should be more than just that right? Well now there is.

 

The White Scars are off at the edges of the galaxy (like everyone always is) doing what they do best; fighting at break neck speed. They have finished off a bunch of orks and are awaiting their next deployment. However, the warp storms ruining the galaxy are still doing that old chestnut. So…….Jagahti Khan and his non-Mongol Mongols are unaware of the events on Istvaan, Calth and everything else that has occurred. They move out unaware of anything until they start to get word of events through the not entirely functional astromonicon.

 

Now they must figure out; who is telling the truth, what is really going on in the universe, what side to join and how this all happened. That shouldn’t be too difficult now should it? Well unless you throw in the fact that the warrior lodges that helped start all this in the traitor legions are still active within the White Scars. Yup. There are Horus supporters waiting to make a move to side with him. Then you add in the Alpha Legion sticking their noses in, various messages from traitor and loyalist alike, a return to the ravaged Thousand Son home world, and meeting with the Death Lord to make everything more complex for the White Scars. They have pledged themselves to both the Imperium and the Warmaster prior to all this craziness. Now they have to figure out who to side with and soon. Why? Well the traitors want the White Scars with them or out of the way. The loyalists want them with them, or will deem them traitor if they don’t hear from them. Half the chapter still supports The Khan while the others are supporting the Warmaster in their secret lodges. It is all a damn mess, but a descent mess.

 

I have never read anything by Author name- so I was ever skeptical. Turns out this a descent story. It is another jump around tale and that is becoming a bit common. We are thrown back to Ullanor prior to Horus being named the Warmaster. We jump back to Terra to see a recruit being assigned to the White Scar legion. We jump to Chogris to see a native son being inducted into the White Scar ranks. We jump to a story with a Storm Seer (a White Scar librarian). We jump over to some refugees from Istvaan on the hunt. Yeah this is another jumping story, but it all seems to fit together well.  Plus it shines light on a chapter that doesn’t have a lot of known information, so might as well start getting some info out there about them.

 

 

The list of events that stand out……..

The Khan vs. The Death Lord.

The Space Wolves get their comeuppance.

The Last Thousand Son?

A return to Prospero!

The open steppe. The wind in your hair. Falcons at your breast.

Scars vs. Scars action (or space marine Dynasty Warriors)

A Primarch coffee klatch