Andy Smillie

Like Veritas Ferrum this one is also a slightly .... weird contraption. I had a feeling I was missing something and had to check the file itself - only to find out that this was it. I do not know all the lore of the W40K for this particular story and if this is the case I profoundly apologize.

It is a story of Space Wolves laying ambush to Shattered Hands of Dark Eldar race when the latter start their invasion of Imperial hive city. Fighting is brutal but finally Wolves of Fenris manage to gain the upper hand ... or do they?

Ending is somewhat ... well lets say Lovecraftian.....

Interesting but may leave you scratching your head and going "huh?".… (meer)

Not having read The Unremembered Empire and not being familiar with the Imperium Secundus, I was fruit confused by this Black Library Advent Calendar short audio drama and for a minute there I thought this was some What If? alternative reality situation (like the Dornian Heresy: https://bolterandchainsword.com/files/file/175-the-dornian-heresy-volume-i/) with Sanguinius surviving and ascending to the Golden throne. It's not that.

Even with looking some stuff up, I'm a bit hazy because I don't want to spoiler myself too much for the books I haven't gotten to but what do I think the story was? (Come on mate).

In the Imperium Secundus, the back up Imperium that was an extension of Ultramar, the Ultramarines' own small empire, governed by the triumvirate of Guilliman, Sanguinius, and the Lion with the Great Angel as Emperor, when the three Primarchs feared Terra had fallen.

Tensions and paranoia are out of control in this new Imperium, leaving the Sanguinary Guard, the new Emperor's winged custodians, refuse to allow their genesire to meet petitioners for fear of assassination. As an alternative, these vampirc cherubs come up with the most extreme and horrifying cosplay ever (though the details aren't made clearer in the audio drama), creating the Sanguinator, a proxy proxy Emperor, if you will.

So, the above is all context, and the extremely short story itself is the vague suggestion of not having the real Uinius receive audience, slices of Azkaellon vaguely taking care of the Sanguinator admin, and the Lion saying, he's not my brother, he's a very naughty boy, or something. I don't know.

The Blood Angels were never a 40K Chapter/ 30K Legion that grabbed me (before Smillie's previous audio dramas), not least because of Swallow's Rafen books (though he is redeemed in my eyes after binging Garro stuff, recently), so I was unaware of Sanguinator being a thing in 40K lore akin to Cypher for the Dark Angels and the Mysterious Stranger in Fallout, which might have made me more excited/ have a clue what's going on. With this in mind and it being on me that my read throughs have never made it as far as Unremembered Empire (this next time I'm doing the lot baybee and ensuring I don't only read this series back to back for my own sanity). Having said that, this was a Black Library Advent Calendar release and it's confusing as hell and is almost inconspicuous with what it doesn't reference.

The prose and performances are all good, but it is confusing and actually lacking in anything really happening, but everything being presented as incredibly epic and meaningful so it comes off boring and almost like they were scrambling for an advent offer.

I'll make an effort to reassess, once I've read Unremembered Empire, if I remember when that eventually is, but for now I can't really recommend this to anyone other than completionists as everything in here simply has to be contained somewhere else with more context and keeps in and makes more explicit the really fucked up aspects of the Sanguinator.… (meer)

What an incredible chaser to Virtue of the Sons!

Following directly on from the end of the previous audio drama, with Azkaellon and Amit locked in ritual combat over their Primarch, Sanguinius sees the tragedies that lay in wait for the three of them. There is a glimpse of the aftermath of that fateful moment on the bridge of Vengeful Spirit and a vision of suffocating blood and powdered bone in a warped realm.

This is a very short audio drama, but the quality of the writing and performances, as well as the weight and sheer Horus Heresy-ness packed into it is phenomenal.

Is this narratively essential listening? No.
Is anyone going to turn down a look at that black, furious moment? Nope.
I absolutely recommend this and its companion piece.… (meer)