Deliverance Lost: Ghosts of Terra (The Horus Heresy)

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I like the Raven Guard, I like the entries that focus on the Legions themselves, and I like the entries that have less fighting and more macro-level developments. While this is nothing new in the Horus Heresy books it doesn't seem to work as well in this case with the build-up generally being somewhat disengaging. En route tensions become apparent between the survivors of the massacre and Branne's garrison who didn't go through the experience. And don't get me started on the half assed attempt to give the Raven Guard a meaningful victory at the end in maybe a dozen pages max.

Du côté des loyalistes, Corvax rencontre son frère Dorn sur Terra et au vu des tensions et trahisons, les Space Marines de Corvax sont sous surveillance mais au final tout se passe bien car Corvax se voit donner une issue à la perte de plusieurs Space Marines de sa légion au vu de la trahison du coup. The flashbacks, though I didn't like them occuring in the middle of regular chapters, relatively suddenly to lead in other scenes and give them expanded contrast (such as Captain Branne being willing to sacrifice innocents for the greater good, like Corax reluctantly did before the coming of the Emperor), were well-done and reinforce Corax' relationship with various key figures and his early philosophy of being a freedom fighter, not a conqueror. However, covert operatives and the Primarchs Alpharius Omegon of the Alpha Legion ( Book 7) play prominent roles.The novel also provides some information about the developing strategies and subterfuge practiced by the different sides of the conflict, including reasons for the timetable of the conflict as prosecuted by Warmaster Horus, and for the actions of the Emperor as the Horus Heresy was initially unfolding. Infiltrierte Agente befinden sich schon in den Reihen der Raven Guard und warten nur auf den richtigen Augenblick um zuzuschlagen.

The plot involves Corvus' attempts to rebuild his annihilated Legion and becomes deeply enmeshed in some of the most primordial 40K mythos. Otherwise, the book is quite frustrating - while there is the classic hubris meeting nemesis, Corax starts with barely a Legion left and ends with barely a Legion left, with no peak in between. Raven's Flight' bleibt dennoch lohnenswert da dadurch die Beziehungen zwischen Kommander Branne und Praefector Valerius in klarerem Licht erscheinen.Deliverance Lost' makes Corax and his legion interesting and believable characters with more back-story than most Legions in the universe. Anderen empfanden Corax als nicht tiefgründig genug, was allerdings meiner Meinung nach eine Fehleinschätzung ist. I really enjoyed it- it’s a solid, all round addition to the Horus Heresy series, which only seems to be getting better with each instalment. The climax at Ravendelve certainly did, and I thought that appropriate and good enough to not require another batch of combat scenes afterwards - but Corax didn't take an active part in it.

In the Horus Heresy series there was first an audio drama about how the remainder of the legion was saved from Isstvan V, and later a short story about an invisible enemy hand behind that rescue, the Alpha Legion. Corus, nicknamed "Corax" which means "saviour", was found on a prison planet where he was adopted by the prisoners and raised not in hatred and fear, but in understanding that his people are being oppressed and he is the only man who can actually do something about it. Deliverance Lost tries to add some layers of explanation as to why they don't really get back into the game and why Corax will go where he goes. They play a part early on and have a pretty great scene midway, but due to logistical reasons they only take part again at the very end. I also want to praise it for the way Gav Thorpe managed to plant the seeds of suspicion within the reader.Enfin, tout ce qui concerne les habitudes militaires de l'Alpha Legion et je dois dire que tout est vraiment bien mené de A à Z, ce sont vraiment les maîtres dans ce genre-là.