Not a review: Thoughts on Dark Imperium by Guy Haley

Spoilers ahead.

I enjoyed this novel – Guilliman’s fish-out-of-water act allows for some fascinating in-lore examination of the practices of the grimdark Imperium – he’s freaked out by cherubs amongst other things.

P. 314 – what are the Irradial Whorls on the Primaris hands?

P.340 – Void whales! Who’d have thought. The description of the rotten Nurgle-infested whales is suitably gross but the sheer existence of void whales to be corrupted is fascinating.

P.385 – Felix muses that the days of the Firstborn marines are numbered. Undoubtedly foreshadowing where the model lines and rules will eventually end up. Things like external vidfeeds are featured a lot more with the Primaris era tech than in the Heresy books, which seems appropriate.

P.400 – Again, Felix watches the combined pict-feeds of his squad. He does wish for the flexibility of tactical squads (ie. a special weapon and a heavy weapon being available) but thinks that single armament squads streamline tactical choices. Makes sense from a selling-models perspective but the in-lore reasoning seems… odd to me.

P.408 – Reaver combat blades have glimmering disruption fields. This may influence how I paint them. Their armour is also described as eerily silent – unlike most of the earlier descriptions of power armour which are said to set people’s teeth on edge.

P.449 – I do really enjoy how Calgar struggles with his primarch returning – that he is not venerating his “stuff”, it’s just a seat to the man – where it’s been a holy throne for his sons for millennia.

P.509 – “With a sound like the collective death sighs of a dozen old women”. Where does Guy come up with this stuff?

P.521. The Emperor shows Guilliman that he considers them to be creations, not sons. It’s interesting to think of E as being the prisoner in the cage handed the rasp. Did he foresee this? Is this unexpected for him? Who can know…

P.523. Guilliman can’t remember how tall the Emperor was, but his sword somehow suited G’s size when presented to him.