Aaron Dembski-Bowden, The First Heretic: Fall to Chaos. Nottingham, UK: Black Library, 2010. ISBN: 9781844168842.
"The truth is often ugly. It is why people believe lies. Deception offers them something beautiful" -- Captain Argel Tal (192).
Most of the story is told from Argel Tal's point of view. He is the captain of the Word Bearers' 7th Company. The other important point of view is Cyrene Valantion's view. She is a survivor of the destroyed city that the Word Bearers take in. She later becomes a confessor of sorts for the legion. The story then tells how the Word Bearers discover the truth about the warp and the creatures of Chaos, daemons (or gods depending on who you ask), and a bit more I can't quite reveal to avoid spoilers. From there, the legion falls from grace as it embraces darkness and chaos and joins Horus and his traitor legions against the Emperor.
The novel offers a story of intrigues and machinations. It takes the traitors at least 40 years to scheme and put things in place for their rebellion. Lorgar becomes obsessed with the Truth, and he sends his space marines, led by Argel Tal, into the Eye of Terror to find it. They do find it, but what they bring back is horrifying. Argel Tal and those with with are transformed in terrifying ways. Meanwhile, readers may wonder how much does Lorgar drive events, and how much influence Erebus, the First Chaplain of the Legion, and Kor Phaeron, First Captain, have on the primarch. Oh, and we need to mention that all this seditious scheming is happening with an Imperial agent in their midst. As part of the legion's punishment, the Emperor chooses Aquillon, a Custodian (think a Praetorian Guard) and his team to keep an eye on Lorgar and the legion. So they keep scheming while keeping Aquillon and his team in the dark. For readers who enjoy tales of intrigue and scheming, there is plenty here.
For readers who want to learn more about the Word Bearers Legion, this novel offers much of interest. We see where the search for "Truth," where their faith takes them into a tragic fall and damnation. As for the book's title, the "first" heretic may not be as obvious. You have to read and find out.
The novel has a pretty good pace. The story draws you in, especially after the legion is chastised. It becomes a collision course to terror driven by faith and obsession. The last act takes place in Isstvan when the full betrayal is revealed.
The book is arranged in three parts with 29 chapters. Before each part we get an excerpt from Cyrene's writings, which add a bit more insight to the overall story. The book is very much the Word Bearer's story with a good amount of intrigue and enough action. I found myself reading and reading. It is a good tale, and I would say one of the better titles in the series so far, even if some of the story is about a primarch or two with daddy issues. Lorgar, as many sons, want his father's approval, and he is not happy because he does try hard while his primarch brothers please their father with apparent ease.
Overall, I really liked this book. It is one from the series I would recommend, especially for those readers who may like Chaos forces in Warhammer 40,000 or want to read more about the Word Bearers. The novel blends tragedy, a bit of pathos, intrigues, and warfare.
4 out of 5 stars.
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Additional reading notes, mainly lines I wanted to remember:
From the novel's opening epigraphs:
"Kill me then, 'Emperor'. Better to die in freedom's twilight than draw breath at the dawn of tyranny. May the gods grant me my last wish: that my spirit lingers long enough to laugh when your faithless kingdom falls apart" -- Daival Shan, Terran separatist warlord, at his execution (9).
And fall apart it does as we come to know the 41st Millennium down the road becomes an authoritarian theocracy around the cult of the Emperor. Faith and its social role is a theme in this novel whether embracing it in some form as the Word Bearers do or denying it as the Emperor and loyalists do (at least initially).
Cyrene and her faith:
"You came to me asking how my faith survived the Day of Judgement. I will tell you a secret When the stars fell, when the seas boiled and the earth burned, my faith didn't die. That is when I began to believe. God was real, and he hated us" (12).
On truth, by Erebus of all people:
"'The truth cares nothing for what we wish, sire,' said Erebus. 'The truth simply is'" (61).
The tragedy of the Word Bearers Legion:
"And that is perhaps the greatest tragedy of the Word Bearers Legion. Their father knew he would be one of those bringing enlightenment to humanity, but he could never foreseen how it would come to pass" (143).
Their Mechanicum ally has a view of the legion's problem too:
"Xi-Nu 73's principal problem where the Word Bearers were concerned was their fundamental organic nature. In short, they were too human. They valued the flawed aspects of faith, focusing on the flesh and the soul, rather than transcendence through oneness with the Machine-God. They were fuelled by emotion, rather than logic, which affected their tactical decisions and their very goals in the Great Crusade" (159).
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This book qualifies for the following 2023 Reading Challenge:
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