I really went back and forth on this. I have a mixed history with James Swallow and the Blood Angels. He is generally better in his Horus Heresy and audio drama offerings, but I will never forget the sheer okayness of the Blood Angels Saga books. If they had been awful, that would be one thing, but they are so unbelievably meh, though space submarine is a pretty cool moment I will grant you. This is definitely better than them and is definitely an interesting chaser to go with Fear to Tread, but I think it's one of those stories in which the significance of the lore seems to convince people that the story is equally as good. I may be being a bit too harsh, but I don't know how much less moving the bullet point outline of this story is that the story itself, especially when certain aspects are included with as much context and weight as a bullet point.

Sanguinius and every single Blood Angel, save the 20 left in charge of a the Baal system, are lost in the maelstrom after Horus, entirely unsuspiciously, ordered the whole legion deploy into the the middle of nowhere space. Assumptions have been made and brutal pronouncement and requisitions are deemed necessary to serve the Imperium's cause. The home on Blangels are understandably sad, but all might not be lost.

I really thought this was going to be something, and at times it definitely was, but on the whole this was an example of the garment wearing you, not your wearing the garment.

***Spoilers Below***

Look, I love sad Astartes, Knights Errant, and the potential for those actually on the same side to have to come to blows and/ or epically fuck everything up for themselves because of honour and whatever, but this story just didn't really sell any of it. It's not helped by the fact that, while Swallow is the go to guy for Team Edward, he's never been able to make them feel like Blood Angels as a distinct legion with their own character and personality, maybe a little in Fear to Tread, maybe. Swap out the names of the planets, legion, and Primarch and this story could be about any legion with no changes.

I saw another review being hype about the beginnings of the Death Company, which, yeah, is a really significant moment and an incredible and unique aspect of the Blood Angels in Warhammer 40K. I understand feeling hype for that. But, a couple of dudes had a little arts and crafts session on their armour offscreen for no reason that was explained or acknowledged in this story. Am I missing something? All I got was 'Andy rocked up with a black shirt with red colour, rather than his usual all red shirt'. I get that it's likely we would get the reference, but this isn't a modern Star Wars property with stuff too recognised sprinkled about the place. One of my favourite things about the Horus Heresy is seeing how characters and aspects from 40K came to be, but this wasn't it.

Was the POV character the actual chaplain who is the Death Company babysitter in 40K? I'm guessing so, but at this point I don't care enough to look it up.

I know this can literally be the answer to pretty much all fuck ups in the Heresy, but more often than not it's easy enough to wave off with a, 'oh yeah, the Emperor's a massive dickhead. Don't worry about it', but what the fuck were Malacdor and his Grey Librarian thinking in their approach to the Blood Angels? Like, this was always going to be bad and need to be saved by the bell (Baal?). At least, talk about the Imperium's need and how they and their vessels could serve the Emperor and honour their brothers and progenitor, rather than, 'Welp, everyone else is lost, so you're all fired and all your shit is going up for police auction'. It's really frustrating and absolutely blew up what could Be been a really emotionally weighty and difficult situation. I feel I have been robbed of tears I could have shed.

Anyways, this is story of a significant moment that can absolutely be skipped as it will almost certainly be referenced in a more interesting way whenever the events that took place are actually relevant. It really isn't bad and sometimes it's good, but overall decidedly meh and wasted potential. ( )