Deliverance Lost: Ghosts of Terra (The Horus Heresy)

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The novel also features a reappearance of the Cabal (Book 7), and of other well-known characters from previous books in the series. This entry had all of those things - it even had a brief encounter with the Emperor, which is always exciting (so long as they keep them brief)! He has to get into contact with his father, who is on the planet Terra(Earth), fighting his own battles. What I didn't quite enjoy were things like the absence of Marcus Valerius and the Therion Cohort for most of the book. The Raven Guard, along with the Iron Hands and Salamanders, is just one of those legions that you can't help but feel a bit bad for after what they went through at the Dropsite Massacre.

Corax faces the struggles of rebuilding a legion that was eighty thousand plus strong legionaries, now diminished down to roughly five thousand. Only one thing really bothered me here: For being a primarch that supposedly has exceptional patience (which one has to have to wage the type of war that the Raven Guard excel at), Corax seemed to be overly impetuous and prone to sudden outbursts. It's an account of a Legion battered and broken after the events of Isstvan V and the disastrous results of Corax's attempt to rebuild and rejoin the fight. Minor characters were all sufficiently interesting, they stood out from oneanother , not always a given when discussing space marines.His Warhammer 40,000 repertoire further includes the Path of the Eldar series, the Horus Heresy audio dramas Raven's Flight and Honour to the Dead, and a multiplicity of short stories. Deliverance Lost tells you more about how the Alpha Legion works than the book devoted to the Alpha Legion. I similarly wished a bit more storybuilding on the relation between the "fallen or flawed" raptors and their other battle brethren who at first are kept secret but overnight become an accepted part of the legion.

Fortunately there are no whining, attention-grabbing remembrancers here, they're all dead, along with SEVENTY-FIVE THOUSAND Raven Guard. I can see why this was a necessary part of the book, and that it had to go there after the apparent realizations of Corax. Things start well enough, but deep down we know they cannot end well and we spend the entire book waiting for the hammer to fall and shatter all hope. The Raven Guard simply do not stand on ceremony, and they are allowed a fair degree of lateral thinking, which causes Corus some headaches towards the end but introduces tension and drama that simply couldn't happen with any other Legion. Tending to their wounds, the bloodied Space Marines endeavour to replenish their numbers and take the fight to the traitor Warmaster.Read it for some bits of lore regarding the Raven Guard but don't expect a groundbreaking experience.

I really enjoyed seeing how Corvus the Primarch came to be Corax the Saviour and how a colony of slaves came to be a Legion in the Empire of Man. This was the first novel that features the Raven Guard as the main characters, and previously Corax had only briefly appeared in past books - during the events of the Dropsite Massacre. Instead of solving squabbles between two of his most favored and longest-serving sons, he figures he could just replace them if they carry on, but their strife isn't a priority. 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. I guess it is time to take a break on the series, perhaps it will look interesting again after a while.The story itself is quite interesting, sadly it lacks deeper descriptions, emotion, also character variety and development. As the Horus Heresy divides the Imperium, Corax and his few remaining Raven Guard escape the massacre at Isstvan V.