40K book review: Battle of the Fang

[isotope99]

Battle of the Fang
Space Marine Battles series
By Chris Wraight
Space Wolves vs Thousand Sons

Pre-reading:
The heresy books A Thousand Sons and Prospero Burns are best read first but the story stands alone with just a basic understanding of the key events of the heresy.

Background
The story is set in the 32nd millenium, not long after the heresy from our 40K perspective, but a genetically enhanced lifetime for the space wolves such that almost none remember it.

SpaceWolves:
Their primarch Leman Russ is gone, their efforts to seed successor chapters have been frustrated and their archenemy continues to evade them. The space wolves are far from the force seen in the heresy series, but are still one of the major imperial powers. Most of their organisation seems to be consistent with that described in the codex (I’m not a space wolves player so am not intimately familiar) but the blood claws, grey hunters and long fangs are all there. (No mighty morphing thunderwolves in case you’re wondering though).
The current great wolf leading the chapter is obsessed with hunting down Magnus and finishing the job started on Prospero. This belief is shared by most of the rest of the chapter leadership except for a few left behind on whom this story focuses.

Thousand Sons:
If the space wolves have suffered after the heresy, the thousand sons are a shadow of their former selves.

The rubric has been cast and Ahriman has departed what’s left of the legion. As a result the thousand sons are much as we know them from the game, squads of robotic rubricae supported by sorcerors. There are also huge reserves of mortal troops acting as the new spireguard, but these guys are mostly cannon fodder to be torn apart by the wolves.

Cast and plot
The basic plot is that the main bulk of the space wolves chapter has been drawn away by Magnus, leaving their home, the Fang fortress on Fenris, open to attack from a Thousand Sons raiding force and only a single company to defend it. There are quite a few threads to the story which I’ll touch on briefly:

Defenders of the Fang
Most of the book is centred on those left behind to defend the Fang, led by one of the wolf lords, Greyloc, as punishment for not backing the great wolf’s attack on Magnus supposed hideout. He’s set apart from the other space wolves by being sligfhtly less psychotic thatn them and isn’t wholly trusted.

Other key characters are Wyrmblade (silly name, I couldn't shake the image of the lord of the rings character), a wolf priest doing secret research on some genetics project that turns out to have great consequences that I won’t spoil, Bjorn the fell handed as their most ancient dreadnought tortured by his memories of the past and a pile of other fairly cardboardy space marines that could have come from any of the books. There are a couple of mortal characters to give the usual chat about how impressive the space marines are compared to regular humans, but their ‘screen time’ is relatively short.

Messengers in the void
Part of the story involves one of the space wolves, Blackwing, running the Thousand Sons blockade to bring word of the surprise attack to the other space wolves. Sound familiar?

I liked Blackwing and the space sections are reasonably well written, the bad guys in this part of the story feel a little cartoony though.

The main Space Wolves force
The rest of the chapter gets very little attention and seems to suffer from the page limit on the book. Their stroy crops up periodically but isn’t very exciting.

The archenemy
The Thousand Sons aren’t nearly as well characterised as in the heresy book but the story isn’t really about them so I guess that’s to be expected. They serve their purpose and the descriptions of the rubricae do feel right on the money. My favourite character is the one who stays on the ship and routinely mourns their decline and ‘loss of taste’ rather than being a stereotypical bad guy.

Magnus pops up towards the end but i won’t say anymore about that except to say that the difference in power that hampers any story involving the primarchs is reasonably well handled here.

The Good
The Space Wolves characters do give the right feeling for their position in the chapter, the blood claws feel wild and untamed, the dreadnoughts feel ancient and angry etc.

The geography of the story is well put together and it is always clear who’s where and what they’re doing which is important for a siege style book.

I liked the undercurrent of fatalism about the thousand sons knowing that even if victorious, their legion would never again be a great force in the universe.

The author has managed to add a bit of extra narrative about the ‘tempering’ project which gives the battle a nice wider context than just a scrap over a mountain.

There are a few cryptic hints about the fate of Leman Russ that could provide the seeds of new stories if GW are ever brave enough to advance the chronology of 40K (not holding my breath).

The Bad
My main criticism is that the main Space Wolves assault off planet is under –written, which undermines the ending a bit.

There’s also some scattered hammy ‘acting’ amongst the Thousand Sons when it seems like they’re about to start cackling madly.

Favourite Moment
One of the blood claws pauses mid strike to deliver an action hero style catchphrase, but is knocked off his feet mid-sentence by a lucky lasgun shot to the intense mirth of the rest of his pack. You just wouldn't get that from ultramarines.

Overall, I give this book seven out of ten, its not up with the best of the heresy books, but it’s a cut above the standard space marine novels in this series and was an enjoyable way to pass a few hours on the train.

[ankhcitizen]

Now thats a proper review, lite on the spoilers, organised critiques and observations, was avoiding Battle of the Fang but i might pick it up now, very curious as to the fate of Leman Russ...

[energongoodie]

I'd have to go 8.5 - 9.
Best of the Space Marine Battles books by a country mile in my opinion.

I also really liked the teasers about the fate of Leman Russ.
Well done on the review.

[George Labour]

Small tidbit that obviously isn't needed for the review but something I found interesting were the hints at the origins of the Thunderwolves (along with reminders about the odd statement 'there are no wolves on Fenris')

Also small little morsels involving the Wolf Brothers are dashed throught the story, but I won't spoil what that means either.

Personally I think the parts I liked best were the segments involving the one human woman interacting with the Dreadnought, and the final two chapters involving Magnus and Bjorn. It was both epic and a reminder of how far things have fallen since the heresy.

Plus we see the legendary Space Wolf sense of humor at play during that final fight. Laughing in the face of decapitation FTW.

[energongoodie]

Small tidbit that obviously isn't needed for the review but something I found interesting were the hints at the origins of the Thunderwolves (along with reminders about the odd statement 'there are no wolves on Fenris')

I took those to be references to the Wulfen not Thunderwolves. I think they have a different origin.

[eldargal]

Wolves are an earthbound mammal, I think it GW being clever personally. 'No wolves on Fenris because wolves are canis lupus and they are probably extinct by now anyway.

[George Labour]

I took those to be references to the Wulfen not Thunderwolves. I think they have a different origin.

Well we know that the longer one lives as a wulfen the more likely he is to become monsterous, that the wolf brothers became monsters, Harold Deathwolf is rumored to turn into a wolf on the full moon, and the Canis Helix gives the astartes a muzzle like face and doggy fangs.

So maybe we're both right. :P

Had another thought. Why are the mortal characters in the battles books more likable than the marines? I've read Helsreach and I would have preferred to see more of that french stormtrooper than the templars. Except maybe the tech priest, his vulkan mind meld with a door was the stuff of legends.

[ankhcitizen]

Yeah Andrej the storm trooper was great, the mortal characters in Helsreach were fleshed out wonderfully, but in every book involving astartes the writers have to be careful, I don't imagine it would be easy to emotionally flesh out space marines who for all intents and purposes consider themselves almost a race apart from humanity.

[Kawauso]

Wolves are an earthbound mammal, I think it GW being clever personally. 'No wolves on Fenris because wolves are canis lupus and they are probably extinct by now anyway.

I took it to mean that the 'wolves' on Fenris aren't any natural animal.
It's implied in A Thousand Sons/Prospero burns that the Fenrisian wolves are unnatural creations from when mankind could tinker with genetics easily in order to help colonists adapt to their new worlds. I believe the implication here is that any 'wolves' on Fenris are descended from human colonists, originally, when they were attempting to adapt their people to Fenris' harsh environments.

[eldargal]

Well that would fit in with my theory too, whatever they are they aren't 'wolves' in the human sense, they are something else. Could be a native species, could be human colonists.