Deliverance Lost [Mass Market Paperback]

Deliverance Lost marks Gav Thorpe's entry to the Horus Heresy series. In a series now 18 books long, featuring 8+ different authors there have been highs and lows. Deliverance Lost falls somewhere in the middle, being better than books such as Descent of Angels and Battle for the Abyss but nowhere near as awesome as Legion or The First Heretic. On the plus side, the HH finally seems to be moving forward after having stalled out for a bit. Deliverance Lost is one of the truly important stories of the Heresy that needed to be told and for the most part Thorpe does an admirable job.

Deliverance Lost picks up after the Dropsite Massacre, with the rescue of Corax and his few remaining Raven Guard. Thorpe actually wrote a short story or two featuring the Raven Guard, that lead up directly to Deliverance Lost but you can easily pick up this novel without having previously read them. This is ultimately a story of tragedy and redemption, with some deception and treachery throw in for good measure. As the first novel dedicated to the Raven Guard, not only in the HH but even in the larger Warhammer 40,000 continuum, readers get a good look into the inner psyche of Corvus Corax and his efforts to rebuild his legion after the events of Isstvan V. Thorpe takes an avenue yet to be traveled by the other BL authors, by featuring a Primarch as a main POV. This works in some ways but weakens the book in others. I enjoyed getting my first true impression of Corax. Early on during the escape from the Isstvan system as Corax commands his stealth ship through the traitor cordon I saw him as a sort of 20th century submarine commander with nerves of steel and unflappable patience. Readers will also get to see a more personal side of Corax as he weathers the self-doubts as a general who has failed and seen his army all but destroyed. There are many different facets to Corax's personality that shine through and all of them match up and complement each other well. The problem, however, is that Deliverance Lost lacks a main character. There are several POV's, from Corax to an Alpha Legion operative and even an Imperial Army general but a central protagonist never seems to come into focus.

Deliverance Lost is definitely more plot driven than character focused. Thorpe explains the attempts of Corax to rebuild the Raven Guard, an endeavor that sees the primarch venturing to Terra and seeking an audience with the Emperor Himself. Granted the very gene-tech the Emperor used to create the primarchs and the legiones astartes, Corax sets out to return to the war and blunt Horus's advance across the stars. The flip side of this story is the infiltration of the Raven Guard by the Alpha Legion who seek to sabotage and eradicate them. Some fans will be distraught at the sheer lack of action in Deliverance Lost. There is a minor skirmish 350 pages in, and then the real fighting starts around page 400. Despite the lack of adrenaline fueled mayhem, the story held my interest throughout. My one complaint about the action however, is that it fails to represent the unique abilities of the Raven Guard. What limited fighting there is could be considered generic space marine faire. There is nothing to distinguish the action from any other legion. I'm also a little disappointed at Thorpe's representation of Alpha Legion. I consider Dan Abnett's Legion one of the best books in the entire HH series and Thorpe's version fails to stack up with Abnett's mysterious and compelling vision. The treachery of the novel is lessened because of the lack of character development and so it never feels all that sinister.

Deliverance Lost is not the worst the HH series has to offer. Not even close. Thorpe writes Corax extremely well, even if the other characters fall short of the mark. Thorpe also deserves props for finally shedding some of the lime light on the unfairly neglected Raven Guard and telling one of the key events of the Heresy. Pick up this book with caution however. Adrenaline junkies should probably give this one a pass and die hard fans of Abnett's Legion might want to consider doing likewise.

I stand ready to accept a demon's legion of negative comments from the die hard BL fans, but better to be honest in the review and let the buyer make the purchase "with his or her eyes open."

I enjoyed Gav Thorpe's writing style, but this book was just OK.

I would not add Deliverance Lost to the top of my reading list even for the die hard BL fan base.

The Black Library (BL) has done a great job of putting together a truly fantastic collection of books set in the Warhammer universe, both the Fantasy side and the Warhammer 40K side.

Gav Thorpe, the author, spins a good yarn, and his portrayal of Corax, primarch of the Raven Guard, is well done.

All that said, while I enjoyed the first several Horus Heresy (HH) books very much, I am not a big fan of Deliverance Lost.

Be warned ... spoilers follow.

The story picks up immediately after the slaughter of the loyal legions at Isstvan V with significant flashbacks to Corax's childhood and growth into the messiah of Deliverance. (The title of the book has a double meaning, both the loss of the Raven Guard's homeworld and the loss at a chance to deliver the galaxy from Horus civil war.)

The premise of the book is that Corax is the guerrilla fighter of the Primarchs. He and the Raven Guard rely on stealth and hit & run tactics to depose the enemies of the Emperor.

After the defeat on Isstvan V, Corax and a small number of his legion retreat to refit and determine future plans. Corax takes one ship back to Earth to meet with the Emperor and determine some way to rebuild his legion.

The fly in the ointment is that the Alpha Legion has sided with Horus (see Horus Heresy: Legion (Warhammer 40,000 Novels: Horus Heresy)), and the Alpha Legion has embedded agents within the Raven Guard.

The reader follows one of these traitorous scum along through the story.

Corax returns to Earth, and he is not permitted to disturb the Emperor. Eventually after a tussle between Rogal Dorn, Corax, and Malcador the Sigilite, the Emperor "possesses" Malcador and gives Corax information on where the Primarch Project remains have been buried beneath a mountain, protected by a killer maze.

Corax uses his incredible wits to defeat a maze designed by the Emperor to kill any that entered it.

At the core of the maze is the biotechnology used to create the Primarchs. The traitor scum is one of the Raven Guards that accompanies Corax.

After returning to Deliverance, Corax and a very clever supporting cast of characters, including some members of the Mechanicum, are able to figure out a way to recreate the Raven Guard in a fraction of the normal time.

All goes well until the Alpha Legion is able to insert "demonic DNA essence" into the pure gene sample that then converts the Raven Guard initiates into hideously warped monsters.

The twin Primarchs of the Alpha Legion fool Horus, have the corrupt DNA, and Corax continues with hit & run tactics that the reader assumes continues for centuries (all to no real effect apparently).

So, why three stars?

First, the book is depressing. OK, OK, to stay within BL canon, the Raven Guard had to fail, but there were many places in the book where the Bad Guys(tm) could have failed, but miraculously at every turn, evil triumphed over good. Also, Mr. Thorpe set you up to believe that the traitor scum was facing a moral dilemma and was likely to do the "right thing" in the end. Yeah, didn't happen. Didn't really even hesitate.

I like H.P. Lovecraft too, and that is a bleak universe as well -- likely the intellectual origins of the BL Chaos, but subsequent writers added some rays of hope to HPL's creation.

There were a number of times when it was difficult to suspend disbelief, and canon was discarded in some cases.

The depiction of the Twin Primarchs of the Alpha Legion was often silly. Mr. Alpha himself is mocking Horus' closest companions, and Horus, shown to be fully of Khorn-ian rage in previous books, just sits on his throne smirking. What? Really? No. Also, Horus ends up being fooled by Mr. Alpha with a worthless data-slate with embedded errors. Horus, who is using Chaos magic like a fiend at this point, summoning demons, etc. cannot read the Alpha Primarch? Um, no.

The Alpha Legion had sided with Horus, because a council of aliens had convinced the Primarchs that only through Horus being victorious would the galaxy be saved from the "Ruinous Powers." Yet, throughout this book, the Twin Primarchs bedevil and ignore the representative of the council, and at the end, one of the Primarchs throws the representative out into deep space. What? Really? No. If the Primarchs were so convinced that they were doing the right thing that they believed the council and turned against their oaths to the Emperor then surely they would have valued the input from the representative.

It just seemed like a ridiculous and coquettish action.

The gateway to the Eldar immaterium paths on Earth was still open in this books, but we know that according to time line already established in A Thousand Sons (The Horus Heresy) that Magnus had already destroyed the portal (with the help of a Great Old One - not called that in the book, but that is what it was) by this time.

The ability of the chaos infested Mechanicum, the Dragons, to cause a complete civil war under the nose of the Raven Guard also seems a stretch. Surely the local population would support the Raven Guard. Think about a local football team. People support those teams under almost any circumstance. Now, add that the Raven Guard is filled with super humans, and, then add all the technology and riches that came with being part of the Imperium ... there is no way that the local populace would have risen up in revolt. Yes, the guildmasters might have, but the local populace ... er, no.

There are more, but one final example suffices ... the Emperor, the Master of Mankind, the cleverest of the clever took centuries to figure out the genetic structure for the Primarch project; yet, the Alpha Legion with the help of the Dragon/fallen Mechanicum figures out how to counter the genetic structure in an untraceable way in what ... um, ten minutes or so ... while that is an exaggeration, it is beyond the pale that Alpharius and gang could have figured it out so quickly.

At this point, I would love to see the BL pick up on the rebirth of the Emperor in 42K. The recent book Atlas Infernal (Warhammer 40,000: Inquisitor Czevak) hinted about a way that it might be possible, and there has been speculation within the BL fan base and authors for years about a combined Eldar and Human mythology that included the rebirth of the Emperor.

I enjoyed Gav Thorpe's writing style, but this book was just OK.

I would not add Deliverance Lost to the top of my reading list even for the die hard BL fan base.

in service,

Rich

I was not impressed. Some of these heresy books you could really pass over; nothing added to the story, not entertaining and feel like they were written over 3 vacations. Unfortunately this is one.

I would recommend black library get their writers all on the same page. I mean, in the early books even the regular Astartes are awed and have trouble just looking at their primarch, just being in his presence is difficult (horus and his men).
Not so for the Raven guard, they back- talk their primarch, don't seem impressed (even regular guard are sort of like 'oh hi Corvus, is that a new shade of armor?') and he lacks respect. In many spots in the book they second guess him, with an attitude of 'do you really know what you're doing?'. This is a primarch?? the greatest supermen the human race ever produced? Just one example of the lack of consistency with the world view in this book.

My take? Only read it if you feel you're really feel you must read the full dragged out starting to feel like 'how much can we milk this for' series. The series started out great with enjoyable writing and story lines but the past several books have been very poor and feel deadline rushed by authors who haven't done their research or cared to.

› Go to Amazon.com to see all 15 reviews  3.3 out of 5 stars