Praetorian of Dorn by John French (Book Review)

Of all the Legions we’ve seen so far in the series, it is perhaps the Imperial Fists of whom we have seen very little of in comparison. The World Eaters and the Iron Warriors might make a claim as well, but they have at least been at the forefront of the Heresy all the way while the Imperial Fists have been relegated to the defense of Terra and seemingly have done little of note, being a static legion in effect. Which kind of rankles since the VII Legion is as interesting as any of the others and Dorn’s role as the Praetorian of Terra is a vital one in the Heresy.

John French’s Praetorian of Dorn was all set to change the shortcomings of the series with regards to the VII Legion. Pitting Dorn and his sons against the vile machinations of Alpharius and his nefarious sons, Praetorian of Dorn turned out to be a rather mixed novel that spent far too much time on the XX Legion rather than the VII, and thus failed to really elucidate a strong sense of Legion personality for the Imperial Fists while the Alpha Legion only got better and better. With some big revelations and a fantastic climax, it wasn’t a bad novel however, but it did leave me very dissatisfied in the final reckoning.

As with many other Alpha Legion-oriented stories we’ve seen in the past, Praetorian of Dorn is one massive counter-espionage and sabotage mission story. Charged by none other than Horus Lupercal, Alpharius sends out his legionaries to carry out one of the most challenging and audacious tasks yet in the great war that has ended the dreams of the Great Crusade and the glorious reunification of Mankind. Both warriors of the Alpha Legion and their many mortal agents across the length and breadth of the Sol System work at destabilizing the defenses of Terra even as Rogal Dorn dispatches his own Imperial Fists to thwart these infiltrators and traitors.

If there is any “main” protagonist of the novel, it can be said to be Master Archamus, Dorn’s equerry and the leader of his personal bodyguard, the Huscarls. The reason I say that he’s the protagonist is because he’s the most significant Imperial Fists character in the novel other than the cameos by Rogal Dorn, and because we get some interesting flashbacks back to the early days of the Imperial Fists when Dorn was found and the first generation of new warriors created with his gene-seed. And Archamus was among those first twenty warriors raised up into the legion by Dorn himself, although by the start of the novel he is the last surviving member, the “Last of the First”. It’s an interesting hook for the character certainly and I quite enjoyed all his scenes. There are some good depths to his character and John does his best to explore those.

However, as such, we don’t really get a sense for what the Legion is like. What personality? What unique traits? What mentality? The VII Legion is said to be a Legion of master builders, but reading the novel that’s never really made apparent because aside from one particular flashback, the novel doesn’t really deal with any of that. More to the point, Dorn himself is absent for most of the novel, partly because Archamus is leading the charge on that front and partly because the Alpha Legion gets a disproportionately-high page-presence. This was the most disappointing element of the novel, by far. I was really excited for this novel, especially having read the sequel short story Duty Waits by Guy Haley, but for me the novel just did not deliver on this particular front.

Where the Alpha Legion themselves are concerned, I have no complaints at all. Sure, their plans come across as way too convoluted to be followed properly, and I’m doubtful as to what Alpharius really wanted to do here since he had agents at work right in the Imperial Palace but forwent that for a strike elsewhere. I get what John was going for, especially given some of Alpharius’ dialogue in the final few pages, but all the same, it didn’t track well personally. Anyway, what John did with the Alpha Legion was the opposite of what he did with the Imperial Fists, and helped build naturally on what we’ve seen of the XX Legion prior to the events herein. I also got unseemly excited when Ingo Pech, the First Captain of the legion and the commander of the elite Lernaen Terminators, made a reappearance. I last saw him in Dan Abnett’s Legion and really enjoyed his character. He’s a cameo again, but it just felt really rewarding for some reason.

The main Alpha Legion character here is a warrior named Silonius, who has been sent to Terra by Alpharius personally. As we learn more about the two legions through the flashbacks, we find out Silonius is a senior commander within the Legion, and that added to his mystique. His arc was an interesting one all throughout, and it was fun to uncover more about his identity and his true purpose in being sent to Terra. Hopefully we see more of Silonius as the Heresy unfolds, especially within the context of flashback stories as we’ve seen with so many characters before.

The story itself is pretty decent. All the main characters get worthwhile things do, and there is a really urgent pace to the plot, which I liked. Dan Abnett’s Legion was a slow-burner with a killer climax. Praetorian of Dorn is a fast-burner with a real killer climax. If there was one big complaint I have about the plot itself, it is that John often focuses way too much on civilians or mortal military personnel. Like we get what the Alpha Legion does and how  good it is. We’ve seen plenty of it so far in the series, we don’t need to have that thrown at us again and again. That was something I found very frustrating about the novel, partially because I wanted to see much more of the VII Legion than we did.

One of the really neat things about the novel however was some of the background on the early campaigns of Great Crusade, particularly the pacification of the Lunar colonies around Terra. Those were definitely an eye-opener and gave some much-needed vital insight into how the Emperor brought together his Primarch and Astartes projects, and the lengths he went to bring them to fruition. As the character Andromeda-17 remarks often to Archamus and his chosen equerry Sergeant Kestros (who was himself a rather bland Astartes), without the gene-manipulation knowledge perfected by the Selenar cults of Luna, the Emperor’s dream of galactic war would never have happened. Loved every moment of it and Andromeda-17 was certainly my absolute favourite character in the novel.

In the final tally, if there’s anything else that I would have really wanted to see in this novel, it would be twofold. The first, that we saw some of what the Imperial Fists librarians have been up to since the war started. We know from one of the Garro audio dramas by James Swallow that after Nikaea, Dorn locked them all up aboard the Phalanx and that Garro’s intervention did herald a role for them in the battle for Terra. As such their absence here is conspicuous. And related to that is the second, despite Malcador’s cameo, why is Archamus taking on the Alpha Legion with a limited number of VII Legion squads and a gene-wrought dissembler from Luna rather than asking the help of Malcador’s Knight-Errants. Their absence too is conspicuous and there was frustratingly zero explanation for that.

John ends the novel on a suitably action-packed climax and while there is still a lot that was desired but which never happened, I think Praetorian of Dorn was still a decent enough novel for the most part. Some interesting lore reveals, some riveting dubious lore confirmations, good action scenes.

Rating: 7/10

More John French:

• Horus Heresy: Warmaster (Review)
• Horus Heresy #24B: Templar (Review)
• Horus Heresy #25B: Grey Angel (Review)
• Horus Heresy #22: Shadows of Treachery: Crimson Fist (Review)
• Horus Heresy #25: Mark of Calth: Athame (Review)
• Horus Heresy #33: War Without End: Black Oculus (Review)
• Horus Heresy #34C: Meduson: The Keys of Hel (Review)
• Warhammer 40,000: The Horusian Wars: Resurrection (Review)
• Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine Battles: Architect of Fate: Fateweaver (Review)

More Horus Heresy:

• Death of A Silversmith by Graham McNeill (Review)
• #17: The Outcast Dead by Graham McNeill (Review)
• Thief of Revelations by Graham McNeill (Review)
• The Raven’s Flight by Gav Thorpe (Review)
• #19: Know No Fear by Dan Abnett (Review)
• #19D: Oath of Moment by James Swallow (Review)
• #19F: Burden of Duty  by James Swallow (Review)
• #19G: Legion of One by James Swallow (Review)
• #20: The Primarchs by Christian Dunn (Review)
• #21: Fear To Tread by James Swallow (Review)
• #22: Shadows of Treachery by Christian Dunn and Nick Kyme (Review)
• #23: Angel Exterminatus by Graham McNeill (Review)
• Butcher’s Nails by Aaron Dembski-Bowden (Review)
• #25: Mark of Calth by Laurie Goulding (Review)
• 25D: Honour To The Dead by Gav Thorpe (Review)
• #25E: Promethean Sun by Nick Kyme (Review)
• Censure by Nick Kyme (Review)
• #26: Vulkan Lives by Nick Kyme (Review)
• #27: The Unremembered Empire by Dan Abnett (Review)
• #28A: Brotherhood of the Storm by Chris Wraight (Review)
• #28E: The Devine Adoratrice by Graham McNeill (Review)
• #30: The Damnation of Pythos by David Annandale (Review)
• #31: Legacies of Betrayal by Laurie Goulding (Review)
• #32: Deathfire by Nick Kyme (Review)
• #33: War Without End by Laurie Goulding (Review)
• #34: Pharos by Guy Haley (Review)
• #34C: Meduson by Laurie Goulding (Review)
• #34D: The Seventh Serpent by Graham McNeill (Review)
• #36: The Path of Heaven by Chris Wraight (Review)
• #38: Angels of Caliban by Gav Thorpe (Review)
• #42: Garro by James Swallow (Review)
• #44: The Crimson King by Graham McNeill (Review)
• The Primarchs #1: Roboute Guilliman: Lord of Ultramar by David Annandale (Review)
• The Primarchs #4: Perturabo: The Hammer of Olympia by Guy Haley (Review)
• The Primarchs #5: Lorgar: Bearer of The Word by Gav Thorpe (Review)
• The Primarchs #6: Fulgrim: The Palatine Phoenix by Josh Reynolds (Review)