On 25th February, 2003 Black Library released a rather innocuous-looking novel by author and game designer Gav Thorpe. Titled Angels of Darkness, it marked his first foray into the realm of the mysterious but valiant Space Marines and of all the ones he could have taken his pick of, he chose the deliberately obfuscative Dark Angels. Descendants of the First Legion, the Dark Angels harbour great and terrible secrets of their past, secrets that if they ever came to light would damn the chapter and all its successors. A rich ten-thousand year history erased in a heartbeat. Angels of Darkness proved to be a hit, so much so that it received a second printing only three years later and just three years past it received a fourth printing.
Angels of Darkness is the story of the traitor warrior Merir Astelan and the hero Boreas as their lives intersect and as years down the line Boreas reflects on that encounter. It is a well-woven tale of mystery and intrigue as we learn some of the secrets of the Dark Angels from the war-wracked Horus Heresy era and learn also the events that shaped Astelan into the traitor he became. Not to mention how Boreas has been shaped over those years and the final moments of his life of toiling in secret far from the eyes of his brothers.
This is not just a review but also a celebration of the fifteen-year anniversary of the novel, a novel that has probably engendered more controversy and discussion than any other novel in the last two decades of Black Library fiction. And I dare say that it is also the single-most influential story in all of Warhammer 40,000 fiction, so much so that it even has repercussions for the Horus Heresy series currently in progress.
I recently finished reading Gav’s Angels of Caliban, the thirty-eighth novel of the Horus Heresy and the events presented herein really got me thinking about Astelan’s account of these events. Even back in the days of Angels of Darkness we had the sense that Astelan was a somewhat unreliable narrator and now given all that we’ve seen so far in the series in the last thirteen years, I really wanted to go back and re-read Angels of Darkness. As I mentioned in my review of the Heresy novel, it is very much a culmination of most of Astelan’s tale from Angels of Darkness, and it seemed only fitting that at such a crucial juncture I went back and refamiliarized myself with the beginning.
There are two parts of the novel, the Tale of Astelan and the Tale of Boreas. The former is set some years prior to the latter and is the account of Interrogator-Chaplain Boreas’ torture and interrogation of former Chapter commander Merir Astelan. Gav interweaves both these stories to parallel the lives that these characters lived and to create that natural sympathetic resonance between their personalities and their motivations and to give some sense of the emotional connect between the two. And it’s all utterly fantastic.
I’ll be honest, it has been an age since I read Angels of Darkness last. And now, given my experience with the Horus Heresy series, I find that this reread was very much a deeply enriching experience that felt really rewarding. Much of what Astelan relates to Boreas during his interrogation matches with what we’ve actually seen firsthand but there also several points of divergence that cast doubt on Astelan’s testimony and that’s the true beauty of the novel, that it still holds up so well despite the fact that many of the events related herein have actually been laid out in detail for us.
As a result, I felt that Angels of Darkness is actually a rather melancholic novel, and for tons of reasons too. Astelan, Luther and others were banned from the Great Crusade by the Lion for an unfathomable reason, sent back to Caliban in disgrace and to live out the glories of the Great Crusade far from the action. When the Tale of Boreas starts, it has been some time for Boreas stationed on the world of Piscina IV as guardian of the Chapter’s primary outpost on the world and the chief recruiter of new aspirants for the continued legacy of the Dark Angels. But the isolation bar that of a demi-squad of his brothers is wearying for him. And so it continues for both characters as they undergo great challenges of faith and character before they either fall to heresy or rise to selfless heroism.
And that’s the real heart of the novel for Astelan and Boreas are more alike than not, and there are deep parallels in their experiences that are otherwise set ten thousand years apart. The ambiguity of Gav’s writing is to his credit because the lessons of the novel can go either way, whether redeeming Astelan in some way and giving justification to what he did during the Heresy and after that, or adding to the strength of Boreas’ beliefs in himself, his brothers, his Chapter, and his Primarch.
As I read Astelan’s testimony, as one of the Legion’s greatest villains related the story of his fall, I saw parallels to the events of the Heresy that the Heresy writers have already put to the pen, especially Gav among them. And I began to see a much greater connectivity and some dire malign portents for the future. Again, the events of Angels of Caliban are absolutely key here because they lay down the foundations of the greatest tragedy of the First Legion: the conflict between Luther and the Lion, and the sundering of Caliban itself.
I loved absolutely ever moment of it. Angels of Darkness is a novel that sits at the heart of everything that is great about Warhammer 40,000 and speaks to the heart of the setting’s greatest secrets. It has incredibly well-thought out and introspective characters with excellent story arcs that take you on a right journey through the best of the lore of the setting. It features a cameo by one of the greatest heroes of the Dark Angels and is something that spawned no less than four entire novels around it, and even inspired the arc of the Dark Angels in the Horus Heresy series. That’s a significant achievement and no other novel in all of Warhammer 40,000 fiction comes close, for me.
Angels of Darkness is a novel that I recommend very highly. Whether you are new to the setting or an old hand. Whether you’ve read the Horus Heresy series or not. This is an absolute must-read.
Rating: 10/10
More Gav Thorpe:
- Horus Heresy: The Raven’s Flight (Review)
- Horus Heresy #20: The Primarchs: The Lion (Review)
- Horus Heresy #25D: Honour To The Dead (Review)
- Horus Heresy #31: Legacies of Betrayal: The Divine Word (Review)
- Horus Heresy #31: Legacies of Betrayal: Guardian of the Order (Review)
- Horus Heresy #33: War Without End: By The Lion’s Command (Review)
- Horus Heresy #39: Angels of Caliban (Review)
- Horus Heresy: The Primarchs #5: Lorgar: Bearer of The Word (Review)
- Warhammer 40,000: Deathwatch: Mission Purge (Review)
- Warhammer 40,000: The Beast Arises #3: The Emperor Expects (Review)
- Warhammer 40,000: The Beast Arises #8: The Beast Must Die (Review)
- Warhammer 40,000: Path of the Eldar #1: Path of the Warrior (Review)
- Warhammer 40,000: Eldar: Howl of The Banshee (Review)
- Warhammer 40,000: Eldar: Phoenix Lords #2: Jain Zar: The Storm of Silence (Review)
- Warhammer 40,000: Eldar: The Curse of Shaa-Dom (Review)
- Warhammer 40,000: Legacy of Caliban #2: Master of Sanctity (Review)
- Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine Battles: Catechism of Hate (Review)
- Warhammer 40,000: Terminators: Sanguis Irae (Review)
- Warhammer 40,000: Rise of the Ynnari: Ghost Warrior (Review)
- Warhammer Fantasy: Age of Legend: The Ninth Book (Review)
- Warhammer Fantasy: Age of Legend: Aenarion (Review)
- Warhammer Fantasy: The Doom of Dragonback (Review)
- Empire of The Blood #1: Crown of the Blood (Review)
- Empire of The Blood #2: Crown of the Conqueror (Review)
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