Book Review – Mark of Calth

Mark of Calth is a collection of short stories, set in the Ultramar system soon after the major war that was waged there between the Ultramarines and the Word Bearers. The primary focus across all the stories comes down to the athame knives, the warriors who wielded them, and their fate as the war progressed.

Short story anthologies are always a risky prospect, and you’re almost guaranteed to get some good and some bad mixed in together. However, with this book being a part of the Horus Heresy series, I felt obligated to give it a read from start to finish. In this way I can carry forth the continuity into future stories without being blindsided by new characters I haven’t heard of.

In the beginning of the series, one book after another delivered a knockout punch in terms of general 40k fluff. The stories we’ve only ever known as snippets came to life on the page in a new and exciting way as we learned of the fall of Warmaster Horus. False Gods was expertly done, and I could feel myself empathizing with the Primarch as he descended into madness.

This series has become a truly impressive collection of works from many of Black Library’s authors. Some of the books have been spectacular, and others have fallen flat on their face. Through it all I’ve trudged along, never skipping a book, waiting for that final conflict between The Emperor and his beloved son.

One of the greatest aspects of the early Heresy books was the tragedy of watching brothers slay each other due to a convoluted series of lies perpetrated by the Chaos Gods. The death of each hero was tragic because it seemed so avoidable to the onlooker. The early books showed the even nature of the battles between the legionnaires, which showcased how grim the struggle would become.

The series has lost some of that grim nature in recent works. The “good guys” slaughter dozens of the enemy before taking casualties of their own, and heroes seem truly impossible to kill. This blunts so much of the tragedy of the betrayal, as the “bad guys” are reduced to target practice. Often portrayed as bumbling simpletons, it is hard to feel they pose a threat to the ruler of Mankind. Sadly, many of the short stories in Mark of Calth suffer from these negative aspects.

One of the stories, for example, sees an Ultramarine single-handedly slay a demon that has destroyed an entire Word Bearers warhost. The method by which he succeeds if terribly dull to read; simply take a certain old Greek myth and replace “Perseus” with “the Ultramarine,” and replace “Medusa” with “the demon.” I can understand similar traits within stories, but this one just came across as a lazy retelling of the myth. Honestly, I was waiting for him to pick up the demon’s head and mount it on his boarding shield...

In writing, it is much more powerful to show a character’s traits than it is to tell the reader how the character thinks, feels, and acts. We are told in several of these stories how arrogant the Word Bearers are, and how their arrogance will cost them. However, we’re shown how arrogant the Ultramarines are. Whether it is the author’s intent or not, the protagonists in many of these stories come across as deluded crusaders who believe themselves invincible simply because they are Ultramarines. It makes the story come across as false and stilted when the Word Bearers are punished due to an arrogance we’ve been told about, and the Ultramarines succeed in spite of the arrogance we’ve been shown.

With so many negative things to say, it is also worth noting that some truly good pieces of fiction are included in this collection. Aaron Dembski-Bowden delivers as always with a gritty piece of fiction that pulls no punches, bringing a surprise twist at the end that was genuinely interesting. There was also a very interesting aside throughout one of the stories, where an Ultramarine rattled a single Bolt round in his gauntlet like a die. He considers the fate, and the element of chance behind the round. It is very interesting because it engages both the fluff side of the 40k Universe as well as the gaming aspect, tying the two together very nicely.

In the end though, I have a generally negative rating to leave with this book. If Chaos killed its servants as fast as it does in this book, there would be no bad guys left for the Imperium to fight. There is also very little story progression for the Heresy series as a whole. If you haven’t read this book, you’re probably safe to skip it and wait for something better to come along.