Book Review – Vulkan Lives

My journey through the Horus Heresy series continues, disjointed and non-sequitur as ever! Today I’ll be taking a look at what I believe was Nick Kyme’s first book in the series – Vulkan Lives. As always – SPOILER ALERT!

I was extremely hesitant going into this book; the Salamanders series that Nick Kyme wrote for Black Library in the past definitely doesn’t rank in my list of favorites. I suppose that I’ve been avoiding this book for some time due to Mr. Kyme’s past releases and the whole prospect of the Perpetuals including a Primarch. For continuity’s sake, however, I felt the need to read this book, especially after giving Unremembered Empire a chance. I had to know what drove Vulkan mad!

First off, I have to say that Nick Kyme accomplished something rarely done by Black Library authors. In Vulkan’s trials while he is a prisoner of Night Haunter, he is forced to undergo some truly terrible things, as the Night Lords master tries to break him mentally. These include putting him into a mechanical suit that he had no control over, forcing him to watch as the suit destroys his former allies. The culminating point, though, comes when he attached to chains that are linked to a massive stone, which is suspended over a room full of civilians. This includes children. Vulkan must fight the weight of the stone as it becomes heavier and heavier, until eventually even his Primarch-level strength fails, and the civilians are crushed to death.

This is the first time the actions of a traitor Primarch have been undeniably evil, and I found myself rooting for Vulkan! I was truly surprised, as in the past both factions of humanity have come across as possessing equal levels of monstrous intent. For the first time, I was given a lesser of two evils to root for.

We’ve seen for quite some time in fluff that the Salamanders care deeply for the basic humanity they defend, and Nick Kyme carries this concept forward. It honestly puts Vulkan in the same category as Leman Russ for me; they do not fight for the Emperor and his power over the galaxy, so much as they fight for the humanity that is too weak to defend itself. In this aspect Vulkan became more than a lesser of two evils; he became the good guy.

In the end, though, Vulkan is a prisoner, and Night Haunter sees him slain over and over in an attempt to make it permanent. Through this series of cutaway stories, we quickly realize that he is, indeed, a Perpetual. This is not an invention of Nick Kyme, as we have already seen John Grammaticus and Oll Persson. However, I’m simply not a fan of the concept, and making one of the Primarchs into a Perpetual was frustrating for me. I suppose I’m too much into the “science” side of the “science fiction.”

With that said, Nick Kyme did a good job of getting into the philosophical aspect of knowing that you’ll live when all of your sons die. There were several moments that stood out as appropriately poignant, without coming across as stilted or forced. Vulkan truly wants to be a good man, with war not even being his desired role in life. Mr. Kyme writes him in a way that is very approachable, and encourages empathy.

With all of the praises I have for the themes behind the story, I was not a fan of the combat scenes in this book. Even when there weren’t Primarchs tossing Marines around like rag dolls, the battered survivors that remain from the dropsite massacre just come across as a band from a bad ‘90’s action flick. They always trade even for their dead at the very worst, and they always seem to be ready for the enemy’s attack, even when it is a surprise ambush.

It is somewhat wearying to read in book after book that the traitors rush pell-mell into combat with little thought for organization, while the Imperial marines always lay down fire and retreat in good order, even when they are losing terribly. It almost seems as if the Black Library writers are implying that the act of leaving the Emperor’s side automatically adds ten Insanity Points. Then, when the Imperial marines are outclassed in some aspect of warfare, it is because their enemy is “insane.” It turns out that there is simply no other explanation for why World Eaters are defeating Salamanders in melee. Also, what exactly is it with traitor Dreadnought being climbed by Imperial fighters? The idea just seems incredibly unlikely to me, and is more so each time I read of this happening.

In several places throughout the book, it felt like I was being subjected to empty propaganda, trying to tell me that the Salamanders’ enemies were inferior, without showing me why. For example, the Death Guard are decried as monsters for deploying chemical weapons that the Salamanders carry in their own arsenal. Angron even comes to challenge Vulkan, a fight I was truly excited to read. Then a missile lands, “driving Angron away,” and the fight comes to an end before it ever started. This was probably the low point of the book for me; I felt cheated, and didn’t understand why Angron was even mentioned if nothing was going to come of the situation. Also, I’m supposed to just accept that the Lord of the Red Sands would just walk away from such a potential fight? The entire scene sort of felt like the bit from Superman 2, when he threw the plastic “S” at his opponent…

In the end, Vulkan Lives is worth reading for continuing the story of the Heresy. It raises some good points about the nature of the Primarchs and how they will exist once the war is over, but it fails to completely deliver on any of the concepts. The combat is mediocre at best, and skip-able in many instances. Still, Nick Kyme has improved drastically over his previous work, and I look forward to more in the future.