‘Echoes of Eternity’ – Aaron Dembsbki-Bowden (Black Library)

Page Count: 507 Pages.

At this point, I have absolutely given up even trying to read the ‘Horus Heresy’ and ‘Siege of Terra’ books in any kind of order. And I know that I really should have done but sometimes you just have to say ‘the hell with it’ and read whatever takes your fancy first, otherwise you’d never read anything at all. And that may well be my ‘Reading Resolution’ for the rest of the year but, anyway…

So lets not worry too much about what has come before, if only because I may not have read it just yet ;o) Instead, let us skip to the final stages of the Siege of Terra where hope has almost disappeared… but not quite.

The walls have fallen. The defenders’ unity is broken. The Inner Palace lies in ruins. The Warmaster’s horde advances through the fire and ash of Terra’s dying breaths, forcing the loyalists back to the Delphic Battlement, the very walls of the Sanctum Imperialis. Angron, Herald of Horus, has achieved immortality through annihilation – now he leads the armies of the damned in a wrathful tide, destroying all before them as the warp begins its poisonous corruption of Terra. For the Emperor’s beleaguered forces, the end has come. The Khan lies on the edge of death. Rogal Dorn is encircled, fighting his own war at Bhab Bastion. Guilliman will not reach Terra in time. Without his brothers, Sanguinius – the Angel of the Ninth Legion – waits on the final battlements, hoping to rally a desperate band of defenders and refugees for one last stand.

If you’re a regular reader of this blog (or have read my old blog, way back in the day) you’ll know that as far as I’m concerned, Aaron Dembski-Bowden sits very comfortably in the top tier of Black Library writers. You didn’t need me to tell you that though, if you’ve read any of his books then you already agree with me ;o) It’s no surprise then that Dembski-Bowden brings all of that top-tier ability to bear on ‘Echoes of Eternity’ and the result is just as you’d expect, absolutely superb. Yes, I should have at least read ‘Mortis’ first but I enjoyed ‘Echoes of Eternity’ so much that I really don’t care (and it prompted me to finally pick ‘Mortis’ up anyway…)

I love just how much command Dembski-Bowden has over his plot. There may well be a cast of thousands but Dembski-Bowden makes them wait for their turn, choosing to open with a brutal summation of not only what the Siege has done to the Imperial Palace but on a far wider scale, to the planet itself. Dembksi-Bowden leaves his readers in no doubt that we are in the end stages now and that quite frankly, Horus will be lucky if there’s anything left to rule over once his armies are done. Hidden games are only just concluding and the Chaos gods are preparing to sweep the board.
Once that is all laid out for us, then the plot is allowed to begin. Like I said, Dembski-Bowden is in charge here and it really shows to positive effect.

Warfare can be epic in scale and Demsbki-Bowden really brings that feeling to the fore, both in what the Siege has done to the planet and in terms of the sheer scale of the fighting itself. What I really got a lot out of though is how Dembski-Bowden really gets that even the siege of an entire planet is still made up of thousands (millions maybe) of much smaller battles and these are just as important. They may not make any difference to the Siege as a whole (and sometimes, that’s the whole point) but they can make a hell of a difference to the people fighting, whether they win or lose. Dembski-Bowden really strikes a fine balance here, capturing those sweeping movements but really getting you into the individual battles that make them up. And then, just when you think you’ve got the hang of the edd and flow, Dembski-Bowden switches it up a little, giving you a one on one battle but making it as epic in scale as whole armies clashing. Yep, when Primarch fights Primarch, it’s well worth the price of entry. ‘Vulkan versus Magnus’ could have got repetitive very quickly but Dembski-Bowden really makes use of Vulkan’s… erm… resilience to gradually, yet inevitably, grind Magnus down. And ‘Sanguinius versus Angron’ is just superb with Sanguinius really looking like he is using the knowledge of his own incoming death to say that it’s not time just yet so he’s got a little time left to be awesome. And he really is.

You wouldn’t have thought that Dembski-Bowden would have time left for anything else but he still manages to make time to conclude his exploration of the downfall of the World Eaters. They may have torn the planet up but even then, I still felt sorry for what they had become and to feel that in the heart of carnage that they have caused… That’s just amazing writing.

‘Echoes of Eternity’ is nothing short of superb then and it has me all excited for whatever comes next. I must be the last person to have read it but if by some chance you haven’t, you really should.