‘Dark Creed’ – Anthony Reynolds (Black Library)

 

Page Count: 240 Pages (As per the ‘Word Bearers Omnibus Edition)

For ‘Dark Apostle’ and ‘Dark Disciple’, I showed off the original cover art but with ‘Dark Creed’, I thought I’d go with the omnibus cover art because, well… Look at it :o)

I’m assuming that’s Marduk on the cover but either way, have you ever seen a spikier Traitor Astartes? Nope, me neither. And it looks like Pinhead the Cenobite very kindly allowed our Word Bearer to pinch a few hooks and chains, just to round off the affect. That was nice of him :o)

I’ve always liked the way that Warhammer 40K can be completely over the top and take itself seriously, all at the same time, and that’s exactly what we have here. But, anyway…

I’ve been in and out of this trilogy, over the last few weeks, and last night felt like the right moment to finally finish it off. Let me tell you about it… :o)

Dark Apostle Marduk faces challenges from within his own Legion as he wages war with the White Consuls. Harnessing the power of the Nexus Arrangement, a powerful Necron device, Marduk can turn the tide in the Word Bearer's favour. But just as the White Consuls are on the verge of defeat, an old enemy returns to throw the entire dark crusade into ruin. If Marduk is to survive and fulfil his ambition, he must defy an onslaught from the Necrons, White Consuls and his own Legion.

A quick word of advice for anyone thinking of picking up ‘Dark Creed’, well… two actually :o)

If you haven’t already read ‘Dark Apostle’ and ‘Dark Disciple’, make sure you do before you read ‘Dark Creed’. This book is the ‘concluding book of the trilogy’ for a reason ;o)

More importantly though, don’t do what I did and leave gaps in between picking ‘Dark Creed’ up. The reason the Word Bearers will ultimately fail is because they’re so treacherous that they’re too busy plotting against each other to get anything useful done. That’s very much the case here and because I’ve been looking for work etc, I struggled to keep up with just who was betraying whom. That’ll teach me not to read ‘Dark Creed’ in one sitting.

These aren’t necessarily weaknesses in the book though, more like weaknesses in my current reading habits ;o)

‘Dark Creed’ is a more than fitting conclusion to the ‘Word Bearers’ trilogy, rounding things off in the best traditions of Warhammer 40K fiction. You know what I mean… A lot of stuff happens and there is a definite ending to the immediate series. On a wider scale though, nothing changes at all and that’s the whole point of the setting. Eternal warfare with no clear winner, at least not until the Tyranids arrive in enough force to scour the galaxy clean.

But back to the Word Bearers… Reynolds takes the loose threads, from the first two books, and pulls them all together into a coherent ending; no small feat given all the machinations going on, right in the middle of a planetary assault. Marduk is an utter bastard but when you see what is set against him, you can’t help but cheer him on (just a little) and again, it’s no small feat of Reynolds to do that with a character so vile. Everything concludes just as it should but it doesn’t feel contrived, just a natural progression of events.

And while it was difficult to wrap my head around the intrigue, I’d say that Reynolds does a great job of showing us a Legion seemingly united in purpose but ultimately falling foul of that purpose and turning on itself. Again, really capturing that feel of ‘the more things change, the more they stay the same’. And there was still room for a couple of surprises, right at the end.

All of this is wrapped up in Reynolds' tried and tested approach of throwing everything at Marduk’s warband and seeing what happens next. The results are inevitably explosive, in the best traditions of Warhammer 40K warfare, and Reynolds demonstrates a fine line in letting you get behind certain characters, before killing them off just when you don’t expect it. The war for Boros Prime was a lot of fun to read, just like watching it play out on the big screen.

‘Dark Creed’ wasn’t a perfect read (and I’ll take some responsibility for that) but it did a fine job of rounding things off and while it’s unlikely that we’ll hear any more of Marduk (it has been a while since this trilogy was first published), this re-read has me holding out a faint hope that I’m wrong.

Give the books a read if you come across them ;o)