‘Legion’ – Dan Abnett (Black Library)

This weekend has somehow become all about the Black Library and the war torn planets of the forty-first millennium… As you’ve probably guessed, these last couple of weeks has been about my reading stuff that I know I’ll enjoy rather than checking out stuff that I wouldn’t normally try. To be honest, there’s been so much other stuff going on (what with one thing and another) that I’ve been after comfort reading rather than anything else. That’s going to change over the next couple of weeks but in the meantime…

My reading of the Black Library’s ‘Horus Heresy’ series has kind of been in fits and starts over the last couple of years; my fault really as I haven’t even tried to read them in order and have read loads of other books in between. Luckily they stand on their own fairly well so there hasn’t been too much trouble keeping the overall story in my head. In short, civil war divides humanity and the galaxy burns…
I’m a big fan of anything by Dan Abnett, particularly in the Warhammer 40K setting, so when I realised that ‘Legion’ was lurking in the ‘to read’ pile I didn’t have too much trouble deciding what to read next. As it turned out, ‘Legion’ was a little disappointing…

Of all the Legions of the Adeptus Astartes (Space Marines to the likes of you and I), the Alpha Legion has always been the most secretive. The Imperial Army requires their aid on a heathen world resisting compliance with uncanny powers that thwart the military push. Is that the reason why the Alpha Legion has arrived however? A third party lurks behind the scenes and seeks to use the legion for it’s own ends. Which side will the Alpha Legion choose once the Great War begins, and why…?

Dan Abnett is the man that every Warhammer 40K fan invariably turns to if they’re after top-notch military sci-fi. Quite simply put, no one does it better than him (at least, not as far as I’m concerned). ‘Legion’ sees him pull more of the same out of his hat and it’s as good as ever.

Abnett has the happy knack of being able to paint a broad picture that balances out the great ebb and flow of warfare at the same time as getting inside the head of the common trooper who’s been stuck in a foxhole under fire for days on end. He’s got the terminology to back it up and the end result is without fail a great slice of military sci-fi.
This is very much the case with ‘Legion’ as far as Abnett’s recounting of the campaign on Nurth. Abnett gives us a compelling tale of an army that expects to win through its superior technology but somehow finds itself on the back foot and doesn’t know why. The howling deserts are skilfully rendered as an enemy hiding thousands more enemies and there is always the hint of dark magic being used in the background. Sometimes this magic is more than just a hint and the action explodes on the page…

Abnett gives us an inside look at an Imperial command structure flailing at shadows and the men who are left to pick up the pieces as a result. Characters such as Soneka and Bronzi carry the story superbly in this latter regard. They are the characters on the front line and it is their experiences that truly define the shape of the war on Nurth, a war where nothing is as it seems and no one can really be trusted.

And this is where the Alpha Legion come in, a legion that holds steadfast to the Emperor’s cause but whose stealthy methods leave them open to mistrust from their allies. Abnett’s depiction of the Alpha Legion was where this book fell down for me.

For me, the Alpha Legion was so secretive that not only did I have no idea what they were about but I couldn’t see the chain of events that led to the ultimate conclusion. The way I saw things, it felt like the conclusion just happened and the Alpha Legion were on hand to say, “Ha! Things have happened just as we intended them to…” I couldn’t see how the plot pieced these two things together.

I was left wondering if perhaps Abnett had done a little too well in his portrayal of the secretive Alpha Legion as masters of espionage and deceit. While Abnett was certainly bang on the money in terms of atmosphere it felt like there was little of substance within this atmosphere to back things up. Things were a little too vague and this vagueness robbed the climax of the power that it was meant to have. If you’re a fan then you will already know which way the Alpha Legion turned and the ending needed that added intensity to burn through the foregone conclusion. That didn’t happen here.

‘Legion’ is a tale of two halves that didn’t quite match up for me. Abnett’s portrayal of war is as gritty and dark as ever, well worth sticking around for. The elements of espionage underpinning the war effort though were so vague as to be almost confusing and this made the book more of a chore to read than I would have expected from Abnett. This won’t stop me from reading more of his books but I didn’t see myself being quite so disappointed, when I started reading, as I was at the end…

Seven out of Ten