Valdor: Birth of the Imperium (Horus Heresy)

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The Himalayan mountains are nowhere near humanity's oldest remnants as we understand them today, so there has been a significant change in the anthropological and archaeological understanding of our history over 28 millennia. Naturally. The Primarch Project had been underway for some time, and significant resources have been devoted to its completion, but Valdor is still arguing against its primacy, if not for outright abandonment. Pre-Crusade: Valdor stands “alone” in front of an Army (including some of the last Thunder Warriors) bent on overthrowing the nascent Imperium in Terra. Now down to the actual book itself. Do not think this book will be filled with epic lore filled conversations between the big 3. Both the sigilite and the emperor make some tantalising yet all too brief appearances, their conversations with our man are very interesting but this book is about Valdor and his legion. My guess is that the author didn't want anything to over shadow our main protagonist, so this is very much a story of Valdor and an insight into his and the early custodians own role in the creation of the empire, and to that the book does it very well indeed. For me, this is a quality novel considering the setting; the Horus Heresy is rather bloated with filler novels to an extent, so it's refreshing to read one that is focused, well-paced, and intriguing. I do have a few gripes with the novel, but they are minor considering how deftly written this novel is, although it is rather short.

Next, Valdor all but states outright that the instability of Cataegis biology has stripped them of their dignity, reinforcing his subtler implications of the same in the previous interview. It's almost as if he is trying to find a moral justification for their eradication. I think we can all agree there is nothing in Terra that could harm Constantin Valdor or even most Custodes short of the Emperor himself or Malcador. However, somehow Chris Wraight manages to create tension and suspense, not only a small taste of suspense, but quite a healthy amount. It was hard to put the book down. I managed to read it in a day(7 or so hours total) and I was not bored for a second. I wanted more and more and more.Constantin Valdor. It is a name that brings forth images of heroism, honour and peerless duty. For it is he who commands the will of the Legio Custodes that most esteemed and dedicated cadre of elite warriors. He is the Emperor’s sword, His shield, His banner and he knows no equal. Clad in shining auramite, his fist clenched around the haft of his Guardian Spear, he is the bulwark against all enemies of the throne, within or without. [2]

The Emperor also has a weird relationship with Valdor, and while it's never explained in depth and just kinda brushed over, it's stated the Emperor moved whole armies and expended insane amounts of resources to get to Valdor.But there’s more – unlike previous series, this collection can be used in games of Kill Team as a unique faction. Each miniature comes with its own Kill Team datacard containing their full rules and a ploy for the team to use, so all you need is any six of the seven operatives to start playing.

With a small cast, and a short length, Chris manages to create enough scenes and moments to make the main outline of the story stay long enough, while still sustaining it in an entertaining way and developing the characters.En route to the Tower of the Hegemon, Kandawire reflects on her youth growing up in the Banda Confederacy in the extreme southeastern corner of Afrik, where her family was "relatively wealthy," affording guards to patrol their home and "a degree of regularity in food supply." Explore the history of one of the most well known heroes of the Imperium in this awesome new novel from Chris Wraight. Although rather short we are given some of the details on Valdor himself (although in very very tiny bits, ah those teasers), some scraps of information on what did actually happen at Mount Ararat (battle on Maulland Sen) and how did the Emperor progress with further genetic experiments that resulted in the creation of Space Marines.

Obviously there are plenty of summary posts on this novel already, but most were missing many of the things I found most interesting. Summary below, covering the first three chapters (roughly a quarter) of the book. The headers denote who the POV for each section of the novel is (one per chapter thus far, but later there are chapters split into more than one POV). I have bolded little tidbits that I found particularly interesting. The Primarchs were already in the process of creation near the end of the Unity War, and both Valdor and Malcador think they're dead. Near the end it is discovered that the Emperor has "felt" their presence within the ether, possibly due to their coming of age. This causes extreme concern amongst Valdor, as it is his view that, if they're still alive they too will be tainted by the "enemy" and will eventually have similar issues that the Thunder Warrior had (and by proxy, so will their gene sons)!Valdor thinks they should be destroyed if they're in fact still alive.

The Emperor has vestiges of humanity left within him that even Valdor and Malcador are concerned by, and it's confirmed that He personally refers to the primarchs as "his sons." What's odd though is Valdor comments on this as if he knows the Emperor is either becoming, or is, something more than human at this point, and says "Then his human sentiments... are still ebbing?" when Malcador tells him. Constantin Valdor is the chief of the Emperor's Custodian Guard and is among the closest of His companions. As the wars of Unity come to their end, Constantin faces his greatest challenge, as dark deeds are required to pave Mankind's road to the stars. Even for one such as Valdor, events touched by Chaos have a profoundly unsettling effect. This is not the first time he has expressed such sentiment, as in his last interview with Kandawire, his description of the Maulland Sen campaign felt much the same. Constantin Valdor. It is a name that brings forth images of heroism, honour and peerless duty. For it is he who commands the will of the Legio Custodes that most esteemed and dedicated cadre of elite warriors. He is the Emperor’s sword, His shield, His banner and he knows no equal. Clad in shining auramite, his fist Valdor, when Malcador tells him the Chaos gods like "games" begins to think to himself that there is a lesson in this... He visits one of the wounded custodians who were blown up trying to stop Astarte, and basically says real-world threats serve a purpose, and this is how the original Blood Games come to be.