"Corax: Soulforge" by Gav Thorpe

Gav introduced the Raven Guard to the mainline Heresy series with his novel ‘Deliverance Lost’. That book was divisive; perhaps realising that demand for a sequel might not be universal, Black Library elected to make Gav’s follow-up a limited edition novella, released in 2013, then given a non-limited reprint this year.

With this and 'Tallarn: Executioner', for a while there it seemed like the Heresy novellas might fall under a dumb new naming system which over-abused colons (pause). I was looking forward to 'Fulgrim: Judgement Day' and 'Angron: 2 Swole 2 Furious' but then the colon-free 'Ravenlord' ruined everything.

It was kind of predictable that ‘Corax: Soulforge’ would be ill-received. Unlike with Nick Kyme’s ‘Scorched Earth’ (and Gav’s ‘Deliverance Lost’, for that matter), I actually kind of agree with the poor reception ‘Soulforge’ got. I’m a big fan of Gav’s full length Raven Guard novel (some would say an apologist) and when that book ended, I was eager to see what Corax and the proud remnants of his Legion got up to next. As it turns out, the answer is… not fuckin’ much.

After the fall of the Perfect Fortress on Narsis at the end of ‘Deliverance Lost’, Corax was resolved to tackle the Word Bearers at Khalgorst. It’s clear that some time has passed since then; some of the Raven Guard make brief mention of what’s happened in the intervening time, but it’s not really gone into in detail. Seems Gav isn’t willing to pander to the fans like me who get a weirdly intense joy from cataloguing exactly where stories fit in the ‘timeline’ – and that’s fair enough. Hitting a Word Bearers vessel, Corax and his troops capture the Navigator, who hates the Seventeenth Legion as much as the Raven Guard do. She advises them of a rebel Forge World the Word Bearers are ‘grooming’ for a hostile takeover. With some of his forces diverted to fight Emperor’s Children (a fight which isn’t shown here), Corax and a minor infiltration force must appeal to the Mechanicum forces on Constanix – forces whose allegiance is unknown – and hope to deny the sons of Lorgar their prize.

‘Soulforge’ starts enjoyably; the Raven Guard boarding action is a gripping, nasty sequence with some visceral combat writing. It’s also interesting to see Agapito continuing to struggle with the limitless anger that’s dogged him since Isstvan. He’s still consumed by his hate for the traitors, and it’s starting to make him reckless – sometimes he seems to revel in the fact that the Raven Guard who weren’t at Isstvan can never truly bond with him again. Meanwhile, as Branne grows apart from his comrade, he becomes more comfortable with his role as leader of the Raptors. Speaking of the Raptors, Navar Hef and the ‘mutant’ Raven Guard initiates are still on combat duty, and their presence makes some Raven Guard uncomfortable – I’m really interested to see how this subplot plays out, especially towards the Heresy’s conclusion. The glimpse of the corruption and change wrought on the Word Bearers’ mortal crew is also nicely handled.

Following its strong opening, however, it’s a slow downward spiral for ‘Soulforge’. That’s not apparent right away: while Corax’s stealth insertion to Atlas (a floating forge-city on Constanix) isn’t too interesting, his uneasy confrontation with several machine-priests of uncertain loyalty to the Imperium is a tense and engaging scene. We see the worth of Corax as an ambassador, both in his ability to be diplomatic and also his capacity to inspire sheer terror. We also get some nice glimpses into Corax’s mind – his musings on his past and present are telling, though they aren’t really anything new for someone who’s read ‘Deliverance Lost’. The battle to retake Atlas also begins promisingly, as Agapito and Corax power through brisk but slightly bland fight sequences. For those who complained that ‘Deliverance Lost’ held too few moments of Raven Guard FIGHTAN, this is your chance to see how the sons of Corax fight… though this ‘attack, feign retreat, then attack again’ style has certainly been written about better elsewhere. Even the ‘stealth Titan’ moment (yes, you heard me) is endearingly silly, but it marks the point at which the account starts really going downhill.

One thing I quite enjoyed about ‘Deliverance Lost’ was the lack of combat. That tense Alpha Legion confrontation and the Perfect Fortress battle are really the only fights in that book, the focus instead being on the effects of the Heresy on the Legion’s state of mind and the subterfuge of the Alpha Legion. ‘Corax: Soulforge’ actually has a similar format in that the real action doesn’t start until the end. However, due to poor pacing, ‘the end’ is actually half the book. I’m not just being facetious, the last fifty pages or so drag so horrendously that it feels like the book is constantly just grinding to a close. I damn near fell asleep reading these combat scenes. They are just a series of mostly unnamed Raven Guard easily defeating a bunch of lame skitarii and other Mechanicum goons, with the slightly tougher Word Bearers coming in at the end. And then you get a couple ‘final bosses’. It’s kind of videogamey, a bit like those first two Dark Angels books – or, for that matter, ‘Promethean Sun’. There were several occasions where I got to the end of a page, turned it, then realised nothing I read had made any impression and I had to read it all again. I’d rub my eyes, get up, walk around the room, wonder to myself “Am I too tired to do this now?” and “What am I going to write about this book?” and frequently “What the fuck am I doing with my life?” - but then I’d read a few pages of, say ‘A Dance With Dragons’ or ‘Harlot’s Ghost’ and nope, it wasn’t that I was too tired – it was that when I was reading ‘Soulforge’, I was reading boring writing.

If the focus is going to be on (shitty) battle scenes, I kind of wish Gav had pulled his pretty good Raven Guard ensemble cast into it and given each one a little bit of development. Instead, we get ‘Tom Clancy: Rainbow Raven’ (don’t do fan art of that, you sickos). Gav gives us dry, boring fights, and to Legion culture he only adds an ill-executed attempt to give the sons of Corax a ‘special forces’ makeover. (Corax is wearing black camo on his face! BUT… FUCKIN’… HE CAN TURN HIMSELF INVISIBLE! FURTHERMORE, HE IS FIGHTING MECHANICUM DUDES WHO CAN PROBABLY SEE IN THE DARK! WHY WOULD HE BOTHER?!?)

As a Corax book, I’d regretfully call this a failure since I don’t believe it expands on the Primarch usefully or convincingly. But as a Raven Guard book… I’d also call it a failure, since it does very little to deepen the character of the Legion or add new blood to its shrinking Heresy-era cast. This does see the introduction of the Legionary Soukhounou, though he does very little apart from remind us that Terran Raven Guard are still a thing, and will probably form the basis of a Successor Chapter when the Heresy series finishes. Navar Hef’s barely present and the ‘affliction’ of the Raptors is hardly mentioned. Valerius doesn’t factor into the story, Branne has almost nothing to do here, and Noriz, the Imperial Fist who was helping Corax in ‘Deliverance Lost’, is mysteriously absent. The tech-priests are pretty unmemorable characters (all I can remember is that one speaks… very slowly… with laboured pauses… and ellipses… signifying his heavy breathing… Basically, he’s an augmented version of Stevie from ‘Malcolm in the Middle’). Worse, as Branne, Hef and Valerius fight a completely different war in a separate system, the primary cast essentially shrinks to Corax and Agapito as soon as the first chapter ends. Agapito’s nu-metal angst gets tiresome quickly, and Corax… well, I still think he was fun to read in ‘Deliverance Lost’, but here, he just switches between either moping or easily murdering hundreds of dudes, and (on one plot-dictated occasion) kind of losing in a fight for a little bit before the camera zooms in on his eyes and he snarls “B-Baka…”

So, this was a Limited Edition novella – BL have always tried to be a little innovative with the presentation of these things (maybe not £30 innovative, but still). With its smooth black-on-black cover, the Limited Edition of ‘Soulforge’ looks amazing – really amazing. Unfortunately, the cover is, like, matt black or something. If you like to take off the dust jackets to read them, like I do, your novella’s cover will be irreparably stained with fingerprints within seconds. Even if you wipe it down, it’ll never be the same. It also shows up evidence of either tiny scuffs or a sprinkling of dust like a motherfucker. Maybe I just have inhumanly sweaty fingers, but I don’t think I’m entirely to blame. All of the LE novellas are a bit like this, but ‘Soulforge’ is without doubt the worst-looking I own at this point. I’d like less of this, and more covers like ‘Scorched Earth’ or ‘Tallarn: Executioner’ if possible, please. It does look really cool at first, though. I also applaud the innovation they showed in printing a Quick Read-length story on the inside of the dust jacket (‘The Shadowmasters’, now available as an MP3). That’s that stealth shit. It makes up for the LE edition’s colour insert being mostly useless, though that John Blanche Corax concept sketch is ILL. In conclusion – even collectors shouldn’t feel bad if they missed the first printing of ‘Soulforge’; the ‘vanilla’ Black Library unlimited novella is far better value for money.

There are scenes of worth to be found in ‘Soulforge’ beyond its strong opening pages. The lengthy scene where Corax briefs Agapito for the battle ahead gives a few opportunities to develop these important characters. (On the other hand, it feels like a bit of a space-filler, considering it’s positioned right before the actual battle, and we frankly know the stakes are not too high for Corax.) Possibly influenced by the howling of internet gibbons whenever a Primarch does something weird or inscrutable, Gav ensures that Corax begins to inform his troops of the insidious nature of Chaos and its links to the warp – information which has been hinted at but never confirmed for them. Surely his rejection of Nikea can’t be far away. And learning a little of Corax’s relationship with Guilliman is a nice bone to be thrown. My end judgement, though, is that this is a less charming ‘Promethean Sun’ – it’d read nicely as anthology filler, and may be embraced by people who are desperate to read every scrap of writing about Raven Guard or Dark Mechanicum characters, but pay £30 (or even £15) for it and you may find it hard not to be disappointed. I’m glad that only a few of the Heresy novellas have been a let-down for me, but this is definitely one of them. 5/10

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