Nemesis - 40K HH (Spoilers)

[Lost Soal]

Nemesis is the latest in the Horus Heresy series set two years after the Istvaan massacres. The plot focuses on the efforts of the Officio Assassinorum to assassinate Horus, and so far every lone effort has failed. Because of this it has been decided to form an Execution Force consisting of one assassin from each of the six Clades; (early temple names) Vindicare, Callidus, Eversor, Culexus, Venenum & Vanus.

Meanwhile on the other side Erebus, having stopped the latest attempt within sight of Horus' tent decides that whatever tactics can be used against them can also be used by them, so resolves to send his own Assassin after The Emperor

I really liked this book and its definitely James Swallows best work so far, at least that I've read. All the characters are distinct and he even manages to make the Eversor more than just a one note “must kill”, (due to an accident at the cryo facility where he was being stored all the staff wind up dead and he is awake without any programming to control and direct him).

Of course there is also a list of gripes, most minor but some really not. We get minor technical issues which, to me at least, show that James only has a partial view of the universe and his research is sloppy/limited. He has the Eversor's explosive meltdown caused by another organ which makes all the chemicals in his body react, when they all ready react explosively and its only his living systems which prevent it happening. Like I said, minor technical issue which just bugged me.
Next is the PDF troopers. The Emperors Children were the only Legion granted the honour of wearing the Aquilla on their chests, and yet PDF troops have it on their uniforms. Am I missing something here?
The assassins are nice and lethal against ordinary troops, but against the Astartes they seem to have a lot of trouble killing them.
Finally, we have Erebus's assassin, Spear. Spear was an experiment by the Culexus to create a Pariah which can reflect a beings psionic force back at them without the use of the Animus speculum, once it gets a taste of its genetic material. Further more Erebus has bonded it with a layer of demonic skin. The master of the Culexus ordered the project terminated and to kill Spear, which they were to do by flying the Black Ship into a star. Because apparently a bullet to the brain and a melta gun just won't cut it. Naturally Erebus attacked the ship on route and found Spear.

Why the hell did he have to devise such an idiotic method of getting rid of it. It would have have been so much simpler and better if they hadn't decided to kill it, at least then there would be a reason for it being alive.

Anyone else got an opinion to add?

[Imperial Overlord]

Finally, we have Erebus's assassin, Spear. Spear was an experiment by the Culexus to create a Pariah which can reflect a beings psionic force back at them without the use of the Animus speculum, once it gets a taste of its genetic material. Further more Erebus has bonded it with a layer of demonic skin.

This bit, right here. WTF? How is a mobile zone of warp disruption going to get a stable graft of warp material?

[Bob the Gunslinger]

lso, isn't Spear called a "Dark Pariah"? That's the kind of head-slappingly lame name I'd expect from Starcraft fanfiction.

[Ford Prefect]

The hell does a Vanus assassin do?

[Imperial Overlord]

The hell does a Vanus assassin do?

Intelligence gathering and manipulation. Their ideal kill is to trick someone else into taking out the target.

[white_rabbit]

The Vanus guys are essentially a cyber-warfare temple. Its implied, and outright stated I suppose, that they rarely go into the field like other assassins, operating remotely via telepresence and through data networks is more their thing.

They do seem to have a field kit though, the guy in Nemesis has some sort of EM disruptor, and uses swarms of drone bugs networked together, and UAV's in the form of psyber-birds and rats. Basically an elaboration on the simple "sabotage" role we knew about previously.

The "dark pariah" bound to a daemon was interesting, if a little counter intuitive.

Lots of interesting bits, acceleration to 0.25c in "moments" for the assassins ship, the firepower of the marine ships etc.

I have to say, the Eversor was my fav of the assassin characters.

[andrewgpaul]

The Emperors Children were the only Legion granted the honour of wearing the Aquilla on their chests, and yet PDF troops have it on their uniforms. Am I missing something here?

By this point it's a couple of years after Isstvan. Perhaps the Emperor's order restricting the Aquila to Fulgrim's Legion has been rescinded?

[Juubi Karakuchi]

I found the part about the Eversor Temple recruiting psychotic child killers to be darkly amusing, but strangely fitting.

[andrewgpaul]

I wouldn't have thought there'd be any left, not after the Marines have recruited them all.

[IvanTih]

I wouldn't have thought there'd be any left, not after the Marines have recruited them all.

Actually Space Marines were recruting 18 year old adults and children(I think so) pre-heresy and Black Templars continiue to do this practice.

[Kuja]

NECRO

I just finished Nemesis a couple days ago. It's a fun book, but one that's riddled with problems.

[Spoilers ahead]


Spear's part of the story takes way too long to get interesting. Up until the moment he's on the rogue trader ship, it's largely a cycle of people going "I solved the myst-*die*" and a bunch of politics we're not really obligated to care about. It really slowed the novel down.

I didn't buy Soalm's character. Yes, I get that she's supposed to be a reluctant and bitter person, and that she and Kell have history, but these people are supposed to be Imperial Assassins. The coldest of the cold. It's ironic, but she actually acted too human for me to identify with her.

I thought Spear was a bit overdone. Much like Yahtzee's line regarding "pulling hitherto-unknown superpowers out of their arse" I thought he seemed a little too overhyped, and seemed to keep catching lucky breaks as the story went on. However, he did come across as a guy with a chance in hell at offing the Emperor, so I guess he worked more than he didn't.

The Eversor and Vanus characters were my favorites of the book. They don't get much byplay together, specifically, but what they did have was fun. It was interesting to finally be filled in on what the Vanus temple does and how they work, and the idea of a hypertech-datamanip sort of assassin was one I found to be done quite well.

Erebus gets verbally brick walled by Maloghurst and then, later, gets toyed with by Horus himself. Always fun to see the pompous oaf taken down a notch or two, something that's made the series consistently a bit more enjoyable when we get to see it.

We learn the fate of one more Heresy-era captain - Luc Sedirae, shot in the back of the head while taking Horus' place at a ceremony.

Nemesis isn't a bad book, but one of its biggest achilles heels is how it tries to sell itself: a bunch of assassins fly off to try and take down Horus. Except of course, we know how that's going to end: they're going to fail and Horus is going to go on to Terra. The book does try to keep things interesting with various colorful characters and descriptions, and it eventually sidelines things when the kill team crosses paths with Spear, but it takes way too long to get going, and for much of the book there's just not much tension being built. The last third gives it a good try and salvages a great deal, but the early parts of the book are, well, a bit boring.

5/10