Vulkan Lives (26) (Horus Heresy)

Vulkan Lives has many negative reviews. Most are at the approach of how the Black Library is choosing to cut apart the Heresy of which can be seen & felt in many books, & of course impacts this one as well. Mainly, only bits & pieces are given & along with a totally fragmented time line, there are many loose ends, cliff hangers & mysteries which carry over to another book at another time, perhaps even an audio drama or a Black Library exclusive which you'll have to fork over $50 or more. I agree with many of the negative comments from the fans, because, books series survive only through their fans, & so these complaints should be listened to. However, these complaints didn't come to mind while I was reading Nick Kyme's Vulkan Lives. It didn't disappoint me. I purchased this book after reading the bad reviews & so didn't go in with much hope, but I had read the Salamanders omnibus and was interested in their primarch. Promethean Sun was another book which put Vulcan at center stage, but I have to say, that story didn't feel worthy of being novella and Vulcan deserving. I'm not the biggest Kyme fan, and although, like another reader stated, switching from first to third person was very noticeable, unlike him, I really enjoyed it. Although the primarchs are idolized by their sons & the Imperium, it does turn out they are much more screwed up than pretty much everyone else. This book had awesome characters, yeah I do feel the Iron Hands could have been developed more & the Black Library seems to kill off all of the good ones & leave those you don't like alive. I would have loved to have read about the small group of Istvaan V survivors in another book, so like usual, I wold have preferred a different ending, I think the perfect example is the ending for The Outcast Dead, love the small group of Space Marines who actually had their own personality but were killed off. This book had a lot of emotion, which I think fit perfectly with the Salamanders, & the new insight on Vulkan just threw him up there as my favorite primarch next to Perturabo. He has his father's strength & immortality, which can really open this up as a return of primarchs to new 40K settings, how awesome would that be, maybe Vulkan can bring back his 2 expunged brothers, jeez, I would love to read something like that. Things I didn't like: John Grammaticus is a horrible character whom was especially whiny in this book; the Cabal is a very bad ploy to keep any type of decent plot going, Cabal has to be the worst thing in this series. Overall, this was a very good read with a ton of description & discovery on the immortal Vulkan. This book deserves at least an average 4 star rating, come on peeps, push those ratings up.

Given the title that should be obvious, but (SPOILER alert) the plot is split across 2 physical locations: Vulkan's prison and a world the Bearers of the Word are doing Chaos Things on. John Grammaticus is also there, and given what happened in 'Legion' his presence is automatically extremely suspicious. ...also IMHO JG the most likeable in 'Legion,' he's been showing up WAY too often in the other books, is definitely underprepared for his mission here, and I wanted to smack him for some of his decisions. But I digress. The part of the plot following the Istvan V survivors trying to stop the Chaos cultists was...ok. It served its purpose, and it showed how very much on the back foot their legions were, especially the Salamanders. And yet they refuse to give up. Which brings us to Vulkan, and the part of the story I kept wanting to skip ahead to. Konrad Curze spends the entire book trying to break Vulkan, and escalates the sadism as Vulkan proves to be far more resilient than he knew, both physically and emotionally. Curze finds out pretty quickly that he literally can't kill his brother, so as time wears on he puts most of his efforts into breaking his mind. He gets close, but nope. The whole thing is a character examination of both Curze and Vulkan, and it's both harrowing and fascinating. (I'm not annoyed at Vulkan being a Perpetual, mostly because the Emperor is ALSO a Perpetual, and it follows that at least one of his sons would end up with the Perpetual gene. It also really sucks for him in this circumstance, and on a meta level because emotionally speaking he seems to be the most 'human' of the Primarchs.) Also, I get why Vulkan didn't kill Curze. In 40k madness is a very physical thing (hi there, Chaos), and every time Vulkan's monologue mentioned the call of the abyss it was (IMHO) a red flag that the consequences would be Very Bad if he went over the edge. So there was a bit more at stake there than a moral victory. I doubt that Vulkan would hesitate in a 'normal' duel, and nothing about this was normal. 4/5, for the Vulkan and Curze character stuff. The rest of the book was ok, but IMHO the real heart is in the Vulkan chapters.

The storytelling is wonderful! It really pulls at your heartstrings. The story of Vulkans imprisonment makes it worth the read

Overall I did enjoy Vulkan Lives, however, it was a pretty slow start coupled with a timeline that was not linear. It jumps around quite frequently and takes time to remember each character and where they are in the timeline of events. That being said, I will get to the meat and potatoes of my review. I enjoyed most of the character developments concerning Vulkan, since he is considered the "most human" primarch he felt some very real emotions throughout his ordeal at the hands of the NIght Haunter. (!!!!SA!!!!) At the end, though, he has the opportunity to end the threat of Curze and spare the Lion some trouble. Needless to say, his humanity gets in the way and Vulkan allows Curze to escape!!! (!!!!SA!!!!!) I also felt that Vulkan's secret was a bit too convenient and not very well thought out. Ultimately, after much torture and many attempts to kill him, you find out that Vulkan is immortal, blah. John Grammaticus makes another appearance on behalf of the Cabal. At first his role in all of this is not clear at all, his agenda is very secretive and you won't find out until the last couple pages what his true goal is. Let me tell you, this part will make your head spin!!! Konrad Curze, to me, is a terrifying prospect and he is a well represented character in this book. He is portrayed as the demigod who represents the Emperor's flaws (if he has any) and more than that he is fear and death incarnate. Even amongst the traitor legions he and his Astartes are wildcards with no true allegiance. The dropsite survivors in Vulkan Lives are misguided and broken, they are ragged and a danger to themselves. I have to say that I enjoyed Angel Terminatus's survivors better. They had heros you wanted to root for not dead men in space marine armour. The Word Bearers seem to be a constant in the Heresy universe with hardly a story without them being represented. However, they continue to soil the universe with the taint of Chaos in the latest installment. No really huge surprises on this front, you will get to see the relationship between Erebus and his dark disciple unfold a little. All in all, a good read. Get past the first half of the book and things will start to unfold faster and there is a good twist ending.

The dialogue between Vulkan and Konrad is epic. The shattered legionaries are fantastic. Overall, a lot of important info in this book.

I didn’t have high hopes for this book because of other reviews. Turns out they are wrong. The book gets never boring. I always find the Perpetuals interesting and this book has the two most famous of them Pros: I liked the dynamic between Cruze and Vulkan. Curze is the best villian for this kind of book. He is like the Joker from Batman. You love to hate him. I like the length of the chapters. It enda just the right time. It never gets too long. This is something i like in novels. Perpetuals.. The huntsman is not a cartoonish evil guy. You can respect him eventhough he is not a good guy. Cons: The cleric is really one sided, stupid, cartoonish evil. This is the only thing that bothered me. All in all i recommend this book to all Horus Heresy fans.

As the title suggest, I am genuinely shocked by the reviews. I'm a guy who reads all of the Horus Heresy novels because of my interest in the overall story of the heresy. However, half the time I walk away feeling that while a book may have added to that story, the book itself was hardly more than boring. More than a few have been an exception and jumped out to grab me, but when I move onto the next one I never know which book I'm going to end up with; the one that I truely enjoy, or the one I suffer through to gain further insight on the overall event. I had no knowledge of, or expectation for this book when I started it, especially being my first Nick Kyme novel. I have to say I genuinely injoyed it! I felt his writing style as a whole was a great fit and kept me interested throughout the book. He showed a weakened Primarch on the verge of breaking without him coming off like a sniveling child, which several other books have failed to do. The other character's stories all kept me not only interested, but guessing as to what happened next. Also, Kyme did a great job of showing Space Marines being battered and beaten but not acting like a bunch of whiny brats, this has been a serious issue I have had with several other books. Ultimately I highly recommend this book. Once I'm caught up on the Horus Heresy I will be immediately diving into Nick Kyme's other novels.

Personally, I couldn't disagree more with the detractors of this book. There are so many facets to the HH saga overall and so many things happen concurrently across the entire story arc that some readers, perhaps, forget that adherence to strict chronology is not possible. That is why certain events from previous novels are covered again; but from the perspective of a new character. Additionally, the character development of the Primarchs has been fairly limited thus far in the HH series and as such, any novel that focuses on a specific Primarch is always welcome. There also seems to be a generally accepted opinion that this book did not advance the story of the Horus Heresy. Again, I disagree. My question would be; 'how has it not'? In Vulkan Lives, we get to see Curze from a perspective never before seen. We get to see how a traitor Primarch descends down the path of Chaos which, unless I am very much mistaken, is one of the primary themes of the entire saga. Further, Vulkan's tribulations set tone and the stage for the Salamander's legion post-heresy. Of course my opinion is just one of many. Each fan will have to judge for themselves where they stand on this specific publication. But I feel as though the criticism is a bit harsh considering the level of intrigue, imagery, and sub-plots found within its pages. So, despite what my WH40K brethren have to say about Vulkan Lives, I thought it was yet another superb edition to what is becoming one of the best sagas in all of Science Fiction.

Couldn't stop reading, really good read. The flashbacks and point of view switching was seamless and never felt lost. Also a continuation of another character who is a big player in the saga of the heresy was a great cross over story

Endlich erschienen erzählt uns u.a. das (wiederum großformatige) Buch vom Schicksal des nach Istvaan V verschollenen Primarchen Vulkan. Den hält nämlich sein Bruder Konrad Kurze (Night Haunter) seitdem gefangen und quält ihn nach bestem Ermessen und Fähigkeiten: das ist ganz gut geschrieben, man erfährt halt einiges über die beiden hinsichtlich Charakter, Zielen, Vorstellungen und Aushaltungsvermögen. Das Beste an dem Buch sind m.E. aber die eingestreuten Rückblicke auf das "Landeplatzmassaker" von Istvaan V aus der Perspektive der Salamander: sehr detailiert wird hierbei die verlustreiche Schlacht gegen Horus und Co beschrieben, inkl. dem Moment, als der Verrat durch die nachrückenden Legionen offenkundig wird. Das ist wirklich ein sehr interessanter "Baustein" in dem ganzen Drama. Bei der dritten Säule des Buches geht es um einen Trupp Salamander, der von Istvaan V fliehen konnte und zusammen mit anderen Überlebenden ( z.B. Iron Hands) den Kampf gegen die Bösen (hier: Word Bearer) im Rahmen seiner Möglichkeiten fortführt. Ein Punkt abgezogen wegen dem etwas unrundem Ende, das irgendwie nicht zu dem Rest paßt ... Trotzdem volle Kaufempfehlung.

Ce tome 26 de l'Hérésie d'Horus met en scène Vulkan, le primarque des Salamanders, dont on nous révèle le destin après Istvaan-V: capturé par Konrad Curze, le primarque des Night Lords, et torturé physiquement et psychologiquement par celui-ci. Nick Kyme nous révèle les liens entre les deux, et les raisons pour lesquelles Vulkan et Curze se haïssent, au-delà du seul fait de leur divergences concernant la valeur de la vie humaine. Une deuxième ligne scénaristique met en scène des rescapés d'Istvaan-V poursuivant des Word Bearers débarqués sur une planète dans le but d'en offrir la population aux entités du Warp. Entre les deux légions, un mystérieux personnage essaie de survivre après avoir déterré un artefact oublié dans un étrange temple octogonal... Sans spoiler ceux qui n'ont pas déjà lu les pages des sites consacrés à l'univers de l'Hérésie d'Horus, on retrouve ici un personnage-clé des événements survenus près de vingt tomes auparavant, qui sera bientôt aux prises avec l'un des personnages les plus détestés et les plus honnis de tout l'univers 30K... La force de ces deux romans-en-un qui ne se recouperont jamais dans cet ouvrage est de pénétrer dans la psychologie de ses personnages, montrant les légions brisées comme réellement brisées, physiquement mais surtout moralement, en particulier les Salamanders qui pensent avoir perdu leur primarque et ont perdu avec lui l'espoir de remporter la guerre. Vulkan, surtout, est incroyablement humain et le révèle avec plus de force à mesure que Curze le torture, même si ce dernier essaie de faire remonter le monstre qui est en lui pour lui montrer qu'ils ne sont pas différents. On en apprend beaucoup sur le primarque des Salamanders, et le roman semble faire avancer un minimum les choses de ce côté-là de la galaxie. A suivre dans les prochains volumes, donc. Globalement, un roman satisfaisant même s'il ne casse pas des briques comme Félon ou le Premier Hérétique avaient pu le faire. On sent qu'il pose des bases pour la seconde moitié de la série, tout en faisant le lien avec des événements qui ont marqué les 25 premiers volumes (et dont on a eu du mal à sortir...). Bref, un moment de lecture sympa, qui ravira les fans des Salamanders et saura satisfaire les autres.

Awesome book

Azione , una storyline rispettata e due primarchi carismatici ben scritto , contiene elementi che ampliano le notizie sull'evoluzione dell'eresia..Konrad Kurze dimostra , se qualcuno aveva dei dubbi, di essere uno psicotico da manuale (pure con istinti suicidi ) Vulkan è uno stoico..consigliato a prescindere ma se non si conosce la saga si perde molto