Bloody Books Reviews: The Beast Arises Book Five: Throneworld – Guy Haley

The Beast Arises returns for Guy Hayley's Throneworld to pick up the pieces after the disaster that was the Proletarian Crusade. Terra is still under siege, Eldar Harlequinns are dancing from the webway and the Imperial Fists successor chapters gather in secret readying themselves for battle. In between all these whirling cogs of narrative comes the Iron Warriors in what may well be the finest showing of the Chapter to date.

It's another example of Black Library running at top notch level as the political maneuvering and punches of action form race in tandem through some suprisingly well crafted story beats. It shouldn't be, as Hayley is an author who absolutely knows what he is doing, but so far, The Beast Arises has outshone the Horus Heresy as a multi-part series. Hopefully this will continue.

Back to the novel in hand however, this is the most Astartes heavy book since the start, and that gives a lot of gravity to the danger the galaxy is facing. The politicking is not just held of Terra either, as Koorland is forced to use his limited newfound abilities as a leader to swim between the jagged rocks of his position. Vangorich returns, much to my joy, to lead a lot of the Terra scenes with the aplomb and general murkiness his story has been so full of.

Also...some amazing Iron Warriors scenes. Seriously. Excellent stuff.  

This is a tightening of the thread novel though, a cementing of the Inquisition, Terra and Marines stories, whilst mixing in a larger scope of the galaxy and a frankly incredulous look at these new (old?) breed of Ork. I do hope some explanations are incoming for the Orks, as they are a very different breed than those we are used to.

It's not as bombastic as previous novels, and has a slightly different tone to what has come before. It's more subtle, less reliant on explosive moments but digs out more from the characters, cements a bit more of the threat. It's not exactly a "fill-in" episode, but nothing is moved along at the same brisk pace.

Still, well worth a read as part of the greater whole.