Rob Sanders has a good track record with Heresy-era Alpha Legion, and now he’s tackling them in a pre-Dark Imperium 40k novel, Sons of the Hydra. It follows the exploits of a small Alpha Legion warband known as the Redacted, led by Occam the Untrue – and no, he doesn’t have a sword called Razor. There’s a typically twisty, convoluted plot as Occam drives the Redacted in pursuit of his and the legion’s goals, and without giving too much away it involves Marines of varying chapters and loyalties, the expected levels of infiltration and false faces…and lots of plasma guns.
While it’s hard to talk too much about the plot without spoiling things, it’s safe to say that this is no The Serpent Beneath, lacking both the quality of writing and the sharpness of plotting that characterised that novella. It is quite nicely plotted, just stretched out over a full novel and with more of an emphasis on fun than anything else. It actually plays with some cool Alpha Legion themes beyond the basic stealth and secrecy tropes, although once again the risk of spoilers precludes much more detail here. The problems arise with Sanders’ writing, which too often feels over-descriptive and lacking in a bit of real depth, and with the characters who are cool on the surface but not really developed.
Occam himself is pretty interesting, not just the typical 40k-era Alpha Legion warlord, and he carries a lot of the story on his able shoulders. There’s certainly plenty of potential in Occam, the Redacted and the overall concept that Sanders is playing with (again, no spoilers), and the scattered references to various other warbands – including a brief reference to events at Carcharias, which will ring bells for some – offer a tempting sense of a bigger picture. There’s just not quite enough to the Redacted for them to really have much impact, beyond the basic cool factor. Backstories and personalities are lightly sketched-in, but needed greater exploration for these characters to be much more than stereotypes.
On the surface there’s plenty to enjoy here, with some great action-packed set pieces and an overall narrative that plays with our preconceptions around the Alpha Legion to deliver something that’s genuinely quite fresh and surprising. Dig deeper, though, and there’s not quite enough to fully satisfy, although to be fair we’ve been rather spoiled by Traitor Legion tales like the Ahriman and Abaddon series of late. Sons of the Hydra isn’t in that league, not least because Sanders’ writing is just so much less sophisticated. Overall it’s a fun, enjoyable read at face value, which does genuinely offer a few surprises, but lacks a bit of depth to really succeed.
Click here to buy Sons of the Hydra.
Sons of the Hydra was released as a digital ‘ebook premiere’ on the 26th December 2017 – the physical (hardback) release is due on the 20th January 2018.