One of two Horus Heresy novellas billed as prequels to the Siege of Terra, David Annandale’s Spear of Ultramar provides a brief but satisfying exploration of the challenges facing Guilliman and the Ultramarines as they race for Terra. Set after the events of Ruinstorm, the Ultramarines find their path blocked by the Carchera system, which is defended by a single Grand Company of Iron Warriors. Despite being vastly outnumbered the Iron Warriors are determined to delay Guilliman for as long as they can, so lay a trap that they know the Avenging Son will recognise, but will have no choice but to spring.
Unsurprisingly, considering it’s a 125-page novella, this doesn’t try to tell the whole story of what the Ultramarines were doing in the lead up to the Siege. Instead it focuses on a single conflict, using that as a lens through which Annandale can examine Guilliman’s decisions, and how they weigh upon him. It’s told in an active present tense that adds a little urgency to the narrative, with Guilliman as the focus but also featuring a range of viewpoint characters from both sides. There’s a light touch across these other characters, with just enough detail to provide each of them with an interesting identity and purpose without slowing down the momentum of either their individual plot arcs or the overall story.
Annandale has done a good job with Guilliman in previous stories and that depiction continues here; he’s as strategically brilliant as ever, but it’s interesting to see how he’s being affected by the pressure he’s under. We also see glimpses of other variously well known Ultramarines, from Lucretius Corvo to Captain Hierax of the Destroyers, each with their own purpose and mission. Meanwhile the Iron Warriors get a surprising amount of page time, and come across brilliantly via three slightly different perspectives which between them cover lots of ground. On the one hand they’re what you’d expect – tenacious, embittered, and resentful of their Legion’s lot – but they’re also unusually philosophical, reflecting upon their inevitable fates and discussing the realities of life under the Warmaster’s orders as opposed to the Emperor’s.
It might sound preposterous, so few Iron Warriors being able to genuinely slow down an entire Legion, but Annandale has crafted a sort of reverse Battle of Thermopylae in which the handful of canny Spartans are actually bitter, angry but brilliant Iron Warriors. It requires a certain suspension of disbelief required here and there, but for the most part it’s actually a really cleverly thought-out setup and an interesting opportunity to add a little tension to what could otherwise have been a straightforward slog to the finish line (i.e. Terra). There’s just the right amount of story here to provide a satisfying read in context of the novella page count, and overall this forms a satisfying conclusion to Annandale’s Ultramarines arc in the Heresy, from Lord of Ultramar through Ruinstorm and The Atonement of Fire.
Spear of Ultramar is book 4 in the Black Library Novella Series 1. You can read reviews of the rest of the books in this series by following this link.
Check out the main Horus Heresy series page on Track of Words.
