The Horus Heresy series began with the Sons of Horus, and for the first three books we followed them as they fell into damnation along with their primarch. Moving forward however the series had a lot of ground to cover, and thus twenty-five books came and went with Horus and his Sons only making infrequent appearances as antagonists. Graham McNeill rectifies this in Vengeful Spirit, putting Horus and his legion front and centre once more as they spearhead the invasion of Molech, an Imperial world hiding a dark secret.
Graham McNeill named his novel for the Sons of Horus' flagship, but it could just as easily have been titled Warmaster (if only there wasn't an audio short of the same name). Horus is the main character here, the driving force behind the action even if we don't get inside his head. In this book he is as he is depicted on the cover, a towering god of war come to crush all who dare resist him. Whether he is seizing control of an enemy flagship simply because he wants it or taking on ten battle-walkers single-handed, Horus is an unstoppable avatar of battle. That said, he doesn't get it all his way. A gunship attack orchestrated by Shadrak Meduson comes close to killing Horus and his brothers Mortarion and Fulgrim on the planet Dwell in the novel's opening sequence, and he is nearly killed again during the bloody landing battle on Molech when Imperial governor Raeven Devine fires a thermal lance at him at point-blank range. House Devine are the rulers of Molech, and despite being staunch Imperials they more twisted and sadistic than some of the traitors, Raeven murdering his father Cyprian in order to become governor of Molech and he and his sister-wife Lyx tormenting their crippled half-brother Albard for pleasure. It is the ordinary citizens of Molech we feel sorry for as the traitors roll over their defenses, House Devine falling into ruin after Albard gets revenge by murdering first his stepmother, then Lyx, and then finally Raeven. There is a certain justice in a crippled man getting revenge on his tormentors, but unfortunately for Molech's defenders Albard's fragile sanity is destroyed in the final battle thanks to Fulgrim's seductions and he goes rogue, destroying the Molechite Mechanicum's most powerful war machine and securing Horus's victory.
Vengeful Spirit is a big, heavy-metal track of a book, full of planet-scale war and titanic battle scenes. However, its secondary plot is one of infiltration, an elite team of Knights-Errant penetrating the Vengeful Spirit itself in order to mark out targets for a future Space Wolves attack. Leading this team is none other than (SPOILER ALERT) our original hero Garviel Loken, recovered from his madness after nearly dying on Isstvan III and given a new purpose as one of Malcador the Sigillite's elite Space Marine secret agents. Unfortunately for the team Loken's psyche remains fragile and they are discovered aboard the ship, leading to a climactic confrontation with Horus and the death of Iacton Qruze. Thankfully, most of the team manage to escape.
If there is one criticism to be leveled at Vengeful Spirit it is that it tries to do too much. There is two books worth of material within its pages, and the Knights-Errant plot suffers from flat characterisation and an inconclusive ending as a consequence. Two different groups of Space Marines are introduced in the beginning then don't turn up again until the end, where their only role is to die for the sake of the plot. However, this book's flaws are heavily outweighed by its virtues. Vengeful Spirit packs an apocalyptic invasion narrative and several smaller story strands into one engrossing read, carries the plot of the series forwards and ends with a revelation that strikes the heart of the fictional universe. It is one brush-stroke short of a masterpiece.
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