Legacies of Betrayal: Let the Galaxy Burn (Horus Heresy)

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In my humble opinion, they didn’t go about writing Jacen's story with intelligence. Jacen’s motivations and reasoning are lazy and poorly thought out. His philosophy doesn’t add up to the conclusions he reaches without completely throwing away REASONING POWERS. This is probably by design, showing that Jacen has been trained to focus on the wrong things. But if that’s the case, his training was STOOPID. Another positive note: Jacen Solo once again displays his tendency to think for himself. In this first-in-a-series title, you might wonder whether this time it's going to lead him into the kind of consequences he hasn't had to regret so far. Completists (not a word, I know) will find it reminiscent of Traitor, but not close to the same class.

Legacies of Betrayal is the thirty-first book in the Horus Heresy Series. It is was published in October 2014. Legacies of Betrayal contains eighteen stories from various authors including one novella length story: Only from out of great conflict can true heroes arise. With the galaxy aflame and war on an unimaginable scale tearing the Imperium apart, champions of light and darkness venture onto countless fields of battle in service to their masters. They ask not for remembrance or reward – simply to meet their destiny head-on, and only by embracing that destiny will they come to learn what the unseen future may yet hold for them… To a large extent, I share this annoyance, especially since this is the fourth such collection of short stories since book 10 of the HH series (aptly, if unoriginally, titled “Tales of Heresy”). For anyone who has read some or all of the previous thirty titles in this collection (and/or the “audio dramas”), one cannot help the feeling that the authors could have been a bit more imaginative. You get something similar for the White Scars in “Brotherhood of the Storm” (Chris Wraight), which, in addition to being one of the longer stories, was also one of the ones I preferred, probably because there are not many books featuring the Scars and their Primarch up to now, apart from the recent “Scars”, by the same author. Another one of the better stories, or, perhaps more accurately, of the ones that I preferred, was “Veritas Ferrum” featuring a desperate bunch of Iron Hands who are survivors of – guess what? – Isstvan V, of course! Here again, we have just seen something similar in a recent Space Matines "Battle Series" title. Despite this, "Veritas Ferrum" was a good and an exciting story, even if it settings (the aftermath of Isstvan V, again!) were desperately unoriginal. By the way, the short “Strike and Fade” is also about the aftermath of Isstvan V but, this time, it features a few of Vulkan’s Salamanders stranded on the planet.Whew! Half-way through now, I think. Let's get on with the second major development and the characters put through it. Jacen (pronounced “Jason”, fight me) is accompanied by his padawan learner Ben Skywalker, Luke Skywalker’s 13-year-old son.

Whereas the Dark Nest trilogy focused heavily on Han, Leia, and Luke, Betrayal was more focused on Han and Leia's story, Jacen and Ben's story, and then to a lesser extent Wedge Antilles and his oldest daughter Syal. In particular, Luke and Mara played much smaller roles than I expected, but perhaps the authors will cycle through different main characters in these books. Meanwhile, Jacen is undergoing a very dangerous shift in his philosophical world-view, initiated by a mysterious woman who may be a long-lost Dark Jedi named Lumiya (first appearing in the 1981 Marvel Comics “Star Wars” series, issue #56). His movement toward the Dark Side is progressing, and it is leading him to a point of no return. Unfortunately, he is also responsible for the training of his cousin, 13-year-old Ben Skywalker. Master Luke senses a disturbance, but he is unaware of what is happening. While the book is perhaps a little heavy handed in terms of shoehorning old fan favourite characters in, and perhaps one too many fan favourite Star Wars-isms, the storytelling is solid throughout. There's a great mix of drama, suspense, lightsaber swishing and space battles, so as a result it has a fantastic cinematic quality to it. Only from out of great conflict can true heroes arise. With the galaxy aflame and war on an unimaginable scale tearing the Imperium apart, champions of light and darkness venture onto countless fields of battle in service to their masters. They ask not for remembrance or reward - simply to meet their destiny head-on, and only by embracing that destiny will they come to learn what the unseen future may yet hold for them...

The space battles are really well written, just like the old X-Wing novels that Aaron Allston used to write about Rogue and Wraith Squadron. His knowledge of Star Wars vehicles and ships are just as good now as they ever were and they made the rest of the book worth it. An assault is planned on Corellia, one that is generating controversy as Corellians (including Han) currently living on Coruscant are facing strong anti-Corellian sentiments by other Coruscanti. Acts of protest and other violent outbursts are happening more frequently. The GA has started branding Corellian troublemakers as “terrorists”. Aaron Dembski-Bowden is the author of the Horus Heresy novels Betrayer and The First Heretic, as well as the novella Aurelian and the audio drama Butcher’s Nails, for the same series. He also wrote The Talon of Horus, the popular Night Lords series, the Space Marine Battles book Helsreach, the Grey Knights novel The Emperor’s Gift and numerous short stories. He lives and works in Northern Ireland.

Interesting. Though I feel like the fact that I’ve read Angel Exterminatus and am familiar with the characters helped me quite a bit. The chemistry is there. This is a good example of the expanded universe, and a good example of author Allston's contributions, but nothing to write home about.

I find this story very unusual and eerie, which is exactly what I’m looking for in HH/40k bools. The concepts presented and the ending made me wonder if we will ever see these guys again, imagine the role they could play in the main event. I really hope this is not the last time we’ve seen them. Since Luke does NOT seem to be finding out what is happening, that means either no one is telling him OR he doesn’t care. Which is also STOOPID. Mara is smart-smart-smart, though. I will leave it at that. Corellia is Han Solo’s home planet. He is “technically” a retired war veteran and former smuggler who is married to a Jedi Knight who is sworn to uphold the laws of the Galactic Alliance. Corellia has a single central government that manages all 5 planets in its solar system, with Corellia proper being the primary seat of power. Corellian’s populace, like Han’s nature as a Corellian, are inherently independent. As a member of the G.A., they receive certain benefits and are expected to contribute to the G.A. as well. In exchange for doing certain things that benefit the G.A. and its member worlds, Corellia receives protection from outside threats via the G.A. military. But Corellia has been speaking out of both sides of its mouth and are building an army to prepare for a potential conflict in which they will seek to separate from that alliance... This is because they don’t want to lose the benefits of membership. Think Brexit, except with spaceships. And this was written in 2006. So Corellia would be like a stand-in for modern-day Britain wanting to break from the E.U. (in this case the G.A.). Stranger things than xenos and mutants dwell in the dark places between the stars – things known only too well to the inhabitants of Davin. Cult priest Thoros calls upon the favour of his patron gods to aid him in casting out the pretenders and non-believers, for only the true disciples of Chaos can be allowed to rule the galaxy... [1] Related Articles