Angron: Slave of Nuceria by Ian St. Martin – A Book Review

Blurb:

Placed in command of a Legion he does not want, in service to a father he cannot forgive, Angron gives an ultimatum to his children, one that will set them down a path from which they can never return…

As the Emperor travels the galaxy at the head of his Great Crusade, few events are as important as rediscovering his scattered sons, the Primarchs, and bestowing them as the masters of their Legions. United, a Legion becomes a reflection of its Primarch, both in his strengths and his flaws. For the Twelfth Legion, once the War Hounds and now the World Eaters, the line between strength and flaw is almost impossible to separate. Desperate for his acknowledgement, will the World Eaters follow their father and cast themselves in his broken image or will they resist? And will any of them ever learn who their father was truly meant to be?

 

Author: Ian St. Martin

Publisher: Black Library

Pages: 224

Release Date: 13/06/2019

My Chosen Format: Kindle

My Rating of ‘Angron: Slave of Nuceria’: 4 out of 5

Purchase: Amazon UK, Amazon US

 

Review:

I received a copy of this book for free in exchange for an honest review.

Slave of Nuceria is a good, in-depth look into the past of the World Eater’s Primarch and the forging of their legion as the one we know and love/abhor today. For me, it had a lot going for it, but it also had something missing.

Through a series of cleverly-worked, yet at the same time managing to feel almost shoe-horned in, flashbacks, we learn of Angron’s youth on Nuceria and how the experiences in the fighting pits there drove him to be the uncaring, brutal killing machine that he is today.

The focus of the novel is change. Change for the legion; how going from the War Hounds to the World Eaters effects the minds of the legion. And, of course, change for the Primarch. As you have no doubt gathered, it is set in two time periods and these tie up in the end to give a solid conclusion.

My main gripe with it is that I just didn’t feel overly excited throughout like I have in the past for other BL titles. This wasn’t something I expected given that the World Eaters are one of my favourite legions. The combats in the novel felt almost meaningless (I won’t go into too much detail as it will spoil certain aspects) but every conflict just felt like a ‘nothing conflict’ and I found myself trudging through the pages rather than flipping through them with gusto.

That being said, the parts outside of combat were interesting as they were the ones that dealt with the shift within the legion and how certain aspects, as you would imagine, were very resistant to Angron wanting to remake his son’s in his image.

Overall it’s a good, solid read that delves deeply into the past of the World Eater’s Primarch. Seeing his past and living through his experiences was enjoyable as you can really see how he became what he is. I just feel there was nowhere near enough Blood for the Blood God in this one.

That being said, the novel scores highly purely for all of the delicious back story.