Ahriman: Sorcerer: Ahriman: Warhammer 40,000, Book 2

I've read over one hundred Black Library products, and this one was a bit above average (though partly b/c many of the BL books have been sub par lately). I do like the Thousand Sons storyline, and Ahriman is quintessential Tzeentch. One plot line was disappointing (because it involves my favorite faction in the 40k universe), but I suppose it falls inline with the tangled web of the Changer of Ways. I hope French ends the series in an interesting way rather than in a way that doesn't move the 40k meta plot along.

good story. makes you want the 1000 suns to come back for the emperor and make amends with the wolfpack...

amazing story

great book

Worthwhile reading.

Some initial time consistency issues, as a sequel from Exile it seems that you were supposed to have read one of the novels with Ahriman as the antagonist prior, so a bit clunky transition in my own opinion, as it seems some character development happened in some other book. Overall it was a good read, well paced and with some interesting action sequences.

I much liked the first volume about Ahriman's exile and hiding by John French. This was largely because Ahriman came across as a believable character and what happened to him was at least plausible. Some traces of this are still present in this book but the plot is much weaker. The main character and his behaviours are much less credible and most of the other characters are barely drawn. I will attempt to explain both of these elements during the rest of this review while trying hard to avoid spoilers.The character of Ahriman is still interesting at times, with his mixture of guilt, hope and ruthless determination. He tried to save his Legion from damnation but only made things worse. He still hopes, thousands of years later, that he can set things right. He tries very hard to do so, by whatever means and at whatever cost.So far, so good, with the character appearing almost sympathetic (that is having what we would call "human feelings") at times, like Demski-Bowden's Talos of the Night Lords or Iskandar Kahyon, also from the Thousand Sons but a staunch supporter of Abaddon. In the case of Ahriman and in this episode, this is tempered by the character's extraordinary arrogance and belief in his own aptitudes. Ahriman is shown as knowing it all in advance and never making any mistake, although how he manages to do so remains - at least for me - somewhat of a mystery. This also jars with the previous episode where Ahriman is unsurprisingly very much self-doubting and full of guilt given the harm he did to his Legion when trying to save them. Here, there is not even a shred of doubt and only passing guilt as he sacrifices and/or betrays just about all of the characters that he supposedly holds dear.A second feature that did not quite work for me was precisely this "overdone" theme of betrayal that runs across the whole book. I got the impression that just about everyone among Ahriman's fleet was out to betray everyone else. I am exaggerating a bit, of course, but not that much. The problem is that nowhere does the author explain what exactly those plotting to betray Ahriman seek to achieve or what their motivations may be. Even assuming they are all "nasty pieces of work", betraying the one they have agreed to follow just for the sake of it did not make much sense to me.The plot itself is also somewhat unclear and incomplete. Ahriman and his fleet of renegades and traitor Space Marines (but we are never told from which Chapters or Legions they come from) rush off on a quest to lay their hands upon what the book's back page blurb describes as "the mysterious artefact known as the Athenaeum of Kalimakus, a grimoire of forgotten knowledge that is reputed to contain the exact words" of Magnus, the primarch of the Thousands Sons. What these "exact words" are supposed to bring to those that get hold of the book is entirely left to the reader's imagination. Even a very secret order within the very secretive Inquisition, which happens to be holding the Athenaeum in a secret fortress that Ahriman has somehow discovered, does not seem to know what it contains and why it is so important.Anyway, if I understood correctly, Ahriman seems to believe (or to want to believe) that once he has taken possession of this book, he will be able to correct all wrongs, starting with his own, and save the Thousands Sons from damnation. This is a rather far-fetched and flimsy assumption which is all the more surprising coming from a character that is presented as so superior.Then there are some interesting features that have been somewhat misused: Grey Knights and half-crazed and largely berserk Space Wolves. The latter have escaped through the Eye of Terror where they have been trapped for millennia. You never really get to know what they were doing there in the first place. They, almost miraculously, break back at last into imperial space to "continue the hunt" but, again, you do not get to know what or who they are supposed to be hunting. I initially thought they were after the Thousands Sons but, as you will see when reading this book, this does not seem to be the case.Then you have a bunch of Grey Knights (over seventy) who are commanded by one Cendrion who takes his orders from a Lord Inquisitor. Here again, more could perhaps have been done with these rather non-descript and bland Grey Knights who seem happy to blindly follow the Inquisitor's orders without any questions asked. Finally, you also get cursory descriptions of several Inquisitors, male and female. Here again, you never get to know exactly who they are, where they are from and what they are up to. All of this (and a few other twists which I will spare you to avoid spoilers) was rather confusing, implausible and/or disappointing. Two stars.

I felt that the condition was slightly worse than advertised seeing as it claimed that pages were unmarked which was not the case. However, the condition was still passable and fairly decent for the price.

Item as described and arrived in good order

Son loved this gift

Amazing read well written and about one of my favourite legions

Brilliant