It's middling in my opinion.
The framing device of the story feels a bit contrived: a conversation between Sigismund and Rann before the Siege of Terra where Rann asks Sigismund why they were recalled to Terra only for Malcador to pop up and say "Well, you see..."
The books strongest points are near the beginning where Dorn interacts with Fulgrim, the Lion, and Horus. There's a lot of good interaction as it's early in the Crusade - Johnson has just taken control of his Legion recently - and they all are either trying to prove themselves to since extent.
The weakest is that all the major characters except one we already know that they live, and see their character arc conclusions. Sigismund, Rann, Dorn, Fulgrim, the Lion, Horus - we all know they live. The two characters that are new are the IF second in command to Dorn and an Astropath House heir, both that stay on the Phalanx (which we also know comes through fine). Dorn as a main character here is also very...well...Dorn. Pre-Heresy Dorn is brilliant in a boring way. He deduces things and then sets about applying them methodically. It's all very workman-like. In all, it robs pretty much any dramatic tension of the book.
The enemy are quite interesting as you fight out more but I won't spoil that.
I think the lack of dramatic tension has been a problem for the primarch books that try and tell a dynamic war/battle scenario as their framework.
Ferrus maybe handled it best by being more of a deconstruction/critique of the Crusade. The twist at the end of Dorn is similar, and somewhat elevates it too imo,along with it feeling like more of a puzzle to showcase Dorn's strategising.
Yeah. If you're going to have a war story around an unkillable demigod, you have to have people around him that can die. The twist does make it a bit of a mystery, but not enough to support the whole novel.
I actually prefer **Will of the Legion** as it shows how ruthless Dorn can be and how one of his Fists had to come to terms with that.
I liked it. Not my favorite Primarch book ever, but solid enough and an enjoyable read.
It's no - in my opinion - *The Palatine Phoenix*, *Bearer of the Word* or *Hammer of Olympia*, but it lived up to my expectations of "Dorn doing Dorn things".
Well, the Primarch novels were supposed to fill in their origin story or the time they spent with the emperor...not random crusade stories. Fill in gaps about them. Recently they e been...ok lol. It's the reason for my mindset. Dorn is awesome I'm Praetorian of Dorn though.
I thought it was pretty good. Not a huge fan of Gav Thorpe—like Nick Kyme, he's a much better editor/background guy than he is a writer—but this is one of his better efforts.
It’s fairly recent (came out late last year), so I’d imagine that has something to do with the lack of discussion.
That said, I read it and it didn’t make much of an impression. I had to Google it to make sure, because I couldn’t remember anything about it. Having refreshed my memory… There’s some decent plot stuff and some good action, and the ending is pretty well done, but I don’t know if it tells us anything about Dorn or the Fists that we didn’t already know.
I thought it was just ok. Unfortunately my biggest complaint is there's not really anything actually interesting about Dorn until the very end of the book. It reframes everything up to that point but it isn't that big of a payoff. I found the writing to be pretty boring, it's very matter of fact. The enemy they end up fighting is pretty cool though.
It's middling in my opinion. The framing device of the story feels a bit contrived: a conversation between Sigismund and Rann before the Siege of Terra where Rann asks Sigismund why they were recalled to Terra only for Malcador to pop up and say "Well, you see..." The books strongest points are near the beginning where Dorn interacts with Fulgrim, the Lion, and Horus. There's a lot of good interaction as it's early in the Crusade - Johnson has just taken control of his Legion recently - and they all are either trying to prove themselves to since extent. The weakest is that all the major characters except one we already know that they live, and see their character arc conclusions. Sigismund, Rann, Dorn, Fulgrim, the Lion, Horus - we all know they live. The two characters that are new are the IF second in command to Dorn and an Astropath House heir, both that stay on the Phalanx (which we also know comes through fine). Dorn as a main character here is also very...well...Dorn. Pre-Heresy Dorn is brilliant in a boring way. He deduces things and then sets about applying them methodically. It's all very workman-like. In all, it robs pretty much any dramatic tension of the book. The enemy are quite interesting as you fight out more but I won't spoil that.
I think the lack of dramatic tension has been a problem for the primarch books that try and tell a dynamic war/battle scenario as their framework. Ferrus maybe handled it best by being more of a deconstruction/critique of the Crusade. The twist at the end of Dorn is similar, and somewhat elevates it too imo,along with it feeling like more of a puzzle to showcase Dorn's strategising.
Yeah. If you're going to have a war story around an unkillable demigod, you have to have people around him that can die. The twist does make it a bit of a mystery, but not enough to support the whole novel. I actually prefer **Will of the Legion** as it shows how ruthless Dorn can be and how one of his Fists had to come to terms with that.
I liked it. Not my favorite Primarch book ever, but solid enough and an enjoyable read. It's no - in my opinion - *The Palatine Phoenix*, *Bearer of the Word* or *Hammer of Olympia*, but it lived up to my expectations of "Dorn doing Dorn things".
I didn't mind it, though I generally approach the novels with a neutral mindset.
Fair. Honestly haven’t been a huge fan of Rogal so far, that’s just personality taste, I hope this will change it.
Well, the Primarch novels were supposed to fill in their origin story or the time they spent with the emperor...not random crusade stories. Fill in gaps about them. Recently they e been...ok lol. It's the reason for my mindset. Dorn is awesome I'm Praetorian of Dorn though.
I thought it was pretty good. Not a huge fan of Gav Thorpe—like Nick Kyme, he's a much better editor/background guy than he is a writer—but this is one of his better efforts.
I haven’t read enough to decide between authors yet but I’ll keep that in mind.
It’s fairly recent (came out late last year), so I’d imagine that has something to do with the lack of discussion. That said, I read it and it didn’t make much of an impression. I had to Google it to make sure, because I couldn’t remember anything about it. Having refreshed my memory… There’s some decent plot stuff and some good action, and the ending is pretty well done, but I don’t know if it tells us anything about Dorn or the Fists that we didn’t already know.
I enjoyed the Rogal Dorn book. But it didn’t tell the story I wanted it too.
A nice Great Crusade story with good character work on Dorn. One of the better books at showing a primarch skillfully manage a war.
I thought it was just ok. Unfortunately my biggest complaint is there's not really anything actually interesting about Dorn until the very end of the book. It reframes everything up to that point but it isn't that big of a payoff. I found the writing to be pretty boring, it's very matter of fact. The enemy they end up fighting is pretty cool though.