Angron: Slave of Nuceria: Slave of Nuceria (Volume 11) (The Horus Heresy: Primarchs)

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Mistakenly believing that this twisted archeotech would make them better warriors more deserving of Angron’s respect, the majority of the legionaries crave their blessings – while the smaller, wiser part sees them for what they really are: a debased, horrible means of torture and punishment. Between this and repeating the mistake David Annandale in structuring Guilliman, it makes for a book which is only a good short story when it could have shed light on something wholly new.

While I enjoyed the read a good bit, the further I got through it, the more I found that something wasn't quite right. This short novel delves deep into the origin of the traitor Primarch, although in a bit unorthodox way. Angron’s empathy causes him pain, until the nails his enslavers drill into in his head replaces that hurt with rage. It makes for the dynamic and downfall much more tragic, as it makes it clear that if any one of the things leading up to this had failed, the World Eaters would have likely avoided their fate. Angron somehow makes them even worse at battle, with decimation being his go-to form of course correction.These ‘Primarchs’ novellas are a mixed bag; at the beginning it felt like they may not give much more insight into the Primarchs themselves, but would deal with slightly different aspects of the Space Marine Legions in the Great Crusade era, and for some of us, that felt like enough. Even with these new additions, his current self is given little more depth or detail beyond wanting to die; something already expressed in Betrayer. For one thing, it took multiple prototypes for anyone to get a working set, and even then it was only accomplished by an outside source taking interest in the work involved, and a discovery from a lost planet.

Enslavement followed by a cavalcade of deaths of unnamed or barely named associates and erstwhile foes. Other events, meanwhile, take place but lack the further descriptions in Betrayer which makes them more impactful. Part of that might also be due to the fact that - much like a few others - Index Astartes gave him a simple tragic tale which was not the easiest work to adapt into a fifty book long series. The brother morality struggle reminds me a lot of Galaxy in Flames so it becomes a little similar to that which is a bit annoying. However, not enough of the book is about the primarch himself, and it tells us little about him that we did not already know.Angron is a fascinating yet tragic villain and this is the perfectly detailed pseudo-origin story he deserves. For example, he's already treating the Devourers as an unwanted addition, despite supposedly appreciated by him at first. Unlike Curze, Angron did not become psycho because he decided to (because you know, why not especially because there is no point in living at all and it is so difficult to be awake because you know) like Curze but because he was broken by the Nuceria slavers while very young.