Praetorian of Dorn Thread

Praetorian of Dorn Thread

Novel 39 of the Horus Heresy Series and written by John French.

Legions portrayed: VII Imperial Fists vs XX Alpha Legion.

So this story marks the beginning of the siege of Terra. Horus shows up to give the order to Alpharius at the start of the book. Meanwhile Dorn is at Terra acting as the leader of the defensive forces in the Solar System.

I have to say I liked the book but it went from great to just ok as the story advanced. The whole operation to infiltrate the imperial palace was the best part in my opinion.

The Horus Heresy has done a great work defining the Alpha Legion and making it one of the most interesting legions in the universe. We don't really get to know much about their astartes characters but we are presented with many human cell assets and operators. The Harrowing is detailed and presented as the ultimate way of war for this legion, using confussion and terror tactics to draw attention away from the main threat. The dimension of the planning and the perfect execution of tasks involved in the whole operation just demonstrates the scale of the might of this usually unknown legion, making them one of the best in the whole war.

Meanwhile the Imperial Fists are shown as the stern and incorruptible legion we all know. Their main POV on the novel is Archamus, a classic example of an Astartes. He really lacks any interest and just serves as the tool for Dorn. The Primarch on the other hand is showed as something else than the autist zealot we were presented before this book. Although he looks more like the supreme commander he is intended to be, sometimes he is portrayed in a way too close to the traits and ways of Guilliman. Overall is great to see Dorn acting like a leader and not like an emperor's pawn without iniciative.

As i said before the ending is the worst part of the novel. The climax arrives when Alpharius and Dorn confront. Like many other times, the primarchs have an exchange of thoughts and talk about their loyalties and motives. What is not clear is way will Alpharius throw away a perfectly executed operation just to suicide against Dorn. There wasn't any justification or explanation for him to try to turn Dorn, leading to a worthless death that doesn't even serve the purpouse of the Harrowing.


In the end, the attack serves Horus and the traitor forces to rattle the Solar System defenses and get a picture of what to expect, but at the cost of the life of a Primarch who suicide in a way not really according with what we would expect from his legion.

I think this book could have been finish off better instead of giving that ending that didn't reach the level of the story before but afterall it was a good read and not even close to the level of the bad books in the series.

What are your thoughts Veeky Forums?

Alpharius death was so dumb and pointless that it is the only thing this book will ever be known for.

There is two explanations, one Alpharius was committing suicide by Dorn and the operation was always mean to end in failure. Two Alpharius went bonkers and like all his ramblings in the end the whole operation was meaningless.

That ending was even more retarded than "Legion" ending. Why the alphas have to endure all that idiocy?

The Ending was fine, Alpharius suffering for his hubris.

>What is not clear is way will Alpharius throw away a perfectly executed operation just to suicide against Dorn

Alpharius' sneak attack already failed. His entire plan was to lure Dorn away from the Solar System. But Dorn and his fleet were not fooled. Dorn pretended to leave, then turned back and ambushed Alpharius' fleet. Dorn out played the player. Alpharius knew the battle was lost. The only thing left for him to do was kill Dorn in a duel or die with honor.

>Alpharius death was so dumb and pointless

Alpharius died because he lost the battle and the duel. That's war. What else were you expecting? An ancient prophecy? A magic Mcguffin? A surprise twist like getting killed was part of his plan all along?

Any time the events of the HH resemble actual war and not capeshit fanfic, it creates an uncanny valley effect.

He had zero reasons to fight Dorn. Basically because Dorn wasn't to be seen when the fleet combat started. So when you see that you are going to lose the fight because he pulled a surprise attack on your fleet i think is very stupid and pointless to launch a suicide attack in a small satellite without any support.

Alpharius should have backed, the damage already been done to the Sol defenses and the mission commanded by Horus of triggering the reaction from the Fists also completed.

He going ham after being counterstriked by Dorn was really off-character. Maybe you can do this with Angron or Russ but not on Alpharius. It just doesn't make any sense.

>He going ham after being counterstriked by Dorn was really off-character. Maybe you can do this with Angron or Russ but not on Alpharius. It just doesn't make any sense.

It makes perfect sense, Alpharius is arrogant.

>Alpharius should have backed

I don't think retreating was an option. I remember Alpha fleet attacking the moon and defense fleet, then the Phalanx fleet jumping in behind them and wrecking their shit. Dorn turned Alpharius' sneak attack into the perfect trap.

Silonius ordered the fleet to retreat the moment the phalanx showed up.

Alpharius could have NOPE'ed out from the moon in that exact moment but the writter decided that for some reason he would have the need to face Dorn in an obvious adverse situation.

Thing doesn't make any sense. Unless is some kind of Alpha faggotry involving decoys and shit and that guy wasn't the real Alpharius he basically let himself get killed in the most stupid situation possible.

>honor
>Alpha Legion
I almost believed you user.

>"he is portrayed in a way too close to the traits and ways of Guilliman"

literally this. It was like reading a Ultramarines book.

Jesus Christ can't anyone fix Dorn and make him interesting without literally putting his name over another stablished chatacter?

I much rather prefer the autist persona than this cheap copy.

>Implying that was the real alpharius
>Implying the battle wasn't lost on purpose
>Implying everything didn't go according to plan

Typical IF brainlets.

>this salt
delicious!

>Old as fuck AL meme
>Takes it seriously
user...

Little alpha man no outsmart chainsword.
Little alpha man no outsmart wall.

Of course you won Dorn. The Loyalist always Triumph. Now, there is an Iron Warrior fortress Perturabo is visiting that is lightly defended.
Why don't you throw your entire legion at it; to win another victory for us loyalists.
HAIL HYDRA

>t. sad alphafag brainlet

Dorn neither displayed Guilliman's hope, nor his logistical skills nor his tactical inflexibility.

G would have lost the moon, albeit at a high cost to the traitors.

Guilliman wasn't tactically inflexible though, he is a great tactician.

...

>Silonius ordered the fleet to retreat

Just because you order a retreat doesn't mean any of your ships will be alive at the end of it. Fighting through two giant enemy fleets and the Phalanx. I don't blame Alpharius for taking his chances on the moon. Dorn outsmarted him and launched a sneak attack on the sneak attacker.

The book makes very clear that the Alpha fleet left the system without taking excesive casualities when Dorn showed up with the Phalanx.

By that time the fleet of Sigismund was broken so it was really Alpha fleet vs the remains of Sigis and the big FUCK YOU of the Phalanx and it's friends.

Alpharius should have taken the shuttle with the 2 human operators of the headhunter team. Leave to fight another day after succesfully completed the main task. But no, let's get rid of another Primarch because we need to balance Ferrus Manus joke death.

Alpha to Omega brothers!

>He had zero reasons to fight Dorn.
See, thing is, you're working on the basis that fighting Dorn was a risky thing for him to do. We the readers know that it was, but it probably never occurred to Alpharius that he might actually lose that fight.

Alpharius has always been arrogant as hell, and has always had a problem with more senior primarchs not listening to him - he was sure that, with the attack being as devastating as it was, this time, Dorn would have to listen.

He was sure it would work, because "sure it would work" is Alpharius's MO

>"sure it would work" is Alpharius's MO

No it's not, "always have a fallback" is Alpharius' MO.

Just waiting on another author to pick up AL again and we can go back to the original obscurity surrounding the knowledge of his death.Or the big reveal as Abbadabadoo gets to Sol

or maybe its not Alpharious.

"No it's not, "always have a fallback" is Alpharius' MO."

Exactly this. The whole book is a series of events that trigger new protocols and assets so the mission can keep running.

Untill the end, which is just Alpharius saying "lol ima let Dorn fuck my shit up even though im the smallest primarch and never known as top tier duelist like Fulgrim or Sanguinus".

Unless the book is laying another meme tier twist like "it wasn't the true Alphy you killed".

Eh. I'm not sure those we really fallbacks, more that he'd correctly anticipated the Fist's response at each stage and used that to set up the next stage of the plan. Seemed more like masterful planning than improvising on the fly.

Decent book

>Sons Of The Forge in acceptable tier
Huh. Did Kyme somehow write a not-horrible book? I might have to read it for the sheer novelty.

Why are White Scars books so good, bros?