Garro: Legion of One by James Swallow – Advanced Review [Bane of Kings]

legion-of-one

Bane of Kings writes a short review of the Horus Heresy audio drama Garro, Legion of One, sequel to Garro, Oath of Moment. , published by Black Library. Both audios are read by Toby Longworth and written by James Swallow.

“Garro is back, and better than ever.”~The Founding Fields

Now then, where to begin? There are so many things that I wish to tell you about this audiobook, but I don’t want to spoil it all for you. However, I will give you a plot summary to kick things off.

Set after the events of Garro: Oath of Moment, Garro: Legion of One sees the return of Garro and Rubio, the latter of whom we met in Oath of Moment, and is an ex-Ultramarine Librarian. And, we are also introduced to an all new character, (Or I think he is all new at least, can’t remember whether he bears the same name of a loyalist World Eater in Galaxy in Flames), called Varren, an ex-World Eater.

This time, they’re on a planet that we don’t know the name of, or at least, not yet, not at the beginning of the audiobook, and they’re hunting what looks to be the final member of their group, a man, or rather astartes, known as Cerberus, named after the character from Greek myth. (At least, I think the name is from Greek Myths, please inform me if otherwise), who has lost all memories of his past and doesn’t know who, or what he is, and lives for only one thing, to kill everybody else.

Next, I’d like to talk about Varren, the World Eater. Now, it’s nice to see another loyalist World Eater, and I think that when combined with the Ultramarine, Rubio, James Swallow has allowed some character tension to build up within this latest audio drama, and I think that he portrays Varren very well indeed.

Moving on from Varren, the overall plot of this audiobook is very simple, as I mentioned above, but only in the latter half of the audiobook. At the beginning, it only reveals that they’re on some planet destroyed by the renegade forces of Chaos, leaving the reader guessing at the planet’s name.

Although this is short, the action is well described in this with only a few main fights, and Cerberus’ voice is done very well, nice job by Toby Longworth there.

However, there are a few negative things about this audiobook. Firstly, we still don’t learn what happened to Iacton Cruze and the remembrancers that were on Horus’s fleet during the first few novels of the Horus Heresy. We also aren’t given much information on Varren, other than he was a World Eater who remains loyal to the Emperor despite his Primarch turning.

And, finally, the blurb is also somewhat disappointing. Sure, there is a secret unveiled in this audiobook, but it’s not as big as the blurb suggests, unless of course you count Cerberus being a heresy-changer, which in my view, he isn’t. It may be a big shock when you find out what happens at the end, but I predict that it won’t change the course of the Heresy.

Now, on that bombshell, I leave you with this:

Rating: 3/5

David Ploss

I’m a bit of an awesome person. :) I’m a semi-famous 40k Intellect and the Business Manager of Chique Geek Entertainment, LLC. www.chiquegeek.com. I’m a book reviewer and the owner of TheFoundingFields.com. Beware my wonky-ness…

  

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