The issue of reprints has always been an interesting one to me, particularly in media that have a high item-publication rate like collectible card games (such as Magic: the Gathering). The reprinting of old cards is a significant consideration for new sets, and there are a number of reasons why an old card might get a new lease on life. Sometimes it’s for gameplay purposes, where an old card makes for a great inclusion mechanically or thematically with a new set. Other times it’s for nostalgia, in the hopes of driving up demand from the more enfranchised demographic.
Finally, it can be market-driven, looking at the fiscal health of the game and the secondary market, where a reprint can let some of the pressure off of cased-after cards and make them more affordable and accessible.
If you were to take that latter approach to the Black Library, you could hardly have done better than The Lords of Silence. Chris Wraight’s tale of the Death Guard was first published in February of 2018, and has since that time been considered one the Legion’s top-line fictional depictions. Last May as part of their “Start Playing…” series, Warhammer Community spotlighted it in particular as the ideal place to begin reading about the Death Guard.1
That popularity was one of several factors that resulted in The Lords of Silence commanding a high premium on the secondary market, with paperback copies frequently changing hands for around USD $150. Paperback!
While older books tend not to remain in print indefinitely, they can make a comeback typically in one of three ways: a reissue (a straightforward reprint), an inclusion (such as in an omnibus), or a new edition. New editions have the advantage of appealing not only to those who don’t own one of the original editions, but also appealing to those who do.
For the return of The Lords of Silence, the Black Library opted for the Illustrated and Annotated Edition treatment, which previously had been limited to two books in Dan Abnett’s Eisenhorn trilogy. For today’s review, I’ll first be looking at the book as a standalone story, then offer thoughts around what the expanded treatment brought to the table- though in some ways, they were inseparable.
The Story
The Lords of Silence is a Death Guard warband led by Siegemaster Vorx aboard their ship, Solace. As part of the Thirteenth Black Crusade, a shipboard accident warps them away from their fleet. On their own and aiming to rejoin the assault on Ultramar, they encounter a ship of the Word Bearers en route and form an uneasy alliance.
The story is told in two main timelines that interweave through the course of the book, braiding together to form the arc of the climax. That climax takes the form of a kind of whodunnit, as the Lords try and discover what (or who) caused the Solace to jump off course into the middle of nowhere- and why?
Wraight is a terrific writer- some of his passages for me evoked almost an Aaron Dembski-Bowden level of dexterity- that mix of acuity, insight, and descriptiveness that really brings the universe to light. His Lords of Silence- at least the main ones- are tremendously written. It wasn’t hard to see why this book has held such a treasured place in the poxied hearts of Nurgle’s faithful.
Siegemaster Vorx- restrained and taciturn. Philemon the Tallyman, the lens through which the numerological esoterica that gives the Legion some of its defining character is illustrated. Dragan, the Champion, the most “normal” or anodyne of the warband given his more recent conversion- making him something of a foil to the more corrupted senior members for the reader.
At times, The Lords of Silence’s deliberate pace risks making it feel less like a plotted novel and more of a character study. That isn’t helped by the not-entirely-clear timeline jumps. Wraight himself indicates he knew this might potentially be a problem, as he notes in footnote 15.
Here’s the first flashback sequence. These were planned from the very start, and were initially intended to offer insights into the Leion’s history and culture in order to enrich the main story… The idea was that this flashback strand would, over the course of the book, catch up with the strand in the ‘present’, explaining some of the motivations of all involved. I didn’t give the reader much warning of this shift here, and I think that was fine- Black Library readers are intelligent!- but the second draft, as I recall, added the opening sentence, A long time ago…, just to help out a bit.
The jumping around in time was also intended to reinforce the sense of strangeness, particularly of the Eye of Terror, where, of course, time doesn’t really work in a straightforward fashion.
It’s a novel conceit, but while I’d like to think of myself as an intelligent Black Library reader I found myself getting a bit clouded in the book’s temporal drift. Even a simple year designation as a chapter marker would have helped keep things a little more structured and organized, and meta-writing (for instance, the characters are confused so I’m going to confuse the reader, too) is hard to pull off in a way that doesn’t detract from the narrative- though of course, exceptions abound.
Still, if what you’re after is to get into the mind of the Death Guard, you’re in for a treat here. Wraight channels the proper amounts of reverence and idiosyncrasy that brings the Legion alive, from the slow transformation of the ship into a properly living thing all the way down to how the Nurglings are treated (they call them “Little Lords,” and frequently pick them up for affection the way you and I might a cat).
Special Edition Extras
While the additional art by Chris Campbell is used somewhat sparingly, it adds a terrific effect. Unlike some of the kinetic, high-color work he’s done for Legends of Runeterra and Diablo: Immortal, his monochromatic illustrations here are far menacing in their restraint. The pocked and poxied surfaces of the Death Guard armor in particular lend a delightfully sickly and malevolent air to them, and Campbell truly understood the assignment.
Also delivering in a big way was Wraight himself, with his annotated notes offering tremendous insight into the story and its writing process. The risk here, of course, is just like watching a movie for the first time with director’s commentary on- while you get an enhanced perspective on the work itself, you also lose a little something in the telling. Wraight does a great job keeping some spoilers in check, though, so there’s still plenty of genuine surprise and anticipation for the first-time narrative reader to enjoy.
I found myself eagerly looking forward to each of Wraight’s annotations as I strolled the book. Here’s a couple for example:
On Nurglings…
And now we see just what the Little Lords are really like. This was a deliberate attempt to conjure up all those 1980’s comedy horror movies, the ones with animatronic puppets and lurching camerawork…. These creatures are ridiculously horrible, almost worse than the big Plague Marines, because they’re fast, and you can’t see them, and they’ve got teeth, and they’re giggling the whole time.2
On tenses…
A note on the tense in this book. I like writing in the present tense, but don’t do it very often. Here, the choice was made for two reasons. First, a lot of The Lords of Silence is intended to be weird- to capture the sense that the Death Guard are an odd, uncanny bunch. The present tense helps with this, as its far more usual to read stories set in the past. Keeping it all in the present has a very slight unbalancing effect, a sense that we’re not quite sure where we are.
And this leads into a second reason: that the Death Guard, as creatures of the warp in many respects, start to get unmoored from time to time. Their lives in the Eye, coupled to the slow descent of madness that corruption brings, makes them far less conscious of their place within history than someone living all their life in the materium.
It’s almost childlike- living in the moment3, consequence-free.
It’s not often that we get such a front-row seat to what a Black Library author is thinking when they’re writing these tales. On occasion you might get an interview, or an interview or afterword in a special or limited edition. I found the annotations to be a huge addition, and hope that this format sees plenty more offerings in the future.
Final Thoughts
That isn’t to say the experience was strictly better than reading without the annotations. As I noted earlier, Wraight shies away from outright spoiling the book; there aren’t any comments like, “this was totally a red herring I put in there to distract the reader.” Most major plot points are spoken about after they’ve been revealed.
Nevertheless, some tipping of the hand was almost unavoidable. For instance, although he is light on specifics Wraight does give away well in advance that Captain Dantine’s story arc is one of corruption, or that there’s a volte-face in store with the Word Bearers (though, Chaos being Chaos, you should probably expect this by default).
You can ever only read a story for the first time once, though, and were I to do it again I might skip the annotations on first read-through to get the full experience of the story first, then do a flip-through of the annotations after to go ‘behind the scenes.’ Or perhaps not; more than once I found myself feeling like getting some of the background from the author enhanced my enjoyment and understanding of the tale. Either way, it’s nice to have the option.
Overall The Lords of Silence easily lived up to its reputation as a definitive work for the Legion. If the narrative/temporal structure is a bit uneven, it more than makes up for it with some terrific characters and a genuine sense of the soul of what the Death Guard have become.
It’s an easy read to recommend on that basis alone, but getting additional art and insight from the author- all with a pricetag of USD $40- pushes this into the essential reads category. While there was some wait between the Illustrated and Annotated Editions for Xenos and Malleus, I’m hopeful that the much smaller window between Malleus and The Lords of Silence portends good things to come.
Footnotes
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- At the time I took them to task for this, chiding the Black Library for spotlighting a book both out of print and very expensive on the secondary market. Clearly with the benefit of hindsight it’s safe to say they knew something I didn’t.
- Dunno about you, but my mind immediately went to Critters here. Job done, Mr. Wraight.
- Not a cellphone in sight…
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