Review of Vulkan Lives by Nick Kyme

Upon completing the third Horus Heresy novel, Galaxy in Flames, I was in awe of the new level the 30k galaxy had been taken. The stakes were huge. But I was mildly disappointed at the relative lack of weight given to events on Isstvan V. Where Isstvan III was the “quiet” moment in which Horus revealed his revolt internally, Isstvan V was the “loud” moment, the moment it became known to the wider universe. Despite being larger in import, however, the story didn't seem to have the same respect for the battle. Know No Fear and its representation of a sub-battle delivered more weight to the Word Bearer's book-length attack on the Ultramarines than does Horus' betrayal of all humanity in Flames. I held out hope that perhaps future books/stories would explore it in more detail. I'm not sure Vulkan Lives by Nick Kyme (2013), twenty-sixth novel in the series, is my hope rewarded, but it certainly is a deeper dive into the events on the black sand planet and the primarchs involved.

Vulkan Lives is told through two storylines which alternate back and forth in the narrative. One is the time pre-Istvann V, the time when Horus' rebellion was unknown to the wider universe and all the primarchs and legions still think of themselves as brothers. The other is directly after the events of Istvann V, the time of the disappearance of Vulkan, primarch of the Salamanders. Thought dead by what remains of his Legion, he is, in fact, in the captivity of Konrad Curze, primarch of the Night Lords. A Groundhog's Day scenario playing out, Curze tortures Vulkan through death and back again, that is, until the cycle breaks. What breaks is of interest.

The title Vulkan Lives thus has a few angles. From one, indeed Vulkan was not killed at Istvann V despite what some may think: he lives in Curze's captivity. From another, Vulkan must come to terms with the new, repetitive form of existence his life has undertaken in captivity, and indeed question whether it is life at all. And thirdly, as a kind of rallying cry for the few Salamanders left alive—a hope to get behind as they look to recalibrate their sense of purpose and existence. And so while a touch corny on the lips, the title does resonate in the story itself with meaning at several points.

Of the pantheon of HH writers, Nick Kyme is the workaday variety. Direct, straight to the point, his story sticks to the here and now, relaying details in short, snappy sentences. There is no subtlety. What the reader reads is what the story is—not a bad thing, just not a nuanced thing. I personally prefer the more layered style of Abnett or McNeill, but Kyme gets the job done.

If there were any complaints, or perhaps challenges, with Vulkan Lives, one might potentially be the relative monotone of Vulkan. A classic, loyal hero, there may be some who consider him boring in the face of Fulgrim, Magnus, Peturabo, Horus' and other, more nuanced stories. And those arguments, to some degree, would be fair. To be completely fair, however, Kyme does use the Groundhog's Day effect of Vulkan's imprisonment to dig deeper into the layers of the his character to expose what loyalty, strength, bravery, courage—classic hero qualities—mean to Vulkan, and by extension, to the reader's understanding and perception of the novel. Vulkan's fate, I think, justifies this. I don't think readers ever come to a fully 3D human, but at the same time, Vulkan is not a one-note tune the reader quickly gets bored of. Kyme does just enough to sustain him throughout the narrative. Can he hold up to future, novel-length treatments? Time will tell. (For the record, Curze the villain is equally 1.5D; each primarch operates on opposite ends of the extreme philosophies on which the series turns.)

Another challenge is that once the reader recognizes the Groundhog's Day pattern, they start to expect it—that Vulkan's reality is not “reality”, and that he will be thrown back into hell soon enough. It makes the danger inherent to such scenes not as visceral as it could have been. The reader knows he will “escape”, and the novel thus becomes more a test of Kyme's imagination: how inventive can he be with each new scenario? (Answer: pretty inventive. I'll give him an A.)

In the end, Vulkan Lives is a critical but bloated piece in the Horus Heresy puzzle. The mystery of Vulkan's fate at Isstvan V is resolved, readers are finally, properly introduced to Vulkan and the Salamander legion, and perhaps most importantly (at least for me), readers get a good view of what went down on Isstvan V. That being said, the pattern of Vulkan's imprisonment overstays its welcome, Vulkan and Kurze operate more in archetype than human territory, and Kyme's style could have been a bit more nuanced to deliver a more sophisticated story. What's on the page gets things from A to B effectively, as does the novel in the series, just perhaps could have been more succinct.