Deathfire picks up events from the Salamanders' point of view upon the conclusion of The Unremembered Empire. Vulkan's body, with the fulgerite spear still protruding from his chest, lies in a coffin. The dozens of Salamander Astartes who remain alive after the massacre on Isstvan V elect to brave the ruinstorm and return Vulkan's body to Nocturne, to cremate his body in the fires of that volcanic planet. That is, if the war—and Chaos—will allow them.
Numeon, one of Vulkan's closest allies and highest ranking officers, is the central character of Deathfire. The novel takes the loyal Salamander warrior on a couple of rollercoaster rides. One ride is the battles he endures, ruinstorm and beyond. (This is Warhammer, after all.) But the more poignant ride is the belief in his primarch's life. One minute thought alive, the next dead, then back again, Numeon's faith, loyalty, belief, and brotherhood is put to the hardest test, right up to the final page or two. Cementing Vulkan's existence as a symbol, Numeon, ironically, is the more shaded character of the two.
Prior to reading Deathfire, Nick Kyme was not one of my favorite flavors of Horus Heresy author. I had him assigned to the 'serviceable' tier of writers. Straight-forward prose, nothing fancy, nothing subtle, he got the job done in A-B-C fashion. Deathfire has me thinking twice about this, however. The prose is still direct, but there were occasional, noteworthy turns of phrase that made some of the human scenes, human. The flow of events were likewise planned appropriately to get a reaction. To put that more bluntly, I ended up being invested in Numeon and his brothers' plight. The simplistic presentation of the villains didn't help, but I found myself caring about what happened based on the execution of story. Time to move Kyme to the 'interesting' tier?
Before closing this review, a quick note on the final quarter of Deathfire: from a plot perspective, it's superb. Combining chase scene, tower defense, space marine battles, and having the fate of a legion in its hands, I was engrossed. Kyme does a great job not giving away the story's hand, keeping the stakes real, and twisting and turning things in unexpected fashion. I had trouble putting it down, reading the last few chapters in a late-night burst that wouldn't let me sleep for a while once I'd turned the final page and put out the lights.
In the end, Deathfire, like a few other novels published in this phase of the series, starts putting rubber to road. Rather than the first third or first half being historical build up, followed by gratuitous space marine battles, story starts in situ. In the case of Deathfire, Kyme escalates the situation wonderfully as the pages turn. There is a gratuitous warp storm section, but the bookends to this, particularly the last quarter of the novel, never let up in exciting and unpredictable fashion. If Kyme can keep up this level of fiction, he will move up my personal ranks of Warhammer authors. Now about that title, dramatic but...
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