Review of Scars by Chris Wraight

I'm almost at the Siege of Terra. But before cracking the first of those ten books, I promised myself I would read at least one Horus Heresy book per Legion. Some Legions have featured prominently in several books—Sons of Horus, Ultramarines, Emperor's Children, Death Angels, Blood Angels, etc. But some make minimal appearances. Legion, for example, is the only novel (to my knowledge) to focus on the Alpha Legion. And here there is Scars (2013), the 28th book book in the series, which focuses on one of the other aloof legions, the White Scars.

Scars centers on the primarch Jagatai Khan's legion and their journey from outliers to participants in the Heresy. Living distantly, far from the events of Isstvan and beyond, their creed has kept them out of the battles engulfing the human species. The events of Prospero, however, prove to be the catalyst bringing the Scars into the picture. With reports of brother attacking brother, Jagatai cautiously boards his ships and heads out to find out precisely what happened between Leman Russ and Magnus the Red, and in the process must do the last thing he expected, or wants to do: choose sides.

The progression of Scars is Benny and Joon, salt and pepper—a tale with two halves. The first half of Scars meanders—feels like a purposeless tale. I contemplated giving up several times, particularly as Wraight dug deeper into the Space Wolves. I like the Wolves, but the amount of content dedicated to them seemed to outweigh the import of their involvement in the novel. In the second half things coalesced, however, and my interest in Scars took hold. I won't spoil things here, but the character interaction and wheels within wheels of plot which spin out have good effect.

The technique on display in Scars is not poor, but it is also not good. It's not affecting, well structured, or engrossing. Wraight tells the story in his own way and accomplishes the goal of telling the story: he gets the bus from point A to point B. None of the passengers are (proverbially) harmed in the transfer. But it still feels like the ride could have been smoother—the prose, the delivery of scene, the distinguishing of characters, etc. could have gone through a couple more edits. And, as mentioned, I'm not entirely convinced the Benny/Joon structure of the novel is its most effective form. Perhaps interspersing bits of backstory in the present story would have helped build a little mystery? Perhaps choosing a different path from the first page to the halfway point would have resulted in more engaging tale? Perhaps giving readers a bit more history of White the Scars (as we get with several other Legions in other novels) would have better developed their and their inscrutable primarch's identity? As things stands, the novel doesn't seem to have the maturity other novels in the series do. To be clear, there is no denying Wraight's knowledge of the lore; I doubt readers will complain about the ay in which space marines and key players are utilized on the page. It's technique that I would look to sharpen.

In reading Scars, the reader brings to the table dozens of Horus Heresy novels. But Jagatai Khan and his legion know none of that backstory. They try to navigate who is fighting for who, who betrayed who, and in the end whose side, if any, is worth supporting. This juxtaposition, along with the key characters who make surprise entrances and the compelling conclusion, make for exciting reading—at least in the second half of the novel. I have criticisms of Wraight's execution, but the book is far from unreadable. I assume most readers won't even notice.