Warhammer in general is loaded with it’s own terms for things, but Legion replaces ranks that we’re familiar with (Captain, Sergeant, etc) for ones which we, generally, are not.

I did find some of the language in Legion a bit confusing to begin with. Especially the role of the female officer, the overseeing, Uxors (Which means wife in Latin) and her aides. Of course there is the ‘big cheese’ at the top but it’s the foot-soldiers beneath them that captivated me.

It is the workings of the early Imperial Guard that I foudn interesting and how the rank and file worked. Two characters who find themselves thrust into the secretive ways of the Alpha Legion, taken from the comfort of their position within the Imperial Army undertaking a seemingly, never ending war of compliance, and put into a world they can barely comprehend. While he might be one too ‘steal the show’ from his more mundane human counterparts in Legion, I found Hurtado Bronzi and Peto Soneka just as compelling. I found John Grammaticus to be a very enjoyable character and despite all his otherworldly, psychic enhancements he came across as very human, suffering from a plethora of human emotions – arrogance and, surprisingly, romance. Of course, nothing within the web of the Imperium goes smoothly and he runs into all sorts of trouble for his efforts. One such character is reluctant spy, John Grammaticus, who has been ordered by his Masters – the mysterious, Cabal – to set up a meeting between them and the Primarch of the Alpha Legion, Alpharius. Legion, unlike the suggested title spends less focus on the actual Space Marines within the Alpha Legion and more on the characters that support, and vex, them. This is the second time I have read the book and I enjoyed it a lot more this second time around – the first time I was less interested in the Imperial Army and wanted more Space Marines, this time I was a lot more open minded. It feels like it has been a while since I picked up a Horus Heresy novel, Legion being the 7th in the long-spanning saga, and after the mixed thoughts that Descent of Angels left me with, I admit, I was excited to pick up Legion again.

My Horus Heresy reads are paired with Wordaholic Anonymous, and when their review for Legion is posted, I shall link it here. But what drives the Alpha Legion? Can they be trusted, and what side will they choose when the Great War begins? Loyalties are put to the test, and the cunning schemes of an alien intelligence revealed.” Review The Space Marines of the Alpha Legion, the last and most secretive of all the Legiones Astartes brotherhoods, arrive on a heathen world to support the Imperial Army in a pacification campaign against strange and uncanny forces.

“A Great War is coming, and it will engulf the Imperium of Man.

Legion abnett