Review - The Lords of Silence, Chris Wraight
Being an avid collector of all things Death Guard, when I heard there was a novel with a warband of Death Guard as the protagonists I jumped at the chance to read it. Previously, I only read about them as antagonists in things like the Dark Imperium series.
At its heart, The Lord of Silence is a mystery novel. However it does start with a literal bang, as the book opens with our plucky heroes crashing out of the warp, aboard their foetid grand cruiser, the Solace. With no idea where they are or how they got there, Lord Vorx needs to get his bearings and find out what happened. Oh, and there’s some loyalist Space Marines running about on the lower decks causing a ruckus. If you’re worried that this is going to be relentless bolter-porn from cover to cover, don’t be. The opening might be explosive but the Lords of Silence quickly finds its own more relaxed pace, as befitting the lumbering Death Guard.
The Lords of Silence themselves shine (not literally) in the spotlight, they each have their own goals and foibles giving each of them a great sense of individuality. Vorx’ second in command, Captain Garstag, might be hungry for power but he equally has some considerable insecurities that keep him in check. What might a nigh-on immortal giant of disease and rage be insecure about you ask? Well, I’ll not spoil that here. Rounding out the main characters are Slert, a Biologus Putrifier, and Philemon, a Tallyman. Both are disgusting in their own right and the novel gives us an insight to what they do when the Death Guard aren’t marching to war. A Tallyman might provide some nice buffs to your lads on the tabletop but what does he do between cutting servants of the Corpse-Emperor down like the dogs they are? In fact, a fair amount the Lords of Silence is given over to what the characters are doing in their down time. I promise you, this is not as boring as it sounds. Part of that has to do with the various Nurlgings, or as the Death Guard call them: Little Lords, that inhabit the Solace providing small amounts of comic relief.
As mentioned, the Lords of Silence is a mystery novel and the whodunit at the core of the novel means that there aren’t really antagonists in the story. There are adversaries that the warband will need to overcome, in case you thought the bulk of this novel was the Solace cruising around the depths of space while the Death Guard put their bloated feet up to enjoy a nice hot cup of pus. Moreover, these adversaries aren’t simply mooks for the Death Guard to roll over, some of them have point of view chapters interspersed throughout the book, which provide a nice break from all the hulking disease monsters.
In general, the book hits some really good story beats but overall, I think my favourite things about it are:
Getting to see Papa Nurgles’ gifts from a first person point of view. Seeing what pledging yourself the god of pestilence does to only your body but your mind as well was fascinating. Nurgle isn’t quick and nasty like Khorne, it’s a slow rot and the worst part is that some of the characters are fully aware of this degradation.
The diseases aren’t overblown, being in the same square mile of a Plague Marine breathing unfiltered air isn’t going to instantly kill you like it does in some other novels. Being near a Death Guard marine in the Lord of Silence certainly isn’t healthy and it will kill you, but it’s exaggerated to over the top levels.
Mortals get their time to shine. Despite the book ostensibly being about the exploits of a Death Guard warband there are still some great passages from the point of view of regular humans.
That being said, Lords of Silence is not without its flaws.
It is a little short, at only 400 pages for the paperback version it’s going to leave you wanting more and unfortunately, this so far is the only novel featuring the titular Lords of Silence.
Minor spoilers I guess, but it turns out that the Solace is packing enough gribblies to invade a major Imperial world, and that fact kind of comes out of nowhere. So much attention is given to the core group of characters that the remainder of the Lords of Silence warband is only really mentioned in passing.
Overall, I would say that if you’re a fan of the Death Guard then definitely pick this book up. It might not be perfect and it might not be long, but it’s a thoroughly entertaining read that gives the followers of Nurgle some much needed time in the sun.