#Galaxy in Flames

[leareadsheresy]

Galaxy in Flames

This post contains spoilers for Galaxy in Flames, by Ben Counter, first published as a novel on (as nearly as I can tell) October 10th, 2006.

I'll be honest, I don't have a lot to say about this one. This book is the story of how Horus took the major part of the Sons of Horus, Death Guard, Emperor's Children, and World Eaters Legions to the Istvaan system on false pretenses of putting down another rebellion, and on the planet Istvaan III deployed those portions of them he judged most likely to object to his rebellion against the Emperor in a spearhead strike against the planetary capital, then bombarded the planet from orbit in an attempt to kill all the potential loyalists in a first strike. Saul Tarvitz, an Emperor's Children marine from Horus Rising, does some investigation behind the scenes, figures out the plot, then flees to the planet's surface in time to warn the spearhead, who take shelter underground, allowing many of them to survive the bombardment (virus bombs that otherwise kill all life on the planet, including its six or so billion civillian inhabitants). What follows is then three months of fighting on the surface in the ruins of the planetary capital, with the loyalists in slow retreat, getting whittled down to buy time in the hope that word has gotten out of Horus's treachery and a relief force will be sent to rescue them. No relief force arrives, but their slow defeat does tangle up the traitor forces in time for word of Horus's treachery to make it back to the Imperium. Loken and Torgaddon, the loyalist half of Horus's advisory Mournival council, fight Abaddon and Aximand, the traitor half; Abaddon and Aximand both live, Torgaddon dies, and Loken's fate is left unclear (spoilers he survives and is a character in later books).

It ends like this:

In the meantime, three embedded civilian observers who've been secondary characters in the last two books escape from Horus's flagship the Vengful Spirit to the Eisenstein, the one ship in the fleet held secretly by loyalists, which escapes and will be the subject of the next book. One of them, Euphrati Keeler, is now preaching the Emperor's divinity, manifesting miracles, and being called a saint.

It's essentially an extended action story with a jailbreak B-plot. It makes some odd pacing decisions, basically skipping from the bombardment to the last few day of the siege; I feel like it could have wrung more drama from making the situation more grinding and desperate... but then I'm just describing Helsreach, which is not surprising because Helsreach did this better.

All but one of the traitors have ridden a slip-and-slide down into Saturday morning cartoon villainy in this book; they're now all sneering monsters, constantly internal monologuing their own sense of superiority and expressing petty contempt for everyone around them, including amongst each other. Horus imperiously tells people who were his trusted allies, friends, and close confidants in Horus Rising how cool he is and how they'd better not fail him; those former close confidants and trusted allies just accept that he's right to do that and then treat their former friends and subordinates the same way. It's not even that they feel out of character; they don't really have characters. The exceptions are Lucius, who's like that but more so, because he's one of the series' designated ultra-assholes like Erebus, and Aximand, who kills Torgaddon and feels bad about it. I assume that'll come up later.

Look, it's fine. It does the job it sets out to do. It doesn't fail in any interesting or infuriating ways like False Gods did; the ending is reasonably affecting if you like Saul Tarvitz. It successfully novelizes some lore that was around for decades and moves the events of the series forward. This is one of the most important events in the Heresy and we'll be re-visiting it a lot in future material; I hear some of that future material treats it better than this did.

Euphrati Keeler's role is weird. You would think the book would be interested in playing with tone when it comes to the death of the atheistic Imperial Truth and the birth of the Imperial cult, but like the death of all native life on Istvaan III and the betrayal and murder of the loyalists by their traitor brothers, it's all presented in a very matter-of-fact manner.

#horus heresy #Galaxy in Flames #warhammer 30k #lea reads heresy #read along #spoilers #YouTube

[waste-of-a-song]

My favorite part of Galaxy in Flames is when Erebus shuts the fuck up and stops talking

#warhammer #warhammer 30k #horus heresy #horus heresy novels #warhammer books #galaxy in flames #erebus is a piece of shit

[ladymirdan]

Unhinged Horse Heresy Review III - Galaxy in flames

Ok, so I've binged three books in three days about mostly the same characters and the events are starting to blur and I have no idea what happened in what book.

Most importantly: was it any good?

The answer is complicated, it wasn't bad. I might have enjoyed it more if I didn't know so much about the events contained in it. I play 40k and I know which characters still live.

I wished I had something unhinged to say but I don't.

I'm usually a big fan of bolter-porn but even that was so middle of the road here, even Lucius was boring and that is a crime in itself.

The only thing I really liked was Qruze showing he had balls.

The next book better be more interesting or I will struggle to finish this series.

#warhammer 40k #40k #horus heresy #galaxy in flames #unhinged review

[spacewonder19]

IC 405 Flaming Star © cosmic_background

#flaming star nebula #space #astrophotography #night sky #universe #stars #planet #solar system #astronomy #cosmos #galaxy #nebula #nasa

[the-wolf-and-moon]

IC 405, Flaming Star

#astronomy #sky #night #space #stars #nasa #science #universe #nebula #galaxy #cosmos #flame

[puppetmaster13u]

Because it is Mermay:

Originally did this art for one of @radiance1 prompts/story ideas, which also gives an idea of colors so.

#dcxdp #dpxdc #my art #prompts #if you wanna use this for inspiration do it #mermay #adult danny #THIS IS NOT SHIPPING #Vlad and Danny are simply fellow eldritch space creatures after leaving their destroyed dimension behind #I am blaming the GIW as they're so stupid that they were planning to nuke the Zone like that is Not a Good Idea #Yes Danny's lower face & throat splits open into a maw that is as dark as a black hole #I wonder if they change to merfolk forms over thousands of years & it results in outsider pov thinking they're evolving or something #but probably not #I like to think that sometimes they appear as unfathomable creatures #other times akin to beautiful animals of the very cosmos #and other times as something between humanoid and creature and something Other #humanoid forms may be smaller than their less humanoid forms but they're still like the size of a moon #If Ellie & Dan were also a thing in this au #I feel like Dan would be some sort of space sun shark- the inside of its maw like a supernova & flames trailing from its fins #and Ellie would be some sort of space-aurora eel (fin-frill like an aurora & body like a galaxy similar to Danny's) #I feel like they'd be at least the size of the Watchtower if they're any smaller than the other two #Very much ancient manifestations of space itself sort of vibes #Void Octopus Vlad #Space Whale Danny #he's not technically an octopus but closest thing he looks like lol #go wild

[boanerges20]

Dusty Horsehead & Flame Nebula by Plorimor

#horse head #flame nebula #nebula #plorimor #astrophotography #cosmos #universe #galaxy #nebulas #cosmic

[shallowoak]

#don't look at me like that #one piece #one piece spoilers #one piece meme #you can now play as luigi #super mario galaxy #mario galaxy #mario #monkey d luffy #portgas d ace #sabo the revolutionary #straw hat luffy #fire fist ace #op sabo #sabo #flame emperor sabo #ace one piece #luffy #one piece edit #marineford #paramount war #asl brothers #asl one piece #ace sabo luffy

[alizera62quartz]

💙❤️💕

#alizera62 #my artwork #su #fanart #galaxy colors #steven universe #garnet #flames #snow #snowflakes #glowing

[the-punforgiven]

I know there's that whole stereotype of DMs and PCs hating each other or whatever but to be 100% honest the most joy I get out of D&D is when my players come up with some absolutely crazy batshit idea that should be absolutely impossible rules as written because as the DM I can choose to ignore that dumb nerd shit and just say "That sounds fucking rad dude, I'm giving you inspiration for that idea, now make an Acrobatics check."

#''Hey DM the mage cast fireball behind me can I sacrifice my Animated Shield to jump off it to try and launch myself at him?'' Like YES??? #That is fucking insane you can absolutely do that dude #What am I gonna do NOT take the opportunity to describe this insane paladin launching out of the blast still enwreathed in flame #Surrounded by shards of his shattering magical shield still crackling with arcane energy as they light up around him like stars #Looking almost like a miniature galaxy with this arbiter of divine wrath emerging from the supernova screaming in bloodlust and fury #lit dramatically from both the blast the arcane sparks and the flaming feathers from their burning cloak following them out of the blast #Flying through the air with weapons raised toward a wizard who is very VERY quickly shifting from smug to utterly fucking terrified? #Fucking absolutely you can do that dude that sounds sick as fuck #go OFF king #Pun's text Posts

[zynxsone]

Some doodles from the same canvas, that circle is to be bellroc lol. The one in the right is Sa'riya

DO NOT REPOST/USE WITHOUT PERMISSION OR I WILL CUT ALL OF YOUR REMAINING HAIR WHILE YOU SLEEP

#boboiboy #tales of arcadia #trollhunters #3below #digital art #bellroc keeper of the flame #bellroc #sariya #bbbglxs2 #boboiboy galaxy #sa'riya #krel #krel tarron #sketch

[lunaticpsyker08]

Duke Wriothesley Koopa inhabits a prison facility located in the cold regions of the snow kingdom. ❄️

#if I like a character enough they will be a cute koopa #wriothesley has such-a nice design #IT TRANSLATED WELL #koopa #bowser #super mario #genshinimpact #beast #wriothesley #think about Freeze flame Galaxy music from smg #aahh.…

[flaming-tennis-ball]

*A bucket of permanent olive green dye falls on you*

Get fucked loser

@greengalaxyball

AGHH!!! AH!!!

(it flinches in shock, its flames getting soaked and almost going out)

NO!!! NO NO NO NO NO!!! GALAXY, DON’T YOU REALIZE WHY I ALWAYS STAY AWAY FROM NON-FLAMMABLE LIQUIDS?!?

(its flames slowly flicker out)

A-Ah… no… wait… @elongatedtennisball… please… g-get my… m-matches…

(it rolls backwards and passes out)

#flaming tennis ball #tbcu #tennis ball #fire #the plot thickens #GALAXY YOU STUPID BASTARD /lh

[nemainofthewater]

Best character surnamed: Xuan

Come and vote for the best characters with the same surname!*

What does best mean? It's up to you! Whether you love them, are intrigued by their characters, love to hate them, or they're your '2 second blorbos whose personality you made up wholesale', these are all reasons for you to vote for your favs!

*note, the surnames are not exactly the same in all the cases, as often there will be a different character. I am, however, grouping them all together otherwise things got more complicated.

Propaganda is very welcome! If I’ve forgotten anyone, let me know in the notes.

This is part of a larger series of ‘best character with X surname’ polls’. The overview with ongoing polls, winners, and future polls can be found here

#poll #love like the galaxy #those years in quest of honor mine #burning flames #the king's woman #sword and fairy 4

[spacewonder19]

Horsehead & Flame Nebulae © Aleix Roig

#space #astrophotography #astronomy #universe #stars #night sky #nebula #nasa #planet #galaxy #planets #cosmos #blue horsehead nebula #flame nebula #solar system

[the-wolf-and-moon]

NGC 2024, Flame Nebula

#astronomy #night #sky #space #stars #nasa #science #universe #nebula #galaxy #cosmos #flame #fire