Ahriman: Exile (Ahriman #1)

There's a short story from the WD150-ish era about Thousand Son's Brother-Captain Karlsen's “memory palace” that's so much better than this entire book.

For one of the galaxy's most powerful minds, Ahriman sure is a dumbass.

The plot of Ahriman: Exile boils down to this supposed master sorcerer and Demi-god among men staggering from failure to disaster through the Eye of Terror. He is variably deceived, betrayed and coerced by his enemies and friends alike into every choice he has sworn not to take.

To be honest, given how useless Ahriman is most of the time, I did sometimes find it difficult to see him as a powerful Astartes sorcerer and not Frank Spencer in power amour.

That said, I loved this book. I think it is probably my favourite Black Library book I've read to date.

As well as being introduced to Ahriman, we meet a cast of characters each in various states of mental transformation. The narrative handling of the warped psyches of these narrators gives the book a semi-dreamlike atmosphere which is added to by frequent phantasmagoric visions and trips to Ahriman's mind palace.

Fittingly for a book set in the Eye of Terror, we are often unsure what is real and what is imagined and even, at times, whether such a distinction makes sense.

Another strength of the book is its treatment of the Chaos Space Marines. Just like in books such as Soul Hunter and Primogenitor, we get a strong sense of tragic figures who feel the loss of their nobility, brotherhood and glory yet know there is no chance of redemption. I find it a much more human and compelling treatment than crazed cultists or moustache twiddling evil-doers which we tend to get when it comes to chaos followers in Black Library novels.

Much of the tension in this book comes from the different ways that these dammed figures handle their fate. From those who accept and even try to accelerate it, to those who - even knowing the futility of the task - seek still to find some kind of escape.

I'd highly recommend Ahriman to anyone looking for an evocative, exciting and entertaining literary jaunt through the Eye of Terror.