The Emperor's Legion: Watchers of the Throne Review - 3/5

This book is a tough one for me to be very critical of, I love the Adeptus Custodes and the Sisters of Silence, they are all but unheard of in the exhaustive lore of the Warhammer 40,000 universe and to see these mythical organizations and figures finally get some coverage is a veritable dream come true. That said thus far I have been rather disappointing in the quality of their coverage, Master of Mankind was pretty good but was very focused on a handful of characters and very specific events and much the same was true of the Dark Imperium. While we learned more about the Custodes in both books, especially the first, I was left wishing there had been more. While it would have been nice to see more about the organization and doctrines, history and culture of these groups what was there was still considerable compared to what had come before. It is also some consolation that Forge World's Horus Heresy series did provide a nice chunk of lore on both organizations though I still am hoping for further expansion and detail at some point.

Ultimately what I find particularly frustrating is the lack of exploration of the unique weapons, wargear and technology of the Adeptus Custodes. Watchers of the Throne includes mention of and has an important role for a Custodes owned warship known as the Chelandion, it is described as a hugely ornamented vessel equipped with ancient and rare archaeotech weapons and systems and it plays a significant role in the plot of the novel. Yet even at the end of this book I cannot tell you for certain the size or class of the ship, it is most likely a Destroyer of some kind but that's all the detail I can give you. We aren't given names or details about any of its weapons and while one new Custodian gunship, the Talion grav-lander, makes an appearance it too is not given much description or detail. There is some mention of Contemptor Galatus Dreadnoughts and mention of Terminators but specifics and weapons go largely unmentioned and certainly nothing about grav-tanks or Telemon heavy-dreadnoughts or any of the basically awesome stuff the Talons of the Emperor had in the 30k setting.

For that matter there are also some inconsistencies with the narrative here, the timeline (like much of the Gathering Storm details) is fairly muddled and fairly important details like the daemonic invasion of the Phalanx and it's emergency departure from Terra and arrival at Cadia go completely unmentioned while the book also states that a full company of Imperial Fists still garrison the old Legion's fortress monastery on Terra within the Imperial Palace, though that was destroyed by Goge Vandire and a permanent surface garrison hasn't been in place in thousands of years. With the Phalanx departed there shouldn't be any Imperial Fists left on Terra. When the book gets around to the arrival of Guilliman on Luna not only does it include one of the narrators in a move that is stunningly out of place and improbable but also repeatedly talks about multiple Imperial "saints" running around when really there was only Celestine, the singular. Maybe this was meant to be a conflation or misunderstanding of Celestine and her Geminae Superia but the description still comes off inadequately, the Superia lack great shining saintly haloes described by the narrator at the time so this detail still strikes as inconsistent with the wider established narrative.

Even the details of the Sisters of Silence strike somewhat out of place. Twelve novels in the Beast Arises series detail how in M32 the Sisters of Silence had been all but made extinct, cast from Terra and largely forgotten, left to dwindle to nothing in the outer darkness of the frontiers of the Imperium only to be rediscovered and called back to the Throneworld by Commander Koorland. Now apparently after that the order suffered the exact same fate... again. It's like the Star Wars Extended Universe bringing the Empire back a good four or five times, it gets very tiring to see the same plot used repeatedly in the same universe, is a little originality too much to ask for? I actually like the Watchers of the Throne's version of this plot point better than that in the Beast Arises, instead of near complete extinction the null maidens in Watchers of the Throne were scattered rejects, neglected and ignored by the High Lords and allowed to fall into obscurity and exile, reduced to a few isolated convents on backwater Imperial worlds and small garrisons on the Black Ships.

I know these gripes are thus far pretty exclusively the in the realm of my own lore-obsessed 40k nerdyness and thus if these were my only problems with this book I would have to be more forgiving of the final result but the problems with Watchers of the Throne don't end there.

Ultimately the narration of Watcher's of the Throne is depicted in the past tense, meaning the events have already come to pass, and the accounts recorded later on. This means that, like the Ciaphis Cain series to some extent, the outcome is already discernible from the outset, there is never really any tension or doubt about the results because the key characters survival is already determined and key details, like the launch and success of the Indomitus Crusade already known and covered. If this book had been released before the Dark Imperium and alongside the Gathering Storm expansion it would have slotted in pretty well and some thrill in the story might have been retained but as is this is like watching the first movie in a series after having already seen the sequel, you already know that whatever happens the sequel still occurs so nothing too bad can happen.

The story is also somewhat frustrated by the three narrators it follows, the Imperial Chancellor, a Custodes Shield-Captain and a random Sister of Silence. The highest ranking and best placed of these three is actually the Imperial Chancellor, unlike in Master of Mankind or the Dark Imperium we weren't following around with a Tribune or the Primaris Captain equerry to the Primarch Guilliman. The roles these characters play are important to the plot but they still stuck out to me as somewhat ancillary, close to the centers of power and importance but notably less significant. The Chancellor in particular falls completely out of relevance partway through the novel and his continued involvement becomes somewhat awkward and unnecessary.

Yet I think the thing that really stands out to me as the biggest issue with this novel is that it is clearly the foundation for something more. Written and created for other works to build off of, an establishment of the details surrounding the return of Guilliman and the freeing of the Talons of the Emperor to journey forth from Terra. Even the double title of this novel, first The Emperor's Legion, and then subordinate to that: Watchers of the Throne strengthens this feeling. I am left with the impression that Watchers of the Throne suffers the same problems as the new Tom Cruise Mummy movie. The new Mummy movie was intended to launch this new Dark Universe movie franchise, an attempt to copy the MCU and DCU film franchises but because it was so heavily invested with references, details and appearances by supporting cast that the audience had no connection to or interest in the movie failed as a stand-alone movie. To actually launch this new franchise the Mummy needed to be a great film in it's own right that would by it's existence lay the foundation of a new cinematic universe. By so heavily investing the film with references and allusions to a wider yet currently absent structure and interest the film just fell flat. Watchers of the Throne seems to suffer the same issues, it is so heavily invested with the need to create the basis of a new literary endeavor by Black Library that as a stand-alone novel it just does not capture the imagination or pull in the reader as well as it should. Too often I found myself frustrated by the obvious narrative and wishing to just skip ahead instead of actually becoming invested in the characters or immersed in the story.

Ultimately Watchers of the Throne just comes off to me as average, interesting at times but too often broken with dull and boring scenes that are clearly there to serve the greater narrative that just doesn't really exist yet. I think Games Workshop would have been better served with a novel depicting the Emperor's Legion already in action with the Indomitus Crusade or even after it, perhaps a sequel to the events of Dark Imperium rather than a prequel, with the foundation details explained in key exposition sequences or left to codex fluff to outline. First and foremost the novel should be a novel, a fun and engaging story that immerses the reader in the universe, invests in the characters, has risk and twists in the plot and while there are certainly moments where Watchers of the Throne approaches those things it's core responsibility as a series foundation constantly jerked me out of the story.

For anyone who is a huge fan of the Adeptus Custodes and/or the Sisters of Silence this novel is probably worth a read, but I would suggest waiting the six-twelve months for it to hit the shelves in softback or pick it up used and I am very glad I didn't splurge on the sixty dollar limited edition. I just hope we do get more novels that build off of this and finally give me something that does for the Custodes and Sisters what Battle of the Fang and the Ragnar Blackmane series did for the Space Wolves.