Scars (Volume 28)

Le 28e tome de l'Hérésie d'Horus, où apparaissent pour la "première" fois les White Scars, grands oubliés de la série jusqu'ici.Avec ses 475 pages en édition originale, on peut évidemment s'attendre au schéma classique de la Black Library, avec 200 pages "introductives", 150 pages de développements, et le reste en dénouement/action pure. Et Scars ne déroge pas à la règle, même si pour une fois, l'action se cherche un peu...Il faut dire que la construction du roman n'est pas aidée par une profusion de personnages et de seconds couteaux. Si j'ai beaucoup aimé la dichotomie Torghun / Shiba, j'avoue ne pas comprendre ce que vient faire dans ce livre l'arc Yesugei, qui ne participe jamais à quoi que ce soit de la trame principale. C'est, clairement, une novella rapportée dans le roman pour l'épaissir, et ça m'a honnêtement barbé, parce qu'à force on s'y perd sur qui fait quoi et où.Si le roman nous balade depuis Chogoris jusqu'à Prospero, en passant par Ullanor, j'ai trouvé qu'il manquait un petit quelque chose mal dissimulé sous l'orgie de personnages, de primarques et de légions (pensez donc, on a des Scars, des Word Bearers, des Space Wolves, des Alpha Legion, et même quelques Salamanders, un Iron Hand, un Thousand Sons, et des Death Guard...). Ce que Chris Wraight a développé sur 475 pages pouvait en réalité tenir en 3 novellas de moins de 100 pages.En clair, je me suis ennuyé, malgré qu'en soi, le roman Scars ne soit pas mauvais. Il part simplement trop dans tous les sens, se contente d'assimiler les Scars à "ils vont vite" et "sont indépendants", et c'est à peu près tout.Un petit ratage avant le grand Vengeful Spirit, sans grande conséquence.

La legione dei White Scars è chiaramente ispirata alle forze di Ghengjis Khan..brutale e con riti violenti in questo volume si narrano le vicende della legione durante l'eresia..dati i suoi tratti peculiari la legione deve affrontare i propri dubbi..essere fedeli all'imperatore o cedere alla propria parte oscura?

I usually do not review books, but I thought this one deserved praise. Good narrative structure, never losing the plot threads, never deviating from it's point, and the action scenes are thrilling.Personally though the excellency of this book is due the characterization of the White Scars legion, each POV shows a little more about the legion:The Khan show every second what it means being him, and that is not showing himself, which is perhaps the strength and the weakness of his entire legion. I just love how Mr. Wraight managed to insert this into the book (again, due to his well structure narrative). His relationship with Magnus and Horus was quite well explained and justified, which helped with one of the showcases of the book: the Khan's fight against one of his brothers.Yesugei is perhaps the most affable Astartes I've EVER read to a point that he actually upped himself to the likes of Loken in my mind. Not only he is a believable and a well developed mentor archetype, but Yesugei deals with the important plot point of the Psykers through the heresy.Shiban and Torgun were good foils, though if you wish to read more about them check Brotherhood of the Storm, because their purpose is quite clear (and very important to both understand the White Scars position in the Heresy and another good justification for following Horus, and one that does not involve insanity), but I thought they could have been used more.Ilya was the Hawser character that helped the readers to see the Scars from a human point of view, and it was enjoyable seeing her liking the legion more and more as the story developed (her exasperation were somewhat funny too).One thing that really matters to me in quite a personal way though is the fact this book brings REPRESENTATION to the table (pun intended). I'm a man of asian descent (writing through a relative account) and while a big fan of the 40K universe I could hardly feel close to the characters in a personal manner due to the fact of how they are mainly european white men. My biggest praise towards Mr.Wraight is not making the Scars either a stereotype (which happens so often in media, be from the West or from the East) or white european characters in mongol skin, but their own Legion, with touches of some asian cultures (like the philosophies behind GO) that I could identify myself with.All in all, it's espetacular and far more than I would expect from the White Scars Legion. Also it brings one of the best lines of the Heresy:'By the time I make my kills, I'm always laughing.'

A great story to learn more about the White Scars ... and the Khan !

Wraight has done an absolutely stellar job with his books following the Rout, and his handling of the White Scars here, probably the least-regarded of the Legions, is done just as well. There are enough cues to link the Scars back to their Asiatic roots without being overly heavy-handed about it (as another reviewer mentioned, losing the verbal tics would have made it a bit cleaner - although it did lead to an unexpected laugh during the first meeting of the Scars and the Salamander/Iron Hands company). The story in the book is complex without being byzantine, and covers more than I expected it to: the Scars, the Rout, the Alpha Legion, Salamanders and Thousand Sons all find some mention in this book without stepping on each others' toes, and there's still room left some some rather epic battles.As Wraight has done a great job keeping the Rout from being simple, smelly, mead-swilling brutes, he turns the Scars into a rather unique Legion, and even goes into some small detail on the Khan's support of Magnus, and the Librarius - which always seemed an interesting, if confusing, footnote in the history of the Heresy.The past few Heresy books have been rather weak for the most part (Unremembered Empire probably being the weakest of the lot, while I liked Angel Exterminatus for the exploration of Perturabo's character), but Scars quite easily snaps the lethargy the series has become mired in and recalls the scale of the early Heresy books - it's much more Space Marines and much less Spehss Mahreens.