Dark Angels: Ravenwing

This post is going to be a mix of a review of the book Ravenwing by Gav Thorpe and some of my own feelings about the Dark Angels chapter. My own history with the chapter is pretty limited, I have never played them on the table or even read all the way through their codex but I have read multiple Black Library books where Dark Angels have a prominent role. For those that don't want to read the full post I will suggest to you that you read Ravenwing, I really think that it is one of the better written space marine books and well worth the time spent reading it. Spoilers throughout this post.

Ravenwing by Mr. Gav Thorpe is not surprisingly about the Dark Angels 2nd Company. For those that don't know, it is the 2nd's mission to hunt down the Fallen, those that betrayed their primarch, and get them to confess their sins before being executed. This book really takes the reader into how the chapter functions, and what exactly everyone's role is. I had no idea that 75% of the chapter have no clue about the Fallen, they know just about as much in that area as a grot which is nothing. The simple fact that the majority of the chapter is being lied to protected by the minority of the chapter really came as a shock to me. It had previously been my understanding that the entire chapter ran around the galaxy and hunted the Fallen, but it's really 200 guys that the burden falls on, and then another handful get taken out of those two companies to become watch dogs in the regular battle companies. A little bit more about the Ravenwing itself; they go into battle on bikes which is pretty cool, they wear black which is also cool, and they have secret rituals where the higher in the pecking order you go the more secrets are unveiled to you. 

 

In the book the 5th Company is forced to tag along with the 2nd because the Ravenwing is on the hunt and they don't want to waste time figuring out a good excuse to ditch their brothers, so they just lie to them the entire time, put them at risk with no explanation, and then get offended when one squad doesn't dance to their fiddle. As far as the story goes the Ravenwing would have not gotten very far since they are loathe to dismount from their bikes and of the 4 different places they fight in the book maybe one of them was suitable for their style of fighting. Still the 5th company guys get tasked with either securing a perimeter far far away from where they might stumble on the Fallen, or they are creating a beach head for the Ravenguard to go zooming past without so much as a thank you. Naturally there is some bitterness there and hurt feelings that get taken care of in some pretty unique ways. 

I really did like the book, the characters were grounded and made sense even if I do disagree with how the Dark Angels run things. There were the classical personas; the new guy, the braggart, the hot shot, Mr. Pessimist, the guy that like to set things on fire, but there were also a few welcome additions. The Ravenwing librarian who for once was not all powerful but silently competent with good insights, both of the Hunt masters who were silent and brooding but when they spoke it was worth while to read what they said twice and they actually cared about their battle-brothers which was a nice touch. I really feel like space marines are some of the hardest characters to write for so when an author gets a good cast of them like in this book it makes me a very happy reader. I hope as the trilogy continues that the established characters don't get awesome plot armor because people died in this last book at a very appreciative pace. If someone got shot in the chest by a plasma gun they weren't getting back up again for the most part. 

Just some final thoughts here. I really don't get how this chapter has survived for so long since it's current foundations are all built on lies. Blood Angels have the red thirst and black rage, Space Wolves have the Wulfun, Imperial Fists have their pain glove thing. My point is that each chapter has it's own dark secret but it is something that the chapter as a whole knows about and makes them stronger for it as individuals and as a whole. Of course each chapter will hunt down those that find out about their secret and dispose of them but Dark Angels take everything to a whole new level. Just look at the Raven/Deathwing, one wears black and the other a light beige color that sets them apart from the green everyone else in the chapter wears. I don't feel like the Dark Angels are a real chapter, it's 200+ guys that hold a deep dark secret that 700+ are hidden from because they are not trusted to have the spiritual fortitude to really know what's going on. If I was the chapter master I would have disbanded the fighting companies a long time ago, or just created a successor chapter out of them while the Wings do the "real" work. Thanks for reading and have an Emperor Blessed day!