The Lion: Son Of The Forest (Warhammer 40,000)

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If you never encountered a masculine man in your whole life and were tasked to write one... well... you would have Lion El'Johnson from this particular book. He is written like a self-hating man that oozes his, what leftists would call, "toxic masculinity". But, we see him start to tone police himself and other Space Marines in the novel like some sort of dude with mommy issues. Lion subdues the Fallen, named Zabriel, and learns that Zabriel thought that Lion was a traitor to the Imperium and Caliban - as Zabriel saw it, Lion's fleet was the one to open fire on Caliban. Lion swears that was not the case, and has Zabriel swear that he wasn't the one to shoot first either. They start to (distrustfully at first) work together.

The Lion gave up after Ruinstorm. He went for a scorched earth strategy because he couldn't think of anything else to do. Unlike Guilliman, who kept pushing forwards even as the Astronomican was faint or extinguished, with Guilliman's usual methodical planning, the Lion stopped trying to get to Terra for a while. This is easily a must read for Unforgiven stans. I'd also strongly recommend The Lion for any 40k fan that craves actual forward momentum in the lore. A great reintroduction to the Lion El' Jonson. The author does a respectful job of honouring the previous iterations done by othe

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Lohoc's insistence on never showing his face is called out as strange multiple times, but the book ultimately ends without explaining it. Empty Shell: Seraphax's plan is to turn the Lion into this, and then use his body to gain access to the Emperor so that he can kill him.

WarCom: Having written about the Alpha Legion and the Orks, and now the Dark Angels… do you truly believe that green is best? Curb-Stomp Battle: Played with; to the outsiders, any fight the Lion takes part in ends like this, with the Lion moping the floor with the enemy. From his perspective, he finds them a lot more straining. Wow, now this was a pretty damn awesome Warhammer 40,000 novel. Mike Brooks continues to really impress me with this cool new book, and I loved the elaborate and captivating tale contained within The Lion: Son of the Forest. Featuring an intriguing and emotionally charged narrative that perfectly revives a key Warhammer 40,000 character, The Lion is an outstanding read and I think this is probably Brooks’ best Warhammer novel yet.

Table of Contents

At the dawn of the Imperium of Man, there was no force more deadly nor more loyal to the Emperor than the Dark Angels, the first Legion of Space Marines. Led by their implacable and unstoppable Primarch and genefather, Lion El’Johnson, better known as the Lion, nothing was able to stop the Dark Angels as they crusaded from planet to planet dispensing the Emperor’s will. However, following the events of the Horus Heresy and the Lion’s inability to save the Emperor, the Dark Angels imploded from within. Treachery and years of resentment saw the Legion engage in a brutal and sudden civil war, which resulted in the destruction of the Dark Angel’s home world of Caliban, the scattering of the traitor Dark Angels throughout time and space as the Fallen, and the disappearance and apparent death of the Lion right when the galaxy needed him most. Hero of Another Story: Commander Dante, last seen in Darkness in the Blood trying to hold his section of Imperium Nihilus against the tyranids, appears in the epilogue to investigate the rumours of the Lion's return. The plot will see the Lion confronting “a formidable Chaos warband led by one of his traitorous sons”, and will lead the Lion to “rally his Fallen knights”. That’s a massive shakeup to the lore: the Fallen were separatist Space Marines within the Dark Angels legion who rebelled against the Imperium of Man during the Horus Heresy, and have spent the 10,000 years since on the lamb. You’ll need to read a lot of Horus Heresy books to decide exactly where their loyalties lie. Number Two: Zabriel gets roped into becoming the Lion's right-hand man as the first Fallen to be recruited to the cause.

For the best viewing experience, we recommend using old reddit version - https://old.reddit.com/r/40kLore/ A Form You Are Comfortable With: Subverted. The form the Emperor takes in "Mirror Caliban" is a rather simple visual metaphor representative of his current state, that of a wounded ancient human king, but the Lion cannot see through it.Halflings don’t make natural Blood Bowl players, but with enough gumption and a good lunch even the shortest soul can rise to league stardom. Take Cindy Piewhistle for example – once a master baker, now a Star Player who weaponises her delicious wares, while Puggy Baconbreath is an elite athlete by usual halfling standards, with the skill and discipline of a champion twice his size. The Lion and his Fallen are out of the loop on the state of the galaxy at large, with the Lion spending most of the book confident he is the last Primarch alive and concerned that the Emperor himself may be dead. It's not until the epilogue that he meets someone who can bring him up to speed. Distressed Dude: The Lion spends a significant portion of the book's climax trapped and in need of a rescue. Now in all honesty I read novels like these once in a blue moon, but I've been a dark angels fan for a very long time. The lion is even my favorite primarch, so when I found out he was getting a book! I was so excited, now that I've finished It my only negative thing to say is that a second one isnt out already. Aborted Arc: Early in the book, the Lion and Zabriel stumble upon the Thousand Eyes experimenting on captured space marines, and Baelor's first two point-of-view chapters mention that Seraphax has been trying to forcibly trigger the Blood Angel's Red Thirst. As soon as the Thousand Eyes learn about the Lion's survival, this plot is abandoned as Seraphax changes his plans to account for the sudden appearance of a Primarch.

Discussed when the Lion muses on the differences between himself and his brother Roboute Guilliman; Guilliman always thinks about a dozen things at once, making him an excellent logistician and strategist, but crippling his capabilities in individual combat, while the Lion is always laser-focused on one thing, which makes him a deadly duellist, but harms his ability to go with the flow or consider the big picture. The book develops the mythos of the Lion and the Fallen in an exciting direction that at once feels not at all obvious, and yet correct. The characterisations of the disparate members of the Fallen, and of the Lion himself, are nuanced and compelling. Stopped reading the moment I came across a character referred to as some sort of, I think it's called a 'neo-pronoun' or something dumb like that, where a character is referred to as something other than 'he' or 'she.' Faced with these strange times, the Lion can be certain of nothing and no-one, except for himself. But in a galaxy without the Emperor, without the Imperium, without his Legion, and without Caliban… who is he? Older and Wiser: The Lion, when last seen in Horus Heresy books, was prideful, cold and uncompromising. The state of the galaxy in the forty-second millennium makes him acutely aware of his own failings, and he works to be more understanding and forgiving.

This story is amazing, and I don't want to say much to avoid spoilers. However we get the Lion facing his failures, learning from them and forging a tiny island of peace inside a Maelstrom of chaos. Internal Reveal: There are aspects of the setting that the Warhammer 40K audience will be familiar with, but which are new to the characters.