Audio Review // Child of Night by John French

Eeek. I bloody love a Night Lords story. This Legion deserves more books. Not just as the scary villains lurking around the edges of someone else's story, but actually getting the chance to show us what they've been up to.

There's so much potential in the Night Lords, particularly during the Horus Heresy, and I'm always happy when a story gives us a little more of that darker side of the Legion. So when I saw John French had written Child of Night, I was hoping this short audio would give me a little taste of what I've been craving.

Let's get into it.

The Details

Title: Child of Night
Author: John French
Format: Audio drama / short story

The Blurb

Deep beneath Terra, in the dark hive sumps, Chief Librarian Fel Zharost of the Night Lords is being hunted. Having abandoned his insane Primarch and his brothers years earlier, Zharost doesn't even know what he's done wrong. He only knows he doesn't want to be caught. But when he discovers what has happened to his Legion, Zharost is forced to confront the past he's been trying to escape.

Where does his loyalty lie? And what will he do when he discovers the Legion he once served has fallen into heresy?

The Review

First things first...That was bloody short. I believe the Kindle edition is only around 15 pages, so this is definitely a quick listen, and honestly, that's my biggest complaint. It deserved more. Because what John French manages to squeeze into this little story is genuinely bloody good.

Rather than giving us the stereotypical Night Lord who solves every problem with torture, fear and physical violence, French gives us Fel Zharost, a character who feels very different from the image we often get of the Legion. Zharost is a Chief Librarian, but more importantly, he's someone who has already walked away from the Night Lords. He's been banished and has returned to the one place he still considers home: Terra.

He's hiding in the underhive, trying to disappear into the vast population and forget about the Legion he once served. Of course, this is the Horus Heresy. Nobody gets to hide forever.

Fel Zharost: Zharost is easily the highlight of the story for me. He's an interesting character because he allows us to see the Night Lords from the inside without simply making him another monster. He's seen what the Legion was becoming. He's seen the changes from the early Terran Night Lords, through the influence of Nostramo, and ultimately towards the Legion that becomes part of the Heresy, and that transition is fascinating.

We get a glimpse of a Legion that wasn't always what it eventually became. You can almost watch the rot setting in. The Night Lords don't suddenly become monsters overnight. It's a gradual process of compromise, violence and the erosion of whatever morality they once possessed, and I really enjoyed that.

One of the things I enjoy most about the Horus Heresy is that it isn't always as simple as good versus evil. Child of Night plays with that idea really well. Zharost has abandoned the Night Lords because he knows what they've become. But that doesn't automatically make everyone hunting him a hero. The Knight-Errants, working for Malcador, operate in that wonderfully murky area where the lines between right and wrong, that are becoming increasingly blurred. They're doing terrible things for what they believe is the right reason. They're making decisions that have enormous consequences, and they're dealing with people who don't fit neatly into the categories of loyalist or traitor.

That's where Zharost becomes so interesting. He's not simply a Night Lord. He's not simply an enemy. He's someone caught between what he was, what the Legion became and what he might become next.

Terra's Underworld

I also really enjoyed getting a look at ancient Terra. We're not wandering around the grand halls of the Imperial Palace. We're down in the dark, dirty underworld. Hive sumps, forgotten communities and the sort of places where someone like Zharost can disappear. It gives the story a very different feel from some of the bigger Horus Heresy tales. The galaxy-spanning war is happening elsewhere, but down here, people are still just trying to survive.

Until the war comes looking for them, and, eventually, it does.

The Ending

The ending is strong. Without spoiling it, it certainly feels like Zharost's story isn't finished. It appears that he's heading towards the Knight-Errants, and that immediately got my brain working. Could we see him again? Could this eventually lead somewhere bigger?

And, naturally, one question immediately popped into my head: Is Fel Zharost going to become one of the founding Grey Knights? I'm not going to answer that here because discovering it for yourself is part of the fun. But I definitely want to find out.

Final Thoughts

Child of Night is a frustratingly good little story, and I say frustratingly because I wanted more. John French takes a character from one of the most brutal Legions in the setting and gives us someone with genuine depth. Zharost isn't simply another Night Lord waiting for an excuse to flay somebody alive. He's a survivor. He's someone who recognised what his Legion was becoming and walked away. The story also gives us a fascinating look at how the Night Lords changed over time, from their Terran origins through Nostramo and into the Heresy.

There's plenty of grey morality, some excellent Terra underworld world-building and a strong ending that left me wanting to know what happens next. For such a short story, it packs a surprising amount in. My only real complaint is that I wanted another bloody hour of it. I love a good Night Lords story, and this has only made me want more.

Give me a proper series following Zharost. Pleaseeeee.

The Night Lords deserve it.