Fulgrim: The Palatine Phoenix – Josh Reynolds

2 stars

I’m very eh about this book and it’s unfortunate because I was interested in learning more about Fulgrim and his Legion.

The Palatine Phoenix takes a very long time to get where it’s going. There’s a lot of petty political maneuvering that takes far longer than it needs to resolve it, especially when you consider that the person resolving the politics is a being created by the Emperor himself with cogitator-level thought processing.

But, suspending disbelief on that, Fulgrim’s sheer arrogance made him a less enjoyable character to read. All his brothers tend to be arrogant in some way but I feel like that’s literally Fulgrim’s entire character beyond an intense appreciation for art and culture. There was nothing else to him, or at least nothing that stuck out to me.

I also had a really hard time connecting with any of his sons. None of them felt overly important or necessary to me. In all the other Primarch books I’ve read, there’s been at least one son that I could immediately tell was special and would be important in some manner later, but not here. Even the son I did somewhat like felt entirely forgettable.

After reading this book, I don’t think Fulgrim is the Primarch for me. Hopefully when I read his other books, he’ll endear himself to me more but until then, I’ll just chalk this up as a Legion that I couldn’t care less for.