Following the events of The Flight of the Eisenstein Swallow returns to Garro as he begins his work as Knight Errant for Malcador, the Sigilite, as the Grimdark Ash Ketchum.

If we consider the Lunar Wolf, Iacton Qruze to be Garro's Pikachu, the Ultramarine former Codicier, Tylos Rubio, is a Caterpie, making the blasted hellscape of Calth Viridian Forest.

The story is great. We get a lot of big things for the Heresy, lore, and a bunch of, if not the very first, one of the first fimes we see a lot of new things. We have Garro donning the grey and Malcador's sigii, recognisable as what will become the 'stylised I' of the Inquisition, and starting to catch em all, officially ruled rule breaking (I'm too tired to rant about Nikea, and how it makes no sense with the Emperor and Malcador, but is a cool biblical canon reference), one of the first time we see Chaos Cultists, mutants, and a Daemon engine (Defiler). There a decent bit of action and dialogue.

The writing is quality, Swallow brings his A game to early Heresy and audio dramas, which I continue to be shocked by after struggling through the Rafen Blood Angels books. The production is great. The early and later audio drama production is generally grea, but there as a period in the the middle of the series when things got a little maximalist. Thankfully, this is in an early sweet spot. Toby Longworth handles the narration beautifully and, though I have come to appreciate more of the regular players, he simply is what the Dark Millennium and Space Marines truly sound like to me.

I hate scoring art because it's ridiculous and subjective, and I remember being utterly blown away when I first listened to this many years ago, but I have been going back and forth on whether to give this four or five out of five. I settled on four because I don't do decimal scores and this is right on the entirely arbitrary and made up line between four and five.

Ultimately, this audio drama is Nathaniel Garro, hardworking, diligent, does all the things needed and will skill. It just lacks the character/ emotional connection that I need, which elevates stories like Raven's Flight and After Desh'ea for me. It's still bloody good and I'm excited to listen to the other proto Grey Knights audio dramas I've heard and her on the ones I haven't as I work through the Errant Knights collection. ( )