Black Tide (Novel)
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| Author | James Swallow |
| Publisher | Black Library |
| Series | Blood Angels |
| Preceded by | Red Fury |
| Released | 2010 |
| Pages | 294 |
| Editions | Softcover ISBN 1-84416-805-7 |
Black Tide is the fourth volume of the Blood Angels novel series by James Swallow.
Contents
Cover Description
Having prevented the ferocious Bloodfiends from bringing disaster to their homeworld of Baal, the Blood Angels go in search of the renegade who almost destroyed them – Fabius Bile. Tracking the Chaos traitor down to his secret base on Dynikas V, a world beset by alien tyranids, the Blood Angels find horrors more terrible than even they can imagine. And with a sample of their primarch's blood in his possession, the Blood Angels must discover what nefarious plot Fabius Bile is bent on.
Synopsis
Part One
On an asteroid, Rafen and his squad find the ruin of a Tau colony, the only survivors being the twisted mutants left by Fabius Bile's horrific experiments. One of these mutants has been enlarged and shaped into a mock-up of Fabius himself, clutching a handwritten message from the renegade to the Blood Angels: "You have failed."
Rafen and his squad have been pursuing the traitor for months since the events on Baal, with similar disappointing results, and both Rafen and Lord Dante are running out of patience. It is no comfort that Bile has evaded the entire Imperium for the better part of ten thousand years, nor that the Blood Angels are willing to spend another ten tracking him down; every moment that Bile has the Blood of Sanguinius in his possession is a potential disaster.
While Dante is reviewing the induction of the chapter's newest recruits, a message arrives from Gabriel Seth, Master of the Flesh Tearers. The Blood Angels' hunt for Bile was supposed to be a secret, but word has reached Seth, who has discovered a lead: a rogue Tech-Priest, captured in the course of the Flesh Tearers' latest campaign, has mentioned illicit dealings with Magos Haran Serpens — the alias Bile used on Baal. Seth has taken the liberty of dispatching Sergeant Noxx in the vessel Gabriel to intercept Rafen's squad.
At first, some of Rafen's squad are affronted by the thought of accepting help from the Flesh Tearers, but Noxx's arrival is followed shortly by a message sent by Dante personally, ordering the Blood Angels to fight with their "cousins."
Continuity
- Sergeants Tarikus and Noxx recall their previous, less-than-amicable meeting on Merron, chronicled in Swallow's Crimson Night (Short Story).
- Tarikus's return to the Doom Eagles is depicted in Swallow's The Returned (Short Story).
Trivia
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At the 2012 Black Library Weekender, James Swallow confided that he lobbied hard with Black Library and Games Workshop to let him "kill" Fabius at the end of the novel, but was refused.
