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Athame
- GenresShort Stories
Unknown Binding
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John French
156 books8 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
May 6, 2024
May 2024 Re-Read using the Horus Heresy Omnibus Project Reading Order Omnibus XIX Through the Neath (https://www.heresyomnibus.com/omnibus...) as part of my Oath of Moment to complete the Horus Heresy series and extras
Now that I've actually read the story I intended to read last night I can start the omnibus properly and what a way to start!
I simply adore it when French gets weird with it!
This is a wholly original Horus Heresy story coming from a gloriously bizarre and esoteric angle, as French is want to do, takes the form of a story told from the the perspective of an Athame, a ritual knife. Not The Athame that laid Horus low, but an almost as portenrous one.
Told through a succession of vignettes across the ages with French's beautifully morbid philosophising, the story follows the metal ore in the ground of Terra over countless centuries, bloadsoaked hands, the fathoms of the Void, as we see its esoteric edge be turned from animal sacrifice to murder to stolen relic to murder as it becomes something so much more than the ore it was crafted from and the initial purpose it was created for, imbued with dark power and obsession by those whose bloody hands wield it, giving it meaning and power, even as it promises the same in kind.
Athame is included in the Mark of Calth anthology, which is why I got confused with The Shards of Erebus, and it was last seen in the hands of a man named Oll on Calth moments before its surface was annhilated in warptouched starfire, but we have seen it before and discussed the significance of ritual and imbued meaning all the way back in Prospero Burns showing just how phenomenally interwoven and the fates of so many are that even blades travel untold distances across time and space in concentric circles simply to be in the right hand at the ordained hour. It's also a testament to the breathtaking scope of the endeavour that is this incredible series and the intricately connected strands of fate and the stories told by so many different authors. It truly is mind blowing!
This is another late addition to Omnibus Ω as a dark counterpoint to two other fateforged Metaphysical Blades as it is a very different take on the imbued implement, highlighting the chaotic wyrd of a weapon that comes to be called by Chaos, only to find its way into loyal hands, while Valdor and Russ' spears are made only for them and remain either in their hand or by their side, regardless of how much the Great Wolf might try to lose it over the years...
Note: My original review below is incredibly cringe and embarrassing in its attempts to be funny and painful Millennial 'humour', but I believe in keeping a record of my reactions and reviews, especially as my feelings can so often vacillate from one read to the next, regardless of how much psychic damage I take from them.
Through the Horus Heresy Omnibus Project and my own additions, I have currently read 38 Horus Heresy novels (inc. 1 repeat and 4 anthologies), 22 novellas (inc. 2 repeats), 123 short stories/ audio dramas (inc. 9+ repeats), as well as the Macragge's Honour graphic novel, all 17 Primarchs novels, 4 Primarchs short stories/ audio dramas, 3 Characters novels, and 2 Warhammer 40K further reading novels and 1 short story...this run, as well as writing 1 short story myself.
I couldn't be more appreciative of the phenomenal work of the Horus Heresy Omnibus Project, which has made this ridiculous endeavour all the better and has inspired me to create and collated a collection Horus Heresy and Warhammer 40,000 documents and checklists (https://tinyurl.com/ywe8efrf):
Horus Heresy Complete* Checklist [May 2024], Horus Heresy Anthologies & Collections Checklist [May 2024], Horus Heresy Omnibus Project Reading Order Checklist, Omnibus Ω The Flavour Savour (My own essence of the Horus Heresy retrospective omnibus), Horus Heresy Omnibus Project & RatGrrrl Further Reading+ Checklist [Work in Progress May 2024], Horus Heresy and Warhammer 40,000 Fan Works (Focusing of Fan Adaptations and Recordings) [Works in Progress], Chimæra by RatGrrrl (My own Horus Heresy short story) [Rough Draft]
***
Initial Review:
Another fantastic and refreshingly different story in an anthology I remember loving, but had definitely forgotten just how brilliant it is.
"The bullet that killed a king, and murdered a generation; what was it when it was metal in the ground, when it was one amongst many, clinking in a box, shining like so many others? Was it the death of millions then? Did those that touched it feel blood on their hand? Did they know what it would become"
– from a sealed report to the High Lords of Terra, author unknown
Athame follows the life story of a ritual blade created from napped flint to be used for animal sacrifice to heal its sick creator in a seemingly pre-iron age period, through countless ages and epochs, held in many different hands, travelling colossal distances, spilling rivers of blood, and supping on countless lives to eventually fall into the hands of its current master in strange and desperate situation.
The story is told in the rare third person inanimate object perspective. Something I haven't come across since Ann Leckie's phenomenal-but-took-me-a-while-to*get*it novel, Raven Tower. It both suggests the story is being told to the blade that we see has a growing, if not sense of self, a sense of hunger, or need for blood and death, and place the reader in the place of the profane dagger to appreciate its perspective and epic journey better. Those of us reading the Horus Heresy are somewhat impartial witnesses to the mythical melodrama that engulfs the galaxy. We know what is left in its wake. And we hunger for the tragedy, pathos, pain, suffering, and destructive action and combat for our own selfish desires. Just as the Athame is nothing without the ritual significance imbued in it, the story of gods, daemons, demi-gods, and colossal giants of spirit and steel are nothing without our bloodthirsty eyes and slavering ears.
We are the Athame.
Or maybe not. I just like the concept and really got carried away and lost in the sauce there for a minute lol. Let's take a breath and reflect of the truly cursed idea that came to me when reading this....
Imagine if Erebus was a fuccboi thirst trap Tiktokers.
POV: You're a naughty ritual blade and you're about to fuck the whole galaxy
Making *the face* with his huge, gaunt Astartes face and biting his tattooed lip.
Posting Davin selfies with Horus' body in the Temple of the Serpent Lodge, Erebus sprawled in a pile of skulls like a ball pit with the Anathame recreating the infamous Dashcon image shared by many Remembrancers, XXXXXX bleeding with their throat slasbed, so many ridiculous poses with XXXXX's head...
Going live in the corner of Lodge meetings talking about his schemes - What's up guys?! It's your boy, my Ere B and you are with us on another Word Bearer Wednesday, and you know what that means. *a filter of a horrifying Daemonic Ursine covers his features* That's right, it's time for Ursine Urizen, Papa Phaeron, the Word Bear! Can I get some eights in the chat?
Serghar Targost walks over, 'What are you doing there, Chaplain?'
Erebus profusely sweating and stammering, 'er...I...um. I cannot say.'
Anyways...we should all aspire to find a partner or multiple partner ls who look at us the way Magritte looks at the Athame.
I absolutely love the discussion of how using things ritualistically imbued them with power:
"The difference between a mundane object and an extraordinary one is what it does – what it was meant to do. If an object is put to a particular ritualised use, it acquires ritual significance. It acquires power."
This in some ways speaks to my pet theory that, regardless of whether the Emperor is, was, was attempting to become, etc. a god or not, it is the faith and those so attuned to act as conduits for that faith from the Warp, with Saints and holy warriors of the Ecclesiarchy, acting as Clerics and Paladins, to the Librarian and Sorcerer's as Wizards, and those who pledge themselves to the Dark Gods for power as Warlocks, using D&D perspective on magic, which in this instance is the powers drawn from the Warp, as it was the Winds of Chaos on the Old World, that are all different methods and means to channel the essence of the Warp. My idea is that, just as sacrifice and worship of Chaos fuels them, the growing and eventually established belief in the Emperor may or may not make him a god, but regardless, the collective belief causes the manifestation of energy in the Warp that can then be harnessed. Maybe. I dunno. It's just fun to speculate on.
This review is all over the place because I'm unbelievably tired with a regular night's sleep across the last three nights and because I am just so pumped and excited after reading this story and how great this anthology is.
Great story is great and is a little like that incredible sequence following the creation and life of a bullet that the movie Lord of War opens with.
Now that I've actually read the story I intended to read last night I can start the omnibus properly and what a way to start!
I simply adore it when French gets weird with it!
This is a wholly original Horus Heresy story coming from a gloriously bizarre and esoteric angle, as French is want to do, takes the form of a story told from the the perspective of an Athame, a ritual knife. Not The Athame that laid Horus low, but an almost as portenrous one.
Told through a succession of vignettes across the ages with French's beautifully morbid philosophising, the story follows the metal ore in the ground of Terra over countless centuries, bloadsoaked hands, the fathoms of the Void, as we see its esoteric edge be turned from animal sacrifice to murder to stolen relic to murder as it becomes something so much more than the ore it was crafted from and the initial purpose it was created for, imbued with dark power and obsession by those whose bloody hands wield it, giving it meaning and power, even as it promises the same in kind.
Athame is included in the Mark of Calth anthology, which is why I got confused with The Shards of Erebus, and it was last seen in the hands of a man named Oll on Calth moments before its surface was annhilated in warptouched starfire, but we have seen it before and discussed the significance of ritual and imbued meaning all the way back in Prospero Burns showing just how phenomenally interwoven and the fates of so many are that even blades travel untold distances across time and space in concentric circles simply to be in the right hand at the ordained hour. It's also a testament to the breathtaking scope of the endeavour that is this incredible series and the intricately connected strands of fate and the stories told by so many different authors. It truly is mind blowing!
This is another late addition to Omnibus Ω as a dark counterpoint to two other fateforged Metaphysical Blades as it is a very different take on the imbued implement, highlighting the chaotic wyrd of a weapon that comes to be called by Chaos, only to find its way into loyal hands, while Valdor and Russ' spears are made only for them and remain either in their hand or by their side, regardless of how much the Great Wolf might try to lose it over the years...
Note: My original review below is incredibly cringe and embarrassing in its attempts to be funny and painful Millennial 'humour', but I believe in keeping a record of my reactions and reviews, especially as my feelings can so often vacillate from one read to the next, regardless of how much psychic damage I take from them.
Through the Horus Heresy Omnibus Project and my own additions, I have currently read 38 Horus Heresy novels (inc. 1 repeat and 4 anthologies), 22 novellas (inc. 2 repeats), 123 short stories/ audio dramas (inc. 9+ repeats), as well as the Macragge's Honour graphic novel, all 17 Primarchs novels, 4 Primarchs short stories/ audio dramas, 3 Characters novels, and 2 Warhammer 40K further reading novels and 1 short story...this run, as well as writing 1 short story myself.
I couldn't be more appreciative of the phenomenal work of the Horus Heresy Omnibus Project, which has made this ridiculous endeavour all the better and has inspired me to create and collated a collection Horus Heresy and Warhammer 40,000 documents and checklists (https://tinyurl.com/ywe8efrf):
Horus Heresy Complete* Checklist [May 2024], Horus Heresy Anthologies & Collections Checklist [May 2024], Horus Heresy Omnibus Project Reading Order Checklist, Omnibus Ω The Flavour Savour (My own essence of the Horus Heresy retrospective omnibus), Horus Heresy Omnibus Project & RatGrrrl Further Reading+ Checklist [Work in Progress May 2024], Horus Heresy and Warhammer 40,000 Fan Works (Focusing of Fan Adaptations and Recordings) [Works in Progress], Chimæra by RatGrrrl (My own Horus Heresy short story) [Rough Draft]
***
Initial Review:
Another fantastic and refreshingly different story in an anthology I remember loving, but had definitely forgotten just how brilliant it is.
"The bullet that killed a king, and murdered a generation; what was it when it was metal in the ground, when it was one amongst many, clinking in a box, shining like so many others? Was it the death of millions then? Did those that touched it feel blood on their hand? Did they know what it would become"
– from a sealed report to the High Lords of Terra, author unknown
Athame follows the life story of a ritual blade created from napped flint to be used for animal sacrifice to heal its sick creator in a seemingly pre-iron age period, through countless ages and epochs, held in many different hands, travelling colossal distances, spilling rivers of blood, and supping on countless lives to eventually fall into the hands of its current master in strange and desperate situation.
The story is told in the rare third person inanimate object perspective. Something I haven't come across since Ann Leckie's phenomenal-but-took-me-a-while-to*get*it novel, Raven Tower. It both suggests the story is being told to the blade that we see has a growing, if not sense of self, a sense of hunger, or need for blood and death, and place the reader in the place of the profane dagger to appreciate its perspective and epic journey better. Those of us reading the Horus Heresy are somewhat impartial witnesses to the mythical melodrama that engulfs the galaxy. We know what is left in its wake. And we hunger for the tragedy, pathos, pain, suffering, and destructive action and combat for our own selfish desires. Just as the Athame is nothing without the ritual significance imbued in it, the story of gods, daemons, demi-gods, and colossal giants of spirit and steel are nothing without our bloodthirsty eyes and slavering ears.
We are the Athame.
Or maybe not. I just like the concept and really got carried away and lost in the sauce there for a minute lol. Let's take a breath and reflect of the truly cursed idea that came to me when reading this....
Imagine if Erebus was a fuccboi thirst trap Tiktokers.
POV: You're a naughty ritual blade and you're about to fuck the whole galaxy
Making *the face* with his huge, gaunt Astartes face and biting his tattooed lip.
Posting Davin selfies with Horus' body in the Temple of the Serpent Lodge, Erebus sprawled in a pile of skulls like a ball pit with the Anathame recreating the infamous Dashcon image shared by many Remembrancers, XXXXXX bleeding with their throat slasbed, so many ridiculous poses with XXXXX's head...
Going live in the corner of Lodge meetings talking about his schemes - What's up guys?! It's your boy, my Ere B and you are with us on another Word Bearer Wednesday, and you know what that means. *a filter of a horrifying Daemonic Ursine covers his features* That's right, it's time for Ursine Urizen, Papa Phaeron, the Word Bear! Can I get some eights in the chat?
Serghar Targost walks over, 'What are you doing there, Chaplain?'
Erebus profusely sweating and stammering, 'er...I...um. I cannot say.'
Anyways...we should all aspire to find a partner or multiple partner ls who look at us the way Magritte looks at the Athame.
I absolutely love the discussion of how using things ritualistically imbued them with power:
"The difference between a mundane object and an extraordinary one is what it does – what it was meant to do. If an object is put to a particular ritualised use, it acquires ritual significance. It acquires power."
This in some ways speaks to my pet theory that, regardless of whether the Emperor is, was, was attempting to become, etc. a god or not, it is the faith and those so attuned to act as conduits for that faith from the Warp, with Saints and holy warriors of the Ecclesiarchy, acting as Clerics and Paladins, to the Librarian and Sorcerer's as Wizards, and those who pledge themselves to the Dark Gods for power as Warlocks, using D&D perspective on magic, which in this instance is the powers drawn from the Warp, as it was the Winds of Chaos on the Old World, that are all different methods and means to channel the essence of the Warp. My idea is that, just as sacrifice and worship of Chaos fuels them, the growing and eventually established belief in the Emperor may or may not make him a god, but regardless, the collective belief causes the manifestation of energy in the Warp that can then be harnessed. Maybe. I dunno. It's just fun to speculate on.
This review is all over the place because I'm unbelievably tired with a regular night's sleep across the last three nights and because I am just so pumped and excited after reading this story and how great this anthology is.
Great story is great and is a little like that incredible sequence following the creation and life of a bullet that the movie Lord of War opens with.
June 10, 2022
One of the most weird Warhammer novels there is because of the perspective, but for that I really enjoyed it!
November 17, 2024
I am a blade. There are many like me. But this one is me.
June 12, 2025
Interesting little story, nothing you have to read but a nice little change up of perspective.
July 31, 2025
A really cool little story, told from the point of view of a sacrificial dagger over the millennia. It felt unique among the short stories collected in "The Mark of Calth".
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews