Summary: Howling Dark
This page contains a recap and chapter by chapter summary of Howling Dark. We hope this summary will make it easier to find specific sections of the book.
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This page contains a chapter by chapter summary of Howling Dark.
Full Howling Dark spoilers below, proceed with caution.
Full Book Recap
Placeholder text for high level full book summary of the plot.
Chapter 1: The Red Company
Locations
Characters
- Hadrian Marlowe / Doctor Okoyo / Bassander Lin / Switch
Plot Summary
Hadrian wakes from fugue on the Pharoah, a ship acquired following their betrayal by the Norman captain, Emil Bordelon. It is ISD 16219, forty-eight years after Emesh. Hadrian has been awake for only twelve of those years, and it has been twelve years since Bordelon’s soldiers killed their captain after taking an offer from Hadrian they could not refuse. Captain Bassander Lin has taken over the late captain Bordelon’s quarters on the Pharoah, he tells Hadrian, their pilot Octavia Corvo, with the help of Crim, has found their target, The Painted Man through its employee Samir. Hadrian and Switch embark on a shuttle from the Pharoah to the Balmung, an imperial destroyer left in command of the Jaddian emissary, Jinan Azhar. - Norma Arm > Rustam > Orbit > On Board the ISV Balmung
- Hadrian Marlowe / Valka Onderra / Bassander Lin / Ghen / Pallino / Jinan Azhar
- Norma Arm > Rustam > Unknown (Norman Equivalent Prefecture) > Arslan > Jubala Den in the Grounded Murakami Starship
- Norma Arm > Rustam > Unknown (Norman Equivalent Prefecture) > Arslan > Tea House Near the Grounded Murakami Starship
- Norma Arm > Rustam > Unknown (Norman Equivalent Prefecture) > Arslan > Tea House Near the Grounded Murakami Starship
- Norma Arm > Rustam > Unknown (Norman Equivalent Prefecture) > Arslan > Railcar above the City
- Norma Arm > Rustam > Unknown (Norman Equivalent Prefecture) > Arslan > City Streets
- Norma Arm > Rustam > Orbit > On Board the ISV Balmung
- Norma Arm > Rustam > Orbit > On Board the ISV Balmung
- Norma Arm > Rustam > Orbit > On Board the ISV Balmung
- Norma Arm > Rustam > Orbit > On Board the ISV Balmung
- Norma Arm > Rustam > Orbit > On Board the ISV Balmung
- Norma Arm > Rustam > Orbit > On Board the ISV Balmung
- Norma Arm > March Station > Orbit > On Board the Mistral
- Norma Arm > March Station > Station City > City Streets
- Norma Arm > March Station > Station City > Cento Biotechnic Clinic
- Norma Arm > March Station > Station City > Brevon Imports Office at Freight Life 013
- Norma Arm > March Station > Orbit > On Board the Mistral
- Norma Arm > Unknown > On Board the Mistral
- Norma Arm > Unknown > On Board the Enigma of Hours > On Board the Mistral
- Norma Arm > Unknown > On Board the Enigma of Hours > On Board the Mistral
- Norma Arm > Unknown > On Board the Enigma of Hours > Concourse Marketplace
- Norma Arm > Unknown > On Board the Enigma of Hours > The Oracle's Chamber
- Norma Arm > Unknown > On Board the Enigma of Hours > On Board the Mistral
- Norma Arm > Unknown > On Board the Enigma of Hours > Concourse Marketplace
- Unknown > Vorgossos > Docking Station
- Unknown > Vorgossos > The City > City Streets
- Unknown > Vorgossos > The Installation > The Waiting Room
- Unknown > Vorgossos > The Installation > The Waiting Room
- Unknown > Vorgossos > The Palace of the Undying > The Throne Room
- Unknown > Vorgossos > The Installation > Guest Suites
- Unknown > Vorgossos > The Installation > Guest Suites
- Unknown > Vorgossos > The Palace of the Undying > The Orchid Stair
- Unknown > Vorgossos > The Installation > Guest Suites
- Unknown > Vorgossos > The Installation > Guest Suites
- Unknown > Vorgossos > The Installation > Guest Suites
- Unknown > Vorgossos > The Palace of the Undying > The Throne Room
- Unknown > Vorgossos > The Installation > Guest Suites
- Unknown > Vorgossos > The Palace of the Undying > The Orchid Stair
- Unknown > Vorgossos > The Palace of the Undying > The Garden of Everything
- Unknown > Vorgossos > The Palace of the Undying > The Garden of Everything
- Unknown > Vorgossos > The Palace of the Undying > The Garden of Everything
- Unknown > Vorgossos > The Underground Sea
- Unknown > Vorgossos > Old Geothermal Facility below the Seawall
- Unknown > Vorgossos > Old Geothermal Facility below the Seawall
- Unknown > Vorgossos > Old Geothermal Facility below the Seawall
- Unknown > Vorgossos > The Palace of the Undying > The Throne Room
- Unknown > Vorgossos > The Palace of the Undying > The Throne Room
- Unknown > Unknown Location in Space > On Board the ISV Schiavona
- Unknown > Unknown Location in Space > On Board the Demiurge > On Board the ISV Schiavona
- Unknown > Unknown Location in Space > On Board the Demiurge > The Ship Hold
- Unknown > Unknown Location in Space > On Board the Demiurge > The Hall of Blue Candles
- Unknown > Unknown Location in Space > On Board the Demiurge > On Board the ISV Schiavona
- Unknown > Unknown Location in Space > On Board the Demiurge > The Ancillary Bridge
- Unknown > Unknown Location in Space > On Board the Demiurge > The Hanger Bay
- Unknown > Unknown Location in Space > On Board the Demiurge > On Board the ISV Schiavona
- Unknown > Unknown Location in Space > On Board the Demiurge > The Garden Pavilion
- Unknown > Unknown Location in Space > On Board the Demiurge > The Garden Pavilion
- Unknown > Unknown Location in Space > On Board the Demiurge > On Board the ISV Schiavona
- Unknown > Unknown Location in Space > On Board the Demiurge > The Garden Pavilion
- Unknown > Unknown Location in Space > On Board the Demiurge > The Garden Pavilion
- Unknown > Unknown Location in Space > On Board the Demiurge > The Garden Pavilion
- Unknown > Unknown Location in Space > On Board the Demiurge > The Garden Pavilion
- Unknown > Unknown Location in Space > On Board the Demiurge > The Garden Pavilion
- Unknown > Unknown Location in Space > On Board the Demiurge > Winding Halls
- Unknown > Unknown Location in Space > On Board the Demiurge > The Hall of Blue Candles
- Unknown > Unknown Location in Space > On Board the Demiurge > The Hanger Bay
- Unknown > Unknown Location in Space > On Board the Demiurge > On Board the ISV Schiavona
- Unknown > Unknown Location in Space > On Board the Demiurge > On Board the ISV Schiavona
- Unknown > Unknown Location in Space > On Board the Demiurge > On Board the ISV Schiavona
- Unknown > Unknown Location in Space > On Board the Demiurge > The Hanger Bay
- Unknown > Unknown Location in Space > On Board the Demiurge > The Garden Pavilion
- Unknown
- Unknown > Unknown Location in Space > On Board the Demiurge > The Garden Pavilion
- Unknown > Unknown Location in Space > On Board the Demiurge > Medica
- Unknown > Unknown Location in Space > On Board the Demiurge > Medica
- Unknown > Unknown Location in Space > On Board the ISV Schiavona
- Unknown > Unknown Location in Space > On Board the ISV Sieglinde > The Office of the First Strategos
- Unknown > Unknown Location in Space > On Board the ISV Sieglinde > Boarding Umbilical to Repair Bay
- Unknown > Unknown Location in Space > On Board the ISV Sieglinde > Repair Bay
Darkness.
Green eyes watched from the darkness like statues in a fog. I felt them like fishhooks in me, dragging me upward. I felt wrong. Cold. The image of Bordelon’s face on the holograph—moments before I wiped it from existence—seemed to float on the air. His was not alone. Gilliam’s was there, lips twisted as he was, a sneer made flesh. And Uvanari. A confusion of sound filled my universe: the screams of dying men, the cheering of the Colosso crowd, my own blood pounding in my ear.
I knew then, knew that I had been dead, and that all this sensory weight was the cost and burden of consciousness returning. Of being alive. I was alive. Again.
— Hadrian Marlowe
Chapter 2: Suspended and Undead
Locations
Characters
Plot Summary
Hadrian begins in the cubiculum of the Balmung where Valka shares doubting sentiment about the search for Vorgossos as Lin had moments prior. He informs her of the mission to make planetfall to search for The Painted Man through the lead of his man Samir. On the Balmung, Hadrian is reunited with Pallino and Ghen, as he heads to the ventral observator and to his paramour Jinan Azhar, who reluctantly shares that she is also in doubt about their potential misadventure.
Chapter 3: The Sunken City
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Plot Summary
Chapter 4: The Painted Man
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Chapter 5: Eyes Like Stars
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Chapter 6: The Road to Vorgossos
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Chapter 7: Things Unseen, Things Remembered
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Chapter 8: The Council of Captains
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Chapter 9: Absent Friends
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Chapter 10: Jinan
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Chapter 11: Your Radiance
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Chapter 12: A Journey's End
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Chapter 13: Obedience
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Chapter 14: Conspiracy
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Chapter 15: The First Treason
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Chapter 16: The Tomb
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Chapter 17: The Breaking of the Company
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Chapter 18: The Outer Edge
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Chapter 19: The Gates of Babylon
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Chapter 20: The Bonecutter
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Chapter 21: A Matter of Price
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Chapter 22: Blood and Water
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Chapter 23: The Pilot
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Chapter 24: The Enigma of Hours
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Chapter 25: Becalmed in Motion
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Chapter 26: The Oracle
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Chapter 27: Valka
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Chapter 28: The Dark World
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Chapter 29: The Profane City
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Chapter 30: The Suppliants
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Chapter 31: Tartarus
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Chapter 32: Saturn or Dis
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Chapter 33: Divide and Conquer
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Chapter 34: In the House of Kharn Sagara
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Chapter 35: The Gorgon
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Chapter 36: The Devil and the Golem
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Chapter 37: Tanaran
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Chapter 38: The Face of Failure
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Chapter 39: The Last Story
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Chapter 40: The Garden of Everything
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Chapter 41: The Tree of Life
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Chapter 42: The Children of Saturn
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Chapter 43: Brethren
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Chapter 44: Understanding
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Chapter 45: The Apostate
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Chapter 46: The Long Cold
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Chapter 47: One Villain and Another
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Chapter 48: A Red Reunion
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Chapter 49: Two Treasons
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Chapter 50: The Devil and the Honest Man
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Chapter 51: Lost Time
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Chapter 52: Bora
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Chapter 53: The Third Treason
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Chapter 54: Bringing Storm
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Chapter 55: The Verge of History
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Chapter 56: Like Castles of Ice
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Chapter 57: The Prince of Hell
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Chapter 58: The Chalcenterite
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Chapter 59: No Man an Island
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Chapter 60: The Pavilion
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Chapter 61: Valka Again
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Chapter 62: The Limits of Reason
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Chapter 63: The Apostol
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Chapter 64: A Devil's Bargain
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Chapter 65: Of Gods and Engines
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Chapter 66: A Bloody Star
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Chapter 67: Traitor and Patriot
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Chapter 68: The Narrow Way
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Chapter 69: Divide and Conquer
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Chapter 70: Play the Orator
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Chapter 71: Hope is a Cloud
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Chapter 72: The Pit
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Chapter 73: Broken
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Chapter 74: Howling Dark
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Chapter 75: The Eleventh Hour
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Chapter 76: The Three Immortals
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Chapter 77: Theseus Himself
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Chapter 78: The First Strategos
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Chapter 79: Departure
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Chapter 80: Halfmortal
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There are endings, Reader, and this is one. Some endings are beginnings. Such is this. As the Phoenix is reborn from its ashes, as new gods are ever born from the bodies of the old, so too was I reborn by that lakeside beneath that glassed-in sky. I left much of what I was by those waters: my scars from Emesh, my dreams of peace. Most of life consists of such transformations. If what I have done disturbs you, Reader, I do not blame you. If you would read no further, I understand. You have the luxury of foresight. You know where this ends.
I shall go on alone.
— Hadrian Marlowe
Dramatis Personae
The Meidua Red Company
The 437th Centaurine Legion
The Kingdom of Vorgossos
The Cielcin and Clan Otiolo
The Wider World
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