Son of the Forest covers the awakening of Lionel Johnson just prior to the events of the Arks of Omen books and details who the Risen are. The novel does a good job of establishing the Lions character in M42 and his views on what has become of the Imperium over the last 10000 years. The Risen characters are also enjoyable characters to read, seeing how all of them came to become different from the stereotypes of both the Fallen, and the Dark Angels themselves. All of the action is well written too, although I found the final fight at the end of the novel to be a bit overdone. On the whole, the novel is still quite good, and is probably one of the novels I would recommend if someone asked what to read about the modern setting.