I know I’m late to the party, but I finally decided to start reading the “Horus Heresy,” a huge series of novels set in the universe of Warhammer 40,000 (though it is set much earlier than the year 40,000). I thought it would be awesome to blog the series as I go. With more than 50 novels and many, many short stories, there will be a lot of posts in this series (I doubt I’ll get to all the short stories). I’m reading the series in publication order unless otherwise noted. There will be SPOILERS from the books discussed as well as previous books in the series. Please DO NOT SPOIL later books in the series.
There are a lot of pages in this book to just restate what the title is. I mean, I say that a bit tongue-in-cheek but truly, there’s almost no advancement of the plot here. It’s really just 400+ pages of people going back and forth saying things like how there are whispers of Vulkan being alive and then Vulkan shows up pretty early on so there’s really no big reveal here.
I know I have a resounding refrain here, but this could have easily been a short story. The decision was made to stretch out a two word title that reveals the main point into hundreds of pages, and I think it was the wrong one.
There’s plenty of action here, including some epic fight scenes. Apparently the big reveal about Vulkan being essentially unkillable was huge for the lore of Warhammer, but as someone who basically just reads novels in the Warhammer universe all over the place, I didn’t see the hugeness of it. It also seems to me like readers shouldn’t be required to be delving deeply into lore beyond reading the 25+ books it took to get to this point in order to see how huge it is.
I’m hoping the next few books in the Horus Heresy can really get the action going and give enough reason for being as long as they are.
I know I’m late to the party, but I finally decided to start reading the “Horus Heresy,” a huge series of novels set in the universe of Warhammer 40,000 (though it is set much earlier than the year 40,000). I thought it would be awesome to blog the series as I go. With more than 50 novels and many, many short stories, there will be a lot of posts in this series (I doubt I’ll get to all the short stories). I’m reading the series in publication order unless otherwise noted. There will be SPOILERS from the books discussed as well as previous books in the series. Please DO NOT SPOIL later books in the series.
Horus Heresy #25 Mark of Calthedited by Laurie Goulding
Mark of Calth is an anthology collecting several stories from the Horus Heresy universe, so I’ll give brief reviews of each.
The Shards of Erebusby Guy Haley
The Word Bearers get a bunch of background in this story that centers around that legion attacking the Ultramarines and the training of Erebus. It gives some insight into the Word Bearers legion and obviously fills in a bunch of details about Erebus. It’s got some good action scenes and moves along quickly enough.
Calth that Was by Graham McNeill
This story is basically just one long, extended battle scene both on and under the surface of Calth. I think it could have been cut into about a third the length and not lost much. If you just want to read a long battle report with debate over how to battle, here ya go.
Dark Heart by Anthony Reynolds
It turns out even heretics have heretics as Marduk dabbles with Chaos and daemons, despite being forbidden to go off track by his fellow Word Bearers. This story was pretty good and it moved along at a good clip. I liked that it showed the “bad guys” as being more complex internally than a lot of other stories have done. Pretty good read.
The Traveller by David Annandale
The orbital defenses of Calth were attacked–now a survivor has to figure out what to do. Honestly, found this one pretty fun, but there’s not a lot to say about it. It’s short enough that it doesn’t overstay its welcome, and it has enough intense scenes to keep you invested. Good read.
A Deeper Darkness by Rob Sanders
Another story of how Chaos might get a bit too… chaotic for even those immersed in it. It was fine, but I thought Dark Heart did it better.
The Underworld War by Aaron Dembski-Bowden
A reflection on the war on Calth. It’s a bit too laden on the attempt at nostalgia for …something and it just didn’t work very well for me.
Athame by John French
I thought the storytelling device of this was kinda cool- it’s the story of an Athame (a ritual dagger) told to itself. It spans quite a long time and the story ends with a twist that ties it into the broader universe and other stories in the collection. It’s pretty well done.
Unmarked by Dan Abnett
I admit I enjoy Abnett stories more when he has more straightforward narrative techniques. I was confused by this one, though I eventually got into it. It picks up after Know No Fear and continues the story from there. It’s honestly pretty confusing and because it had been a while since I read that novel, I felt totally ungrounded from the beginning. It is good, but requires a knowledge of the lore or at least some Googling to figure out what’s happening.
Mark of Calthis a worthy enough read that fills in some gaps of knowledge from the Horus Heresy. I recommend it, but only for those who really want to dig in to the story even more deeply.
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Links
Horus Heresy and Warhammer/40K Hub– Links to all of my Warhammer-related reviews and writings, including those on the Horus Heresy, 40K, and Warhammer Fantasy (pending) can be found here.
J.W. Wartick- Always Have a Reason– Check out my “main site” which talks about philosophy of religion, theology, and Christian apologetics (among other random topics). I love science fiction so that comes up integrated with theology fairly frequently as well. I’d love to have you follow there, too!
Be sure to follow me on Twitter for discussion of posts, links to other pages of interest, random talk about theology/philosophy/apologetics/movies/scifi/sports and more!
I know I’m late to the party, but I finally decided to start reading the “Horus Heresy,” a huge series of novels set in the universe of Warhammer 40,000 (though it is set much earlier than the year 40,000). I thought it would be awesome to blog the series as I go. With more than 50 novels and many, many short stories, there will be a lot of posts in this series (I doubt I’ll get to all the short stories). I’m reading the series in publication order unless otherwise noted. There will be SPOILERS from the books discussed as well as previous books in the series. Please DO NOT SPOIL later books in the series.
I’ll admit it–this one kinda lost me at multiple points. I actually started it over twice to attempt to pick up the strings of the plot that I struggled to grasp. There are… so many characters here, and the juggling of different Legions and trying to keep track of who fights against whom was just… a lot. I felt at times like I needed to flip back and forth to the Dramatis Personae so many times that it became a bit annoying.
Anyway, Betrayer reveals a lot of the battle between the Ultramarines, Word Bearers, and World Eaters going on off screen in previous books. What this boils down to, though, is a series of a bunch of big clunky space marines shooting, stabbing, and chainswording at each other. It’s fine, but I didn’t really get a sense of any of the characters capturing my curiosity much. Once again, it’s a book in the Horus Heresy that reads like it could have been a short story or novella instead of a full length, 300+ page novel. There just isn’t enough there, so it starts to read like just an extended series of fight scenes.
Betrayer ultimately feels like a heavy helping of names trotted out to perhaps expand the conflict in the eyes of readers. I see I’m largely in the minority for not thinking it’s one of the better entries in the series, but I thought it was merely okay and largely skippable. I hope to find myself mistaken and see it as important to later books.
(All Amazon Links are Affiliates)
Links
Horus Heresy and Warhammer/40K Hub– Links to all of my Warhammer-related reviews and writings, including those on the Horus Heresy, 40K, and Warhammer Fantasy (pending) can be found here.
J.W. Wartick- Always Have a Reason– Check out my “main site” which talks about philosophy of religion, theology, and Christian apologetics (among other random topics). I love science fiction so that comes up integrated with theology fairly frequently as well. I’d love to have you follow there, too!
Be sure to follow me on Twitter for discussion of posts, links to other pages of interest, random talk about theology/philosophy/apologetics/movies/scifi/sports and more!
I know I’m late to the party, but I finally decided to start reading the “Horus Heresy,” a huge series of novels set in the universe of Warhammer 40,000 (though it is set much earlier than the year 40,000). I thought it would be awesome to blog the series as I go. With more than 50 novels and many, many short stories, there will be a lot of posts in this series (I doubt I’ll get to all the short stories). I’m reading the series in publication order unless otherwise noted. There will be SPOILERS from the books discussed as well as previous books in the series. Please DO NOT SPOIL later books in the series.
I’ll admit it, I thought the previous books in this series about the any “Angels” were boring slogs. Descent of Angels is about the Dark Angels and was too long to carry its miniscule plot thread. Fallen Angelsdidn’t have enough action to sustain its political machinations. Fear to Tread, about the Blood Angels, is, instead, totally compelling front-to-back.
The story reveals quite a bit of background about the Blood Angels, including their apparent nature where they fall into a kind of raging bloodlust that cannot be quenched and leads to atrocities. Sanguinius has been keeping the nature of his Legion secret, ultimately (and fatefully) revealing it to Horus. This, of course, sets up a major movement in the Heresy as Horus sends the Blood Angels on a quest to allegedly find the cure. Instead, they find forces of Chaos and Xenos in zounds.
The action here is pretty awesome. I’ve said multiple times in my reviews of this series that I’m not only about action. However, the point of having space marines is, presumably, to have them fight stuff. So the political machinations behind the scenes should set up some big battles, and Swallow certainly delivers here. The xenos are interesting, too, which doesn’t always happen. The book also reads like it has bigger events going on beneath the surface, and that the events that take place herein are important in the grander scheme of things. It genuinely feels like its advancing the story in a meaningful way.
Fear to Treadis another great entry in a series that continues to be compelling despite its epic length. I recommend it.
(All Amazon Links are Affiliates)
Links
Horus Heresy and Warhammer/40K Hub– Links to all of my Warhammer-related reviews and writings, including those on the Horus Heresy, 40K, and Warhammer Fantasy (pending) can be found here.
J.W. Wartick- Always Have a Reason– Check out my “main site” which talks about philosophy of religion, theology, and Christian apologetics (among other random topics). I love science fiction so that comes up integrated with theology fairly frequently as well. I’d love to have you follow there, too!
Be sure to follow me on Twitter for discussion of posts, links to other pages of interest, random talk about theology/philosophy/apologetics/movies/scifi/sports and more!
I know I’m late to the party, but I finally decided to start reading the “Horus Heresy,” a huge series of novels set in the universe of Warhammer 40,000 (though it is set much earlier than the year 40,000). I thought it would be awesome to blog the series as I go. With more than 50 novels and many, many short stories, there will be a lot of posts in this series (I doubt I’ll get to all the short stories). I’m reading the series in publication order unless otherwise noted. There will be SPOILERS from the books discussed as well as previous books in the series. Please DO NOT SPOIL later books in the series.
Dan Abnett wrote a little bit after the end of the book in the edition I have. Basically, he says that after some reader complaints about Prospero Burns, he felt cathartic burning everything in Know No Fear with an epic slugfest of battle that is largely unrelenting through the whole book. I mean, yes, this is exactly it. My problems with Prospero Burns wasn’t that it didn’t have enough action; rather, as I point out in my review, it’s that the book is advertised as something it manifestly is not. Anyway, all of that said, it was actually quite nice to read Know No Fear, which is basically a lengthy, massive battle with pieces of plot intermixed in it.
Here we have the Ultramarines caught unaware. They don’t know about the heresy spreading across various parts of the Empire, and the Word Bearers launch an unprovoked pre-emptive attack on Calth, one of the worlds of the Ultramarines. The scenes are utter chaos start to finish, with massive spaceships blasting apart, daemons being fought in corridors, brother turning against brother, and almost relentless destruction being waged across the planet and above it.
The novel does have character development and plot throughout the story. Whether it’s from members of the Ultramarines bonding as they fight daemonic forces or looks into the Word Bearers’ side of the conflict, there is quite a bit going on here. Ultimately, though, the draw of the novel is to read about some serious, powerful fighting between space marines and heretics.
The battles are truly epic to behold. Whether it’s visions of massive spaceships slugging it out and being boarded or action on the ground, each scene is pulse-thumping action throughout. Abnett is masterful and writing these kinds of scenes and it’s nice to see him apply himself with such vigor to it.
Know No Fearis an action-packed entry in the Horus Heresy that moves the story forward in impactful ways.
(All Amazon Links are Affiliates)
Links
Horus Heresy and Warhammer/40K Hub– Links to all of my Warhammer-related reviews and writings, including those on the Horus Heresy, 40K, and Warhammer Fantasy (pending) can be found here.
J.W. Wartick- Always Have a Reason– Check out my “main site” which talks about philosophy of religion, theology, and Christian apologetics (among other random topics). I love science fiction so that comes up integrated with theology fairly frequently as well. I’d love to have you follow there, too!
Be sure to follow me on Twitter for discussion of posts, links to other pages of interest, random talk about theology/philosophy/apologetics/movies/scifi/sports and more!
I know I’m late to the party, but I finally decided to start reading the “Horus Heresy,” a huge series of novels set in the universe of Warhammer 40,000 (though it is set much earlier than the year 40,000). I thought it would be awesome to blog the series as I go. With more than 50 novels and many, many short stories, there will be a lot of posts in this series (I doubt I’ll get to all the short stories). I’m reading the series in publication order unless otherwise noted. There will be SPOILERS from the books discussed as well as previous books in the series. Please DO NOT SPOIL later books in the series.
One question that looms large so far in the Horus Heresy series is what happens to all these legions that have been betrayed–what’s their perspective? Deliverance Lost er, delivers the goods on that question, as Gav Thorpe goes on a deep dive into the Raven Guard in the aftermath of the battle of Isstvan III. Along the way, Thorpe provides a ton of action along with quite a bit of background material beyond the basics.
The novel starts with the Raven Guard in tatters, barely escaping with any remnants as they retreat to fight another day. Corax, the Primarch, is one of the primary actors throughout the story, which is a refreshing change from how often the Primarchs are basically just giving orders from on high through most of the other books. Early on, though, we discover that the Alpha Legion has infiltrated the Raven Guard and are attempting to discover more about the defenses of Terra, among other things, with their presence. The Guard are sent to recover some technology to make more Astartes (I think–I may have misread what exactly was going on here) and then fight through a labyrinth with some pretty awesome ideas backing it up. One such is the notion that the defenses are randomized based on computations from the melting cycle of a local glacier, which makes no sense but is hella metal and awesome.
Afterwards, Corax uses the gene-seed to make more super soldiers, but the heretic Alpha Legion works against this and battle breaks out. Corax raises the Raven Guard from the ashes by rooting out the Alpha Legionnaires and then attacks the Emperor’s Children in a lengthy series of action scenes. The action scenes, though, still contain story and world-building, as Thorpe continues the exposition throughout.
Deliverance Lostis an excellent entry in the Horus Heresy series. We get to see the ramifications of the Horus’s rebellion in a more intimate way, while also getting one of the deepest looks at any Primarch or Legion so far with the Raven Guard.
(All Amazon Links are Affiliates)
Links
Horus Heresy and Warhammer/40K Hub– Links to all of my Warhammer-related reviews and writings, including those on the Horus Heresy, 40K, and Warhammer Fantasy (pending) can be found here.
J.W. Wartick- Always Have a Reason– Check out my “main site” which talks about philosophy of religion, theology, and Christian apologetics (among other random topics). I love science fiction so that comes up integrated with theology fairly frequently as well. I’d love to have you follow there, too!
Be sure to follow me on Twitter for discussion of posts, links to other pages of interest, random talk about theology/philosophy/apologetics/movies/scifi/sports and more!
I know I’m late to the party, but I finally decided to start reading the “Horus Heresy,” a huge series of novels set in the universe of Warhammer 40,000 (though it is set much earlier than the year 40,000). I thought it would be awesome to blog the series as I go. With more than 50 novels and many, many short stories, there will be a lot of posts in this series (I doubt I’ll get to all the short stories). I’m reading the series in publication order unless otherwise noted. There will be SPOILERS from the books discussed as well as previous books in the series. Please DO NOT SPOIL later books in the series.
So what’s going on on Terra as the Heresy is breaking out? Don’t worry, Graham McNeill has you covered on that question in The Outcast Dead, a frustrating novel that is at turns brilliant and dull. Thankfully, it is more often the former than the latter.
Kai Zulane is central to the novel, a telepathic survivor of the Argo, a ship ultimately ruined by daemons and warp storms. Brought back to Terra to be retrained, it turns out he has been granted a vision of the future that can change the tide of the entire Heresy and war that is breaking out everywhere. When several traitors break out of imprisonment on Terra, they take Zulane with, hoping to present him to Horus to gain his secret knowledge. What follows is a lengthy trip across Terra as the “Outcast Dead” seek to escape, culminating in a massive final battle that leads to Zulane’s vision being unlocked.
At risk of repeating myself too often, this novel suffers from the same pacing issues many of the HH books have so far. Essentially, there’s a lot of buildup through the middle section with little action, and readers need to force themselves through to an ending that has enough action and revelations packed into it to get them hyped up for the next book. It is starting to feel more than a little artificial. At least half of the books so far have been like this, and it is honestly a bit annoying. McNeill’s writing is good enough to sustain readers through the slog of the middle section, but one wonders what kind of editorial direction was given to the writers that this happens so frequently. Would it really harm anything to have a major battle in the middle of a book and then have the climactic ending be “just” a huge reveal about the world to come? Or could we turn that around and have some nefarious revelations come in the middle or even gasp beginning of the book and the battle that follows later be a result of the same? The current formula of great intro, slog middle, epic climax makes it start to feel like nothing more than an episode-of-the-week format that is just there to keep readers going. And McNeill doesn’t really deserve to have this rant on his book alone, because he’s definitely not the worst offender so far. It just doesn’t make for great reading when it becomes predictable. The best HH novels so far are those that have shunned that formula.
The big reveal here is that the Emperor manages to get Kai Zulane’s secret knowledge, discovering that he must suffer defeat from Horus in order to save the Imperium. It’s obviously a huge revelation in-universe, even if we as readers effectively know this is what is going to happen (assuming some baseline knowledge of WH40K lore, of which I myself only have a surface-level at best understanding). This makes the end of the novel, once again, a fantastic bang and one that will surely resonate into the future. It’s a great ending.
It’s good the ending is so strong, because this book also plunges readers deeply into Warhammer lore such that it becomes hard to follow the plot if one doesn’t know all the ins and outs of what’s going on. As someone with, as I said, passing familiarity, it became somewhat dense at points and I found myself wondering if I’d missed something that happened. Nevertheless, it is a solid read that gives readers insight into the horror happening on Terra. That is maybe one of the coolest parts of the book, as McNeill reflects upon the stunned people back home willing to throw themselves to their deaths at the thought that someone like the “demigod” Horus would betray them. It’s moments like these that highlight the strangeness and wonder of the setting that make people like me willing to read through dozens or hundreds of books.
The Outcast Dead is a good read that helps readers catch up on broader implications of the heresy, including on Terra itself. Though its pacing suffers at times, McNeill’s writing is solid enough to keep readers going and enjoy the payoff.
(All Amazon Links are Affiliates)
Links
Horus Heresy and Warhammer/40K Hub– Links to all of my Warhammer-related reviews and writings, including those on the Horus Heresy, 40K, and Warhammer Fantasy (pending) can be found here.
J.W. Wartick- Always Have a Reason– Check out my “main site” which talks about philosophy of religion, theology, and Christian apologetics (among other random topics). I love science fiction so that comes up integrated with theology fairly frequently as well. I’d love to have you follow there, too!
Be sure to follow me on Twitter for discussion of posts, links to other pages of interest, random talk about theology/philosophy/apologetics/movies/scifi/sports and more!
I know I’m late to the party, but I finally decided to start reading the “Horus Heresy,” a huge series of novels set in the universe of Warhammer 40,000 (though it is set much earlier than the year 40,000). I thought it would be awesome to blog the series as I go. With more than 50 novels and many, many short stories, there will be a lot of posts in this series (I doubt I’ll get to all the short stories). I’m reading the series in publication order unless otherwise noted. There will be SPOILERS from the books discussed as well as previous books in the series. Please DO NOT SPOIL later books in the series.
Age of Darknessis another collection of short stories in the Horus Heresy line. Like the others, it delivers a collection of stories that provide background to the various conflicts breaking out along with the occasional character piece. For this review, I’ll write briefly about each individual story before posting an overall impression at the end.
Rules of Engagement by Graham McNeill
I loved this story that pitted the Ultramarines’ commitment to their Primarch with his own, in person teaching on how to fight a battle. The Ultramarines are not nearly as boring as I thought they might be.
Liars Due by James Swallow
Lots of buildup that mostly just shows how planets outside big realms of influence might react to the heresy. A decent read with some good intrigue.
Forgotten Sons by Nick Kyme
A seriously action packed novelette about trying to sway a planet’s loyalty towards Horus or the Emperor. I liked how this shows the challenges faced by planets that could be torn apart by conflict.
The Last Remembrancer by John French
Layers of trust are wiped away in this intriguing short story about a remembrancer telling the Iron Fists about Horus. The payoff isn’t as strong as I hoped, but it’s okay.
Rebirth by Chris Wraight
The Thousand Sons are turning into my favorite of the traitor legions, and this short story just solidified that even more. It’s got enough layers in it to make it interesting throughout, and the ending, which apparently reverberates in larger WH40K lore, was great.
The Face of Treachery by Gav Thorpe
A huge battle has its tide turned by betrayal. I loved this one for both its action and the tight plotting Thorpe gave it.
Little Horus by Dan Abnett
Little Horus leads the Sons of Horus in battle and effectively springs a trap intended for Horus himself. It’s got tons of action and great plotting, as is typical of Abnett. A very good read.
The Iron Within by Rob Sanders
Big action with Titans is one of my favorite things about the Warhammer universe, and this short story delivers on that. It’s not as thoughtful as some of the others in the collection, but makes up for it in cool vistas and solid action scenes.
Savage Weapons by Aaron Dembski-Bowden
A surprisingly tight-knit scene is the core of this story, but that scene is set for a clash between Primarchs. It’s got tons of great action and certainly seems to loom larger than the short story itself.
Overall Thoughts
I greatly enjoyed Age of Darkness. Every single story included was well done, with some standouts mixed in to an overall great collection. To me, these short stories help prove a point I’ve made several times in my reviews of the series: a lot of the novels would make better short stories. Too often, there is excess fluff that keeps readers away from the action or plot. In these short stories, we don’t encounter that issue. One problem that did arise is that I was listening to this as an audiobook on Audible. I have listened to a few of the Primarchs novels as well, and they all have the same issue this collection did: the sound balancing is terrible. The readers shout, whisper, etc. and do it all to the point where I find myself constantly having to adjust the volume as I listen to it on the go. It’s quite annoying, to be honest. The readers do a good job, but all of these audiobooks could do with much, much better sound balancing, so that as a listener I’m not straining to hear one moment and then having my eardrums pummeled the next.
Age of Darknessis a great collection that should not be skipped. There’s a lot here that fills in details of previous and future conflicts, along with great character building throughout. I definitely recommend the collection.
(All Links to Amazon are Affilliates.)
Links
Horus Heresy and Warhammer/40K Hub– All my posts on the Horus Heresy, as well as books throughout the Warhammer and 40K universe can be found here.
J.W. Wartick- Always Have a Reason– Check out my “main site” which talks about philosophy of religion, theology, and Christian apologetics (among other random topics). I love science fiction so that comes up integrated with theology fairly frequently as well. I’d love to have you follow there, too!
Be sure to follow me on Twitter for discussion of posts, links to other pages of interest, random talk about theology/philosophy/apologetics/movies/scifi/sports and more!
I know I’m late to the party, but I finally decided to start reading the “Horus Heresy,” a huge series of novels set in the universe of Warhammer 40,000 (though it is set much earlier than the year 40,000). I thought it would be awesome to blog the series as I go. With more than 50 novels and many, many short stories, there will be a lot of posts in this series (I doubt I’ll get to all the short stories). I’m reading the series in publication order unless otherwise noted. There will be SPOILERS from the books discussed as well as previous books in the series. Please DO NOT SPOIL later books in the series.
Magnus the Red and the Thousand Sons Legion have become one of my favorites to read about in the Horus Heresy. I’ve basically loved every time they showed up, and was excited to dive into a book about their Primarch, Magnus the Red.
The story here is largely a flashback to a time when Magnus and the Primarch of the Iron Warriors worked together to attempt to save the lives of thousands of Imperial citizens when a geological disaster strikes. Of course, the crap really hits the fan when resistance to their evacuation encounters resistance from a cultic group following an ancient deity they call the Stormlord or Shaitan.
The book is light on political intrigue, though it has some, and heavy on action. It is more thoughtful than might be expected, though, given its relatively short span. Readers get insight into the Psyker power of Magnus and his Sons, as well as additional fanning of the flames of the Heresy. Like the other Primarch novels to this point, it doesn’t feature the eponymous character as much as I’d have liked, but for this book it made sense. The Thousand Sons are so intertwined with Magnus that separating them seems wrong.
I enjoyed Magnus the Red quite a bit. It provided a fairly deep insight into the character both of the Primarch and his legion, while seeming to set things up in the space of a broader story.
(All Links to Amazon are Affilliates.)
Links
Horus Heresy and Warhammer/40K Hub– All my posts on the Horus Heresy, as well as books throughout the Warhammer and 40K universe can be found here.
J.W. Wartick- Always Have a Reason– Check out my “main site” which talks about philosophy of religion, theology, and Christian apologetics (among other random topics). I love science fiction so that comes up integrated with theology fairly frequently as well. I’d love to have you follow there, too!
Be sure to follow me on Twitter for discussion of posts, links to other pages of interest, random talk about theology/philosophy/apologetics/movies/scifi/sports and more!
I know I’m late to the party, but I finally decided to start reading the “Horus Heresy,” a huge series of novels set in the universe of Warhammer 40,000 (though it is set much earlier than the year 40,000). I thought it would be awesome to blog the series as I go. With more than 50 novels and many, many short stories, there will be a lot of posts in this series (I doubt I’ll get to all the short stories). I’m reading the series in publication order unless otherwise noted. There will be SPOILERS from the books discussed as well as previous books in the series. Please DO NOT SPOIL later books in the series.
I have rarely been so baffled by the disconnect between a book’s description and its contents as I have with Prospero Burns. The official Black Library (the publisher) description of the book reads:
The Emperor is enraged. Primarch Magnus the Red of the Thousand Sons Legion has made a terrible mistake that endangers the very safety of Terra. With no other choice, the Emperor charges Leman Russ, Primarch of the Space Wolves, with the apprehension of his brother from the Thousand Sons’ home world of Prospero. This planet of sorcerers will not be easy to overcome, but Russ and his Space Wolves are not easily deterred. With wrath in his heart, Russ is determined to bring Magnus to justice and bring about the fall of Prospero.
Read it because Vlka Fenryka! The Space Wolves charge into the Horus Heresy as their part in the events leading to the fall of the Thousand Sons is revealed. Spies, intrigue, plenty of action and a glimpse at Terra in the early days of the Great Crusade make this an unmissable read.
One could be forgiven, I think, for believing the book would primarily focus on the Space Wolves trying to capture Magnus the Red and/or burning Prospero (as the title and the first paragraph imply. What the book is actually about, though, is a remembrancer who gets sent to the Space Wolves and their interactions with him. So the last sentence of the “Read it because” is closer to reality, though the “plenty of action” is a bit of a stretch.
I’ll admit it, this had me both confused and frustrated. I kept flipping to the description, wondering if I was reading the wrong book–maybe some bug had crossed over my book with a different one when I got it on Kindle. But that’s not it–it’s just that the book is nowhere close to its description. And that’s annoying. I understand we’d already seen Prospero in A Thousand Sons and that this book was intended to be read alongside that earlier work, but that doesn’t mean I wasn’t expecting to see the Space Wolves’ side of the conflict, because I trusted the publisher to provide an accurate vision of what the contents might be.
As for the actual contents of the book–it’s decent. Abnett is a great writer, as we’ve seen time and again throughout the Warhammer universe. The switching of perspectives is sometimes fairly abrupt and makes the book difficult to follow at times. Abnett certainly makes the Space Wolves quite interesting, though, as he notes time and again that they’re not just generic space Vikings; they’re the Emperor’s executioner. But the whole first 90% of the book is basically summarized in that point along with (here are spoilers for the ending, in case you’re worried about that) the revelation that our remembrancer was, in fact, planted by the Thousand Sons as a spy, and that the Space Wolves knew about it the whole time but didn’t really care if their rivals knew what their plans were.
This means, that, like many of the books in the Horus Heresy so far, Prospero Burns would have made a much better short story or novella than it does a 450 page novel. 400 of those pages could have been condensed into about 50, all while getting the same point across. Abnett’s writing mercifully carries those 400 pages along so that they never quite descend into total triviality, but it also leaves you with a sense of regret at the end. Is that it? one might ask. Did I really just read 400 pages of the same point repeated through an unreliable narrator just to get about 15 pages of action at the very end of the book? The answer is, unfortunately, yes. The payoff here simply does not align with the investment of time and energy.
I’ve seen the point that readers already experienced the fall of Prospero in A Thousand Sons, but this is hardly relevant. (It’s also somewhat untrue–we only experienced glimpses of this fall so far, which makes the lack of a book that is one massive conflict a bit disappointing.) This book was advertised as–hell, even titled as–the fall of Prospero from the perspective of the Space Wolves. It manifestly is not that. That, plus the fact that the actual contents we get are dragged from a short story’s plot into a lengthy novel’s duration makes this a pretty disappointing entry to the Horus Heresy. If I hadn’t had my expectations completely set up to fail going in, I definitely would have enjoyed this one more. As it stands, I’m left feeling bittersweet about what might have been.
Prospero Burnsends my streak of 5-star reads in the Horus Heresy. I’d almost say it’s skippable but it does at least give some insight into the Space Wolves that makes them more interesting as rivals (presumably) throughout the rest of the series.
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Eclectic Theist 