Reviews

Battle for the Abyss by Ben Counter

davieid's review against another edition

adventurous emotional tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

ink_nettle's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

buf's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.25

declaun's review against another edition

3.0

The Emperor Protects.
Solid 3 stars.

Likes:
+ Intense buildup to the great war between the loyalists and chaos legions

Dislikes:
- pacing is inconsistent
- lots of drawn out boring parts

arkathulhu's review

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.5

deldir's review against another edition

3.0

My rating for this one started at one started but worked its way up to 3 by the end. There are for some reason (this is a revised edition!) a ton of typos of the "discrete when he meant discreet" variety, but more importantly for most of the novel Counter modifies the old injunction to "show, not tell" to "show, then immediately tell" when it comes to characters' emotions. Think along the lines of "'I HATE YOU!!' the space marine said, showing his choleric mood". Sometimes he mangles sentences to the point where it is hard to understand who did what to whom, even on the third rereading.

Somehow Counter left these tics behind for the last third of the novel, and he rounded into the author I enjoyed in Galaxy in Flames and the Grey Knight series. Even so, this has been my least favorite Horus Heresy book to date.

racer951y's review against another edition

3.0

Decent book that brings some history to parts of the battle for Calth

augoosetus's review against another edition

challenging dark tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

1.0

virtualpolecat's review against another edition

dark tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No

2.25

itcamefromthepage's review against another edition

fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

One of the weaker entries in the Horus Heresy as the characters in this are pretty thin but there is enough entertaining cosmic horror stuff to get you through. 

Absolutely one you can skip as asides from a very FEW mentions in other books, there is very little of consequence to the larger plot in this book.