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4.04 AVERAGE
4.04 AVERAGE
rhysiepieces's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
areidfunk's review
adventurous
dark
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
oneeasyreader's review
5.0
We all have our guilty pleasures. Chocolate almonds, The Life of Kylie, playing with Lego until your mid-twenties then starting again in your mid-thirties. We’ve all been there, I’m sure.
Super-powered characters who still manage to be losers are my guilty pleasure.
Angron = Angry = Mind Blown
”Hnng” says Angron as he bleeds from his scalp, his eyes and his mouth like a haemophilic Russian Prince.
Angron's contribution to pre-battle briefings is a distracted, snarling indifference before stalking off. Angron’s father has given him command over the World Eaters Legion, Space Marines that fight with tactics out of date since about the time of Caesar. Angron somehow makes them even worse at battle, with decimation being his go-to form of course correction. The denouement is Angron shoving nails in his own men’s heads to “improve” them, all the while moaning about how unfair it is that some of his Space Marines favoured sticking pointy things in one's enemies, not your own cerebellum.
And yes, we get to see Angron’s origins. Enslavement followed by a cavalcade of deaths of unnamed or barely named associates and erstwhile foes. Angron’s empathy causes him pain, until the nails his enslavers drill into in his head replaces that hurt with rage. However, view Angron’s struggles in context with his Primarch brothers, some of whom start in at least as difficult circumstances. Most make the best of their situations in one way or another. Angron can’t even get a slave out of a giant worm alive.
I love that Angron is a loser. It’s one of the enduring things about the Warhammer 40K universe that the major characters are dipshits, and Angron might be the dipshittiest of them all. Angron’s heritage makes him a demigod but he acts as an overgrown and dangerously violent child. While this is like his brothers, he’s far less successful at it, which makes it amusing. Angron being angrymight be a grade school level of characterisation, right down to his name, but it is consistent. It also fits well with the plot, which boils down to who must change: Angron, or the World Eaters.
Legion of Dumbasses
Angron isn’t exactly beloved by the World Eaters but, amongst a legion of supermen, he’s the supermanliest of them all. I can see why you might like to be more like your Dear Leader. Unfortunately, the World Eaters are terrible at gaining his love. You would expect a list of DRAMATIS PERONAE to contain some pretty key characters. Yet three of them blow themselves into space in the first twenty pages while homebrewing putting nails in their heads. That’s a special level of incompetence.
While Angron isn’t exactly helpful with his leadership, the World Eaters are awful enough on their own. They suffer serious losses against an enemy that walks up and puts their hands in your face. The World Eater's win, before spiking the football in the endgoal:
'Because this galaxy belongs to us,' hissed Khârn as he drew back his axe. 'And in our galaxy there is only war.'
…which comes off a lot less tough when you realise he’s saying this to a literal adult foetus.
The World Eaters are losers. They can’t work out how to please Angron until he requires full frontal lobotomy, which a portion of them pathetically rebel against. I don’t doubt World Eaters go on perform some outrageous feats of savagery during the Horus Heresy arc, but St. Martin knows their ruin is a given, even as one of their champions claim otherwise:
'You will fail,' hissed Mago through clenched teeth. 'Only ruin will follow you, and history will vindicate me.'
Khârn lookes down, his eyes never leaving Mago's as he raised his axe. 'No, brother, it won't. Because you will not be there to write it.'
Not everyone gets to be Ultramarines. Even the Ultramarines themselves get a lot of hate for always winning. Angron and the World Eaters are a hilarious group of losers, who go on to replace dissension with cannibalism. I love reading about a group of outrageously powerful human beings who are so obviously doomed to fail. It’s my guilty pleasure.
Nailed it.
Super-powered characters who still manage to be losers are my guilty pleasure.
Angron = Angry = Mind Blown
”Hnng” says Angron as he bleeds from his scalp, his eyes and his mouth like a haemophilic Russian Prince.
Angron's contribution to pre-battle briefings is a distracted, snarling indifference before stalking off. Angron’s father has given him command over the World Eaters Legion, Space Marines that fight with tactics out of date since about the time of Caesar. Angron somehow makes them even worse at battle, with decimation being his go-to form of course correction. The denouement is Angron shoving nails in his own men’s heads to “improve” them, all the while moaning about how unfair it is that some of his Space Marines favoured sticking pointy things in one's enemies, not your own cerebellum.
And yes, we get to see Angron’s origins. Enslavement followed by a cavalcade of deaths of unnamed or barely named associates and erstwhile foes. Angron’s empathy causes him pain, until the nails his enslavers drill into in his head replaces that hurt with rage. However, view Angron’s struggles in context with his Primarch brothers, some of whom start in at least as difficult circumstances. Most make the best of their situations in one way or another. Angron can’t even get a slave out of a giant worm alive.
I love that Angron is a loser. It’s one of the enduring things about the Warhammer 40K universe that the major characters are dipshits, and Angron might be the dipshittiest of them all. Angron’s heritage makes him a demigod but he acts as an overgrown and dangerously violent child. While this is like his brothers, he’s far less successful at it, which makes it amusing. Angron being angrymight be a grade school level of characterisation, right down to his name, but it is consistent. It also fits well with the plot, which boils down to who must change: Angron, or the World Eaters.
Legion of Dumbasses
Angron isn’t exactly beloved by the World Eaters but, amongst a legion of supermen, he’s the supermanliest of them all. I can see why you might like to be more like your Dear Leader. Unfortunately, the World Eaters are terrible at gaining his love. You would expect a list of DRAMATIS PERONAE to contain some pretty key characters. Yet three of them blow themselves into space in the first twenty pages while homebrewing putting nails in their heads. That’s a special level of incompetence.
While Angron isn’t exactly helpful with his leadership, the World Eaters are awful enough on their own. They suffer serious losses against an enemy that walks up and puts their hands in your face. The World Eater's win, before spiking the football in the endgoal:
'Because this galaxy belongs to us,' hissed Khârn as he drew back his axe. 'And in our galaxy there is only war.'
…which comes off a lot less tough when you realise he’s saying this to a literal adult foetus.
The World Eaters are losers. They can’t work out how to please Angron until he requires full frontal lobotomy, which a portion of them pathetically rebel against. I don’t doubt World Eaters go on perform some outrageous feats of savagery during the Horus Heresy arc, but St. Martin knows their ruin is a given, even as one of their champions claim otherwise:
'You will fail,' hissed Mago through clenched teeth. 'Only ruin will follow you, and history will vindicate me.'
Khârn lookes down, his eyes never leaving Mago's as he raised his axe. 'No, brother, it won't. Because you will not be there to write it.'
Not everyone gets to be Ultramarines. Even the Ultramarines themselves get a lot of hate for always winning. Angron and the World Eaters are a hilarious group of losers, who go on to replace dissension with cannibalism. I love reading about a group of outrageously powerful human beings who are so obviously doomed to fail. It’s my guilty pleasure.
Nailed it.
akglaurung's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Complicated
- Loveable characters? Complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Complicated
4.0
drwilko's review
dark
emotional
reflective
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
mcadoozy's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
4.75
ratgrrrl's review
5.0
March 2024 Read using the Horus Heresy Omnibus Project Reading Order - Omnibus X Shadow Crusade III Chosen of Chaos (https://www.heresyomnibus.com/omnibus/x-shadow-crusade-iii-chosen-of-chaos) as part of my Oath of Moment to complete the Horus Heresy saga and extras.
Really, really good, but I wish it had twisted the rope a little more and made me bawl, but I am a glutton for emotional punishment, especially when it comes to my precious angry babies.
This is an incredible look back at the early days of the World Eaters leading up to the Legion-wide adoption of the Butcher's Nails through a failed (by Angron's exacting standards) scouring of a world and their furious return. Accompanying this epoch of the Legion, we witness the early years of the Primarch's life from his capture to shortly after he had the Butcher's Nails embedded in his skull by the High Riders.
Both narratives are filled with buckets of tragedy and mountains of blood, acting as a heartbreaking mirror as in one the horrifically abused and traumatised Primarch treats his sons with brutal contempt as they suffer at his and each others' hands in a struggle to mutilate the mien of the Legion in the hope of earning the care and respect of their genesire, while we witness the young, innocent Angron so desperate to avoid causing anyone suffering forced into a nightmare of physical and emotional attrition that shape him into the ursine beserker without scope for anything else, even before the nails were hammered into his skull.
The conceit for how and why we see the scenes of Angron's past is impressively simple and clever, working incredibly well, as well as tying into other aspects of Angron that make it a brilliant call.
This truly is a brilliant Horus Heresy novel and easily one of the best and most effective of the Primarchs series, not only showing us the life and significant events and their effects on both Angron and his Legion, but going out of its way to do so through entertaining and engaging narratives that illuminate the character of the Warhounds and the diversity of thought and feelings about the Primarch and the Butcher Nails.
My only real complaint, and this is only minor and because I'm such an emotional masochist, is that I really wanted this book to break me like Betrayer and After Desh'ea do. I definitely got choked up and it is is brutal and sad, but I didn't fall to pieces. That doesn't mean it's not wonderful, regardless of the millimeter of tears per hundred pages quota being less than I hoped for.
A truly solid entry in both the the Primarchs and the wider Heresy series, not quite as Exalted as Sanguinius: The Great Angel by Chris Wraight got me personally, but absolutely top tier and one I will be returning to in the future for sure.
Bloody marvellous!
Through using the Horus Heresy Omnibus Project (www.heresyomnibus.com) and my own choices, I have currently read 19.41 Horus Heresy novels, 11 novellas, 53 short stories/ audio dramas, as well as the Macragge's Honour graphic novel, 10 Primarchs novels, 4 Primarchs short stories/ audio dramas, and 2 Warhammer 40K further reading novels...this run. I can't say enough good about the way the Horus Heresy Omnibus Project suggestions. I'm loving it! Especially after originally reading to the releases and being so frustrated at having to wait so long for a narrative to continue.
Really, really good, but I wish it had twisted the rope a little more and made me bawl, but I am a glutton for emotional punishment, especially when it comes to my precious angry babies.
This is an incredible look back at the early days of the World Eaters leading up to the Legion-wide adoption of the Butcher's Nails through a failed (by Angron's exacting standards) scouring of a world and their furious return. Accompanying this epoch of the Legion, we witness the early years of the Primarch's life from his capture to shortly after he had the Butcher's Nails embedded in his skull by the High Riders.
Both narratives are filled with buckets of tragedy and mountains of blood, acting as a heartbreaking mirror as in one the horrifically abused and traumatised Primarch treats his sons with brutal contempt as they suffer at his and each others' hands in a struggle to mutilate the mien of the Legion in the hope of earning the care and respect of their genesire, while we witness the young, innocent Angron so desperate to avoid causing anyone suffering forced into a nightmare of physical and emotional attrition that shape him into the ursine beserker without scope for anything else, even before the nails were hammered into his skull.
The conceit for how and why we see the scenes of Angron's past is impressively simple and clever, working incredibly well, as well as tying into other aspects of Angron that make it a brilliant call.
This truly is a brilliant Horus Heresy novel and easily one of the best and most effective of the Primarchs series, not only showing us the life and significant events and their effects on both Angron and his Legion, but going out of its way to do so through entertaining and engaging narratives that illuminate the character of the Warhounds and the diversity of thought and feelings about the Primarch and the Butcher Nails.
My only real complaint, and this is only minor and because I'm such an emotional masochist, is that I really wanted this book to break me like Betrayer and After Desh'ea do. I definitely got choked up and it is is brutal and sad, but I didn't fall to pieces. That doesn't mean it's not wonderful, regardless of the millimeter of tears per hundred pages quota being less than I hoped for.
A truly solid entry in both the the Primarchs and the wider Heresy series, not quite as Exalted as Sanguinius: The Great Angel by Chris Wraight got me personally, but absolutely top tier and one I will be returning to in the future for sure.
Bloody marvellous!
Through using the Horus Heresy Omnibus Project (www.heresyomnibus.com) and my own choices, I have currently read 19.41 Horus Heresy novels, 11 novellas, 53 short stories/ audio dramas, as well as the Macragge's Honour graphic novel, 10 Primarchs novels, 4 Primarchs short stories/ audio dramas, and 2 Warhammer 40K further reading novels...this run. I can't say enough good about the way the Horus Heresy Omnibus Project suggestions. I'm loving it! Especially after originally reading to the releases and being so frustrated at having to wait so long for a narrative to continue.
woody4595's review
dark
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
itcamefromthepage's review
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
This was a blast and did a great job at highlighting a pivotable moment in the history of the World Eaters.
thepattyshack's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
This is a beautiful way of telling the back story of Angron and of his sons trying to connect with him, but, like some of the other legions, the world eaters are just unfortunately boringly single note for too much that it over shadows the heartache of the lost potential that is Angron and hos back story.