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3.88 AVERAGE
3.88 AVERAGE
this book sucked BIG TIME. Horus is supposed to be the most impressive and beloved of the primarchs and he ends up being a big gullible baby who's less insightful than all his subordinates. there were basically no crazy space monsters or future weapons and this boring bullshit was BULLSHIT.
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I fully expected pretty bad sci-fi when I started this series but was happily surprised with the quality of Abnett's Horus Rising. False Gods is more in line with what I was initially expecting, though it is at times even worse than I was expecting.
McNeill takes the relatively interesting characters set up in the first book and turns them into cardboard cutouts. The cast of characters are all single note: Torgaddon only ever tells bad jokes, Abaddon is only ever aggressive, Loken is only ever "straight up and down". The interesting subplots of the remembrancers are reduced to a shadow of what they were in the first book, and its hard to not feel like this is because they are mostly female characters. Maybe it is different now but McNeill writes female characters like an incel. In the first two scenes featuring Karkasy, he is ogling Keeler's cleavage and slutshaming a random woman whose only purpose in the story is to be rejected by Karkasy after she asks if they are going to have sex.
I completely recognize that I should not have expected anything else, but it was disappointing going from the (still sparse) nuance of Horus Rising to this Disneyland story-on-rails.
I have very low expectations going into Galaxy in Flames.
McNeill takes the relatively interesting characters set up in the first book and turns them into cardboard cutouts. The cast of characters are all single note: Torgaddon only ever tells bad jokes, Abaddon is only ever aggressive, Loken is only ever "straight up and down". The interesting subplots of the remembrancers are reduced to a shadow of what they were in the first book, and its hard to not feel like this is because they are mostly female characters. Maybe it is different now but McNeill writes female characters like an incel. In the first two scenes featuring Karkasy, he is ogling Keeler's cleavage and slutshaming a random woman whose only purpose in the story is to be rejected by Karkasy after she asks if they are going to have sex.
I completely recognize that I should not have expected anything else, but it was disappointing going from the (still sparse) nuance of Horus Rising to this Disneyland story-on-rails.
I have very low expectations going into Galaxy in Flames.
Horus Rising was a book about a bunch of bros having each other's backs and having a good time. Here, we get a bit meaner.
Dudes (don't so much) Rock.
False Gods feels like a mirror reflecting the toxic parts of the mentality in Horus Rising. There is petty sniping, threats against each other, vendettas, super-soldiers literally trampling over the weak that they theoretically serve, and murder of those that threaten the bro-ship. This is an unfriendly book, but it does have to carry the plot further than Horus Rising.
This mean streak stretches to our major character Garviel Loken. Our "good guy" is complicit in the death of dozens of innocents but:
For mere mortals to decree the death of an Astartes was unthinkable, however unfortunate the events had been.
And then there is the horror. The zombie like creatures pulling our “heroes” into the swamp, demons possessing people or manifesting within libraries, and really really sharp swords. And the horror stretches beyond the monsters, with Horus fearing the future of a "nightmarish hell of bureaucracy and superstition."
The Fall
False Gods is about Horus the Warmaster embracing the forces of Chaos and initiating a rebellion against the EMPEROR OF MANKIND. Is his fall portrayed in a believable way? Sort of…
In terms of the events leading up to it, things get a bit rushed. Horus dumps a bunch of exposition onto a one-note character. The mystical dream meant to convince him is kind of weak. His personal drivers are unconvincing.
But… …in the book’s setting where:
If you’re in the group you are untouchable; and
If you’re out of the group you are intolerable,
...it does make more sense. Horus is a superhero of essentially unbridled power, with the apparent destiny to conquer the galaxy with the best warriors mankind can generate. Anything that might impinge on that, such as eaxectors, scribes and scriveners who demand to know the cost of everything is an anathema.
The particular circumstances of Horus’ fall do not matter, he was always raging firestorm that could immolate the hand that fed it. There’s something satisfying that Horus claims neither Magnus (for the “good”) nor Erebus (for Chaos) convinced him, he asserts his own agency… …for now.
Forebodings
It is also a little harsh on McNeill to describe Horus’ fall as partially developed, even if it feels mostly true. He had one book to work with, and it is a great book. I love it and the warnings within:
"Forgive me if I speak out of turn, but delving into the unknown like this does not feel like heroism. It feels like guesswork."
There are the expectations that lesser men place on the Space Marines and their Primarchs, expectations that stand out further when these higher beings fail to reach them:
"You not only have to stay above the line between right and wrong, you also have to stay well clear of the grey areas in-between.”
At the end of the book, the character who said that line lies dead surrounded by those cut down after their surrender.
Magnus also pops his head up in the story, to receive fuller development elsewhere, with plenty of indicators that what he has gotten up to will be a major plot point. There are also a couple of payoffs from the Horus Rising, such as the relief map of Terra being reproduced in a dream as well as Euphrati Keeler’s development, the sole female character of any worth here.
And even the mean stuff can be funny, like the sonorous doggerel
So I’m happy.
Dudes (don't so much) Rock.
False Gods feels like a mirror reflecting the toxic parts of the mentality in Horus Rising. There is petty sniping, threats against each other, vendettas, super-soldiers literally trampling over the weak that they theoretically serve, and murder of those that threaten the bro-ship. This is an unfriendly book, but it does have to carry the plot further than Horus Rising.
This mean streak stretches to our major character Garviel Loken. Our "good guy" is complicit in the death of dozens of innocents but:
For mere mortals to decree the death of an Astartes was unthinkable, however unfortunate the events had been.
And then there is the horror. The zombie like creatures pulling our “heroes” into the swamp, demons possessing people or manifesting within libraries, and really really sharp swords. And the horror stretches beyond the monsters, with Horus fearing the future of a "nightmarish hell of bureaucracy and superstition."
The Fall
False Gods is about Horus the Warmaster embracing the forces of Chaos and initiating a rebellion against the EMPEROR OF MANKIND. Is his fall portrayed in a believable way? Sort of…
In terms of the events leading up to it, things get a bit rushed. Horus dumps a bunch of exposition onto a one-note character. The mystical dream meant to convince him is kind of weak. His personal drivers are unconvincing.
But… …in the book’s setting where:
If you’re in the group you are untouchable; and
If you’re out of the group you are intolerable,
...it does make more sense. Horus is a superhero of essentially unbridled power, with the apparent destiny to conquer the galaxy with the best warriors mankind can generate. Anything that might impinge on that, such as eaxectors, scribes and scriveners who demand to know the cost of everything is an anathema.
The particular circumstances of Horus’ fall do not matter, he was always raging firestorm that could immolate the hand that fed it. There’s something satisfying that Horus claims neither Magnus (for the “good”) nor Erebus (for Chaos) convinced him, he asserts his own agency… …for now.
Forebodings
It is also a little harsh on McNeill to describe Horus’ fall as partially developed, even if it feels mostly true. He had one book to work with, and it is a great book. I love it and the warnings within:
"Forgive me if I speak out of turn, but delving into the unknown like this does not feel like heroism. It feels like guesswork."
There are the expectations that lesser men place on the Space Marines and their Primarchs, expectations that stand out further when these higher beings fail to reach them:
"You not only have to stay above the line between right and wrong, you also have to stay well clear of the grey areas in-between.”
At the end of the book, the character who said that line lies dead surrounded by those cut down after their surrender.
Magnus also pops his head up in the story, to receive fuller development elsewhere, with plenty of indicators that what he has gotten up to will be a major plot point. There are also a couple of payoffs from the Horus Rising, such as the relief map of Terra being reproduced in a dream as well as Euphrati Keeler’s development, the sole female character of any worth here.
And even the mean stuff can be funny, like the sonorous doggerel
So I’m happy.
This is the second book in the Horus Heresy series. These books provide backstory for the Warhammer 40k universe. I always thought that the 40k universe was just an excuse for space orcs and space elves to fight each other. This series is very enjoyable and has been drawing me in. It presents the Imperium at its zenith, primed for its downfall. It actual makes sense how the Imperium turned into a huge crapshow where everything sucks at everybody fights all the time. Props to the author for including the words "grim darkness" in the book.
While this was an enjoyable read, I felt like the transition from "good" Horus to "evil" Horus was a little abrupt as written. It seems like that there would have been a more gradual corruption of his soul, but instead, it was like a quick cutover from the good guy to the bad guy. While he was in "spirit world" it seemed like he was above the illusions around him and that he was able to see through the whole plot to turn him, but then it showed him just being kind of lame, and choosing a path of least resistance. I don't know. His character here doesn't jive with his character in Horus Rising.
Initially very promising and interesting, regarding Horus and the Nurgle invasion. However I didn’t like how fast Horus fell to chaos. It feels very rushed and such an important plot point should have taken multiple books to be revealed rather than being a few chapters in the second book… especially as Horus knew he was being lead astray by Erebus disguising himself?
Interesting version of Ancient Rome space mixed with the order vs chaos type of fiction, from the 70's.