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3.88 AVERAGE
3.88 AVERAGE
adventurous
challenging
dark
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
dark
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
The Second in the Horus Heresy series. Horus turns - kinda - well maybe - heck I don't know. But I do know that for the first 40k book I've read that wasn't a Dan Abnett tale I was pleasantly surprised by the quality and continuity from the first book, Horus Rising.
Well done.
-tpl
Well done.
-tpl
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
relaxing
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
unworthy to follow dan abnett's masterpiece. horus deserved a noble, slow, and convincing fall from grace.
Continue to be pleasantly surprised by the Horus Heresy series! Book two is admittedly a noticeable step down from the first, but this feels somewhat unavoidable when you are changing authors between books. McNeil’s prose is not on the same level as Abnett’s was in Horus Rising, and the character work is not as nuanced. The action is still very well written, although obviously that can only hold a book up for so long. What really makes this book work for me is the overwhelming sense of tragedy- the dramatic irony of knowing the inevitable outcome, but still hoping beyond hope that the characters manage to navigate their way around it and avoid the horrors that are to come. It could be said that there is an over-reliance on this inevitability though, as some of the choices made in the book feel a little trite, or overly simplistic. For super-human demigods who are supposed to be tactical geniuses, there certainly seems to be a lack of general awareness! But, like a good horror film where you’re screaming at the teenagers not to go down that street in the dark or whatever it may be, I was reading this book and screaming at Horus and the Astartes that it was an obvious trap! Don’t fall for it! You’re clearly being manipulated!
The capturing of the martial culture still feels like the highlight of this series. The strict adherence to their system of “honour” lays the groundwork for their ultimate fall from grace- it is a system that is incredibly open to abuse and unsurprisingly, a bad actor comes in and takes advantage. It is that kind of too-brittle to bend ideology, that ends up snapping instead. But it is very well presented; from the bonds of fraternity, the idolisation of the commanders, the oaths of loyalty, the trophies of victory, the whole thing.
This may well be a crazy statement to make about book 2 in a 50+ book series, but it feels like more time could have been taken here. Almost everyone reading this will already know the broad strokes of the Horus Heresy- Horus, favoured son of the Emperor of Mankind, turns against his father, embracing the powers of Chaos, and causes a brutal war of brother against brother, fracturing humanity and effectively ending their golden age amongst the stars. So probably the single most important thing to learn from a series explaining the Heresy would be simply; why? What could possibly have caused the most devout son, someone so brilliant and like his father that he was named as the Emperor’s proxy, to rebel? The answer that we get in this book is not entirely satisfying. There are intimations that the shape of the Great Crusade, this centuries-long campaign to reunite humanity across the stars, is changing. The Emperor, in the very act of declaring Horus his proxy and ‘retreating’ to earth, has caused no small amount of confusion. This is not at all helped by the seeming lack of communication or clarification from the Emperor- he seems almost secretive about why he has retreated to Terra. Add to this the growing bureaucracy of the expanding empire getting in the way of Horus doing his job as warmaster, and you begin to see how some discord may begin to be sown. But this seems to happen just a little too quickly- we go from loyal son to willing to rebel in a relatively short time. And this is somewhat explained by the machinations of the dark forces of Chaos, but even then Horus seems fully aware that he is being lied to and led on about the Emperor’s motivations. So why does he continue with the Heresy? It’s far from entirely clear or satisfying, in this book at least. The main motivation seems to be manipulation from one of Horus’s brothers, but this only shifts the question- why are they willing to rebel?
Still a lot of fun and really interesting- far more engaging than Warhammer tie-in novels have a right to be. But distinctly a step down from the first book.
The capturing of the martial culture still feels like the highlight of this series. The strict adherence to their system of “honour” lays the groundwork for their ultimate fall from grace- it is a system that is incredibly open to abuse and unsurprisingly, a bad actor comes in and takes advantage. It is that kind of too-brittle to bend ideology, that ends up snapping instead. But it is very well presented; from the bonds of fraternity, the idolisation of the commanders, the oaths of loyalty, the trophies of victory, the whole thing.
This may well be a crazy statement to make about book 2 in a 50+ book series, but it feels like more time could have been taken here. Almost everyone reading this will already know the broad strokes of the Horus Heresy- Horus, favoured son of the Emperor of Mankind, turns against his father, embracing the powers of Chaos, and causes a brutal war of brother against brother, fracturing humanity and effectively ending their golden age amongst the stars. So probably the single most important thing to learn from a series explaining the Heresy would be simply; why? What could possibly have caused the most devout son, someone so brilliant and like his father that he was named as the Emperor’s proxy, to rebel? The answer that we get in this book is not entirely satisfying. There are intimations that the shape of the Great Crusade, this centuries-long campaign to reunite humanity across the stars, is changing. The Emperor, in the very act of declaring Horus his proxy and ‘retreating’ to earth, has caused no small amount of confusion. This is not at all helped by the seeming lack of communication or clarification from the Emperor- he seems almost secretive about why he has retreated to Terra. Add to this the growing bureaucracy of the expanding empire getting in the way of Horus doing his job as warmaster, and you begin to see how some discord may begin to be sown. But this seems to happen just a little too quickly- we go from loyal son to willing to rebel in a relatively short time. And this is somewhat explained by the machinations of the dark forces of Chaos, but even then Horus seems fully aware that he is being lied to and led on about the Emperor’s motivations. So why does he continue with the Heresy? It’s far from entirely clear or satisfying, in this book at least. The main motivation seems to be manipulation from one of Horus’s brothers, but this only shifts the question- why are they willing to rebel?
Still a lot of fun and really interesting- far more engaging than Warhammer tie-in novels have a right to be. But distinctly a step down from the first book.
dark
tense
medium-paced
adventurous
dark
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
False Gods picks up a few months from where Horus Rising left off. While Horus Rising did a good job of laying down information about the main characters and their personalities, I found it to be a little too slow paced for my liking at times. False Gods picks up the tempo and does an excellent job of making Horus' gradual slide into treason seem believable and understandable.