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3.88 AVERAGE
3.88 AVERAGE
I think it’s pretty humorous that I called myself a short-lived player of Warhammer 40,000 in my review of the first Ultramarines omnibus. I don’t know if I was trying to avoid potential ridicule or if I had temporarily quit playing the game, but my experience in the world of Warhammer is far longer than any rational person would call short-lived. I’ve played the game itself since 2008, and have read the lore behind it extensively. For some reason, I never really read many of the Black Library books, but on the advice of a friend who’s read every single Horus Heresy novel so far, I decided to make an earnest attempt at getting through the massive collection of books that represents The Horus Hersey.
False Gods picks up the narrative a few years after the conclusion of Horus Rising. Horus has renamed his legion and has been serving as Warmaster for some time when he is called back to Davin by the first chaplain of the Word Bearers, Erebus. Erebus tells him that the planet has fallen out of compliance with the Imperium and that the planetary governor Horus left behind has turned traitor and is hiding out on the planet’s moon. Horus himself leads the charge against the rouge governor and is grievously injured in the process, leaving his inner circle with a potentially heretical decision on how to revive their commander.
Running alongside this tale is another narrative concerning the remembrancers that are aboard the Sons of Horus’ flagship. One of which has recently converted to a newly formed cult that worships the emperor as a living god, a practice that directly goes against the Imperial Truth that the Great Crusade has been all about. It’s a narrative that pairs incredibly well with the dark visions of religion that Horus eventually comes to experience after he’s injured.
In more ways than one, False Gods is about religion. What mankind worships, how it chooses the objects of its worship, and what consequences those choices bring are at the very heart of the novel. In launching the Great Crusade, the emperor made it clear that religion was the enemy of their crusade, that in order for humanity to unite and build a galaxy-spanning civilization religion would need to be torn down and left to rot as a relic of the past. Mr. McNeill fills his characters and dialogue with this understanding, and it gives a very real weight to the revelation that the emperor wasn’t being truthful when he told his children that there were no gods. With each lie revealed, the reader is forced to recognize how much of the Great Crusade was built on faulty foundations, and it makes the eventual ending of this book all the more tragic.
These revelations, and the rising tide of worship directed at the emperor himself, create a real feeling of sympathy for Horus. He truly believes that the empire he helped build is in danger of collapsing. He doesn’t believe that he’s rebelling against his father, but that he needs to save what his father built, and It’s incredibly hard to disagree with him. This is the most impressive feat, far above anything else the book accomplishes. Mr. McNeill, and his readers, know that Horus is the villain in this world and yet it’s impossible to not find his actions completely justifiable. It’s only with the knowledge of what the Heresy itself brings about by its completion that a reader would have any belief that Horus is being deceived.
While the eventual fall of Horus is incredibly well executed, there is a significant amount of evolution the character has clearly gone through between books one and two that we never saw. Horus has changed from the man he was into a man hungry for power, and hungry to see his name glorified through the ages. He ignores the advice of his Mournival, and has become quick to anger and even quicker to skip diplomacy and move into combat. It’s a jarring change, and there is nothing to help explain it outside of a throwaway line during the extended vision Horus has while interned in the serpent lodge on Davin. Such a drastic change in a principal character requires more than one line to make this change in demeanor realistic, and I only mention it because I know that Mr. McNeill is capable of much better. His writing is amongst the best in all of the Black Library and much of the reason why is his strength in characterization.
Outside of this lapse in quality, the rest of the characters are well-realized and developed further from where they were in the first book. Loken continues to be the compelling realist, and his concerns about what comes after the Great Crusade is finished represent a very real meditation on conquest and the horrors of imperialism. All the debates over the rising imperial cult offer compelling ideas of religion and power, and how intent can be ruined through purposeful concealment of the truth. In the final moments of the book, where Mr. McNeill chronicles an unjust war, he forces the reader to consider whether or not every single conquest in all the years of the Great Crusade hasn’t been just as baseless as the one the Sons of Horus find themselves in at that moment. There are so many powerful ideas contained in the pages of False Gods, and it’s through the differing opinions of the characters that Mr. McNeill is able to fully explore those ideas.
Additionally, The Horus Heresy continues to be a strong bastion of quality in the cosmic horror genre. At several points during the narrative, I was reminded of the way that H.P. Lovecraft wrote about the horrors of the universe. When characters speak about the warp, and then when the warp reveals what it truly is, Mr. McNeill taps into the same undescribed horror of the infinite that built a whole sub-genre of science fiction. It’s not the central idea in these books, but it adds an additional layer of fear to the discovery that gods and demons do exist, and that they do not care about humanity at all.
I am continually amazed at the overall quality of the books that Black Library puts out for the world of Warhammer 40,000. Any sort of game tie-in or novelization of a different medium can easily be given a pass for a lack of quality. Writing jobs for that sort of project are usually the closest that any author gets to purely putting out letters for money, and the books are being catered to a base of readers who are already fans of the property and are going to be significantly more forgiving because of that fact. I say all of that because the stable of writers over at Black Library clearly have a passion for the source material and a very real desire to do the source material justice with the novels that they’re writing.
These books could easily just be Manwich science fiction with very little below the surface of the words on the page, but they aren’t. Both Horus Rising and False Gods take a very serious look at the corruption of power, religion, and the hubris of men in a way that is completely unexpected. That’s not all either, they do it while also putting out some of the most compelling cosmic horror being written. I understand that recommending a book series based on a tabletop wargame is hard, let alone a series with over fifty entries, but the The Horus Heresy is worth recommending and worth being taken seriously by everyone. Not just those who happen to play out its battles on the tabletop.
False Gods picks up the narrative a few years after the conclusion of Horus Rising. Horus has renamed his legion and has been serving as Warmaster for some time when he is called back to Davin by the first chaplain of the Word Bearers, Erebus. Erebus tells him that the planet has fallen out of compliance with the Imperium and that the planetary governor Horus left behind has turned traitor and is hiding out on the planet’s moon. Horus himself leads the charge against the rouge governor and is grievously injured in the process, leaving his inner circle with a potentially heretical decision on how to revive their commander.
Running alongside this tale is another narrative concerning the remembrancers that are aboard the Sons of Horus’ flagship. One of which has recently converted to a newly formed cult that worships the emperor as a living god, a practice that directly goes against the Imperial Truth that the Great Crusade has been all about. It’s a narrative that pairs incredibly well with the dark visions of religion that Horus eventually comes to experience after he’s injured.
In more ways than one, False Gods is about religion. What mankind worships, how it chooses the objects of its worship, and what consequences those choices bring are at the very heart of the novel. In launching the Great Crusade, the emperor made it clear that religion was the enemy of their crusade, that in order for humanity to unite and build a galaxy-spanning civilization religion would need to be torn down and left to rot as a relic of the past. Mr. McNeill fills his characters and dialogue with this understanding, and it gives a very real weight to the revelation that the emperor wasn’t being truthful when he told his children that there were no gods. With each lie revealed, the reader is forced to recognize how much of the Great Crusade was built on faulty foundations, and it makes the eventual ending of this book all the more tragic.
These revelations, and the rising tide of worship directed at the emperor himself, create a real feeling of sympathy for Horus. He truly believes that the empire he helped build is in danger of collapsing. He doesn’t believe that he’s rebelling against his father, but that he needs to save what his father built, and It’s incredibly hard to disagree with him. This is the most impressive feat, far above anything else the book accomplishes. Mr. McNeill, and his readers, know that Horus is the villain in this world and yet it’s impossible to not find his actions completely justifiable. It’s only with the knowledge of what the Heresy itself brings about by its completion that a reader would have any belief that Horus is being deceived.
While the eventual fall of Horus is incredibly well executed, there is a significant amount of evolution the character has clearly gone through between books one and two that we never saw. Horus has changed from the man he was into a man hungry for power, and hungry to see his name glorified through the ages. He ignores the advice of his Mournival, and has become quick to anger and even quicker to skip diplomacy and move into combat. It’s a jarring change, and there is nothing to help explain it outside of a throwaway line during the extended vision Horus has while interned in the serpent lodge on Davin. Such a drastic change in a principal character requires more than one line to make this change in demeanor realistic, and I only mention it because I know that Mr. McNeill is capable of much better. His writing is amongst the best in all of the Black Library and much of the reason why is his strength in characterization.
Outside of this lapse in quality, the rest of the characters are well-realized and developed further from where they were in the first book. Loken continues to be the compelling realist, and his concerns about what comes after the Great Crusade is finished represent a very real meditation on conquest and the horrors of imperialism. All the debates over the rising imperial cult offer compelling ideas of religion and power, and how intent can be ruined through purposeful concealment of the truth. In the final moments of the book, where Mr. McNeill chronicles an unjust war, he forces the reader to consider whether or not every single conquest in all the years of the Great Crusade hasn’t been just as baseless as the one the Sons of Horus find themselves in at that moment. There are so many powerful ideas contained in the pages of False Gods, and it’s through the differing opinions of the characters that Mr. McNeill is able to fully explore those ideas.
Additionally, The Horus Heresy continues to be a strong bastion of quality in the cosmic horror genre. At several points during the narrative, I was reminded of the way that H.P. Lovecraft wrote about the horrors of the universe. When characters speak about the warp, and then when the warp reveals what it truly is, Mr. McNeill taps into the same undescribed horror of the infinite that built a whole sub-genre of science fiction. It’s not the central idea in these books, but it adds an additional layer of fear to the discovery that gods and demons do exist, and that they do not care about humanity at all.
I am continually amazed at the overall quality of the books that Black Library puts out for the world of Warhammer 40,000. Any sort of game tie-in or novelization of a different medium can easily be given a pass for a lack of quality. Writing jobs for that sort of project are usually the closest that any author gets to purely putting out letters for money, and the books are being catered to a base of readers who are already fans of the property and are going to be significantly more forgiving because of that fact. I say all of that because the stable of writers over at Black Library clearly have a passion for the source material and a very real desire to do the source material justice with the novels that they’re writing.
These books could easily just be Manwich science fiction with very little below the surface of the words on the page, but they aren’t. Both Horus Rising and False Gods take a very serious look at the corruption of power, religion, and the hubris of men in a way that is completely unexpected. That’s not all either, they do it while also putting out some of the most compelling cosmic horror being written. I understand that recommending a book series based on a tabletop wargame is hard, let alone a series with over fifty entries, but the The Horus Heresy is worth recommending and worth being taken seriously by everyone. Not just those who happen to play out its battles on the tabletop.
I’m a little bit torn on this one, but I’m gonna settle on a solid 3.5 stars. It was a hit rough following Dan Abnett with this as I don’t think Graham McNeill is quite as good with his dialogue and with his characters. That being said, the actual events that occurred in this book were great and there was a very haunting ending. Looking forward to book 3.
Es un libro ameno si ya eres aficionado al universo de Warhammer 40.000, aunque si no lo conoces probablemente no te dirá gran cosa. Presenta, como el anterior, una visión muy diferente del Imperio del Hombre, 10.000 años antes de la fecha habitual, cuando era una sociedad secular, y muchas cosas aún no existían.
Las historias de corrupción y caída son a menudo interesantes, y esta mantiene un ritmo ameno y ágil. La prosa no es nada del otro mundo, ni lo pretende, aunque como suele pasar con el género de fantasía, podría ser más breve y tiene mucho relleno. Toda esta historia podría haberse contado en menos tomos y menos páginas.
Las historias de corrupción y caída son a menudo interesantes, y esta mantiene un ritmo ameno y ágil. La prosa no es nada del otro mundo, ni lo pretende, aunque como suele pasar con el género de fantasía, podría ser más breve y tiene mucho relleno. Toda esta historia podría haberse contado en menos tomos y menos páginas.
In this volume, the hoo-rah military love-fest gets turned up a notch. The number of times characters gasped at the "sheer physicality" of manly men was laughable, and it often felt like it was written to be a springboard for slashfic.
The character arcs were jarring as well, especially after Horus Rising, which was surprisingly well-done. Most of the characters here were cardboard cut-outs, with cliched and poorly justified dialogue and decisions.
And the strategy of Horus, the most brilliant military leader humanity has ever known, is invariably to charge forward swinging his sword, and let his support troops/artillery/strategic skill hang back and watch his stunning glutes.
So it's a smart book, is what I'm saying.
The character arcs were jarring as well, especially after Horus Rising, which was surprisingly well-done. Most of the characters here were cardboard cut-outs, with cliched and poorly justified dialogue and decisions.
And the strategy of Horus, the most brilliant military leader humanity has ever known, is invariably to charge forward swinging his sword, and let his support troops/artillery/strategic skill hang back and watch his stunning glutes.
So it's a smart book, is what I'm saying.
So conflicted between giving this a four star or five star rating. The problem with this series is that there's a different author for each book. I believe the first author is a better writer in every aspect. However the story in this book is way more interesting. McNeill does a fantastic job for engineering the fall of a central character in the 40k Universe and the payoff was both epic and tragic. I'm full hooked on this series and I can't wait to read the next one.
adventurous
challenging
dark
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence
Moderate: Body horror, Death, Gore, Blood, War
Minor: Genocide, Xenophobia
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
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
adventurous
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated