Rate what you Read, or the fight against Necromancy

[byrd9999]

 

Agreed. I continue to believe its the most important book in the framework of the 40K setting. Its not when the emperor is enthroned that really makes the difference in 40K, its that they have lost, and this book is the moment where that loss happens.

Agree too. MoM was quite divisive when it came out but I loved it.

 

It also ties into (what I think is) my head cannon - that TGE, Custodes, SoS etc are still fighting the war in the warp to protect Terra even in current timeline. It never ended and TGE is very much “alive” in the realm of the sea of souls.

 

 

That's a great point, and one I hadn't considered. The Emperor's spirit might still be fighting in the Webway, or at least staving off daemonic incursions. It would also help to explain what the Custodies and SoS have been doing between 30k and 40k.

 

Another quick question, is the Webway and the Aresian Path the method the Emperor used to get to Mars and bury the Dragon in Mechanicum, to set up his role as the Omnissiah? I can't remember if Graham McNeill mentions how the Emperor got to Mars.

[DukeLeto69]

It is a loooooong time since I read Mechanicum so I can’t answer that although I seem to recall that he arrived in a starship and have a visual image of ranks of Knights and Titans “greeting” him in his golden armour?

 

Re: the still fighting war in the warp/webway - personally I love that idea (and as you say it explains the lack of Custodes between 30-40k) and that TGE is very much alive and manipulating behind the scenes - ties into my personal hope that TGE (or an avatar) is the King in Yellow in Bequin trilogy.

[Cherubael]

I just finished Vengeful Spirit and shared a similar opinion of it to reviews in this thread so I don't have much to add but I did have a couple of questions.  Why did the perpetual character Alivia tasked by the Emperor hundreds of years ago with sealing the warp gate only decide to do so when Horus was already en route?  If the Emperor cheated the chaos gods and had no intention of returning what was the purpose of keeping the gate unsealed other than weak plot needs?

 

I also must have missed something or misunderstood the end of the book.  How did Alivia end up on the ship that departed Molech with her family?  

[Indefragable]

I’m drawing a blank...what’s TGE stand for?

[SkimaskMohawk]

The God Emperor

[aa.logan]

I’d guessed ‘The God Emperor’, but I’m often wrong.

[Indefragable]

Samsonite...I was way off!

[DukeLeto69]

TGE = The God Emperor, sorry brothers I thought that was a popular acronym!

 

Happy Sanguinalia everyone!

[Carach]

Avenging Son and The Regent's Shadow completed. Reread The Emperor's Legion in the run up as well.

 

Avenging Son became a little, tiring, to get through. A lot of nothing then a lot of action at the end, but I can appreciate it for the scene setting at least.

 

The Regent's Shadow was good. Had me pretty frustrated at times until a certain point leaves you smiling like a cheshire cat and it all fits together. Was like "ohh Chris... ya got me you cheeky chappy you"

Edited December 30, 2020 by Carach

[Axineton]

Avenging Son and The Regent's Shadow completed. Reread The Emperor's Legion in the run up as well.

 

Avenging Son became a little, tiring, to get through. A lot of nothing then a lot of action at the end, but I can appreciate it for the scene setting at least.

 

The Regent's Shadow was good. Had me pretty frustrated at times until a certain point leaves you smiling like a cheshire cat and it all fits together. Was like "ohh Chris... ya got me you cheeky chappy you"

 

I’ve just put down avenging son as I thought it was terrible, I’m also coming to the conclusion that I’m just not a fan of the tie in novels from black library. I’ve stopped reading more than I’ve completed I reckon. 

 

[SkimaskMohawk]

Avenging Son is really easy to like or dislike. I personally really enjoyed the white consul captain, but if you're not a fan of marines, you probably won't care. The primaris are fine (until the action at the end), but same thing about the marines. The human characters are underused, but hopefully they're just being set up for sequels because I liked what was there. The side-journey was amazingly 40k, but the fleet investigation was a bit flat. The end action was....not good.

[theSpirea]

It's interesting to see how our views can differ. Personally, I consider Avenging Son one of the best BL 2020 books.

[Axineton]

Avenging Son is really easy to like or dislike. I personally really enjoyed the white consul captain, but if you're not a fan of marines, you probably won't care. The primaris are fine (until the action at the end), but same thing about the marines. The human characters are underused, but hopefully they're just being set up for sequels because I liked what was there. The side-journey was amazingly 40k, but the fleet investigation was a bit flat. The end action was....not good.

the thing is I love space marines and ultramarines are my favourite chapter along with the deathwatch. I think it’s just a personal thing as like I said I rarely finish a black library book. I’m a massive sci fi fan but I think I prefer hard sci fi stuff. My favourite books I’ve read from the black library are Ravenor, the soul drinker books and the uriel ventris books plus the first four Horus heresy ones other than that I’ve not enjoyed anything else I’ve read or partly read. 

[theSpirea]

Even more interesting. I find Soul Drinker and Uriel your usual BL bolter. The first HH books, except Horus Rising, are also nothing special, average even by BL standards. False Gods, Galaxy in Flames, Flight of the Eisenstein pale in comparison to HH White Scars arc by Wraight. What Wraight achieved in Scars and Path of Heaven McNeill didn't manage in all his WH books together. His prose is one of the best BL can offer.

[SkimaskMohawk]

Yea I gotta agree. Ravenor is some of the best of 40k novels, while ventris and the soul drinkers stuff are...not. Same goes with HH 2-4. The non-abnett stuff you listed is all very shallow, surface level stuff and McNeil is especially bad for flanderization of most characters he touches.

 

I will note that Avenging Son really isn't about ultramarines, and how Haley writes them is far closer to Abnett's from Know No Fear than McNeils shlock. If that style of marine writing is what you enjoy then you won't find a lot of it any more as writers have really pushed past the days of soul drinkers, ultramarines, blood angels and salamander series.

[Axineton]

Yeah I thought as much haha oh well it’s horses for courses as they say. We all have differing tastes which does remind me I need to reread Ravenor again soon.

Edited January 13, 2021 by Axineton

[DukeLeto69]

I have started a chronological reread of all if Abnett’s Inquisitor stories (as per running order in The Magos). Just finished Xenos

 

Am no good at book reviews so will just make some comments/observations.

 

1. Xenos really is a brilliant book that is a gripping and entertaining page turner from start to finish (I sped through it).

 

2. It deserves being repeatedly held up as a good entry point for 40k as very accessible for SFF readers.

 

3. The mismatches with contemporary 40k lore at the time (early 2000s) has been dramatically lessened with the advent of WH Crime series - such as the tech levels (eg anti grav cars)

 

4. Cherubael is still THE most amazing character

 

10/10 essential reading

Edited February 5, 2021 by DukeLeto69

[Sothalor]

Not applicable for a reread, but something that's been rattling around my brain for a while: ever since it came out, I've held that The Magos is best read after Pariah, in contradiction to the suggested reading order included with The Magos - at least, for a first time, blind read.

 

Pariah is such a master class of first person POV narrative voice and bringing the reader along on a journey, an experience. Through Beta's limited view and knowledge we get to experience all the mystery and tension and twists and turns, with hints of "I understood that reference!" for longtime readers.

 

I actually think that The Magos' more straightforward narrative and exposition undermines some of the impact of Pariah if you read it before. It's a bit like watching the original Star Wars trilogy and going into The Empire Strikes Back completely blind with no knowledge of Luke's ancestry (yeah I know, what are the chances these days?), versus watching the prequels first and then the OT. "No, I am your father" isn't the same.

[DukeLeto69]

@melancholic absolutely agree and so does Abnett himself.

 

As a first read experience you MUST read Pariah before Magos. However, once you know the mysteries behind Pariah then a re-read chronologically provides a different experience.

 

This will be my third time reading all of these shorts & novels (second for the story The Magos) as re-read all when Pariah was coming out and then read Pariah again when The Magos was coming out.

 

FWIW I think (a re-read may change my mind) that The Magos would have been better as a novella. Rare for Abnett to be better with less words but, as I recall, the concept feels stretched for a novel. I know it started out as a new short, then novella before “accidentally” writing itself as a novel but in a way I think it shows.

 

About to start Missing in Action.

Edited January 19, 2021 by DukeLeto69

[theSpirea]

Speaking of Eisenhorn. My girlfriend took my Xenos copy a few days ago and started reading it. She doesn't know much about the WH and she's still enjoying it - proving it's a great book to introduce people to the universe. I might ask her to write a short review once she's done with it.

[DarkChaplain]

That's been my experience as well. Xenos is a great way to introduce your partner.

[byrd9999]

Guy Haley - Wolfsbane, (HH Book 49).

 

 

My main impression is that it went by rather quickly, and rather pleasantly.

 

This book seems like it wouldn't have been planned from the start of the heresy, but came into being towards the end, an afterthought, as a means to flesh out Belisarius Cawl's place in the 30k/40k universe, and to give Leman Russ something to do apart from being duped by Horus into (nearly) killing Magnus.

 

We now have the chain of events whereby the Space Wolves mark the Vengeful Spirit with runes, so that Russ can use a Spear to wound Horus, so that Sanguinius can do another wound to Horus, so that the Emperor can mortally wound Horus.

 

Having said that, the actual story was enjoyable. Guy Haley writes the universe well, although I think his Horus was a little underdeveloped. Abaddon was criminally underused yet again. He's a character in real need of a Primarchs series book, like Valdor or Luther, to show what he was like pre- and during the Heresy. I liked seeing Leman Russ enter the Underverse, and come to terms with what the Primarchs really are. Belisarius Cawl got a bit of the Mary Sue treatment to show that he's actually a really really really neat guy, and not just someone they invented and stuck into the canon at short notice.

 

This would have made a great novella (for Russ' parts) and short story (for Cawl), but as a novel... there wasn't a huge amount of substance considering the nearly 400 pages.

 

I was planning on writing a more positive review, but I guess this has sounded more like faint praise than I expected. But here we are.

 

A decent entry in the Heresy series, and far from the worst.

 

7/10.

 

edit: "Abaddon", not Abandon!

Edited January 20, 2021 by byrd9999

[b1soul]

Wolfsbane wasn't terribly written...none of Haley's works are outright "bad"

 

...but the premise of Russ faltering and failing to deliver the killing blow with the Emperor's Spear makes him look extremely silly (and post-Molech Horus look weak)

[DukeLeto69]

For me Wolfsbane was one of those “enjoyable as a standalone novel but we really didn’t need it as part of the HH overarching storyline”.

 

The story (not the writing) really did smack of “oh damn we need something for Russ to do”

 

Basically the HH series has shown Russ to be quite the failure doing the okey cokey!

[cheywood]

I liked Cawl’s storyline a lot, but I didn’t really care about the Wolves’. Mechanically I think Haley did a good enough continuation of Abnett’s work in Prospero Burns, but his prose can’t compare to Dan’s and I disliked how he used Russ as a viewpoint character (that statement could apply to a lot of Heresy novels though). Edited January 20, 2021 by cheywood