Thoughts on Galaxy in Flames

[b1soul]

I'm not a massive fan of Ben Counter...but I went back to flipping through Galaxy in Flames, and it's even better than I remember it.

 

Is this Counter's best work in your opinion? This is some powerful, engaging stuff on par with later good stuff by Wraight, French, ADB IMO

 

The two warriors faced one another, and Torgaddon could see a look of regret flash across Little Horus’s face.

 

 

‘Why are you doing this?’ asked Torgaddon.

 

 

‘You said you were against us,’ replied Aximand.

 

 

‘And we are.’

 

 

Both warriors lowered their guards; they were brothers, members of the Mournival who had seen so many battles together that there was no need for posturing. They both knew how the other fought.

 

 

‘Tarik,’ said Aximand, ‘if this could have ended another way, we would have taken it. None of us would have chosen this way.’

 

 

‘Little Horus, when did you realize how far you had gone? Was it when the Warmaster told you we were going to be bombed, or some time before?’

 

 

Aximand glanced over to where Loken and Abaddon fought. ‘You can walk away from this, Tarik. The Warmaster wants Loken dead, but he said nothing about you.’

 

 

Torgaddon laughed. ‘We called you Little Horus because you looked so like him, but we were wrong. Horus never had that doubt in his eyes. You’re not sure, Aximand. Maybe you’re on the wrong side. Maybe this is the last chance you’ve got to end your life as a Space Marine and not as a slave.’

 

 

Aximand smiled bleakly. ‘I’ve seen it, Tarik, the warp. You can’t stand against that.’

 

 

‘And yet here I am.’

 

 

‘If you had just taken the chance the lodge gave you, you would have seen it too. They can give us such power. If you only knew, Tarik, you’d join us in a second. The whole future would be laid out before you.’

 

 

‘You know I can’t back down. No more than you can.’

 

 

‘Then this is it?’

 

 

‘Yes, it is. As you said, none of us would have chosen this.’

 

 

Aximand readied himself. ‘Just like the practice cages, Tarik.’

 

 

‘No,’ said Torgaddon, ‘nothing like that.’

 

He knew all their names now. Before, they had just been grime-streaked faces among the endless days and nights of battle, but now they were brothers, men he would die with in honour.

 

 

Flashes of explosions bloomed in the city’s north. Shooting stars punched through the dark clouds overhead, scorching holes through which the glimmering stars could be seen. The stars shone down on the Choral City in time to watch the city die.

 

‘Did we hurt them, captain? asked Solathen. ‘Did this mean anything?’

 

 

Tarvitz thought for a moment before replying.

 

 

‘Yes,’ he said, ‘we hurt them here. They’ll remember this.’

 

 

A bomb slammed into the Precentor’s Palace, finally blasting what little remained of its great stone flower into flame and shards of granite. The loyalists did not throw themselves into cover or run for shelter – there was little point.

 

 

The Warmaster was bombarding the city, and he was thorough.

 

 

He would not let them slip away a second time.

 

 

Towers of flame bloomed all across the palace, closing in on them with fiery inevitability.

 

 

The battle for the Choral City was over.

 

The Horus Heresy has come a long way...but the opening trilogy is nothing to sniff at. Some damned fine writing.

[mc warhammer]

there were a couple of scenes that really hit me (loken’s “death”) but this book almost made me drop the heresy series

[b1soul]

It's been a while...I generally have good feelings about this one. What was bad about it in your opinion.

 

I couldn't make it through Flight of the Eisenstein

[mc warhammer]

i’d rank galaxy above fote, which i actually thought was bad

galaxy in flames wasn’t bad as such- just...average. it ticks its boxes and that’s that.

i’m not really a big franchise fiction reader so when i gave horus rising a go, it was a test...and i was blown away. i don’t disagree with most abnett criticism, but that book just created such a powerful sense of mood and tone for me, and the prose was great. i felt totally immersed and it exceeded expectations.

then false gods let me down from that high, and galaxy even more after it. it just felt thin. it was like i could see the writing rather than being drawn in by it

i do like that first quote you supplied, the second less so

 

edit for clarity: when i said this book almost made me drop the series, i didn't mean i was throwing the novel on the floor in disgust...but it became a question of whether i thought the cost of continuing was worth the price when there's a lot of other great books out there.

[bluntblade]

I have to say that the actual battles are underwhelming. It's an unusual case where more action would actually help sell the drama, but what there is has nothing to rival the Scars' assault on Kalium, or the World Eaters on Armatura.

[Marshal Rohr]

It was Ben's best novel. Its a product of its time though.

[Enosh]

I have to say that the actual battles are underwhelming. It's an unusual case where more action would actually help sell the drama, but what there is has nothing to rival the Scars' assault on Kalium, or the World Eaters on Armatura.

 

of course not because it was written at a time when legions were thought to be ~10k max instead of the post retcon (iirc thousand sons and prospero burns were the last two written with old numbers in mind) where legions can be 250k plus

so Ben was working in completely different scale constraints compared to be latter heresy works

[Fedor]

Counter was inconsistent, but i thought this was overall a solid conclusion to what the the first two had offered. The Aximand Torgaddon part was indeed powerfully done.

 

I wonder why Counter was never involved in anything again, not even a few shorts. Was it the online reception to Abyss? He was one of the more prolific writers at the time, but seemed to drop of the radar for a while after.

[bluntblade]

 

 

I have to say that the actual battles are underwhelming. It's an unusual case where more action would actually help sell the drama, but what there is has nothing to rival the Scars' assault on Kalium, or the World Eaters on Armatura.

of course not because it was written at a time when legions were thought to be ~10k max instead of the post retcon (iirc thousand sons and prospero burns were the last two written with old numbers in mind) where legions can be 250k plus

so Ben was working in completely different scale constraints compared to be latter heresy works

I meant the intensity rather than scale. Perhaps Battle of the Fang would be a better comparison.

 

But actually, Armatura shies away from just depicting scale and goes full-bore on the brutality.

[Phoebus]

Though it has since been eclipsed by other entries in the Horus Heresy series, I think Galaxy in Flames remains quite a good novel.

 

Its central shortcoming is essentially the same as that of False Gods: we get to see the bad things the Traitors do, but there’s very little insight as to why they do them. Horus Aximand’s brief explanation to Tarik Torgaddon is, at best, unsatisfyingly incomplete. Nonetheless, Counter did quite well in depicting how his characters — especially the Loyalists — acquitted themselves, and appeared to put conclusions on them that felt as satisfying and apropos as they were tragic. The sheer anger expressed online when Loken “came back from the dead” is a testament to how good a job Counter did.

[Roomsky]

Expanding on my previous thoughts of this book:

 

There is certainly a lot to like here, and while I haven't read much Counter, its absolutely the best I've seen out of him. It's not even a total step down from False Gods, Abaddon is shown here with far more dignity than under Mcneill's pen, and his action scenes are really quite fun, I see why the guy has his fans. 

 

I can't help but find the book terribly empty compared to its predecessors, though. The main cast is just so flat compared to how they were before, I really can't overlook it. Yes, the events detailed wrap up in a fairly satisfying way, but again, I defy any aspiring writer here to say Ben brought anything to the events in question they couldn't think of themselves. Obviously Lucius and Tarvitz will get a duel. Obviously the Mournival will fight. Obviously the loyalists are going to take an annoyingly large chunk out of Horus' resources. The scenario writes itself. What Counter does bring to the table is the world's flimsiest motivation for Lucius' turn, and Garro blowing three fighters out of the void (I thought killing battle brothers was unthinkable) on the word of his friend making the most outlandish claim that could possibly be made at the time. I don't give that a pass for Flight of the Eisenstein's attempts to justify it either, if Garro is such a pivotal player in the story, show us why he is making these choices in this story.

 

If this had been given to Swallow or Scanlon, and Counter given writing duties on one of their more maligned books, I doubt anyone's opinions on the books in question would change significantly, despite the authorial shift. For such an undertaking as telling the Horus Heresy, I question the logic of giving so pivotal a book to Ben Counter. 

[Morovir]

The fighters were piloted by serfs, not Astartes.

[Roomsky]

The fighters were piloted by serfs, not Astartes.

 

My mistake. I do not believe it salvages the situation, however.

[bluntblade]

Flatness is right, I think. For comparison outside of HH material, The Siege of Castellax and The Battle of the Fang capture the scale and the suffocating tightness of their respective sieges, with the noose drawing ever more closed.

[Fedor]

Counter was one of the BL most prolific authors at the time Roomsky, regardless of opinions on his skill i don't remember it being surprising at all at the time that he was in the picture when it became known a different author would be handling each book .

 

It was more of a surprise to me that he quickly stopped being a part of the series.

[Roomsky]

Counter was one of the BL most prolific authors at the time Roomsky, regardless of opinions on his skill i don't remember it being surprising at all at the time that he was in the picture when it became known a different author would be handling each book .

 

It was more of a surprise to me that he quickly stopped being a part of the series.

 

Interesting. I suppose through that lens, in a time where their superstar authors were more limited it makes more sense (especially considering its the book with the most important fightan of the 3).

 

Even in the wake of Battle for the Abyss, I'm surprised he was completely absent. That we didn't see so much as a short from him afterwards is odd, even for so ill-received a work, though I suppose Scanlon and Lee got the same treatment.

[mc warhammer]

seconded on the idea that the major story eats were already laid out, and it would take a supreme effort on the part of almost any author to screw them up.

 

thirded on what happened to counter? was there ever any official word on his absence from the horus heresy post abyss?

[Xisor]

Is GiF Ben Counters' best book?

 

Get out of town.

 

Have a gander at Van Horstmaan. His Lysander/Fists duo were damn decent too.

 

But I can agree that GiF isn't as bad as its cracked up to be.

 

In terms of 'killing the mood' created in Horus Rising, False Gods is is the real trojan horse.

 

"Oh my word, Magnus said you were lying, and now you - Erebus! - are caught out in the very lie he predicted! Well, yes, Magnus did promise not to use magic, so I guess Magnus is much worse than you, Erebus my dear friend who'd never lie to me, thank goodness."

 

As for what happened to him, I'm not sure I'd want to work on a project where critical voices would say I was the literal antichrist whilst even my crappest coworkers got lauded with extreme praise...

 

It'd kill the mood a bit.

[bluntblade]

False Gods definitely takes the bigger tumble and is the weaker work for me, but Galaxy in Flames remains rather underwhelming.

 

Also I never felt the thing of the Mournival ending up all alone together was anything but contrived. That Abaddon and Aximand waited for Loken and Torgaddon to come to them was very "did you read the script?" I'd have rather had it happen at the heart of the battle.

[Brother Lunkhead]

Thanks b1soul for bring GIF back for review  Counter's best work...… I think the Soul Drinkers books are his best (IMO), but for the HH series, I think yes. Powerful and engaging...… most definately

 

The purging of the loyalist elements of the traitor legions, heroic defiance in the face of overwhelming treachery, the final confrontation between the fractured alliance of the Mournival was all epic stuff. One can always debate a work's imperfections (no book is perfect), but I think the strengths of GIF far outweigh it's weaknesses.

 

My favorite part in GIF is the final confrontation of the Mournival. For me, the Mournival confrontation was not at all contrived, but the inevitable reckoning between it's  members as well as a powerful symbol of the overall conflict between the loyalist and traitor legions. On one side you have Abaddon (the true believer in the power of the Warmaster and Chaos) and Aximand (the weaker of the traitor element who is overwhelmed by what he sees as the  power and inevitable victory of the Warmaster and Chaos). On the other side we have Loken (the true believer in the righteousness of the Emperor and the Imperial Truth) and Torgaddon (a truly good man who was almost overwhelmed by the Warmaster but came around to his true convictions). This final reckoning had pathos and symbolism to spare.