Title: The Horus Heresy: Horus Rising
Author: Dan Abnett
Publisher: The Black Library
Release Date: 2006
Price: $7.99 (Borders price)
Rating: Two thumbs up, 100/100, A+, ***** out of five.
Pros: Incredible writing, great story, memorable characters, hard-hitting description with Tolkien-esque attention to detail.
Cons: It can be a little hard to follow in terms of the topics brought up. If you don’t understand British English, it will take some time to get used to the writing style.
Overall: More than worth the price and avoids the pulpy nature of Science Fiction
The Horus Heresy is a Warhammer 40000 licensed book series that takes place 10,000 years before standard franchise, illustrating the events that lead up to the perpetual war. The series is up to eight books, one of which has been released this month (August 2008) with a ninth to be released in December 2008. Horus Rising, written by Dan Abnett, is the first of eight books that detail the rise and fall of Horus and his faithful legions of genetically engineered Space Marines.
The book picks up a few months after the Emperor of Mankind has returned to Terra (Earth) while the forces of the Adeptus Astartes (Space Marines) continue on the Great Crusade with the new Warmaster Horus Lupercal. For those of you who don’t know, the Great Crusade was started to reunite mankind after thousands of years. Back to the topic of Warmaster Horus, the other primarchs resent the fact that Horus was appointed Warmaster. While they hold him in high regard, they hold a level of contempt regarding Horus’s legion the Luna Wolves.
The books follow some of the major captains of the Luna Wolves Legion. Garviel Loken, Ezekyle Abaddon, “Little” Horus Aximand and Tarik Torgaddon make up the Mournival, direct advisors to the Warmaster, as well as the heads of four notable companies of the Luna Wolves. The Luna Wolves are sent in to help with the pacification of a planet we only know as Sixty-three Nineteen because it’s the 19th planet conquered by the 63rd expeditionary fleet. Through the pacification the inhuman Space Marines are shown to have a very human side that questions, doubts, envies and tries to explain the unexplained.
The cover art shows a group of Space Marines cutting a path of destruction by the walls of a fortress. As the chaos rages in the image, one lone Space Marine surveys the landscape with an evil manic grin across his face as he beckons his troops toward the battle with his sword pointed in the direction of the conflict. It’s something that definitely catches the eye, pulling a potential reader in.
As stated earlier, the book is part of a detailed story of the seeds of betrayal being sown throughout the Adeptus Astartes and the universe itself. Through Horus reaching the height of his power and obedience to the Emperor to some of his legion struggling through matters of faith, the book holds a taut storyline. The book also contains political, military and religious philosophies that are better built up in the later books of the series, though they are built up enough to stick out. For those who look for parallels between past works, this book starts off a futuristic retelling of the epic poem Paradise Lost, which details the rebellion of Lucifer and the angels that rose up with him.
It does an incredible job with its purpose. It’s a strong opening to memorable storyline that captures the mind and heart. The characters are believable and evolve through circumstances that pop up. It manages to get you to become attached to characters that you’re supposed to become attached to. It also makes you hate the characters you’re supposed to hate while giving you a feeling that there is something horribly wrong with this future universe. The level of detail is second-to-none for Sci-Fi/Fantasy war books. In fact it rivals the level of detail for the Tolkien’s various tales of Middle-Earth. This drops you right in the middle of the action. The opening quote is also one of the strongest openings for a book. “I was there. I was there when Horus slew the Emperor.” This also acts as a beautiful use of foreshadowing.
If you like Fantasy and Sci-Fi war novels, this book is a must-buy. It’s the perfect start to a book series telling the backstory to one of the biggest gaming franchises ever released. It’s original enough to stay away from the standard pulp Fantasy/Sci-Fi novel stereotypes while managing to keep things familiar enough for more traditional sci-fi/fantasy readers to be pulled into the story. It’s worth more than the price that it’s sold for.
The only thing that would lower its accessibility outside of Britain is the fact that it is written in British English. It’s a minor detail though and readers get used to it quickly.
Site [The Black Library] Read [Lexicanum]
I gotta get into this series.
It's an enjoyable series with one of the best storylines out there. More reviews to come on the series, even if I only review the newest books now.
Why not in chronological order?
We try to keep things recent but since I was planning and reviewing at least the books in the series that came out this year I thought it best to at least write up on the first one. Though honestly the more I think about it, it might actually be wiser to do it in chronological order. It would make me building up to the newer ones easier.
I can't help but chuckle at the whole 'If you don’t understand British English, it will take some time to get used to the writing style.' aspect to the review. So American-centric…
Well the British dialect of English can be incredibly difficult if you don't understand the dialect to begin with. It really doesn't steal away from the quality. If it did I wouldn't have given the book quite as good of a score. But then again that would be coming from an American mindset and I wouldn't have been doing my job due to American-centrism.