Horus Rising

This book by Dan Abnett is the first* in The Horus Heresy series.** I got a Kindle for my birthday for the express purpose of being able to read my way through the entire series of these novels, there being well over fifty of them (not counting short stories, anthologies, and audio dramas) so I simply wouldn't have the bookshelf space to read them physically. I have read this and the following six books of the series before, but that was way back when they were coming out originally and thus long before this blog was even conceived of. Also - just a warning note, since there are so many books in this series and the story is so epic, in the interest of not spoiling the overarching plot's many twists and turns as well as keeping myself sane by not having to spend too long on each of what will be several dozen posts by the time I'm done, I will be keeping all posts about the books in this series as short as reasonably possible.

   So, what happens in this one? The Emperor of Mankind has withdrawn from the Great Crusade, the grand mission of reunifying the disparate interplanetary civilisations of a long-separated humanity across the galaxy under a single banner, and having done so has left his favourite son, Horus Lupercal, in charge as Warmaster of the continuing crusade. Horus is one of the twenty Primarchs (superhumans bio-engineered from the Emperor's own genes) and his legion of Astartes (aka Space Marines, superhumans [albeit not as superhuman as the Primarchs] bio-engineered from the genes of the Primarchs), the Luna Wolves, has been absolutely crushing it all Crusade so far, and in this novel, they continue to do so. We spend most of the narrative's time following a captain called Garviel Loken, who is a pretty stand-up dude. The narration also devotes a fair amount of attention to regular humans who have been sent to join the Crusade as remembrancers, that is, to use their artistic and such skills to create cultural records of the grand events of the latter days of the great war. But despite everything seemingly going so swimmingly, an undercurrent of resentment that the Astartes are likely to be discarded once the Crusade is won and their winnings turned over to civilian control is brewing among the legions, and secret gatherings are starting to take shape. Is this the seeds of outright insubordination against the Emperor planting themselves? We'll see as the series progresses...

   I know this is quite a long post despite my saying that I was going to keep all the posts about this series as short as possible, but there was a lot of pre-emptive exposition to throw at you to place the whole series into context. The next fifty-plus posts will be a lot shorter.

   Oh yeah - and fuck Erebus.

* Okay, I know I've read this one already and it's a prequel, so it technically comes before this one, but this one was released first and is formally the initial instalment of the series as a whole.

** A quick note on the post labelling - I've created a separate label for this series because there are so many books in it, and it would otherwise completely dominate the sci-fi label, but obviously given the Warhammer 40,000 (well, 30,000 technically) setting all the books under this label are sci-fi with hints of fantasy.

Valdor

This book is a novel by Chris Wraight that serves as a prequel to the Horus Heresy series (and if that means nothing to you, watch this space, as I fully intend over the coming years to read the entire series detailing the pre-history of the Warhammer 40,000 universe). It follows Constantin Valdor, the leader of the Adeptus Custodes, the Emperor's closest guards, across the dark days when the reconquest and unification of Earth is very nearly complete, and the Emperor thus almost ready to set out to reconquer and unify the galaxy under human dominion. I've read this first as, as I said above, I fully intend to read the whole Horus Heresy series,* despite it being like a hundred separate novels or so, and this seemed like a handy kickstart to that process. I won't give away spoilers, as there are many in this book, but I will say that we get a glimpse of the Emperor's grand plan and unstated intent that completely reshuffled my understanding of much of the basic lore of the universe; also the detached brutality shown by the nascent Imperium is telling of what it will become. If you're not already a fan of the Warhammer 40,000 universe you probably won't get a lot out of this novel; it's well written, sure, but all the characters are such grand figures lore-wise that there really isn't all that much artistic license that can be taken with them and so it boils down to a handful of dazzling secret easter-eggs that only lore nerds will appreciate.

* I'm getting a Kindle for my birthday. Which is why. Had I meant to read the whole series in physical form I simply wouldn't have enough bookshelf space.