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The ending did catch me by surprise, but it is a very good page turner - I didn't want to put it down. As usual Dan Abnett brought a 400 page novel to a very quick close but it was well written and did keep the suspense going. The thing I like about this series is sometimes the feeling it gives that maybe the war will be stopped and chaos defeated even though you know it won't. I still find it funny that the whole concept of the Alpha legion is secrecy and stealth. A stealthy hidden 8 ft plate armored marine is almost as amusing as an ogre ninja.

i just finished this book yesterday too...very good read...
abnett is always good for some shooty action...

cheers
jah

Yeah. Pretty good, for a 40K novel. Not quite as good as Horus Rising, I think, but a heckuva lot better than Brothers of the Snake.

Is it worth readng even if I gave up on the series with The Flight of the Eisenstein?

I'm in mixed opinion about this one. The others i couldn't put down (ended up being disapointed about DoA) but this ones not grabbed me as much. It's agreat book so far, about 1/3rd in myself, but I've actually stoped to finish the last book of the Ravnor series then will go back to it. Am a fan of Abnetts books and this one is just as good but seems a bit bland so far somehow. There's plenty of mystery etc, but I don't know, maybe the secretive part is a bit too secretive. Random things seem to happen and although I assume it's all explained it doesn't give the impresion it will. I suppose this could be argued as being inkeeping with the themes but from someone who is a slow reader at the best of times it just seems like it may not end which gives little reason to keep reading.

But having said that from what Ive read so far i would definatly reconment it!

Its amazing its my Favorite one so far... it is hard to stay along with the Plot and what the hell just happend here and there but he did a great job . I loved Horus Rising and LOVED Fulgrim but this one is my favorite thus far. Amazing and I have an idea but dont want to spoil it for every one.

Elusive71 wrote:Is it worth readng even if I gave up on the series with The Flight of the Eisenstein?

I bought it, despite not buying any of the others except the first, so I'd say yes (I haven't read it yet btw, but there is an extract on BL that I read a few weeks ago that promises quality above what BL usually offers).

Cool. I may pick it up then.

I loved it. Seriously entertaining read. Abnett is a skilled craftsman. Here he dreams up a whole new slice of Imperial Guard subculture (circa 30K, of course), and blends its deftly with a take on Space Marines in general, and the Alpha Legion particulalry, that creates fascinating perspective. Nice blend of the everyman (Abnett's forte, a la the Gaunt's Ghosts series) and the grand mythological sweep of the Horus Heresy series generally.
Plus, for those continuity/fluff freaks, there are some dramatic revalations and a few twists on the meta-story.
Highly recommended. My favorite in the HH series since the first.

After Descent of Angels Legion was a masterpiece. You could sure tell it was Abnett writing because of a gaurd perspective on most things. Very good read. Eldar and the old races in the book were cool also. Nice to know that when Guilliman slays the leader of the Alpha Legion in the fluff he actually hasn't? Cool background on the Alpha's that filled in a lot of the flavor. Thier was a one line disgracefull reference to the Dark Angels tho'.

Abnett is the best writer in the stable. He has the ability, imagination, and skill to write "real" books, which not every WH author possesses.

I am 100 pages in, and I like the book OK. It's not his best written or best structured, and based on the first hundred pages, I have strong suspicions on the revelations and how it'll change the paradigm. Abnett almost always foreshadows the macro-event with a micro-event up front. It's his go-to.

But still, a fun read.

Good thing it's Abnett to because Descent of Angels almost killed the whole series. Nice recovery GW.

Lemartes wrote:Eldar and the old races in the book were cool also. Nice to know that when Guilliman slays the leader of the Alpha Legion in the fluff he actually hasn't?

Spoiler Alert?

04/04/2008 : Battle for the Abyss PDF Now Online

We've poked the PDF pixies with a stick, and the Battle for the Abyss PDF is now online. Horus has ordered the Ultramarines to muster at Calth, prior to moving to the Veridan system to prosecute a war against the green skin menace. While he and his squad wait to join the main force, Ultramarines Captain Cestus receives an astropathic message that convinces him his Chapter is in terrible peril. A mighty, one of a kind, space ship is on its way to Macragge, and its evil purpose is evident. Seizing what ships they can, Cestus and a small force of Astartes set off in pursuit, but what chance do they have against the mighty battleship and its crew of fanatical Word Bearers?

http://www.blacklibrary.com/product.asp?prod=60100181072&type=Book

Just finished readinf Legion. I read it in 2 days, which is very quick for me, I'd normally spread it out over a week. It's a good book with lots of bad points.

The revelations at the end are great, makes the whole book worth reading. They ask some questions which cannot be answered without changing major fluff elements already established (regarding the Heresy, the marines, the ALpha Legion), but these can't really be discussed without spoiling readers' enjoyment of the book (like I say, I found the revelations to be the most satisfying part).

There was none of the usual Abnett fudged endings blasted off in the last 50 pages, it's like he planned the end to this book instead of just running out of papar/story, as with a lot of his work.

A lot of the dialogue between characters was cheesy and un-satisfying, and the characters themselves weren't very engaging or especially memorable.

Even with these glaring flaws I'd still give the book 8/10.

I just finished Monday as well. Excellent is all I can say. It's certainly not as action-packed as some of the other HH books but it REALLY captures the spirit of the AL perfectly (lies, suspicion, intrigue).

Being a big fan of Machiavelli, I kept finding parallels between Alpharius and "the Prince". Very intriguing.

Never much cared for AL before, but now I want to start an AL army...and all after reading just one book!

I really liked this book- the same as and possibly slightly more than Fulgrim. They're very different, but both well written and quite different in tenor from the rest of the series.

I agree with Jazz is for Losers' criticisms, but will say that in a novel with lots of machinations those are common faults. On the good side, those were also the faults of much of the Dune series, which this novel resembles in many ways. Abnett seems to have given a tip of his hat to old Frank Herbert here.

Good read, highly recommended for anyone interested in the wider 40K fluff in particular.

Well, I was right about some of the major revelations, including the big AL one. And I guessed the second biggest AL one a bit early as well.

Note: that doesn't mean I believe I am a genius; it simply means I've read enough Abnett to know where he is going.

That said, the book satisfies as it disappoints. As usual, there is tremendous amount of set-up...literally, the first 4/5ths of the book. Clearly, it's all setting up the revelations uncovered in the last 30 pages. I could see the writer's enthusiasm for the payoff, but not the set-up. As Jazz above me said, it's an interesting change of pace for Abnett. Usually he's all strong set-up and minimal payoff. This is the opposite. Relatively generic set-up for a snazzy little outre. However, a strong ending improves the book immeasurably. In a fell swoop, Abnett makes the Legion his own while staying true to established fluff. Still, it's a nice jolt.

It's not a great book, but it has some great ideas and concepts in it.

I enjoyed the book. Not as good as the first 3, but much better than DoA, a book that doesn't seem to fit into the story at this point.

I'm just waiting for the series to get back into the main story line.

dienekes96, that's a really good assessment of both Abnett's usual process and this book. If you wrote that up on Amazon, it would be nice for other potential buyers to read.

I just read it as well, and was enamoured from the start. A great read, and I actually thought the characters were developed fairly well. How could you not like ol' Bronzi?

As a side note, its kinda funny I go against the majority here on the series as a hole. I enjoyed the first book the least. I thought Flight of the Einstein was the best one to date. Just my humble opinion. I still recommend them all.

I really enjoyed Legion, loved the revelation at the end.

I'll also say Flight was my favourite so far.

Pariah Press wrote: Yeah. Pretty good, for a 40K novel. Not quite as good as Horus Rising, I think, but a heckuva lot better than Brothers of the Snake.

*sob* I LOVED Brothers of the Snake, even though they made dark eldar a little wimpy.

But yeah, Legion was good. I'm a pretty big AL fan and an even bigger Horus Heresy fan, so it was a good refreshing change from Descent of Angels (craptastic). I don't know if it was just mine, but my copy of Descent had two chapter sixes.

I guess I'm a slower reader than most. I just finished the book last night. If the book did not have the ending that it did, I would have been massively dissappointed. For me, most of the book was just a set up for the 'revelation' at the end. It wasn't as good a read as Horus Rising or even Fulgrim, in my opinion. However, it was a better read than Descent of Angels.

I really wanted to love it more than I did...

The "justification" for the AL 'turning' was only slightly better than Anakin Skywalker's jusification for turning to the darkside.

I.e., not very good, really.