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barlio wrote:The first chapter of Horus Rising had me hook, line, and sinker. "I was there when Horus killed the Emperor." I will probably finish Horus Rising tonight.

Ravenor is awesome. I couldn't get the following books soon enough. Ciaphus Cain is awesome. Trying to discern when he is being lucky, cowardly, or just plain heroic was the greatest part of the series.

It was kinda neat how Abnett spun the stage irony



I had a question for everyone else. I was kinda disappointed about how little Kharn is mentioned in the series so far. (I just finished Galaxy in Flames) Does he become a major player or is he featured more in other books. If so please suggest them to me.

I would stay away from the SoulDrinker books. I read them all just to say I did. I was not impressed at all.

MRingler wrote:I would stay away from the SoulDrinker books. I read them all just to say I did. I was not impressed at all.

Sad. I was going to check them out soon. Ah, well. What was disappointing about them?

The entire Horus Heresy series was brilliant in my opinion. I even loved Descent of Angels, although it was definitly the least entertaining of the series.
The best ones in my opinion are Horus Rising, Flight of the Eisenstein, Legion, and Mechanicum.

I liked both Battle for the Abyss and Tales of Heresy a lot aswell.
Battle of the Abyss is a matter of taste I guess.
Tales of Heresy gives a good feel about the various factions in the Imperium and where they stand at the time of the Heresy.

The first imo set the bar too high for the other writers. I bought a bunch of them first go and they just seemed to get worse cept for legion. I remeber enjoying the first one and then be utterly disappointed with the second.

Legion was alright. I liked the chaos civilastion I like the imperial army guys, Alpha who? Not enough focus on the A legion IMO.

I am going to read the space wolf one. Hopefully its good. I am disappointed abnett isnt doing the prospero one instead.

FYI I am not a abnett fan boi, its just the others are unimpressive I cant put my finger on why, maybe too many marine cliches.

Also in alot of the books I think often not enough happens, and theres not enough tension to keep me reading.

1. Horus Rising - Dan Abnett - Good first book in series. I knew Dan Abnett from his days writing comic strips and enjoyed this book too. My only complaint is that Horus himself doesn't seem as impressive as he should, either charisma or intellect. He is only portrayed through other characters' eyes though, so it does not ruin the book. 7/10
2. False Gods - Graham McNeill - Weaker, but readable. Once again, the main flaw was the portrayal of Horus, who I found to be a bit cardboard. His fall from grace did not seem very plausible either - it was too obviously forced by the needs of the plot and also was not complex enough - not enough angst and the like. 6/10
3. Galaxy in Flames - Ben Counter - I thought this one was very good, maybe as good as book 1. There were a few frayed patches in the plot, but it didn't quite fall apart and I enjoyed the final battle. 7/10
4. The Flight of the Eisenstein - James Swallow - It was a shame that we switched to focus on new characters, but I still enjoyed this. Overall it was very enjoyable. 6/10
5. Fulgrim - Graham McNeill - The writing in this came close to ruining it for me. It needed the author to either take some very basic style courses or a stronger editor. The story itself was perfectly decent, but the editor did not pick up things like "XXX heard the sound of bolter rounds along the corridor as the traitor pulled the trigger" and replace them with "The traitor pulled the trigger. The sound of bolter rounds reverberated along the corridor." Maybe it does not make much difference here, but the two "mistakes" (or "style choices" if you like) made me feel like it was written by a 15 year and it became very grating after a while. The character of Fulgrim himself was better written than Horus, but still far from what I would hope for. 5/10
6. Descent of Angels - Mitchel Scanlon - Readble, but I felt like I was reading a kids' book. Probably because the beginning opens with young kids. The "rivalry" was sooo contrived as to be painful. 5/10
7. Legion - Dan Abnett - 1/3 of the way through this, and enjoying it a lot. Through the eyes of the Imperial Guard, a look is taken at the Alpha Legion. The outside-looking-in perspective preserves the mystery of the Alpha Legion. Best book since the first few. 7/10

And I have not read the rest.

I'm now about half way through 'Galaxy In Flames' and still enjoying it. Whilst the writing style isn't going to win any prizes, it's still interesting to see how things came about in the heresy. I do find myself 'translating' a bit, in the sense that I will read a bit and then have to think about it to work out what the writer really meant for the over-arching plot devices. A little oversimplification seems to be prevalent in this book and also in 'False Gods'. I'm certainly going to stick with the series though.

I still can't work out why Black Library would commission a trilogy to come from three different authors though.... And, come to think of it, why they didn't give all the Horus Heresy books to one author, at least for the first ten or so books, so that there would be a continuity of ideas and style throughout.

Simple - because the publishing timescales would be slowed down to about a third of what they are now.

It also allows for the Heresy to be viewed from several different perspectives.

True. But surely sometimes quality is better than quantity? And before anyone else says it, I know, we're talking about GW....

Fifty wrote: 1. Horus Rising - Dan Abnett - Good first book in series. I knew Dan Abnett from his days writing comic strips and enjoyed this book too. My only complaint is that Horus himself doesn't seem as impressive as he should, either charisma or intellect. He is only portrayed through other characters' eyes though, so it does not ruin the book. 7/10
2. False Gods - Graham McNeill - Weaker, but readable. Once again, the main flaw was the portrayal of Horus, who I found to be a bit cardboard. His fall from grace did not seem very plausible either - it was too obviously forced by the needs of the plot and also was not complex enough - not enough angst and the like. 6/10
3. Galaxy in Flames - Ben Counter - I thought this one was very good, maybe as good as book 1. There were a few frayed patches in the plot, but it didn't quite fall apart and I enjoyed the final battle. 7/10
4. The Flight of the Eisenstein - James Swallow - It was a shame that we switched to focus on new characters, but I still enjoyed this. Overall it was very enjoyable. 6/10
5. Fulgrim - Graham McNeill - The writing in this came close to ruining it for me. It needed the author to either take some very basic style courses or a stronger editor. The story itself was perfectly decent, but the editor did not pick up things like "XXX heard the sound of bolter rounds along the corridor as the traitor pulled the trigger" and replace them with "The traitor pulled the trigger. The sound of bolter rounds reverberated along the corridor." Maybe it does not make much difference here, but the two "mistakes" (or "style choices" if you like) made me feel like it was written by a 15 year and it became very grating after a while. The character of Fulgrim himself was better written than Horus, but still far from what I would hope for. 5/10
6. Descent of Angels - Mitchel Scanlon - Readble, but I felt like I was reading a kids' book. Probably because the beginning opens with young kids. The "rivalry" was sooo contrived as to be painful. 5/10
7. Legion - Dan Abnett - 1/3 of the way through this, and enjoying it a lot. Through the eyes of the Imperial Guard, a look is taken at the Alpha Legion. The outside-looking-in perspective preserves the mystery of the Alpha Legion. Best book since the first few. 7/10

And I have not read the rest.

wow thats harsh, what would be a 8-10 rated book in your opinion? Warhammer 40k book that is

I have not read a 40k book that I would give 8/10.

But then, that list above represents every singe 40k book I have read.

For me, 4/10 means I won't even finish it, 5/10 means I'll finish it, 6/10 means it is flawed but enjoyable, 7/10 good with minor problems, 8/10 means good in all regards with significant qualities that make it stand out, 9/10 is a truly memorable book such as LotR, Malazan Books, WWZ, 10/10 is Catch 22, The Wind-up Bird chronicles - books I start reading then finish in one sitting because I can't put them down.

Most books I read I would give 7 or 8 out of 10.

To each is his own i guess.

I rather enjoyed the first three books in the horus heresy series. Granted that they dont exactly compare to the likes of "Dune" or "Snow Crash", however, I liked them enough to read them in a single day.

HH series: Legion, Flight of the Eisenstein, Mechanicum, Tales of the Heresy, and all three Horus books.

In 40k: Storm of Iron, Legion of the Night, any of the SW books, and the Gaunts Series. Personally, I really liked the first Soul Drinker novel, the second not as much, but enjoyed the third more. I haven't read the fourth yet. The SD series isn't as good as some of the others, but I enjoyed it.

Since we're on BL books I read the first four of the five (if I am correct) individual IG books.

http://www.blacklibrary.com/warhammer-40000/imperial-guard/

All are ok at best, a good read if you play Guardsmen or you just need something to read. Death World is the best (Catachans and a snippy Commissar) and and Desert Raiders is the worst (predictable about half way thru). If you have read Gaunt's Ghosts or Cain, don't bother unless you are a completionist.

I liked the Gaunt series until they started to kill Marines and the orginal characters started to die off. The Cain books are very amuzing, I would definitly recommend them. Storm of Iron is also a nice book. Ow, and stay away from the Souldrinker series.

MRingler wrote:I would stay away from the SoulDrinker books. I read them all just to say I did. I was not impressed at all.

Darkwulf wrote:Ow, and stay away from the Souldrinker series.

Hey, to each his own. I'm almost done with the second one and I'm really enjoying it now that the "Investigating Interrigator" bit is over with.

KaloranSLC wrote:

MRingler wrote:I would stay away from the SoulDrinker books. I read them all just to say I did. I was not impressed at all.

Sad. I was going to check them out soon. Ah, well. What was disappointing about them?

It's fun, stupid and the plot gets bogged down sometimes and Ben Counter says the same fething thing over and over ("Thaddeus was a patient man. He was chosen for his patience and tenacity and it was because of his patient patience that he was so patient." 20 pages on... "Thaddues was a patient man...") But I like that Counter introduces characters then kills them off a couple of pages on. You really don't know who will survive the next chapter because Counter doesn't really show any favoritism (besides for Sarpedon). Try the first one, it was fun. As I've said, the second one is really slow. But I'm nearly done...

if dan abnett (the messiah) wrote it, you need to go read it.

its just that simple

also... titanicus... go now!

Well, I've now finished the initial trilogy, which I throughly enjoyed, despite it's basic style. I've also just finished reading 'The Flight Of The Eisenstein', which was ok, although a little bit "meh". There was some nice Nurgle bits in it though. Have just started on 'Fulgirm', and I think I'm pretty much going to plough through the whole Horus Heresy series thanks to the comments in this thread and the fact that it's just so nice to actually tie all the fluff together in my head!

He Who Stood wrote:if dan abnett (the messiah) wrote it, you need to go read it.

its just that simple

also... titanicus... go now!

Tha one seems to be a matter of taste as well.
I really enjoyed Titanicus, others were REALLY disappointed however... Id recommend it.

Dan Abnetts biggest failing is when he tries to write about Marines....I don't know if the guy has a VERY limited imagination, but he just can't seem to grasp the fact that Marines are supposed to be SOoOOOoooo much better than your average joe at fighting ( fluff-wise anyway )

When ever he writes about Marines, his first act is to "Humanise" them....which = fail in my opinion. When-ever he writes about humans encountering Marines (read CHAOS - bloody - Marines ) the human "good" guys end up killing them!!!! WTF is he on, and why does noone at GW HQ put a stop to his stupidness? I mean, its not just the fact that your average human hero can simply wipe out a Chaos Marine, its the "slap stick" way in which they do it that really drives the stake in.....

So, if Abnett sticks to pretty much all human (yawn) novels then yeah, why not, but when he even hints at introducing a Marin into the story, skip that scene and move on.....you'll thank me for it!

All the books are brilliant, I've read all of them. I particularly enjoyed Fulgrim though, showed how low Chaos go to turn people to their side!

I'm hoping 'Fulgrim' is a good book. I'm looking forward to the "How everyone turns to chaos" bits as so far it's been more about how everybody has turned from the emperor.

porkuslime wrote:Feel free to skip Descent of Angels.. adds NOTHING to the series, (IMHO).. all the other books are fun though.. I have read up to Mechanum and DAMN.. good gripping stuff there..

agree agree agree
im a huge dark angels nut and i got to the end of it and went ...wtf.....sooo disapointed there is another due out in the set a sot of part 2 thank god cos pt1 wasnt worth reading (i rarely say that about books)

Delephont wrote:Dan Abnetts biggest failing is when he tries to write about Marines....I don't know if the guy has a VERY limited imagination, but he just can't seem to grasp the fact that Marines are supposed to be SOoOOOoooo much better than your average joe at fighting ( fluff-wise anyway )

When ever he writes about Marines, his first act is to "Humanise" them....which = fail in my opinion. When-ever he writes about humans encountering Marines (read CHAOS - bloody - Marines ) the human "good" guys end up killing them!!!! WTF is he on, and why does noone at GW HQ put a stop to his stupidness? I mean, its not just the fact that your average human hero can simply wipe out a Chaos Marine, its the "slap stick" way in which they do it that really drives the stake in.....

So, if Abnett sticks to pretty much all human (yawn) novels then yeah, why not, but when he even hints at introducing a Marin into the story, skip that scene and move on.....you'll thank me for it!

But this is why i LIKE Abnett's marines. And, in fact, the marines in the HH books. He set a good bar there by humanising them. And they're not indestructable - a tabletop chaos marine CAN be killed by ten guardsmen with lasguns. It's not that far fetched!

My biggest problem with other BL authors - including McNeill but mainly directed at Goto and Counter - is that their marines are boring characters. They fight flawlessly, their flawlessly heroic, they always have the best intentions, they're always dutifully harsh. It just becomes one unbelievable battle scene after another, with no subtexts or motivation beyond 'Support my brothers' and 'Kill everything for the Emperor! Hurr!!'.

Now i know this is mainly a problem with the GW background, not the authors. This is what marines are MEANT to be like. But it makes for boring reading. What Abnett's does is investigate the marines movitations and consciences, and make them a bit more human, which makes them more believable for the reader.

I actualy liked Decent of Angels. It's only tangentialy related to the arc of the series, but if you consider it as it's own book, it's not bad at all. It needs a sequal though.

Abntt is clearly best at describing the battles, fighting etc. My stand out bit of the HH series so far was his writing in the battle on Murder aka Tarvitz and Lucius vs. the Megarachnid.

Mars.Techpriest wrote:I actualy liked Decent of Angels. It's only tangentialy related to the arc of the series, but if you consider it as it's own book, it's not bad at all. It needs a sequal though.

Fallen Angles, tis out in July.