Reviews and Comments

The End and the Death: Volume 2 is the next part of the finale of the Horus Heresy series and continues directly from the end of the previous volume, as could be assumed. This is the biggest volume of the 3 parter, being ~750 pages, and at some points you can really feel it. There are some plot lines that feel rather unnecessary and that they only exist to fill time. For example the Dark Angels defending the Astronomican, it’s nice to see Dark Angels doing stuff, but is it really necessary to the point of the novel? Along with this the plot following Basilo Fo is interesting, but so far its not doing much for the main plot. This story focuses on conflict between Malcador and the Custodes which is interesting, but it lengthens the novel in ways that may not be necessary. Unfortunately though, until the end of Volume 3 I cant actually say for certain if these plot lines matter. This point causes an issue with a rather big plot element involving the Dark King, which we get a bunch of buildup to and interesting character interactions surrounding, but it /literally/ gets thown out half way through the novel. I have to assume that this will come up again in Volume 3, because if it doesn’t I really feel like I’d need to decrease my rating of this to at best 4/10. Though there are plenty of things that I really enjoy in this book. As previously mentioned Basilo Fo’s plot is quite interesting to me, alongside what was being done with the Dark King. Additionally, the fight between Horus and Sanguinius I felt was quite well done. There is quite a lot of things I like in this novel, but its just too long I think for what it provides. On the whole, the length is an issue, to the point I can’t comfortably call the novel that good. I’ll currently give it a 5/10, but that may change for better or worse depending on the final Volume.

The End and the Death: Volume 1 is the End and the Death of the Horus Heresy series until we GW finds a way to add another imprint series. As the first 1/3 of the End and the Death, Abnett does some interesting work in setting up the rest of the 3 parter. We mainly focus on 6(?) or so different perspectives, with several interludes throughout the book showing off random militia members and the like trying to survive and what not. The primary perspectives are interesting, theres a lot of warp shenanigans going on so characters teleport massive distances without knowing what’s happening, it’s quite enjoyable to read. One thing that isn't enjoyable though, and is arguably a nitpick, is how much the words “end and the death” are used. Every chapter or so, someone says something about how this is the “end and the death of everything” and its repeated so often that is bothers me. But my i biggest bother is that I have no idea how this is meant to go on for 1200 more pages. Everything feels set up like it could conclude within another single 500 page book, but two more volumes? I worry about the pacing, as at points in volume one already at points it felt like it was being drawn out a bit. In the end (and the death) i find it somewhat hard to rate this book. On its own its alright, could have been handled better in its pacing, but I liked enough of the stuff going on that I can’t be too harsh on it. As the first part of three novels, I worry for what will come next. But as this is sold as its own novel, I will rate it as its own novel and will just happens to see what will come in the end. (and the death). (volume 2).

Approaching the end of the Siege, Echoes of Eternity covers the battle at the eternity gate, one of the last lines of defense for the loyalists. Like Warhawk, this novel very much focuses on one loyalist legion, that being the Blood Angels, and you can tell that ADB really wanted to write them. If I recall correctly he had wanted to use the Blood Angels, specifically Nasir Amit and his Flesh Tearers as the antagonists of the novel Betrayer, and now he gets to write about them he develops them well. I was surprised when during a flashback from Amit’s perspective I actually felt disgusted at the kind of person he is, a feeling I don’t recall feeling with other marines throughout the series. Of course we also follow ADB’s other recurring characters like Zephon and Land, and they are both still enjoyable to read with the rhythm between them. One this I quite liked about the novel is how we never really see Sanguinius’ perspective of the current battle, its alway the people around him that we see. This is much like how he treated the Emperor in Master of Mankind, as some giant entity we cannot truely understand. Additionally, seeing Lotara Sarin on the Conqueror is great, this is probably the last time we’ll see her for a while and the position she is left on is rather fitting I’d say. Once again, this second half of Siege novels is a big improvement on the beginning of it, and Im excited to see how it all Ends and Deaths or some other play on words.

The best aspects of The First Wall are simply things taken from the previous novels in the Siege of Terra series so far. Abaddon and Layak’s interactions, the Primarchs being smart, that’s really all thats of note for good qualities the book shows, and even then they don’t meet the standards set by the last two novels. What brings down this book the most is the Imperial Militia story about Zenobi and her crew from Addaba. This plotline is such a waste and I feel no shame in spoiling it. The whole plotline, as explained in the afterword, existed as Thrope was mandated to show that there were traitors within the Imperial Army/Militia, which is a thing done in the last novel with the Alpa Legion agents. This is presumably meant to try to show it at a larger scale, with a whole regiment being traitors, but it’s conveyed so poorly. You don't even realise that they are traitors until the final paragraph of their last appearance in the book, the only ‘hints’ before are that they ‘for the cause’ instead of ‘for the emperor’. The characters themselves are basically nonexistent as well. There is nothing I can tell you about Zenobi or any of her faceless friends aside from ‘they are proud and secretly traitors’. In essentially their final chapter Zenobi meets a man from another regiment and falls in love with him immediately, which is a lovely way of trying to attach you to a character before they disappear forever. This is easily the biggest flaw in the book, maybe a third of it is this painfully draining plot line. Thats all I have to say, its hard for me to decide whether this should be a 1.5 or 2, but I suppose the decent plot lines being the majority of the book hold it up enough to barely be a 2. At least the next book is by Abnett.

The second novel of the Siege of Terra series, The Lost and the Damned picks up where The Solar War left off, with the traitor legions at Terra. Like its predecessor this novel falls flat in a few places, however I feel there are higher highs than The Solar War had. It might just be me, but the text feels somewhat off, I might call it a bit Young Adult for my liking. This issue mainly arises when Primarchs are involved though, other scenes with characters like Katsuhiro and the Alpha Legion agents feel quite good. Also, something weird about this novel is how it kind of feels like it is meant to be the first book of the arc. The first pages for multiple main characters, mainly Primarchs, describe them as though the reader has no idea who they are and what they're like, almost as though its a jumping on point for whoever doesn't know the characters. Alongside all that though, there are the moral characters, and oh I love them. Katsuhiro is just a normal conscript to the defense of Terra, and seeing the conflict through his eyes helps establish what the war is like for your average person. He doesn't really get much information and is thrown into the thick of it, its very nice. With him are also two Alpha Legion agents, who were apparently characters from the Praetorian of Dorn novel, and these two are my favorite characters in this book, easily. They have been cut of from the Traitors after the Battle of Pluto and have just been tasked with causing destruction to the loyalists, and they way the two different characters deal with this fate is nice. One figures their job is done and they can wait out the war and try to live peacefully together, whereas the other is a true believer, staying dedicated to the cause until the very end. Its a pair of contrasting characters that really interest me, and honestly makes me want to retry reading Praetorian of Dorn just to see more of these characters. In the end, the book certainly seems to serve its purpose. I didn't talk about everything and all of the characters as many of them feel rather uninteresting and not that worth talking about. As I said before though, the best bits bring this novel up for me a little.

The Solar War, the first novel in the Siege of Terra series details the titular conflict, as the traitor legions make their way through the Solar system to Earth to begin the siege propped. This book is rather plain, I cant particularly say that I enjoyed it that much, but it wasn’t bad to read. One of the flaws of the book is probably the number of characters present, many of whom are new, and are also dead by the end. The afterword explains that French’s intention was to show that in war not every death really means anything, some people just die. I do like this idea, but when these are all new characters with less than a single book worth of characterisation I just didn’t really get attatched. This meant when seeing the characters doing things it just felt somewhat flat. This also hampers the action, which has some cool concepts, I really like what was done with the battle for Pluto and its moons, but the lack of developed characters involved somewhat reduced my investment. I understand why they couldn’t just kill a bunch of previously named characters from other books, that might just be a letdown for some fans, but the point still stands. On the whole though, the book is fine. Not an ideal beginning to the end of the heresy but it does its job in detailing part of the conflict.