Book Review 135 // The Unremembered Empire by Dan Abnett

It's been a few weeks since Vulkan's Lives, and with the help of some Alien short stories, my mind was refreshed enough to hop back into the 30k verse of Horus Heresy. Now I am lucky to head back into series with a Dan Abnett book, I was expecting a good story that hopefully progressed the story and I was not disappointed. Here are the book's details:

Title: The Unremembered Empire (The Horus Heresy #27)

Author: Dan Abnett

Page Count: 416

Commercial Fluff:

Believing Terra has already fallen to the Warmaster, Primarch Roboute Guilliman founds the Imperium Secundus.

The unthinkable has happened – Terra has fallen to the traitor forces of Warmaster Horus! Nothing else could explain the sudden disappearance of the Astronomican’s guiding light at the heart of the Imperium, or so Roboute Guilliman would believe. Ever the pragmatist, he has drawn all his forces to Ultramar and begun construction of the new empire known as Imperium Secundus. Even with many of his Primarch brothers at his side, he still faces war from without and intrigue from within – with the best of intentions, was the full truth to be known it would likely damn them all as traitors for all eternity.

Review

So let's get the timeline sorted first. Calth has burned, Lorgar has created the Ruinstorm, and with the help of his brother Angron, their combine might lays siege to the 500 worlds of Ultramar. Vulkan has died and come back before disappearing once more, and Sanguinius and his chapter have survived a trap sprung by Horus. Then finally Johnson and Curze have played a game of cat and mouse in an attempt to kill each other. Sounds like a lot right?

With the Ruinstorm in full effect and the knowledge that most of his loyal brothers lay dead on Istavaan, Guilliman is forced to assume the worst. With the light of the Astronomicon hidden, Guilliman fears Terra has fallen and he attempts to hold his 500 worlds together. As time passes Guilliman starts making some questionable decisions. Firstly allows psykers within his legion once more (a crime Magnus was punished for), he uses Xeno tech to create a fake Astronomicon (heresy) and creates his own Empire called Imperium Secundus. All sounds a bit traitorous in my opinion.

With his beacon lit, soon Space Marines of various legion start to arrive, mostly the survivors of Istavaan. But then a pack of Space Wolves arrives at the request of Leman Russ and the Malcador and they question Guilliman and his motives (which is a great part of the book). During this section, we see an attempted assassination attempt on Guilliman and the return of a Crisom Fisted Imperial Fist (eeek).

The story only truly ramps up with the arrival of the Dark Angels. Here we get The Lion arriving and also questioning Guilliman's motives, Curze makes planetfall and solo kicks everyone arse, Vulkan for some reason falls from the sky and becomes Jerky, before showcasing his regeneration to everyone by waking up and chasing Curze across the city, and then final Sanguinius arrives in the last two chapters to say hi!

Overall a lot happens in 416 pages and we didn't even touch the story of the Iron Warrior Warsmith, the Cabal, John, and Eldrad. Wow, great book I am back in Horus mode!

As always thanks for checking in on me. Let me know in the comments what you want me to read next. Until then thank you for reading and use some of these links to help support the blog.

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