Book Review: Horus Rising by Dan Abnett
Just as the Horus Heresy series finally finishes I begin the long trek to review them all. So where to begin, well of course, at the beginning with the Day Horus slew the Emperor.
Book Stats
Title: Horus Rising (Horus Heresy #1)
Author: Dan Abnett
Publisher: Black Library
Format: Paperback
Page Count: 412 Pages
Commercial Fluff: After thousands of years of expansion and conquest, the imperium of man is at its height. His dream for humanity is nearly accomplished, the emperor hands over the reins of power to his Warmaster, Horus, and heads back to Terra. But is Horus strong enough to control his fellow commanders and continue the emperor's grand design?
Review
This wasn't my first time reading this novel, so I knew what I was getting into. The best thing about this tale is how well Dan Abnett makes a sci-fi military novel. There is no crazy movie style battles in this book, it's a more straightforward realistic combat adventure. We have a cast of well-balanced, believable characters and made to seem more human than they are.
The main character we follow in this tale is Captain Loken. At the start, he is just a company Captain, but following an early action, Loken is promoted to the Mournival- a group of four senior officers whose role is to advise Horus and act like the Primarchs ’s voice of reason or his political tools. But soon, Loken starts to realize all is not what it seems within the Imperial Truth. As the story progresses, he starts noticing that secrets are being withheld, and not all is as it appears with the perfect Imperium of Man.
I enjoyed the book. It showed a future villain as a hero, the man that could have been, should have been. We also see the manipulation starting to happen by the end of the book and how the Word Bearers are starting to become the puppet masters of the Heresy. It's a great intro to this series and doesn't need you to understand much, as it explains it well. It has ignited the spark to read more of these titles.
