Horus Rising

Dan Abnett’s the best in the game, what can I say?

This is my second read through the book. The first one was in 2006 when it came out. There was a lot I remembered and a lot I forgot. It was good to re-read to get another measure of Horus. A great character, who meant well and was conspired against by his own “brother” to begin his downfall.

A great story with interesting characters, plots, backgrounds, and pacing. You really can’t beat Dan Abnett for 40K—or in this case, 30k—fiction.

I cannot help but compare this book to my favorite Dan Abnett story, Embedded. There is a similar story here, Abnett uses human journalists as point of view characters to investigate the Astartes. However, the execution falls somewhat flat. The heavy weight of 40k lore prevents the journalists from getting too close to the action, and it also prevents Abnett from innovating as far as he clearly wanted to with the almost really cool antagonists he created for this book.

I was there the day Horus slew the Emperor.

I read this on the recommendation of my son. I would have never picked up on my own, not being a Warhammer player, but I have to say, I did enjoy it quite a bit. You have marines. Not just any marine, though, space marines. You have some magic/alien races/things not of our world. You have the lore of old Terra, our Earth, and you have a world rich with details and interesting characters.

Like most of you, I'm sure, Loken was my favorite character, with Sindermann as a close second. I'm looking forward to my next journey with the Luna Wolves and the Sons of Horus. 3 stars.