A Thousand Sons vs. Prospero burns (Horus Heresy Book 12 vs. Book 15)

I decided to cover both books in this review because it made sense to investigate their positives and negatives on the same page. It may also have been to save writing two entirely separate reviews where I regularly made references to the other story.

I read A Thousand Sons first as that was the way it was published (despite being a die hard Space Wolves fan). Graham McNeil is the author, and proceeds just like in previous Horus heresy novels to delivery an intriguing insight story. This one delves into the life and world of the Thousands Sons space marine chapter, and their Primarch Magnus the Red. It travels through their exploits leading up to the calamitous events of the beginning of the Horus Heresy.

As with most of these stories it often tells the story from the point that there end result is already known to the viewer. So the majority of the story telling is down through explaining the journey, not the destination. I've always liked the Thousands Sons as a Chaos space marine chapter, as they often have this tragic story which make them seem significantly less evil then their other chaos marine counterparts.  I think also their very human search for truth and knowledge of everything is something that rings true with many of us (and certainly an influencing.factor over me). They happen to be quite a visually impressive army, predominantly made up of dark blue and golden army with heavy Egyptian aesthetics. They also happen to be the Space wolves most hated enemy, Which meant that unsurprisingly the story would be told from two sides. That of the Thousand sons, and that of the Space wolves. Ultimately I walked away from A Thousand Sons feeling sadly at the ultimately very human nature to their fall, the hubris and losses that could have been avoided if only things had been slightly different.

Prospero Burns is the story from the viewpoint of the Space wolves. Told by Dan Abnett,  the story should have been in good hands...and I say good hands because even having finished it after what I felt was a difficult start, by the authors standards I personally feel this is his weakest work I've read. So I've had a difficult time with it. I think I went into the book with a large number of heavily influencing pre-expectations regarding how it would play out, and it just didn't really do much or any of that. I think some of it was a common mistake I sometimes make which was going into the book expecting the same quality or style of another author, in this case William King and Lee Lightner's Ragnar 6 novel series. I love those books and the way the space wolves are portrayed, and this book has a very different feel.

The book takes the main perspective from a human (commonly remembrancers in other novels, this one is some what of a difference as he is not officially a remembrancer, though in many ways takes exactly the same form). He as a character is reasonably interesting, and a plot that runs the length of the novel is certainly one of the highlights of the book. Some of the Space wolves involved in the story are also interesting. Notable inclusions are Bear and Long Fang. The obvious inclusion of the Primarch of the Space Wolves Leman Russ where in my opinion some of the more interesting ones, but my comparison to A Thousand Sons I felt a little lacking. As a incredibly intelligent, powerful but also a very different character by comparison to the other Primarchs, I felt and opportunity was missed by not allowing a insight into his thinking and feelings. 

Probably one of the most notable additions is the introduction of the term "Vlka Fenryka" or Wolves of Fenris. Now I love the idea of using Norse influencing heavily in the mythology of the Space Wolves, but I feel it has gotten to the point in some circles to no longer actually refer to them by that name, but by Vlka Fenryka. Currently their is a lot of rumours going around that Imperial guard and Space marines will be getting a re-naming with the newer codex's. Whilst I understand from a legal perspective why GW might be interested in changing the names for IP reasons, I would hope everyone wouldn't start actually stop calling them Imperial Guard or Sisters of Battle. This seemingly persistent alteration to there supposed perspective of themselves is in my own opinion unnecessary and frustrating

Secondly is how the wolves are portrayed. In the Horus Heresy (so far from my reading) they've been represented as the final straw. The executioners (to quote the book). But whilst in other novels they have been portrayed as sometimes uncouth, or feral in there behaviour and mannerisms, they were never presented as borderline evil. Also atleast in 40k they are often loved by those systems that are under there protection, as Logan Grimnar is considered one of the if not the best loved warrior in the galaxy, so why is it that everywhere they go the wolves are considered something the Emperor should have never even created? Ultimately for me it feels like discontinuity in the overall story. I tried to tell myself that the 31st millennium is a different place from the 41st , but it was still hard to get to grips with. Ultimately I hope another novel portraying the Space Wolves comes out, one which shows a different time or place, or even just against a different foe and with only Space wolves, so you're not constantly getting the perspective of someone trying to understands them, but as one who ALREADY understand them.

I'm a pretty die-hard Space wolves fan, and I'm a big Dan Abnett fan, and so this novel should have really culminated in something really memorable from my perspective. But it just wasn't. I appreciate there are some pretty big fans of it out there, which i can completely understand is down to different experience or perspective, but it just wasn't right for me. I really enjoyed A Thousands Sons by comparison, even though it was portraying the Space Wolves as the villain, which I hope goes a long way to encourage people to read it.

A Thousand Sons- 8.5/10
Prospero Burns - 7/10

Fulgrim - Horus Heresy book 5

Graham McNeil presents his 2nd novel in the Horus heresy series. Fulgrim, somewhat unsurprisingly,  tells the story of the Primarch Fulgrim and his legion, the Emperor's children.

Before I immersing myself in the Horus Heresy novels the only Graham McNeil books I had read were the Sigmar Times of Legend trilogy.  Overall their pretty good books,  including lots of barbarian/celtic/norse-esque elements to the people in the stories (which compared to modern day Empire which are more Renaissance/Prussian-like).  Often the books show the birth of certain changes in the Empire, such as warhorses breed to wear armour, the discovery of black powder, the origins of flagellants and more. If you can over look certain bits of the story as being a manipulation of canon then the book reads very enjoyably (ok SPOILER: ill admit, I got caught up with Sigmar already having got Ghal Maraz his hammer and him not being chieftain of his tribe or even the Empire when it clearly states otherwise in many of the general warhammer rulebooks etc)

So barring that all in mind I find Graham McNeil stuff always enjoyable and fun, he keeps to the spirit of most of the Warhammer universe. So with Fulgrim, it's important remember that the story tries to encompass lots of different sections in the Fulgrim story, and so it is actually broken down in a large number of increasingly smaller chapters as the story goes on. Fulgrim as a Primarch doesn't terribly interest me, but I did find that I wanted to see into his personality, his relationship with his brother Ferrus Manus, and their polarity and yet similarities at the same time. The Iron Hands chapter plays a regular role in the story telling, and it was nice to read some of their story. Like with many of the Horus Heresy books covering the traitor chapters, it is all about telling the interesting story of their fall, how they were manipulated by force greater then themselves.

I think I read somewhere that reading Horus Heresy novels was often akin to watching a train wreck in slow motion, which given the obvious end out come that's not entirely surprising. But sometimes you forget that along that journey you might feel like a carriage here or there might some how miraculously arrive unscathed at the end, if shaken. I think Graham McNeil, and many of the other Black Library authors do a pretty excellent job of willing you to believe that some how there is a bright light for these victims in the play out, no matter how much you might know about their final outcome. If you're a fan of Emperor's children, Iron hands, stories involving the Primarchs or just the Horus Heresy it is definitely worth a read. For someone knew to it you've hopefully read the first 3-4 novels in the series anyways, in which case you're probably already hooked. One of the many nice things about the Horus Heresy is that Forgeworld produce some pretty exquisite models (if terribly expensive), but it's often nice seeing first hand how the giants of the stories looked.

Overall I'm given Fulgrim a 7.5/10. It sometimes is a little long (though for Emperor's children fans this is probably a good thing), however I do feel like it covers a lot of the important points about their history and evolution as followers of chaos.  For a fan of them i'd probably give it a 8.5-9/10.