SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW: Warhammer 40k: Horus Heresy: The First Heretic - Aaron Dembski-Bowden

Release Date: 01/11/10

BOOK BLURB:

Amidst the galaxy-wide war of the Great Crusade, the Emperor castigates the Word Bearers for their worship. Distraught at this judgement, Lorgar and his Legion seek another path while devastating world after world, venting their fury and fervour on the battlefield. Their search for a new purpose leads them to the edge of the material universe, where they meet ancient forces far more powerful than they could have imagined. Having set out to illuminate the Imperium, the corruption of Chaos takes hold and their path to damnation begins. Unbeknownst to the Word Bearers, their quest for truth contains the very roots of heresy -


REVIEW:

The Horus Heresy series is one that the Black Library has had to get right, after all the series focuses upon the key moment in mankind’s history where thing go asunder, brother turns against brother and readers have been demanding a greater sense of the events for years. So, in order to bring this part of the civil war to the reader, they’ve split it into various stories from some of their best writers bringing only the cream of the crop to the table. Having turned out a descent level of writing in a short time with a number of titles, Aaron gets his shot to tell a tale that could cement his reputation amongst the fans. So what did the readers get for their money?

Within this offering you get solid military fare, seriously bloody combat, double dealing and politics backed up with an overall feel that should make this a serious contender against a number of other titles within this series. It has some great characterisation, the dialogue is acceptable and overall it’s a story where there are some seriously golden snippets of info to be filed away/exploited for a later that could return to bite a few on the backside. It is well written, it is a story that I enjoyed but my one bugbear is when you know the history of some of the players, it does take a large part of the tension out from the tale as things unfurl. That said, it’s still going to be something readers will enjoy and hopefully will be something to help give people a taster of exactly what Aaron can do when unchained from constraints.