The End And The Death: Volume I (The Horus Heresy: Siege of Terra Book 8)

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While it is true the ground war continues we've read our way through that over 7 books even if you are new to 40K and don't know the lore and are experiencing this for the first time without knowing the details of the end the first 7 books got us to the point that the ground war is lost that the situation is pointless and its purely down to attrition. There is no climax because the events are so spread out there is no impact to them there is no building to a crescendo as too often nothing is happening the events you are reading have no impact they have no meaning too much of the book is simply happening rather than building the story. But at the whim of a Warmaster fallen so far from grace, the Dark Gods will not make Sanguinius’ task an easy one, and as the war edges towards its explosive, bloody conclusion, events are about to unfold that could either save humanity, or plunge it headlong into an eternity of darkness. The Emperor, a shining beacon of hope to many, an unscrupulous tyrant to others, must die. The lives of uncountable numbers have been extinguished and even primarchs, once thought immortal, have been laid low. The Emperor's dream lies in tatters, but there remains a sliver of hope.

Battle between Sanguinius and Horus is not just physical battle but psychological - what can be more moral breaking but destruction of one Primarch that is personification of deities of past. Sheer brutality of the duel is breathtaking. And everything seems to be done with goal of goading the Emperor to cross the threshold and cause more harm than good. The entire series of the Siege has been overwhelmingly disappointing with few highlights but I've read enough of it to want to see it to the end or so I thought. Terra is besieged. The outcome of the war lies on a knife edge. The Warmaster Horus’ bloody seven-year crusade has led to this – the cradle of humanity, where he is to kill his father, the Emperor. Discussion thread for the first instalment of the two-part finale of the Siege of Terra series. The Garro novella will be released in January. Dan Abnett is the author behind this incredible final story . It contains some of the most crucial moments in the Horus Heresy – foundational to Warhammer 40,000 as we know it. This is simply unmissable.Dan's a fine novelist but this is not his finest work. The first third of the book feels somewhat abstract and a little depressing. Earth/Terra is dead, we get it. Except it isn't because we know the finale. Horus kills the Emperor permanently, realises his mistake, frees himself from Chaos’ influence, purges the immaterium, retains the power of Chaos, effectively becoming an Emperor-equivalent being. The loyal primarchs expel him from the empire, but Horus aids humanity from the shadows. Horus has a moment of clarity, frees himself from Chaos’ influence, and uses the power of Chaos to restore the material universe around earth You seem to be under the impression that the Horus Heresy series of books is going to end in a way that radically changes the setting.

Games Workshop have confirmed receipt of an astropathic message from the showrunners of Game of Thrones. It is rumoured that the message outright begs Dan Abnett not to repeat their mistakes in destroying the fragile sense of space, location and geography of an imagined paracosm. “It just turns all the characters into ping-pong balls” the decoded message reads, “almost no choice involving location or placement ends up meaning anything and this has a corrosive effect on the rest of a characters reality. Don’t follow us down this doomed path Dan Abnett!” Abnett does well enough, but endnig something so wast so massive as is Horus Heresy is not easy task.Oll and co are brought to the throne room and Vulkan recognises John so they're allowed to hang around

The chaos of the siege doesn’t help the second half of the book. Everyone’s had an approach to the immense scale of these final hours in one way or another – the Solar War added literal space to numbers, Saturnine slammed through hundreds of overlapping viewpoints at a rapid pace, Echoes nailed the conflict to a single, burning point. The End and the Death attempts to do it all, and for all of the skill on show in writing different voices and perspectives, it’s where the novel creaks and breaks. We’re told rather than shown the preposterous scale of the conflict. It feels less apocalyptic and terrifying than the masterwork that was Saturnine because it loses the key focal point to show the desperation we’re told is present. Chapters of “Fragments” – single paragraph or even single line vignettes – are supposed to show us the full extent of the siege, and sometimes do this to great effect. Others, unfortunately read like some of the early attempts to establish the Stormcast Eternals as viable protagonists, all nounverbers at the placenames against the adjective verbnouners. There’s just too much context. We know the world is on fire, but seeing every single flame detracts from the inferno. Only 2,500 copies are available worldwide, each numbered and signed by the author. Don’t miss your chance to own a piece of Horus Heresy history! The End and The Death: Volume I In more than this aspect, this is (part 1 of) the Magnum Opus. The sheer depth of language, of stylistic diversity Abnett summons here is staggering, and where many fantastic authors over the decades have fallen prey to the idea that just making up words will help make your fantastic world sound "more real" somehow, this is a far cry from such stumbling attempts. While the vocabulary can become weird and arcane, it's not just "calling a rabbit a shmirp", it's coming up with words that might make you stumble, but make total sense in context. When reality itself begins to drift apart, it stands to reason that the things to be witnessed defy a normal vocabulary, and when the central point of view is that of Malcador the Sigillite, it feels absolutely natural a character such as this would see the world through a truly unique point of view and use arcane terms to describe it. The Emperor remains a perpetual with strong but not god-like psychic abilities (similar to the regent). He loses the power He stole from Chaos. Aside from the main characters - Emperor, Malcador, loyalist Primarchs, Horus the betrayer - we are given glimpses of total war and horrors shaking the Terra and especially main Palace compound. We see never ending infantry bloody combat of the "mortal" army regiments, Titans and heavy armor combat with incredibly powerful weapons fired at ridiculously close ranges, Legionnaires fighting from huge closed areas once hosting thousands to claustrophobic bunkers and underground fortifications to defending the mountain peaks against the incoming hordes of unthinkable horrors.V1 was a tome of prose where Dan Abnett got to use his English degree. V2 just simply has too many characters you do not give a crap about. The Emperor and Oll Persson once conquered the Tower of Babel when Oll was his Warmaster because it was dedicated to learning Enuncia. Oll thought they were going to destroy the Tower but the Emperor thought Enuncia could be useful. Oll stabbed him. This has nothing to do with the review but it’s my favourite relevant art. Horus and the Emperor, Adrian Smith. Credit: GW.

We’re not going to go into every little detail of the plot here. I can’t promise this will be spoiler free, but we’ll give it a go. With all that said, the book deserves better than the three-star retirement home of mediocrity. Right here is the transformation of the 30k Imperium into the 40k Imperium, more than any other point in the Heresy series. The institutions that will define the setting we’ve known for decades are being made in the pressure cooker of the endless final day of the siege. The inquisition, ecclesiarchy, the malign fuel for golden throne and the birth of the cult of sacrifice are all in here in fascinating hints and suggestions. Which is just how Warhammer lore should be. There is a particularly noteworthy scene from Malcador’s point of view where he sits upon the Throne and we see the truly awful and eternal fate that awaits the man in gold. So….this is it then: the end of the journey. Well, not completely yet of course, but with this book the story really does begin to near it’s conclusion. I’ve mentioned this before, I feel sad it’s all about to end, but at the same time I’m also reaching the point where I’m feeling that it really is time to end this. Dan Abnett: I honestly feel quite dazed and confused. When we set out, we knew it would be a major project, and that it would probably appeal to a lot of people. But we had no idea just how significant it would become, or how big it would get in every sense of the word. It’s been very – let’s say – demanding. The established story of the Heresy that we were using was very detailed in places, with sections of the mythology set in stone in ways that every reader knew. But there were also big gaps and, because that mythology had evolved over the years, many contradictions. Well this one is hard to rate. To say that there are huge expectations for this book is understatement.A perfectly fine novel that could have used some significant editing and the surgical removal of several of the sub plots that primarily serve to ensure everyone’s favourite characters are mentioned at least once. There’s definitely a really strong Warhammer novel in there somewhere, and if the viewpoint characters had been restricted to Loken, Corswain, Sindermann, Malcador, Horus, Sanguinius and Oll we might have found it. Instead the tour round minor characters detracted severely from the pace of the novel. “Oh, here we go, Fafnir Ran is killing things again” was not the enduring takeaway I expected after Johnathan Keble (who puts in the usual hard yards as the audiobook narrator) spoke his last. These scenes would be better left to a short story compilation than trying to squeeze them into a mainline novel. At this point it goes from scenes of desperate last stand into scenes of discussions about who is above who in Imperial hierarchy, from Vengeful Spirit to library .