While far from utopian, it's a shitload better than how things stand in the 41st Millennium. One of the biggest surprises in the book is the nature of Imperial society in the 31st Millennium. You may have Chaos madness, but that's no excuse for Chaos rudeness. Sometimes it's odd going back this far and looking at the HH world while the paint was still wet (like the mention of the "hulking Astartes in gold custodes armour" guarding Horus - well, what the fuck?!) but to me, it's never more than a momentary distraction when we hit things that don't quite gel with later HH novels. but he's certainly more of a political animal than many of his brothers. I'm not saying Horus is a mad, barely-on-the-leash killer deep down, even at this stage. As the book goes on, we get more and more hints that the 'nice guy' persona is just a necessary facade. I guess the later "Horus was always a wrong'un" descriptions could be the HH version of people who find out someone's a child molester and then swear blind they always knew there was something funny about him. In fact, in the first few pages, we hear about how Horus will always try his best to avert conflict when dealing with human revenants he meets on the Great Crusade. It also doesn't fit with the portrayals of Horus as ALWAYS being a bloodthirsty, power-hungry thug, which is how he's being remembered with increasing frequency by his Loyalist brothers in recent Horus Heresy books. It doesn't completely jibe with the swiftness of Horus' fall into Chaos nastiness and, worse, lack of politeness, in books 2 and 3. The problem with the portrayal of Horus is, it may have been. Then Dan waves at him threateningly with a sharp stick made of HERESY AND CHAOS. Dan makes Horus - who is essentially Space-Lucifer Times A Billion Hitlers With Giant Spiky Claws - into a pretty nice guy, all told, someone who's happy to be caretaker for his father's Empire until he's no longer needed. Yet it works perfectly with 'Horus Rising'. I remember reading something, somewhere, for some reason, about the structure of storytelling (paraphrased due to my poor memory): "The purpose is to create a likeable character whose life is in good order, someone the reader would invite into their own home, and then poke that character with a sharp stick." A silly and reductive aphorism, when put up against the concept of "FICTION" as a whole. It feels like a self-contained book, which just happens to be setting up two more books (and an entire series, as well). Yet, unlike 'Unremembered Empire' (another 'jigsaw falling into place' book by Abnett), it feels like 'Horus Rising' can stand easily as a novel in its own right. As we all know from Star Wars, the sequel is where the REAL darkness begins. The whole objective is to get us to care about these characters so that their fall - or even death - in the next few books will actually mean something. This book is about setting up a cast of characters, establishing the background and setting for what will follow. (Though a few pages into 'Horus Rising', I put it down and re-read 'Death Of A Silversmith', which seemed like a much better story in its proper context.)įollowing the traditional 'trilogy' structure, 'Horus Rising' doesn't feature more than a few hints at Horus' fall.
#Horus heresy horus rising book report series
If I wanted to start reading the series with the book which covered the time period before the 'Heresy' started, perhaps I could have gone with 'Fallen Angels', 'The First Heretic' or 'Legion', but I'm glad it was 'Horus Rising'. As much as I fucked around with the chronology of the Heresy series the first time I read it through, my experiences with HH began with this book.