Gamertell

Title: The Horus Heresy: Fulgrim
Author: Graham McNeill
Publisher: The Black Library
Release Date: 2007
Price: $7.99
Rating: Two thumbs up, 90/100, B+, **** out of five.
Pros: Quick pace, gives more explanation to different events, develops all major characters wonderfully, fixes most of the problems that popped up with False Gods
Cons: Some of the flaws from False Gods only to a lesser extent.
Overall: It starts the latter half of the series so far with the same punch that Horus Rising had.

Fulgrim is the fifth book in the Horus Heresy series. It is also the second best book in the sci-fi adaptation of Paradise Lost.

Where the first three books of the Horus Heresy series followed the Luna Wolves and the fourth book of the series covered the Death Guard legion, Fulgrim closely follows the Emperor’s Children and their primarch Fulgrim.

Starting in a warzone with a xenos tribe known as the Laer, you thrust straight into a quick paced maelstrom of chaos. Bullets are flying everywhere. People, aliens and Space Marines are dying in droves. Explosions are tearing apart buildings and vehicles. There’s just a lot going on. Part of that action is also mental so you already are getting multiple tiers of action. As events go forward, more tiers are thrown on as some characters start to go insane and, in some cases, their personalities split.

One of the gems of this second entry to the Horus Heresy series from Graham McNeill is that he fixed his problem with character development. He now develops all the main characters equally. It works beautifully at making more well-rounded and multi-dimensional characters than those of False Gods, McNeill’s first attempt at adding to the Heresy series.

In this book, McNeill really comes into his own for the Horus Heresy and setting himself apart from Dan Abnett, author of Horus Rising, rather than riding on his coattails like he did with False Gods.

Another gem is that it actually continues the story from the side of the heretic legions. Where the majority of the action thus far has only taken place up to the eradication of forces and the population specifically on Istvan III, this book continues the story beyond the action that readers have already become accustomed to. It’s helpful in getting to know the motives of others when they turned their backs on the Emperor.

Also you get to watch as most of a legion slowly gets changed from the beings of purity to being of pure malice and depravity. The Emperor’s Children are no different as they side with the forces of Chaos and become allies of the Chaos God Slaanesh, god of excess and pleasure.

The bottom line is this. If you’re already this far in the series, get the book. It is one of the books that is worth the full price.

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