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Jenni Lada brings us information about all of the groovy new gaming imports from around the world.
Jenni Lada brings us information about all of the groovy new gaming imports from around the world.
Mechanicum is a bit of a puzzle in itself. It’s a good book that, much like most of the really good sci-fi or fantasy, is entirely an acquired taste. The book is the first in the Horus Heresy series that puts a group, other than the Space Marines, into focus. The enigmatic Adeptus Mechanicum and their “evil” twin the Dark Mechanicum, which is made up by the tech-priests and tech-warriors of Mars, are at the heart of the story.
Mechaniwhoosawhatsus?
The Mechanicum, in either form, are essentially the manufacturers and suppliers of the Imperium’s military might. They tend to turn machinery, especially that which had been made times long since forgotten, into a form of religion and they worship the Omnissiah/Machine God. Some parts of the Mechanicum say that the Emperor of Mankind is the Omnissiah while calling the other sect heretical. The Dark Mechanicum believe that the Omnissiah is a completely different entity and think of the followers of the Imperium as blasphemers that should be purged. Much like any real-life conflicts that are similar to this volatile religious debate, there are also those who really don’t care because they just want to live their lives and they’re sucked into the conflict simply by being there.
The tech-priests and tech-warriors of either end of the Mechanicum also tend to hold their humanity as unnecessary and willfully adapt their body into a higher form of technology. At most they usually only save their human ability to reason and communicate. Usually that is all that remains that is human after they are done making themselves into something that is more or less a machine. Being that they turn themselves to living, walking computers, occasionally with guns, they are obsessed with logic.
Tom, Meet War. War, Tom
One of the things that this book does better than any of the others in the series is setting up a sense of urgency. It takes place right as Warmaster Horus turns his back on the Emperor and is starting the open rebellion. Being that the book has a lot to do with economics and private security it comes across a bit like Tom Clancy meets Warhammer 40,000. It really works out well with the presentation. In comparison with the rest of the series it is a new view of the universe, since most books focusing on pre- and post-Horus Heresy events follow only the Imperial Guard, Space Marines, Inquisition or Commissariat.
Being that it is an entirely new view by focusing specifically on the Mechanicum in any of its forms, the presentation naturally has to be quite different. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It’s just something that will turn off readers who started off with being fans of any of the Space Marines legions, the Gaunt’s Ghosts series, the Ciaphas Cain storyline or either of the inquisition stories including the Eisenhorn trilogy or Ravenor trilogy.8
Not Everyone Likes Mars
McNeill makes it obvious that he can write more than just a story about legions going to damnation. This religious civil war on Mars has a great amount of detail and covers the general mindset of the tech-priests with ease.
It’s a great book that some people won’t be able to get into. It is an acquired taste that, if you start off loving it, it will grip you through its 415-page length. If you are interested, first find it in a library. If you can’t get into it you don’t have to worry about forking out money. However, if you’re a die-hard fan that was looking for something new, get the book.
Product Page [The Horus Heresy: Mechanicum] Read [The Black Library forums] Also Read [Gamertell]
Other books in The Horus Heresy series:
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