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While Horus’ Rebellion rages across the stars, a war of a different kind is being fought beneath Terra, a war that will determine the fate, not of the Imperium, but of mankind itself.
It is always an absolute joy to read this book and I got so excited at the idea of listening to it again to write this review. It’s as if Aaron Demsbki-Bowden wrote a list of the most awesome things in 30k Lore and put them all in one book.
I love every aspect of this story. I love the characters, I love the plots, I love the writing, it’s just great. But of course my own opinion is a subjective measure so let’s get down into the nitty gritty about why I love this book so much.
If you read a lot of my reviews then you’ll know that I like to complain about poorly written characters. But this book does a really great job of introducing, developing and making us care about characters we’ve never seen before. Something some books completely fail to do. (Praetorian of Dorn)
So, this book is about the War in the Webway. And no that’s not a spoiler because it literally says it on the cover. There are a couple of different threads in this story that come together and separate again but ultimately there’s four distinct plots;
The Custodes fighting within the Webway
The Silent Sisters on a secret mission for the Emperor
The Mechanicum refugees responsible for supplying ammunition and other things to the War effort
A daemon (a famous one) hunting within the Webway
But what’s really special about this book is the insights we get about the Emperor. Out of all the books in the Horus Heresy this one, as far as I know, has the highest amount of Emperor. He doesn’t just appear, like he does in First Heretic (as awesome as that was) but he’s an active and important part of this book.
We get to see the Emperor talking with his Custodes about lots of interesting things, including his childhood. It’s just incredible. I am abit biased though because I absolutely love the Emperor and the Custodes. If you don’t like the Emperor or the Custodes, this probably isn’t the book for you.
This book is pretty unapologetic when it comes to over the top awesomeness, which isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. I’d imagine some people would find this book somewhat overdone because of the sheer badassery of pretty much everyone involved. But I was like a kid in a candy store. What I’m trying to say is, while I can kind of understand someone not enjoying this book, there’s nothing about it that I personally don’t love.
I can take or leave the Mechanicum. Some people love them, some aren’t that interested, I guess I’m somewhere in the middle. Books like ‘Mechanicum’ kind of failed to hold my interests, but ‘The Zheng Cipher’ is one of my favourite audio dramas. I guess it comes down to how it’s written. I love the representation that the Mechanicum (not yet the Ad Mech) get in this book. It’s just the right amount of Martian Red to be refreshing in the Custodian Gold.
But once again, as great as this book is, its real value lies in the revelations we receive about the Emperor. We get to see him through the eyes of many different people and each reveals a different aspect of him, all of which I found fascinating. If you like the Emperor, you’ll love this book.
I’ve heard complaints that the Custodes make some less than wise decisions during the Horus Heresy novels. But rest assured, this book allows us to view them in all of their auramite clad, genhanced, highly trained, utterly loyal glory, and I absolutely love it.
I haven’t talked very much in this review about the Sisters of Silence and that’s mostly because I don’t want to spoil anything about their role in the story, but rest assured they are satisfactorily represented.
There’s also alittle bit of knight and titan combat in there if that’s your thing. But it’s far from a main focus.
This is probably my favourite book of the Horus Heresy series and I recommend it to everyone. However, I suppose not everyone will love this book as much as I do so I’ll say read this book if you like:
The Emperor
The Custodes
The Sisters of Silence
The Mechanicum
The Webway Project
Daemons
Knight/ Titan combat
Now if for some reason, you don’t like all of these things, the Inquisition wants to know your location. In all seriousness though I can’t stress enough how much I enjoy listening to this book and I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.
The Emperor Protects