The seeds of Heresy are sown...

Greetings nerds and nerdettes! I'm back for another exciting book review! But this time, I think I'll look to the future...40,000 years in the future to be precise. Yes, this is my first Warhammer 40K novel review, so without further ado, here it is:

Horus Rising by Dan Abnett is the first book in The Horus Heresy series from the Black Library, and it details the beginnings of one of the darkest periods in all of the Warhammer 40,000 universe. It is the first chapter in the beginning trilogy of The Horus Heresy, though there are a great number of books after it detailing the fates of the other Legions while the Heresy was beginning. Without getting into too much detail I shall attempt to describe the beginnings of the Horus Heresy: In the beginning the Emperor of Mankind, ruler of the vast Imperium of Man, sought to bring the numerous worlds of the Imperium under his control. In order to do so, the Emperor realized he needed soldiers and commanders, for the task of bringing the numberless worlds to heel would require vast armies of loyal soldiers. To this end, He created the Primarchs, gene-sons of the Emperor, bred from his own flesh and blood. However, the Gods of Chaos had foreseen the extent of the Emperor's ambition, and sought to disrupt his plans by scattering the infant Primarchs to the far corners of the universe. The Emperor tried to stop them but succeeded in only altering the paths the infant Primarchs took, so that they at least landed on planets instead of being lost to the void forever. The Emperor then took what little of the Primarch project remained and created the Adeptes Astartes, or Space Marines, and went out to reunite His sons. After many long years, The Emperor succeeded in finally bringing His sons back to Him and reuniting them with the Legions sharing their blood and flesh. Horus Rising tells of the first and greatest of the Emperor's sons: the mighty Horus Lupercal, Warmaster of the Imperium of Man. The Emperor bestowed Horus with the title of Warmaster of the Legions and then retired back to Terra. Horus and his Legion, the Luna Wolves, were tasked with bringing the worlds of the Imperium under the Emperor's rule by any means necessary. Horus, however, began to question his father's choice to retire to Terra, and the Gods of Chaos saw this weakness and sought to exploit it. Thus began the corruption of the greatest of the Primarchs, and in the end, Horus' own hubris would bring about his downfall and the eventual betrayal of the Emperor, culminating in the seemingly endless struggle that came to be known as The Horus Heresy...

Horus Rising is a masterpiece and I consider it to be one of the best books ever written. Dan Abnett is a genius and is one of my favorite writers from the Black Library. The detail that he puts into each of his characters is staggering, and Horus himself is rendered in all the splendor befitting the first and greatest of the Emperor's sons. Horus is a complex being, proud and arrogant, yet compassionate and inspiring, and the love he inspires in his Legion and in all of the Legions of the Adeptes Astartes is nothing short of monumental, which makes his eventual fall from grace all the more poignant. To see such a magnificent being corrupted and debased by Chaos is nearly heart-breaking, and I really felt for Horus as he struggled with his duty to his father and his own morality. Horus truly loved the Emperor, more than anything in the universe, and the fact that he felt betrayed and wounded by his father leaving is made quite evident. Also, the staggering responsibility of being Warmaster of the Legions weighs heavily on Horus, and he struggles with it throughout the whole beginning trilogy. I wish I could say more about this book, because it is truly magnificent, but I find that words fail to encompass just how much this book changed me. Normally I recommend that my readers should go out and read the books I review, but Horus Rising is too good to merely recommend. Readers, I DEMAND that you go out and get this book. I give you my solemn oath as a gamer and a nerd that you will not be able to put it down. Horus Rising gets 5 chants of "For the Emperor!" out of 5.

By the time you see him, it's too late...

Greetings nerdlings! I'm back with another book review! Now hopefully you are all heeding my advice and checking out these books I have been reviewing, but if not, well, shame on you! This is going to be another quick review but I'll do my best to cram everything in.

Continuing in the theme of second books in great trilogies, Shadow King by Gav Thorpe is the second offering in the Sundering trilogy from the Black Library and is part of the Time of Legends series. Shadow King tells the story of Alith Anar, a prince of Ulthuan and resident of the kingdom of Nagarythe, which, if you recall, is the domain of Malekith, the protagonist from the first book in the Sundering trilogy. Alith is a carefree elven princeling who is devoted solely to hunting and to his family, until the war between Malekith and his mother Morathi over dominion of Nagarythe threatens to swallow his homeland of Elanardris whole. Alith and his family are staunch supporters of Malekith, and so they are forced to help the deposed prince regain his kingdom from Morathi's clutches. Yet despite all of the Anar's efforts, they are betrayed in the end by Malekith's forces, and Alith's entire family is slain, leaving him the sole surviving member of the Anar line. After that, Alith Anar swears vengeance upon the druchii, or dark elves, as the residents of Nagarythe under Malekith's command are known, and he takes on the title of Shadow King. Alith's brutal thirst for revenge leads him to slaughter the druchii wherever he can find them, and this quest leads him to the mysterious forest of Avelorn, where he is gifted with a bow blessed by Kurnous, the Hunter God, and Lileath, the Moon Goddess. With this bow in hand, Alith leads a devastating crusade against the druchii, culminating finally in a confrontation with Malekith himself. But just as Alith Anar is no longer the elf he once was, Malekith has changed as well...and his thirst for power may yet spell the end for the Shadow King...

As with all of the offerings from the Black Library, and from the Time of Legends series in particular, this is a superb book. The writing of Gav Thorpe is top-notch, and his characterization of Alith Anar as an individual wracked with guilt and consumed by thoughts of vengeance is nothing less of stellar. Alith's struggles against the druchii and his unreasoning hatred of the elves who took his family from him are rendered in amazing detail. The ongoing civil war between the druchii factions and how the Anars were caught in the middle was written in a spectacular fashion by Thorpe, who is one of the most prolific writers in all of the Black Libary. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and I highly recommend it to anyone interested in great fantasy or fans of the Warhammer universe. Shadow King gets 5 black-shafted arrows through the eye out of 5.