Today we are reviewing the first three books in the Horus Heresy, which are Horus Rising, False Gods, and Galaxy in Flames. I’m doing all three together because I think they actually work better as a single book than as three separate ones, and I’ll get into that a little bit later. Overall, I give the first 3 books a 6.3/10. The first book, Horus Rising, was a 3/10, the second, False Gods, was a 5/10, and the third, Galaxy in Flames, was a 9/10.

So, each of these books was actually written by a different author. We have, in order, Dan Abnett, Graham McNeill, and Ben Counter, and their writing styles are actually pretty distinctive when you read them one after the other, but each of these guys end up returning to write more stories in the Horus Heresy, so their voices end up carrying through pretty far into the whole book series. The entire Horus Heresy series is classified as Grim Dark, even though, in my opinion, you wouldn’t exactly know it until the second or third book in if you didn’t know anything about Warhammer when you started reading it.

That said, we all know that Black Library only really started taking off in the past 15 years or so, so it can be assumed the audience these stories were initially meant for was people who already knew about Warhammer and really just wanted to get deeper into the lore. Obviously, that’s changed. GWS wants to get more people excited about their universe, and Black Library is an excellent means to reach people like me who are less interested in playing the game, and more interested in reading the stories of the people who exist within the 40k and AoS universes. All of that in mind, these first three books in the Horus Heresy series are geared toward adults who enjoy reading science fiction and grim dark fiction with a militaristic theme, but especially toward those who want to find out what exactly happened in pre-40k times that lead things to be the way they are now in the 41st millennium.

Alright, so here comes the summary of all three books. It’s going to be long, and there will be spoilers!

Alright, here we go. In book one we are introduced to several characters. We meet 3 Primarchs: Horus, Rogal Dorn, and Sanguinius. We meet several Luna Wolves, including Garviel Loken, the Mournival, and Maloghurst. There are some Emperor’s Children and people from a few other legions, and some Remembrancers.

The main character of these books is technically Garviel Loken, but by the end of it the focus includes Remembrancers Kyril Sindermann, Euphrati Keeler, and Mersadie Oliton as well. A lot happens in this book, but it boils down to Loken getting accepted into Horus’ inner circle, discovering the existence of lodges in the Astartes ranks, learning about the Warp, and attempting come to terms with the nuances of it all while maintaining his “humanity,” which everyone seems to praise him for in this book. We meet the megarachnids, a xenos species, and the interex, humans, which the Astartes inevitably wipe out. We also get the first hints of the cult forming based around the Lectitio Devinitatus. The Luna Wolves change their names to the Sons of Horus, a galaxy-shaking semi-sentient weapon (called the Anathame) is stolen from the Interex, and the Vengeful Spirit moves on toward the moon, Davin.

The main purpose of this book is to set the stage for the next two books. It took me actual months to read through this whole book, because, let’s face it, it’s really, really dry. It’s all exposition, with a little bit of action, and the smallest dose of intrigue. It only picks up toward the last third of the book, but it’s still worth the read because you end up meeting most of the key players in the first three books of this 50+ book series, and many of the events you read later on in the series can be traced back to this book right here.

It also gives us a feel for the culture within the Luna Wolves (Sons of Horus). While I agree the writers were still finding their footing during the first three books, they did a decent job of illustrating what brotherhood looks like to Astartes.

Book two, False Gods, is broken into four parts. This book is much easier to enjoy right off the bat, compared to Horus Rising. We are briefly introduced to Magnus the Red, there is character development for Maloghurst, Abaddon, Torgaddon, “Little Horus” Aximand, Loken, and all the Remembrancers. This is the book where we begin to see Horus start to come unraveled. 

The battle that takes place on Davin, where Horus faces down the Warp monstrosity that was once his friend, and Loken and Torgaddon and their men fighting off god-awful Warp-zombie-astartes is some spectacular imagery I will not soon forget. During this fight, Horus is badly wounded by the Anathame, wielded by his Warp-ridden friend. The Astartes trample a bunch of common folk on their way to take Horus to the apothecary. Because the Primarchs have special, unknowable anatomy, the apothecaries can’t really help Horus so he gives his valediction to a Remembrancer they recently picked up.

Obviously, Horus survives, but only by the magick of a warrior-lodge on Davin. All of these events seem to have been orchestrated to happen, because the ritual that takes place over horus is what inevitably leads him to betray the Emperor. While he’s being healed, some of the Remembrancers accidentally summon a demon while translating the Book of Lorgar, and Euphrati Keeler ends up accidentally channeling the Emperor’s power to save them before collapsing into a coma. To me, this was the most mind-blowing part of the entire book, and I have re-read it a few times just to get as much detail as I can from it into my brain.

Horus then leads the 63rd expedition to a new goal. They meet the Auretian Technocracy and kills them in order to seize a tool they have called STCs, which are highly valuable. He promises them to Adept Regulus (who we met last book), in exchange for the Mechanicum’s support for his plan to overthrow the Emperor. During this time, the anathame also ends up with Fulgrim, who has his own book later on. Angron and his World Eaters help Horus and his Sons violently dispatch the Auretians without prejudice.

At the end of the book, Ignace Karkasy (one of the key remembrancers)is murdered. The remembrancer who took Horus’ valediction is also murdered. Loken and Torgaddon team up and the Mournival is officially split down the middle as the 63rd heads toward the Isstvan system.

Book three, Galaxy in Flames, is the kind of book you can’t put down. It was my first time reading a Black Library book in less than a week. I would have given this book a 10/10 if I hadn’t read more BL books that I thought were even better than this one. Let’s get into it.

In this book we finally meet my favorite primarch, Mortarion, and my favorite Death Guard character, Nathaniel Garro. The remembrancers Ephrati Keeler, Kyril Sindermann, and Mersadie Oliton actually play really big roles in this book instead of being quasi-secondary characters. 

So Horus has four primarchs on his side at this point and they need to clean house in their legions. They arrive at the Isstvan system and are supposedly there to crush the rebellion occurring there. The book starts off with some epic scenes taking place on the Vengeful Spirit, one of which involves Euphrati Keeler, now hailed as a prophet, waking up from her coma as Sindermann and two of his allies try to transport her, and casting some sort of spell on their attacker, so that he can barely move and his bullets fire in slow motion. 

On Isstvan extremis, Captain Garro is badly wounded by something called a Warsinger, but another Astarte, Lord Commander Eidolon, is able to kill the Warsinger with a sonic shriek. Thanks to a curious member of the legion, Saul Tarvitz, we end up seeing a laboratory where an apothecary is making surgical enhancements on legion members. This seems strange to include at this point in time, but it gets touched on again as a key point in another book. Horus sends an assault force to Isstvan that includes Loken and Torgaddon.

Tarvitz is actually the one who finds out Horus’ plan to kill his own Astartes on Isstvan’s surface (and the cooperation of the other primarchs to the same end). He manages to find an ally in Nathaniel Garro of the Death Guard, who was chilling on the Eisenstein due to his injuries. Garro helps cover Tarvitz drop pod as he descends to the surface to warn the Astartes there of the impending danger, then prepares to jump to the Warp. This is the beginning part of my favorite book in the Horus Heresy, Flight of the Eisenstein, which I’ll review next.

So on the surface are Sons of Horus, World Eaters, Emperor’s Children, and Death Guard who were deemed by their primarchs to be too loyal to the Emperor to live. Euphrati Keeler actually receives a vision of what is about to unfold on Isstvan and tells Oliton and Sindermann. Most of the forces on Isstvan die by virus bombs and the following orbital strike that ignites the gas in the atmosphere and burns the entire planet. It’s broadcast to all the Vengeful Spirit remembrancers, who had been gathered in a room to be killed, unaware of the fate that was about to befall them. Thankfully, Sindermann, Oliton, and Keeler manage to escape alongside a sympathetic elderly third captain, Iacton Qruze.

At this point, Horus loses control over what is going on at Isstvan. Angron drops down with his world eaters to attack the survivors, The two sides of the mournival face off to the death, and basically it’s a bloody mess and it seems like every loyalist dies. Obviously we find out later there are survivors, but I won’t go into that right now. The final scenes show Abaddon full-fledged angry, Aximand depressed from having to kill Torgaddon, and Loken being buried beneath the rubble of what was probably the only building left standing after the planet’s bombardment by the fleet above. 

So that's the summary. I know, my description did not do the story any kind of justice! But this was just the recap. In next week's post will talk about the characters and plot with a little more detail and a little more commentary from me. 

These book review posts will not usually be so long, but this time I reviewed 3 books in one go, which is kind of a lot for one post!