Descent of Angels (Warhammer 40,000 Novels: Horus Heresy) (Pt. 6) by Mitchell Scanlon
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Book Reviews of Descent of Angels (Warhammer 40,000 Novels: Horus Heresy) (Pt. 6)
Book Review: The Black Library has gone the way of Horus himself...
Summary: 2 Stars
Although I am certain this novel serves as a lead up to the forthcoming Fallen Angels entry in the Horus Heresy series, the book itself has no business being in the series. In short, it is a betrayal.
The Horus Heresy series began on excellent footing with the initial trilogy following Garviel Loken and the Sons of Horus: Horus Rising, False Gods and Galaxy in Flames. Those novels had purpose and complexity; thanks, no doubt, to the wealth of background detail the folks at Black Library had fleshed out regarding the era of the heresy. Too bad Black Library has failed to pin the story on another such character and continue the narrative in a similarly engaging manner.
In my opinion, every entry in the series since the initial trilogy (The Flight of the Eisenstein, Fulgrim and now Descent of Angels) has increasingly shown just how easily and quickly a large undertaking comes unraveled when two elements come into play: lack of proper long-term narrative planning for what is indeed an epic tale grand in its scope, and the greed associated with what has become a marketable product or brand (to illustrate the latter argument, consider the upcoming Tales of the Heresy entry in the series). Black Library appears to be doing nothing more than bumbling around under The Horus Heresy label--in short, milking it--and it is a big disappointment to fans.
Descent of Angels itself is not a completely terrible novel. It is swollen, thanks to the author's redundancy in explaining character and concepts (ever heard of Show, Don't Tell???), which makes it quite tedious at times. There are moments, generally during important events and action sequences, where the writing is trim and focused, but on the whole these moments pale to the tediousness and the sense of impending disappointment felt as you turn page after page and realize this book will not further the Horus Heresy narrative. Not one bit.
The novel does tell an interesting tale of the background of Caliban, the Dark Angel's homeworld; however, what could have formed the most interesting narrative--the chapter's formation and the early trials of becoming an Astartes, which the main character apparently undergoes--falls flat. These details, years in the life of the main character, are merely skipped over and presumed to have occured.
I hope to follow the actual story of the Horus Heresy eventually, but that means at most that I will be cherry picking titles from the series going forward, if that. A shame really.
Book Review: Worst yet of the series
Summary: 2 Stars
I'll start by saying that I've been a huge fan of the Dark Angels Space Marines since Warhammer 40,000 first hit the shelves with Rogue Trader. Because of this my tolerance for bad writing was a bit more forgiving than normal. Even that wasn't enough to save this book. After reading Fulgrim which weaved a wonderful tragedy that built up over the whole book I was extremely disappointed in this story. The author seems unable to use any subtlety in his work... he has to drop every new revelation into the reader's lap within one or two pages. I won't cite specifics in case you are still moved to read the book. Also, in every previous book in the series you saw the development of different plotlines from different points of view. In the first three books you saw events develop from Loken's point of view, the view of the Rememberancers, and later on from the view of Saul Tarvitz. Every point of view had it's own story that developed. Not so with this book... after reading the previous books I felt like a horse with blinders on. The editing was also horrible... there were several sentences where the structure was so awful that it'd trip up the rhythm of my reading. Once or twice in a book is forgivable but it felt like this was happening every other chapter. I began to wonder if the publisher decided to cut costs by not hiring a editor to work on this book.
If I wasn't interested in the history of the Dark Angels I'd have given this book a single star. However, at least I've got the story... however horrible it's delivery turned out to be.
Book Review: Should have been the prequel, not the whole book
Summary: 2 Stars
If this wasn't supposed to be a Heresy novel, it would've been closer to 4 stars. The plot was decent, the protagonist well done, the interactions between characters and the Primach appropriate. Even the brief appearance of the Emperor was well written.
The plot revolves around Zahariel, a native of Caliban, who is part of the last of Lion El'Jonson's crusade to cleanse Caliban of the monsters that have plagued it. This is followed by the arrival of the Astartes and the Emperor, and Zahariel and his brother/rival Nemiel are swiftly inducted into its ranks as some of the first true Dark Angels.
The problem is this book may have flown as part 1 of 2. As it is written however, its very disappointing. Zahariel and Nemiel don't exacerbate or resolve their ongoing one-upmanship. Other characters are dealt off to the side or introduced without rhyme or reason.
And the central plot never moves. The end of the book doesn't coincide with the revolt of Luther and the Fall, or the Lions wounding, or the schism even beginning, but rather with Luther and Zahariel being sent back to Caliban after a minor battle with Chaos forces for.... no reason thats apparent at least. The book that should've ended with as much a bang as Fulgrim instead dies a crib death, with characters perfectly placed, resentments stoked, and the bonds of brotherhood under strain. Had the entire book been crammed into the first hundred pages instead of being the whole novel, the author would've been off to a great start.
Book Review: A disappointing installment
Summary: 2 Stars
I've been devouring the Horus Heresy novels in rapid succession, over the past few weeks. I've been reading them in order, and this is the first one that I found disappointing.
It started off well enough, but in the end it seemed to be more set up than story. While it's a novel set in the 40K universe, well over half of it is isolated to the planet Caliban, prior to its reunion with the Imperium. As such, that portion of the novel is essentially a fantasy tale of a knight's training and coming of age. Credit where credit's due - for those familiar with the 40K setting, it's interesting to see what Caliban was like. At the same time, as I read this section, I kept thinking, "OK, now the Imperium's going to show up and we'll get Space Marines." Unfortunately, that came much, much later in the story than I would have liked.
Once the Imperium finally arrived, the sci-fi portion was pretty trite. This was particularly emphasized when compared to the prior world shaking tales that have been featured in the earlier Horus Heresy novels.
If there's a sequel to this particular story -- assuming the sequel is good -- I probably won't regret having read this. As it stands, this one might have been a fun read if I wanted to know about the Dark Angels history. However, its connection to the Horus Heresy seems peripheral at best. Unless you're a big fan of the Dark Angels, I'd skip this one and maybe come back to it when you've exhausted other options.
Book Review: Nothing to do with the Heresy
Summary: 2 Stars
First off, the book has absolutely nothing to do with the story-arc of the Heresy as told by the previous books in the series. You can completely skip this book, and not have missed anything the previous books in the series have set up.
Additionally, this story is completely out of line, chronologically, with the rest of the books in the series.
Now, in regards to this story itself. I found that it moved along rather slowly. Scanlon has a tendency here to repeat himself often. I felt that he was trying to communicate the gravity and importance of certain aspects of the story simply through reiteration, and the pace of the story suffers as a result. Then there are other parts of the book which jump far ahead, leaving many of the plot points and character setups behind, never to be resolved.
The Black Library is notorious for milking their customers and 40k fans, and I truly can't help but feel that they just slapped the Horus Heresy tag on this book simply to sell more copies of it, despite it having absolutely zero to do with the Heresy whatsoever. Any attempt to finagle this story into the Heresy at some later time via a "sequel" or whatnot will only serve to cheapen it even more in my opinion.