Dan Abnett's Horus Rising

I have a confession to make. This is my Science Fiction and Fantasy Review blog. I've had it for eight whole years now. I like to consider myself an expert in all matters Science Fiction and Fantasy and, if you're not one, I can probably fool you into believing it, too. One of the reasons I say "fool" is that, before very recently, I had only a concept of the whole "grimdark" sub-genre. I mean, the name is pretty much self-explanatory but I hadn't actually read any of it for myself.

When considering what I should read to acquaint myself with such a sub-genre a pretty obvious candidate arose: The Warhammer 40k universe is the original grimdark universe and it is very easily available, as long as you don't mind robbing a bank to get it. I mean, it's not as expensive as buying the minis, but I've never played the game. I just know what the books cost. But that led me to another problem: 40k is a freaking gargantuan universe. I mean, I've seen bit universes before. I'm a fan of the Four Horsemen Universe. I love pretty much any Dungeons & Dragons fiction, but I'm  a bigger fan of Dragonlance than pretty much anything else and the amount of fiction in that universe alone can be just a  bit daunting. Neither of those, both of those put together, don't come near the amount of fiction in the 40k universe. I didn't want to randomly select whatever. That's just not me, so I went researching.

In researching my choice of a starting point, the one constant suggestion was The Horus Heresy, but the one thing every person who made a list recommended not reading was also The Horus Heresy. Apparently, fifty-four books (plus, I gather, a few more anthologies) is too much for some of these lightweights. But not Jimbo. Oh, no. The 4HU is almost that size now, and Dragonlance is even bigger. BRING IT!

So, off I went in search of tasty treats to my local Amazon website and found the first book: Dan Abnett's Horus Rising. It wasn't hard to find. Type the name in, up it pops, there goes my money and BAM! I'm lost in space riding along with the feared Luna Wolves on their mission to make planet Sixty-Three Nineteen compliant with the edicts of the emperor. 

What followed was a lot of fun. If you're as into giant space battles and armored troops charging face first into gunfire, you can't miss this book. If you look a little bit of political intrigue to spice things up you can't go wrong. If you look for the bond between brothers that have faced combat you're in the right place. I was carried along right from the beginning and finished the whole book in basically three days. It was amazing.

What I hadn't counted on was the way Horus Rising and its author, Dan Abnett, dealt with the moral implications of making war. There is a lot more to this book than its awesome action sequences. The Warmaster, the aforementioned Horus, has a collection of captains under him which form the "Mournival", a group of men which act as advisors and the collective conscience of the Luna Wolves.  I was a bit surprised by this. It had an almost Japanese air to it, like an idealized samurai drama, only the code of the Legions is nowhere near the Code of Bushido. It's more like the warrior-philosopher thing, the feeling that the code makes things right  and that it's what a warrior should live for.

The warriors, the Luna Wolves and their brothers in the other Legions, are dedicated to the truth as they see it. This is a philosophy of pure science. It is openly derogatory toward religion and I can't say I was all that happy with it. I'm a Christian, after all, and Christianity is no more welcome in the Legions or on Terra than any other religion. I can live with it though, because it's fictional. Still and all, it led to a bit of a villainous air to this story's heroes. I kind of like that though. Even the good guys aren't good. That's grimdark, right?

Missing from the first novel were the references I had gained from others. The Luna Wolves travel through space to fight a fierce enemy upon receiving a distress call but I don't remember any reference to "psykers" (assuming that I spelled that right) being burned alive. Clearly, there is more to this story and I need to keep reading, but I'm okay with that.

I've heard people wonder if it's possible to enjoy 40k fiction without playing the game. I can honestly say that I've never sat a 40k table and I've never read a single one of their rulebooks, but I loved Horus Rising. There is so much here. I don't feel like I've missed a single bit of background necessary to understand what's going on. I do feel like Abnett went out of his way to make sure he included what was there, but he does it without making his worldbuilding overly obvious. Some would refer to this as "Heinleining" in the details and they're not wrong.

I have to admit that I have seen several posters with 40k troopers carrying swords and chainsaw swords alongside their guns. I always thought that was leaning heavily on the goofy side, but if you read Horus Rising it suddenly makes sense. These are troops that use their weapons effectively and their swords are no exception. If some of them seem to like sword work a little too much that's okay. I enjoyed that part of the story and it's not like they don't have other ways to combat the enemy when a sword isn't what's appropriate.

I'm forced to admit that I can't wait to get and read the sequel. It's my understanding that this is a shared universe, but I've read plenty of those (to include the 4HU and Dragonlance) and that just makes me enjoy a series more. There is something about reading a long series by a single author that I really enjoy, but a new voice keeps things fresh. I'll be headed to download False Gods soon. I can't wait.

Bottom Line: 5.0 out of 5 Cracked Carapaces

Horus Rising
Dan Abnett
Black Library, 2016

Horus Rising is available for purchase at the following link. If you click the link and buy literally anything from Amazon, I get a small percentage at no additional cost to you.

Horus Rising