Fulgrim
Ratings26
Average rating3.5
Not quite as compelling as the previous 4 in the series, but it does set the stage for the rest of the heresy.
The first half of the book is a bit of a slog, and I struggled to keep going. That's half the reason it took me almost a year to read. (The other half is that I kept misplacing the book. This is what I get for reading a physical book.)
Allow me to save you roughly the first hundred pages or so. Fulgrim is great. Like. Really great. The best. Everyone loves him. Their breast swells with pride to even think of him. He's really good friends with everybody. And also perfect. The most perfect. The most best perfectest most perfectest best ever.
That's it. That's the first hundred pages. You're welcome.
If that's all this book was, I probably wouldn't have gotten much farther. I'm not sure I could deal with ~500 pages about how very perfect the Emperor's Children are, or strive to be. Or how very strong Fulgrim's relationship was with his various brother-primarchs.
Fortunately, it does get better, and the second half was truly phenomenal. Knowing everything I know now about Fulgrim, I think he's probably the most tragic figure in the 40K universe. And that's saying something.
hard work
After the brilliance of the first 4 books, this was a slog. 500 pages, and only the last 80 or so really got going.
It's not dreadful, but where I read the first 4 in a couple of days each, this took me more than two weeks to wade through.
I never really got into the Warhammer game itself — too crunchy — but the setting and world built up around it always fascinated me. The neo-Roman stylings of the Empire and its various hierarchies, the vast scale of space exploration and history, and the cosmic horrors lurking in the warp.
The Horus Heresy books haven't had a lot of the latter so far, which this book makes up for in spades. There's the introduction of the Eldar, a fallen race that had previously conquered the galaxy, and the gradual corruption of a Space Marine legion and the civilians accompanying them culminating in an absolutely horrifying set piece.
This is a gripping tale that stands on its own outside of the previous books in the series, and moves along at a tight clip. My favourite of the series so far.
