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| The Luna Wolves (copyright Games Workshop) |
There are a thousand ways and places in which we might begin the tale of Horus. We choose this one: the false Imperium, a collection of human worlds ignorant and arrogant enough to declare war upon the Luna Wolves of the 63rd Expeditionary Fleet.
We begin here for two reasons. Firstly, it marks the beginning of the tale that will see Garviel Loken take a major role in the shaping of the Legion's future. Loken will be our touch-stone for some time as we explore the Truth, and his actions against the 'Emperor' are the spark that illuminated him in those all but forgotten days, when everything still seemed to make sense.
The second reason is the 'Emperor' himself. For it was through him that a dangerous thought first occurred: that honourable warriors could boast unquestioned devotion to the self-proclaimed ruler of all humanity, and yet be horribly and obviously wrong. The manner by which the Luna Wolves responded to this dark mirror would ultimately tear the galaxy asunder.
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What Was
With only fifteen pages under our belt, many of them
involving shooting people, there’s not been much exploration of the Heresy’s
back-story just yet. Still, there is
some basic priming going on for the uninitiated, so I decided to run a word association
test with Fliss to see what she’s picked up.
A weapon, maybe?
Imperium
I picked this one up, at least, but I've no damn clue what it means. A code of conduct between the fighters... warriors... Astartes?
Dan Abnett seems to have constructed
the beginning of this chapter to be intentionally confusing to long-term
fans. It’s an interesting tactic, and
the obvious question is to how well it works for people with no reason to be
surprised that the Emperor and the Luna Wolves are fighting each
other. So, what do you think is going
on? What’s this fight about, and what
does the larger mission of the Luna Wolves seem to be?
I thought it might be suggesting this was our solar system, but there aren't enough planets.
Again, with all that
space taken up with people exploding, there’s not much room in this first
chapter for character development.
Still, with that said, what are your initial opinions of Garviel Loken?
It’s a common opinion
– one which I share, actually – that Dan Abnett is the best writer Games
Workshop has to call upon. How does his
prose strike you?
It's difficult to say right now, because it's so packed with terms I'm entirely unfamiliar with. I've too much to absorb to think about prose. Let's come back to that question later.
No. Being ginger, I would burn and die in minutes. Unless I could be in the shady bit all the time. But wouldn't the constant twisting get annoying? Or would you just get the equivalent of sea-legs. I could be a pirate! Stealing from those that enter my building without permission.
(At this point, Fliss begins to wax lyrical about rotating rooms she has known, and as her mind turns to rotating German restaurants which offer delicious forest gateau, I decide to move on.)
What Will Be
(At this point, Fliss begins to wax lyrical about rotating rooms she has known, and as her mind turns to rotating German restaurants which offer delicious forest gateau, I decide to move on.)
What Will Be
Again, there’s not
really much material to go on here, but for the sake of form: any predictions?
The Emperor is going to die, but which one? I figured it would be the 'Emperor', but then you started quizzing me in a suspicious manner. I think there's going to be a problem with Garviel later on. Maybe he learns something from elsewhere in the galaxy that will turn him from the Emperor? Or maybe the first Captain (Abaddon) will, and Garviel will have to take him down. Definitely they're going to end up fighting each other. Possibly over a woman. That's how these things usually happen.
Anything else?
One or both Emperors turns out to be the Wizard of Oz.
The Emperor is going to die, but which one? I figured it would be the 'Emperor', but then you started quizzing me in a suspicious manner. I think there's going to be a problem with Garviel later on. Maybe he learns something from elsewhere in the galaxy that will turn him from the Emperor? Or maybe the first Captain (Abaddon) will, and Garviel will have to take him down. Definitely they're going to end up fighting each other. Possibly over a woman. That's how these things usually happen.
Anything else?
One or both Emperors turns out to be the Wizard of Oz.
Just downloaded Horus Rising onto the iPad. Looks interesting :)
ReplyDeleteI regret to inform you that neither Emperor turns out to be the Wizard of Oz. Apologies for the spoiler, but I don't want you carrying around any false hopes.
ReplyDeleteJust finished the second book of the series(false gods) and randomly decided to google the phrase "I was there the day that Horus fell" because I thought it sounded cool. Ended up finding this blog. Absolutely not disappointed!! You're so lucky, SpaceSquid, I've tried so hard to convince any of my friends to get into the WH40K universe but never managed to. It is so interesting to see a newcomer's perspective on everything. I can only imagine the Horus Heresy series as a telling of a tale to which all readers know the ending. It's about the journey and not the destination. I think reading this will be extremely "illuminating". At any rate, it's surely extremely fun! I don't usually re-read books often, definitely not this soon after finishing them, but I'm going through every chapter and reading it before reading its review now because I just have to. It's so entertaining! And I know the blog stopped in 2015(which is sort of concerning. I hope you just lost interest and nothing bad happened), but thank you for all the great content anyway!
ReplyDeleteThat's a lovely message to show up in my inbox, thank you. I hope the blog lives up to your expectations :)
DeleteAnd no, nothing particularly bad happened that caused us to stop posting. F just got a new job a few years ago that really cut into her free time, and this was one project that unfortunately had to be set aside.