Horus Rising (Volume 1) by Dan Abnett
The Imperium of Man has spread throughout the cosmos under the benevolent rule of the Immortal Emperor. The Emperor departs from the front lines on the verge of triumph and gives his favourite son, Horus, command of the great crusade. When Horus was given the title of Warmaster, he attempted to carry out the Emperor’s grand plan while sowing the seeds of heresy and revolt among his siblings.
Horus Rising (Volume 1) by Dan Abnett
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This novel, which is the first in the venerable “Horus Heresy” series, describes what happened 10,000 years before the game.
Since these were the forerunners of the well-known space marines, it didn’t take me long to become familiar with the setting, even though the novel is set far in the past from the perspective of video games. This book probably isn’t the best place to start if you’re new to the world because there isn’t much information about the mythos in it. As they carry out their great crusade to affix the Imperium’s seal throughout the galaxy, the marine characters are given more leeway thanks to the book’s location before the later, more formal marine chapters.
Although they are still superhuman killing machines, their complex personalities help to counteract the grimness of the society they live in. It’s interesting to see the seeds of Horus’ future and see him before his fall because, to those knowledgeable about the mythos, his fate is known.
One of the things that draw me to the 40K setting is that bleak future. It’s extremely over the top, with adversaries around every corner and, if you’re not careful, even inside. The fundamental concept is that Earth was now regaining the lost colonies after touch with mankind had been lost after it had once spread beyond the stars. Naturally, there was resistance, and the subjugation of one such globe is where the narrative begins.
A really strange blend of space opera, medieval knights in armour, and majic (sic), with undertones of evil superbeings living in the “warp.” The tale is further complicated by the book’s use of old, occasionally modified, occasionally fabricated terminology and titles. There is a flood of the former but a drizzle of the latter, but not for the knights, who drink, speak a lot, read poetry, and train. The knights themselves appear to be called after the Middle Eastern goddess of war and sexual love Astarte. Although the first battle is poorly described, it serves to further the idea of a fascistic master race purging anything and anybody who gets in the way of their advancement.
The second is similar to Heinlein’s Starship Troopers, when the knights suddenly become unstoppable and wipe out the insects, meeting another group of humans who tolerate rather than conquer (or exterminate), which of course leads to conflict and a return to Earth.
