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Best and worst Horus Heresy books? (lemmy.world)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Got into 40K last month and jumped right into Horus Heresy series using that handy reading order chart, wanted to get to Thousand Sons as fast as possible so I could learn about my army and read about the nothing Magnus allegedly did wrong.

Loken’s books were all a solid good time. A bit rushed feeling, book 2 stood out as a drop in quality. Horus felt less like a centuries old wizened war god amongst men and more like big dingus to make the plot happen, as if it couldn’t happen with a character who uses his brain. Book 3 and Eisenstein came back to the fun time.

Thousand Sons though is painfully bad. I’ve powered 60% through, normally I put down a book at 25% if I’m not feeling it and I reeeeaaaally wasn’t feeling it. Have to get through it for the dudes though. I don’t know the nothing he did wrong yet, but I’ll say he and his sons are definitely guilty of being the dumbest and most annoying self proclaimed “geniuses” in the galaxy. Not expecting Hugo Award level quality from this series, but a little effort would be nice.

So the question: which series among the heresy are the best and which are to avoid? Should I bother continuing 1K sons in hopes it improves, or switch to some other dudes?

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

@birdcannon , I think what you've discovered is that Graham McNeil just fucking sucks at writing. He has great ideas but his execution is crap.

I've read the main plotline (and main subplotlines) of the HH and the SoT and his books are by far the worst. Some people love his stuff, for example that godawful book Fulgrim , but I can't for the life of me understand why.

False Gods? The first signs of how boring his future books will be.
Fulgrim? Cool and superimportant plot point of the whole HH, so how it is even possible it's so boring?
Mechanicum? Cool story bro, too bad it's boring.
A Thousand Sons? It's one of his better works, but it's still the same author.
Vengeful Spirit? Again, cool ideas and a bit better than A Thousand Sons.

I would have read The Crimson King and The Fury of Magnus, but I mean, I have a limited time on this earth. Why spend it on this guys bad writing?

So, how do you read Graham McNeil? I discovered the most pleasant way of reading him is to lightly skim all the boring ass shit to get the gist of what he's getting at, indulge in the occasional good parts, rinse and repeat.

If you want the whole Horus Heresy you unfortuntately kind of have to deal with this guy.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Also, I agree with your assessment of the first four books.

The Flight of the Eisenstein remains one of my favourites.

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