Battle for the Abyss (The Horus Heresy)

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Speaking of the villains, I will address one common complaint here: the portrayal of the Word Bearers.

Battle for the Abyss: The Horus Heresy, Book 8 (Audio

I rejoice the sequence has gone again to this type of novel in addition to I can solely hope that the subsequent publication in the assortment follows swimsuit. He is kind of the foil to Cestus in that he’s so plainly his opposite, but the two barely meet and neither are interesting characters in the first place. The casualties incurred were heavy, with only Antiges, Skraal and a few others making it onboard the Furious Abyss.I gave it a solid 3 stars on Goodreads, and in truth if Goodreads permitted it then I would probably make that 3. I rather like a chase story, and the gradual buildup of tension that comes with this structure, but I think they generally work best as tight, relatively compact stories.

Battle for the Abyss Black Library - Battle for the Abyss

When Counter really ramps up the action it’s genuinely spectacular in places, and for me personally it’s hard not to root for the plucky loyalist underdogs chasing down a superior enemy and doing everything they can to slow and, if possible, stop the Word Bearers. Ambushed at the docks, the loyalist assault team divides into two groups, Brynngar and his Blood Claws fighting off the ambushers while Antiges, Skraal and the World Eaters fight their way towards the ship. This a missed opportunity in a lot of the earlier Horus Heresy books or overlooked entirely, but in Battle for the Abyss it’s given the right amount of focus.Ben Counter is one of Black Library’s most popular Warhammer 40,000 authors, with two Horus Heresy novels to his name – Galaxy in Flames and Battle for the Abyss. The model of an Ultramarine in appearance, Cestus was decked out in ornate gold-edged Power armour and equipped with a Bolter, Power sword and Gladius. However, its poor reputation has nagged at me for a while (you know me, I prefer to look for positives rather than negatives), and an ongoing discussion with a friend about the themes, connections and outliers in the Heresy prompted me to revisit this most reviled of Heresy novels. I’m not going to try and defend this book and claim that it’s one of the series’ high points – I really don’t think it is.