I especially liked the portrayal of Alpha Legion (I am really warming up to these guys), Dark Angels (splintering of the the Mighty First might not be as clear cut as one would expect) and of course Legio Custodes. The arch-traitor Horus Lupercal's forces have bombarded Terra and the Imperial Palace lies in ruins. With the Emperor's dream in tatters, he seeks only to rob Chaos of its ultimate victory... Dorn and Valdor in particular were vastly enjoyable. Sanguinius is not a character I’d written much of, but I had fun with him. He’s an extremely difficult character to write, and a challenge that I really enjoyed. And weirdly, I found an enormous sympathy with Abaddon and the situation he finds himself in – where he’s obviously completely committed to doing terrible things. And while he’s now finished with the Horus Heresy, Dan’s far from finished with Warhammer. He’s working on another novel set at a more contemporary period in the Warhammer 40,000 universe, one with a very different scope – but we wouldn’t be Warhammer Community if we told you what that was just yet! For now, he just hopes that people enjoy the end of the saga. The POVs of Malcador and the Primarchs are somewhat interesting (no mean feat after 60+ books), and at least we do not get any new out-of-character revelations or derailings on that front.

We’re going to try and do this without spoilers – but if you haven’t read the End and the Death Part 1 at least, you may find some things spoiled for you a little. Where necessary, there’ll be a drop down box for very spoilery content. Open that at your peril! The centrepiece of part two is Sanguinius vs Horus. And that is very different in every respect to the centrepiece of part three, which is Horus vs the Emperor. There was a very deliberate attempt on my part to make sure those things didn’t just become just more of the same.” In more than this aspect, this is (part 1 of) the Magnum Opus. The sheer depth of language, of stylistic diversity Abnett summons here is staggering, and where many fantastic authors over the decades have fallen prey to the idea that just making up words will help make your fantastic world sound "more real" somehow, this is a far cry from such stumbling attempts. While the vocabulary can become weird and arcane, it's not just "calling a rabbit a shmirp", it's coming up with words that might make you stumble, but make total sense in context. When reality itself begins to drift apart, it stands to reason that the things to be witnessed defy a normal vocabulary, and when the central point of view is that of Malcador the Sigillite, it feels absolutely natural a character such as this would see the world through a truly unique point of view and use arcane terms to describe it.

Contents

Only 2,500 copies are available worldwide, each numbered and signed by the author. Don’t miss your chance to own a piece of Horus Heresy history! The End and The Death: Volume I A perfectly fine novel that could have used some significant editing and the surgical removal of several of the sub plots that primarily serve to ensure everyone’s favourite characters are mentioned at least once. There’s definitely a really strong Warhammer novel in there somewhere, and if the viewpoint characters had been restricted to Loken, Corswain, Sindermann, Malcador, Horus, Sanguinius and Oll we might have found it. Instead the tour round minor characters detracted severely from the pace of the novel. “Oh, here we go, Fafnir Ran is killing things again” was not the enduring takeaway I expected after Johnathan Keble (who puts in the usual hard yards as the audiobook narrator) spoke his last. These scenes would be better left to a short story compilation than trying to squeeze them into a mainline novel. So….this is it then: the end of the journey. Well, not completely yet of course, but with this book the story really does begin to near it’s conclusion. I’ve mentioned this before, I feel sad it’s all about to end, but at the same time I’m also reaching the point where I’m feeling that it really is time to end this.

Unfortunately, for me at least, all the fun stuff and the bits that are a fantastic reminder of why Dan Abnett is such a master of Warhammer fiction don’t quite add up to satisfying middle section of a single epic novel. You know with all of this in the play, role of formations like Alpha Legion becomes more and more interesting. I know this is way of thought that has nothing to do with the actual universe (just my mere projections) but I have a feeling that nothing in Emperor's plans is done by accident. For every force there seems to be a counter-force. And reading about Custodes in this book, Valdor's comment in Alpharius (another great book) comes to mind - when he (Valdor) says that while all other Primarchs are generals and soldiers in their own way, he (Valdor) is not sure what is Alpharius supposed to be. He definitely sensed danger, a force with shady objectives that can endanger the Custodes or people and organizations they protect. The walls have fallen, the gates are breached, and the defenders are slain. It is the end and the death. After seven brutal years of civil war, the Warmaster stands on the verge of victory. Horus Lupercal, once beloved son, has come to murder his father. The Emperor, a shining beacon of hope to many, an unscrupulous tyrant to others, must die. The lives of uncountable numbers have been extinguished and even primarchs, once thought immortal, have been laid low. The Emperor's dream lies in tatters, but there remains a sliver of hope.Other plots you could drop and lose nothing – or visit once, instead of four, five, a dozen times, throughout the novel. It’s nice to see Sigismund again, but his narrative arc was completed a few books ago and retreads old ground here. Fo is a bafflingly long side-show that provides some great seeds for a 40k RPG and seems to be setting up for a Scouring series more than providing compelling plot here. Others are duplicates, loyalist/traitor mirrors. Taking an axe to some of these threads, leaving them in the red snow, would, in my opinion, make for a better book.

It is The End. After more than 20 years of gripping novels the final moments of the Horus Heresy are in sight. Hundreds of characters have fought tooth and nail to reach this epic conclusion, and many millions more lie dead in their wake as worlds burn across the galaxy. DA: Almost all of them, actually. I particularly enjoyed the desperate politics and behind-the-scenes urgency of Malcador’s Chosen, and the emotional punch of his ascension. And there are several others, which I won’t spoil by naming, that I think pay off with unexpected emotional power towards the end. It took me two years to write the whole thing. It was literally the biggest thing I’ve ever done, the most formidable challenge, because there’s so much expectation attached to it”, he adds. “I loved it. I was almost sorry when it was over and there was nothing left to write – but I had to have a good long lie-down afterwards…” And the boys of Caliban, the Dark Angels going all weak at the knee's because of a little Typhus magic? They went at it like little girls,.until they were rescued by one enigmatic anti hero...no spoilers. Thank the emperor he was there eh? Difficult to accept their almost total capitulation and nah, I don't buy it. Never in all the ages of Terra has a lions son, or even a custodes felt so weak or fought so poor. PDF / EPUB File Name: The_End_and_the_Death_Volume_II_-_Dan_Abnett.pdf, The_End_and_the_Death_Volume_II_-_Dan_Abnett.epubThis very much is volume 2 rather than a sequel to the End and the Death, and there’s pros and cons to it in that. The stuff you liked in Volume 1 is still there – most of it. The stuff I liked mostly isn’t, which was sad for me, but then everyone else seemed to hate Malcador’s insane gothic rambling so that absence might improve the book for you. Horus is still excitingly in second person, the same strands of narrative and perspective are there – Sindermann, Keeler, Loken, Rann and Zephon et al – now joined with new ones, the perpetual gang wend their way somewhere. We still have multiple narratives, dozens of perspectives, and they are facing very much the same foes. It feels very much like Volume 2, rather than a second book in a trilogy. The Emperor and Malcador discovered Malcador could use the Throne and not immediately die some time after first finding it, so Malcador takes the throne while The Emperor goes to meet Horus. Malcador dumps all of his final instructions and thoughts out onto his chosen agents telepathically before sitting the throne The End and the Death starts much as the rest of the Siege with vignettes from the fighting on Terra which is a great way to demonstrate the global nature of the conflict. Abnett interspersed these stories with discussions from Horus on his father and brothers a Malcador talking about the Emperor. Both include great further snippets from the past and how the Emperor got to where he finds himself. Sure, it doesn't all make sense especially when they discuss pre 21st century history, but its fun watching Malcador and Horus separately talk of the weaving of the fates! Book have big problem with phasing. I need to elaborate a bit. Book have 4 large parts made of chapters. Zograt the grot receives an unexpected boon from the Bad Moon in Bad Loon Rising by Andy Clark, as the power of the Clammy Hand gives him just the boost he needs to ascend from the grim depths of grotdom. Together with his troggoth companion Skrog he embarks on a quest to become the greatest Loonboss the Mortal Realms have ever known – a mad aspiration, but one that just might be within his reach.