This quest to read the Horus Heresy revealed its scope with this novel. While I knew I had undertaken an epic task with sixty-three books in the series, for whatever reason the full length and breadth of it only hit me at the end of Nemesis. For perspective, consider that Tom Clancy only wrote twelve novels on his own. Agatha Christie wrote thirty-three Poirot novels. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote twenty-one. Clive Cussler wrote seventeen. The point here is that of the popular literary fiction in the Western world, Horus Heresy is the longest continuous series that covers a single fictional event.
I feel like I’m part of something monumental.
The book itself was excellent. It blended elements of murder mystery, political intrigue, and the usual host of Warhammer 40,000 battles and alien terror. The main characters were all “human”, which as I’ve previously observed (and Dan Abnett has stated) makes the grimdark events much more visceral and relatable than the stories told solely from the super heroic perspective of the Space Marines. Swallow continues to prove himself a master of alien horror and rises in my estimation of which author is handling the source material in the most interesting way possible.
It has taken me six months to consume thirteen novels in this series. At this rate, I’ll be done at the end of October 2025.
It’s nice to have something to look forward to, wouldn’t you agree?
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