What do you write when you hate a beloved classic? Not just hate, but fail to finish. I recently read the first book in the Warhammer 40,000 series The Horus Heresy – Horus Rising by Dan Abnett. This is my first foray into Warhammer 40,000, and also the first book from Dan Abnet that I have read. Talking to friends who are fans of Abnett, I would often hear adjectives such as ‘gritty’ and ‘raw’ associated with his writing style. Two-thirds through Horus Rising and I think ‘boring’, ‘clichéd’, and ‘immature’ are more accurate. To be fair to Abnett, I think the issue is with the source material more than the writing quality. Horus Rising is set 10,000 years prior to the events of the popular game and follows the exploits of the emperor’s favoured son and Astarte – Horus. The empire itself is inter-galactic and attempts to unite the scattered populations of humanity under a single banner. To enforce the emperors will are the Astarte’s – a genetically engineered ‘perfect’ soldie
A collection of sci fi works and reviews