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First Heretic (2010)

by Aaron Dembski-Bowden(Favorite Author)

4.21 of 5 Votes: 3

ISBN

1844168859 (ISBN13: 9781844168859)

languge

English

genre

Fantasy

publisher

Games Workshop

series

The Horus Heresy

review 1: This book was simply excellent. I could leave it at that, but I won't.The book follows the evolution of the Word Bearers Legion from Loyalist to Heretic Legion. At first I wasn't sure about this book. Both 'Horus Rising' and 'Fulgrim' were spectacular and honestly all the other Heresy books I had read were really good (though my head is still spinning from 'Legion') so why hesitate. Well the reason is Ben Counter's excellent 'Battle for the Abyss'. It's his fault really. See I am relatively new to the fiction end of the Warhammer 40K universe and so my own ideas of the Word Bearers were formed by using them periodically on the first 'Dawn of War' PC game as well as the miniatures my Friends had of them. Needless to say, and after reading Counter's take on them, I was convi... morenced that a book devoted to a Legion of religious fanatics (Satanic fanatics at that) could not possibly be good unless I read all the dialogue in the vein of something resembling 'RAAAWWRRR!!!!'...I was pleasantly surprised.Mr. Bowden wrote an amazing book, one that actually made me feel sympathy for the Word Bearers but especially their Primarch Lorgar. I was a little clueless as to the hatred the Word Bearers bore (ha!) for the Ultramarines from Counter's book and this book does a wonderful job of not only making that such a pivotal event (they why they hate the Ultramarines that is) but also making you, even if only briefly, want to see the Ultramarines get their asses kicked for what they did. Bowden follows the Legion and especially Lorgar as they make the long fall to Chaos and become the first Heretic Legion. An added treat (especially a newbie for myself) was the visit to a dead eldar world (visit paid for and provended by a Chaos daemon) where the birth of Chaos so to speak in the galaxy came to be. All in all I can't praise this book highly enough and I have heard rumors of a 'Night Lords' omnibus featuring Mr. Bowden's trilogy on the Night Lords Legion (I hope this is true as I have discovered that the first two volumes are no longer in print sadly...) which excites me greatly. I definitely look forward to more from Mr. Bowden as the Heresy unfolds.
review 2: I loved this. It was fantastically written, and grabbed my flagging love for the Horus Heresy series and dragged it back kicking and screaming into the light of day. It's so detailed and so in-depth, it really makes you -feel- the dilemma Lorgar faces and how that's taken advantage of (I won't elaborate further, as it would spoil some twists in the plot). I still read this every now and then, and I really fell in love with the way Aaron writes, even over Dan's (Abnett) Gaunt's Ghosts series, which was previously my favourite W40k work. I can't wait to be able to purchase his other books.Add on top that Aaron himself is a wonderful guy with a big heart (he signed a copy of Aurelian for me, for my best friend's funeral (it was his favourite of ADB's work)), and you really have an author that's worth being a lifelong fan of. I can't recommend him enough. less

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