Descent of Angels: The Horus Heresy, Book 6

I recommended this to everyone reading Horus Heresy series. It is surprisingly good Horus Heresy book that doesn't involve the Horus Heresy.This book is best described as divided into three parts.Pat 1. A childhood training montage.This part of the book falls rather flat, it isn't a good indication of the glorious second part of the book. Mostly serves as an intro to The Order.Part 2. Excalibur like section of the book except Excalibur is the heads of monsters.This is without a doubt the best pre Imperium lore/backstory I've ever read in the 30k Universe.Part 3. Typical Astartes Warhammer 30k Story.This part is best kept rather secret but it is well worth your time.

This was a fun and interesting look into Caliban before and a little after the rise of its primarch. I enjoyed the slice of life of our protagonist as he went through his trials and it was interesting to watch him see the rise of this primarch from the outside. The battles and characters were well written, I only wish I felt the events at the end would have been more epic. Even the protagonist notes....the historians won't even write of this minor skirmish. A bit melancholic at the end, but I do want to read more. To follow this story and characters further.

This was definitely one of my favorite books of the series thus far. This author has definite writing talent, and I hope to see more of his work as I continue to move through the HH series.

This novel departs sharply from the storyline of the earlier novels - a bit disorienting at first, but you quickly become absorbed in the world of Caliban and the story of Zahariel and his brothers. Z’s initial encounters with the forces of Chaos and the Immaterium are especially strong plot elements. You end up rooting hard for Z and his brothers, but you have a strong sense things will not turn out to be so easy for them...

The story is great, and it is interesting to see the origins of a legion, but the story telling is all over the place. The majority of the book is dedicated to the early origins of the Dark Angels on a feudal world, and then flash forwards some time later when they are full-fledged Space Marines. This is actually the most interesting and disturbing part of the story, and it gets relegated to a tiny sliver of the book. Basically, imagine a novel with a short-story added to the end.There is one scene that I had a major problem with.***SPOILERS***When receiving a delegation from a human planet that was supposedly making an effort to comply peacefully, the Adeptus Mechanicus aboard the receiving Dark Angel ship were able to examine the human craft upon which the delegation arrived, the use of which was necessary since the delegation insisted that they arrive via their own means. They concluded that it was a small, primitive cruiser of early human design, possible dating back centuries. Later, a small group of Dark Angels examining the ship found that not only was the ship apparently an ad-hoc design (with thrusters seemingly welded in a rush and painted over poorly and an odd bulge welded on the nose cone), it was never built for re-entry, making it impossible to return to the surface of the planet without disintegrating in the atmosphere. Furthermore, the ship had an atomic charge planted on it. One of the Dark Angels then revealed that they found the charge shortly after the arrival of the (Tzeentch worshiping) delegation, stating that they concealed the knowledge because they hoped that the Dark Angels would benefit from the loss of their Primarch, whom some thought betrayed their planet by allying with the Emperor. The ship, which was later activated by an arcane homing beacon (the ship was to spear through to the inner chambers and detonate the atomic charge) on the delegation standing right next to the Primarch, was eventually jettisoned, along with half of the unfortunate deck hands present, and extreme injuries suffered by the Dark Angels who managed to open the locks right under the burning thrusters of the bomb-ship.Not only was the Dark Angel not reported for this total treachery, the matter was never revisited again. What bothered me the most was that the Adeptus Mechanicus completely failed to examine the ship properly. Not one part of this section of the book made any sense.***SPOILERS***

they focused on what the universe was like before the heresy. what it meant to become astarte and to have it taken away

This was a solid entry, if you can get past the drawling conversational prologue to the story. What follows is an incredibly intimate look into the soul of the First Legion. Unlike other space marine stories, this one offers a rare look into who the Dark Angels are and what set them on their tragic course through the millennia. As much as I love the story, the payoff is frustratingly swift, leaving us nothing but to move on to the next entry in the series.

I’m running out of superlatives to describe the Horus Heresy series. All respect and love to the Black Library editorial board, whom together have crafted a truly awe inspiring and tragically compelling narrative.Delighted with this purchase and excited to read more.