jacksonhager's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
drwilko's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
itcamefromthepage's review against another edition
4.0
I truly cannot get enough of Graham McNeill writing the Emperor's Children.
Dude just watched every Hellraiser movie in a row and was like 'what if cenobites were soldiers'?
McNeill also manages to make Perturabo interesting which is not an easy feat.
The only thing slightly keeping this away from being another perfect rating is the final battle involves some VERY goofy Ghosts, that took away from the HARD horror elements McNeill had been building.
Dude just watched every Hellraiser movie in a row and was like 'what if cenobites were soldiers'?
McNeill also manages to make Perturabo interesting which is not an easy feat.
The only thing slightly keeping this away from being another perfect rating is the final battle involves some VERY goofy Ghosts, that took away from the HARD horror elements McNeill had been building.
warragh's review against another edition
4.0
I was looking forward to this for quite some time. The Internets promised precious insights into Perturabo as well as Fulgrim's ascension to Daemonhood. And for most of the time, the book delivered. Kinda only a 3.5 but still, good enough.
The premise is quite simple. The Iron Warriors reluctantly join forces with the Emperor's Children to find some sort of mystical mcguffin capable of tipping the scales of the war against the Imperium. Also featuring are some Eldar as well as a Salamander, a Raven Guard and an unclear number of Iron Hands who are in the story because it needed to have more than 200-300 pages. To be fair, there are some fun moments but for the most part they appear and disappear according to the demands of the author. Oh, and they are the centerpiece of probably the single dumbest moment I have ever read in a Warhammer book (and I read quite a few of these novels). It's not even "fun" dumb, it just feels like the author needed an extra 100 pages and had no better idea as to where to find them.
Coming back to Perturabo, reading this made me realize that throughout all the silliness and the bad-assery and the emotional moments and tense moments and drama and glory and anger and everything, there aren't really moments of redemption. "Bad" people always stay bad and mistakes can't ever be forgiven. Perturabo comes across as a rather tragic figure (like most traitor Primarchs funny enough) and I can't help but feel that there was an opportunity here to create a rather unique character. As it stands, his whole arc within the book feels a bit flat and, for lack of a better word, pointless. However the book gets bonus points for exploring the relationship between him and Fulgrim so overall it mostly evens out.
As a final thought, I don't know if there is a book out there detailing Fulgrim's arc between his eponymous novel and this one but there is some explaining to do regarding his character.
The premise is quite simple. The Iron Warriors reluctantly join forces with the Emperor's Children to find some sort of mystical mcguffin capable of tipping the scales of the war against the Imperium. Also featuring are some Eldar as well as a Salamander, a Raven Guard and an unclear number of Iron Hands who are in the story because it needed to have more than 200-300 pages. To be fair, there are some fun moments but for the most part they appear and disappear according to the demands of the author. Oh, and they are the centerpiece of probably the single dumbest moment I have ever read in a Warhammer book (and I read quite a few of these novels). It's not even "fun" dumb, it just feels like the author needed an extra 100 pages and had no better idea as to where to find them.
Coming back to Perturabo, reading this made me realize that throughout all the silliness and the bad-assery and the emotional moments and tense moments and drama and glory and anger and everything, there aren't really moments of redemption. "Bad" people always stay bad and mistakes can't ever be forgiven. Perturabo comes across as a rather tragic figure (like most traitor Primarchs funny enough) and I can't help but feel that there was an opportunity here to create a rather unique character. As it stands, his whole arc within the book feels a bit flat and, for lack of a better word, pointless. However the book gets bonus points for exploring the relationship between him and Fulgrim so overall it mostly evens out.
As a final thought, I don't know if there is a book out there detailing Fulgrim's arc between his eponymous novel and this one but there is some explaining to do regarding his character.
erinquan's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
thedeadwoods's review
dark
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
lukecostin's review against another edition
3.0
Loved seeing an interesting side to the Iron Warriors and more of the Emperor’s children. I thought the Sisyphean side story was interesting too. However the main plot just didn’t grab me and the book felt too long for what it needed to be.