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ratgrrrl's review against another edition
1.0
May 2024 Read using the Horus Heresy Omnibus Project Reading Order Omnibus XXI The Siege of Terra (https://www.heresyomnibus.com/omnibus/xxi-the-siege-of-terra) as part of my Oath of Moment to complete the Horus Heresy series and extras.
I wish I didn't have the reaction I do to certain kinds of media. I genuinely hate feeling like this and it makes me feel like an awful person.
This is one of those reviews where I feel the need to say up top that this is my own personal opinion expressed for my own entertainment and catharsis. It is only meant for readers and is not intended to be read by the author or anyone close to them. This seems especially important as I have had a least one Black Library author like my review of their work, which is lovely when I have nice things to say, but disconcerting when I have anything else to say.
I just want to be clear that I'm not trying to hate or spoil anyone's fun. I am a nobody who knows nothing. I am just somone who has read a lot of Horus Heresy suff and is very autistic with Tinkerbell's capacity to only hold a single emotion at a time and an innate passion for hyperbole. Liking things is almost always better than not liking things and I am a champion of the joys of subjectivity.
Also, this review is me releasing a lot of feelings that have have arisen from just how excited to finally get to The Siege of Terra, after reading absolutely everything else, save a handful of Primarchs stories I'm working on and the Eidolon book coming out later this year, including my own culpability and frustration with myself for getting so hype and building up the idea of this series in my head, and not just this book and absolutely isn't any kind of personal attack on or wish to disparage or discourage McNeill. I've had a lot of wonderful and critical things to say about McNeill's bibliography, but this just doesn't feel like him and lacks his usual energy and electric prose. Credit where credit is due, I don't recall this story being misogynistic, so I at least have something concrete and positive to say there.
Am I aware that my initial reaction to finishing this book is completely unreasonable and not normal? Absolutely! Neurodivergences and chronic conditions with protracted pain flare ups, constant agony, over a week without anything approaching my baseline pain and discomfort levels, and fuck all sleep are all a thing.
This doesn't change the fact that I have just had to pull myself out of a meltdown and was genuinely weeping with disappointment, rage, and sadness. Unfortunately, a disproportionate amount of those feelings, while elicited by the book, were not for the reasons intented.
I need some time to process this and come back with a clearer head*, but this might just be my least favourite of McNeill's works and I would never have guessed that this was his writing as it none of the quality or weight I associate with and expect him and the Horus Heresy.
*I was going to do this, but I realised I don't have loads to say and I want this to be done.
This is the final act for the crew of the Sisypheum, whose journey through Angel Exterminatus, Kryptos, and The Seventh Serpent created a Legion Blade reforged with the shattered remnants of the Iron Hands with Salamanders and Raven Guard, through shared the shared trauma Isstvan V and their evolving camaraderie as they did what they could to keep each other alive and take the fight to the Traitors. Their ordeals have brought them so close to the Throneworld, but they are forced to focus their attentions on Luna and deny the enemy one more time...
OK. So, everything about this book, from the characters to the setting and MacGuffin, are absolutely things I care about and I am invested in. My experience vacillated, but on the whole I loved the sagas of Shattered Legions, Angel Exterminatus is one of, if not, my favourite of McNeill's works outside of The Wolf of Ash and Fire, and I have a lot of love for the crew of the Sisypheum. The Selenar and genetech in general are absolutely fascinating to me. I am a huge sucker for the one last job, knowing very obviously from the outset a story is going to end with a high bodycount of characters I care about, or even have just met--I would die for any of the Loyalists in The Last Loyalist and Zhukel Dror instantly became one of my favourite Horus Heresy characters and had me crying my eyes out in one short story!
I make a point of all the above because however you slice it and however the plot and elements of this stories were presented to me, I should absolutely adore this!
While I haven't been a fan of Vengeful Spirit or Lupus Daemonis and I have had a fair bit of criticism for his misogyny and the bafflingly archaic and reductive understanding of sex and gender evident in his books, most notably a lot of stuff in the Lucius subplot in Fulgrim, I consider myself a big fan of McNeill. Even if I don't love everything he's written, there is a consistent quality of inspired ideas, exciting conceptions, and genuinely beautiful prose; at once poetic and heightened, while realised with such tangible vibrancy as to feel incredibly real and engaging, in every sense.
I'm not saying any of this to blow smoke up McNeill's arse, to make up for, or distract from just how disappointed I am with this novella and how little of anything positive I have to say, but rather, to show that I have a huge amount of, admittedly critical, but very real appreciation and passion for McNeill's writing.
The overwhelming feeling I had from reading this and the reason I kept doing other things and having to force myself to get through it was a total lack of energy, engagement or care. I really am not trying to be rude and don't wish to be disrespectful, so I am going to be as honest as I can be. Honestly, this felt very much like it was a purely passionless and workerlike commission that Black Library was forcing McNeill to do. With the exception of small bits of the end, it felt to me like he had absolutely no passion, interest, or care in this story or these characters, which is absolutely baffling!
At the end of the day, McNeill is a good writer and, even with my feelings about there being no soul or spark in this, the writing isn't awful or anything. It's just not...anything...beyond boring, for the vast majority. I am dead honest when I say that I would not have guessed this was McNeill's writing and genuinely would find it easy to believe that this wasn't written by any of the Horus Heresy stable with a novel to their name.
This is the Horus Heresy, the bestselling, belobed prestige Black Library series. It's The Siege of Terra, literally the Horus Heresy finale miniseries, and I find it colossally disappointing, and maybe even insulting, to have one of the last books in this series and the swangsong for some brilliant side characters we've been with for 12 years (since the publication of Angel Exterminatus) be so stale and uninspired.
The fact that this is also the most we've really got a look at Luna or discussed the truly fascinating Selenar, and even that was desultry and pedestrian, being reduced to calling Astartes monsters and having the Traitors come face to face with more monstrous versions of themselves...but with no concept, discussion, theme, or reflection beyond the surface level, is mind-boggling and galling. Also, the entire first third being fractious bickering without anything beyond the surface level disagreement and no dramatic weight or meaning is certainly a choice.
I truly feel more insane than usual trying to process this. Yeah, it's just a bad book or even just one that wasn't my cup of tea, and none of this really matters. But I truly care about this series and it's been a phenemonal help with my coping with some really rough times this year and right now, and seeing the stark difference in writers I am very familiar with, having read them for decades at this point and dedicating myself to completely completing the Horus Heresy this year (you can literally see the numbers below), it just seems like there is a lack of care and/ or passion, and that fucking sucks. For everyone.
Some of the honourable ends are done with some effect and I do like the final scene, but even at its best it felt like McNeill was barely out of neutral. I did shed some tears, but that's largely because McNeill had made me care about these characters in his other works and I was so het up with negativity and chronic pain that I was spiralling into an autistic meltdown. The meltdown and scale of my reactions are absolutely not on McNeill and are purely a result of my body and brain being fucked. That's a me problem for sure. I just want to be very clear about that.
It just really sucks when something you are so invested in and really care about by a writer you know can absolutely knock it out of the park who has never failed to muster a little energy and wonder even on the works that were my least favourite before this, but who regularly has exceptional prose and is just a phenomenal writer.
It sucks.
Initially, I was going to give this two because there are aspects of the elegaic section that were effective, but on the whole I hated reading this and forced myself to get it finished because there is no sense of care or energy until the last few pages and the whole first third of this book is just wasted with weightless squabbling and fractiousness that fails to inform anything deeper about the characters or situation, so I had to go with one, especially on the context of the established quality and expectations of the Horus Heresy and this being part of the finale.
Through the Horus Heresy Omnibus Project and my own additions, I have currently read* all 54 Horus Heresy main series novels (+1 repeat), 25 novellas (+2 repeats), Cthonia's Reckoning, as well as the Macragge's Honour graphic novel, all 17 Primarchs novels 3 Primarchs antholologies, 3 Characters novels, 1 Siege of Terra Novel, 1 Siege of Terra Novella, and 182 short stories/ audio dramas across the Horus Heresy (inc. 11+ repeats). Plus, 2 Warhammer 40K further reading novels and 1 short story...this run, as well as writing 1 short story myself.
I couldn't be more appreciative of the phenomenal work of the Horus Heresy Omnibus Project, which has made this ridiculous endeavour all the better and has inspired me to create and collate a collection of Horus Heresy and Warhammer 40,000 documents and checklists (http://tiny.cc/im00yz). There are now too many items to list here, but there is a contents and explainer document here (http://tiny.cc/nj00yz).
*My tracking consistently proves shoddy, but I'm doing my best.
I wish I didn't have the reaction I do to certain kinds of media. I genuinely hate feeling like this and it makes me feel like an awful person.
This is one of those reviews where I feel the need to say up top that this is my own personal opinion expressed for my own entertainment and catharsis. It is only meant for readers and is not intended to be read by the author or anyone close to them. This seems especially important as I have had a least one Black Library author like my review of their work, which is lovely when I have nice things to say, but disconcerting when I have anything else to say.
I just want to be clear that I'm not trying to hate or spoil anyone's fun. I am a nobody who knows nothing. I am just somone who has read a lot of Horus Heresy suff and is very autistic with Tinkerbell's capacity to only hold a single emotion at a time and an innate passion for hyperbole. Liking things is almost always better than not liking things and I am a champion of the joys of subjectivity.
Also, this review is me releasing a lot of feelings that have have arisen from just how excited to finally get to The Siege of Terra, after reading absolutely everything else, save a handful of Primarchs stories I'm working on and the Eidolon book coming out later this year, including my own culpability and frustration with myself for getting so hype and building up the idea of this series in my head, and not just this book and absolutely isn't any kind of personal attack on or wish to disparage or discourage McNeill. I've had a lot of wonderful and critical things to say about McNeill's bibliography, but this just doesn't feel like him and lacks his usual energy and electric prose. Credit where credit is due, I don't recall this story being misogynistic, so I at least have something concrete and positive to say there.
Am I aware that my initial reaction to finishing this book is completely unreasonable and not normal? Absolutely! Neurodivergences and chronic conditions with protracted pain flare ups, constant agony, over a week without anything approaching my baseline pain and discomfort levels, and fuck all sleep are all a thing.
This doesn't change the fact that I have just had to pull myself out of a meltdown and was genuinely weeping with disappointment, rage, and sadness. Unfortunately, a disproportionate amount of those feelings, while elicited by the book, were not for the reasons intented.
I need some time to process this and come back with a clearer head*, but this might just be my least favourite of McNeill's works and I would never have guessed that this was his writing as it none of the quality or weight I associate with and expect him and the Horus Heresy.
*I was going to do this, but I realised I don't have loads to say and I want this to be done.
This is the final act for the crew of the Sisypheum, whose journey through Angel Exterminatus, Kryptos, and The Seventh Serpent created a Legion Blade reforged with the shattered remnants of the Iron Hands with Salamanders and Raven Guard, through shared the shared trauma Isstvan V and their evolving camaraderie as they did what they could to keep each other alive and take the fight to the Traitors. Their ordeals have brought them so close to the Throneworld, but they are forced to focus their attentions on Luna and deny the enemy one more time...
OK. So, everything about this book, from the characters to the setting and MacGuffin, are absolutely things I care about and I am invested in. My experience vacillated, but on the whole I loved the sagas of Shattered Legions, Angel Exterminatus is one of, if not, my favourite of McNeill's works outside of The Wolf of Ash and Fire, and I have a lot of love for the crew of the Sisypheum. The Selenar and genetech in general are absolutely fascinating to me. I am a huge sucker for the one last job, knowing very obviously from the outset a story is going to end with a high bodycount of characters I care about, or even have just met--I would die for any of the Loyalists in The Last Loyalist and Zhukel Dror instantly became one of my favourite Horus Heresy characters and had me crying my eyes out in one short story!
I make a point of all the above because however you slice it and however the plot and elements of this stories were presented to me, I should absolutely adore this!
While I haven't been a fan of Vengeful Spirit or Lupus Daemonis and I have had a fair bit of criticism for his misogyny and the bafflingly archaic and reductive understanding of sex and gender evident in his books, most notably a lot of stuff in the Lucius subplot in Fulgrim, I consider myself a big fan of McNeill. Even if I don't love everything he's written, there is a consistent quality of inspired ideas, exciting conceptions, and genuinely beautiful prose; at once poetic and heightened, while realised with such tangible vibrancy as to feel incredibly real and engaging, in every sense.
I'm not saying any of this to blow smoke up McNeill's arse, to make up for, or distract from just how disappointed I am with this novella and how little of anything positive I have to say, but rather, to show that I have a huge amount of, admittedly critical, but very real appreciation and passion for McNeill's writing.
The overwhelming feeling I had from reading this and the reason I kept doing other things and having to force myself to get through it was a total lack of energy, engagement or care. I really am not trying to be rude and don't wish to be disrespectful, so I am going to be as honest as I can be. Honestly, this felt very much like it was a purely passionless and workerlike commission that Black Library was forcing McNeill to do. With the exception of small bits of the end, it felt to me like he had absolutely no passion, interest, or care in this story or these characters, which is absolutely baffling!
At the end of the day, McNeill is a good writer and, even with my feelings about there being no soul or spark in this, the writing isn't awful or anything. It's just not...anything...beyond boring, for the vast majority. I am dead honest when I say that I would not have guessed this was McNeill's writing and genuinely would find it easy to believe that this wasn't written by any of the Horus Heresy stable with a novel to their name.
This is the Horus Heresy, the bestselling, belobed prestige Black Library series. It's The Siege of Terra, literally the Horus Heresy finale miniseries, and I find it colossally disappointing, and maybe even insulting, to have one of the last books in this series and the swangsong for some brilliant side characters we've been with for 12 years (since the publication of Angel Exterminatus) be so stale and uninspired.
The fact that this is also the most we've really got a look at Luna or discussed the truly fascinating Selenar, and even that was desultry and pedestrian, being reduced to calling Astartes monsters and having the Traitors come face to face with more monstrous versions of themselves...but with no concept, discussion, theme, or reflection beyond the surface level, is mind-boggling and galling. Also, the entire first third being fractious bickering without anything beyond the surface level disagreement and no dramatic weight or meaning is certainly a choice.
I truly feel more insane than usual trying to process this. Yeah, it's just a bad book or even just one that wasn't my cup of tea, and none of this really matters. But I truly care about this series and it's been a phenemonal help with my coping with some really rough times this year and right now, and seeing the stark difference in writers I am very familiar with, having read them for decades at this point and dedicating myself to completely completing the Horus Heresy this year (you can literally see the numbers below), it just seems like there is a lack of care and/ or passion, and that fucking sucks. For everyone.
Some of the honourable ends are done with some effect and I do like the final scene, but even at its best it felt like McNeill was barely out of neutral. I did shed some tears, but that's largely because McNeill had made me care about these characters in his other works and I was so het up with negativity and chronic pain that I was spiralling into an autistic meltdown. The meltdown and scale of my reactions are absolutely not on McNeill and are purely a result of my body and brain being fucked. That's a me problem for sure. I just want to be very clear about that.
It just really sucks when something you are so invested in and really care about by a writer you know can absolutely knock it out of the park who has never failed to muster a little energy and wonder even on the works that were my least favourite before this, but who regularly has exceptional prose and is just a phenomenal writer.
It sucks.
Initially, I was going to give this two because there are aspects of the elegaic section that were effective, but on the whole I hated reading this and forced myself to get it finished because there is no sense of care or energy until the last few pages and the whole first third of this book is just wasted with weightless squabbling and fractiousness that fails to inform anything deeper about the characters or situation, so I had to go with one, especially on the context of the established quality and expectations of the Horus Heresy and this being part of the finale.
Through the Horus Heresy Omnibus Project and my own additions, I have currently read* all 54 Horus Heresy main series novels (+1 repeat), 25 novellas (+2 repeats), Cthonia's Reckoning, as well as the Macragge's Honour graphic novel, all 17 Primarchs novels 3 Primarchs antholologies, 3 Characters novels, 1 Siege of Terra Novel, 1 Siege of Terra Novella, and 182 short stories/ audio dramas across the Horus Heresy (inc. 11+ repeats). Plus, 2 Warhammer 40K further reading novels and 1 short story...this run, as well as writing 1 short story myself.
I couldn't be more appreciative of the phenomenal work of the Horus Heresy Omnibus Project, which has made this ridiculous endeavour all the better and has inspired me to create and collate a collection of Horus Heresy and Warhammer 40,000 documents and checklists (http://tiny.cc/im00yz). There are now too many items to list here, but there is a contents and explainer document here (http://tiny.cc/nj00yz).
*My tracking consistently proves shoddy, but I'm doing my best.
asoutter's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
rhoadesd20's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.75
drdihai's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
drwilko's review against another edition
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
zare_i's review against another edition
5.0
After fighting guerilla war against Horus' armies in distant parts of Galaxy for years, Shattered Legions, or better said what was left of them, are pushed by invisible hand of Faith towards Solar system and Earth's lonely and always mysterious satellite. Basically last place they expected to find themselves in.
While story is very sad (reminds me of the WW2 last-stand movies) because hey these guys grew on me, I liked how it managed to engage post-humans of Selenar Cults (this.... offshoot of humans that has even less common ground with humanity than Mechanicum) with walking weapons they helped develop.
Entire Selenar culture is like something from Polity universe. Just seeing them fighting Horus and unleashing their own weapons of mass destruction, including fantastic AI constructs, creates quite a contrast to brutal and pragmatic Empire of Humankind. It is like fight between two extremes of future humanity..... Man I need more Unification era stories. And isn't it ironic that Empire comes up as more humane. It is, ain't it? Somehow eugenics and general genetic manipulation and purification... they are cold, so completely anti-human.
But I digress, this was fantastic read. Besides the setting and high level view of Lunar cultures this was also a story of sacrifice and what it means to sacrifice everything for a greater good.
Excellent story, highly recommended.
While story is very sad (reminds me of the WW2 last-stand movies) because hey these guys grew on me, I liked how it managed to engage post-humans of Selenar Cults (this.... offshoot of humans that has even less common ground with humanity than Mechanicum) with walking weapons they helped develop.
Entire Selenar culture is like something from Polity universe. Just seeing them fighting Horus and unleashing their own weapons of mass destruction, including fantastic AI constructs, creates quite a contrast to brutal and pragmatic Empire of Humankind. It is like fight between two extremes of future humanity..... Man I need more Unification era stories. And isn't it ironic that Empire comes up as more humane. It is, ain't it? Somehow eugenics and general genetic manipulation and purification... they are cold, so completely anti-human.
But I digress, this was fantastic read. Besides the setting and high level view of Lunar cultures this was also a story of sacrifice and what it means to sacrifice everything for a greater good.
Excellent story, highly recommended.
thepattyshack's review against another edition
4.0
Although not my favourite side story, for the sake of wrapping up characters and the intertwining world that is the heresy, it really shows how full of life it is and a wonderful end for some characters.
nraptor's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
leefrost1982's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0