Cyclopean Magnus, Rogal Dorn, Leman Russ: names that rang with history, names that shaped history.
- The Horus Heresy: False Gods, Graham McNeill
In the second book of the Horus Heresy series, we're in Graham McNeill's hands. False Gods is a direct sequel to Horus Rising, and Captain Garviel Loken is still our main protagonist. His relations with the other officers in the XVI Legion fray as they find out more about the terrible secret of space, Horus has a big fight and a dream sequence, and the remembrancers invent religion.
Also, Magnus's name is not Cyclopean. Although I suppose I may now start calling him C. Magnus the Red.
**
McNeill's writing is cruder than Abnett's, and he's in much more of a hurry. It's a shame, because I enjoyed the banter and personalities of the Luna Wolves in the previous book. They're now the Sons of Horus, and the battle-lines of the Heresy are being drawn, so everyone is gravitating toward either side, and hostilities are starting to break out.
The way McNeill writes women is much more unpleasant than Abnett. Early on, we find ourselves leering at Euphrati Keeler's breasts and subjected to crude sexual bragging and objectification that was absent from the previous installment. For some reason, there's a new remembrancer character, who mostly seems to be in the story as a target for McNeill's misogyny. Horus, who was unfailingly urbane and courteous in Horus Rising, belittles her and calls her "girl" in front of others. I mean it's still not that bad, as these things go, but it's decidedly unpleasant and a disappointment after the first novel.
There's some good stuff, though, like Horus's battle on the moon and the sheer distress of the Mournival when he's badly wounded. We meet Angron and Fulgrim, and Fabulous Bill puts in an appearance.
There's a detail that baffles me (slight spoilers). When Loken goes back to the moon of Davin and finds the plot object, he immediately recognizes it as "the anathame that was stolen from the Hall of Devices on Xenobia". How does he know that? We know what the anathame is and who stole it, so it's beknownst to us, but it's supposed to be unbeknownst to him, unless he's been listening in on the narration. Now, Loken recognizes the symbols on the box, so he could deduce that whatever this thing is, it's probably what the Interex said was stolen, and that would be enough for plot purposes. It just feels like sloppy writing.
**
When it comes to the military part of this military science fantasy, once again, there seems to be no reconnaissance, intelligence or indeed planning going on.
When Horus leads a force to Davin's moon, they land a sizeable Astartes force, Imperial Army and even logistics support (for once!), not to mention three actual Titans. Okay, they change landing sites at short notice, but still, shortly after disembarking, they're totally surprised to find, well, a gigantic object. No-one spotted it? There wasn't so much as a single recon flyover, or any kind of sensors on the orbiting warships? So far, many planetary landings seem to be total shots in the dark, with reconnaissance carried out on foot by the main force as they go.
I mean I hate to say this, but I'm pretty sure Abnett mentioned that XVI Legion was among the first to be issued new wargear like tactical dreadnought armor. Yet there doesn't seem to be a single skimmer or flyer capable of a recon mission in the entire expeditionary fleet. The idea that recon and sensor capabilities exist but go unused is frankly too ludicrous to contemplate in characters and units that are consistently described as very skilled in warfare.
There are also several times in the first two novels where entire starships suddenly appear out of nowhere, or the expeditionary fleet has no idea where active enemy ships might be. I refer anyone confused about this to Atomic Rockets, specifically their page Detection in Space Warfare and its famous sub-heading There Ain't No Stealth in Space. However terrible Imperial sensors supposedly are, their ships are powered by some kind of reaction drive, and especially with the sheer size of the ships, those things will be trivially detectable from several star systems over. So these kinds of surprises simply cannot happen.
You could make a plot point out of the fact that several Astartes officers only seem to exercise tactical leadership at the best of times. The most extreme example is Lucius, who's constantly addressed as Captain, but never seems to command anything. All of the officers are depicted as being at the forefront of the fighting, and it's not at all clear if anyone is exercising any kind of overall command and control. Even Horus himself seems to lead a multi-company operation purely by saddle orders. Again, I get that this is a novelization of a squad-level wargame, but still.
Also, as a dedicated Titanicus player, I'm almost mystified that the Dies Irae even appears in the novel. I was excited when we got to see the inside of a Titan and everything, and then it barely appears in the rest of the story at all. Chekov's Imperator!
**
I did enjoy False Gods, and the story is moving on quite efficiently. I understand that they need to get to the actual Heresy, it's in the series title and everything, but I wish the book wasn't in such a hurry.
The weakest part of False Gods is definitely Horus's conversion. His dream sequence is mostly boring, but it does have one somewhat interesting point. When Erebus (whom I just typoed as Erbs, which I might also stick with) shows Horus the future, we know that it really is what the Imperium ends up being. Horus, of course, can't know that, which is kind of lampshaded when C. Magnus the Red shows up. But it's a lovely irony for the reader.
My main gripe is that Abnett's Horus was an interesting, charismatic and memorable character, made tragic because you know what ends up happening to him. McNeill's Horus is far cruder and less nuanced, and this just makes his fall that much less compelling. I also wish Erbs was more of a character, but that's because I'm a Word Bearers guy myself.
In general, it's a bit dismaying how quickly Horus and his confidantes go from loyal Imperial warriors to murdering, moustache-twirling villains. This is also significant because of a much broader question to do with Warhammer in general.
Back when Warhammer started out, it was fairly clear that the Imperium was a horrible dystopia. The 2000AD influences were strong, and even if a human reader is quite likely to identify with humans, it was still obvious that the Imperium of Mankind is comically evil.
Since then, though, that hasn't really been the case. The space marines have very much been made into the heroes of the setting, and are consistently portrayed as such. When this idea of superhuman soldiers fighting horrible aliens attracts the worst kind of people, Games Workshop do condemn them, but at the same time they try to dodge responsibility for their fictional universe by claiming it's a parody. But it isn't any more.
False Gods is a very good example of this. No, the Imperium on its Great Crusade isn't a particularly nice place, and the more you know about the setting, the more nuance you can bring to it. But I will still defy anyone to honestly read False Gods and not come away with the impression that the loyalists are the humane and considerate good guys, while the traitors are sneering evil-doers. It's abundantly clear that Loken and Torgeddon are the heroes of the piece. I'm not saying they shouldn't be; I am saying that the black-and-white portrayal of the Imperium as good and its enemies as bad is in line with how Games Workshop generally presents things, and it's dishonest of them to argue otherwise.
If we want to think about the broader symbology of the egalitarian warrior lodges leading to corruption and damnation, and unquestioning worship of a head of state / father figure being the only way to stay pure, well, it doesn't really get much better.
**
So, I enjoyed False Gods, even though I'm disappointed that the nuance of the previous book has been abandoned. The story is moving on, though, and the heresy is getting heresier.
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