Let's Read the Horus Heresy 5: Fulgrim

"The danger for most of us," Ostian Delafour would say on those rare occasions when he was coaxed to speak of his gift, "is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we hit it."

 - The Horus Heresy: Fulgrim, Graham McNeill

Yes, I am. Do you know my poetry?

 - Cornelius Blayke, presumably

In the fifth Horus Heresy novel, we get to spend some time with the Emperor's Children. Graham McNeill's at the wheel again; if it wasn't written on the cover, you could tell from the fact that every time we meet a woman, we're told about her breasts. Having said that, though, given that this is a book about the fall of a legion to Slaanesh, I was expecting a lot worse.

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Fulgrim is quite a long book. It tells us about the Emperor's Children destroying a xenos species called the Laer, which also turns into the start of their fall to Chaos, and specifically Slaanesh, as both the Astartes and their attached remembrancers start pursuing ever more extreme sensations. Delightfully, this is underpinned by the philosophy of Cornelius Blayke, who seems to be an amalgam of William Blake and some other characters in the Warhammer timeline. I thought he was a wonderful invention, and the process by which the real Blake seems to have become confused with other historical persons is quite recognizable from actual history. Fulgrim also meets Eldrad Ulthran. I hadn't realized Ulthran was that old.

The co-starring legion in Fulgrim are the Iron Hands. Fulgrim's gang has a decent space opera interlude as they battle the fleet of a human civilization and its alien allies. During the climactic final battle, McNeill has this to say:

Trapped against the furnace of the Carollis Star, the democratic, multi-part confederacy of the Diasporex was proving to be its undoing. Set against the iron leadership of Ferrus Manus, their many captains could not co-ordinate quickly or ingeniously enough to outwit the tactical ferocity of a primarch.

 - Fulgrim, p. 193

Because as we know, multicultural democracies lose naval wars against strong leaders. So at times, the political values are quite clearly visible.

Eventually Fulgrim and Ferrus pick their sides, and the Emperor's Children fall so completely to Chaos that they invent Noise Marines. From a revisit to Isstvan III we go to the epic battle on Isstvan V, where the Iron Hands, Salamanders and Raven Guard are nearly wiped out, and Fulgrim kills Ferrus Manus.

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I've complained about it being unclear why the traitor Legions fall to Chaos in the first place. When it comes to the Emperor's Children, it both is and isn't quite clear. They're primarily corrupted by the Laer, but the alacrity with which most of them embrace it does strongly suggest that the legion was already headed for a fall. Why is that? Why is it that Bill and even Fulgrim himself have abandoned official Imperial xenophobia and are so willing to experiment with xenos technology, even organs? As with the Luna Wolves and the Death Guard, we're just not told.

I do like that Fulgrim is eventually a tragic figure, but I would have appreciated at least a little more insight into why he basically allows himself to be possessed by a daemon. I just don't really get it.

If the Emperor's Children remain slightly confusing, I have to say I feel bad for the Iron Hands, because they're such stooges throughout. The way the friendship between Fulgrim and Ferrus Manus is told, with the forging competition and everything, is actually really good. But it never really gets a chance to feel significant, especially since at worst, Ferrus Manus is a caricature like Rogal Dorn in Eisenstein. His elite Terminators get unceremoniously butchered by the Emperor's Children, and his "tactical ferocity" on Isstvan V consists of recklessly charging into a fight with Fulgrim and losing. I mean it's not like the Iron Hands have ever been a particularly popular legion or chapter, but still, I felt they were treated unreasonably poorly here.

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So Fulgrim had some good bits in it, like Cornelius Blayke and the hunt for the Interex fleet. But overall, especially given its length, I think that of all the Horus Heresy books so far, this is the one I'd be least likely to re-read. Even though it has Isstvan V in it, most of it wasn't very memorable, and at worst, it was almost a slog. They can't all be winners, I suppose.