A novel review: Fulgrim
So, I've been reading this novel this week. I should note that I have read 40k novels before, but this is more of a 30k novel.
Fulgrim follows the story of a primarch. For those who know nothing about Warhammer's sci-fi universe, I'll say this much, the Primarch's are the sons of the emperor, and are in turn the fathers of whole legions of space marines, they are legendary heroes, mighty soldiers, great artisans.
The book Fulgrim follows the story of one of these guys. Fulgrim is the primarch of the 'Emperor's Children' or III Legion, and this book details the story of his eventual fall from grace. The thing is, I know the ending of the story, but it's intresting to see it develop. The 'Horus Heressy' is a tricky subject for GW's novel writers, because the players of the tabletop game know who the traitor legions are. So you must make the story intresting even though we know the ending.
Speeking of, I liked the ending of Fulgrim, but I would have liked to see more of the story. It ends on a sour note, as the Warmaster's fleet flies off for the final battle with the loyalists. The journey to that point was much more intresting. Graham McMeill does a good job of giving us a feel for the details without describing them too vividly.
One bit I suspected would bug me was the fight with the Avatar(d). It seems like everyone imporant in the grim darkness of the future has fought this thing. It's the freakin' avatar! You can't jump on it's back and strangle it! (Or shoot it to death with multilazorz....well you can, but it takes a while) But I realized as the fight developed that it was a fight between equals, because Fulgrim is a primarch, and even though he lives though the fight, he comes out of it badly scarred (at first).
I like the Emperor's Children, but the book has the classing trappings of tradgedy in it. Fulgrim makes a good tragic hero, his flaw (ironically) is his quest for complete perfection. I also noticed names in this book that I would see in the game's rules, Fabious Bile, Lucious, Ferrus Mannus. It's intresting to know where these guys came from, and the background of some of the forces of Chaos.
All in all a neat read, but it's got a lot of grim-darkness in it. I'll say that it's certainly better than the first two 40k novels I read.