"Galaxy In Flames" by Ben Counter

'Galaxy In Flames' closes the inaugural trilogy of the Horus Heresy series. It takes us up to the finish of the Isstvan III virus bombing/massacre, and sets up the storylines of several Horus Heresy books that came next.

There's a Titan behiiiind youuuuuu!

In my 'False Gods' review I alluded to the Night Of The Long Knives... stupidly, I seem to have forgotten that Part 1 of 'Galaxy In Flames' is called 'Long Knives'. Ahh, me and Ben Counter, just totally on the same wavelength. Ahhh... First things first. I'd like to apologise for saying that Ben Counter is Black Library's 'watchword for wack'. Actually, reading this book, I'm forced to admin Ben is pretty fucking good. But you might not know that from reading the first few pages. Unlike with 'False Gods', the first few pages do have a fair amount of superfluous "IN CASE YOU JUST JOINED US" scene-setting and recapping. "Oh what's up Sindermann?" "Nothin' man, just thinking a lot about all the events which brought us here, in minute fucking detail." Kyril used to be a master of rhetoric, now he talks like, well, a rhetard. I'm guessing that's a lack of the authorial skill necessary to write a convincing-sounding speech rather than Black Library's subtle comment on the simplifying effect religion can have on politics. That aside, we are not too long into the book before the conflict on Isstvan III starts. Sure, it takes a while for the betrayal to happen, but it's not a drag at all to read the buildup. Of course, this "get to the main battle REAL QUICK" approach led to a lot of people whining about 'Prospero Burns' so it ain't all good...

Before re-reading this, I remembered this as a significant step down from 'False Gods' in every way. In fact, the writing style is very similar. Counter is a little more terse in description, but his dialogue can be just as clunky, laboured and non-naturalistic as McNeill's was in 'False Gods'. However, his book is less full of implausible or stupid character actions, that's for sure.

The book begins around a year after the events of 'False Gods'. (Horus is now wearing his Martian Terminator armour, so this book begins after the events of 'The Kaban Project', and probably takes place at the same time as 'Mechanicum'.) Horus' wicked plans set into motion at the end of 'False Gods' have had some time to marinate, undersmell me? In that time, the dude has gone fairly quickly from "Damn, I gotta stop the Emperor from proclaiming himself a God!" to "I am a God, so HURRY UP WITH THOSE DAMN CROISSAINTS!" In a marginally less plausible "LET'S ALL GET TRAPPED ON A CHAOS WORLD" plot than 'False Gods', the Gang head out to Isstvan with the Death Guard, World Eaters and Emperor's Children to sort out a creepy "uprising" on a "compliant world". (Is it just me, or is the distress signal from Isstvan very similar to the record of disaster they find on the Reaver homeworld in the classice nerd movie 'Serenity'?) While this gives us a chance to catch up with our favourite III Legion dudes, it also gives us a great introduction for Nathaniel (or Nathanial?) Garro, although we meet him while getting his ass kicked. I can't quite reconcile the 'rough around the edges' Four Yorkshiremen Garro with the stuffy, cultured-sounding dude in the audio books... but hell, who says characters can't change a bit...

'ey, we didn't have none o' this fookin' corruption in my day, lads.

One thing's for sure. You won't be seeing a downturn in chracterisation quality anywhere near as massive or widespread as the one from 'Horus Rising' to 'False Gods'. In fact I'd say most of the time the writing and plotting are much better than in McNeill's book... though not everyone gets away clean. The Remembrancer story arcs are one big L after another. Euphrati Keeler began life as a strong, independent, interesting female character - a big deal, as there have been VERY FEW of those in HH. And now... she's just 'Space Preacher With A Pussy'. Who cares? Definitely one of the lamer-handled character arcs in the whole series. Mersadie Oliton is just an observer at this point and Sindermann, well, he can't orate his way out of a paper bag anymore, so the rapturous applause he constantly gets is frankly bewildering.

The disintegrating relationships between the Mournival members are handled much better here than in 'False Gods', though we're a long way from the nuanced friendship/rivalry of 'Horus Rising'. And Counter's take on the Emperor's Children is definitely the most consistent with the Legion's backstory for the rest of the HH series. In fact, I kind of wish Ben had written 'Fulgrim' (though making it half as long as McNeill's version could have been a good start). I think I read 'Fulgrim' before I read this, so I can see why I found the III Legion parts here so frustrating first time round - I already knew the fleshed-out version, and I had no need for the overview. Reading it in the right order though, 'Galaxy In Flames' is a particularly excellent setup for 'Fulgrim'. Actually, of all the characters in the entire book, Lucius is probably the best-served. First off he's given a nice epiphany on the joys of the Glorious Cacophony of Slaanesh. The Warsingers' song which he is battered by on Isstvan III really changes him, in fact, this is probably one of the most pivotal moments in his narrative, and it's told extremely well. Then there's that unexpected twist of Lucius being earmarked for death along with the Loyalists. The way he slimes out of it may make you hate him, but I also felt a grudging respect. In fact, I'm surprised Tzeentch didn't claim him with that little scheme working out the way it did. Lucius is such a great, memorable HH character, and it's fitting that he would simultaneously embrace the gifts of Slaanesh and somehow retain the ethos of the III Legion: arrogance, ambition, and the relentless pursuit of perfection. Lucius always seemed better-drawn than Vairosean, Eidolon or even Fulgrim to me...

Ben takes the opportunity to give us a bit of foreshadowing on the directions some of these Legions are going to take. Loken's discovery of a creepy Chaos temple on the 'Vengeful Spirit' is a great sequence. And hey, right after that, Loken's the one who gets an acid trip this time out, though he shakes it off with a cry of "I DON'T HAVE TIME FOR YOUR ILLUSIONS!" Told you Loken was too straight up and down for that shit. On Isstvan Extremis and then Isstvan III, the Emperor's Children fight creepie opponents who take orgiastic glee in utilising sonic weaponry... foreshadow much? Eidolon's already killing enemies by screamin' on 'em, too. But how?? Well, STAY TUNED FOR 'FULGRIM', KIDS! Horus' fall is a tiny bit more nuanced here, but he's still 99% evil dick, so it's not too huge a surprise when he closes the book by carrying out George W. Bush's lifelong dream: massacring pesky dissident journalists. "Call me a warmonger, would you? Well would a warmonger HELLA MASSACRE YOU JUST LIKE THIIIIIIIS? Warmonger this, motherfuckers. Callin' me all types of shit."

Horus does his hilarious Magnus The Red impression.

Counter's action sequences, while a little unimaginitive, are certainly readable. The general lack of Astartes carrying on an internal monologue while they're in the thick of the fighting makes that aspect of the book superior to 'False Gods' in my opinion. For example, the virus bombing description is masterful - I doubt even Dan Abnett could have done it better, as the tension of the buildup, and then the sheer horror of the atrocity are superbly captured. But... sadly, this is around the time that the Three Remembrancer Amigos story arc becomes soooooo boring. Their escape from the Vengeful Spirit is kinda ill, but that but with the fumble of Qruze's origins makes me wince, as does every time Sindermann or Keeler open their fuckin' holes. The fact that so much incredible shit is happening planetside makes it even harder, I mean, you cut away from Angron beating the crap out of his own Legion for THIS? Even that wiener Titan moderati gets a badass showdown on the bridge of the Dies Irae ("OK ... I'M RELOADING!!").

Along with the ongoing simplification of dialogue and (to some degree) characterisation, the question of religion also continues to be simplified. 'Horus Rising' took this as a multifaceted issue and there were several conflicting views of religion expressed without a clear narrative side being taken. Here, all the 'goodies' are starting to fall down and genuflect whenever the EMPRAH is mentioned. Likewise, anyone who doubts the necessity or inherent goodness of religious institutions is guaranteed to turn out to be a ten-gallon shit. You know, I remembered the series as being pretty mature and open-ended on the subject of religion... but now, I think I was just so shocked BL were tackling such an unexpected subject that I gave them the benefit of the doubt. Because when I read it now, most of it is just "if you don't have a God, you don't have a purpose" or "monotheism good, atheism bad, polytheism worse!!" or "no faith in higher powers? YOU ARE A BAD PERSON MY FRIEND!"

The final section of 'False Gods' follows Tarvitz, Lucius, Torgaddon and Loken as they carry out their guerilla war against their final brothers. After a virus-bombing followed by a fiery planet-wide deathstorm, the remaining loyalists are quite few, and they're in a bad way. Despite the unrelenting combat and the pervading brutality, there's a lovely, elegaic tone to parts of this section. The loyalists have accepted their fate, and while they're determined to sell their lives dearly to stall Horus' consolidation of power, they know No One Here Gets Out Alive.

Yo, THIS is Ben Counter? Looks like he should be in Neurosis.

Ah, or DO they? As much as it seemed unlikely at the time, Loken lived, and the only major Loyalist character we KNOW to have died is Tarik. Vipus, Ancient Rylanor, Tarvitz... we don't actually SEE them croak. Sure, given the situation they're in at the end of the book, they probably SHOULD have died, and it'd take some convincing twists to bring them back (I don't want a repeat of the Loken "oh yeah I hid under a building to escape the brutal saturation bombing which totally worked and then I went crazy for probably several months and I may have eaten Torgaddon's remains" scenario) but I can't help feeling that the fact we weren't SHOWED their deaths in detail means BL has something up their sleeve for these guys. Anyway, if 'Galaxy In Flames' Part Three, 'Brothers', was its own self-contained novella, I'd probably give it 9/10 or even 10/10; it's easily the best part of the book. By the way, guess how many Remembrancers are in that last part? None.

Well, OK, there is one flaw to that section. After the intense, emotional showdown between Lucius and Saul Tarvitz, the extremely verbose intro to the Mournival Reunion Tag-Team Grudge Match Showdown seems very unnecessary. Loken's passionate arguments are nothing all the loyalists haven't all thought in their internal monologues, and Abaddon does little more than sneer U ARE BLIND FOOL LOKEN, I AM MAIN WINNAR, HORUS WAY BEST WAY! If Ezekyle had actually been given an opportunity to put forward his own viewpoint at this point of the Heresy, in detail - damn, that could have been fascinating.

As is customary for a lot of these books, the last pages set up the Big Plans for the next few. Isstvan V is a-callin', and that can't end well. A brief mention is made of the fact that Perturabo is about to destroy Olympia - and this kind of annoys me, as it seems such a colossal part of his character and his motivation, and it seems like the HH series is just going to gloss over it. The first time we really spend time with Perturabo ('The Crimson Fist', 'Angel Exterminatus'), Olympia is a bit of a distant memory and he doesn't think about it much. Still, that's hardly Counter's fault; I think everyone assumed at this point that it would be dealt with in detail before long. The only real annoyance I can point to in the last few pages is the troubling line near the end about Targhost and his "darker skin" making him look "more at home... on a murdered world". WTF? WHAT YOU SAYIN' THOUGH SON?? There's also a scene where Sedirae rallies the troops which is probably the only scene, EVER, IN ALL OF THE SERIES which supports the "Sedirae was a dangerously ambitious dude and Horus had to get him bumped off" theory that James Swallow busted out near the end of 'Nemesis'. I never bought that shit at all, though... Sedirae seemed like a real Horus ass-kisser to me. But, yeah, that's not an axe that would be appropriate to grind with Ben Counter.

It's very tempting to give this book 8/10, which would place it in the top tier of Heresy novels. But... the remembrancer stuff (broken record alert!) really drags the book down, and the dialogue (particularly the non-Astartes dialogue) is often clunky. I'm going with 7/10, though it's a high 7; definitely more enjoyable than some HH books I've rated 7/10. For instance, it's got much more enjoyable elements than 'Vulkan Lives', but it's also much more uneven than that book.

I was wrong about 'Galaxy In Flames', I'm glad to admit that. Was I wrong about 'Battle For The Abyss' as well? Hmmm, we'll see...

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