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Horus Heresy: Battle for the Abyss (Warhammer 40,000: The Horus Heresy)

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Author: Ben Counter
Publisher: Black Library
Category: Book

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Rating: 2.0 out of 5 stars

16 reviews
Sales Rank: 188

Media: Paperback
Pages: 416
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 6.7 x 4.2 x 1.2

ISBN: 1844166570
EAN: 9781844166572
ASIN: 1844166570

Publication Date: August 4, 2008 (New: Last 30 Days)
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Also Available In:

•	Mass Market Paperback - Battle for the Abyss (Horus Heresy)

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Customer Reviews: Read 11 more reviews...

4 out of 5 stars

Mhotep shot first August 29, 2008
in my oppinion the horus heresy sereis can do no wrong, and i do enjoy ben counters novels (grey knights is very cool). i enjoyed the story, and the clashes of personality between the various chapters. also, the unprecidented descriptions of warp travel are very interesting. some nice space combat sequences too.

i suppose the ultramarines are a bit wooden, and the word bearers about as competent as star wars storm troopers, but its not nearly as bad as most of these reviews are making out.

my only gripe is that the horus heresy books are moving away from horus and his cronies and the overall story arc. i love to read about primarchs especialy because they are so important to the imperium in 30k yet dont exist (mostly) in 40k. they are such charismatic individuals. i dont mind the odd story where individual elements or parties of the war are featured, but the majority of books now released no longer tie in with each other in a satisfactory manner.

does anyone know why the world eaters in this book wernt at istvaan 3? i thought that needed some explination.

my conclusion would be, if you've read the rest of the sereis, you should read this too as its enjoyable, if you havnt read the rest of the sereis then you are a big fat loser and a waste of a human life, haha!

2 out of 5 stars

Getting bored of this series yet? August 29, 2008
There is a difference between a series of books set in a specific world and a story. The Black Library have fundamentally muddled the 2 ideas with the Horus Heresy.

The first allows you to tell any length of story you want against a familiar backdrop it can intertwine characters and plots and this can be fun. The other involves a story arch it has a beginning a middle and an end. Middle Earth is an example of the first and Lord of the Rings an example of the second.

I started reading this series hoping to read about the rise and fall of Horus- afterall the series is called the Horus Hersy and while there have been some great books (e.g. Fulgrim) I can't shift the sensation that a lot of this series is filler. Battle for the Abyss is one of the first time that both I and the fan boys agree that this book simply didn't need to be written. It's dull and repetitive.

So I was curious and wrote to the publishers to ask if they had any idea how many books would there be in the series I got this polite reply-

"Hi there, I have spoken with the Black Library editors and we currently have not confirmed how many books in total will be in the Horus Heresy series. I'm Sorry I couldn't have been of more help, Chris Beaumont,BL Publishing"

This means this series will be like LOST the TV show, great idea but because the writers don't know how long they've got to tell the story they are treading water and until we all stop buying these books the series will go on for ever!

The irony is that anybody buying these books knows the ending and Horus as a trilogy from proud warrior of the Imperium to corruption and finally show down with the Emperor would be great and we've already seen the first 2 parts of this tale but we may never get to the end...

2 out of 5 stars

Missed opportunity August 23, 2008
Horus Heresy: Battle for the Abyss (Warhammer 40,000: The Horus Heresy)

Unfortunately I agree with the majority of reviewers, this was a disapointing addition to the generally excellent Horus Heresy series.

I think this was a real missed opportunity, the Word Bearers have been portrayed through the whole series as one of the prime movers behind the Heresy, and have been meticulously planning and plotting for many years in preperation for the events depicted in this novel.

Yet none of this equates to the Word Bearers we see in Battle for the Abyss, where an entire chapter of Word Bearers seem incapable of dealing with a few dozen loyal marines, despite also being in possession of the most powerful vessel in the imperium. Zadkiel and the other Word Bearers depicted seem like posturing self obsessed idiots.

The characters all seemed boring, and cliched and didn't grab my interest in any way, bar the Thousand Son marine who was well written. The opportunity to explore the World eaters attitudes was missed. Skrall and his men are loyal, but we know at this stage Angron has sided with Horus. Skrall's reaction to his primarch's betrayal of the Emperor would have been fascinating, would he have blindly followed Angon's lead and sided with the Word Bearers, or would his personal principals and beliefs have seen him turn from his legion? We'll never know as despite a few hints this plotline was not explored.

The Ultramarines were just cookie cutter and so dull, duty duty duty. I didn't feel any empathy towards them. Characters deaths are just passed over in a few lines, as if they were irrelevant. I just don't get this book at all.

In general I do like Ben Counter's work, so lets hope this was just rushed out as others have suggested. Here's hoping Mechanicum lifts the series back to the hights.

2 out of 5 stars

Rushed if anything August 18, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful

We all want to read the latest Horus Heresy novels, god we do, however we really must make sure Black Library don't rush the authors otherwise books to this standard are released.

I'm a fan of Ben Counters work-really I am, I own the current Grey Knights series, Daemon World and the Soul Drinkers omnibus. I feel with that basis of knowledge of his writings I know when a story is rushed out, boy is this one of them.

Rushed being the emphasis, little plot preparation, little weight behind the characters and story and unfortunately another blip in the so far excellent Horus Heresy saga.

The story is a typical `Space Marines enduring hardships to save their brothers' clone, similar only in formula as was the much stronger Flight of the Eisenstein. It does well to describe some of the plot devices, the ship, the Word Bearers and the perils of the warp however these are never really pulled through or captivated in such a manner that we take notice of them.

The main character I can't even remember his name, being an Ultramarine, most mundane of Legions doesn't help either. Ben Counter had such a massive chance to really REALLY pull the Ultramarines through to being an individual chapter, to really give them a sense of independence such as the Luna Wolves were given. The oath papers, the `speartip' battle terminology and the raw grandeur of the Luna Wolves made them so damn likeable in the start of the series, however noone has ever attempted to give the Ultramarines a real character, forgive me for saying so but they are relentlessly boring of chapters and unfortunately remain so in this book.

The plot again revolves around events that we have no knowledge of, far flung battles in the depths of early Imperium history, focussing as stated before around the Word Bearers shiny deathship designed solely for the extermination of Macragge.
The real strongpoint of the entire Heresy series is that they can do whatever they want with the stories, we simply have no previous reference for these galaxy defining events. Sadly for this book Ben never really capitulates on this, there are no hidden secrets revealed in this book, no real `woah' moments that makes us fluff types squirm. Without these elements unfortunately the plot is lessened somewhat, we're never drawn to the central character and so by extension, his story.

His supporting elements however are far more intriguing. The Thousand Son Mhotep character is a real question mark through the whole story, the Space Wolf Bryggnar a murky character as well. The rather mundane religious *yawn* Word Bearers are given a bit more fleshing out and the Mechanicum also are given a bit more uncaring ruthlessness and even the ship captains are given more character that the protagonist.

***SPOILER ALERT***

Oh and theres no primarchs....not a single one in this book. Yep, one of the series hooks...not there at all.

***SPOILER CLOSE***

In summary I'll definitely re-read this book, I enjoyed it, despite its poorer quality story its still a Horus Heresy book and as such still deserving of a place in my shelf. It unfortunately will fall close to Descent Of Angels as both are ok books with no tie-ins to the continuity of the series and as such are almost stand-alone titles.
I would urge Black Library production to take note of these comments and really stop pushing the authors for stories that while adequate are not to the current Heresy series standard.

3 out of 5 stars

was reasonable August 16, 2008
having read and enjoyed nearly all of the previous books in the Horus Heresy series, i had high hopes for this one as it is now becoming clear to the loyalist who is with Horus and who's with the Emperor. With the odd shade of grey thrown in with the world eaters and the thousand sons who are on board with the loyalists.

As far as action goes its a very good read with plenty of blood and gore to get your teeth into, but as highlighted, the main characters are all starting to sound very similar, or are being made to sound like all the stereotypical space marines. None of their characters are really being explored as fully as they should be and its starting to get annoying. That goes for all of the Word Bearer Legion as well, we are not given any real reason as to why they have decided to side with horus or the dark powers of chaos. They just have, for all we know they could have been like this from the very start and they have only just decided to act upon ther beliefs.

But on the plus side, it sets the stage for the coming battle and does give us an insight into what the Mechanicum have been up to, for it must of taken a long time to build the word bearer ship and so raises the question, how long have they been planning to rebel, and were they the only one's planning such a thing for any length of time? Has anyone else had any ideas of treachery before Horus?