Customer Reviews

Descent of Angels (The Horus Heresy) (Pt. 6)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(17)
3 star:		(22)
2 star:		(19)
1 star:		(21)

 

 

If this wasn't supposed to be a Heresy novel, it would've been closer to 4 stars. The plot was decent, the protagonist well done, the interactions between characters and the Primach appropriate. Even the brief appearance of the Emperor was well written.

The plot revolves around Zahariel, a native of Caliban, who is part of the last of Lion El'Jonson's crusade to cleanse Caliban of the monsters that have plagued it. This is followed by the arrival of the Astartes and the Emperor, and Zahariel and his brother/rival Nemiel are swiftly inducted into its ranks as some of the first true Dark Angels.

The problem is this book may have flown as part 1 of 2. As it is written however, its very disappointing. Zahariel and Nemiel don't exacerbate or resolve their ongoing one-upmanship. Other characters are dealt off to the side or introduced without rhyme or reason.

And the central plot never moves. The end of the book doesn't coincide with the revolt of Luther and the Fall, or the Lions wounding, or the schism even beginning, but rather with Luther and Zahariel being sent back to Caliban after a minor battle with Chaos forces for.... no reason thats apparent at least. The book that should've ended with as much a bang as Fulgrim instead dies a crib death, with characters perfectly placed, resentments stoked, and the bonds of brotherhood under strain. Had the entire book been crammed into the first hundred pages instead of being the whole novel, the author would've been off to a great start.

The chances are if you're reading the Heresy series, then you'll pick this up as soon as you see it, so this review is probably a waste of time. But for those that haven't, save yourself the trouble and the cash.

Mitchel Scanlon is not up to the task of dealing with the Heresy series. It's dramatic tragedies, deep character development, brutal violence and well-crafted story-telling are all things we've come to expect from these books, all of which are lacking from Descent of Angels.

Approximately 3/4s of the book are set on Caliban before the arrival of the Imperium. What is Caliban? A forested world with lots of monsters. Knightly Orders hunt them, and Descent of Angels chronicles the rise of a young supplicant who ascends to knighthood before the arrival of the Emperor's forces.

The main character is completely flat and dull. He is not remotely likeable, in fact, he's totally undeserving of all the lucky breaks he gets. He never develops at all, even from the age of 8 or so to adulthood, he stays constantly shallow and you know exactly what to expect from him. There are never any surprises at all.

The combat scenes are few and far between and what there is seems incapable of conjuring up any images of danger, heroism and the trademark all-out violence the series is known for. It's just plain boring.

The only vaguely interesting part of the book is the fleshing out of the Primarch Lion El'Jonson and there's not much there at all. It's totally out of sync with the rest of the books where primarches are displayed as awe-inspiring figures that stun even grown men to silence and demand fealty and reverence via a single-glance. In comparison to these mighty figures, The Lion is, like the rest of the novel, flat and dull. His character never develops and the 'jealousy' thing bringing in the background is as predictable and stilted as a trashy piece of fan-fiction.

Do yourself a favour. This book does not advance the main story-arc at all, it isn't even a side-step like Fulgrim (which did a masterful job of fleshing out the storyline and wrote an excellent modern tragedy), it's just plain fluff, and dull fluff at that, since the majority of the book is spent on a boring world with boring characters, rather than the epic Space-Marine wars we've come to know and love. Don't bother.

I've been a huge fan of the Warhammer 40K universe created and built-upon by the creators of Games Workshop. The mixture of gothic and sci-fi gives this particular literary universe it's own unique voice. The Horus Heresy series of novels have ranged from very good to great in trying to explain the beginnings of the Horus Heresy event from different points of views. Descent of Angels is the latest entry in the series and details the role of the Primarch Lion El'Jonson and that of his Dark Angels Legion will play in the coming galactic civil war.

Mitchell Scanlon gets the writing duties and he does a good job in explaining the backstory of the Dakr Angel Legions' origins and the time of their Primarch's life before being rediscovered by the Emperor's Great Crusade. As much as I thoroughly enjoyed reading about pre-Great Crusade Caliban it added little to the story of the Horus Heresy which has been building up from the previous five books in the series. Maybe the story and the role of Lion El'Jonson and his Dark Angel Legions was just too epic to do in one book, but Scanlon did the unforgivable by ending the book on such an abrupt manner that it literally screams Book 2 to finf any sort of meaning and closure to Descent of Angels. Maybe it will happen later down the series. I sure hope it does or this entry in the Horus Heresy series would be the worst and a bad step back on a series which has been done well, so far.

While the book was well-written and the characters given much room to grow to have distinct personalities the flaw of not having much to do about the series theme of the Heresy and having such an abrupt ending makes this entry the weakest of the bunch. Hopefully, the next book in the series which is titled Legion will bring back the series to talking about the Horus Heresy.

This book should have been published as a stand-alone or part fo a two-book series...Dark Angle would have been an apt title. I thought the inital 2/3'ds of the book was great and the main character was well-crafted. Not thrilled with the rushed closing of the book, though. We see through most of the novel a building of motive for the main guy, but we also see how callous The Lion comes across, especially for someone who's supposed to be a towring intellect... he seems to be infantile in his response to the main character on more than one occasion. And again, the Heresy is missing completely.... Is the book worth reading? Yes...but not for the series. Read it if you want to know more about the dark angels.

The Horus Heresy series of books have been some of the best offerings from Games Workshop's Black Library division. The beginning trio was exceptionally done (Galaxy in Flames was a little weaker), The Flight of the Eisenstein did what it was intended to do and did it well, and Fulgrim was suprisingly good with great insight into, well, Fulgrim's fall.

However, Descent of Angels is simply not on the level of the other books. It spends way too long on the lives of the people of Calaban who would eventually become the Dark Angels. Yes, it has Luther, yes, it has the Lion, but ultimately it tells us absolutely nothing that we don't already know from the Dark Angel's backstory. They are on Calaban, it is plagued by beasts, they have to kill the beasts, destroy the Order, etc. It may be better if this part gave us more insight or new knowledge, but instead it is slow, poorly written, and boring.

Even after the coming of the Emperor and the creation of the Dark Angels, still NOTHING HAPPENS! We have almost no insight into Lion el'Jonson or Luther, other than Luther is jealous of the Lion. Where are the answers to the Dark Angels' mysteries?

All in all, I was expecting insight into the Dark Angel's legion, like we got about the Sons of Horus, the Death Guard, and the Emperor's Children in previous books. Instead, the Dark Angel's aren't even yet a legion in the book! This book is ultimately about nothing! Save your money, you won't miss anything, and wait for Legion by Dan Abnett, which I'm sure will be much, much better.

I'm a big fan of the Horus Heresy novels, and have been very impressed with the story writing and stories which have been released. And I think it is very fun that the Black Library is having many authors each write a book (or two).

Mitchel Scanlon wrote 15 hours which, in my mind, was a very good book.

Descent of Angels is not. For those of you who are fans of the 40k fluff, it is, of course, a must read. And it is not a "bad book". It just doesn't really live up to the other books written, and seems rather incomplete.

First off, the book has absolutely nothing to do with the story-arc of the Heresy as told by the previous books in the series. You can completely skip this book, and not have missed anything the previous books in the series have set up.

Additionally, this story is completely out of line, chronologically, with the rest of the books in the series.

Now, in regards to this story itself. I found that it moved along rather slowly. Scanlon has a tendency here to repeat himself often. I felt that he was trying to communicate the gravity and importance of certain aspects of the story simply through reiteration, and the pace of the story suffers as a result. Then there are other parts of the book which jump far ahead, leaving many of the plot points and character setups behind, never to be resolved.

The Black Library is notorious for milking their customers and 40k fans, and I truly can't help but feel that they just slapped the Horus Heresy tag on this book simply to sell more copies of it, despite it having absolutely zero to do with the Heresy whatsoever. Any attempt to finagle this story into the Heresy at some later time via a "sequel" or whatnot will only serve to cheapen it even more in my opinion.

This is like NBC propping up loser shows before Friends or something. TO be fair, the book should be reviewed two ways. The first on its own and the second as part of the series.

On its own I rate the book as just slightly sub-par, which would be average for the majority of GW novels. I did not want to read a fantasy novel, which this was for the most part, when I bought it. It was written moderately well, but plot development was slow and un-inpsired.

As part of an outstanding series I have to say I was exceedingly disappointed. Every book preceding it has been either very good or excellent. I picked this up instantly and sat down to read expectantly. It kept me hoping some great plot point would unfold, or something drastic to excite me, but it just got slower and slower.

Even as a Dark Angels fan I see no reason to read it.

I have been following the Horus Heresy series since its inception, and by far this is the most disappointing of the epic. I don't want to spoil the story for any viewers who have yet to read it, but the relevance to the overall heresy plot is conspicuously lacking. Further, entirely too much of the storyline was spent on the time prior to the coming of the Imperium. Back-story is great and serves a purpose in all of the novels of course, but the preponderance of this instalment was based on more back-story than this reader felt was relevant to the rise of Lion'el Jonson and his progeny.
Mitchell Scanlon's talent is undisputed, I just wish they'd have given the man more pages or more direction with which to tell the Dark Angels' story. With any luck there will be more to follow in that respect.

M.

I won't say that it is the worst Black Library novel I have ever read,(Fire Warrior holds that place in my heart.))but it was without a doubt the worst of the Horus Heresy novels. Not only did it have really nothing to do with the Great Crusade and the unfolding heresy, but it also I thought had a bad ending that didn't make much sense. All of a sudden Lion El'Jonson just distrusted half of his legion? Never it the book give a reason for that. 15 Hours was a great IG novel however like this one I just wasn't impressed with the ending. A quick read, not the best book yet not the worst either.