Angels of Caliban: The Horus Heresy, Book 38

An exciting adventure that more than lives up to the previous installments of the Angels saga and leaves us anxiously looking forward to the next…

There have been a slew of new horus heresy novels and although the Imperium Secundus story arc is one of my favorites this novel unfortunately just didn't do it for me. Don't get me wrong it was okay which in terms of HH novels means it certainly was good it just doesn't hold up much when compared to some newer HH novels like Path Of Heaven and Protorean Of Dorn.

The isight into Guilliman's administration of the 500 World's is very interesting. Coupled with the Imperium Secondus' Triumvirate having to make hard choices as to how to bring Cruze to justice this is more political intrigue than bolter porn.

The book portrays Primarchs Lion and Guilliman as bu bling fools. Not best of the Series. Read this only if you are completionist of series.

I did like this one. It has some great interest and interaction with the primaries. The lion and Konrad is the high light of the book. Very well done.

One of the best writers in The Black Library. You find yourself actually feeling for Curze, and seeing The Lion in a different, darker light.Well done, Gav. Well done.

Gift

Just a great read in the Horus Heresy series. Brings to life these characters in the 30 K universe

Having read most of the Horus Heresy series along with most of Gav Thorpes novels, I am very disappointed by this read.Bad:-Their are two stories in the book with chapters alternating between the two. Both feel like short stories which needed fluffing out collectively justify a full length novel.-The characters act like playground children picking which people they like and don't like, rather than being battle hardened gods of war.-Very tenuous reasons for the characters actions. It really feels like the author is trying to fill in gaps to reach a pre-set conclusion.-It's dull and you don't form any connections to the charters, they all come off looking pathetic.Good:-Moves the Horus Heresy story along-One good hand to hand battleIn summery: I would rather I had saved my money and just read the overview on wikipedia, the book really doesn't add anything more in depth. Based on this book I won't be buying "Corax", Gav Thorpe's next book.

This is a bit of a mixed bag, this one. One the one hand, it does move the series along a bit, explain a lot about what the heck is going on with the Dark Angels, show the primarchs as convincing characters with flaws and obsessions that could be seen as inherent, and in general works pretty well. The Caliban stuff is more fun, and in fact I suspect that the Astelan sub-plot is linked to the Legacy Of Caliban Trilogy which I am also reading at the moment. This (entirely accidental) intertextual knowledge really helps the book feel bigger and better than it is. Gav Thorpe is getting better as a writer but he is still hampered by the deficiencies of the genre and the general Black Library editorial policies. I'm aware that the point of Black Library is to develop the IP around beefy posthumans punching each other and that it isn't supposed to be literature, but nevertheless we, the readers, have rights and are human beings and thus deserve good things, like basic standards of literacy, an understanding of literary form and function, and characters that aren't all the same. We can't all be good writers, but there is no need for any writer to be Nick Kyme unless they actually want to be, and for that there can be no forgiveness. This is a shame, because he seems like a nice man other than being a terrible terrible writer with all the bad habits you need a good editor to remove. But this review isn't just another of my short essays about why Nick Kyme should change jobs, this is a review of Angels Of Caliban, which is mostly fun, has lots of good Curze bits in even though he gets beaten, has lots of good Lion bits in, even though he's a ham-brained punching machine, and has lots of bits with Guilliman running around crying about the furniture getting broken, or something wimpy like that. Not bad at all really.

One of the few books I have stayed up very late to read to the finish. Although not the best story in the world I wanted to see what direction the author took the dark angles. I was not disappointed. Not your usual Horus Heresy book this is more of a slow burner and tells the tale of how the Dark Angels fair on Caliban without their primarch. The second storyline is what their primarch is up to. Basically hunting the night haunter. The story progresses the storyline of the Horus Heresy and shows up how insecure the primarchs can be when they are not thumping someone.

Gav Thorpe has been allocated the Dark Angels storyline. The previous two novels Descent of Angels and Fallen Angels were in my view two of the worst books in the series. This book is a bit better, but not much. I found it very confusing - you needed total recall of what happened in a number of novels and short stories to get what was happening - i had to look at the wiki page. I found the resolution of what the Lion does and why a bit unsatisfying. However It does advance the storyline and if you didn’t read it you would wonder what is going on with Curze and Imperium Secundus in future novels. Also you get a bit about the Dreadwing and the special Dark Angel formations.

I have to agree with a lot of what previous reviewers have said about this novel. It is a mix of the good and the bad. The book is split into two story arcs - one set in Imperium Secundus, the other on Caliban :The Imperium Secundus part centres around the three loyal Primarchs chasing a renegade Primarch. The tale reads like a long, drawn out story leading to a snappy punch-line. As others have alluded to - the Primarchs are a frustrating read. These guys are have conquered the galaxy, they are biological miracles, gifted super human powers by the Emperor, hyper intelligent tactical geniuses, yet I wouldn't trust them to run a cloak room. Gulliman is written the best I think, nothing great, but how you could expect him to act. The Lion seems to have inherited the gift of making every situation he finds himself into a complete mess and the ability to only make poor decisions. He totally lacks any common sense or wisdom, but he is good with a sword. Sanguinius for me is the biggest let down. Here we have not only a Primarch and all that brings with it, but he's talked about as a first among equals, respected and admired by his brothers, an angelic super human, a legend in his own time. Yet he just sits about and broods and basically does very little. I hope this character gets his time to shine as the series progresses. Anyway when the story does reach the ending it's quite good and it does move the series onwards.The events on Caliban centre around Luther and his schemes. Some of the background, history, lore and secrets of the Dark Angels are revealed in this story, much of it new to me and thus made this part of the book my favourite. Like the other story arc in the book, it's too drawn out for my taste. However every now and again lore and secrets concerning the Caliban and the Dark Angels are dropped in which I enjoyed. Again the characters seem to lack much common sense but their actions fit the overall tale. The ending is quite good especially the parts featuring Cypher.Overall I rate this book 3 stars. It's not the worst in the series, personally I would have preferred it if it had about half the page count, as a reader I prefer quality over quantity. It does move the series forward which was much needed in my opinion and I enjoyed the reveals about Caliban and the Dark Angels.