So here we go, my first book review and what a book to review by the way.
The First Heretic by Aaron Dembski-Bowden
The Basic Plot: We begin the book with the Word Bearers being castigated by the Emperor for their worship of him, which goes against the Emperors vision of a universe without religion or worship. Distraught with the judgement Lorgar and his legion seek another path whilst destroying world after world for the Great Crusade venting all of their fury and rage upon the battlefield. After a long search this path leads them to the very edges of the universe where they meet more powerful forces than they could have ever imagined. After all their efforts of trying to illuminate the Imperium, the corruption of Chaos takes hold of the word bearers and unknown to them is that the very truth they have quested for is in fact the very roots of heresy itself.
The theme and format of the book follows along the lines of all the previous heresy books, in that we move from character to character seeing the book play out from various view points, be it Lorgar [Word Bearers Primarch], Argel-Tal [7th Assault Company Captain] the Adeptus Custodes or remembrancers/non-imperial personnel, as well as temporary view from other primarchs and guest characters.
The characters themselves are excellently portrayed and have a real lasting effect on you, I found myself warming to the characters very quickly and Aaron's portrayal of Lorgar is as near to perfect as you can get, he gives you exactly what you expect of Lorgar and so much more, but this is not to say any other of the characters are in any way lacking.
Finally you can expect some great fast paced action, thought provoking writing and genuine emotion flowing all through this book, as well as loads of appearances from other legions and plenty of primarchs, as well as some startling revelations about Imperial History, the creation of the primarchs and more of the universes darkest secrets.
In short Aaron Dembski-Bowden has performed excellently and given us possibly the best addition to the Horus Heresy series yet, and looking now at my signed copy of the book I got early at Games Day makes me all the happier.
As a finishing note, I asked Aaron when I met him at Games Day what we could expect next from him, especially Horus Heresy wise, his answer in short was: 'I'll definitely be wanting to do more of the heresy series and if I can it'll be involving the World Eaters.' So look forward to that and please, please, please, if you are a fan of the Horus Heresy series then get this book, you will not be disappointed in the slightest.
The Basic Plot: We begin the book with the Word Bearers being castigated by the Emperor for their worship of him, which goes against the Emperors vision of a universe without religion or worship. Distraught with the judgement Lorgar and his legion seek another path whilst destroying world after world for the Great Crusade venting all of their fury and rage upon the battlefield. After a long search this path leads them to the very edges of the universe where they meet more powerful forces than they could have ever imagined. After all their efforts of trying to illuminate the Imperium, the corruption of Chaos takes hold of the word bearers and unknown to them is that the very truth they have quested for is in fact the very roots of heresy itself.
The theme and format of the book follows along the lines of all the previous heresy books, in that we move from character to character seeing the book play out from various view points, be it Lorgar [Word Bearers Primarch], Argel-Tal [7th Assault Company Captain] the Adeptus Custodes or remembrancers/non-imperial personnel, as well as temporary view from other primarchs and guest characters.
The characters themselves are excellently portrayed and have a real lasting effect on you, I found myself warming to the characters very quickly and Aaron's portrayal of Lorgar is as near to perfect as you can get, he gives you exactly what you expect of Lorgar and so much more, but this is not to say any other of the characters are in any way lacking.
Finally you can expect some great fast paced action, thought provoking writing and genuine emotion flowing all through this book, as well as loads of appearances from other legions and plenty of primarchs, as well as some startling revelations about Imperial History, the creation of the primarchs and more of the universes darkest secrets.
In short Aaron Dembski-Bowden has performed excellently and given us possibly the best addition to the Horus Heresy series yet, and looking now at my signed copy of the book I got early at Games Day makes me all the happier.
As a finishing note, I asked Aaron when I met him at Games Day what we could expect next from him, especially Horus Heresy wise, his answer in short was: 'I'll definitely be wanting to do more of the heresy series and if I can it'll be involving the World Eaters.' So look forward to that and please, please, please, if you are a fan of the Horus Heresy series then get this book, you will not be disappointed in the slightest.
