Vengeful Spirit: The Horus Heresy, Book 29

This is a huge book that tackles a critical part of the Horus Heresy. Horus himself is one of the main characters, along with Loken and many of the other orphaned Marines from earlier books who join Loken's ragtag group. The writing is very good, the pacing fast, and the characters far more human than one might expect from genetically engineered super soldiers.The scope of the "stage" is also enormous: titans, massive armies, Space Marine Legions, Primarchs, Knight Houses, and more. Add to that the plot threads of Horus' desire to possess the Emperor's power, Loken's search for meaning, and the epic betrayal of House Devine. All of these pivotal stories in their own rite.And that's the only real problem. Some things that seem really important end up getting squeezed for space. Things that feel like they should happen slowly are abrupt.End result: a pivotal book in the Horus Heresy series, well written and well worth reading.

This one is typical Graham Mcneill book. Lots of characters, a plot all over the place. I wanted to read about Horus for nearly 25 books and this was it but i pushed myself over and over again to read another page.I might have given this one 2 or 3 stars but last few chapters were really good so upgraded my score to 4 stars.If you can keep pushing like Perturabo’s sons under heavy fire then read this book. You have to take the punishment 3/4 of the book to get the gem at the last chapsters.MAJOR SPOILER -WARNING!-YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!!I like to read about Emperor’s past but telling his powers are stolen Chaos Gods’ powers cheapens him.

WH40K novel with almost everything that makes for a great story. Characters are deep and interesting. Action is nearly non-stop throughout. Scope is massive and epic in scale. I thoroughly enjoyed this read.

Good book, totally recommended. I like the twist in the story and the tactical geniuses of Horus Lupercal. A good book.

I thoroughly enjoyed "Venegful Spirit" McNeill has written an amazing story to add to the Horus Heresy. The battle for Molech was incredibly well thought out from void battles to the final stand. His showcase of the Death Guard has been the first real appearance since Isstvaan III and I really enjoyed their part in the book. Don't miss out on this one, you won't put it down!

Excellent story about how far the Warmaster is willing to go to destroy the Empire his father has made. Fans of Warhammer 40K already know how everything ends, but it’s cool to see it fleshed out. Well written and captivating.

Graham McNeill is a superb writer, and I could not put his latest book down. It was good to get back to Horus again and the Sons of Horus, also interesting to see an epic battle against human forces rather than Legion vs. Legion. Titan usage as well, all kinds of stuff, not to mention a very epic climax. Highly recommended.

I have to admit, I'm always a fan of Horus so quite glad to see him and the Sons again. It's good to see what Horus is planning, and what he intends to do to get him in the position of being able to challenge the Emperor.

Excellent!

The story is great but the print quality of the paperback is terrible. Can't find another copy, as it's gone up to $100, so stuck with this one.

Great book in the Horus Heresy series.

Vengeful spirit sees us return to the viewpoint of our hero's of the first 3 books those being Garviel Loken and Iacton Qruze who are now part of a reconnaissance mission on orders from Primarch Leman Russ and Malcador the sigillite. Their mission? The infiltration of Horus"s vessel the Vengeful Spirit. The other point of views in the book are from Horus and his boys as they lay siege to the planet Molech which has ties to the Emperoer from before the Unity of Terra. The chacters are great and the seeing how the relationship between Loken and Qruze develops alongside their other team members ( one of who is one of the Outcast Dead) is great. The action of the novel brings me back to the action of the first 3 books and their are plenty of references to those books so it would be good to refresh yourself with their events. Their are also refencres to some of the short stories which took place before this novel. Overall Vengeful Spirit is a great read and a welcome return for our heros and villains.

Although it has faults this book does seem to be sending the Horus Heresy hurtling back into some kind of direction after what I hope is just a mid-season slump.There may be the odd spoiler here and there below – you have been warned.First the bad:- As with all Graham McNeil’s novels this one is a long book and could do with an editor or two sitting him on the naughty step and explaining repetition isn’t always good.- The final battle of Molech itself is way too long and he seems to forget that The Death Guard even exist until they and the Sons Of Horus – who do all the fighting – have a post destruction hug at the end- Apparently Fulgrim has some special task to do in the novel but since we don’t hear from him in about 400 pages I’m going to assume someone needed to wash up after the bad guy conference on Vengeful Spirit.- A group of marines – heroes – take on the best of the Sons Of Horus and Horus, who is now a god, himself. Outnumbered and unarmed – yes I’m going to say that again – unarmed, they last more than about a second and even win the odd fight. Really!- The Dramatis Personae is 4 pages long. I refer you to my first point about length of story.Now the Good:- It was great to have some of the old characters from the start of the series back in play and to find out about their development. Not least of which having Horus himself on the pages really felt like the series was back on track. His lieutenants too are turning into genuinely rounded and interesting characters in their own rite.- The space fight was excellent and from a tactical point of view made sense unlike in previous novels. For once the good guys lose because the bad guys were just tactically better/braver than them. Rather than it just being this character is needed in 10 novels time so no matter what you throw at them they will survive. I’m looking at you any World Eaters!- I quite liked the idea of the suicide squad being sent to lay down markers for an attack on Horus. It was also great to have a couple of Sons Of Horus who haven’t turned traitor together again. Bit of a shame this wasn’t developed enough but it probably would have got in the way of the shouting and explosions.- The House of Devine was an interesting and well written diversion from the Space Marine plot and added a level of intrigue and sophistication sometimes lacking in previous novels. The idea of Chaos having long planned this development and slowly chipping away at mortals as well as the legions is often only mention by “… and cultist killed lots of people, there was an ocean of blood blah blah blah” sections of the novels, rather than reflected upon and properly explored.Overall this was an enjoyable read which added to the Horus Heresy canon. It must be difficult for these writers, constrained as they are with how this series has to end for most of the main protagonists, to continue to add more insight in these books. Only Vulkan Lives and Angel Exterminatus (I’m reading Scars next) have managed this recently. That this novel helps us to understand how Horus became powerful enough to challenge the Emperor is, in itself, a new insight and as such really does move the Heresy on.Since the Heresy is back on track let’s just hope the next two novel’s aren’t a pointless morass of bolter porn dragging the series back to Isstvan V and yet another cash cow collection of more torpid short stories … doh!