Horus Heresy - The First Heretic Reactions (Spoilers)

[Stravo]

Well in continuing my reading of the HH series I run across a title that I did not expect but instantly knew I would be most interested. The Word Bearers and their POV in the series called "The First Heretic". Anyone who has been reading the series for any length of time, especially the first three novels knows that the prime movers behind Horus' Fall was the Word Bearers especially in the person of Erebus. They were the first Legion to Fall and they orchestrated Horus' Fall as well to kick off the heresy.

The dramatic impetus behind this whole fiasco is Logar, the primarch of the Wordbearers and his belief that the Emperor is a God. According to the fluff the Emperor chastises Logar and flat out tells him he is not a god. Logar gets all pissy and is open to the corruption of Chaos who do want to be worshiped and reward Logar for his devotion unlike the Emperor. So based on this story you think just like most of the other Primarchs Logar is just an overgrown petulant child.

However when you read the book you see that the fluff left out some very telling details. In a theme that I have grown to really enjoy the Emperor is portrayed in a very troubling light, mostly assholish even though you know somewhere beneath his harsh bullshit he's doing it for the right reasons he's just executing it all in the worst possible manner and it finally bites him in the ass when Horus turns. What he does to prove his point is so horrifying that you don't blame Logar for feeling angry and turning to someone else to support.

The novel opens with the Ultramarines landing on a compliant world and evacuating the population of all the cities, killing many in the process when any form of defiance is instantly responded to with a hail of bolter fire. They bomb the cities into ash and then wait for the Word Bearers to come to the rescue as this world was brought into compliance by them 60 years prior. The Word Bearers show up like avenging angels to rescue the population only to be ordered down to the surface, the entire legion including the Primarch, and then they are told by Roboute Gulliman and Malcador that the cities were blasted into oblivion as an object lesson to the Word Bearers. They were to abandon the notion that the Emperor was a god and just do as the other legions were doing and pick up the pace of the crusade.

Logar despises Gulliman for what he and the Ultramarines have done to his formerly "perfect" city. In a great line Gulliman calmly explains "This world was not compliant" and Logar screams "This was the most compliant world in the Imperium, they all worshipped and adored the Emperor" Malcador explains that that is precisely the problem, they worshiped the Emperor." It also gives us some basis for the Word Bearer hatred of the Ultras and why they're battle later on in the Heresy will probably have more resonance. They're not just attacking a brother chapter, they are avenging a world that was unjustly obliterated.

When Logar understandably defies this edict not believing the Emperor would order such a thing the Emperor himself shows up and forces the entire legion to kneel through the force of his mind (giving us a hint again of just how powerful he is) and tells Logar to stop it. Logar defies him and demands that the Emperor give up the farce that he is not a god. The Emperor chastises Logar, forces him to comply and then abruptly leaves. There were some awesome little moments in the confrontation such as the Emperor stating that mankind's tendency to worship gods was anathema to him and his Imperium, chillingly ironic considering what the end result of the Heresy will be for the Emperor and his Imperium.

I read 100 straight pages last night not being able to put it down. There is so much here in this novel that fills in background for the series as well as the overall fluff. The Word Bearers have played such a behind the scenes roll in the series that it is refreshing to see things from their perspective. Hopefully this novel will keep me entertained and prime me for Prospero Burns.

Anyone else reading this one and liking what they read so far?

[Drone]

Spoiler

You still get to see nothing of the inner workings of the Word Bearers, Lorgar comes off looking like an easily manipulated moron and somehow EVERYONE is now piled into that scene where the Primarchs are scattered. Honestly, no new insight was given, since part of the reason behind the purge of "the perfect city" was the fact that Eberus had kept "the old ways" alive in hidden sects throughout every world the Word Bearers had brought to compliance. There was nothing unust about any of it, and Lorgar SHOULD have been purged on the spot.

[Imperial Overlord]

Yeah, I liked it. It's more work by Aaron Dembski-Brown (I may have mangled the name) the guy who wrote "One Hate" and Soulhunter and it's good. Lorgar starts out sympathetic, but gets less so as he goes to further and further extremes to pursue his vision regardless of cost and the cost adds up. The spiteful brutally the Word Bearers exhibit towards other worlds after their humiliation isn't much covered in the book, but it is mentioned and it is something that shows up in other Heresy novels so it isn't ignored and it shows the darker side of Lorgar's character.

Other people pay the price for Lorgar's errors. He vents his rage on other worlds and he sends his soldiers into damnation for his answers. He relies on manipulators as advisers, men who will call Lorgar "lord" to his face and praise him while pushing forth their own agenda. He disregards advice and orders from the Emperor and from Magnus when it is something he doesn't want to hear. Lorgar is outwardly perfect, but beneath that he is a mass of flaws. The Emperor has good reasons for forbidding worship, but by keeping some of his reasons secret he leaves his sons vulnerable to these forces and none more so than Lorgar. He punishes other worlds for his humiliation while continuing his quest to find the primordial truth behind all the god myths. This makes him easily manipulated not only by Kor-Phaeron and Erebus, but by the dark powers as well.

The corruption is well handled. Lorgar's so invested that the next sacrifice he has to make is always worth it, to justify what has already been paid. The truth he learns is alloyed with lies and is disappointing enough to make him think he isn't being strung along, but it's an answer that gives him what he wants the most: vindication. He's told he's always been right to seek out forces to worship. The gods are far more terrible than he wants to believe and the consequences of turning away from them is annihilation, not the loss of enlightenment, but that his desire to worship was right. And that above all is what he wants, what he needs to hear. It, of course, justifies every sacrifice and makes treason the only option for if mankind is to be saved mankind must embrace the gods. Its an ugly enough truth that he can embrace the version of the Fall of the Eldar he is shown accept it as authentic.

Overall, I thought it was good. It's also nice to see Corax get some love, even if it's only for a few pages and the other traitor legions behaved in a manner that was consistent with their character.

[Falkenhayn]

The high point for me was at the end, during the massacre on Istvaan V. Logar realizes that he's swallowed hook, line and sinker, every piece of advice from his wicked counselors that ran parallel to his own prejudices. So he attempts to commit suicide via Corax, who is single handedly holding up the Word Bearer's advance to cover the Raven Guard's retreat (and is carving up biblical numbers of Word Bearer possessed marines in an entertaining fashion). Logar reaches this epiphany watching demon possessed Fulgrim kill Ferrus.

Corax is literally in the process of eviscerating Logar when Conrad Kurze steps in and saves Logar's life, driving Corax back. He (Conrad, Batman/Rheinhard Heydrich/Hannibal Lector) makes two observations. First, that Logar is a coward. Second, that he's absolutely relinquished his sovereignty over the 17th Legion and betrayed his "sons" to the warp on the promises of a demon and for pennies on the dollar.

Also, Legions 2 and 11 were purged on the Emperor's decree. That Logar took this hard isn't a surprise, but the purge also didn't sit well with Leman Russ, which is only a little ironic. Logar tries to talk about it with Magnus, his best friend, who won't discuss it, even in private. And the purge of Legions 2 and 11 coincided with a dramatic increase in the number of Ultramarines.

[Imperial Overlord]

We knew that the purge of Legions 2 and 11 had been by Imperial decree before and that everyone had sworn an oath not to discuss it, but the information that the Ultramarines had increased their numbers because of it was new. And you're right about the Istvaan scenes, they are excellent from Corax's heroism to the murderous contempt of the Iron Warriors toward the Word Bearers. Kurze is, of course, perfectly written but who didn't expect that from the guy who delivered Soulhunter?

The most important part of the novel is the fall, especially given how the absolutely wretched falls of Horus and the Alpha Legion spoiled the rest of their respective novels and it was well handled. Lorgar bites down on the poisoned hook for believable reasons and his weakness drags the rest of the galaxy with him into hell. That he realizes on some level that he's being manipulated but he's incapable of changing course and admitting that the central tenant of his life is wrong and so much has been wasted pursuing it is really the icing on the cake.

[IvanTih]

I haven't read the book yet as I'm reading through Nemesis,but wasn't there some time traveling thing in the novel?

[Imperial Overlord]

I haven't read the book yet as I'm reading through Nemesis,but wasn't there some time traveling thing in the novel?

Not really. A daemon takes some of them to the scattering of the Primarchs, but it's upfront with saying this isn't the real time and place but is a place in the warp that is mirroring/connected to the event. It shows them the Fall of the Eldar as well, but again its view in the warp (in the Eye of Terror no less). Since time doesn't flow the same way in the warp and the warp is connected closely to the material universe, its nothing new really.

[Bob the Gunslinger]

I'm only about 130 pages in myself and so far I'm very impressed.

I have been skipping a lot of posts in this thread to avoid spoilers, so I don't know if it came up already, but The First Heretic was a New York Times Bestseller, and the #2 selling science fiction book in the UK behind the new Iain M. Banks novel. This is the second Horus Heresy novel, the second Black Library novel, to break the NYT Bestseller list, which must be very exciting for them and especially for Aaron Dembski-Bowden.

I wonder if its success is due to the audience anticipating the subject matter, due to the author's rising popularity, or due to both.

[Stravo]

The author is posting fairly regularly on DakkaDakka. He claims he will be relegated to writing on the more obscure legions as the big named ones are essentially already staked out. I don't care because he's done such a fabulous job so far with a legion I could care less about before starting to read this one.

[Bob the Gunslinger]

I see him post on Warseer a lot, too, under DeadBlueClown. I'm pretty sure he's on Bolter and Chainsword, as well. He has quite an online presence.

[Bob the Gunslinger]

I just want to add an observation:

So far my favorite Heresy novels have been the ones with the most talking and the least action (outside of the Dark Angels novels, anyway). Fulgrim, Mechanicum, Thousand Sons and The First Heretic all work because of their characters and the story that flows out of them, and it is nice to see BL having enough confidence in its authors not to force additional fight scenes into the books when they would just weaken them. I still remember how I felt when I read Horus Rising and the Luna Wolves attacked the planet of the Megarachnids--disappointment and a sense of wasted potential. I really hope that BL learns from this and focuses more on the characters and their motivations rather than on explosions and kill counts.

That said, I find the action is much better in my favorite Heresy books probably because it matters so much more.

[Kuja]

Just finished it. Didn't like it.

Lorgar acts like a tool and a moron.

We see virtually nothing of Erebus and Kor Phaeron, the latter of whom I've been waiting the whole fucking series for.

The book's full of plot threads and characters that are either half-finished or simply go nowhere.

The book revisits and reguritates plot ideas that have been done in other Heresy books, and were done better then.

As per usual for a Word Bearers novel, the best parts are when we get to see people beating the snot out of the main characters. In this book it's Corax and the Custodes, and Night Haunter takes the crowning moment of win for verbally abusing Lorgar in the midst of the Isstvan battle.

The First Heretic gets a 3/10 from me for being boring, repetitive, unfocused and an overall disappointment.