Hence, if like me you have always been curious about the Warhammer 40,000 universe but didn't have a clue where the hell to begin, or could not make heads or tails of the continuity, then Horus Rising is the perfect starting point for you.

While I'm persuaded that being a newbie means that I likely missed a few nuances and foreshadowing, it by no means influenced my reading experience in any way. I'm not sure if it's the case with any other Black Library series, but what makes The Horus Heresy so accessible is the fact that it takes place about 10,000 years prior to most Warhammer 40,000 work. How long before this escalates into all-out mutiny? Horus Rising is the first chapter in the epic tale of the Horus Heresy, a galactic civil war that threatened to bring about the extinction of humanity. Promoted to Warmaster, can the idealistic Horus carry the Emperor's grand plan? Worse still, this promotion has sown discontent amongst his brothers. But now, on the eve of victory, the Emperor leaves the front lines, entrusting the great crusade to his favourite son, Horus. It is a golden age of discovery and conquest. Under the benevolent leadership of the Immortal Emperor and his superhuman sons, the primarchs, the Imperium of Man has stretched out across the galaxy. The forces of humanity have reached the stars. The premise, that of a galactic civil war threatening to bring about the extinction of mankind, piqued my interest.

I've been told that this is probably one of the best and most entertaining sequences of books in the entire Warhammer 40,000 universe. The other was the opening chapter in The Horus Heresy sequence, Horus Rising. One was an omnibus comprised of three books, and I was reticent to start something that big for fear of losing interest. And since Newton seemed to imply that Dan Abnett was one of the best writers they had, I asked him to send me what he considered to be the author's best novels. When author/editor Mark Charan Newton got involved in the tie-in fiction vs genre fiction debate, I decided to put my money where my mouth is and give a work from Black Library a shot.

Horus heresy horus rising epub