Customer Reviews
Good book, deserves better reviews. - By: Mr. J. Soellner, 02 Sep 2008 
This book is a pretty good read, despite what some of the badly written reviews here would have you believe.
Good plot, great characters - I particularly liked the loyal World Eater, very cool.
Buy it & see for yourself!
Mhotep shot first - By: M. I. Furey-king, 29 Aug 2008 in my oppinion the horus heresy sereis can do no wrong, & i do enjoy ben counters novels (grey knights is very cool). i enjoyed the story, & the clashes of personality between the various chapters. also, the unprecidented descriptions of warp travel are very interesting. some nice space combat sequences too.
i suppose the ultramarines are a bit wooden, & the word bearers about as competent as star wars storm troopers, but its not nearly as bad as most of these reviews are making out.
my only gripe is that the horus heresy books are moving away from horus & his cronies & the overall story arc. i love to read about primarchs especialy because they are so important to the imperiumin 30k yet dont exist (mostly)in 40k. they are such charismatic individuals. i dont mind the odd story where individual elements or parties of the war are featured, but the majority of books now released no longer tiein with each otherin a satisfactory manner.
does anyone know why the world eatersin this book wernt at istvaan 3? i thought that needed some explination.
my conclusion would be, if you've read the rest of the sereis, you should read this too as its enjoyable, if you havnt read the rest of the sereis then you are a big fat loser & a waste of a human life, haha!
Getting bored of this series yet? - By: J. Duducu, 29 Aug 2008 
There is a difference between a series of books setin a specific world & a story. The Black Library have fundamentally muddled the 2 ideas with the Horus Heresy.
The first allows you to tell any length of story you want against a familiar backdrop it can intertwine characters & plots & this can be fun. The other involves a story arch it has a beginning a middle & an end. Middle Earth is an example of the first & Lord of the Rings an example of the second.
I started reading this series hoping to read about the rise & fall of Horus- afterall the series is called the Horus Hersy & while there have been some great books (e.g. Fulgrim) I can't shift the sensation that a lot of this series is filler. Battle for the Abyss is one of the first time that both I & the fan boys agree that this book simply didn't need to be written. It's dull & repetitive.
So I was curious & wrote to the publishers to ask if they had any idea how many books would there bein the series I got this polite reply-
"Hi there, I have spoken with the Black Library editors & we currently have not confirmed how many booksin total will bein the Horus Heresy series. I'm Sorry I couldn't have been of more help, Chris Beaumont,BL Publishing"
This means this series will be like LOST the TV show, great idea but because the writers don't know how long they've got to tell the story they are treading water & until we all stop buying these books the series will go on for ever!
The irony is that anybody buying these books knows the ending & Horus as a trilogy from proud warrior of the Imperium to corruption & finally show down with the Emperor would be great & we've already seen the first 2 parts of this tale but we may never get to the end...
Missed opportunity - By: Hairyhendrix, 23 Aug 2008 Horus Heresy: Battle for the Abyss (Warhammer 40,000: The Horus Heresy)
Unfortunately I agree with the majority of reviewers, this was a disapointing addition to the generally excellent Horus Heresy series.
I think this was a real missed opportunity, the Word Bearers have been portrayed through the whole series as one of the prime movers behind the Heresy, & have been meticulously planning & plotting for many yearsin preperation for the events depictedin this novel.
Yet none of this equates to the Word Bearers we seein Battle for the Abyss, where an entire chapter of Word Bearers seem incapable of dealing with a few dozen loyal marines, despite also beingin possession of the most powerful vesselin the imperium. Zadkiel & the other Word Bearers depicted seem like posturing self obsessed idiots.
The characters all seemed boring, & cliched & didn't grab my interestin any way, bar the Thousand Son marine who was well written. The opportunity to explore the World eaters attitudes was missed. Skrall & his men are loyal, but we know at this stage Angron has sided with Horus. Skrall's reaction to his primarch's betrayal of the Emperor would have been fascinating, would he have blindly followed Angon's lead & sided with the Word Bearers, or would his personal principals & beliefs have seen him turn from his legion? We'll never know as despite a few hints this plotline was not explored.
The Ultramarines were just cookie cutter & so dull, duty duty duty. I didn't feel any empathy towards them. Characters deaths are just passed overin a few lines, as if they were irrelevant. I just don't get this book at all.
In general I do like Ben Counter's work, so lets hope this was just rushed out as others have suggested. Here's hoping Mechanicum lifts the series back to the hights.
Rushed if anything - By: M. Grudgings, 18 Aug 2008 We all want to read the latest Horus Heresy novels, god we do, however we really must make sure Black Library don't rush the authors otherwise books to this standard are released.
I'm a fan of Ben Counters work-really I am, I own the current Grey Knights series, Daemon World & the Soul Drinkers omnibus. I feel with that basis of knowledge of his writings I know when a story is rushed out, boy is this one of them.
Rushed being the emphasis, little plot preparation, little weight behind the characters & story & unfortunately another blipin the so far excellent Horus Heresy saga.
The story is a typical `Space Marines enduring hardships to save their brothers' clone, similar onlyin formula as was the much stronger Flight of the Eisenstein. It does well to describe some of the plot devices, the ship, the Word Bearers & the perils of the warp however these are never really pulled through or captivatedin such a manner that we take notice of them.
The main character I can't even remember his name, being an Ultramarine, most mundane of Legions doesn't help either. Ben Counter had such a massive chance to really REALLY pull the Ultramarines through to being an individual chapter, to really give them a sense of independence such as the Luna Wolves were given. The oath papers, the `speartip' battle terminology & the raw grandeur of the Luna Wolves made them so damn likeablein the start of the series, however noone has ever attempted to give the Ultramarines a real character, forgive me for saying so but they are relentlessly boring of chapters & unfortunately remain soin this book.
The plot again revolves around events that we have no knowledge of, far flung battlesin the depths of early Imperium history, focussing as stated before around the Word Bearers shiny deathship designed solely for the extermination of Macragge.
The real strongpoint of the entire Heresy series is that they can do whatever they want with the stories, we simply have no previous reference for these galaxy defining events. Sadly for this book Ben never really capitulates on this, there are no hidden secrets revealedin this book, no real `woah' moments that makes us fluff types squirm. Without these elements unfortunately the plot is lessened somewhat, we're never drawn to the central character & so by extension, his story.
His supporting elements however are far more intriguing. The Thousand Son Mhotep character is a real question mark through the whole story, the Space Wolf Bryggnar a murky character as well. The rather mundane religious *yawn* Word Bearers are given a bit more fleshing out & the Mechanicum also are given a bit more uncaring ruthlessness & even the ship captains are given more character that the protagonist.
***SPOILER ALERT***
Oh & theres no primarchs....not a single onein this book. Yep, one of the series hooks...not there at all.
***SPOILER CLOSE***
In summary I'll definitely re-read this book, I enjoyed it, despite its poorer quality story its still a Horus Heresy book & as such still deserving of a placein my shelf. It unfortunately will fall close to Descent Of Angels as both are ok books with no tie-ins to the continuity of the series & as such are almost stand-alone titles.
I would urge Black Library production to take note of these comments & really stop pushing the authors for stories that while adequate are not to the current Heresy series standard.
