Comments on: Prospero Burns + Embedded by Dan Abnett Review

By: yukie

yukie — Fri, 13 May 2011 11:02:29 +0000

Nice review. I have to whole heartedly agree and echo some of the praise given to Prospero Burns. It truly does transcend its subject matter. Warhammer 30/40k is great source material of course, and has been rendered skillfully by others such as Aaron Dembski Bowden and Graham Mcneill, but Dan Abnett just has a way of taking it to a new level. His skill as a writer not only fleshes out the 30k/40k world, but adds depth, maturity, and sophistication that takes it beyond the source material. He makes a good thing better. In the case of the Space Wolves in particular, he takes a legion that was previously comic bookish and a bit corny and turns them into something absolutely believable. This novel really gripped me, so much so that I’m reading it again a second time after only having finished it for the first time a month ago. Thank you Dan Abnett and I look forward to your next Horus Heresy Novel about the battle of Calth.

By: /tg/

/tg/ — Sun, 20 Feb 2011 17:14:09 +0000

I thought that the title of the book was Prospero Burns, not space viking nazis are jerks to an ancient historian who mysteriously changes his entire life motivations and goals the second they tell him to.

I detest Dan Abnett, because he is the best of a very poor stable of Black Library writers. He manages to make interesting topics boring, never engages the supposed theme storyline of his novels, rushes his endings. No matter the book, he simply can not seem to focus on unrelated stories.

This book is a good example, they handwave aside the brutality of Leman Russ, drain out the fun movie viking side of things, and try to justify incredibly evil acts. Magnus is treated very poorly in his book, whereas in the fluff he is generally seen as a loyal son that got screwed over.

By: Chris FP

Chris FP — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 23:46:01 +0000

I have enjoyed this book immensely. I had recently read First Heretic by Aaron Dembski-Bowden and thought that was a cracking read, but Prospero Burns is almost a step outside the usual 40K realm. It felt like it had the sense of space found in a novel rather than the usual constraints of the regular Black Library fiction. You could have relocated this book outside the 40K universe and the central theme and characters would have stood for themselves.

I think that whereas most black library books feel that they are definitely of their genre, Prospero Burns stands as true sci-fi in that it is the characters and the society that are expressed and analysised. The book really brought a sense of culture to a legion that were previously cartoonish. In doing so, it surpassed all the previous attempts to do so with other legions (although Fulgrim and the Emperors children were well expressed in other Horus Heresy books).

By: killy

killy — Sun, 19 Dec 2010 08:57:41 +0000

While I enjoied the book, I have to say that in my opinion it is not at the same level as the recent HH installments. A Thousand Sons was superior for the way the secondary characters were depicted, the ones here look a bit flat in comparison.

Another issue I have is with the primarch : I liked the playful side of Russ, but I was definitely perplexed at the tone of his address to Maguns before the final battle (it seemed totally out of character to me).

And I cannot take away the feeling that this book and A Thousand Sons are a bit out of synch. You take as you like the final revelation about who really engineered all the conflict between Magnus and Russ, but to me it seemed not really believable, and in disaccord with the hints which where thrown along the way in A Thousand Sons.

And yet, I liked the book overall, there are some very good sequences, and if you are following the HH series there is no excuse to refrain from purchasing it : it is definitely no filler and a main piece in the puzzle.