Let’s just start with a little context setting, given that this is book III in the series.
If you’ve read my review of Horus Rising, you’ll know what first enticed me to read some of the lord surrounding Games Workshop’s Warhammer 40,000 tabletop game. A core pillar of its iconic setting is the treachery of the Warmaster Horus*, who split the Imperium into civil war, leading his traitorous Astartes Space Marines against their loyalist brethren.
*If you know nothing about Warhammer 40,000, you may consider this a pretty big spoiler. But the series is called The Horus Heresy, so I don’t think it counts.
I wanted to know how the Emperor of mankind’s most loyal ‘son’ and top commander could fall so spectacularly into darkness.
Then, if you’ve read my review for the follow-up, Galaxy in Flames, you’ll know that I didn’t quite get the gradual, conscience-wrenching turn to dissent that I was hoping for.
That disappointment continues in Galaxy in Flames, where any nuance around who’s in the right is crushed under the trappings of Hollywood villainy. The bad guys are all evil now. Horus favours a black suit of armour, complete with a massive claw on one hand. He threatens his subordinates with death, casually orders murders, refuses to have his judgement questioned. His subordinates are the same. They are fiercely loyal and go along with everything that he says.
Again, this is disappointing. To summarise my thoughts on the narrative so far: the Great Crusade depicted in these three books is built upon a creaking tower of hypocrisy. The Space Marines slaughter their way across the galaxy, barely any less brutal or civilised than those they claim to be enlightening. They are trying to stamp out religion, while simultaneously being a pseudo-religious order themselves, full of oaths and superstition and ritual.
They’ve continued killing and dominating for two hundred years, never once questioning their mission, or adapting their approach in the face of the increasingly sophisticated cultures they are encountering.
All of this created the perfect scenario in which Horus, Warmaster and commander of the Great Crusade, could begin to doubt the righteousness of his mission and therefore the will of the Emperor himself. We could have seen him and his legion torn apart as they struggled to choose between their loyalty to the Emperor and their trust in everything they’ve been taught, and what their own heads and hearts (which is a double plural – Space Marines have two each) were telling them.
We could have had a situation where it wasn’t actually clear who was in the right and who was in the wrong. Both sides could have been acting justifiably. A bit like in Captain America: Civil War, where two heroes, in doing what they each think is right, end up in conflict with one another. Instead what we get is “evil forces are at workTM”.
And Galaxy in Flames has to continue that. Disappointing, but that’s where we are.
My bad – up until now it probably sounds like I hated this book. I didn’t – I really enjoyed it, barring the crushing disappointment of a hugely missed opportunity that actually happened in the previous book.
The rest of the novel still offers a great deal. It kept me gripped and, like the previous two volumes in the series, I absolutely flew through this one. Once again we have a new author picking up the setting and the lore and a vast set of characters. Ben Counter does a great job of taking over from Graham McNeill, who himself took over from Dan Abnett, and continues these stories while mostly keeping things consistent.
The story of Galaxy in Flames is a tragic one. It’s where the Warmaster’s betrayal is unveiled and friends become enemies, as bonds of loyalty and friendship are ripped apart.
This book is a little more focused than the other two in that it mostly happens in one setting. Several legions of Astartes warriors are sent to pacify a rebellion, only to find themselves betrayed in turn. There’s a lot of heart-wrenching moments in this book when characters that you’ve grown to know well and care about over two previous books become pitted against each other.
It’s only lessened by what I said earlier, in that it’s very clear now who the bad guys are and who the good guys are. Returning to Civil War for a moment, that film felt like watching all your best friends have a massive row. This, by comparison, is just your classic good-versus-evil; it’s just that the ‘good’ isn’t that great to begin with.
But Galaxy in Flames is a strong offering in terms of the interplay of motivations and loyalty, the way characters struggle as what they thought they knew is undermined or just plain blown up. Ben Counter continues the tradition of this series in bringing a lot of nuance and depth to what I wrongly expected was just going to be a series of sci-fi action blockbusters. While I may feel a bit let down by the way the main premise has evolved, I’m still hooked on the Horus Heresy and I’m sure the next couple of volumes will be arriving on my doorstep soon.
