Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Not quite up to the same standard, 17 Oct 2006
Good, but not quite up to the same standard as the previous books. There's a certain "something" missing. And the title is a bit melodramatic.
Dan Abnett got off to a great start with Horus Rising and Graham McNeill carried on in the same style with False Gods. With Galaxy in Flames Ben Counter had a tough act to follow and with the characters now "fixed" on their path he had limited flexibility to develop them, especially since the action is limited to one planet where Abnett had the freedom to move between three different worlds. However, I don't think he was the right Black Library author for this book. I've read the Soul Drinkers and Grey Knights books and so I think he might have been better off writing at a later stage. (I think William King (the Space Wolf series) would have been a better choice given the restrictions.)
Some of the key characters (e.g. Erebus) that McNeill had made efforts to establish are relegated to the background and Loken, the core character is not as strongly portrayed. Horus also probably needs more time on centre-stage. His fall is documented, but not quite as well as it could have been. To be honest I'd blame this on McNeill - he had a good opportunity in False Gods to describe Horus's deathbed biographical narrative (and thoughts) to Petronella; Counter could have built on that - and he is clearly reliant upon what the other two have established in this book.
The composition and action is pretty good, although there are a few inconsistencies - the main one I spotted was the virus bombs supposedly annihilating all life on the planet on one page, but then we find a few billion people alive to be burnt up in the subsequent firestorm later on... oops!
Perhaps I'm too much of an Abnett fan; it's not that bad. In any case I look forward to the next instalment, Flight of the Eisenstein.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great, cannot wait for the next, 4 Jan 2007
Following on from the excellent Horus Rising and False gods, Galaxy in Flames leads you straight into the action with the Battle of Istavan III. The battle is excellently portrayed and betrayal is fully woven into the story. Having know part of the story already, the story of lucius is well constructed as you would always be wondering what is going to happen next. One of the main problems as many people have already mentioned is that the characters aren't fully developed, you dont get so personal with Horus as you did with False Gods, which is a great shame.
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8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Very Good, but has inconsistencies, 3 Oct 2006
Overall - a fantastic read (devoured it in a matter of hours after purchase) and a fitting finale to the opening trilogy of this series.
Ben Counter has again turned out a stunner, adding another great title to his novels (I highly recommend his other work, Soul Drinkers and Grey Knights series), and the humanisation of these previously-mythical characters continues.
However, there were a few things that could have been improved:
* with the large number of legendary characters present, not all of them were fleshed out. Mortarion (Death Guard Primarch) was left as a "name drop" - present, but not so much as a physical description. Angron (World Eater Primarch) was apparently forced to retreat by "normal" Luna Wolf Space Marines - but there's no detail as to how they drove off the most fearsome of all the Primarchs.
* the use of numerous authors has led to some inconsistencies. Example: previously, the "Half Heard" Luna Wolf captain was described as a Terran, who fought in the Legion before the ascension of Horus as leader of the Legion - leading to him being regarded as a relic of the past. Now, he is described as a native of Cthonia, and the only one who stays true to the ideals of this world, having been a ganger there before joining the Legion. Small details, but it flies in the face of the previously-established character.
These small details stop this being a 5-star rating. But don't let that stop you buying this and immersing yourself into the richly-detailed world of an area that has previously only been described in the vaguest ways.
Roll on the next trilogy for this series!
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