Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Furious Abyss? Furious reader more like, 10 Sep 2008
I shall keep this short and sweet, and sadly harsh. Battle for the Abyss is a very anti-climactic mess filled with annoying repetition, stereotypical, bland characters formed from the personifications of their chapter traits. The Ultramarine is regimented, the Space Wolf a drunken brawler, the World Eater does a hulk smash, and the Word Bearers chant of a directionless and uninsightful philosophy given no depth. They follow a religion whose sole creed is to be a religion.
The first half of the book wastes no time dropping you into the action, and it suprisingly backfires. We learn nothing of the goals, desires, flaws, or fears of either the heretics or the loyalists. There is a naval engagement, a scene in the warp (with gribblies) and those two events with recycle repeatedly.
The second half of the book intensifies as the enemy come closer to their master plan. I won't spoil anything for the battle scenes and combats, but the final hundred pages feature some firm hardcore action. You don't care that the characters are 2D because they're laying some serious hurt on each other.
Then comes act 3, or as I like to call it, the final 3 pages. They basically forge the notion that the book is conclusive of itself, entirely pointless, and finished with all the finesse of a sledgehammer. The Battle for the Furious Abyss is irrelevant, there is no conclusion, epilogue, meaning, sentiment, moral. Did the author find out he had one week to finish the book, and he hadn't started it? Did his ex-wife sneak into his office and write these final pages before sending it to Black Library? Did Ben Counter just hate me? I do not know, but what I will say is this book is entirely skip-able, which is never a good thing in a series. Poor start, ebbing middle, no end.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A good read, but...., 7 Sep 2008
I have really enjoyed the H.H series of books with the exception of "Descent of Angels," which I found to be too short for the story it was trying to tell and seemed out of phase with the rest of the series.
Having read the reviews on here about "Battle for..." I was a bit wary of buying it, but went for it anyway; and I am glad I did. Although it doesn't seem to explore the characters as well as other books, I really did enjoy the story a lot.
The main criticism is the usual one, in that the Black Library should allow the books to be bigger/longer and write with a older age group in mind.
Tom.
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22 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
The Heresy Continues - Book 8 - Battle for the Abyss, 2 Aug 2008
'Battle for the Abyss' is book 8 in the Horus Heresy saga, based on the history of Games Workshops Science Fiction table-top game, Warhammer 40,000. Set in the 30th Millennium, the saga tells the tale of the Imperium of mankind's expansion across the galaxy, and it's crumble from within, as the largest civil war in history threatens to destroy humanity forever. The saga up to this point has been hit or miss. While it has been brilliant to see this well known story told in such detail from many points of view, some of the books fail to really grab the attention of the reader or have plots that frustrate and annoy. Author, Ben Counter, did a sterling job with his first book in the saga, that closed off the opening trilogy. 'Galaxy in Flames' weaved several story lines together and opened up new ones for other authors to continue. The first trilogy made us care as we were brought along with the story through the eyes of several characters, some loyal to the Imperium, some to the rebels. And indeed as the tale continued in the excellent 'Flight of the Eisenstein' and the fantastic 'Fulgrim' we were pulled through the myriad of tales to create a sublime experience. Alas, Battle for the Abyss' fails to impress on the most basic levels.
Without creating spoilers, the Abyss of the title is the Furious Abyss, a ship forged by the Mechanicum of Mars as a giant ship with one mission in mind: To destroy the Ultramarines legion. The setting takes place just as Horus is about to invade Istavaan, roughly around the same time as 'Galaxy in Flames' is set. The Word Bearers, now hostile to the Imperium, and integral in the tainitng of Horus, have been charged with this duty. They test their new weapons Systems on a lone Ultramarine cruiser, arousing the attention of a nearby Imperial station, where members of the Ultramarine legion, are joined by Space Wolves and loyal World Eaters, along with a single member of the Thousand Sons. They battle the odds in pursuing the massive ship with the aim of destroying it before it can damage their legion.
The story seriously lacks anything to make us care. Firstly it suffers from a repetition of structure throughout the book. The Word bearers destroy a ship, they are pursued through the warp. They emerge into real space, have another battle, jump through the warp, emerge, have another battle etc. Gone are the subtle webs of plot present in any of the opening trilogy, as are any characters we really care about. Led by an honor guard of Ultramarines, whose flawless perfection make them as dull as they are to play in the table top game, they lack character and depth. Whereas in other books, we've been drawn into the real life and mindset of a marine, here there is nothing but bland duty. The most interesting character is Mhotep, a lone Brother sergeant of the Thousand Sons Legion, and his arc throughout the story is one of the few reasons I kept reading. The plot suffers from lack of feasability too. The largest most advanced ship ever created, containing a whole chapter of the Word Bearers legion is being attacked by three small cruiser with a total of roughly fifty marines on board. Those are worse odds than assaulting the Death Star. While there is nice imagery about warp travel, and particularly of the entities that dwell there, as well as a deepening understanding of the Word Bearers legion, this alone does not suffice to make this a good read.
The main problem with Abyss, is it doesn't feel like its part of the rest of the saga; a problem that blighted the dire 'Descent of Angels'. It doesn't really connect you with what's happening in the rest of the emerging heresy. While one could say the same of Dan Abnetts excellent 'Legion' that at least pulled one through with its intricate plot and brilliant twist. Abyss feels like a stand alone book, and suffers, I feel, from bad writing.
So while we wait eagerly for this tale to unfold, leading to its final ulmtimate conclusion, Abyss is a sad let down. And its a few more months till 'Mechanicum' comes out. Im sure you will buy this book anyway, particularly if you have read the previous installments, but I've been slating my thirst for tales of heresy by reading the opening five books again.
How I wish Black Library had replaced this book with the tale of the raising of Prospero by the Space Wolves. Now thats a tale I really want to read.
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