The First Wall: Siege of Terra: The Horus Heresy, Book 3

This first half of this book is appallingly written.The story itself has to be read to get an idea of what is to come which is annoying as the story is pretty awful and the battle scenes entirely contrived and redundant. Some scenes are simply glossed over with a single sentence rather than get into the difficulty of explaining the how/why of them. We can clearly assume Gav Thorpe wasn't considering Chekhov's gun as an important principle in this book.The interaction between key characters is forced, with stunted dialogue and contrives to make fafnir rann particularly look like a complete moron but also takes away from the mysticism and allure of the primarch characters he has written here. The writing of the addaba hub troopers is frankly horrific and Gav should be entirely ashamed of writing some of those dialogue lines. All of which contributes to the first half of the book being terrible.The second half of the book gets better, the dialogue is less forced, the scenes more tied together into something approaching narrative. Much more in keeping with what we might expect from Gav. However throughout even the finale scenes everything feels just too rushed. It would have benefited from a couple more months of work and overall feels rushed...

Never thought I’d see the day I’d have to write a negative review for a Gav Thorpe book.Huge fan of the Horus Aries but this book.... It’s just inconsistent storytelling and pure filler. Started and stopped reading this a few dozen times as it’s just so unbelievably lacklustre.Spoilers below.Preface, I’m fully aware of the Heresy Conclusion and the current state of the 40k universe. I know how this story has to end.Like the titanic, the ship has to sink but this is just poor.To start with, the basic premise is bad guys want into the palace. But this palace has walls dozens of kilometres high. Ship and Titan killing ordinance and millions and millions of troops and tens of thousands of legionaries.Bear in mind the place is the size of Himalayas. Yet this whole book focuses on a tiny subsection with minor touch points on other areas.But rather than an epic, sprawling battle, we end up with another winding and arduous internal monologue of an un augmented human trudging towards the palace. Again.Plus we get to see the lad from the previous book again. Joy.Half the previous book was this and they’ve done it again. The book spends more time talking about her struggle getting out of an on fire auto cannon cupola than than a massive breach into the palace. Not even joking.Enemies want into the Spaceport. Which is supposed to be the single most impregnable part of the palace due to its importance.However, the enemy manage to not only pierce the impenetrable Aegis that the entire fleet fails to penetrate, with a single strike cruiser, which allows a wings of ships to lands on the roof with absolute ease. Guess the fighters and AA batteries work 9-5 only.It’s so easy it’s barely a footnote. They land and leisurely stroll through the port. Just land and that’s it. This is all done is about 4 pages. There’s a longer section about a jowly priest and the mental images they dream about while praying to the emperor.While the enemy walk around the upper docks, another force walks up to the gates and smashes their way in with mauls. Yes you read that right. They walk up and smash their way in. And they stroll around for about 24 hours with minimal resistance.They walk in the front door. Of the most impregnable strongpoint in the palace. No mention of the millions of defenders or legionaries. They must’ve all been at lunch or something.There’s a counter attack much much later, which again is supremely brief then you’re back to the meandering human and her comrades who can’t go fourteen words without talking about the factory line they just came from.I don’t understand this incessant need to wedge in hundreds of pages about normal people and their hurty feet while they walk everywhere. You don’t watch the premier league to spend 90 minutes about Dave from accounting who makes sure the electric bills are paid for the stadium lights.Dorn and his boys are meant to masters of siege craft. Layers of defense assuming they previous layers are going to be breached but once the enemy find the key under the mat, that’s it’s. They’re in.I’m aware this is massive rant but that’s just how disappointed I am with this book.It doesn’t set the scene, it doesn’t even feel like they’re assaulting the cradle of mankind. I had a better mental image in the mini novel of the Iron Warriors on Damantyne.This is the end. The siege of terra and it’s just a farce. Padding the story in an already padded story to sell more padded stories.I can only imagine what tripe awaits me in the next few books if this is the norm of the siege books.Do I have Guillemanns dry cleaners memoirs to read next?Zero stars if possible. Skipping this book is like missing an episode of 24, it’ll be recapped in the next one.

Possibly the worst book in the series so far, and that's saying something considering how dull the first entry in the series was. I'm not sure what's going on here, Gav Thorpe is a GOOD writer for GW/BL. He has been around for a long time. I've read many of his books and enjoyed them considerably (especially some of the Dark Angels books). But this, I don't know what happened here, it's a real slog, I'm sorry.The book has a human perspective that I couldn't care less about yet again, much like The Solar War by John French. None of the new human characters introduced are compelling, interesting or even have a name that I can readily remember. I started out curious and by half way I was uninterested and was skipping chapters and paragraphs.

I'm currently about half way through and this far the imperial fists have made one counter attack against the traitors, since then they've been attacked from orbit, and now infiltrated by a thousand iron warriors into the spaceport without noticing, because the imperial fists, experts of siege warfare aren't even monitoring the maintenance shafts/corridors. Cuz Dorn's sons are knows for their blind spots in a defence. Just had an iron warrior day there's nothing for 700 meters in auspex. 700 meters?! The imperial fists have a 700 meter blind spot? Very disappointing.

The First Wall by Gav Thorpe is the third installment in the Siege of Terra, the final arc of the Horus Heresy. Coming back to these books is like coming home, albeit a home ravaged by war and demons. Still though, it feels like home, and I find myself grinning with glee whenever a new book is released (not quick enough!). Here are my thoughts. Minor spoilers ahead.The main focus of the novel is the battle for the Lion's Gate Space Port between the fortress-building Imperial Fists and the siege-breaking Iron Warriors. The siege is as epic as you'd expect. Bloody exhilarating are the words to describe it. I was also pleasantly surprised by the great amount of humour on both sides of the battle. Of course, both Dorn and Perturabo are the main primarchs to appear and neither disappoint. There is a showdown, one that has been in the making across the series, but I won't spoil when and where. Other great characters also play a role, including the templar Sigismund, the warsmith Forrix, the berzeker Kharn and Horus' right hand man, Abbadon. I really enjoyed Forrix's POV. Abbadon's thread continues to lay the groundwork for his future rise to the Warmaster of Chaos.A recurring theme throughout the novel is the question of faith. Faith in commanders, strategy and tactics. Faith in brothers and sisters in arms. And faith in religion. The last has been a central plot thread throughout the Horus Heresy and here we witness the foundations of the Imperial Cult on Terra. We experience this through one of my favourite characters across the warhammer lore, the Adeptus Custodes, Amon, and see the return of one of the most influential characters from the earliest books in the series. The 'resolution' to this thread in the book has major implications for both character arcs and the lore. I can see ties being made between the heresy and the future setting of warhammer, the Dark Imperium. Also, Malcador continues to 'capture the scene' every time he appears. We even get to see him in action at one point. Again, no spoilers.One of the most appealing features of the Siege of Terra books is the scaling POVs. We experience the siege not only through the eyes of godlike Primarchs and demi-godlike Astartes but also the common folk, the hive-rats likes Katsuhiro and Zenobi. They don't just serve as eyewitnesses to key events but as characters in their own right. As the main 'human' protagonist in the previous novel, I was delighted to see Katsuhiro appear, albeit for a short period of time. My gut tells me that he will have a big moment in subsequent books, perhaps even one of the biggest moments in the entire Horus Heresy and Warhammer 40k Lore (Vengeful Spirit maybe?) Unfortunately, Zenobi's POV felt like the weakest part of the book. She is a fascinating character in her own right and I enjoyed her journey across Terra towards the palace. However, I felt it was dragged out a little too long, and I sensed her main moment coming about a third of the way through. Having read the author's afterword, I appreciate his apporach to the concept of mental attrition in war through her arc. Unfortunately it just didn't land as well for me.Overall, I really enjoyed this book and eagerly anticipate the next one. There is a quote by Abbadon halfway through that has resonated with me. At one point he tells a nagging Layak 'If it is my destiny, then it will happen whether I accept it or not…You seem keen to persuade me I must make a choice whilst telling me that I have none.' I feel this best describes the experience of every warhammer fan reading the Horus Heresy. We ultimately know the destination. Nonetheless, it continues to be a thrill ride to get there.