# Review of Battle for the Abyss



## normtheunsavoury (Mar 20, 2008)

I picked up the latest Heresy book on friday and read it over the weekend, so for anyone who hasn't got it yet here's a quick (spoiler free) review.
The Horus Heresy series has been a huge success so far and Battle for the Abyss is another, overall, stunning instalment in the series.
Ben Counter does what he does best and packs the story full of relentless action and brutal combat, both face to face and ship to ship.
The character development is a little on the light side and lacks the depth of the first three books in the series and falls a country mile short of Fulgrim.
I was hoping that there would be a lot more development of the Word Bearers back story and why they turned to chaos and instigated the Heresy but I was unfortunately let down on this front. 
Another let down that seems to be affecting the whole series at the moment is that BL seem to be reluctant to push the story on, overall the story is still at the point of the Heretics taking the Isvaan system and now ploting their next move.
Battle for the Abyss could really have been set at any point in time since the Heresy and would have been a great stand alone book.

So in conclusion, a good read and in no way another Descent of Angels. It does nothing to push the overall story forward but is a very worthy addition to the series 7/10k:


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## Dragonoth (Jan 12, 2008)

Oh snap so its out? Damn I was less then a mile away from Borders today and was wondering if i should go check!


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## NoiseMarine (Jun 8, 2008)

i think its only out for preorders right now so u prolly cant find it at the bookstore... yet


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## callred (Jun 24, 2008)

bought it at whw last weekend when i picked up my 5ed so should be out everywhere by now 

i agree with norm 7/10 - high on the action front but low on character dev or fluff o/s of what is already known


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## incrediblechap (Sep 5, 2007)

*Review of Battle For The Abyss [WARNING - MINOR SPOILERS]*

Hello Battle For The Abyss Readers (or potential readers),

I can report to you that I was most pleased with Mr. Ben Counters latest addition to the Horus Heresy series. Indeed, his compelling account of the rag tag band of Space Marines (Ultramarines, World Eaters, Space Wolves and Thousand Sons) chasing down the doomsday battleship the Furious Abyss through the Warp, made for a page turner.

That said, I was doubly rewarded with the chance to learn more of the rich background of the Space Marine mythos, as well as delve deeper into the betrayal of the arch nemesis Word Bearers. Although episodic in nature, the book does stand alone, though it left me wanting more at the end (the ending is inconclusive in some respects).

Overall, the book's plot is driven by compelling and sometimes antagonistic characters struggeling to make their loyalty to the Emperor known against the overwhelming forces of Chaos. If you are a fan of the Horus Heresy series, this book won't dissapoint.


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## BloodAngelZeros (Jul 1, 2008)

heh, good to hear it's not another decent of angels. It was a decent book, but really shouldn't have been included in the horus heresy line as, well, there was absolutely nothing to do with the horus heresy in the book and it answered nothing really about the dark angels that wasn't already known. The ending was a slap in the face to the reader (The Lion hates us so we're gonna pout on our home planet. Where did it ever say the Lion didn't want them around?!). Anywho, I'll be sure to pick it up after I finish Legion.


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## Unknown Primarch (Feb 25, 2008)

just to comment on descent of angels, i think it was a good addition to the heresy series. i feel that we should have learned about all the primarchs early days so as to see what may have made those turn and what kept those that were loyal. i also think the HH series should have started with the battle of ullanor and when the emperor stated he was returning to earth. with descent of angels i think BL have put this book out so we can understand what happens on caliban after the heresy and it also keeps us guessing for a while if the lion was the traitor or not. i think they should have spread the story out longer but brought books out quicker so its not a decade before we get to the final battle with horus.
just to delve back into the other primarchs stories, it would have been better to show what they did before meeting the emperor so as to see into their character and maybe understand their character flaws because i think that the traitor primarchs are not fully to blame for turning but were used and manipulated into going down the wrong path and in a little way i feel sorry for them. if they had had the emperors guidence all their lives then they would have been totally different people and maybe thing would have turned out better for them. 
anyway let hope that BL do decide to develope all their characters more and get more of the emperor into the story too.

Ave Imperator!


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## MarzM (Jan 26, 2007)

**Potential spoilers**

I really enjoyed 'Battle for the Abyss', Ben is a good writer. This is however a bit of a filler book. What the horus heresy is doing is over the course of a few books, trying a Rashomon style approach. I understand that some people are frustrated by the fact that the BL are to a point stalling the series but i feel it is important.

What this book does (like what decent of Angels does) is set a lot of things up for later in the series. It goes some way to explain why the Ultramarines were not at the seige of the Imperial Palace (mainly because they hands their hands full). I also helps to set up two of the most anticipated books of the series, the first being the next release 'Mechanicus' and then the Fall of Prospero when it happens. I really liked the fact that it heavily implies that the Thousand sons know what is happening and where it will eventually lead them.

I would also say it gives a glimpes into the pscycy of the Word Bearers, showing them to not only worship the chaos gods but want the physical universe and the warp to become one universe.

I liked it, i'll give it an 8/10


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## Talonmaster Raptoris (Jul 5, 2008)

I thought this book was a great improvment from the last two. I will say it was slightly infuriating for them to refer to a legion as "sons of *primarch*" over....and ....over! but that's splitting hairs, the book was great!!!


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## humakt (Jan 2, 2008)

A very good read, but one thing that keep irritating me is how easily Marines bleed out in all the books. Still 7/10 and I'm looking forward to the next one.


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## Words_of_Truth (Sep 20, 2007)

*Spoilers*

Well i was slightly disappointed with Battle for the Abyss, i just finished it and well it felt like flight of the eisenstein but without the suspense and known figure heads like the primarchs. You could tell what was going to happen, i did briefly hope that the thousand son would survive so we could discuss whether he created the grey knights or blood ravens cause he was rather fitting.

However i was expecting an epic clash between ultramarines and word bearers and instead got two of the most unsubtle legions (world eaters and space wolves) along with a bland ultramarine trying to stealthily get through a ship+station and a thousand son combating a greater daemon on a ship which was already lost and altogether served no purpose afaik than relaying messages to the furious abyss to let them know they were followed, why use a greater daemon and not a smaller daemon.

Wouldn't it of been more epic if the thousand son defeated the greater daemon in the massive cathedral where skraal got his primarchs axe?

The opening felt like a warhammer 40k version of D&D "An ultramarine forsees an attack on his world and finds out one of his legion's ships was destroyed, he must gather a band of unlikely comrades to get to the bottom of this and save the day"

That basicly sums it up 

By the way does anyone writing on the Black Library forums? i had an account on there but everytime i post now it says request denied i started up a new account and it says request denied to, anyone know whats up?


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## blitz451 (Apr 4, 2008)

overall i enjoyed the read but i couldn't help be wonder the whole time what the purpose of the book was in advancing the story. Was this truly to be the story that introduces the ultramarines chapter into the series? I think it did more to setup the assault on prospero than anything else. Though i found it interesting that through the lack of communications there are still members of traitor legions that don't know they are traitor legions yet.


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## Words_of_Truth (Sep 20, 2007)

Well i assume that the members of traitor legions who stay loyal end up contributing to the various chapter and orders like the grey knights later. Thats what i'd like to think but the problem is i can't see the imperium being that nice to them.


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## Bishop120 (Nov 7, 2007)

While not bad as a 40K book I didnt feel the story in and of itself gave anything to the Heresy. Its almost as if the story could have been right at home in the 40K universe and not 10K years earlier. All the godliness of the primarchs is missing. Any hints at great marvels from the Crusade as well. So far the only thing that stood out as special was that there was this super battleship built.. big woop. There was so much dialogue and inner monologue that just screamed that it was out of place in the Heresy.

Here are some of what I saw as pros and cons..
Pros:
The Thousand Son - Mhotep.. he rocked. Like someone else said before I wish he had lived and been used as the progenitor of the Grey Knights or if even to maybe make Guilliman a believer in the need for psykers and that the Council of Nikea was wrong and show how Librarians made it into Codex Astartes.

The Space Wolf - Brynggar.. a good overall character though somewhat 2 dimensional.

Cons:
The Ultramarines.. entirely 1 dimensional.. This book did not gave any special insight or point of view about them. Honestly they could have been any chapter and any leader probably would have done the same thing Cestus did. There were several pieces of his inner monologue which didnt quite fit in with the 30K/Crusade mentality and would have been right at home in the 40K time.

No primarchs.. nothing special here.. move along.. Lets face it one of the greatest aspects of the Heresy books is the introduction of Primarchs and getting to see these great gods go to war. Getting to hear THEIR thoughts on why they made these choices. 


Overall rating.. a solid 7/10.. Good 40K book.. not quite upto par for what I want out of a Heresy book though.


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## Khorne's Fist (Jul 18, 2008)

> The Thousand Son - Mhotep.. he rocked. Like someone else said before I wish he had lived


Damn, I'm only half way through it, and managed to avoid the spoilers up till now. Oh well.

Anybody else notice the bit where Admiral Kaminska was able to look through a view port and see the Fireblade moving alongside _whilst they were in the warp_ without her brain dribbling out her ears? Surprised at Counter, he's usually much better with the fluff.


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## Shon (Aug 14, 2008)

I'm having a really hard time trying to finish this book. I think I've hit a limit on my reading for awhile.


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## Critta (Aug 6, 2008)

Strange, I really enjoyed this one! 

It shows some of the areas of the heresy that aren't covered in the "traditional" fluff - I mean, if they just followed the story of the "main" horus heresy push the series would be pretty much finished by now - after Isstvan there's not a lot more for Horus to do other than make his push on earth.

I think this book moved the story of the heresy on in several ways:

- The Word Bearers showing their true colours rather than sitting in the back manipulating people

- The extent of the heretic involvement with the adeptus mechanicus

- It also shows a lot more of the emnity between the 1k suns and the space wolves.

The thing I like about the Horus Heresy series are books like this which expand around the main storyline a little - I know the story of Horus's betrayal, Istvaan etc and have done for many years - the small bits and pieces around the main arc are the bits that I've enjoyed most about this series. Legion, Flight of the Eisenstein, Fulgrim and this have been my favorite 4 so far!


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## Concrete Hero (Jun 9, 2008)

I quite liked DoA, Just not the ending....
I still need to read Leigon


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## Unknown Primarch (Feb 25, 2008)

not read abyss yet but i have had this feeling where GW are gonna fuck the series up. unless they start going back and forth with the story i feel large protions of unseen stuff will not be put down on paper. i think we need to see more of why certain primarch didnt like each other, why some hated the emperor and show us their feeling towards Him. Theres not been anything to show how much the emperor was loved/hated for the things he set in motion for mankind, though i read the teaser of mechanicus and it has a small protion of the emperor and it did show some of his gloriousness. 
if they are gonna expand on all the primarchs character and all the subplots of the heresy then we may not see the endgame novels for absolute years and i cant see them wanting to drag it out (not that its a problem) but you know how companies work and they may have a shorter timescale for the project then we may think. hopefully the tales of heresy helps things abit but then it will probably leave us with more questions too.
overall i think they should have made the series more fleshed out but made the turnout of novels to like 6 or seven a year over so many years. theres plenty of fluff to rework and delve into so could still last 5yrs but with more book per year.


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## Ambrose (Jun 11, 2008)

I just bought the battle for the abyss and am looking forward to reading it.


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## Ambrose (Jun 11, 2008)

Just finished battle for the abyss 2 days ago. Liked it a lot. Using a moon for a weapon was a good idea but the emperor protects.


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## Shag (Jul 12, 2009)

Ok i know this is late, but hey what the heck. I can't find anywhere else to vent my frustrations about this book. I know I should get used to having my chaos boys utterly destroyed by the mere whim of one ultramarine, but I can't!!!
I mean come on!!! I just can't imagine having that big of a ship being that powerful and having so many guns that they couldn't stop a couple of boarding shuttles.... I mean this thing is supposed to have more guns and firepower than any other ship. And whenever word bearers fight it's like a 1:10 ratio to any other space marine. 1 ultramarine kills 10 word bearers... You have to allow some literary heroics of course, but this was just silly in my opinion.


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## Angel of Blood (Aug 18, 2010)

Yeah amongst many, many other problems people had with the book, the complete incompetence of the Word Bearers and their reduction to stereotypical villains was one of the key points of annoyance.


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## Barnster (Feb 11, 2010)

Read this after first heretic... its much better with a greater understanding of the WBs

Mhoptep did carry the whole novel though, with the ultramarine not really doing anything, not good for a main hero

The boarding shuttles survived because of the sacrifice of the admirals ship, either that or like the death star there was a fundamental design flaw with the furious in that it struggled to engage high speed small craft

the wolves were definatly not to my cup of tea, P Burns (which i was not a big fan of) add a new layer to these guys

Personally my biggest gripe was the FA was meant to be built in absolute secrecy yet 1st chapter of mechanicum Rho-mu is talking to dalia about it! secret yeah right!


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## Angel of Blood (Aug 18, 2010)

If anything reading it after the First Heretic makes its portrayel of the Word Bearers even more insulting. They go from being the architechts of the heresy, the first heretics, highly capable astartes who towards the end of the Crusade started raking up more victories than any other legions and so on and so forth. Then in BftA, they are your stereotypical game/film villain, manically laughing and cackling, betraying each other left right and centre, all scheming behind each others backs, needlessly throwing men into meat grinders, woefully underestimating their opponents, suffering from total arrogance, walking into every trap the loyalists spring. I could go on and on. Suffice to say they were the worst villains in the whole series for me


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