Review of The End & the Death: Volume III by Dan Abnett

This is it. The arrowhead striking home. The mushroom cloud rising. The supernova erupting from the Horus Heresy series. Sixty-four books into one of the most epic tales ever told, and we've reached the end. The third end. The absolute end. The End and the Death: Volume III by Dan Abnett (2024).

In reality, the expectations for the final-final-final volume of the Horus Heresy are even higher than that. The book must not only deliver the explosive showdown between Horus and the Emperor, it must also propel the reader into the 40^th millennium. It needs to resolve the demi-gods' conflict and set the stage for the thousands of stories that have been told, are being told, and will be told. It must answer the questions why the Emperor sits on the throne, burning through souls like cigarettes, rather than kicking ass around the galaxy. It needs to provide the impetus for the Astra Militarum, Sisters of Silence, Plague Marines, et al, et al. And it needs to ____(fill in your Warhammer jam here)____. The natural question is: does Volume III deliver on these expectations?

The quick and dirty answer is: Yes. A huge amount of ground is covered in Volume III. Perhaps more precisely: it ties together many, many threads of story while still having room for surprise, or at least mild surprise. Readers may know the end before they start reading, but Abnett provides scenes and moments worth canon—worth this, the most critical moment in the Horus Heresy.

Volume III is one of the best books in the Heresy. It delivers, not only the fireworks the reader expects, but likewise tone, metaphor, and the meta-understanding of how things were and will be in the broader Warhammer universe. I assume 90% of people who have read the HH series will be satisfied. There is no satisfying the remaining 10%, regardless the book, so that is a compliment indeed.

I confess a touch of emotion completing The End & the Death: Volume III. This is a series of books I have been reading for literally two-and-a-half years. It's normal to read one or two HH books a month, to keep tabs on how the universe is evolving in the wake of Horus' corruption. The emotions are testament to a few things, which I will undoubtedly ramble on about in a longer post. But for the moment, I'm staring at a deep appreciation for the manner in which this EPIC series panned out, and here, ends.