Review of False Gods by Graham McNeill

Highly skeptical cracking the book open, I was pleasantly surprised, perhaps even shocked, how good Horus Rising by Dan Abnett is, first book in the Horus Heresy series. Where a lot of franchise fiction tends to be commercial (mediocre writing, cheap plotting, cheesy dialogue, low expectations for readers, etc.), I was in awe of how well a book based on a tabletop game could capture many of the ideas inherent to the best fiction about war and colonialism. The fact there was space marines blasting away at aliens (aka eye candy) laced throughout the book had me wanting more. Enter Graham McNeil's False Gods (2006), second book in the Horus Heresy. What could a different author do with the second installment in a multi-volume story?

False Gods picks up where Horus Rising left off. Due to the events on the planet Murder, Horus has consolidated his power among the Luna Wolves and is now looked at as a god among men by his brethren. In one of the opening scenes, the group are deciding where to pacify next. The elder Erebrus comes to the center of the group to declare that one of the worlds previously thought pacified by mankind has rebelled, and declared itself in opposition to the Emperor. Affronted, Horus decides to personally lead the Wolves into battle and tear down this planet once and for all. He may get more than he bargained for stepping personal foot into battle.

Where entering Horus Rising I had my doubts about franchise fiction, entering False Gods I had doubts about a different author's ability to pick up a story from another writer and run with it to similar effect. Would style be similar? Would they take the story in a wild new direction? Would this be a different experience than Horus Rising? Writers, after all, are the backbone to any story, regardless serialized or individual. My fears were once again assuaged. Where I believe Abnett is a hair better writer, McNeil holds his own. The gravitas is there. The pace is the same. The characters still act and behave like they did under Abnett's pen. The universe feels the same. The lexicon is healthy. The reader is still treated as intelligent. Overall, far-far more similar than different.

But what about story?!?! Story-wise, False Gods is a paintball shot of jagged neon imagination. While thematically the book(s) can be recommended, the page by page turns of event likewise stimulate the eye. Space marine battles may just be space marine battles, but things evolve in a way no reader—at least me—could have expected. And so while we knew Horus' destiny, his journey is to that point is unknown. And McNeil capitalizes in entertaining fashion. In fact, I would argue False Gods is more satisfying than Horus Rising from a plot perspective.

In the end, False Gods wonderfully accelerates the Horus Heresy storyline, giving readers surprises while maintaining the dark tone Abnett set in Horus Rising. It only makes me want to read the third and final novel in the trilogy which opens into the much-much wider Horus Heresy series. I again have my doubts about what yet another writer will do with a shared story, we'll see. My doubts thus far have been unfounded.