Review of The End & the Death: Volume 1 by Dan Abnett

We've done it. 60+ books. Dozens upon dozens of short stories and novellas. Hundreds of characters. Uncountable battles in space and on land. Three sides have defined their stake in the game—Loyalists, Traitors, and Chaos. And now we've reached the end—at least Volume 1 of the end. And the death (sorry). Everything comes together in the Horus Heresy and Siege of Terra with The End & the Death (2023) by Dan Abnett. This is the review of the first of its three volumes.

The End & the Death opens on a classic Warhammer scene—perhaps the quintessential Warhammer scene: a battlefield in ruins. A breeze tugs at abandoned banners. Space marines lie in awkward repose. Debris and wreckage scatter smoking ruins. Sightless eyes... With this imagery Abnett signals that the Siege of Terra is moving to a new phase, the end phase. No longer are Traitor forces endlessly assaulting the Palace's walls. The Loyalists have locked themselves inside and now need to be pried out. The End & the Death is the can opener.

I had/still have high expectations for The End & the Death. It is the capstone to one of the greatest fantasy epics humanity has ever attempted. No pressure. Volume 1, however, is one of those books which, when you finish, you struggle to understand how all those pages contained so little. I could sum up in a sentence or two the key plot inflection points—so little of major substance occurs. The book is, therefore, the definition of “tone setting”.

As hinted, the battlefield in ruins is the tone—the real cost of the Heresy. It starts with Horus' alliance with Chaos, which is beginning to show cracks, cracks readers knew existed all along but Horus was too focused on the advantage he gained in the present to care about the future. Next is the Emperor, who, after spending the entire series on the throne guarding the byways of Chaos, finally stirs himself. But someone must sit in his stead to keep those forces at bay a while longer. And while Horus was orchestrating plans throughout the Heresy, he's also been sitting on the sidelines, brooding in Chaos for the siege on Terra. Until now. The voices in his head culminating, he rises. Readers like me may feel not much happens in Volume 1, but these theatrics can (should?) be appreciated. Abnett is not here for cheap thrills. He wants to give the series the weight it deserves, which means an intro steeped in gravitas. This is it.

In the end, writing a review of The End & the Death is largely a futile exercise. If readers have come this far in the Horus Heresy/Siege of Terra series, there is probably nothing to stop them reading the final three volumes. Just be warned that fireworks are few and far between. Abnett writes Act I. He lays the groundwork for the final two acts through tone and mood in a way that respects what has come before and what will come—the quiet before the storm.