[3I2]⇒ Download Nemesis The Horus Heresy James Swallow 9781844168682 Books

Nemesis The Horus Heresy James Swallow 9781844168682 Books

Download As PDF : Nemesis The Horus Heresy James Swallow 9781844168682 Books

Nemesis The Horus Heresy James Swallow 9781844168682 Books

As the galaxy plunges into war, an all-star team of assassins is sent to kill the rebel Warmaster Horus.

The only problem is any fan of this series (and if you're not a fan already why are you starting with the 14th book in the series?) knows the ending of the Heresy was set in stone 20 years ago and it won't end with Horus dying at an assassin's hand.

So failure is really the only possible outcome. Which is fine as long as the author can deliver an interesting story.

But James Swallow really does not. The book opens with some interesting intrigue in the Imperial Palace including appearances by Rogal Dorn, Valdor, Malcador and the mysterious heads of the six assassin orders. The introductions to our all star assassin team are neat and give some glimpses into the culture of the Sol System.

It also spotlights Imperial assassins - not only the 4 found in the tabletop game but also introduces the Venenum (poison specialists) and Vanus (information warfare).

But once the team is assembled the story grinds to a halt. Swallow spends about 400 pages trying to build suspense for a plot we know must fail. And it's not even that great a plot, it boils down to let's shoot Horus in the face. Not something worth waiting 400 pages. Meanwhile on a completely different planet, we see a demonic assassin with his own plot.

Once the mission fails (this is not a spoiler, as I said we saw the end of the Horus over 20 years ago) things get a bit more interesting as the assassins face off against the demon. But really it's too little too late.

If you're following the series this volume is skipable, it adds little to the overall series and on it's own is not that interesting.


Tags : Nemesis (The Horus Heresy) [James Swallow] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. After Istvaan V, Horus declares outright war against the Imperium. In the shadows of the Emperor's Palace,James Swallow,Nemesis (The Horus Heresy),Black Library,1844168689

Nemesis The Horus Heresy James Swallow 9781844168682 Books Reviews

This is a solid book in the Horus Heresey series. Its been getting a little frustrating that so many books have come out and the Heresy has yet to progress timeline-wise beyond the battle of Istvaan V. This book does. I can't say the story is crucial to the overall Heresy, but I give kudos to the author for exploring the post-Istvaan galaxy where lines are being drawn and the the Imperium is fracturing. The assassins in the story do make for interesting characters and the fact that you care about them but they are absorbed and forgotten in the overall war that is breaking out is a sad reminder of what happens in war. But this is a story with some serious action. Who doesn't love snipers? And the Chaos demon in the story is a chilling view into the capabilities of Chaos. Overall a really solid story that could be a stand alone novel in its own right. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Very good book
Great entry in the HH.
Good Book
Nice read for 40K and Horus Heresy fans.
Although a fairly good book in itself, Nemesis fails to deliver anything meaningful to the Horus Heresy series.
This one is hard to review, I realy enjoyed the first three quarters of the book. It reads almost like a spy thriller set in the 40k universe and it even has a great murder mystery subplot. The characters are diverse and well written so that each feels unique. The only thing that keeps this from getting five stars are its two major plot issues. One, the whole thing unravels in the last part of the story, it just stops working. Two, you know how it ends even before you've read it, Horus can't die, and unfortunately they don't handle this part of the story very well, it just seems stupid how this is resolved
...With a few issues.

1. Excellent exposé on some hitherto not deeply touched wh40k stuff in the Officio Assassinorum.
2. The book's title may have originally been intended to be "Execution Force" - a rather stilted-sounding artificial term they probably should have removed from the book entirely. Remember all the book and movies you've read or watched where the title of the work absolutely has to be mentioned several times? Yeah, kind of like that, except they changed the title and forgot to take the references out and probably should have at least taken the gratuitous capitalization out. Unless you want to read it as comedy in a Dolph Lundgren voice "I ahm The Exekution Force."
3. While Mr. Swallow does an admirable to great job of character exposé and fleshing out people to make the reader actually care what happens to them, the use of the long-lost brother-sister trope is a bit over the top, though less discerning readers will no doubt enjoy that, in a soap opera type of way.
4. There are some minor plot holes, not uncommon in the Horus Heresy books, such as a blood-thirsty pure killing machine is an unstoppable and always switched-on killing machine that needs his own specific super-gravity prison one page and then is a reasonable, reasoning murderer the next page, capable of standing around and having arguments like an almost-civilized person.
5. Some spelling mistakes. Editors, get it together.
6. There's a bit of work involved on the part of the reader to keep track of which assassin is what "clade" and capable of what stuff. Might have been useful to have a small blurb or a sentence for each clade in the intro pages.

Who should read this
WH40K fluff lovers.
People who like well-written military sci-fi.
Horus Heresy-interested people.
Anyone who likes stories of futuristic assassins with a slice of daemons and witchcraft/psykers.
As the galaxy plunges into war, an all-star team of assassins is sent to kill the rebel Warmaster Horus.

The only problem is any fan of this series (and if you're not a fan already why are you starting with the 14th book in the series?) knows the ending of the Heresy was set in stone 20 years ago and it won't end with Horus dying at an assassin's hand.

So failure is really the only possible outcome. Which is fine as long as the author can deliver an interesting story.

But James Swallow really does not. The book opens with some interesting intrigue in the Imperial Palace including appearances by Rogal Dorn, Valdor, Malcador and the mysterious heads of the six assassin orders. The introductions to our all star assassin team are neat and give some glimpses into the culture of the Sol System.

It also spotlights Imperial assassins - not only the 4 found in the tabletop game but also introduces the Venenum (poison specialists) and Vanus (information warfare).

But once the team is assembled the story grinds to a halt. Swallow spends about 400 pages trying to build suspense for a plot we know must fail. And it's not even that great a plot, it boils down to let's shoot Horus in the face. Not something worth waiting 400 pages. Meanwhile on a completely different planet, we see a demonic assassin with his own plot.

Once the mission fails (this is not a spoiler, as I said we saw the end of the Horus over 20 years ago) things get a bit more interesting as the assassins face off against the demon. But really it's too little too late.

If you're following the series this volume is skipable, it adds little to the overall series and on it's own is not that interesting.