Starts well, trails off, and finished well. Could lose almost everything in the middle half. Was a grind. ( )

A great addition to the Horus saga, this one details the concurrent civil war on Mars raging between loyalists to the Emperor and the Horus motivated Dark Mechanicum. Adept Zeth rescues Dalia, a transcriber, from execution with the aim of using her to develop a machine that can allow mankind to reach unheard of levels of intelligence. Zeth, along with many others who make up the massive fabrication machine that Mars has evolved into for the Emperor's use, is unaware that elements exist who want to separate Mars from the Emperor's control. What follows is an exciting, well-written, slam-bang story that details the war that breaks out and the agonizing choices the sympathetic characters make as a result. I was very anxious to read this one due to how hard it was to obtain (rare book for some reason), and I wondered how the back-story of the Mechanicum figured into the galaxian wide war that the Horus series is developing into. These two major plot lines mesh together very well. ( )

The Horus Heresy series continues in Graham McNeill’s epic Mechanicum. Graham McNeill is one of the Black Library’s “dream team” writers. The other members of the trio include the hyper-prolific Dan Abnett and Ben Counter. The trio wrote the first three novels of the Horus Heresy series.

http://driftlessareareview.wordpress.com/2010/04/24/mechanicum-the-horus-heresy-... ( )

"Horus Heresy" originally started as a trilogy and then evolved into something completely different. I guess they came to conclusion at BL that such a important event in W40K should be explored in detail. As a direct consequence almost every book after the third book in the series takes place immediately before or during the Istvaan massacre leading to constant re-telling of events described in "Galaxy in Flames" novel.

That is the reason I was disappointed with "Descent of Angels" and "Battle for the Abbys" - it is just re-writing of events described in "Galaxy of Flames" and nothing new could be revealed (only difference being main protagonists and their relative distance form the Istvaan battleground) .

On the other hand "Legion" and "Mechanicum" (I am not so sure about "Fulgrim" since I haven't read it yet) do reveal some new elements - "Mechanicum" describes how did all technical knowledge [used to propel humanity among the stars] just disappear [for the second time - and for the looks of it never to be recovered again]. I agree that it feels somewhat "hurried" but does explain the way technology is treated in the later periods.

Story feels slightly rushed-up but again it [book] holds materiel for at least two decent-sized novels (I won't go into details here because I do not want to give away spoilers). Again it is a rather "depressing" story because all the facts (more or less) of how the story ends are known - and yet one cannot but feel for all the people that are trying to preserve humanity from falling back into savage ways while Emperor himself behaves in a very strange ways (as one reviewer said - one can just wander what are his goals).

Mars Mechanicum society is described as society divided into castes - servants (be it Servitors, Protectors or Skiitari), researchers (Adepts) and warriors (Knights fighting as pilots in BattleTech-like mechas and Titan Legions). Religion [again] plays a pivotal role in the events on Mars and is a main reason for clash with Emperors "science is key to everything" approach.

Again, as it was case with "Legion" novel I cannot but to be concerned about the humanity in W40K novel - after blowing itself back to the preindustrial society during the Age of Strife and being rebuilt by Emperor just to end up like a dogma-driven unforgiving, vengeful, xenophobic and blood-thirsty society .... Beginning from that fateful day on Istvaan W40K humanity is stalling in their progress and just moving down the slope to the faith unknown.

Horus Heresy was a pivotal moment in the W40K history and I guess story got somewhat "watered-down" by constant retelling of events and attempts to tell every (even the smallest) detail [I can understand this - there will always be fans that want to know everything].

"Mechanicum" story line is linked to Istvaan incident but it describes events on Mars not revealed before. This and portrayals of Knight and Titan war machines fighting among themselves are great. Story pace is fast and although story itself gets somewhat confusing at the end this is great addition to Horus Heresy series. Hopefully this means that following novels in the series will concentrate on the events after Istvaan massacre. ( )

(Review coming soon) ( )