The Unremembered Empire: A Light in the Darkness Author: Visit Amazon's Dan Abnett Page | Language: English | ISBN:
1849705712 | Format: EPUB
The Unremembered Empire: A Light in the Darkness Description
- Hardcover
- Publisher: Black Library (2013)
- ISBN-10: 1849705712
- ISBN-13: 978-1849705714
Here Abnett takes on a very interesting concept, a missing year in the Horus Heresy timeline where he had full authority to create a series of events that would, by the time of the later Imperium, be deliberately omitted. That the events would take place on the Ultramarines homeworld of Macragge and feature Guilliman presented Abnett with an opportunity to redress the rather lacklustre portrayal of both the Ultramarines Chapter and its Primarch in his Know No Fear novel.
The book starts well with an unnerving and ghostly series of events that are in the cinematic style of portrayal at which Abnett excels. To review this book further is to reveal many spoilers so I will conclude with a non-spoiler review in the next two paragraphs and everything below those two paragraphs should be avoided for those who do not wish to know too much.
In non-spoiler summary the plot quickly relies on a xeno-created plot device that too conveniently draws the major protagonists together (with almost no concern about the use of a xeno-device). Guilliman is given more depth here but never escapes the impression created in Know No Fear that his military expertise is more theoretical than actual (he struggles in one battle, is outclassed in another and also requires vital defensive strategy input from a Space Marine of a different chapter). We do at least see some of his emotional past which makes him more well rounded, his respect for Konor and for the surrogate mother figure who still remains. We also see the insight behind Guilliman's perception that a Codex is required to create uniformity across the loyalist Chapters. It is a shame that Abnett makes such a minimal effort of making the iconic Macragge anything other than a plain vanilla Greek Revival city.
This book is based on an interesting premise - what does the Empire's most imperial primach do when his personal empire is cut off from the rest of the galaxy, possibly for a very, very long time? Unfortunately, the book doesn't live up to the title, nor the author's previous works.
In the plethora of problems with this book, four are major and impossible to ignore. The editing is probably the worst; dialogue varies in style from point to point in the book, pacing stumbles, and plot lines are utterly confused. I have a mental picture of large scissors being used to cut up Abnett's work into bits and pieces, and those pieces taped back together by the editors without any real concern over how fractured the narrative had become.
The primarchs are arguably as bad as the editing. They're exceptionally bland and uninspiring, essentially regular Space Marines who just so happen to be in charge of legions. The sense of wonder and awe the primarchs are said to cause in the early books is utterly replaced by a ho-hum aspect (one being turned into Primarch Hamburger by an unaugmented human in one of the more jaw-droppingly bad sections of the book - but not to worry, his method of revival throughout the book is seemingly an homage to Three Stooges slapstick humour). Guilliman himself has lost the stoic warrior-strategist character from Know No Fear, and is turned into a generic Greek philosopher-king analogue who doesn't do the philosophy bit very well at all; as disappointing as the primarchs were in this book in general, the neutering of Guilliman's character was perhaps the most disappointing. It's hard to reconcile the Guilliman of this book with the Guilliman who founded the Codex Astartes and kept the Imperium together following the end of the Horus Heresy.
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