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62 of 62 persons found the following review helpful.
Brilliant.
By John T. Miller IV
Eisenhorn, as the assembled works are now known is the rather perchance best of Dan Abnett’s work. Originally published as three distinguished paper-back novels named Xenos, Malleus, and Hereticus this new edition includes the unabridged contents of those three books as well as two “arching” short stories of in regards to twenty pages that connect books one to two and two to three. This is an amazingly opportunity.
Covering a amount of time of closely three hundred years, Eisenhorn is an epic tale of the far distant future of humanity. The galaxy has been colonized by mankind and is unified together in one glorious and dark Imperium that spans almost forty-percent of the galaxy, untold trillions of humane beings disseminate all over thousands and thousands of worlds struggle for survival as the Imperium’s tenuous hold on it is territory and it is way of life is threatened from without and within by forces both malevolent and ancient. Principle among these oppositions are the insidious contaminate of warp-spawned daemons and their corrosive chaos that corrupts the very soul of and body humanity, aliens who range from disdainfully arrogant to primordially evil, and the threat of insurrection from within the ranks of humanity itself.
Set in the Helican Sub-sector, Scarus Sector, Segmentum Obscurus, but a little part of the massive Imperium, Eisenhorn will sweep you away throughout a region of the galaxy which spans closely two dozen worlds. Named for the central protagonist of the novels, Gregor Eisenhorn, this tale follows his life of as Imperial Inquisitor, a man who has the power to devastate worlds and commandeer nearly any of the forces of humanity in his pursuit of the purification of the humane race and the eradication of the mutant, the alien and the heretic. It is a tale with more in mutual with the epic poems of the Norse and Greeks than with innovative science fiction for not only does it cover matters military but it has more than it is percentage of, intrigue, desperation, a tremendous cast of characters, poignant moments of drama, betrayal, hopeless odds, sacrifice and crazy hope.
Abnett’s setting and visuals closely leap out of the page and his characterization and storytelling is not only the best in the Black Library but one of the best in genre. Part Tom Clancy and portion Robert Jordon, Abnett’s tale of Gregor Eisenhorn from age 30 to closely three hundred is a splendid experience both sinister and sublime. You will not be disappointed.
25 of 25 people found the following review helpful.
Abnett’s Best
By Christopher Allen
Much as we love it is products, Games Workshop and it is related entities (Forge World, Fanatic Press, et al) are not best known for ‘value pricing.’ One such, however, the Black Library, has done it is readers a immense service–and
done it for a terrific price, as well.
Dan Abnett is almost universally lauded as the best of GW’s stable of writers exploring the grim, dark future of it is Warhammer 40,000 universe. While his ‘Gaunt’s Ghosts’ series is in all probability his most popular, and it is gritty,
in-the-trenches, on-the-front-lines view of the 40Kverse appeals to readers of both SF and military fiction, his three volume series in regards to Inquisitor Gregor Eisenhorn and the goings-on within the vast Imperium of Man behind those front lines is arguably his best…so much so that the three paperbacks which made up the series–’Xenos,’ ‘Malleus’ and ‘Hereticus’ (named for three major branches, or
Ordos, of the investigatorial Imperial Inquisition which Eisenhorn serves)–quickly sold out and became secondary market collectibles.
Readers have clamoured for an omnibus edition of the three under one cover–and the Black Library has now delivered that, with ‘Eisenhorn.’ They’ve added to the collection, however, by including an introduction from Abnett outlining the origins of the project, as well as two interstitial short stories other than as supposed or expected available only in old issues of the much-missed GW fiction magazine ‘Inferno!’ They’ve topped it with a terrific cover painting of Eisenhorn by Clint
Langley (after Adrian Smith’s original); and then they’ve priced the whole package for little more than a third of what the primary novels alone cost, new.
This is a tremendous series: if you are a fan of action/adventure, space opera, borderline superheroics, or military fiction (particularly of the ‘small band of specialists on a mission’ subgenre), you are going to find as much to
enjoy as the dark science fiction reader the book is ostensibly purposed at…and if you’ve an interest in any corner of GW’s richly-detailed 40K universe, you will not get a better ‘feel’ for it than you will here. Abnett draws his
characters richly and emotionally, conjures a plot around them over the course of the three novels filled with wondrous little moments and an occasional
jaw-dropping sequence (the beginning of ‘Hereticus’ is so good, you will wonder how it is climax may ever start out to equivalent it), but–probably best of all–never loses sight of the series’ real star: the distinctive universe of GW’s 41st millennium,
which he never fails to find an probability to detail and explore, always convincingly.
The three books of the ‘Eisenhorn’ trilogy are my bestloved 40K novels therefore far. Having them beneath one cover is a real ‘fanboy’ delight, a pleasure increased by the bonuses the Black Library has thoughtfully included. And the price
point means I will be competent to introduce the Warhammer 40K universe to more than a few friends who do not play the games, but whom I recognise will take pleasure in these stories.
Well-done, GW. Of course, a fixed edition of the collection in hardcover would still be even nicer….
Christopher Allen
+++
19 of 20 people found the following review helpful.
Best of GW’s Authors
By Sean B. Schoonmaker
This compilation includes the novels: Xenos, Malleus and Hereticus. The trilogy chronicles the progress of Gregor Eisenhorn from “puritain” to “radical,” along with his trusted staff, one of whom – Ravenor – has spawned his own series.
The characters are well devised and engrossing, the “sets” immersive to the reader, and the plot keeps you turning the pages (and wishing for more). Abnett brings out the best in the Warhammer 40K canonical background, capturing the dark essence of the Inquisition in this case, as he also captured the core of the Imperial Guard in the Gaunt’s Ghosts series.
In short, this is one of the “essential library” for any 40K fan, and makes for a good read even if you don’t fit into that category.
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