Author: Graham McNeill
Series: The Horus Heresy #5
Publisher: Black Library
Released: July 31st, 2007
Received: Own
Warnings: Graphic content, cutting, mutilation, massacres

My trek through Warhammer 40K continues ever onward. Though admittedly, I am making slow progress in my read-through of the Horus Heresy. Fulgrim is the fifth novel in the series (I’m reading them based on the order listed on Goodreads, for those that are curious and/or want to follow along).

The Great Crusade seems ceaseless at times, and yet that is what the Primarchs were made for. Fulgrim, the Primarch of the Emperor’s Children, is willing to follow Horus’ lead, and yet he will likewise feel compelled to forge his own path. For he is the only brother to truly understand and appreciate the importance of art and beauty.

This novel covers Fulgrim’s fall from grace. Including the events leading up to (and during) the massacre on Isstvan V., only this time through the eyes of Fulgrim and his men.

“You fuss too much over making the “right” choice Gaius. All we need do is make a good choice, see it through, and accept the consequences.”

Wow. Five books in, and this series is still packing one hell of a punch. Then again, I think I will always be traumatized by the events of Isstvan V, so covering that event will always bring back heavy emotions for this reader.

Fulgrim’s fall went so much faster than I had ever anticipated. I already knew a little bit about his story before diving in, but the rumors I heard hadn’t even scratched the surface compared to what actually happened.

“Going from the pursuit of perfection in all things to ultimate depravity isn’t a journey anybody makes in one step, it’s a series of small ones – each one justifiable in its own isolated way. But after you’ve taken a hundred of those small steps, you’re a long way from who you were at the start.”

To say a lot happened would be the understatement of the century. It’d be like calling saying Horus is an average-sized man. It goes beyond incorrect into a whole new realm. The events in Fulgrim get well…graphic.

That truly is the best way to put it. If you have any understanding of what Fulgrim’s fall entails (and I don’t want to spoil it by outright saying it, just in case), then you already know full well why this one ends up gruesome, gory, and grotesque. It’s all in the nature of the fall itself.

For me, reading Fulgrim was like reading a bloody tragedy, but in slow motion. I could see where it was all going to lead. Yet I was incapable of stopping it, nor could I quite bring myself to look away.