Short Book Review: Prospero Burns

Dan Abnett, Prospero Burns: the wolves unleashed. Nottingham, UK: Black Library, 2014. 

Genre: science fiction

Series: Horus Heresy, Vol. 15

Format: e-book

Source: I own this one 

 

This is a short note to remember that I read this book, and it was not very good. To be honest, this is not the author's best work, and I have read some of his other books. This novel is the other point of view in the events presented in the previous novel in the series A Thousand Sons (link to my review).

In a nutshell, the Thousand Sons, the 14th Space Marines Legion, are deemed heretical by the Emperor of Mankind for their use of psykers and sorcery. They decide to retreat to their home world of Prospero and keep doing what they are doing. When Magnus the Red, their primarch, has a vision of Horus' treachery, the Emperor ignores it and declares them heretical, sending the Space Wolves Space Marines to bring them to account. The previous novel offers the perspective of events from the view of Magnus and the Thousand Sons. It is basically the tragedy of their fall to chaos. The later novel looks at those events from the view of the Space Wolves, or so we readers are led to believe. 

A big part of Prospero Burns deals with one of the Space Wolves skjalds, or storyteller, Hawser. The novel starts with some flashbacks, but it is not quite clear what exactly is happening right away, so we spend a bit of time just deciphering what is going on, and how is it significant to the larger plot. It is not until the second part of the novel we get to the main events, which is why most of us picked up the book. As if that was not enough, Hawser is not all he seems to be, there is some mental manipulation going on, and some other machinations. Usually elements of intrigue can be interesting in these novels, but here a lot of it is somewhat convoluted, a bit too complex, and not always clear. Plus the novels focuses excessively on Hawser. 

At the end of the day, it also may help readers if you read A Thousand Sons before reading this one. In theory, the two books for a duology. In practical terms, you can pretty much skip Prospero Burns and keep reading the rest of the series. I do note in my review that A Thousand Sons is not that good either, but it is at least coherent. The big fault in that novel is that nothing really happens in it. A big part of is it a few Space Marines complaining they are bored waiting for their Primarch. But that is still better than Prospero Burns. If you have to pick one novel to get this part of the larger Horus Heresy story, pick A Thousand Sons if you must. I wish I had known that before I picked Prospero Burns up, but at least I can say I got through it. As for Abnett, he has much better books in the Horus Heresy and Warhammer 40,000, go find those instead. 

1 out of 5 stars (barely).  

 

This book qualifies for the following 2025 Reading Challenge: