Book Review: The Outcast Dead

Graham McNeill, The Outcast Dead. Nottingham, UK: Black Library, 2011.  ISBN: 9781849700863.

Genre: Science Fiction

Series: Horus Heresy, Book 17

Format: e-book

Source: I own this one  

 

To be honest, I was already feeling lukewarm about this novel, but since I am reading through the series, I picked it up. It just did not really grab me, and it felt like a drag to read. 

Astropath Kai Zulane is sent back to Terra to rehabilitate from trauma. He arrives at the City of Sight, basically the headquarters of the Astra Telepathica. The Imperium may officially dislike psykers, but they sure depend on them and use them regularly for various things including space communications and navigation. The Astra Telepathica is a faction we rarely read about, and we are not going to get much about them in this book either. 

Kai is just not an interesting character, and to be honest I did not care for him much. I did not care that much for the other characters either nor their machinations. A lot is going as they are just finding out about Horus's betrayal. 

The other big event is the imperial arrest of the Crusader Host, an honor guard composed of members of all the 18 Space Marine legions. Since some of them of legions now considered traitors, they just arrest the whole group to be sure. A small group of them manages to escape, and they take Kai with them since he has a crucial secret in his mind. 

The novel just does not feel coherent. Also, as I mentioned, it is just not that interesting. The parts about the commoners eeking out a living around the imperial palace are not that much better either. Overall it's a cast of characters I found that I did not care for them. One ironic note, if you will, is that Roxanne reads history books that tell of poverty and inequality in the Old Earth (i.e. our time now); her tutors tell her this is all in the past, but given the slums now she can see nothing has really changed. 

This one that folks can skip and not miss much. Completists will likely read it anyway, so keep the expectations low. I would not recommend this. 

On a side note, McNeill's record for me in Horus Heresy books is mixed. I liked Mechanicum and Fulgrim well enough, but I did not care for Thousand Sons nor this book. (Links go to my reviews.) Still, I will be picking up the next book in the series down the road: Deliverance Lost. 

 

1 out of 5 stars.  

 

Book qualifies for the following 2026 Reading Challenge: