Prospero Burns Book Review

57 here,

Now there are few things that when I finish them I just sit back in awe for a moment and just think over the very thing, about how great it was, how well it was done and so on and so forth. The first thing I remember doing that was after reading David Gemmel's Waylander and it just blew me away. Just the epic story telling, the tales of pure heroics, just all of it. That happened again to me recently. I put down Prospero Burns and I just said, "Wow, just..... Wow." Easily I can say this is one of the best books I have ever read and the best Black Library has ever published.

The story is the other half, the Space Wolves half, of Graham McNeill's A Thousand Sons and everything that has happened is put from the Wolves perspective of the fall of Prospero. The story as McNeill and Abnett said was a tragedy, about two loyal legions pitted against one another in a battle crafted to be by the Primordial Annihilator, Chaos. And it all climax's in a suitable and amazingly crafted fitting and epic ending.

The story, unlike past Horus Heresy novels does not follow one direct Astartes, I use Astartes not space marine because "space Marine" just sounds bland and generic to me, and not once are the Wolves or Sons called that. But no, it doesn't follow one Astartes (I.E. Horus Rising, A Thousand Sons, The First Herectic) but follows the life of Kasper Hawser, a pseudo remembrancer/skjald that was interested in following the Wolves, is one of the few that is allowed to and slowly turns from a Terran-born man to very much like and similar to the Wolves.

The story slowly and very discreetly turns from his adventures with the Wolves to a darker spy/manipulation plot where he and the Wolves learn of the treachery during the Council of Nikaea and the sack of Prospero. It's refreshing to hear a story not based on the Superhuman Astartes, but with a character readers can relate with. With him there's much more confusion in the heat of battle, many more secrets from him, and a whole other mystery that he slowly unravels.

I will say it's a tad confusing when you start reading it, but that can be said about most books, and slowly Abnett works the reader into the story, keeping information until the last moment and unraveling the events in a way that keeps the reader involved and interested until the dust settles and the last sentence ends in a work of near mastery.

Prospero Burns is a book that will blow many people away with its grand story telling, its mystery, epic characters, and its plot that has indeed shown why Prospero is an event worthy of telling in the Horus Heresy series. Easily, this is Dan Abentt's best work and the best book ever to be printed by the Black Library.

57's score: 5/5

Read it. You won't regret it.