Product Description

This is the next novel in the ground-breaking, bestselling series that tells the story of the Horus Heresy - the civil war that nearly tore the human Imperium apart, ten thousand years ago. This novel explores the early history of the Dark Angels Legion and their Primarch Lion El'Johnson. When news of Horus' treachery reaches Caliban, the loyalties of this proud and mysterious Legion are tested to the limit, wth tragic consequences.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #25203 in Books
• Published on: 2007-09-29
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 416 pages

About the Author
Mitchel Scanlon cut his teeth as a comic book writer. He has also written a number of short stories, and the popular Imperial Guard novel Fifteen Hours. He lives in the sheep-infested vales of Derbyshire.

Customer Reviews

Descent of Angels
Descent of Angels is a step in a different direction for the HH series. Where the first five novels follow on from one another or occur during a similar time frame, d.o.a takes us back to a period at the very beginning of the Great Crusade.
The author does a fantastic job of conveying the fractures already inherent in the Dark Angels, even before they leave their home world. Luther who is central to the 'fall' is portrayed as a noble and great warrior, who is only overshadowed by his Primarch The Lion. The flashes of jealousy he feels towards his commander build up to an exciting conclusion where the author leaves much to our imaginations in that we do not know what words have been exchanged between the two protagonists to result in Luther's banishment from the Great Crusade.
The story of Luther however in not the main thread of the plot, though it will in the continuing story arc of future Dark Angels HH novels. D.O.A however focusses upon the experiences of Zahariel and Nemiel as they grow up on the death world of Calliban.
The descriptions of the almost medieval style of life before the comming of the Imperium are the high point of this novel. Though the novel lacks the break-neck action of the other novels in the series, it is by no means unexciting. The hunt for the Great Beasts is a great parallel to the Great Crusade itself, with many questions raised over the right for mankind to impose its will upon those unwilling to comply.
There is great sense of a gothic undertone throughout the novel that culminates with Zahariel's exchange with the Watchers in the Dark. The suggestion is made that Calliban itself may be corrupted by the Dark Powers before the Horus Heresy.
The sibling rivalry between the two main characters is central to the novels theme of loyalty and honour, as their friendship is pushed to the limit on more than one occasion. This works great as a comparison to the relationship between Lion El Jonson and Luther.
The novel may dissapoint some as we see no Dark Angel action till the final fifth of the novel. This section has obviously been edited to fit the all too short word limit the Black Libary seems to maintain on its fiction. It lacks the level of detail seen throughout the rest of novel and the conlusion (apart from the last sentence) was poor in that it felt more like a rushed summary of a story that the author had evidently ran out of words to build.
I found myself a little dissapointed with the portrayal of Lion El Jonson as though i think the author has done much to portay his military greatness, we see too little of one his key weaknesses - the paranoia (a result of growing up alone in the woods) that would result in him losing faith in Luther and his followers.
A great HH novel that may isolate some with its pace and direction. I just hope that Scanlon is allowed to make this into the trilogy it deserves to be, as few HH stories are as tragic as Luther's fall.

Where's the rest?
This would merit 4 stars if it hadn't stopped just when the story was about to get good.

The story starts before the Great Crusade truly begins and tells the tale of a young knight on Caliban. The background to the Dark Angels is interesting , although more could be said about the characters involved, and the writing style is perfectly adequate. However, as the story begins to pick up the pages start to run out; Just as it gets really intriguing it stops.

The next book in the series is about the Alpha Legion... so where does that leave the tale of the Dark Angels? Buy it for the sake of completeness, but expect to be frustrated.

The Black Library needs to take some risks and allow its writers to produce longer books. I'm not sure the WH40k audience is entirely teenage any more...

Poor
Compared to the rest of the HH series this is a vey disapointing effort. It had great potential and was interesting in that it showed an earlier and slightly different age of the Imperium but ultimately the book disapointed.
A strong story was built throughout the book with lots of intriguing plot lines worth following but the book ends abruptly with no real conclusion. Not a single one of the plotlines is clearly followed to any sort of outcome, never mind a decent one and the actual ending of the book has no reason or explanation to it, it just ends (I was tempted to check if some pages had been ripped out of my copy it was so poor and abrupt.)
However the most disapointing aspect of this book from a personal point of view is the poor character development. The series as a whole has introduced some brilliant characters, some you love some you hate, and all of them have been fully developed with interesting stories, sadly in this book it is not the case. Especially with Luther who you would expect to be the main protaginist. It states in the prolouge (written as if one of the Dark Angels is telling the story) that the truth about Luther would be revealed and that he didnt turn on the Lion because of jealousy as previously expected. Now i dont wish to spoil the ending for anyone here but the story, after making this bold statement, ignores Luther in 99% of the text and the remaining 1% goes on to prove that he will turn against the Lion because he is jealous of him (luther himself even says this.)
Im very sad that this book was so poor, I have always found the Dark Angels to be the most interesting chapters in the WH40K universe and its a pity the book has been spoilt. Maybe a follow up (written by a good author) could salvage the story and tie up the loose ends but ultimately I think this book is best consigned to the eye of terror and forgotten from the history of the imperium forever...