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| Horus Heresy: Battle for the Abyss (Horus Heresy) | 
 enlarge | Author: Ben Counter
Publisher: Games Workshop
Category: Book
List Price: $7.99
Buy New: $4.28
You Save: $3.71 (46%)
New (23) Used (6) from $4.28
Avg. Customer Rating:  23 reviews
Sales Rank: 2925
Media: Mass Market Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 416
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 6.7 x 4.1 x 1.4
ISBN: 1844165493
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.92
EAN: 9781844165490
ASIN: 1844165493
Publication Date: July 29, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Brand New Book! Delivered direct from our US warehouse in 3-6 days (Expedited) or 10-14 days (Standard). Expedited shipping recommended for speedy delivery. Over 1 million satisfied customers.
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Product Description
Horus sends the Worldbearer space marines to the planet Calth, where they are to ambush the loyalist Ultramarines. In addition to the main fleet, Horus sends a new doomsday battleship for use againsy the Ultramarines home world of Ultramar. A small strike force travels space and the warp to delay or destroy the doomsday ship to save the Ultramarines.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 18 more reviews...
An OK side story in the Heresy August 3, 2008
5 out of 6 found this review helpful
A lot of readers of the Horus Heresy series complained about the fact that the previous two books (Descent of Angels and Legion) did not advance the epic where it left off at the end of Fulgrim.
If you felt that way, this book isn't going to help that at all.
I personally enjoyed the previous two books, (especially Legion) because they reveal a lot of things about the the Astartes Chapters they dealt with, their Primarchs, histories and various plots leading up to the Heresy. Battle for the Abyss has almost nothing like that at all.
It's plot is interesting enough and the book itself is nicely written, but it doesn't feel like a dramatic part of the Horus Heresy epic. Since the story mostly only involves relatively low ranking Astartes, it could very easily have been made into a regular "40K" novel with a few tweaks to the characters (basically by making the Chaos guys more "Chaotic").
If you are following the Horus Heresy series, you are probably going to want to end up reading it no matter what...just lower the expectations for new revelations/Heresy story advancement and enjoy some decent Space Marine action.
 Does he even want characters in this book? August 4, 2008
5 out of 10 found this review helpful
I'm about 74 pages into this, and I am really starting to get annoyed by the "3 paragraphs of over the top description of what we see, 1 short sentence by random character", then a few more paragraphs of embellished scene description, with a line of dialogue, etc etc.
I haven't really gotten attached to ANY of the characters yet, since they basically throw in a cliched sentence every now and then.
And what is UP with the astropaths? Geesh, it's like all those Next Generation epidosed where the damn control console electrocutes half the bridge crew for no good reason, ever hear of CIRCUIT BREAKERS?!
It just seems that everytime we get astral characters talking long distance, it just about takes out the ship, base, army that is nearby. You'd think they would have ironed out the wrinkles by now or worked out some way of mitigating the astropocalypses these guys start every time ET phones home from the warp.
Hopefully I'll get used to the style or the style will mellow out a little and give me more character interaction other than trite dialogue about honoring your brother astartes, etc.
sux August 3, 2008
4 out of 6 found this review helpful
Again just like the previous 2 books "Legion" and "The descent of angels". This book would have been an ok side story. But following the Horus Heresy like I thought the book series was doing, fails miserably. It was my impression that this book would detail the battle of Calth but it barely mentions it. I hope and pray that the series gets back on track. I've bought 3 books in a row and I can't take them back which is a total rip off. My advice is to not buy this book if like me you want the Horus heresy story to unfold. Because in this book you get no such story. I'm an avid reader of many books and I actually caught my self skipping pages, it was so boring. I expected more from Ben Counter. I'm going to leave a review on the black library page which you'll never see because they don't let bad reviews in. They need to pick up the story and take us along like we all wanted. Scrub these side stories and give us THE EPIC that the story truly is.
 Another Characterless Heresy Novel August 24, 2008
4 out of 7 found this review helpful
One of the most disappointing things about the majority of novels from the Black Library is the avoidance of anything controversial - from ethical dilemmas, to gender issues and more. Battle for the Abyss is no different and is exactly as dull. Where authors like Abnett in his incredible Eisenhorn and Ghost series was able to discuss real issues that might tear the Imperium apart in the 41st century, this novel steers clear and makes the Ultramarine protagonists and the Word Bearer antagonists pointless cutout props with no moral depth.
But that isn't the only disappointment. There isn't a single appearance by a Primarch. The council of Nikeas is mentioned many times but without details about what actually happened. The warp begins to play a much more central role in the plot from both the Word Bearer side and from the Thousand Sons - all with zero explanation of how their warpcraft became so proficient (one marine is basically a Farseer!). The crowning failure however is that the book ends with the smoking hulk of the Abyss drifting toward the Ultramarine fleet around Macragge - after an absurd penetration mission that we're somehow supposed to believe and without showing us the reaction on the faces of Gulliman when he realizes what just unfolded before his very eyes.
Early Heresy books, dealing with the stunning Primarchs and their real dilemmas as they participated in the Great Crusade were gripping ("I was there the day Horus Fell"). The Abyss and Descent of Angels (excepting the appearance of the Emperor) as written are unimportant place-holders in the unfolding drama that, given it's 10,000+ year wake, should be a little more dramatic.
 Like "Hunt for the Bismark" in Warhammer 40,000 Universe August 8, 2008
2 out of 6 found this review helpful
I have been reading all of the Horus Heresy books in sequence. I thought the series stared great, but that the last two books (Descent of Angels and Legion) lacked some of the direction that made the previous books so exceptional. (Although I understand their inclusion in the series)
Battle for the Abyss brought back some of the action and writing that made the previous books so fantastic. Additionally, while Descent of Angels and Legion took place right before the events of the Horus Heresy, this book takes place after the events of the previous books, advancing the timeline.
The title refers to the name of the Word Bearer super battleship "Furious Abyss". This ship is going to be used in a crushing blow against the Ultramarines. The book covers the story of a small group of space marines, and imperials, who are hunting and trying to stop the "Furious Abyss" in it's mission of destruction.
The small group of space marines is made up from several different legions including Ultramarines, Space Wolf, World Eaters and Thousand Sons. If you have been following the Horus Heresy history, you will know that World Eaters and Thousand Sons were traitor legions, so including them in this book not only gives you a great deal of insight into their legions, but also adds a bit of suspense to see if they are loyalists or traitors.
Although the book has many characters, the author does a good job of keeping the reader from getting too confused between one character and the next. He also does a good job of giving us enough insight into each character so that you have sympathy for the character without having to read fifty or a hundred pages about the character's background. The only thing I thought was amusing was that the author does alot of "Red Shirting" (Star Trek term) of some characters. If you see a character given a name beyond the first 100 pages of the book, you can be assured that the character will be dead within the next five paragraphs.
Overally, I thought this book put the excitement back into the series that the last two books lacked. I would highly recommend it.
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