I have finished this book, The Damnation of Pythos (TDOP), and I want to make it a point from the start that this is not a review per se. I rarely write reviews about novels I read, the last was Prospero Burns, and that was not the most positive of reviews. After reading this book though, I felt the need to comment about the scope of this book.
The problem is that it was written for the Horus Heresy (HH) series, but it does not add anything to the story, nor does it move the story forward in any way - big or small. Granted you are reading about the destroyed legions, but these survivors do not engage in the grander scheme of the HH story setting either.
The book is a completely stand alone story that leads absolutely nowhere. If anything it just continues to grind these poor devastated legions into the ground! I know this is the Grimdark universe; and bleak and hopelessness are staple themes, but please give these boys a break!
In fact, with a few changes, it could work as a horror/thriller novel set in the 40K universe - and to be honest that is what it should have been written for. I buy the paper back versions of the HH simply because I started buying the collection and decided that I liked the setting enough to continue to collect them. I am thankful I did not buy into the hardbound volumes - that would have been a waste of money.
I have also read some of the reviews on other sites, and everyone seems to agree with the point I have made. So this beckons the question - Why did the editors of BL not pick up on it too? Don't they see that this book is no more than pointless filler in the grand scheme of the HH series?
Well that is it. I have said my piece and call it a day. I just hope the next installment of the HH is nothing like TDOP, and that the story in the next book takes the series into some interesting undisclosed ground.
Farewell and good health,
NR