The Master of Mankind (Volume 41) (The Horus Heresy) [Paperback] Dembski-Bowden, Aaron

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If you are looking for Black Library fiction that breaks the mould of hulking warriors in impossibly oversized armour, over the top military battles against nightmarish, 80s horror movie adversaries, and abject nihilism at every corner, you will be disappointed.

While Ra is leading the attacks directly, Diocletian, another high-ranking Custodian, and Kaeria, a high-ranking Sister of Silence, are sent to Terra's surface to recruit valuable assets to the war effort. For example, the Emperor, in this book, refers to the primarchs almost exclusively by their numbers. As the Emperor grew older His powers began to manifest themselves and become more potent and He gradually remembered His thousands of past lives, adding all of their knowledge and experience to His own.

He has sat immobile, His body slowly crumbling, within the Golden Throne of Terra for over 10,000 standard years. The argument is only occurring between a few people on Bolter and Chainsword, but the gist is that there are fans who believe that the entire 40k setting is all about a nihilistic struggle against Chaos' inevitable victory.

Nurgle was the third to awake and plagues swept across Old Earth's continents claiming many souls for the Lord of Decay. Much as I do genuinely praise the effort, forethought and work put into such a dynamic story, this failing above all else ultimately leaves an unsatisfying quality to the tale.

So, while Seventh Retribution (and many Ben Counter stories, for that matter) would deal with something which could reshape the setting itself by introducing something wholly new or twisting an old idea; Soul Hunter works to make itself stand out thanks to character dynamics, drama and a complex web of personal character arcs. The man who would later become known as the Emperor of Mankind first appears in Imperial records as just one of the many warlords struggling for control of Terra during the later part of the Age of Strife in the early 29th Millennium. Trapped within His prison of flesh, only the Emperor's mind is allowed to wander free within the Immaterium, still seeking to protect and guide Humanity to an increasingly distant better future.