Fulgrim

Descent into madness

Fulgrim is a little different from most Heresy books in that its as much a horror story as it is a tragedy. Sometimes psychological, sometimes downright uncomfortable it's a far cry from the relatively straightforward morality of 40k novels. Mostly Fulgrim is the slow-burning tale of a cultured, urbane man of great learning whose love of perfection proves to be not only his own undoing but that of his Legion.

The book is quite a long one, allowing the reader to savour the full measure of the tragedy. McNeill has given the stories the full depth and context needed to follow the corruption of the Legion as a whole rather than relying on clumsy shortcuts. There's a few nods to King's Needful Things and some parts of False Gods find their way into the canvas but as a whole Fulgrim is as vast, decadent and ultimately disturbing as the artworks of the Primarch himself.

David Timson as narrator is an excellent choice. Here his tones work perfectly, capturing the honeyed, menacing tones of the Primarch and the arrogance of his Astartes. Fulgrim sounds like Edward Fox and Vespasian - Jack Hawkins. Nobody else could have pulled that off

9 of 9 people found this review helpful

Ties in nicely

Parts of the book were a bit slow, others fantastic. Importantly, it ties in nicely with prior books and the ending is great.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Over before I knew it !

Probably my favourite of the series so far, cracking listen and narrator was top notch as always. Now onto Fulgrim !

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Amazing

fantastic instalment in an incredible series. Excellent performance. A must read for any emperor's children fans

3 of 4 people found this review helpful

Good Story, Frustrating Narration

This is an excellent chapter in an ongoing series, and I really did enjoy revisiting it in audio format.

Unfortunately, the narrator doesn’t seem to take cues from the text as to tone or character. So many bold leaders sound like nasal cowards, and all of the women sound like sit-com harridans, parodies of what they could be. It really is disappointing - a good narrator would have made this story come to life so much more effectively.

Perfect.

A book as perfect as the 3rd legion would desire, thought this one of the better books in the series so far. The in depth way you can practically see in to Fulgrim's mind helps you understand a lot better why some of the things happening happen so to speak.

Oh boy... Oh BOY!

At first I will admit I was hesitant towards David Timson's voice at first, having been used to hear the deep, gravelly tones of Jonathan Keeble and Toby Longwood. Yet, as the story progressed, I don't think I could have imagined a more... perfect voice for the book! Timson brings so much emotion to his voices, every character so unique and alive it is genuinely heart breaking in some moments thanks to Timson's performance.

McNeill captures the essence of a forgotten god

I have to say, at the start of this book I had my doubts. I find McNeill at this stage of his career to have quite a poor vocabulary, and who's writing from a technical perspective feels amateur.

However, I have to admit his storytelling ability is good. Fulgrim is a Primarch I knew absolutely nothing about, and Slaanesh, even as an Eldar player myself, is a Chaos god that is often ignored by Games Workshop.
I won't say too much, but if you're familiar with the Emperors Children, I expected some of the models you see on the table top to be awkward/ridiculous to describe seriously, but McNeill really captures the essence of the Dark Prince, excess, and how it effects those it comes into contact with. Honestly, I was so impressed and swept up in the story. I think he did an incredible job of bringing one of the more difficult to explain chaos gods to life.

I imagine some people will find this book slow. There is very little action at all, and it concentrated in the last couple of hours. But if you have been invested in the characters and development of the universe of these books you should enjoy this.

Overall a very unique and brilliantly executed novel.

Great book

loved it, however I'm not as keen on the reader just personal preference like, I enjoyed the book though really good listen

Unlikable characters with a story

Although the narrator does a fantastic job, the story doesn't pick up until Isstvan 3.
I admit I struggled with the story, none of the characters -bar Tarvitz and Lucian with whom I already liked- did much for me. It was only when the story got to Isstvan 3 and where the 3rd book left off that I started to get into it properly. The end of this book is quite good having said all that.