The Master of Mankind: The Horus Heresy, Book 41

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What I like most is this book explains the emperors ambition to conquer the universe. Not much special is introduced but you learn more about the custodian and their origin. Solid entry in the series and worth reading if you are into the Horus heresy series!!

Good read. Explains the motivation of the characters very well. And closes the gap in knowledge. Blood for the blood god!

Unification and Terra lore has become my new addiction and this book is delicious. I saw one negative review that said the book read like an encyclopedia and it's true, in part so if you're someone looking for information, data, lore this book is for you. The action scenes were good, a bit tedious in parts but that actually fit the scene and setting well. I urge you to read the footnotes once you finish, the author does an excellent job explaining how and why he wrote the Emperor like he did. As much as I want to disagree with him, and want some solid answers his logic is solid. Overall a very solid contribution to the Horus Heresy and some of the best Emps experience around.

I was thrilled when ADB got The Master of Mankind. And he pulled it off. The Emperor isn't in the book that much, but the scenes he is in matters.There were lots of things that were new to me. Possibly not you, but new to me.The Emperor as a child.The moment that His path was set.His real opinion of the Primarchs.The first sacrifice of the Pyskers to the Throne.An enemy that the Emperor can't destroy.The reason for how little the Custodians were doing in 40k.Throw in some neat characters, great fights and one heck of an ending, and you have a must read book for an HH fan.Oh and the Mechanicus. You wacky Red Priests of Mars, you.Well done, indeed.SPOILER!It's strongly implied that the demon possessed body of Ferrus Manus is in the Webway and gets incinerated by the Emperor. Not sure how I missed that one before.

I honestly don't know where to begin or how to summarize this book. It connects with what everyone knows about the present of 40k, but never felt known or mundane. I cannot think of a better reason to start the HH series than to read this novel.

This story was masterfully written. Full of action and battle, but replete with philosophy and a peek into the Master of Mankind.Another story that pulls you in, invests your imagination, then yanks your expectations like a two stroke starter...Fully recommend.

Awesome novel, great 40k lore. Loved every minute reading it. Wish it was another 1000 pages! Can’t wait to see what comes next

Wir erhalten einen Einblick in das Wesen des Imperators und erfahren, dass sein wahres Wesen machiavellistisch geprägt ist - wobei "Macht" sich in diesem Fall auf die Hegemonialstellung der gesamten Spezies Mensch bezieht.Zudem dürfen wir eine spannende Charakterisierung der Custodes erleben, die gegenüber der restlichen Menschheit so weit erhaben sind, dass sie kaum mit ihnen kommunizieren können - Diocletian und der kleine Junge sind ein wunderbares Beispiel.Alles in allem ein tolles Buch, das ich in meiner wenigen freien Zeit regelrecht verschlungen habe. Einzig und allein die Schlachtbeschreibungen haben mich etwas enttäuscht, denn bis auf ein paar Schlüsselszenen waren das gefühlt recht statische, monoton verfasste und wie nebenbei abgehandelte Angelegenheiten, ähnlich wenn man billige Truppen in Handyspielen verheizt. Deswegen nur 4 Sterne. Ansonsten aber wirklich gut.

ADB's Heresy novels, "The First Heretic", and "Betrayer" are great as they give a nice account from the perspective of some of the traitor legions namely the Word Bearers and World Eaters which makes them more interesting and kind of sympathetic. And now, "The Master of Mankind" went further in adding to the Heresy lore.ADB does a great job in showing the dire straits of the Custodes and Silent Sisterhood who have been trying to hold back the horde of demons that Magnus invited into the Imperial Webway. One can see very early on it is a losing battle and won't end well.The novel is mainly from the perspective of two Custodians: Diocletian and Ra with the latter being a psyker which is interesting. Diocletian gets reinforcements from Terra for the Webway War while Ra speaks with the Emperor for guidance. I'll now give a brief overview of the positives and negatives of the novel. Spoilers down below including a spoiler on the Mandalorian season 2.Let's get down to the positives:1. The big demon villain, "The End of Empires" seemed very threatening with how he savaged a lot of the Imperial Forces and nearly killed the Emperor.2. The fight sequences between the Imperials and demons really showed you the brutality of this "secret war" that has been waged for five years.3. We get some more Arkhan Land, the guy whose name is used for the Land Raiders used by the Astartes which is neat as well as how much he revers the Emperor as a genius.4. We are told part of the Emperor's plan of having humanity evolve into psykers which is enlightening.5. We are introduced to a new character, Zephon, a Blood Angel who seems to embody a form of hope in the dark times.6. We see the Emperor's true form without illusions as related from the point of view of a Sister of Silence: this was cool as we see more of the Emperor's humanity.7. The Emperor's humanity is shown here and there even though he comes across as a horrible person. On example is that he is stubborn in trying to salvage the Webway project. He even call Horus by name in the epilogue which suggests he has some affection towards the "tool" he calls "The Sixteenth" throughout the book.8. The Emperor's entrance into the fight is as awesome as Luke's entrance in the Mandalorian.9. The epilogue shows the Emperor being at a loss which is a nice moment of vulnerability that shows the man behind the "mask" of Emperor.And now the negatives:1. Being the genius he is, how come the Emperor did not have a workaround to Angron's Butcher's Nails?2. How is it that the Emperor got owned by a demonic entity? Like this is the guardian of the human species? Guess the Imperium was doomed either way...3. Ra did not deserve the fate of being Drach Nyen's jailor. That is just awful and I can't believe that was the Emperor's solution instead of permanently killing it with his sword.All in all, this was a very entertaining read.

This is a great title from Aaron Demski-Bowden (ADB) because it brings the story of the Horus Heresy forward and sheds light on a number of features that previous volumes have been hinting at and have not explained. It is also a great title because it largely focuses on the seemingly all-powerful Emperor of Mankind (hence the book’s title) and what he has been up to ever since he left the Great Crusade (hence the book’s subtitle: War in the webway). It also explains why the Emperor was so furious against his son the Primarch Magnus when he used his powers to contact him through the galaxy because of the disruptions and grievous consequences caused by this use.The webway is a huge parallel network build by a former civilisation – but you never get to know which of the “Ancients” built it – and used by the Eldars in past millennia that allows to travel through the galaxy without being exposed to the forces of Chaos. Hence the ability to master it is not only of huge strategic importance for the Emperor. It is also essential for the future of Mankind and it is to reopen ways through it, starting from below the Imperial Palace on Terra, that the Emperor left the Crusade.Unfortunately, the Forces of Chaos and the Traitor Marines manage to invade the webway. The consequence if half a decade of war in the webway, as the Imperial forces made up of the full imperial Custodes (some 10000 to begin with) and a strong contingent of loyal Martians fight a losing battle in their increasingly desperate attempts to contain them and prevent them from reaching the Palace from an unexpected direction.Regarding characterisation, the personality of the Emperor is probably the most interesting and the most original. It is also the character about which readers wanted to learn the most. ADB deals with this in interesting ways, with the story going back and forth through a number of flash-back scenes. Some illustrate the Emperor’s younger years and show him busy overpowering the other warlords of Terra with his Thunder-Warriors. They show him and his followers believing in certain ideals and in their cause, at the time. The book also displays great characterisation when presenting some of the Custodes officers (Diocletian and Ra Endymion in particular) although I was a bit surprised not to see more of their Captain-General, one Constantin Valdor, in the book.Also interesting is the picture that is drawn of the complex relations between the Emperor and the Mechanicum, or rather with the faction of it that has stayed on the Emperor’s side and seeks, above everything else, to reconquer Mars. What is interesting here is that the relations are more of a partnership than anything else, with at least some of the Mechanicum forces remaining loyal and following the Emperor’s orders only as long as this does not conflict with their other priorities. A number of mechanical creatures - including a few battles scenes featuring Titans – will also not doubt please other readers as much as I liked them.Then, of course, there are the enemy forces – mostly Chaos monsters and daemons coming in all sorts of forms and guise – and the endless battling against them. I was initially a bit taken back here, because such endless battling can sometimes (although not in this book) become a bit tedious and a poor substitute for a weak plot. In this book however, the quite deliberate impression is that of an unstoppable tide that the Imperial forces and the Emperor himself fight every step of the way and struggle desperately to turn. The price paid for this is tremendous: it is, beyond the huge casualties, the “death of a dream”, to paraphrase the title of the book’s last section. Five stars for a great title.

It's a very good book. Like just about every other 40k fan, I was eager to read some background on the Emperor. The sections of the book he features in are well done and depict scenes that show his lines of thinking that shape the setting as we know it. Probably like many 40k fans, I would have liked to see more of these, but there is just enough to inform yet keep enough mystery alive and for the novel to "earn" it's title. There are many characters in the book the reader maybe familiar with , my favourite was a certain Mr. A. Land - he was a joy to read and his sections in the novel were my highlight of this book. The Custodes feature heavily in the book, they are very well done and you get a great sense of what these guys are up against. The Mechanicum also feature heavily, they are well done but after a few pages the reader can pretty much guess how their story is going to pan out.The battle in the web way is not over -done, there are some great scenes, the reader can get a clear picture of what is going on and the epic scale of the conflict. The main villain of the piece seems to grow in strength as the carnage increases around it, it is hugely powerful and has many abilities that do seem a little over the top ,but this is 30k after all , and it builds up nicely to the finally confrontation with the Emperor. The Emperor does indeed struggle to deal with his foe, I actually quite liked this, considering it's nature, it's origin and the reason for it's existence it could be argued that the Emperor has been fighting against it all his life. The big bad also has a very cool name that I'm sure many 40k fans will recognise and appreciate. The ending does seem a little rushed and a bit of a "cop out" to me personally, but I'm quite fussy when it comes to book endings.I rate this book 4, maybe 4 1/2 stars. It moves the series forward, it's certainly one of the better books in the series, written by one of the better writers in my opinion. A very good read.

I hesitated to praise this book. It is after all a tie-in tome for a tabletop wargame. (Gushing reviews might inspire mockery and little else.) Nevertheless, I overcame my snobbery. Mr. Dembski-Bowden has written the most difficult book of the Horus Heresy. 'Master' is an engaging insight into one of the most mysterious characters in 40K.Because it is based on a wargame, the book contains a number of scenes in which psychotic warriors on all sides engage in total conflict. Machines the size of cities stomp on creatures from parallel dimensions. Lines between magic and technology are frankly indistinct. So far, so normal. Forget about trying to use reason and prepare yourself for a head-spin.Most impressive are the descriptions of daemons from the Warp. 'Master' explains how creatures without corporeal form can manifest in the material world. Characters in the novel fight a monster called 'End of Empires', a daemon borne of the first human murder. Deftly, Mr. Dembski-Bowden takes the monster from the conceptual to the concrete with nary a flutter.What about the eponymous hero? Fans will be pleased to know that the God-Emperor of Man remains an enigmatic presence. There is enough detail about the Emperor's life to satisfy curiosity and to whet the appetite for more. No doubt, other Heresy authors will wade in with their accounts. My hope is that Mr. Dembski-Bowden will be given another shot.