Review: The Solar War

By John French

The Solar War is the first book in the Siege of Terra series of the Horus Heresy, which is finally in its last act.

This book has the purpose of introducing us to the Siege of Terra. Arguably, it is a book more of exposition than events: it needs to set up the rest of the books. It also needs to bring characters, and their various threads from the past together. This is the final swansong of a series over sixty books long.

The Solar War is right before the attack on Terra. The traitor forces are beginning to engage the outer defences of the homeworld, and a big finale is set to take place. So how well does this book start off the siege of terra series?

Fan Fiction

The story of this book features many characters fans of the series will love. The story both works well on its own merit, with a reasonable balance between action, scene setting and moving things forward. The pacing keeps you engaged and excited without getting bogged down, although, if anything, it probably verges on a bit too concise for certain scenes, although you can appreciate that many characters need to be mentioned due to its role in setting up the other Siege of Terra books.

Only the beginning

John French as an author is one of the strongest in terms of imagery. His verbiage, his imagination and writing style all join well for evocative settings. When he talks of more dystopian or mythical aspects, such as the Warp, he does it far more effectively than other writers. This is when he shines at his best.

Sometimes I wish he would spend more time doing the boring stuff though, spending time on the characters to work with them. Sometimes his books jump around from scene to scene, and I don’t always feel events are fleshed out. But this book perhaps suits his style: there is a large cast of characters to mention, to state where they are during the Solar War, what their situation is. We also need to get into some of the action since the battle for Terra is beginning.

French does a good job of keeping the pace going with action and building momentum. The book does jump around a lot, but it is done well, capturing many different scenes and settings. Some of the action scenes were very brief and I did wonder if a little more time would have helped increase the tension.

Brotherly Love

This book moves from many characters, from the primarchs, Dorn, Sanguinius the Khan, humans like Mersadie Oliton, human ship crews, Horus, Abaddon and more. Some characters have varying levels of involvement, but the book has a tricky balance between including characters and settings and exploring them more deeply. More time is spent on Mersadie Oliton or Abaddon for example.

Some of the interactions are interesting – Abaddon and Zardu Layak made for an interesting pairing, clashing but being forced together. The Thousand Sons and Word Bearers working together was dealt with briefly but had a lot of potential. I found myself wishing more time was spent on their interaction. It highlights a challenge of this book though, with so many different threads to begin together, it can be difficult to devote appropriate time to every scene and character.

I particularly enjoyed the plot with Mersadie Oliton and although I don’t want to give spoilers, let’s just say it made the book worth reading. Definitely the highlight of the book for me.

Readability

The book is probably not great if you have not had prior knowledge of Warhammer 40k or the Horus Heresy. Much of the significance of the characters depends a lot on their prior stories: in fact, many of the best bits are reliant on this.

There is, as usual 40k specific terminology that people might not be familiar with. But if you’re familiar with the Horus Heresy this is a reasonably okay start point if you didn’t read the 54 or so horus heresy books before it. Go watch my video on starting point for the Horus Heresy if you want discussion of this.

Originality and whether it’s worth your time

This book is worth your time if you have some knowledge of the Horus Heresy, but I do feel some of the impact would be lost if you did not. For 30k and 40k fans, many will be buying anyway, but it was a read that hurtles along at a good pace and ended strongly. It’s an exciting one for sure.

Final Score

John French had a challenging task with this book. The plot with Mersadie Olton and Abaddon’s sections stood out in particular and were very memorable, but the whole book sets up well for the rest of the series and I found myself very engaged. It had a difficult task and is perhaps hamstrung because of it, in that it is a precursor to later events.

7/10