Review: The First Wall

by Gav Thorpe

This is book three in the Horus Heresy Siege of Terra series, penned by the steady experienced hand of veteran Gav Thorpe.

The traitors are now at the wall. Ahead of reading this I anticipated a similar read to its precursor, The Lost and the Damned, with epic battles, plenty of cameos and the steady progression of the traitors advancing on the palace.

Walls, Guns, Action!

Have you ever read a book where action pieces keep getting set up and yet often don’t create much tension or excitement? In stark contrast to The Lost and the Damned, although the action usually has nothing wrong with it, it often never really gets going. This isn’t helped by the amount of different set pieces that are being jumped between: there is a feeling that sometimes time isn’t spent on an event because it’s time to move onto the next one.

Perhaps the biggest missed opportunity from my perspective was some of the epic confrontations which seemed to build, then fall a bit flat. Two main confrontations, which for spoiler reasons I won’t detail, but featuring four warriors of high martial prowess, really felt anti-climactic and not fully developed.

My main issue with the action though, was its predictability. I found myself saying exactly what would happen and being proved right on multiple occasions. Although not all books need twists, if a book is quite average in terms of its action and characters, twists might at least make it more memorable. The main plot twist I could see was also predictable (see below).

Another day on the wall

The problem with this book is that it’s like several hundred others I’ve read. Similar to the action, there is nothing egregious with the plot, but the problem is, I find myself struggling to point things out to say about it. Sure, it progresses some of the plots of the characters we’ve seen across the others books – in a somewhat limited fashion, except for maybe the Imperial Fists and Iron Warriors – but it also delivers a plot that is quite unmemorable. The traitors proceed, demonstrating guile and skill, and the loyalists cannot do much about it.

Perhaps the strongest story part was the palace investigation. This was pretty engaging and featured interesting characters, and perhaps could have been made even more of a focus. But it too suffered from being a bit predictable. Elsewhere, one potential twist of a human character really just was not a surprise, and although I can’t tell if everyone would see it coming, I was almost disappointed to see myself right as the plot developed towards the end.

Some characters felt like they weren’t used to their full potential – Abaddon and Zardu Layak, whose bickering was more interesting than it sounds in the previous books, and here seemed to be just going through the motions. Other interactions were done more effectively though, such as the tension between Sigismund and Dorn we’ve seen in other books. Similarly, introduction of romantic elements were well done without being overbearing.

It easily slots into the other books, but just didn’t really stand out as a story. In fact - I might be bordering on harsh here – I think the problem with this book is that you could probably skip it and not really miss much.

Readability

The book of course fits into the narrative of the siege, but also works pretty well as a self-contained piece. Of course, the usual Warhammer references might provide difficulty to somebody completely unfamiliar.

Final Score

Although there isn’t that much wrong with it, The First Wall suffers from being predictable and doesn’t really provide anything new. The weakest entry for the Siege of Terra so far, although still not bad.

6/10