When I first met my lovely boyfriend, one of the first things I learned about him was that he is a big fan of Warhammer. A tabletop miniature war game set in the year 40,000, Warhammer has a massive fan base and an even bigger story world, encompassing dozens of different species, religions, armies and more into its extensive ethos. Over the four years of our relationship, I have spent countless hours ‘listening’ as my boyfriend explains the various aspects of the extended Warhammer universe, and this year, in an effort to show more engagement with his interests, I bought Horus Rising, the first in the 54-book Horus Heresy series that takes place during “a fictional galaxy-spanning civil war occurring 10,000 years prior to Warhammer 40,000” (“The Horus Heresy”, 2020). I thought it would be a cute combination of our interests if I, a prolific reader, read a novel about one of my boyfriend’s main hobbies. Here are my thoughts.
I had no expectation of loving Horus Rising, but I did approach with an open mind, and though I shudder to confess it, there were things I quite enjoyed. My favourite element was the main character, Garviel Loken (although the book incorporates multiple perspectives, I’d argue Loken was the protagonist). Loken is an ‘Astartes’, a war-bred warrior (also known as a space marine) who has been granted superhuman strength through genetic modification. He begins the novel as captain of the Tenth Company of the Luna Wolves — the High Commander/’Primarch’ of which is Horus, the titular character — but is quickly promoted to the ‘Mournival’, Horus’s advisory counsel. I liked Loken for his steady demeanour. Astartes are bred not to feel fear, but even so, Loken’s composure was admirable, and I liked that he was curious about the world(s) around him while also maintaining loyalty to his Primarch, and to the Imperium for which he serves. Loken and his fellow soldiers serve under the Imperium of Man, a “galaxy-spanning interstellar empire” ruled by the Emperor of Mankind (Fandom, n.d.). While not a literal god, the Emperor is revered with godlike wonder by his followers and acts as “the ultimate authority for the majority of the human race” (ibid). Armed with absolute confidence in the way of life proclaimed by the Emperor, his armies are on a planet-by-planet crusade to bring deviant nations to heel. Only Loken has doubts. He wonders why it is necessary to convert, often through brute force, all of these societies when they previously coexisted peacefully; perhaps the Emperor’s model is too stringent, and nations that aren’t openly hostile could be allowed to practise their own social and religious behaviour. Although he never fully wavers from his loyalty, we see the seeds of doubt being sown as Loken questions the necessity of their merciless crusade, and I enjoyed the empathy he brought to a host of characters that were essentially bred to not feel emotions.
I have two major complaints about Horus Rising, the first of which being that if my boyfriend didn’t have Warhammer trivia spilling out of his ears, I would have had no idea what was going on in this book. We are thrown straight into the action without any exposition or introduction; the casual reader clearly was not considered when Abnett was writing, for we seem to be expected to know everything right from the offset without any explanation of who characters are or what any of the words in the lengthy list of fantastical jargon mean. For a fantasy universe with such a rich and detailed lore, it was frustrating that there was no exposition and that I had to keep looking up who people were and what words meant because Abnett assumed that I was already a Warhammer fan. Perhaps Abnett was aware of this while writing, or didn’t anticipate anyone other than Warhammer players to read the novel, because a particular line in the final quarter of the novel was eerily tongue-in-cheek: speaking of an ancient text Loken is perusing, Abnett notes that “there were invocations to dark, primordial gods that the writer clearly thought his audience would have some prior knowledge of” (Abnett, 2006, p.333). Whether Abnett was blissfully unaware of the irony, or he was referencing his own penchant for skimping on detail, I felt the novel suffered from its lack of exposition; it alienates casual readers, and people trying to learn more about the Warhammer universe from this book will need to supplement their research with a healthy amount of Google searches and/or a boyfriend who has endless energy for answering questions about the game.
My second complaint about Horus Rising is that the number of women that appeared was woefully low. Reading Reddit threads and Goodreads reviews, I learned that the reason why space marines are all men is because only men can be genetically modified to become space marines — one Reddit user explained that “space marines are created using the genes from their chapter’s Primarch, which are basically clones of the emperor. All of these genetic enhancements bond to the Y chromosome”. When asked why the space marines are an all-boys club, fans can point to the fluff: women are genetically disabled from joining. This is called the ‘Thermian Argument’, a method of “arguing around criticism by simply using the in-universe explanation for why something is the way it is” (McConnaughy, 2016). Yes, the fluff states that science discludes women from becoming space marines, but this science is completely fictional. It’s “made-up science for a made-up world”; there is nothing stopping Games Workshop (the manufacturer of all Warhammer-related products) from changing the lore to fit women into the narrative, and there is no reason why they shouldn’t adjust that narrative going forward. Warhammer draws much of its aesthetic and stylistic inspiration from fantasy fiction, a genre set predominantly in medieval times (“Warhammer 40,000”, 2020). It’s understandable that women are misrepresented in this way when the story is inspired by the Middle Ages, a time not known for its progressive feminism; yet I would be more understanding if the narrative of Warhammer actually tackled its internal sexism. I’m understanding of women being oppressed/misrepresented in fiction if there is an element to the narrative that actively criticises this oppression and misrepresentation, but as far as I can tell, the space marines are sexist for the sake of being sexist. Stories have no obligation to be about sexism or misogyny, but I do think that if a story is going to perpetuate some sexist ideas, it has a responsibility to either own up to them, or use them in a productive and progressive way.
I do intend on continuing with this series. Despite some critical failings, Horus Rising was an entertaining book with characters that showed unexpected moral depth, and I am interested to see where the story goes in the next few books. Although Warhammer may be wildly outside of my realm of usual interest, I love my boyfriend, and I’m happy to continue reading these books just to see how happy it makes him when I engage with something he loves.
WORKS CITED
Books/articles
Abnett, D. (2006). Horus Rising. Nottingham, United Kingdom: Games Workshop.
McConnaughy, J. (2016, January 14). In the Grim Darkness of Warhammer 40k's Far Future, There Are Only Men, and It’s Terrible. Retrieved from https://www.themarysue.com/warhammer-40k-gender-representation/.
Online forums/wiki pages
Deleted user. (2016, January 18). It actually makes sense. Space marines are created using the genes from their chapters primarch which are basically clones of [Comment on the online forum post In the Grim Darkness of Warhammer 40k‘s Far Future, There Are Only Men, and It’s Terrible]. Reddit. https://tinyurl.com/yxvsnn8v.
Fantasy. (2020, August 6). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fantasy.
The Horus Heresy (novels). (2020, July 25). In Wikipedia. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Horus_Heresy_(novels).
This Goodreads review by Stephen (username ‘sullypython’) on Aug 10, 2010: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/117283971?book_show_action=true&from_review_page=1. I do not know how to cite Goodreads reviews in APA, and I am not going to try.
Warhammer 40,000. (2020, August 16). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warhammer_40,000#Setting.
Warhammer 40k | Fandom. (n.d.). Imperium of Man. Retrieved from https://warhammer40k.fandom.com/wiki/Imperium_of_Man.
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