[Review] Angel Exterminatus by Graham McNeill

Wednesday, September 25, 2013 K.Z. Freeman 1 Comments

I fucking hate Fulgrim.

So while reading Angel Exterminatus, this hatered was sometimes a deep red fury, and I wanted Fulgrim to die already, preferably in a fire or by being choked to death.
I do in fact realize the two options aren’t particularly creative, but they would suffice. The sad part, however, is that I knew that wont happen.

In between periods of wanting him dead and choked to death, I wished to see what he'll do next. Needless to say, this went on for the entierty of this damdable book and I kept hating him, and still do.

Now I suspect someone might wonder why I ‘dislike’ him. I will tell you, because I feel I must explain myself.

It all began with the novel titled after him, Fulgrim. It is because of this novel that I began to hate him, as Graham McNeill had made him so likable and then raped him.
Like... really raped his personality. Raped. Raped and continued to do so in his other, shorter stories. But be that as it may, I wonder why in every audiobook he is voiced as being a total pussy. Hmm?

I expirianced this book in its audio version, and I can't say I liked it as much as works such as A Thousand Sons, Prospero Burns, The First Heretic or Betrayer. The saving grace of this novel, for me, is Perturabo himself.
 He is silgularly awesome. Everything he says is great, everything he does is unexpected, and everything he thinks is so untipical compared to what the other Primarchs (save perhaps Angron) ever do, that his scenes are always the best. I love how, if he wants someone dead, he will tell the reader that he had just decided he will kill that person. That's it.


And that's what he eventually does, one way or another. Sometimes it reminded me what we all can do, really. If any of us decided we will kill someone, that someone is at our mercy, the differeance between us and Perturabo is that he doesn't give two shits and simply does it. And such a character is fascinating, interesting to read about, and because of excelent writing, has motivations that make sense because of who he is, not becuase of what the writer or the unverse commands him to be. That distinction is important and extremely well written.

I just wish there was more of him.

Instead what we all too often get is other characters, which are not terribly likable or particularly interesting.

There's way too many discriptive scenes in this book, most are necessary, but do I really need to read about the full life cycle of an alien bug, just to have it squashed beneath the boot of a Space Marine?

Phe...

After all the techno-sorcery and warp-madness is done, this book is quite interesting and ripe with excellent writing, but unfortunately puncuated by scenes with characters that aren't interesting enough.

6/10