False Gods by Graham McNeill is the second Horus Heresy book, presenting us with the insight into Horus’s mind and that of his subordinates as to why as the Emperor of Mankind’s best and most trusted general would turn coat and attempt to dethrone him.

The story here is mostly great, the betrayal and attempted assassination of Horus by a certain Astartes Captain, Horus’s reasoning for his change of heart, and how he carried out the battles he instigated after that to further others’ belief in him as a skilled and terrifying warrior. My biggest problem with actions made after his change of heart is choosing not to take any sort of action against the Astartes that attempted to kill him and actively tried to manipulate him into serving Chaos, his choice to turn his back on his Mournival and make a new one when he could have easily swayed those on the Mournival who would’ve opposed him to his side based on how conniving, cunning, and all around charismatic he is portrayed. I understand that due to established lore it likely isn’t that easy, some characters may have to have been against him to keep things in line but it feels like there wasn’t really any effort put in as to why they are/will be against his efforts other than that instead of wining and dining them he just left them to their own devices to put together the pieces of a plot of treason from the breadcrumbs he left (whether intentionally or not).

I think part of why it took me so long to finish this book (literally sat at 10 pages left for about a month), is because for the most part this book is rather well written, but I’m so absolutely stuck on these 2 plot points that I feel are to important to just be thrown aside especially when they are so intertwined with the HORUS part of a 54 book series of Warhammer books called Horus Heresy. For this what would have easily been 9 stars for me ends up at only 6. It’s still a good read that I highly recommend if you like the Warhammer universe, just be ready for there to be a few glaring issues that feel like they really should’ve been resolved very differently.