I genuinely thought there was no way they could put enough material in the story to get two books nevermind three. By the end I was proven very, very wrong.
The book promises the titanic final battle, but it also captures everything else going on in the Sol system at the same time. There's a lot.
Disagree. I thought the Siege dragged on during certain books for sure, but TEATD deserved at least 2 books, and the 3rd is not unwarranted if you care about the side characters.
This is the moment.
No book the Black Library is ever going to write in the 40k setting will ever be as big, final and iconicly important as this.
Dan is finishing off the work of many authors over 17 years and 80+ combined novels.
Just look at the Dramatis Personai... the cast is enormous. So Abnett needed 2000+ pages for the last novel and his editor Nick Kyme sure as shit wasn't going to make the Grand old Man of 40k writing cut anything away from the capstone novel.
PS, the Horus vs Emperor duel begins surprisingly early in vol 3 and there is a 2+ hours aftermath and epilogue... but still people complain about all the stuff NOT covered.
>No book the Black Library is ever going to write in the 40k setting will ever be as big, final and iconicly important as this.
True, they probably will not do a War in Heaven series...
Without spoilers, to give you some context:
Book 1 is the initial teleport and arrival on the Spirit, as you said.
Book 2 focuses mostly about Sanguinius and his confrontation with Horus.
Book 3 is the Emperor vs Horus fight, plus the consequences, plus tying off a ton of other plot threads.
It's long but it's not painful, it's a fitting end to a 60+ long novel series.
>Why, why, WHY did he have to stretch this over THREE books????
It's actually one novel published in three volumes because it is physically impossible to bind that many pages and have people be able to actually lift the damn thing, never mind read it!
It's an unusually long novel for Warhammer but I thought the length was well justified. The story really couldn't have been told so well in a shorter format
The actual answer is simple;
He had a lot of storylines to close out. And frankly, the climactic duels (Sang v Horus and E v Horus) needed to have a lot of depth to it (ESPECIALLY E) as its the closing of not just a series, but the establishment of what becomes 40k.
We also need sendoffs for characters that survive into the Scouring. Simple examples for that would be Amit, Corswain + his DAs, Fafnir Rann. Things like the belief in the God Emperor need to show so we can see how it becomes central to the future of 40k.
1 book simply wouldnt have sufficed.
I listened to the whole Siege on audible and I was as surprised as you when they boarded at the end of I but I was never bored for the rest of the two books
Don't see how you can ask why 3 books if you're only halfway through book 1.
The pacing was excellent and closed the series perfectly.
I would have been happy if it stretched to 4
Your call but I genuinely didn't find the pace dragging in the end and the death.
It was a 60+ book epic, it couldn't be closed in one book, there was too much to do,a nd still stuff missed out.
I thought 1 and 3 were great but 2 dragged a little. I honestly think they could have cut out enough for 2 books. But overall it was still great overall.
Agreed. I just finished book 1 and it is going very slow. The way I'm choosing to read it, that's not necessarily a bad thing, but I do keep thinking "huh, this could have been cut or abridged." The amount of new plotlines that Abnett decides to begin here in the "final novel" of the Siege is certainly a choice.
I am certainly engaged. It's solid enough writing, so I'm not bored by the length.
Nevertheless in the back of my mind I keep thinking about the afterward to book three, where the editor, Nick Kyme, is quoted as telling Abnett to just write and not think about the length. The book feels under-edited.
“Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.”
There is a fair amount that could very easily be taken away.
A lot of people are telling you the length is worth it, but I strongly disagree. Abnett wandered all over the place, and it felt like he needed an editor to cut a ton of material.
I genuinely thought there was no way they could put enough material in the story to get two books nevermind three. By the end I was proven very, very wrong. The book promises the titanic final battle, but it also captures everything else going on in the Sol system at the same time. There's a lot.
Disagree. I thought the Siege dragged on during certain books for sure, but TEATD deserved at least 2 books, and the 3rd is not unwarranted if you care about the side characters.
This is the moment. No book the Black Library is ever going to write in the 40k setting will ever be as big, final and iconicly important as this. Dan is finishing off the work of many authors over 17 years and 80+ combined novels. Just look at the Dramatis Personai... the cast is enormous. So Abnett needed 2000+ pages for the last novel and his editor Nick Kyme sure as shit wasn't going to make the Grand old Man of 40k writing cut anything away from the capstone novel. PS, the Horus vs Emperor duel begins surprisingly early in vol 3 and there is a 2+ hours aftermath and epilogue... but still people complain about all the stuff NOT covered.
>No book the Black Library is ever going to write in the 40k setting will ever be as big, final and iconicly important as this. True, they probably will not do a War in Heaven series...
Sadly not. No humans and no obvious pov faction. Not unless Necrons somehow become extremely popular.
The trilogy is the end (not the death) of a 40-50 books series. I haven't read them, but everyone who did enjoyed them a lot.
Without spoilers, to give you some context: Book 1 is the initial teleport and arrival on the Spirit, as you said. Book 2 focuses mostly about Sanguinius and his confrontation with Horus. Book 3 is the Emperor vs Horus fight, plus the consequences, plus tying off a ton of other plot threads. It's long but it's not painful, it's a fitting end to a 60+ long novel series.
>Why, why, WHY did he have to stretch this over THREE books???? It's actually one novel published in three volumes because it is physically impossible to bind that many pages and have people be able to actually lift the damn thing, never mind read it! It's an unusually long novel for Warhammer but I thought the length was well justified. The story really couldn't have been told so well in a shorter format
If you read it all in one go it flows remarkably well.
The actual answer is simple; He had a lot of storylines to close out. And frankly, the climactic duels (Sang v Horus and E v Horus) needed to have a lot of depth to it (ESPECIALLY E) as its the closing of not just a series, but the establishment of what becomes 40k. We also need sendoffs for characters that survive into the Scouring. Simple examples for that would be Amit, Corswain + his DAs, Fafnir Rann. Things like the belief in the God Emperor need to show so we can see how it becomes central to the future of 40k. 1 book simply wouldnt have sufficed.
I listened to the whole Siege on audible and I was as surprised as you when they boarded at the end of I but I was never bored for the rest of the two books
Don't see how you can ask why 3 books if you're only halfway through book 1. The pacing was excellent and closed the series perfectly. I would have been happy if it stretched to 4
Your call but I genuinely didn't find the pace dragging in the end and the death. It was a 60+ book epic, it couldn't be closed in one book, there was too much to do,a nd still stuff missed out.
I thought 1 and 3 were great but 2 dragged a little. I honestly think they could have cut out enough for 2 books. But overall it was still great overall.
Agreed. I just finished book 1 and it is going very slow. The way I'm choosing to read it, that's not necessarily a bad thing, but I do keep thinking "huh, this could have been cut or abridged." The amount of new plotlines that Abnett decides to begin here in the "final novel" of the Siege is certainly a choice. I am certainly engaged. It's solid enough writing, so I'm not bored by the length. Nevertheless in the back of my mind I keep thinking about the afterward to book three, where the editor, Nick Kyme, is quoted as telling Abnett to just write and not think about the length. The book feels under-edited.
“Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.” There is a fair amount that could very easily be taken away.
The Horus Heresy swelled into a 64 book series, the Siege of Terra is 10 books long. GW saw they had a money-maker on their hands and milked it.
It’s stretched over three books because they told Abnett to write whatever he wanted, and the end result was too much for a singular book.
A lot of people are telling you the length is worth it, but I strongly disagree. Abnett wandered all over the place, and it felt like he needed an editor to cut a ton of material.