Horus Rising

From Tv Tropes

Horus' star is rising. However, the galaxy is changing.

The novel is set in the Horus Heresy series, and shows Horus' posse as good guys fighting in an ever-changing galaxy, especially from the political viewpoint. It introduces Horus and his "Mournival", his most trusted council, as well as events that will slowly destroy Horus' psychic defenses and turn him to the Dark Side.

• Alternate Character Interpretation:
  • Dorn is fond of giving these. For all we see, he may be quite right:
    • Luc Sedirae and Abaddon: Blood Knights.
    • Iacton Qruze: Psycho for Hire that wants to stay in grace at any cost.
    • Garviel: Only Sane Man / Warrior Poet.
    • Horus: Manipulative Bastard.
• Ape Shall Never Kill Ape: The Space Marines are proud of this - it also helps that they're genetically programmed not to. Cue Samuel...
• Band of Brothers: Analyzed thoroughly.
• Body Horror: Maloghurst the Twisted and Regulus when first introduced.
• Call A Rabbit A Smeerp: Inverted. Horus recommends to use the old names for the old beings (like daemons or spirits), but will not admit their supernatural heritage, preferring to call them just another type of aliens.
• Double Entendre: His talk about false Gods obviously borders on blasphemy against the Emperor, but nobody seems to get it, at least not consciously.
• Drowning My Sorrows: Horus when talking with Loken about the Warp.
• Dying Like Animals: The Muggles in Horus Rising. Sindermann is an especially hard bat to crack.
  • Averted by Loken and Horus, the first strongly questioning the line of "a plague", the second knowing the cause of this and not trying to minimize it by claiming absurd Technobabble.
• Exact Words: Horus making the warriors take the vow before ascending to the rebels. It was tailored-made for the situation they were about to encounter.
• Go Mad From The Revelation: Karkasy from the ruins of a great city of man. A little booze helped too.
• Harsher in Hindsight: In-Universe example: Maloghurst the Twisted. He had this nickname because of his more Manipulative Bastard actions than Action Hero. Then he lost parts of his body...
  • See examples on Tempting Fate below.
• Hijacked By Jesus: Horus.
• Noodle Incident: Sindermann sees the Battle at Whisperhead as this, and won't even refer to it by name.
• The Reason You Suck Speech.
• The Skeptic/The Scully: Sindermann regarding religion and daemons.
• Sibling Rivalry: The Space Marines, especially their leaders.
• Tempting Fate: Every time mentions of rivalry between Space Marines end in hypothetically joking about how one group would stalemate the other to the end. The reader cringes at any similar affirmation.
• Use My Title: Torgaddon does it in relation to Elidion. Lucius tries to make a comeback asking the same, but it fails because of his low rank.
• What Do You Mean It's Not Symbolic: Horus is turned into an Expy of Satan.

  "Horus would not let himself be outshone, even by the one he loved most dearly."

• Worthy Opponent: Lucius thinks this about the megarachnids.