Mechanicum (9) (The Horus Heresy)

In the series, each book creates a universe and takes you in the universe. You can feel the rough sand in your shoes in a desert-fighting scene or the cold chill of the night in the forest. Here, Mars had so much cinematic potential that the author did not portray as much. All I could visualize and taste was rusty cables. Cables, cables everywhere and I bet the Martians still use the dial-up modem and checked the databases on bulky CRT monitors. It was disappointing that the imagination in the book fell short. And some spoilers...
#SPOILER
The main protagonist, Dalia, was shoved into the story. She was totally un-interesting, had no charm or did not arouse any emotion. I really
wished she died soon so that the book would not be about her. Alas, she outlived the book. I genuinely wish that she will not appear anymore in other books.

The plot is about how a young woman is freed from prison and is brought to Mars to work on an experimental machine. While this is happening, the biggest boss of the Mechanicum, Kelbor-Hal, is swayed to ally himself with the now-evil Horus Lupercal against the Emperor of Man. The result is a massive and extremely bloody civil war on Mars that is far and away more stunning than can be described here.

The characters are all fantastic. You see much of the story through the eyes of Dalia Cythera, the imprisoned woman who is brought to Mars. Her introduction to the Mechanicum also serves as an intro for the reader, helping them become familiar with a number of characters and designs, and her work on the experimental device of Adept Koriel Zeth brings into play one of the most stunning revelations of the Warhammer 40,000 mythos that I've yet seen (and I've seen a lot).

Conversely, we get a number of scenes from the traitor forces of the Dark Mechanicum, how Kelbor-Hal feels betrayed by the Emperor for being barred from conducting certain experiments and locking away knowledge, which the Mechanicum values above virtually all else. The method of corruption is different, an alchemical scrapcode that turns him from a bitter old bastard with treacherous thoughts into a bloody tyrant, but Mars and the Mechanicum are a machine society; think viral images and stories spreading through social media, but this can make you evil or cause you to implode physically or go into a psychotic killing frenzy. Entire cities are killed by this malware.

The biggest stars of the novel are the Legios, composed of various Titan war engines. These are the huge robots you see on the tabletop game sometimes. The Knights are the smallest, then the Warhounds, Reavers, Warlords, and the Imperator (which is quite literally a mountain-sized murder-machine with a battle-ready castle on its shoulders). There are a bunch of warrior orders of Titan Legios, and we get plenty of exposure to the Knights of Taranis and the Legio Tempestus. Each order has a member we focus more upon than the others (Maven for Taranis and Cavalerio for Tempestus), but we get wonderful portrayals of their friends and comrades, which in turn shows certain traits of princeps (officers who command the various Titans). This critical exploration of personalities is more important than you might think, and really adds layers to the novel and its characters.

As for the violence, it is everything you could want out of a fight between walking weapons of mass destruction. It isn't boring or slow in the least to read about the intense fights that break out between the various Titans and Knights, and one of the most nail-biting scenes in the book is when a large gang of rival Titans, led by an Imperator, marches into the territory of Legio Tempestus, who are so outnumbered and outgunned that nothing could possibly save them. Of course, when you get to the final battle, when the Dark Mechanicum is attempting to overtake Zeth's Magma City, the Legios and their warriors perform with a skill and bravery that it will indeed bring a tear to your eye. Of particular note is Verticorda, the first character we meet, shouting as he confronts one of the enemy leaders, "I cast the lightning of Taranis at thee!"

Even if you've little interest in the overarching conflict that is the Horus Heresy, should you have any bit of love for awesome weapons or courageous heroes battling unbelievable odds, then you must pick this up. You will not be disappointed.

This was a really good Horus Heresy book. I am not sure how I missed it when it was first published since I tend to read each of the books as they come out. This is a great story about the Dark Mechanicus and how it was formed on Mars. There are some interesting pieces of backstory going on as well and I thought it all came together pretty well in the end. There were other Horus Heresy books that I was more engrossed in while reading but the Mechanicus tends to be a bit dry reading anyway since they are half robot after all.

Mechanicum is a very good read, with a nice look at the Mechanicum. The look at the War Machines are very interesting, as well as how the Dark Mechanicum is corrupted and forms.

I'm not a big fan of the "sexy Red Priestess" idea, but I'm hoping the reason for that is that it shows her interest in learning, and not following by rote. At least she doesn't use her appearance, that I recall, to get her way.

Interesting info. on the Dragon of Mars.

very good read what else is there to say

good price. bought as a gift so i cannot review the book. arrived quickly

Not the strongest of the Horus Heresy books, but good insight into the events on Mars in the 31st Millennium.

I have loved every single book in the Horus Heresy series so far. Weird how it all started when I first read Angel Exterminatus which is like book 23 of the series. There were some spoilers from Angel Exterminatus, but not many.

Games Workshop's “Warhammer 40,000” universe has so many cool and diverse elements, but one part of it that I've always been lukewarm and kind of “meh” about is the Machine Cult of Mars. They just always felt a little too weird and uninteresting to me. So I approached Graham McNeill's ninth entry in Black Library's “Horus Heresy” series (which is sort of a prequel series that chronicles the intergalactic civil war that sets the 40K universe up), “Mechanicum” with some trepidation. A whole novel focusing on the tech priests of Mars? I'm not sure if that's something for me. Turns out I was quite wrong. “Mechanicum” is a highly, enjoyable, read where McNeill pulls off some Herculean heavy lifting and pretty much succeeds at everything he had to do and intended to do.

In “Mechanicum” McNeill had to bring Horus Lupercal's rebellion to Mars, which meant he had to introduce many readers like me to a whole new world. He had to establish the power players on this planet, the places they lived and worked, and also introduce a number of characters in Mars' various military orders like the Titan Legions and mecha piloting Knights. He also had to make us care about them. Then he had to create an interesting tale about the subtle and insidious way civil war comes to Mars and how it gives birth to the Chaos and Horus aligned Dark Mechanicum. Then he had to give us a number of gripping, action set pieces as the Chaos and Imperium aligned members of the Machine Cult war against each other for control of Mars. Plus he had do that without relying too much on established, cool concepts like the Space Marines. Some members of the Imperial Fists chapter of the Adeptus Astartes appear in “Mechanicum,” but they appear very briefly and only towards of the end of the book.

Admittedly some elements were better than others, but McNeill accomplished all of that. What made “Mechanicum” especially enjoyable though and showed how great a writer he is was the fact that he didn't stop there! On top of all those interesting things we also got a very cool and incredibly imaginative tale about the ancient past of the Imperium's ruler, the Emperor of Mankind. We also got a fun almost Lord of the Rings quest style adventure featuring an incredibly endearing band of characters that I don't recall ever seeing before in a “Horus Heresy” or 40k book.

Those sections of the book were the high point of “Mechanicum” for me. In those portions we journey to Mars with Dallia Cytheria; a compassionate, curious, transcriber with an eidetic memory. Dalia is a great character and her kind and caring perspective is a refreshing one to see in the “Grim, Dark” world of the “Horus Heresy” and 40K. That perspective also earns her a band of loyal and caring friends. My favorite member of Dallia's band of friends was the cybernetic being assigned to protect her, Rho-Mu 31. He starts off as kind of an aloof, almost alien character but as his relationship with Dallia changes and grows you get to see the humanity beneath his cybernetics.

Midway through the book Dallia and her friends embark on a quest to get to the heart of an ancient Martian mystery. What they find at the end of their journey is fascinating, poignant, and powerful.

Of course while Dallia and her friends are on their quest things unravel on Mars and some epic fighting breaks out. The Mecha style combat between the rival giant robot pilots of the Titan legions and Knights was cinematic and breathtaking. There was apocalyptic pace and tone to the battles that just made them pop and flow.

So in “Mechanicum” McNeill did the unthinkable for me. He changed my mind about the Machine Cult and Mars. He did that by telling a hell of a story that included a ton of great world building, memorable and fascinating characters, and some intense action. Plus he did all of that in just a little over 400 pages. It made for a hell of an impressive feat and and incredibly enjoyable novel.

This was an amazing book in the series!