Revisiting Battle for the Abyss by Ben Counter

Ben Counter’s 2008 novel Battle for the Abyss, the eighth book in Black Library’s vast Horus Heresy series, is widely – albeit certainly not exclusively – considered as one of the weakest novels in the series. I’ve largely steered clear of conversations discussing this particular book, as until recently I had only the loosest of recollections regarding what happened and how much I enjoyed it. However, its poor reputation has nagged at me for a while (you know me, I prefer to look for positives rather than negatives), and an ongoing discussion with a friend about the themes, connections and outliers in the Heresy prompted me to revisit this most reviled of Heresy novels. This article is the result, in which I’m going to discuss my thoughts on the book and make the argument that despite some notable flaws, it’s a book which really doesn’t deserve the reputation it’s acquired.

I’m not treating this like a regular Track of Words review (if nothing else, it’s going to be quite a lot longer, and I’m thinking most people who read this will have read Battle for the Abyss already), but nevertheless let’s start off with an overview of what the book is about. In short, you might call it a sort of precursor to Dan Abnett’s Know Know Fear, revolving around a vast ship called the Furious Abyss, which has been built in secret by the Word Bearers and launched to strike a surprise blow against Roboute Guilliman and his Legion. As the Abyss races for Ultramar, a handful of loyalist Space Marines from the Ultramarines, Space Wolves, World Eaters and Thousand Sons mount a desperate pursuit, knowing full well that they’re outnumbered and outgunned but determined to find a way to stop the Word Bearers. It’s essentially one long chase sequence peppered with space battles and boarding sequences, sort of a 40k version of Mad Max in space.

Having now reread it, I would describe Battle for the Abyss as a bit like a straightforward, no-nonsense 80s action movie. It’s not subtle, some of the characters are a little underdeveloped, there’s a lot of fighting, and it’s not exactly complex, highbrow storytelling…but nor is it trying to be. It has its flaws (more on these shortly) but if you take it at face value, it’s actually pretty entertaining. I do understand why a lot of Heresy fans are critical of it, but it seems to me that a lot of the criticism stems from a few key points that I would say are somewhat overstated. First, that it doesn’t ‘further the narrative’ of the series as a whole, or that it doesn’t have much impact on the wider series; and second, that the Legions it features aren’t as characterful or well developed as they are in later novels. Lastly, and I suppose leading on from the previous point, that it lacks the specific tone and feel of the Heresy that sets this series apart from the wider Warhammer 40,000 range.

Now, I can’t necessarily argue with any of those points in general…but for me personally, I don’t think they matter enough to affect my enjoyment of the book. Of course enjoyment is always subjective, but I always try to take a book first and foremost on its own merits, rather than holding it up against anything else as a measure of my enjoyment. In the case of a Heresy novel it’s obviously hard not to think about just how good some of the series is, and so comparisons are inevitable to a certain extent. That’s fine, but I think it’s also important to take a bit of a step back and think about books like this in isolation as well. In the case of Battle for the Abyss I don’t have a problem with it not being as good as, say, Know No Fear or Betrayer – not many Heresy novels are, after all. It can be objectively ‘not as good’, while still being fun!

Of course Battle for the Abyss does genuinely suffer for a few things, so I’ll talk a bit about those here, thinking back to some of those observations I made earlier regarding common criticisms. Firstly, let’s talk about Horus Heresy Legions. None of the Legions included here had featured much in the series prior to this book, while all of them feature heavily in later books that really delve into their Legion identities. I actually quite like several of the characters here, particularly the protagonists – they’re a touch generic at times, but they’re fun to read about despite this – however there’s no question that they don’t have the depth or nuanced sense of identity that we see developed in later novels. In particular Counter’s Word Bearers definitely lean towards the moustache-twirling villain end of the antagonist spectrum, a fact which contributes to this book feeling more like a 40k novel in places than a Heresy story.

There’s a similar issue with Mhotep of the Thousand sons, as the absence of the Prosperine Cults concept – introduced four books later in Graham McNeill’s A Thousand Sons – means that he comes across in many respects as a regular, generic (albeit powerful) 40k psyker. All five of the featured Legions suffer from this to a greater or lesser degree, and I can understand readers finding it all a bit jarring, especially if they’re revisiting this book or reading the series out of order. However, part of the joy – in my opinion – of a multi-author series like the Heresy, and indeed all of Black Library, is in reading different authors’ takes on the same characters (or at least Legions). Would I have enjoyed this more if the featured Legions were more nuanced and characterful? Probably, yeah. But they don’t need to be an exact match, and I still enjoyed Counter’s particular take on them – for example the Ultramarines’ distaste at their World Eater cousins’ methods, Mhotep’s calm deflection of the Space Wolves’ antipathy, and so on.

As for criticisms of this book for not ‘furthering the narrative’, I’m going to be blunt: I just don’t care. They’re true, it doesn’t move the overarching narrative forward…but I don’t think it was really intended to, and that’s totally fine. Personally I think the Heresy is better for having a few books exploring stories that take place away from the main narrative – not just this one, but books like Nemesis and The Damnation of Pythos too. I could talk for a long time on this topic, and how much I’d have preferred to see the Heresy broadened out into a setting as opposed to a single series, but that’s better left to a separate article another time. Suffice to say, I find it strange that anyone would criticise a book which doesn’t really try to ‘further the narrative’ for…not furthering the narrative. That’s just not what this book is for. Instead, it broadens the scope of the setting, reminding readers that there was more going on than just what was happening in the ‘big’ moments, and indeed that huge moments for some characters can end up having barely any impact on the rest of the galaxy.

Does Battle for the Abyss lack the sense of long-reaching impact that many of the other Heresy stories have? Yeah, it does, fair enough. I don’t think that’s all Counter’s fault though, and likewise I don’t think it’s a particular problem. Perhaps it was originally intended to be a linking story between other elements of the series, and maybe circumstances changed and prevented that from being the case. Perhaps that was never the intention, and it was always supposed to be a fun, standalone adventure story. We’ll never know either way. What’s wrong with enjoying a book purely for the sake of its own entertainment value, though? Just as every Heresy story doesn’t need to drive the overall narrative forward, I don’t see why every story should have to make a noticeable impact on the final result of the war. That seems less believable to me. The way I see it, for every victory or defeat that goes down in Heresy history, there must have been hundreds of much smaller events that nobody ever remembered. And that’s cool.

Just to be clear, I don’t mean to imply that Battle for the Abyss is without its problems – far from it. I do agree with most of the common complaints, it’s just that I don’t buy into their importance the way a lot of other fans do. I do have my own criticisms though, in addition to what I’ve talked about already, and they mostly revolve around pacing and the nature of this sort of story. I rather like a chase story, and the gradual buildup of tension that comes with this structure, but I think they generally work best as tight, relatively compact stories. This book isn’t exactly a doorstopper, but it’s not a short book either, and it definitely loses a bit of momentum as it goes along. I like the setup, and the final third is action-packed and a lot of fun, but there’s a noticeable dip in pace and excitement in the middle of the book.

In some respects I think that could quite easily have been avoided by just making this a shorter novel, and trimming down the word count. On the other hand, I don’t want to spoil things too much but there’s also a character introduced towards the end of the book – Wsoric – whose appearance and importance feels a bit undeserved as it stands. There’s an occasional reference earlier on but very much in passing, and I’d have liked to have seen a little more foreshadowing and a bit more effort put into tying this element of the story into the wider book. Given that the middle part of the book drops off in pace and excitement, perhaps an alternative option might have been to focus a bit more on Wsoric’s importance to the story as a whole. That way the part that Wsoric plays in the climactic finale could have had rather more impact and excitement.

As I’ve said already though, for all that there are plenty of criticisms to be levied at Battle for the Abyss, all told I do genuinely think it’s pretty good fun, and much better than a lot of Heresy readers will make out. It’s definitely not best suited to readers who want detailed, insightful character development in everything they read – but there are plenty of Heresy stories that do offer all of that. There’s nothing wrong with enjoying reading about grand space battles, frantic close-quarters combat and tense boarding actions, and all of those are present and correct here. When Counter really ramps up the action it’s genuinely spectacular in places, and for me personally it’s hard not to root for the plucky loyalist underdogs chasing down a superior enemy and doing everything they can to slow and, if possible, stop the Word Bearers.

Having now revisited Battle for the Abyss and spent some time considering the book as a whole, I certainly wouldn’t class it as a must-read but I’m glad that I’ve re-read it. It’s not one of my favourites from the Heresy, but I also don’t think it deserves anything like the sort of criticism that it regularly receives. I gave it a solid 3 stars on Goodreads, and in truth if Goodreads permitted it then I would probably make that 3.5 stars. I’m not going to try and defend this book and claim that it’s one of the series’ high points – I really don’t think it is. But it’s a better book than a lot of people give it credit for, and I think it’s important to occasionally make that point!

See also: the main Horus Heresy reviews page on Track of Words.

Check out the links below if you’d like to order a copy* of Battle for the Abyss and make up your own mind about it!

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