In the second book of the Horus Heresy series, the Warmaster is brought low through the treachery of the Chaos-possessed Erebus. False Gods picks up directly where Dan Abnett's Horus Rising left off, with Warmaster Horus' 63rd Expeditionary Fleet headed to the Davin system, where the planetary governor, Eugen Temba, has been overheard speaking treason against the Imperium. The Luna Wolves, recently rechristened the Sons of Horus, land on the moon Davin 3, where the traitors have based themselves. With the loyalist forces is Garvil Loken, captain of the 10th Company and protagonist of the novel, as well as the Warmaster himself.
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As they advance, the forces of the Imperium find the moon to be oddly dead and sickly, and are assailed by a force of the dead risen from their grave by foul sorcery. With his forces divided and fractured by the undead assault, Horus arrives at the "Glory of Terra," the warship being used by Temba as his primary base. Horus himself confronts the rebellious governor, twisted into an inhuman form by his dark master Nurgh-Leth. Horus prevails, but is wounded by a cursed anathame blade, last seen in the hands of Erebus, the sinister Space Marine of the Word Bearers legion.
The wound inflicted by the evil blade carries a poison, and fells the mighty Horus. After Loken and the other captains and soldiers of the Sons of Horus extract their fallen master, the force's medics, using unimaginably advanced medical technology, seek to revive him, but to no avail. The anathame's poison is of Chaotic origins. Erebus, the hidden architect of all of this, suggests taking the Warmaster to the Temple of the Serpent Lodge, related to the warrior lodges that Loken has found infesting his forces. The Temple is secretly run by the forces of Chaos. As his loyal captains stand helpless outside the Temple, the Chaos priests work foul magics on Horus' body. Opposing them is the astral form of Horus' fellow Primarch, Magnus the Red of the Thousand Sons.
Magnus tries to warn Horus of the treachery of Erebus, but the Chaos priest, in the guise of Horus' dead advisor Hastur, shows the Warmaster a vision of a time in which the Emperor has betrayed the rational dogma of Imperial Truth in favor of a citizenry worshiping him as a god. Erebus claims that this was the Emperor's purpose all along, and that the Primarchs and their Marines were only ever tools. Magnus unmasks the false Hastur. However, Horus' pride leads him to turn to the gods of Chaos anyway, in order to establish his own empire. Magnus seeks to warn the Emperor of the treachery of his son, but
Horus leads his troops to butcher a peaceful human civilization; he also cleans house of anyone in his fleet that he believes capable of discovering his new course. Loken, as well as Torgaddon, have their suspicions aroused by these actions, and the books ends with the two preparing for the possible necessity of fighting against their own brothers.
Best part of story, including ending:
Graham McNeill is quite a popular writer for Games Workshop's Black Library imprint; the reason why, however, escapes me, as his prose is plodding and his sense of character is almost entirely lacking. His books move along at a fair pace, but that's really it.
Best scene in story:
Horus' near-death dreams are at least somewhat interesting.
Opinion about the main character:
Loken moves in this book from the interesting knight-errant of Abnett's previous novel to a boring empty-suit with a gun under McNeill's inept pen.
