I picked up and completely read Prospero Burns during a couple of fleetingly free hours yesterday, amidst a lot of driving around and a big holiday party.
I'm kinda disappointed. The main character of the book is a conservator (historian, basically) who is sort of adopted by the Space Wolves. His story is well enough told, but the connection of the pups to things and any real deepening of the mysteries is NOT well told. I actually think it would be better if you read Prospero Burns first, and A Thousand Sons second ... the story comes off better that way.
Either way, it's ~400 pages of Dan Abnett waxing Dan Abnett (good writing by the sentence), but without a really fantastic story. You do learn about the Space Wolves ... and heroes of the Imperium or not these days (M.41), people certainly didn't like them one bit back in the Great Crusade. They do explain well how the pups aren't just frenzied killing beasts ... in fact, there's nothing Khornate about them, as people often surmise. Their susceptibility to Chaos is extremely minimal, with even those corrupted or falling largely being anomalies. The fact that so many have the Canis Helix or even go were kinda just reflects that their extreme internal discipline as a group, as a whole, prevents even major mutation from "turning" them. Anyway, I don't want to spoil it, it's worth reading, but it's VERY far from my fave HH book.
I give it a 3/5.
I must disagree with you there. I took my time reading this one, because from the start it was obvious it was not going to be a run-of-the-mill narrative, and certainly not chronological. What started off as confusion gave way to intrigue and then to amazement. There is more to the book than you might first think, and I encourage you to read it again. It will come together better, trust me.
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