I like Graham McNeill. His Horus Rising: The Seeds of Heresy are Sown (2006) impressed me enough to want to read more of his work, and led me to buy his two Ultramarines omnibuses. And I actually managed to read the first novel (Nightbringer) and got a start on the second novel (Warriors of Ultramar) before I moved on to other things. Not that I thought it was bad . . . not at all. Just that sometimes I need to read about giant cyborg warriors with chain saw swords and sometimes I don't. I fully intend to get back to this omnibus (which, by the way, I purchased for one dollar at Half-Price Books) and on to the second one.
In fact, I was so impressed by Graham McNeill's writing that I contacted him via email and asked him if I could e-interview him for a possible Rain Taxi thang. (I had also emailed the editor of Rain Taxi to ask if he'd be interested in such an interview, and he said that he would be--so long as it didn't turn into an advertisement for Warhammer 40,000.) And Mr. McNeill was very nice, said yes right away, and I was planning on reading as many of his novels as I could get my hands on before doing said interview . . . and then I lost my mind for a few years and wasn't capable of doing anything beyond taking care of my kids. So I blew that opportunity, for sure.
Anyway . . .
As I recall (which may or may not be what happened), I started reading the third Horus Heresy book (Galaxy in Flames: The Heresy Revealed by Ben Counter) and pooped out on it because it seemed like a repeat of the previous two books, and didn't read another HH until I picked up First Heretic: Fall to Chaos (The Horus Heresy Book 14) by Aaron Dembski-Bowden for reasons unknown, but I did like the book. And of course thought that I wanted to go back and read all of the series, because I am that kind of obsessive/compulsive guy, but then I saw that there were over forty novels in the series at that point, and I kind of lost my steam.
But I still can't stop myself from checking out the Warhammer section of the bookstores whenever I'm poking around. So I was aware that Graham McNeill had written a Mars series for the Warhammer 40,000 (but not Horus Heresy) series: Priests of Mars (2012), Lords of Mars (2013), and Gods of Mars (2014). The copies I saw in the store and on the internet were pretty pricey, though--Priests goes for $30 to $130 in hardback on Amazon, and $20 to $105 in paperback. (And the cheap prices were for used copies. Man, those Warhammer books are like blue chip stocks. I should probably just buy every hardback they put out, because chances are good that the price on those things will go into the stratosphere.)
But I did want to read that Mars trilogy. So I kept my eye out. And lo, an ebook omnibus did appear on the Black Library website. For $23.99. Or you could buy three separate ebooks for $11.99 each. Which is not only much worse, but also leaves you out on the extra short story included in the omnibus.
Amazon to the rescue. They have a paperback edition for $14 (33% off of the list price of $21--now where did that come from???). It's available for pre-order now. So yep, I did place my order. Investment tip: you might want to snag this one, too. Even if you don't need any giant cyborg warriors with chain saw swords in your life. I predict that this book will be selling for $100 before 2017 is out. Not that I've ever been known for picking winners, but history does show that there's precedent for this prediction.
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