Book: Siege of Terra: The End and the Death: Volume II
I gave myself as a Christmas present the newly released volume 2 of The End and the Death, and just finished reading it. This will be a shorter review because, as I was fearing, there will be a third and final volume, so this middle book advances the story but, excepting two specific events, really not that much. I will only mention one of the exceptions because it is already known, the other is left for the book readers to find out.
With more than 500 pages, I feel that in this case we have an artificially elongated storyline. Yes, all the plots, subplots and minor things kind of progress, but for some of them it is so minimal, or so dull and uninteresting, that I stand firm on my opinion about some of them being redundant and better off. Also, in this book there are so many jumps between the groups of characters, that if each had a chapter we would be talking about probably more than a hundred! Some of the micro-chapters are just two or three pages long, which feels almost confusing, and transforms what could be cliffhangers into mere annoyances.
There are excellent chunks of content, like the Horus vs Sanguinius battle, which we all know how it ends, but still feels exciting at first and then sad (this book actually ends just after the moment that Horus kills the primarch). There are some very interesting reveals around the Emperor, some of which would be very cool to use in future campaigns or books. And I also enjoyed Ahriman, as it provides a view of a sorcerer thirsty for knowledge, instead of a classic "bad guy appears and kills all poor non-astartes humans".
Not a bad read, but I expected either to wrap up the story, or to provide enough quality content to make up for a third volume. And the book does not provide the first, and falls short on the second. I recommend to wait for the third title and then read them together.