Nemesis

The Horus Heresy #13

by James Swallow

A Horus Heresy novel

After the horrors of Isstvan V, Horus declares outright war against the Imperium. In the shadows of the Emperor's Palace, powerful figures convene.

READ IT BECAUSE
The Horus Heresy is a war of Space Marine vs Space Marines, but other combatants lurk in the shadows... Here we see the precursors to Warhammer 40,000's Assassinorum temples in action, even as Horus despatches a monstrous assassin of his own.

THE STORY
After the horrors of Istvaan V, Horus declares outright war against the Imperium. In the shadows of the Emperor's Palace, powerful figures convene. Their plan is to send a team of assassins to execute the arch-traitor Horus and end the war for the galaxy of mankind before it's even begun. But what they cannot know is that another assassin is abroad already, with his sights firmly set on killing the Emperor.

Genres: Science Fiction, 40k, Fiction, Fantasy, Audiobook, War, Space Opera

507 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2010

About the author

James Swallow is a New York Times, Sunday Times and Amazon #1 bestselling author and scriptwriter, a BAFTA nominee, a former journalist and the award-winning writer of over sixty-five books, along with scripts for video games, comics, radio and television.

DARK HORIZON, his latest stand-alone thriller, is out now from Mountain Leopard Press, and OUTLAW, the 6th action-packed Marc Dane novel, is published by Bonnier.

Along with the Marc Dane thrillers, his writing includes, the Sundowners steampunk Westerns and fiction from the worlds of Star Trek, Tom Clancy, 24, Warhammer 40000, Doctor Who, Deus Ex, Stargate, 2000AD and many more.

For information on new releases & more, sign up to the Readers’ Club here: www.bit.ly/JamesSwallow

Visit James's website at http://www.jswallow.com/ for more, including ROUGH AIR, a free eBook novella in the Marc Dane series.

You can also follow James on Bluesky at @jmswallow.bsky.social, Twitter at @jmswallow, Mastodon at @jmswallow@mstdn.social and jmswallow.tumblr.com at Tumblr.

Reviews

[Sud666 · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Nemesis" was very good. It takes place during the Horus Heresy and revolves around a little spoken of organization- The Officio Assassionorium. Answering to the High Lords of Terra, they perform clandestine missions where the use of Astartes would be too obvious.

In this case- the differing branches (clades) have been brought together to take out the ultimate target-Horus the Warmaster. This book looks into the different type of operatives used by each clade. We meet Clade Venenum, who specialize in toxins, poisons, and venoms. Then there is Clade Eversor, which used chem-enhanced rage killers that destroy everything in sight. Then there is Clade Vanus, who are techno-strategists of the first order and serve as top level intelligence gathering operatives. Clade Callidus, which uses a special power called Polymorphine that allows them to assume anyone's shape, form, and speech. Finally, Clade Culexus has operatives that carry the Pariah gene (Nulls) and make excellent operatives against psykers.

This top level assissination squad is dispatched to terminate the Warmaster. This is great story due to the look into the Assassins and their uses. It also fills in some details about the Heresy (such as the fate of Luc Sedirae) and shows us more evidence of the worship of the God-Emperor.

If you are interested in how the Officio Assassinorum came to be and the types of misisons and operatives they perform. A great read for 40k fans.

[Student Teacher · Rating 4 out of 5]

James Swallow seems to be a hit a miss author for me. I don't really care for many of his Blood Angles books, but I really enjoyed Flight of the Eisenstein. I believe that Mr. Swallow should stick with the Horus Heresy novels because Nemesis is a very good read.

The book feels like part detective novel and part Dirty Dozen. There is a serial killer that is being tracked down by local law enforcement on a sleepy little world that has largely untouched by the heresy. We also see the an execution force put together by all of the different sects or "clades" of assassins on Terra. These killers are sent to kill the Warmaster and stop his insurrection before it can continue any further.

I am usually not a fan of, "two books in one" that we often seen in the Black Library stories, but this one wasn't so bad in my opinion. For one thing, the two stories were merged together pretty quickly, and for another thing, both threads were just so damn interesting I wasn't left upset when they story switched gears.

The Horus Heresy books are always interesting to me as we generally know what is going to happen at the end. We KNOW that the execution squad will be ultimately unsuccessful in killing the Warmaster, but Swallow does a good job of weaving a story in there that still feels as if it has a successful conclusion even if Horus does survive.

I give this book 4 neural shredders to the brain pain out of 5.

[Chris Berko · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Warhamer 40K genre-mash-up-alooza continues with the awesome little novel that starts out sorta like a gritty whodunnit murder mystery before reminding itself that it is in fact a Warhammer 40K novel and goes back to blowing up planets and shit. Yeah, gone are the Astartes super human soldiers though, and in is a small group of highly trained assassins hunting Horus Lupercal and who are in turn being hunted themselves by something way crazy. A couple surprises, a couple "remember the Alamo" moments, and ton of fun, Nemesis continues what is already an amazing series.

[Jason Ray Carney · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an entertaining Horus Heresy novel that combines two plots: a group of assassins come together to attempt to kill the Arch Traitor, Warmaster Horus. And a group of detectives struggle to solve a string of ritualized murders. The main strength of this novel is how it expands the Horus Heresy world by introducing of the Officio Assassinorum of the Imperium. This concepts probably provides for future espionage plots. Alas, much of this novel didn't work for me. The individual chapters braided the two plots together. So, every few pages the plot modulated. This made me feel narrative whiplash. Also, the details of the various Assassinorum "Clades" or Temples were hard to keep track of. Another quibble: the narrator is not consistent with the names used to refer to characters; with a cast of 10+ characters, multiple names for each character confused me. Overall, I'm glad I read it. The Horus Heresy atmosphere was sustained and the plot was engaging.

[Frank Davis · Rating 4 out of 5]

This story only narrowly missed a fifth star from me. It covered a lot of themes; beginning as a murder mystery, passing through a short-lived romance, visiting psychological horror at several points and ending with the kind of titanic warfare that we expect from our WH40K novels.

Swallow's writing is superb at accentuating the scifi elements of the 40K universe and he's written some of the best female characters of the series up to this point.

I did again struggle to invest myself in the characters but I'm putting that down to the ever-growing list of people that we've met, almost too many of whom play significant roles in the events of the Heresy.

Scifi-horror is not my specific jam, but I am enjoying the way it reveals the nature of the warp and this story certainly achieved much of that for this WH40K noob.

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

I would give it 4.5 there was a few times I struggled with some of the ideas being espoused by some of the characters that didn't seem to fit what we know of them. It started off slow for me but really picked up before the midway point. So give it a chance.

[Veronica Anrathi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Finally! At the very end of 2018, being up to date with the Horus Heresy franchise, I decided to go back to the book I skipped ages ago, to Nemesis. I heard that this story does not bring much to the main plot, which was the primal reason for the delay. Another reason was my lack of interest in the Officio Assassinorum, which now definitely raised tremendously. This started slowly, reminded me of another Swallow's work, Flight of Eisenstein. It took forever to get me fully engaged, but ended up rather interesting and entertaining. I started several times, and I went through with it only on my third try. Unfortunately this means that this tale is not immediately attractive to the reader, but it gets better. The variety of characters is quite pleasing, second half of the book kept me very engaged and brought me a lot of knowledge and new understanding of the differences between the assassin temples. The ending was not disappointing as well. I am glad I took my time to finally read Nemesis and I believe the Horus Heresy knowledge I possess now made the experience more enjoyable. Is it skippable? Yes. Should you skip it? Probably not. It's worth a read.

[René Olivo · Rating 2 out of 5]

Out of all books in the series so far, this one has the best characters. I'm not even talking about the special ops. It's a shame this book tried to fit too many themes in it and didn't fully explore things out. At times it felt like 2 completely people were writing them: one with a lot attention to details and character building and another one that wanted to be done and rush to a conclusion.

Apart from that, this book suffers from a common issue in all the other books: they don't know how to measure their characters. If someone encodes a message with a state-of-the-art encryption don't make another character that's not even supposed to be good at hacking or decrypting being able to intercept and decode the message....why even mention that kind of encryption to begin with !!!!!

Needless to say, this book almost made me stop reading the whole series, but I'll push trough.

[Simon Mee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Time to put together an elite team of assassins to kill Horus. Oh, they have to fail? Already hardbaked into decades and decades of lore you say? Well, we better come up with something else for them to do then.

And make it “cool”, too.

Doing Less with More while occasionally doing More with Less

Nemesis relies on plot points to fill out each character, and the plot points themselves turn on action. Each assassin is introduced via some stupendous act of skill, the antagonist Spear via some stupendous act of murder.

Spear shrugged it off. The first downward slash cut away Hyssos’s right hand across the forearm, the gun falling with it. The second stabbing motion pierced skin, ribcage and lung before emerging from his back in a splatter of dark arterial crimson.

Nemesis won’t ponder philosophy over the latest vintage, rather it’s stab, blast, punch, eviscerate. Swallow has his own action series outside of the Warhammer universe and I wonder if he enjoyed the freedom here – characters can commit violence in cartoonish and implausible ways, with no one batting a severed eyelid.

Swallow’s style and execution of it mostly fine in an action themed book, but there’s limitations from a character perspective. In Swallow’s previous effort, The Flight of the Eisenstein , a lot of bad things happened to Garro and his responses to them built up his character. Here, the multiple characters spread it too thin. The main antagonist Spear fears those with similar powers to him, but he meets two such empowered foes and disposes of them easily. Two of the assassins have a fraternal relationship, but it is laughable – when one says to the other:

‘No,’ she said, her eyes brimming with tears. ‘Please don’t show me that face again. Not the revenge. There is no end to that, Eristede. It goes on and on and on and it will consume you. There will be nothing left.’

…it has no impact – there’s no suggestion in the plot up to this point that the recipient has let revenge overcome him with the actions in his story so far. Ruthless, sure, and there’s some good exchanges on that, but not clearly revenge, not on the evidence in the story.

But…

…while the primary characters aren’t memorable, Swallow gets things right, multiple times, with those characters making cameo appearances: Rogal Dorn, Valedor, Horus, Erebus, Maloghurst, Luc Sedirae's headless corpse. Swallow repeatedly, in small exchanges, makes those characters interesting and adds depth, even via ambiguity as to intent and actions:

Erebus’s eyes narrowed, showing his doubts at the description of Sedirae’s great esteem. While it was true the man was a fine warrior, many considered him an outspoken braggart, the Word Bearer among them. But as ever, the equerry kept his own opinions to himself.

Every interaction rests on prior knowledge of those characters, but we’re a good way into the Horus Heresy now – Swallow gets to do these things without having to write the character into the story wholesale. The only exception is the portrayal of the EMPEROR OF MANKIND, but he’s a struggle to characterise generally.

Wiseacre

Nemesis is cool.

Well, Nemesis is “cool”.

It’s “cool” when Valedor points at gang members, saying 'And death, and death, and death…' as a distant sniper blows each bandit apart.

It’s “cool” when the elite team has to recruit another member who’s actively trying to kill them:

He will murder me in less than one hundred and ten seconds.’
The prediction was based on observing the other kills the Garantine had made. ‘Working,’ said the infocyte, a new urgency in his words.
‘Take your time,’ she replied.

It’s “cool” when they save the wrong side:

He gave a theatrical bow and addressed them. ‘A rescue,’ he snapped. ‘Consider it a gift from the ruler of Terra.’
‘Idiot.’ Kell’s words pierced the veil of his racing thoughts. ‘Look at their chest plates!’
He did so; all of the defence force soldiers wore the etched-out aquila that signified their rejection of the Emperor’s dominion.

Nemesis isn’t about finding wry humour in moments of danger or despair, it’s about using those moments as opportunities to be effortlessly cool. But what about the plot itself?

The investigation story featuring in the first half – junk. The efforts of the gumshoe detectives don’t matter because the main antagonist sweeps the pieces from the board without effort. And it isn't in the sense of “here’s a sobering reminder of what a harsh universe this is”. I genuinely think it was meant as a build up to show how dangerous Spear was, but the impact was as though Spear had spent several hours squashing cockroaches. For all the horror, it was tensionless – Spear never truly faced a threat that required the full extent of his power.

The reasons the assassins were on Dagonet and how they were going to get Horus there – junk. I’ve written many many times before about it not mattering that major plot points in the Horus Heresy are nonsensical, but this felt particularly egregious. It wasn’t plot serving the character, it was plot serving another “cool” scene of the actual assassination.

But…

…I found it cool. Mostly. Sometimes “cool” for sure, but Nemesis executes the set pieces well enough that I can forgive the lack of connective tissue between those set pieces. And, while the plot wobbles (or just plain relies on you agreeing with improbable statements), it gets there. Here’s the main threat – you can’t stop it. But maybe you can do something about this other threat, one that only ever needs to be brought up again as asides from other characters (like with Battle for the Abyss ). But for those characters, it matters and is a sense of achievement, even if the forces of Chaos end up literally atomising the planet and its inhabitants.

It’s cool that there is some meaning to the burgeoning faith in the Emperor as a God. Eventually that belief will weigh heavily on the Imperium, but not now, not while it is just faith rather than an ossified hierarchy, and faith moves the plot in interesting, if a bit fantastical ways.

There’s also an energy to Nemesis, as per the author’s afterword:

When you put writers in a room together, writers who are passionate about a storyline, at the top of their game, who are engaged and enthusiastic about their shared fictional world, what you get is a kind of synergy that is pretty damned amazing. Story ideas start to emerge out of nothing, and there’s a crackle of creativity in the air that can be thrilling. I hear musicians talk about the energy they get while jamming, and I know it’s the same thing.

And that makes Nemesis cool.

[Steve · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've recently finished the latest Horus Heresy novel by James Swallow (writer of Flight of the Eisenstein, another fantastic part of the series), Nemesis. It covers a plan by the Imperial assassin cults to send a team of assassins, one from each temple, to assassinate Horus. Of course, a plan is simultaneously put into motion by the traitors to send a vicious assassin to kill the Emperor.

I'll start out by saying that I really liked this book; it's a great addition to a great series. Sure, you know from the beginning that neither of the assassination plots succeed, but that's not really the point of the series. The main interest is seeing HOW it unfolds.

The assassins are covered very well, firstly because you get to see them in action. As the execution force is assembled, the group goes from location to location picking up assassins immediately after their previous missions have completed. Doing so, the reader gets to read about the missions while they are happening, to some effect. Sure, reading about a Vindicare sniping people isn't very interesting (and it's a little corny in the book), but reading about a Culexus (the anti-psyker) assassin in action from the Culexus' point of view was very interesting.

Also, you get to feel that the assassins are people, with real personalities (somewhat) and feelings and such, and you get to see how they interact with one another and how they view one another. They aren't portrayed as single-minded killers. It's especially interesting to read how the Eversor thinks when the focus is on him... ok, maybe one of them is a single-minded killer...

Finally, the book includes an operative from the Venenum and Vanus temples, who aren't really mentioned often in the 40K background otherwise; I think only in the Assassins codex from 3rd edition. They seem to be in there as plot devices, though, as opposed to being there for the necessity of their skills (although the Vanus obviously contributes quite a bit to the mission).

I don't have many complaints about the book, but there are two issues I have. First, I think the book jumps around too much, and not necessarily to the story's benefit. Generally, moving from one character's viewpoint to another can really help drive the story, but only if it's done for that goal. I don't feel that Nemesis is really written to fit with such a goal. There are two separate stories that are going on inside it, and although they are related, the jumping between the two probably should be done a little less frequently. Of course, that's my opinion, and I'm not a professional author.

The second one is very minor, and is more of a confusion than a complaint. There are two parts earlier in the book (one at the beginning, and one in the middle), where Horus could be involved, yet it seems like he's purposely kept apart from the action... then some of the characters directly interact with him at the end, and it really doesn't seem like there was a reason for it. It's probably solely because he wasn't really relevant to the story at that point, but it stuck out at me.

So there are a few things I want to also talk about, but of course, if you haven't read the book, you shouldn't read them. So stop reading if you only wanted a review!






**** SPOILER ALERT ****






The book gives a very clear hint that someone warned Horus about the assassination attempt, and even the First Chaplain is surprised that Horus was aware. There's some suggestion that it might be a spy in the Imperial Palace... but I think the implication is that the Chaos Gods are whispering directly to Horus. We know that when he assaults Terra, he's going to be significantly 'enhanced' by the Chaos Gods' gifts, so I suspect this is the start of them showing their favor to him. It certainly will make future dialogue/interactions with Horus more interesting.

The response from both the Emperor and Horus regarding assassins is one of the final parts of the book, but is very interesting. The Emperor declares a change from the Assassination clades to a more governed form (presumably the Officio Assassinorum), but defends the need to keep such a group because 'in the war to come, every weapon in the arsenal of the Imperium will be called to bear'. Horus, however, describes assassins as 'a tool of the weak'. I just found that rather fascinating- the noble Emperor using a backhanded means to try to end the war, with the traitorous Horus decrying a similar attempt by one of his allies.

I'm very excited to read the next books in the series- I can't wait!

(From my blog: http://boisterous-exuberance.blogspot...)

[Steve · Rating 3 out of 5]

When I first started reading the mainline Horus Heresy novels with Horus Rising, I had only the most rudimentary knowledge of Warhammer 30k/40k lore. Some of the foreshadowing of those early books was lost on me, because I wasn't more intimately familiar with the setting, but on the other hand, I was able to be surprised by revelations, character arcs, etc. because I didn't already know what was going to happen.

With Nemesis, even my rudimentary knowledge of the setting was enough to "spoil" the ending. Heck, even knowing that there are more books in the series beyond this is enough to spoil the ending. That would be fine if some interesting macro-level developments happened in the background - the macro, world-building parts are often the most interesting anyway - but there wasn't much of that either.

That said, I think this was one of the better-written entries in the series, and I could see it appealing to a wider audience than much of the Horus Heresy does (of note, this book managed to crack the NYT Bestseller list). Focusing on expertly-trained humans rather than superhuman Astartes allows for a sort of "middle ground," where you get to follow characters that are more emotionally relatable (well... some of them), while still getting to see them "do cool stuff."

It was a bit overlong, and not that noteworthy in the grand scheme of the series, but it was well written and enjoyable. Additionally, the last, post-climax chapter has some clever things to say about the setting, written with more subtlety than you often see in licensed fiction.

[Troy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This has gone down as one of my favorites. It was so interesting and so many things going on in this book. I was extra keen as there really isn't a lot of novels involving the assassins. I was real keen to get to read about the eversor in action and it didn't disappoint. I was very intrigued with the crime aspect through out the starting of the book also. We get assassins, astartes, creatures, primarchs. Bit of action from all of them. I picked it up for the assassins stories and was surprised how much else went on.

[Efraim · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m gonna go ahead and slap a five on this, not because it’s a literary masterpiece, but because it’s one of the most exciting books for me since the first few Horus Heresy stories. An “ultimate heist” in the making involving the best assassins in the galaxy mixed with a sci-fi crime mystery involving paranormal rites on a backwater world - what’s not to like? We get to see the perspective of some important figures in the Horus Heresy timeline, but maybe more importantly, we get to ground all the fantastical with some stories from the everyday, normal people.

[Arnis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Horusa sacelšanās jau ir miljoniem prasījusi to dzīvības un varbūt pat miljardu miljardi vēl nākotnē pirms viņu apstādināt. Bet, ja nu pastāvētu variants, iespēja, kā to visu novērst pirms vēl tā spēki sasnieguši Saules sistēmu un cilvēces dzimto planētu, ja nu varētu nokomplektēt specaģentu, īpaši trenētu slepkavu komandu, kuras uzdevumus būtu nogalināt Horusu, tādejādi apstādinot pilsoņkaru pirms tas vēl īsti sācies.

https://poseidons99.com/2024/10/17/ja...

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read the 13th book in the Horus Heresy series (in the Black Library suggested reading order). I really thought I would enjoy this one a great deal, being that it focuses on the Assassin Clades of the Warhammer 30/40k universe. It ended up not being as gripping or enjoyable as I thought it would be; I’m not sure exactly why, perhaps the characters weren’t recognizable or ‘likable,’ perhaps the pacing wasn’t so great...

But hey, it was still way better than ‘Battle for the Abyss!’

[Kdm · Rating 5 out of 5]

Assassins in all shapes and sizes, what's more you need? My favorites were Iota and the Garantine, but Spear also gets an honorable mention for being absolutely disgusting.

[Matej Houdek · Rating 4 out of 5]

All in, ballz deep for a miss.

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

A solid if not spectacular addition to the Horus Heresy series, Nemesis is still an entertaining read with further insights into the WH40K universe. The story follows two different perspectives; that of a group of Imperial assassins sent to kill Horus and also an opposing assassin sent to kill the Emperor.
The imperial assassins' storyline is fairly standard fair as the team is assembled, (one of each type of killer being introduced in series, adding two types of assassin not seen in the tabletop game) and proceeding with their mission. The interweaving story of the dark assassin as he works his way toward his objective is more interesting, (but more problematic in fluff terms - he is a pariah bonded with a warp creature, and I thought pariah's were anathema to anything from the warp, but that's just me being a Warhammer geek).
For fans of 40K I'm not giving anything away by telling you that both parties fail in their primary mission and the story climaxes in a battle between the imperials and the dark assassin. The plot moves fast and is well written, there is the obligatory cameos from some of the big 40k figures; Rogal Dorn, Erebus, Horus and best of all the Emperor himself get a few lines at last.
All in all I enjoyed it but it did not reach the quality of other books in the series (all right the ones by McNeil & Abnett).

[Graeme Noble · Rating 3 out of 5]

a good read, really enjoyed the characters and storyline. I find that it could quite of easily been a stand alone book and felt that it didn't really contribute much to the entire story arc, whilst having a few minor items that affect the entire story it could quite easily of been a normal Warhammer 40,000 book rather than part of the Horus Heresy. I felt that i wasn't disappointed with the characters deaths and actually expected them all the way through and unlike in other heresy books found that I wasn't eager for their return. this is unlike any other heresy book where you are excited for the characters return, such as Garviel Loken from Horus rising, Galaxy in flames and False gods.

overall a good read but i felt i could of skipped it out of the series and not have to worry.

[Taddow · Rating 4 out of 5]

For the most part, I have enjoyed James Swallow's books (though they have been limited to his works in the Horus Heresy and Sisters of Battle) and this book was no exception. I thought that it provided a good glimpse into the personalities of the Imperial Assassins (characters in the Warhammer 40K world that not much more it thought of other than their deadly ability to unleash death on the battlefield). With the more well know Assassin Clades, it was interesting to hear about the two other Clades and perhaps they might be the start of possible in game in rules for their use.

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

A solid read. Not among the greatest in the series, and the tie in to the Heresy isn't so tight you have to read it, but it's a cool look into a different aspect of the Imperium.

[Damien · Rating 2 out of 5]

As painful as it is for me to rate a Dan Abnett book low, I feel no other option here. I felt that Nemesis didn't add anything to the series. Certainly one of his poorer novels.

[Nick · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was expecting a let down. Assassins sent to kill Horus and a warp entity to kill the emperor, I mean we all know they won't right? I was expecting a waste of time, a filler book something to discard after finishing yet in stead I was pleasantly surprised to find a much more tense story then anticipated.

Off course, never at a point did I have that," could it happen despite the odds feeling" but still it was firmly along for the ride. The imperial assassins team consisted of fleshed out characters and even if their mission fails, it never came across as completely impossible there was an aura of possibility that surrounded their actions, just barely strong enough to maintain tension but hey, barely enough is enough at the end of the day. Even if I have to acknowledge in part the books exists to flesh out the imperial assassins characters and figurines but sometimes an elaborate advertisement can be worth it and here it was most definitively the case.

What did put me off at the beginning, was the other story. While the imperial side is pretty straightforward, the heresy side left me puzzled at first. We are taken to some minor world living in anticipated fear of the Warmasters arrival and I could for quite a bit understand why this mattered. I would love to talk more about it but doing so would ruin it for everyone else. I will leave it at; did not see a thing coming. For those like me wavering at this point in the book, hold on it really pays off. One thing that really does not sit well with me however, the structure of the book, every few paragraphs we switch stories and it is to much, the jumps are way way to frequent and does not help the readability of the book, I am glad they have toned that down a bit in later books.

In conclusion was this book a worthy entry in the Horus Heresy, no. To be completely honest, even after finishing and liking the book I still have to concur that this is but one example of why the Horus heresy series dragged on to long. I have said so before after finishing damnation of Pythos, there should have been a main event series and a side stories series. While damnation of Pythos hit the crowd at a moment of deep reader fatigue with the horus Heresy, this book hit the audience fairly early on, that is why it received far less ahum "damnation" from the readers. But in essence the books are similar; they are far more a story of the transformation of the universe to the 40k setting then they are of the Horus Heresy itself. I liked both of them because of it and that is why they should have been their own subseries where they could have stood proudly as their own thing. As it is now nemesis will always be overshadowed by the other books in the series.

[Mr Chuck · Rating 3 out of 5]

A day in the life of the Officio Assassinorum.

Horus has to die, so the Officio Assassinorum steps in and brings together the most lethal group ever created to bring down the Warmaster. Assassins from each top guild, professionals, killers, the best.
However, while this scheme builds there is also a plot to send in a being of incredible power to end (if it is even possible) the Emperor of Mankind.

I liked the different Guilds and how each character was so different in their tasks and beliefs, how spies and assassins are seen as but also, necessary.
It took a while to start and I never felt a real sense of danger but that's because I knew they weren't going to get Horus (oops spoilers) as there are another 40 books to go yet.

Read for fans of the Officio Assassinorum.

[Benjamin Zoumenou · Rating 3 out of 5]

Correct but not that great. The best assassins act like amateurs, their Intel is bad and their mission is a laughable failure. The big bad guy is really bad (so mean), and very powerful. Nothing happens for two third of the book

[Brien · Rating 3 out of 5]

The beginning and ending of this book are both great. A clean setup with a cool concept. A fantastic finish that leads into the next story, and builds on the legendary characters. The meat of the story drags on a bit too long, but is overall still a good and enjoyable story.

[Plinius · Rating 3 out of 5]

First and last chapters were noice. The middle was a big ol mumble jumble of what in the heck is going on

[Albert Mir · Rating 4 out of 5]

El libro "Némesis: La guerra en la sombra" de James Swallow tiene todos los elementos que hacen grande al universo de Warhammer 40K. Es puro Grim Dark

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyed Nemesis, great pacing, always enjoy a rag tag team up facing a big threat story. one of the better individual HH books.

[scott · Rating 2 out of 5]

For being the emperor’s personal secret assassins, and therefore the greatest in the galaxy presumably, they were pretty fucking stupid