Book review: The Flight of the Eisenstein

content/reviews/books/the-flight-of-the-eisenstein.md

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+title = "The Flight of the Eisenstein - James Swallow"
+date = 2020-01-17
+
+[taxonomies]
+tags = ["books", "reviews", "horus heresy", "warhammer 40000", "sci", "james swallow"]
++++
+
+[GoodReads Summary](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/80155.The_Flight_of_the_Eisenstein):
+Having witnessed the events on Istvaan III, Deathguard Captain Garro seizes a
+ship and heads to Terra to warn the Emperor of Horus's treachery. But the
+fleeing Eisenstein is damaged by enemy fire, and becomes stranded in the warp.
+Can Garro and his men survive the depredations of Chaos and get his warning to
+Terra in time?
+
+<!-- more -->
+
+{{ stars(stars=1) }}
+
+ How do you tell a following story that takes over from another one, one that
+ feels somewhat complete, one that, even when discussing several events, have
+ at least one that goes to conclusion? One solution is to continue the story
+ from the point the previous one completed, but one could try to push the
+ story further by picking one of those events and showing another point of
+ view of something readers already know how it will end, being careful to not
+ build any suspense on what will happen, 'cause the reader knows what it will
+ end and you end up with just a bunch of text that it is just boring as heck
+ to read.
+
+Another thing one should take care is to not build long sentences that just
+keeps going on and on that add very little except burn the reader time, like
+pointing out that long sentences burn the reader time, instead of going
+straight to the point, avoiding running around the point, with no care about
+that amount of information per sentence you're adding.
+
+And, still, you get all those here.
+
+Indeed, from one of the several events that happened in "Galaxy in Flames",
+the author picked on of the things that happens in the sidelines (which get
+some spotlight, in the end) and try to build a whole story out of it, kind
+like "Shadow of the Giant" is built on the side-story of Ender's Game. But
+while Shadow of the Giant, while still entangled with Ender's Game, have very
+small touching points, about 60% is exactly what happened in "Galaxy in
+Flames". Worse, with so much touching surface, the author decided to create on
+suspense on what will happen to the nominal ship: Will it survive the attack
+from Horus forces? Will they manage to get away? OF COURSE IT WILL, Galaxy in
+Flames told us that they escape, so why are you making a huge fuss about the
+amount of damage they are taking, like they won't be able to take away?
+
+And there is also the long sentences that provide very little information with
+a huge amount of words, which completely break the speed of the story. Think
+about the longest, most boring line, with the most duplicate information, in
+the middle of a battle. How would you feel about the battle speed?
+
+Honestly, it's not that "Horus Heresy" is a masterpiece of literature, but the
+series could surely survive without this book.