I expected this book to read like amateur fan fiction and the best that I was hoping for was to be able to say that 'it was good for fan fiction'. This was not the case. The book is excellently written, tense when it needed to be and relaxing when it didn't. The character development really draws the reader in and is especially clever from the point of view that the reader becomes very drawn to characters that he knows will ultimately become evil.
It's reputation of being much better than expected is well earned
I heard the first tome of Horus Heresy surprises by being much better than expected, but I was still surprised how good it turned out in the end. Interesting characters, just the right amount of heroism, combined with good background behind entire galaxy falling into the grim, dark fantasy of 40K... And excellent writing by Abnett to top it off. 5/5, highly recommended.