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So I finally finished the opening trilogy of the Horus Heresy novels (which overall were better than I expected, but definitely tailed off in quality by the end of 'Galaxy in Flames'), and now I'm trying to decide which Heresy novel to read next. I have no desire to read all 12 of them (though I'll read all the Abnetts for sure), so I was wondering if anyone could give me a quick rundown of which events from the Horus Heresy are depicted in each book so I can make sure I get the whole main story. I'm particularly looking for the broad iconic events that were part of Heresy fluff before the novels existed. Please note: I don't care about spoilers in the least.

Here's an example of what I'm looking for, based on the novels I've already read:

HORUS RISING: Pre-Ullanor Luna Wolves.

FALSE GODS: Post-Ullanor Sons of Horus. Horus is tempted on Davin.

GALAXY IN FLAMES: Virus bombing of Istvaan III

Flight of the Eisenstein: Istvaan III from a different perspective

Descent of Angels: Pre and Early Crusade Dark Angels

Fulgrim: Good account of Istvaan V

Legion: Pre Istvan Alpha Legion. Quite a good book.

Mechanicum: Post Istvaan civil war on Mars (not my favorite thing in 40K, but an interesting read nonetheless)

Fallen Angels: Dark Angels between Istvaan III and V, with two distinct plots: The Lion and his small spearhead and Luther and all the exiles on Caliban. Rather interesting bits of background, if no masterpiece.

Tales of Heresy: Quite honestly, best thing in the series, even if it's just a collection of stories. Scions of the Storm, The Last Church and After Da'shea are absolutely marvelous.

Edit: Battle for the Abyss: Ultramarines versus Word Bearers around the time between Istvaan V and the siege of Terra. Passable reading since it doesn't actually focus on any specific legion.

I only recommend

Fulgrim

Legion

A thousand sons.

Tales of heresy is good cause it actually has something about angron.

And Mechanicum takes the cake as the worst book of the series.

EDIT I forgot the dark king lighting tower audio books. Theyre alright aswell. But I love the Night Haunter so that may be biased.

Shaman wrote:I only recommend

Fulgrim

Legion

A thousand sons.

Tales of heresy is good cause it actually has something about angron.

And Mechanicum takes the cake as the worst book of the series.

EDIT I forgot the dark king lighting tower audio books. Theyre alright aswell. But I love the Night Haunter so that may be biased.

P'shaw! Mechanicum is an awesome read. I love the Mechanicus though so I may be biased :p

The worst book is by far Battle for The Abyss - it's so meandering and boring, and doesn't feel like a HH novel.

However I would advise reading them all, as a series their awesome, and A Thousand Sons (which is my second favourite now) is blindingly brilliant!

Dark Lord Seanron wrote:

Shaman wrote:I only recommend

Fulgrim

Legion

A thousand sons.

Tales of heresy is good cause it actually has something about angron.

And Mechanicum takes the cake as the worst book of the series.

EDIT I forgot the dark king lighting tower audio books. Theyre alright aswell. But I love the Night Haunter so that may be biased.

P'shaw! Mechanicum is an awesome read. I love the Mechanicus though so I may be biased :p

The worst book is by far Battle for The Abyss - it's so meandering and boring, and doesn't feel like a HH novel.

However I would advise reading them all, as a series their awesome, and A Thousand Sons (which is my second favourite now) is blindingly brilliant!

+1 Mechanicum is just pure win. It really got me hyped about the Adeptus mechanicus and everything that has to do with them. Battle for abyss is mind numblingly dull, but then again is Fulgrim in my opinion

Battle for the Abyss is not just the worst HH book, but possibly the worst book I've ever read.

It has little to no connection to the main HH plotlines, doesn't tell you anything about any of the legions you don't already know, has a ridiculous and unbelievable plot and is badly written start to finish.

What it should have been is a gripping tale of starship combat between the Word Bearer and Ultramarine fleets at Calth, followed by the desperate rallying of the survivors by Guilliman.

What you get is a bizarre D&D-in-space adventure story of a plucky group of marines from different chapters trying to sabotage a new secret weapon (which happens to be the biggest battleship ever built) that's been nicked by Word Bearers (who obviously are rubbish marines because our heroes keep wading through loads of them). The inference is that if the ship made it to Calth, the Ultra's would have been totally defeated, whereas if it doesn't they'll merely be on the end of a right royal shoeing and be nearly defeated.

Sorry, I know that's a longer review than you asked for, but for gods sake SAVE YOUR MONEY by not buying this garbage!!!

Flight of the Eisenstein - The last loyalist Death Guard and Luna Wolves flee the Istvaan system to bring word to the Emperor of the Heresy. Starring Nathaniel Garro, Malcador the Sigillite and Leman Russ.

Fulgrim - A different perspective on the Istvaan affair, the dropsite massacres, the corruption of the Emperor's Children and the artists that serve them. Starring Fulgrim, Lucius and Ferrus Manus.

Descent of Angels - how Caliban and the Lion operated PRE-Heresy, set on pre-discovery Caliban with a little bit of post-heresy space marine action thown in at the end. Starring Lion El'Jonson and Luther. A lot of people seem to dislike this as it's set mainly pre-space marines and doesn't exactly paint the Lion in a good light, but I think it's a good book.

Legion - how the Alpha Legion operated pre-heresy, fantastic imperial guard interaction and possibly the REAL reason why the Alpha Legion sided with Horus. REAAALLY good book. Starring Alpharius. All of them.

Battle for the Abyss - useless SPASE MARIENZ HURR action rubbish about a collection of random sterotypes trying to stop the Word Bearer stealing the Death Star. Doesn't actually tie in with any other 30k stuff, apart from lip service towards Calth...

Mechanicum - the civil war on Mars, after the heresy has broken out. Really good Knight stuff, and interesting links to Other 40k Powers and their SECRETS...

Tales of Heresy - collection of short stories. Some really good and some ok, but generally a good collection. Includes - the end of religion on terra, the Adeptus Custodes, the Sisters of Silence, the Space Wolves, the World Eaters. Starring THE SPASE EMPERAAA.

Fallen Angels - set 50 years after Descent of Angels, highlights how the crusading Angels and the stay-at-home Angels have fallen apart from each other, and the start of rebellion on Caliban. People seem to generally prefer this to Descent of Angels, but to me this book was REALLY poorly written, and doesn't really cover much important. Starring the Lion.

A Thousand Sons - really good, and set over a huge period of time. Covers the Thousand Sons beliefs, looks back at their creation, their feud with the Space Wolves, the Council of Nikea, the discovery of the heresy by Magnus and his plan to warn the Emperor, the destruction of the Earth webway portal and the razing of Prospero. Starring Magnus, THE SPASE EMPERAAA, Leman Russ, with bit parts from Fulgrim, Sanguinius, Mortarion


REAL GOOD - Mechanicum, Legion, A Thousand Sons, Fulgrim

REAL BAD - Battle for the Abyss, Battle for the Abyss, Battle for the Abyss, Fallen Angels, Battle for the Abyss.

I would amend that both the Dark Angels books actually seem to become better if you already foster some dislike for the Lion

In that case, the epilogue for Fallen Angels is well worth putting up with a rather poor book, for making the Lion look like a complete glory hog and abysmal judge of character. Also, he's so useless, he's actually playing for the wrong team...

Thanks guys - that's v. useful. I think I'll go 'Flight of the Eisenstein' (which I actually already own), 'Fulgrim', 'Legion', 'Mechanicum', 'A Thousand Sons' and then get 'Tales of Heresy' at some point if I feel inclined.

Here's a question for anyone who's read 'A Thousand Sons': What do you reckon will happen in 'Prospero Burns'? Just a re-telling of the story from the Space Wolves' perspective, or is there more of the story to tell?

Also, what other major events in the Heresy need covering as of now? Personally, I think:

- Istvaan V from the loyalist perspective (assuming 'Fulgrim' tells the whole story from the traitor side?).
- Horus' initial attack on Terra.
- The siege of Terra.
- Horus vs. Sanguinius vs. The Emperor final showdown.
- Various legion-specific non-time-specific books.

Can anyone think of anything else that needs covering? The point I'm actually trying to get at is: how many more books do you think they'll stretch the series out to?

We already know about 'Nemesis' (assassins gunning for Horus/The Emperor), 'The First Heretic' (something about the Word Bearers - how they were first turned? Lorgar's plan for Erebus pre-Horus Rising?), 'Prospero Burns' and 'Age of Darkness' (more short stories).

cerebaton wrote:
- Istvaan V from the loyalist perspective (assuming 'Fulgrim' tells the whole story from the traitor side?).

Covered by Raven's Flight audiobook

cerebaton wrote:Can anyone think of anything else that needs covering? The point I'm actually trying to get at is: how many more books do you think they'll stretch the series out to?

Iron Warriors need some love. I really want to see how Perturabo ended up such a bitter bloke. Plus, the Iron Cage is simply "magnificent bastard" material, and deserving of a book of its own.

I enjoyed Legion.

Iron Cage would make an amazing novel! Proves there'd be life in the series after Horus is dead too.

I've been working my way through the Index Astartes articles in old issues of White Dwarf, and the Iron Warriors entry is particularly cool. The Imperial Fists article on the other hand is bizarre. It has a completely different tone to the rest of them and gives no info on what Dorn was up to before the Emperor found him. It seems to be the only one written solely by Pete Haines, who's primarily a rules guy, so that might be the reason.

I really love those Index Astartes articles though.

I'm really looking forward to The First Heretic, which is going to look deeply at the fall of Lorgar and The Word Bearers into heresy. It'll be interesting to see, as his parts in A Thousand Sons were quite cool as well.

And I would LOVE to see a World Eaters book, because although Angron is a psychotic maniac, his story in Tales of Heresy really developed his character into something quite tragic.

I've not read the story in 'Tales of Heresy' but I really love the tragedy of Angron and Kharn's relationship as depicted/implied in 'False Gods' and 'Galaxy in Flames'. I love the idea that Kharn isn't actually very keen on how aggressive Angron is, and has to look after him like a kid looks after their alcoholic parent or something.

Obviously the Heresy is supposed to be tragic, but I've been pleasantly surprised by just how much tragedy is crammed in to the first three novels!

cerebaton wrote:It seems to be the only one written solely by Pete Haines, who's primarily a git

Fix'd for you! Seriously, best example ever of why a developer should never be allowed to write the book for their favourite armies. See Chaos Code 3.5 for Iron Warriors, and Dwarf Army Book (late 6th Ed) for Fantasy.....

Other than that, do read all of them. I would agree that thus far, the only truly disposable one is Battle For The Abyss. Though hardly the worst book ever written, not much comes of it. Indeed

Currently only have Mechanicum to finish, then I shall be buying the two Dark Angel novels, which are a trilogy of two, so I figured it made more sense to read one after the other. One of the perks of coming to an epic series late!

Do read Eisenstein next though, as it could be considered a direct sequel to the Horus Rising trilogy.