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Hi

I have read 9 of the HH books - the first 4 plus DoA, fallen angles, mechanicum, thousand sons, prospero burns - I was wondering what book I should buy next ?

Which HH book deals in detail with the drop site massacre ? I am yet to read about it in detail

Is that limited edition book aurelian worth buying ?

Finally - if you were a primarch, which one would you be and would you stay loyal or go with horus ?

Read "Know No Fear" by Dan Abnett.

Thats the latest one - does it deal withthe drop site massacre in detail ?

No, it deals with the Word Bearer's betrayal of the Ultramarines at Calth.

Off of the top of my head, books that detail the DSM include:

Fulgrim- naturally, centering on the Emperor's Children fighting the Iron Hands, and the duel between Fulgrim and Ferrus Manus.

The First Heretic- centering on the Word Bearers during the fight.

Deliverance Lost- centering on the Raven Guard at the start of the book, mostly the immediate aftermath and escape from the system.


Here's hoping Salamanders get to have a book. Iron Hands too for that matter.

As for what Primarch? Either Vulkan or the Kahn. The former, because I love the uniqueness of him, and him wading in to battle with two hammers just seems awesome. The latter, because I love the idea of the rapid, fluid open-field combat that he brings to the table, rather than the more standard face-punch slugfest that usually accompanies Astartes fights.

I'm still relatively new to the 40K (30K?) universe, but I can't recommend The Last Heretic highly enough. If you follow it up with Know No Fear I don't think you'll be disappointed.

Which HH book deals in detail with the drop site massacre ? I am yet to read about it in detail

I have read 9 of the HH books - the first 4

As far as the ones I have read, these have the most DSM......so you kinda have read about it in detail.

For DSM you should read Fulgrim and the First Heretic. They are also HH books that are essential reading period as far as I am concerned. The two DA books were major disappointments to me. Legion is also one you need to read to understand most of what is going on in Deliverance.

Fulgrim has the Istavan V massacre in about as much detail from the traitor side. Im guessing the books dealing with iron hands raven guard and salamanders will have a bit more from the loyalist side.

I did feel a little repulsed from some parts of Fulgrim though, the prince of pleasure doesn't look so much fun to follow after that...

LEGION! It doesn't cover anything famous, but you REALLY should read it. Massive, game changing things happen. And generally considered to be one of the best HH books, or BL books for that matter...

The First Heretic is ok, and currently covers the Dropsite Massacre in the greatest detail, and is pretty standalone. So, another good choice.

Deliverance Lost covers it a little, but you shouldn't read that because
a. You really should read Legion for Deliverance Lost to make sense.
b. Deliverance Lost is really, amazing, really, really, BAD. I mean, terrible. Possibly even worse than Battle for the Abyss.

Darn - I Was going to buy battle for abyss today lol as my local GW is taking it off the shelves

I hope this thread keeps going - but I think today I will buy first heretic and legion - once I read them that means ill of read 11/16 books in the HH so far. SO you guys think I should skip battle of abyss and deliverence lost all together ?

What about aurelian, that limited edition one about lorgan and how he falls to chaos 70 years before the heresy - no good ?

PS only one of you fellas wants to be a primarch ?

Can't recommend Fulgrim highly enough. The book is long and deliberate in its portrayal of the Emperor's Children's fall from the pursuit of perfection to the pursuit of pleasure, in all it's sickening forms. Just an amazing read. If you're interested in the DSM, then you definitely get some goodies by the end of the book. This lead me to really appreciate Graham McNeill as an author.

As others have mentioned, Legion is also a must read, though it doesn't have to do with the DSM directly. That book made Alpha Legion go from a second rate afterthought of a legion (for me any who) to a legion with a terrific story line. Loved it.

First Heretic is also great. Gets you some more DSM action, and the story is just plain well done. Not sure how anyone can like Lorgar after that book though. He's just so.....ugh. Gets beaten like a redheaded step child and manipulated through the entire book.

Now, for what not to read: don't read The Outcast Dead till you've gone through the rest of the series/have nothing better to do. Picked up TOCD to read over spring break. Chose it over Redemption Lost because of the authors of both books: McNeill has been consistently good, and I can't stand Gav Thorpe. First book I've gotten to read in a while that isn't a text book....and it had to be that one. Story/plot wasn't horrid, but it seems like McNeill sent in a rough draft copy of the book and BL just printed it. About every 15 pages or so had to go back and re-read sentences that were missing words or just good ol' fashioned typos (ther instead of her is one that springs to mind). I was amazed they published the book in that condition. Could have been good, despite plot holes you can drive a truck through (2 custodians on guard duty in the entire prison?). However, the typos/misprints are so frequent and glaring they disrupt the entire pace of the book. Only redeeming quality: THUNDER WARRIORS!!

Haven't read Deliverance Lost yet, or Know No Fear, so can't comment on them (and won't be able to till after school...stupid research proposal).

TL;DR version
Read Fulgrim, then First Heretic for DSM material. Then read Legion, cause it's more than worth it.
Read Fulgrim, then Legion, then First Heretic if you're just looking for good books.
Put off The Outcast Dead till you have nothing better to do.

Sounds good - Ill definatly be taking note of what has been said in this forum; I was also re-arranging my HH books just now while reading dakka

In future when I want to re-read the series - which order do you guys rekon would be best ?

I am currently thinking;

Aurelian
First Heretic
Thousand Sons
Prospero Burns
Then the 4 official books in a row
Fulgrim
Descent of angles
Fall of angles (both DA books were dissapointing to me - but I guess they are leaving it open for more books to talk about the lions campaigns and return to caliban n the ensuing war)
Mechanicum
Legion
into the abyss
battle of calth

You might find it hard to read Aurelian if you don't already have a copy as it isn't on sale any more and any copies on ebay are likely to be incredibly over priced. Although if you can get hold of a copy it is well worth the read.

As for Deliverance lost, I quite liked it. While it isn't in the same league as Legion or many of the other books it seems to be one of those hit or miss books with people. Either you like it or not, but read it if you find Legion interesting as it continues the Alpha Legion storyline

As for your timeline for the books, really Thousnad Sons and Prospero Burns should go after the 4 official books as the main events (the fall of Prospero) takes place after the events of those 4. But having said that, given how so many of the books jump around between events that take place decades apart its almost easier just to read them in the order they came out (with the exception of the two Dark Angels books which are better read together)

Quick qeustion, which one of the series deals with Sanguinius and the Blood Angels?

As of yet no specific book has been published dealing with them, however one is sceduled to be released this year dealing with the events on Signus prime and their betrayal by Horus

http://www.blacklibrary.com/all-products/fear-to-tread.html

I place my vote with the First Heretic for the most about the Dropsite massacre although it doesn't really focus too much on it.

I might suggest Raven's Flight the audio drama. It does not focus on the Drop Site massacre but the entire story is about the aftermath with the Raven Guard fleeing around Istvaan. I don't think any book will focus too much on the massacre save for maybe a Salamanders or Iron Fist novel. And I am of the same notion. I really hope they get a book soon.

Anyone else wondering if the Scars will be getting a book? So far they have seen the least attention IMHO.

I would say read the first four back to back, from there you can almost go any order you like.
It is advised however to read Legion before Deleverance Lost and Descent of Angels before Fallen Angels.
A Thousand Sons and Prespero Burns forms a third pair though order of reading doesn't matter much.

My personal favorites so far are definitely Legion and Mechanicum. Great stories.

But all in all I personally like all of them (even Battle of the Abyss though it wasn't the best book) and I cannot understand why some people hate this series.
Could anyone enlighten me?

I did this in another thread, it needs a tweak though as it hasn't got all the books in and some of the recent ones have changed where others are.

Pilau Rice wrote:It's very difficult to place each of the series in a chronological order as most have events that happened before the heresy began, Fulgrim has the encounter with the Laer, Prospero Burns has lots of life of Fenris way before the heresy. But a rough order of books with events happening at or during the same time would be:

Pre Heresy:
The Last Church (Tales of Heresy)
After Desh’ea (Tales of Heresy)
Descent of Angels
Call of the Lion (Tales of Heresy) + Wolf at the Door (Tales of Heresy) + Legion + Promethean Sun
The Dark King
Horus Rising
Scions of the Storm (Tales of Heresy) + The Voice (Tales of Heresy)

Heresy begins:
False Gods
A Thousand Sons + Prospero Burns + Battle for the Abyss
Fallen Angels

Battle of Istvaan III
Galaxy in Flames + Flight of the Eisenstein

Battle of Istvaan V
Mechanicum
The First Heretic + Fulgrim
Ravens Flight (Audio)


After Istvaan V
Deliverance Lost
Know no Fear ( ) + Butchers Nails (Audio) + Garro: Oath of Moment (Audio)
Aurelian
Garro: Legion of One (Audio)
Nemesis + The Lightening Tower + Blood Games (Tales of Heresy) + Rules of Engagement (Age of Darkness) + Liar's Due (Age of Darkness) + Rebirth (Age of Darkness) + Little Horus (Age of Darkness) + Forgotten Sons (Age of Darkness) The Last Remembrancer (Age of Darkness) + The Iron Within (Age of Darkness) + Savage Weapons (Age of Darkness) + The Face of Treachery (Age of Darkness)


I think

Edit: Added in Deliverance Lost, Know no Fear and Butchers Nails. I haven't listened to the latter, but from what I have heard it's coinciding with the battle of Calth.

Bear in mind that Aurelian is no longer officially on sale, you will need to buy a copy from ebay so expect to be bitten by the ebay sharks who bought the book initially for that purpose.

They have stated though that the novellas previously only released in limited edition form will go on sale as part of another anthology within 2 years or so. So, probably about 18 months or so from now, I would recommend waiting for now and getting through the rest of the series in the meantime!

Also, did you mention you have read the original trilogy? Specifically Horus Rising, False Gods, and Galaxy in Flames? They are the foundation from which the rest of the Heresy series has been written, I would definitely read those first if you haven't done so already. Also, I would put Horus Rising as one of Abnett's top 3 Heresy books (along with Legion and Prospero Burns).

I would put Horus Rising as one of Abnett's top books, period, that is a really nice piece of writing and an sets up the beginnings of the heresy really well.

I'd also recommend it as a good starting point for people new to the 40k universe.

I'd go with Fulgrim for the DSM, Legion for some amazing background and definitely avoid Battle for the Abyss. it's utterly pointless and IMO poorly written.

I'd recommend Know no Fear

Btw i'm planning on buying Mechanicum, just wanted to ask if Sigismund is one of the leading characters in the book or not

He is the leading space marine in the book - but space marines only feature in like 2 chapters of a 400 page book lol

That being said Mechanicum is a great book imho. Some people do not like it but how could people not love gigantic war machines tearing at each other.

It's a wonderful book in terms of describing the change than happens between the 30k and 40k universe. You see the end of the rational, scientifically progressive Imperium and the movement towards what it would eventually become.

I think even Battle for the Abyss, despite it's comic-book, cackling protagonists is worth a read as it shows the relationship between the different Legions, and the cracks that would eventually drive a wedge between them.

The World Eater character redeemed Battle for the Abyss in my eyes. He had more depth than the typical characitures associated with that legion.