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Hey guys and girls i have just finished reading a newer battle book, ' Legion of the Damned' written by Rob Sanders. I haven't read any of his material before i'm not sure what other books he has written but his writing is solid. The way he describes things reminds me of ABD. The setting he
paints for the reader gives you that underworld style like ABD as well. The book is an average length and starts you at the end of the book and rewinds. Not having read anything Imperial fists before ( other then Rynns world ) this book gives you insight to Rogal Dorn. And his suffering and
characters flaws / life etc. You learn about a chapter curse that happens after the Emperor is on the throne. I'm not sure if its just the Excoriaters chapter but all marines of dorns blood are cursed and frequently feel and go through the ' curse' they feel the regret and sorry and agonry that Rogal Dorn went through upon seeing the Emperor mangled and bloody, including everything he felt afterwards. You get a short and sweet history lesson about the Imperial fists at the battle of the iron cage on skallthrax i believe sorry needs citing. You learn about the battle, its outcome and what happens to the Legion afterwards, you learn about the Excoriaters Chapter in this book mainly and there struggles with the Alpha legion. As the book progresses you learn of the Excoriaters customs etc. Very cool imo, refreshing, slightly similar to salamander tributes and traditions to ' scaring of the flesh ' . Ive also never read about the legion of the damned before which i really enjoyed, i'm not going to say anything other then wow. You get a history lesson about the ' Feast of Blades ' and its intended purpose. You also learn about other chapters you may have heard about but never realized were chapters of dorns blood. For example i had no idea the firelords were dorns 'kin' . I also never knew the red templars or white templars existed. Cool things like that made the book a great learning curve, with a new but the same grim dark setting with powerful and emotional story of bravery like ive never read before, after finishing this book it has become my new favorite. I highly recommend this book!!

edit - Guys i completely forgot to mention KHORNE. If you are a chaos fan boy and love khorne this book is a must, it has Furies, chaos tyranids, YES thats correct KHORNE TYRANIDS . It has the famous World eaters and a dozen other chaos war bands. One of the main villains is a world eater named Umbragg, Khorne champion of the Brazen flesh warband, He has two chain axes named Pain and Suffering. He was a chosen of Angron. He has fought against the Emperors children on daemon worlds, he was at Doombreeds side, killed with Skarbrand, fought beside Kharn, and was with Angron at the battle for Terra, fought in every black crusade, and was with Angron at the dominion of fire the first war for Armageddon. This guys resume is damn impressive!

I have to say I like the book too, so much so I started an Excoriators army!

The history it gives about all the IF successors is great, most people view the Iron cage as a mistake for them but the book shows it was a transformation.
Plus it's always cool to read about the Legion of the Damned.

just a tip: you may want spoiler tags for those that haven't read the book yet

I didn't like it. I bought if so I could read about the Legion of the Damned kicking ass and taking names, instead I got eight pages of the Legion doing stuff and the rest of the story about some IF successor that the author made up just for the book.

Dont all writers make up characters to write stories? And games workshop wants fans to make up their own stories, how can you read this book and not like it? Its slowish at the start but the last 200 pages or so is none stop Khorne action with immense blood shed, and so many awesome characters giving it their all and people are dying so heroic its like band of brothers in 40k man. I think you were "wedgie d " while you read the book tbh

Its probably my favorite Rob Sanders book to this point. He got away from all the things I disliked about Redemption Corps (intresting characters, mangling the Sisters of Battle, etc.) and the pacing and set up were great. I don't mind the fact the Legion played such a minor role in it, because they were clearly intended to be in the background - their motivations and purpose for using the Excoriators this way (or rather what's his name) were suitably mysterious. I don't mind admitting I was s urprised when they materialized at the end and started kicking butt like that.

What's more, it was a suitably non-grimdark ending without being all nicey nice. Horrible things were done and lots of people died and war is horrible and all that, but a miracle occured to save the Imperium.. blah blah.

Yes i completely agree, and i cant stop thinking about the marines who died so damn epically, it was inspiring to read about, the courage and actions so many of them took was just amazing. And their is heroism and space marines characters like such in every Heresy or 40k book, but not like the legion of the damned. Which says something.

Also the legion of the damned was very well played.

I really enjoyed it.

I liked the characters
I liked that the Sisters of Battle were both effective and not just there to die - although some do - they die well.
I liked that the Legion stay mysterious
The cards were cool

woah woah woah- chaos tyranids? When was that? I enjoyed the book but I definitely missed those.

The first wave of insect - iods they are described just like bugs and tyranids / aliens. especially the huge beast thats like the size of a damn football field