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I've just started Horus Rising, and have the next 3 books on order, but given the scope of the Heresy series there's a lot to come and I have a few questions:

1) Are there any books that are it's essential to read in a certain order or close together? I know the first three form something of a trilogy, and the others I figured need to be read in order are Descent of Angels and Fallen Angels, Prospero Burns and A Thosand Sons, and Know No Fear and Mark of Calth (although I won't get that far for a while). Are there any others?

2) Are there any books that are boring or not worth reading, and that skipping wouldn't ruin the narrative? With limited funds I don't want to be wasting cash on bad novels.

Thanks in advance.

I would argue the first five books should be read in order.

If you're cost conscious, here is the skip-list:

Tier 1 - Under no circumstances read this novel, even if you win the lottery.
Battle For the Abyss.

Tier 2 - These novels are poor and/or irrelevant to the greater HH narrative.
Fallen Angels
Descent of Angels
The Outcast Dead
Deliverance Lost
Vengeful Spirit
Vulkan Lives
Damnation of Pythos


I personally don't care for Betrayer, Prospero Burns, or Legion, but mileage may vary. Abnett and ADB are competent writers, but those books fell short of the mark.

Thanks guys.

I'll certainly read the first few in order, I wasn't sure I'd bother with Fulgrim but Tarvitz had grown on me enough, that if it's important to the narrative then I think I'll enjoy it.

In thinking I'll read the Angels and Prospero ones just as I play DA and SW so already have an interest in them.

Out of interest, why is Battle for the Abyss so bad?

Terrible characters, REALLY terrible villain, and until very recently, was completely pointless to anything else going on.

Also can agree with the above list of Tier 2 stories only.

Well, I found both Dark Angels books to be cool. Both made me feel the medieval atmosphere of Caliban. The first one is more interesting.

Deliverance Lost as well - I didn't care much about Raven Guard before reading it... and now it's my favorite loyalist legion.

Outcast Dead is nice if you like 'commando' stories. It has glaring continuity problems, though. It's more like a sidereading.

I found Eisenstein to be terribly boring, but it's important to the story. Battle for the Abyss wasn't that bad for me, but aside the Thousand Sons character, it lacks perspective.

Actually, Outcast Dead's continuity "problem" is very thoroughly explained in the audio short, "Wolf Hunt," There's no issue with it.

What's wrong with Vengeful Spirit? I really liked it.

Was gonna say I've heard nothing but good things about Vengeful Spirit.

This will be my pick of basically the main story, and also some very good reads regardless

books 1-3
5. fulgrim visions of heresy
12. thousand sons all is dust
14. the first heretic- this is awesome
23. angel exterminatus, reading about the fulgrim in this is lol'worthy
24. betrayer
27. unremembered empire is cool, sort of takes a break from the terribly written fight scenes
29. vengefull spirit, is boring and unnesecary but nonetheless ok to re-engage with SOH and the big fella

but really only 1-3 i find are actually really really good, the others waffle on a bit, but if you only read 1-3 you'll be fine with the story

unless you want to learn every inane detail

Thanks again!

Just one more question: do the books that relate to the audio dramas (such as Betrayer to Butcher's Nails) make sense without the audios? I have little interest in audio dramas, but some of the follow up books look good.

Read them all, you might enjoy ones that others don't like. I don't like Fulgrim, but its said by many to be one of the best offerings.

Battle of the Abyss is pretty bad, but it has its merits. Its description of space battles is done well as is its depiction of the warp.

Nemesis doesn't really do much to the series, but is one of the better books.

I'd also skip the dark angels books, the short stories are good, but the two novels are horrific and i wish i didnt waste my time reading them( im a huge dark angels fan)

Vengeful Spirit was a poor one for me, it involves the Sons of Horus attacking a knight world, and it got to the point where I was skipping half the battle scenes in it. It's just fighting and wiping out characters and factions I really couldn't have given less fraks about. Only thing that kept me reading was to see what happened with the Knights Errant and how their mission played out.

 angelofvengeance wrote:
Was gonna say I've heard nothing but good things about Vengeful Spirit.

Where to start?

Shameless product tie in. "Hey look, we sell Knights now! Check out this brand new book perfectly timed to the release of the new Knight models!"
Two dimensional, mustache twirling cardstock villains.
Nonsensical battles that make no sense when examined in conjunction with one another. The Space Marines suffer so many casualties, the Traitor Legions would never have been able to fight again.
Ludicrous side plot where Garro and Friends depart on a suicide mission, fail (obviously, or the HH sotry ends, lol) and then luckily survive to fight another day.


It wasn't irredeemably awful. It's just completely skippable.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 sierra 1247 wrote:
Vengeful Spirit was a poor one for me, it involves the Sons of Horus attacking a knight world, and it got to the point where I was skipping half the battle scenes in it. It's just fighting and wiping out characters and factions I really couldn't have given less fraks about. Only thing that kept me reading was to see what happened with the Knights Errant and how their mission played out.

I skipped so much of Vengeful Spirit because it wasn't interesting that Fulgrim showing up at the end was a surprise, and wouldn't have been if I'd bothered to read the sections he was included in, lol.

I liked the Dark Angel books, and the Outcast Dead was really, really good in my opinion.

 Pilau Rice wrote:
Read them all, you might enjoy ones that others don't like.

That's the plan eventually, I've just got a lot of catching up to do and wouldn't want to skip anything vital even if I go back to it later.
Thanks again for the pointers.

 Veteran Sergeant wrote:
Shameless product tie in. "Hey look, we sell Knights now! Check out this brand new book perfectly timed to the release of the new Knight models!"

This is the only part I'll refute because Molech has always been a Knight World and was always involved in the Horus Heresy since it was first introduced in White Dwarf 190.

I'll also refute one minor thing, Garro wasn't in it

I kinda see your points but I thought it was very good. I loved the Knights Errant mission, and the climax of that was awesome. The Knight product tie in doesn't bother me at all, I'm not really sure why that's an issue. Maybe how it was implemented you might not like but the fact it features Knights just as a Knight model was released, is that really a big deal?

In terms of essentials though, probably; the first 5, Prospero Burns and Thousand Sons, Know No Fear, Fear To Tread, First Heretic... They kinda cover the main events I think? (The corruption of the Word Bearers, the fall of Horus, Istvaan 3 and 5, Prospero, Calth and Signus.)

Many of them have stuff in that comes up as important later on, or important in side stories. For example, although Deliverance Lost if a fething awful novel, it does explain what happens to the Raven Guard after the Heresy. So, up to you if you want to put yourself through reading it.

Similar story with the two Dark Angels books, The Outcast Dead (which fills in a lot about the Crusader Host and Thunder Warriors), Vengeful Spirit (just how does Horus become so powerful he can fight the emperor??), Mechanicum (which seems unimportant but may well have massive connotations later) etc etc.

The only ones that I think are totally irrelevant are Damnathion of Pythos, Nemesis and Battle for the Abyss.