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Vengeful Spirit is the latest mmpb to be released in the Horus Heresy series and it’s quite a meaty one at that. But does its extra girth make it a better read, I’m not sure. It starts off well, focussing on Horus, his Sons and brother Primarchs, Fulgrim and Mortarion. But from there, woah, does it get busy. There are suicide Blood Angels, Knights in Knights and lots of local wildlife.

The story starts off on Dwell in a place where you can talk to the dead. Horus learns that long ago he traveled with his father to a world called Molech where the Emperor made him, his brother Primarchs and their Legionnaires forget why they had traveled there. What else is suspicious to Horus is the amount of Imperial firepower left to guard a seemingly worthless planet. He is then rudely interupted by Shadrak Bloody Meduson and a battle breaks out. After the battle is done Horus makes his way to Molech.

if it concentrated on Horus’ journey and the battle there when he reached Molech it wouldn't be such a busy book. But we also have the Wolf Kings plan to send the Knights Errant to the Vengeful Spirit and mark the way for him to get to Horus and tear the throat from him. Not only that but we also have the fall of the Knights of Molech which we saw begun in the short story The Devine Adoratrice. And another perpetual!

I think it probably would have worked best done in 2 separate books, one from Dwell to the end of the Battle of Molech and the other from Terra to the showdown with Horus aboard the Vengeful Spirit. The story for the battle of Molech would certainly be chunkier, but I feel that they would have been able to give it more depth as much of it felt rushed in my opinion. Black Library do like their limited run and ebooks and the Knights Errant story would have made a pretty good short one.

I’m not going to give too much away in the progression of the story and what happens, but mainly what bugged me. First off, some of it seemed very circumstantial. On Dwell we see Horus enlist the aid of Fulgrim and Mortarion with little explanation. Fulgrim shows up later as the White Naga and proves to be the eventual downfall of the Knights of Molech. Mortarion is reunited with Ignatius Grulgor who is now the host of the Life Eater Virus. Both of these are pivotal to Horus winning the battle. But how does he know? How does he know about the Serpent Cult and their White Naga worship and how does he know that Grulgor will come back there and then. Is he relying on the Dark Gods? After the events of Fear to Tread and his speech to Erebus about it being his war I would like to think not, but how then? The dead of Dwell could know about the Serpent Cult so ok, but Grulgor coming back to life?

Fulgrim just kind of disappears for most of the story, no mention of how he gets to Molech, he’s just there. Another short story perhaps?

The Knights of Molechs turn from being good guys to bad guys. I was surprised to see and actually pleased to see Raeven as the good guy here, strong enough to resist the temptations of Slaanesh. But was this really needed? It would just have been as good having his fall as having Albard rejuvenate and fall anyway. There was quite a big thing made about how Raeven was able to move about and might escape the clutches of his brother, but then he was in a ditch, dead. Why the build up for such an anti-climatic demise. Then after they bring done a Titan, an Imperator I would like to add, they are seen cavorting in the streets killing innocents, that’s it. That could be enough, but after such a big thing, surely a scene involving Albard would be something after just having taken down the great beast. Just seems like another waste and a casual explanation just to have it.

Samus again makes an appearance, yawn, as does the Red Angel. I remember seeing the Red Angel for the first time in the Blades of the Traitor picture from Collected Visions and being interested and wanting to find out the truth behind this character. I honestly wish they hadn’t bothered as he is one of the most pointless to come out of the series. When in series Characters are taking the piss out of them you just know they shouldn’t be there. I get the joke, it’s just not a particularly funny one. Hopefully, we get to see the Red Angel do something later on, maybe in a book where he is seen guiding Horus on his trials, leading his Daemon armies and getting the strength to beat the Emperor.

The Ultramarines and the Blood Angels, why are they even there? They weren’t one of the Legions mentioned to have travelled there with the Emperor before. I guess that’s why they were stationed there. Because if they had left one of the other Legions who had been there they might try to find out why they can’t remember I guess. But then if they had just left marines from a chapter that had been there, but hadn’t been there at the time, you could have made it seem that everything was ok with no sinister meaning. Hmm, it must be ok because I assigned legionnaires to stay behind thought Horus/Fulgrim/Jaghatai/Lion. The Suicide Blood Angels as well, I just don’t see it. Once again I know why they did it, it just doesn’t seem a very Astartes thing to do. In Fear to Tread again there weren't any self impaling Blood Angels from what I can recall. They might as well just not had bothered having any Astartes mentioned had the defence composed entirely of the Imperial forces stationed there. It was just away to get the Red Angel there and give him something to do.

And we also have another perpetual. In the scheme of things the four we have had so far is a grain of sand on a beach that is the Imperium, but bloody hell, another one.

Ok, that’s the things that bugged me out of the way. The best part of the story for me was the Knights Errant and seeing them in action. Was good to see Qruze again out and kicking ass. I also liked the discussion between Maloghurst and Horus about who the best tactician, I think it was, is. It was also nice to see Ferrus so close to Horus at the time

That might not seem a lot, but it’s surprising how much of the Knights was in the book , hence my reasoning from earlier on. It’s not a bad book it just had far too much stuff going on in it in my opinion and suffered for it. There was lots of things given half attention.

Now some questions for you guys and some points that I am not so sure on, I don’t have the book with me at the moment so I might already know but thought on these when I was writing this.

How were the Ultramarines aware of what was happening in Ultramar?

What was Mersadies message to Qruze all about? I think it means the end part where he says something to Loken about Horus betraying them all. But from the drama that can’t be it, I was expecting some big speech to Loken .

This book sounds terrible.

I gave up on the HH for two main reasons:

(1) unjustified price hike

(2) questions are only answered with more questions

The book wasn't terrible. The series is starting to get a bit bloated as the plot tries to keep up with itself. I think it'll work out tho.

Price is the same isn't it- you just have to wait months and months for the paperback.

the biggest mystery is surely the underlying message of "murder" .what could it mean?!

Surely not the planet with the megarachnid...

It's not terrible. But it's also not worth reading. Two dimensional characters, slow pacing, lots of filler, one of its main plot threads ended with convenient plot device so everyone lives to fight another day.

It's a lot of Primarch Porn. Some shameless product tie-in with the release of the Knights models. Grand, sweeping and ultimately nonsensical battle scenes.

This book serves no purpose other than to sell Knight models and eventually deliver the Heresy storyline to some (apparently) pivotal scene where Horus is trying to get access to a macguffin that will do a thing for him. But we don't find out what that thing is, so you might as well wait for the next book.

It isn't terrible, it's just not a need to read. It could have been if, like I said, they actually decided to concentrate on one thing and not add so much to it. A lot of it was so unnecessary and just seemed like filler and trying to make it cooler(?) than it was.

Captyn_Bob wrote:
The book wasn't terrible. The series is starting to get a bit bloated as the plot tries to keep up with itself. I think it'll work out tho.

Price is the same isn't it- you just have to wait months and months for the paperback.

The price went up from 7.99 to 8.99, in the case of Vengeful Spirit it's not so bad as it was a meatier book.

Captyn_Bob wrote:
the biggest mystery is surely the underlying message of "murder" .what could it mean?!

Surely not the planet with the megarachnid...

Yes! This is what I think, I think it might be something to do with the Red Angel and how to kill it. They possibly might find out the his name and use it to banish him.

 Veteran Sergeant wrote:

This book serves no purpose other than to sell Knight models and eventually deliver the Heresy storyline to some (apparently) pivotal scene where Horus is trying to get access to a macguffin that will do a thing for him. But we don't find out what that thing is, so you might as well wait for the next book.

This might be true, but as a Chaos player who would love to have a House Divine Knight, I can't actually field one properly. So it doesn't really help at all.

I didn't quite get the Tormageddon thing as well and Loken trying to free Tarik. Does Tormageddon posses Tarik's soul because Erebus used his Geneseed to summon him? How does that work as I thought the twin soul thing you had to posses the body?

I enjoyed it on the whole, some bits I really liked, others were a bit meh.....

enjoyed the non marine characters - the Knight Household story and characters were nice and twisted - some of the best bits in the book imo.

I like the new perpetual - much more than previous ones as she actually seemed to have a life and a bit more control/purpose and didn't seem to be Cabal who I find really really annoying - whether she should now be reporting back to Terra?

The Stormeagle Ambush was good, but I thought Mortarion was a bit wasted later.

The battles were odd, some good bits - I liked the whole - "go on then shoot me pathetic mortal - so she does with Volkite but the swathes of Traitors being scythed down does not seem to matter in any way.

Too many (again) plot shielded Marine characters for me, need to really start killing some of them!

I thought the Blood Angels and Ultramarines were a bit pointless except to provide "worthy kills".

The "Grey Knights" strike team was ok I guess but again not very interesting apart from the Space Wolf getting upset that others knew their secret signs - which was funny.

The writers seem to be trying too hard to take the next step in the Heresy. This glacial pace of plot development will cause stagnation in characters that were hyper-developed within a book or two(Horus) and eventually cause an apathy in the readership similar to what we have now with 40k books.

 Veteran Sergeant wrote:
ISome shameless product tie-in with the release of the Knights models. Grand, sweeping and ultimately nonsensical battle scenes.

This book serves no purpose other than to sell Knight models and eventually deliver the Heresy storyline to some (apparently) pivotal scene where Horus is trying to get access to a macguffin that will do a thing for him. But we don't find out what that thing is, so you might as well wait for the next book.

You do realize that the battle described in the book wasn't something new that was made up for the IK codex right? the battle of Molech was introduced back in issue 190 (UK) of white dwarf.
Furthermore this was hardly the first HH novel where Knights played a fairly pivotal role (you DID read Mechanium right?) I'm sure there was some product tie in involved but I'd hardly say that the novel was purely a tie in. It's noted as a reasonably important battle before the seige of terra. As for the Mcgruffin, I figured out what it is and what it means pretty easily eneugh. We know that by time he faced the Emperor Horus was the chosen of the Chaos gods and had been granted "UNLIMITED COSMIC POWER!"

The Battle of Moloch was a fine plot point to make a book out of, it was just executed poorly.

- The entire grey knights story was 100% rushed and pointless. You can take that entire plot line and remove it and the book functions the same. Hell, it doesn't even matter in the larger 40k plotline.

- Zero logical explanation of how the Space Wolves got back to terra in the first place.

- The significance of Horus' find and ascenion happened completely off screen which is just lazy writing. So many great issues could have been tied up here like what the emperor promised to the chaos gods and other 40k mysteries. Instead it was super anti-climacic, Horus just pops out and goes yep, I'm awesome.

- The Blood Angels were treated horrible and the Ultramarines were glorified for no reason.

- Grulgor is now theoretically the most powerful being in the setting for no reason. He could destroy an entire planet by simply being there. Dumb.

- The fall of house Devine was the only well executed point.

BrianDavion wrote:

 Veteran Sergeant wrote:
ISome shameless product tie-in with the release of the Knights models. Grand, sweeping and ultimately nonsensical battle scenes.

This book serves no purpose other than to sell Knight models and eventually deliver the Heresy storyline to some (apparently) pivotal scene where Horus is trying to get access to a macguffin that will do a thing for him. But we don't find out what that thing is, so you might as well wait for the next book.

You do realize that the battle described in the book wasn't something new that was made up for the IK codex right? the battle of Molech was introduced back in issue 190 (UK) of white dwarf.
Furthermore this was hardly the first HH novel where Knights played a fairly pivotal role (you DID read Mechanium right?) I'm sure there was some product tie in involved but I'd hardly say that the novel was purely a tie in. It's noted as a reasonably important battle before the seige of terra. As for the Mcgruffin, I figured out what it is and what it means pretty easily eneugh. We know that by time he faced the Emperor Horus was the chosen of the Chaos gods and had been granted "UNLIMITED COSMIC POWER!"

Yeah. Totally wasn't a product tie-in, and yet focuses a third of its page count on the Knights, who just happened to be introduced for sale at 40K scale at the exact same time, lol. You know, Knight Houses that have received nearly zero story tie in previously, only in a lesser-read tangential release not part of the sequential series , and zero subsequently. Nope. Was all about the story.

And you misunderstand. It's not about not knowing what the macguffin is going to do. It's not like you're the special child who figured it out. It's just that the macguffin isn't revealed, so there's no need to read the story because you won't be lost whenever the next installment is revealed. Nothing important happens between the first page and the last page. A few inconsequential scrub characters die, and the rest Live to Fight Another Day™, then Horus finds his macguffin, and the story ends. Meanwhile the traitor legions incur unsustainable casualties which won't matter because they'll be replace faster than orks for the next insallment.

 Veteran Sergeant wrote:


Yeah. Totally wasn't a product tie-in, and yet focuses a third of its page count on the Knights, who just happened to be introduced for sale at 40K scale at the exact same time, lol. You know, Knight Houses that have received nearly zero story tie in previously, only in a lesser-read tangential release not part of the sequential series , and zero subsequently. Nope. Was all about the story.

White Dwarf 190 wrote:Battle of Molech. Three Titan Legions and over a hundred IG regiments and Knight households defend Molech against the Warmaster Horus and his armies. Knight of the ruling Household (Devine) seduced by Slaanesh during initial stages, and betray Imperial forces during the main Chaos assault. Only 1 in 100 Imperial soldiers survive the battle, the future Daemon Knights of Slaanesh daemonic war machines come from House Devine.

The Knight Titans connection is the only reason the battle even exists in the first place. They have always been the focus of Molech since it was first written.

I've noted a distinct drop in quality the longer the HH series gets drug out. I'm not excited to see this trend continue.

I no longer get excited about new HH books coming out. It's just 'oh another one, okay. Oh this ones limited edition? Won't be reading it for a while then.'

The next two aren't even proper novels are they, compilations i think. Not that there's anything inherently wrong with that but not in a row like that. The quality has always been a bit all over the place but there's definitely a trend of novels that have no bearing on the overall plot.

It's to the point now where everything is special edition, overpriced novella, or an overpriced audiobook.

They genuinely do not care about getting the story out, just squeezing us for another dime while their company's stock plummets faster than a Malaysian jet.

 ImAGeek wrote:
I no longer get excited about new HH books coming out. It's just 'oh another one, okay. Oh this ones limited edition? Won't be reading it for a while then.'

The next two aren't even proper novels are they, compilations i think. Not that there's anything inherently wrong with that but not in a row like that. The quality has always been a bit all over the place but there's definitely a trend of novels that have no bearing on the overall plot.

Yeah, 50% of them will probably be stories I already own. I don't mind so much about the .ebooks as there are so many to keep track of it's good that they add them to a complilation. But the .mp3s, that's what made them unique. I've totally stopped buying anything now as it's just going to get released again.

jareddm wrote:

 Veteran Sergeant wrote:


Yeah. Totally wasn't a product tie-in, and yet focuses a third of its page count on the Knights, who just happened to be introduced for sale at 40K scale at the exact same time, lol. You know, Knight Houses that have received nearly zero story tie in previously, only in a lesser-read tangential release not part of the sequential series , and zero subsequently. Nope. Was all about the story.

White Dwarf 190 wrote:Battle of Molech. Three Titan Legions and over a hundred IG regiments and Knight households defend Molech against the Warmaster Horus and his armies. Knight of the ruling Household (Devine) seduced by Slaanesh during initial stages, and betray Imperial forces during the main Chaos assault. Only 1 in 100 Imperial soldiers survive the battle, the future Daemon Knights of Slaanesh daemonic war machines come from House Devine.

The Knight Titans connection is the only reason the battle even exists in the first place. They have always been the focus of Molech since it was first written.

Except that's the only mention of that battle. It's not been mentioned since and could have easily been skipped by the storyline. This is a blurb from a White Dwarf article talking about the release of Slaneesh scout titan miniatures for Epic, lol. Are they going to write a novel about the Land Raider some Harlequins stole from the Star Leopards too? This is the problem when you only know the 40K universe from Lexicanum stubs.

That battle may have always been about the Knights, but it was always irrelevant to the storyline. It was only dragged out to novel length as a product tie in.