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EDIT: Just realized the title is actually "Vulkan Lives"


I've been looking to read about the Salamanders and to start delving into the Horus Heresy era of books and wanted double check a couple things. I know normal 40k books aren't in any particular order with the exception of the omnibus books. If I'm not mistaken the Horus Heresy novels starts with Horus Rising, then Betrayal, and so on. How far do the books go in order? If I started with "Vulkan" would I be lost or spoil earlier books?

I plan on working through the whole HH series and don't want to mess it up by rushing to Vulkan. Lol Thank you for any replies.

Yeah don't start with Vulcan lives. You don't have to read them in order but I would reccomend it, although you can skip Battle for the Abyss because it is terrible and doesn't advance the story in anyway at all. Also seems out of place given the later representations of the Word Bearers and Ultramarines.

You probably want to read at least the first 4 books, plus 'Legion', before you touch 'Vulkan Lives'.

The books are all numbered in order of release, but overall very few are actually part of a series. Horus Rising, False Gods and Galaxy in Flames are the only true series, but things like Know No Fear and First Heretic are continued in Mark of Calth, and Betrayer for example.

 Necroagogo wrote:
You probably want to read at least the first 4 books, plus 'Legion', before you touch 'Vulkan Lives'.

I really don't like Legion, but yeah, this is probably true. It establishes some things that Vulkan Lives plays up heavily.

I think it's generally just better to read them in order, that way you learn things at the same rate as they were revealed even if some of the books aren't in order. Several of them link in ways that isn't immediately obvious. Like First Heretic-Know No Fear-Betrayer-Vulkan Lives-Unremembered Empire. But then equally it helps to have read Fulgrim before First Heretic which again is a sequel to the original trilogy. It also helps to have read Fear to Tread before Unremembered Empire.

As I said, Battle for the Abyss is the only one that doesn't link in to the overall story and has almost been pseudo-retconned within the series already. Even the Dark Angels Novels are worth reading, even if for just an overview of the Lion's personality. You can probably skip the first short story collection "Tales of Heresy" which actually contains no tales of Heresy and is all just pre-heresy background filler. I liked that book, but it doesn't NEED to be included. Same as a lot of the short stories/audio books. They are just extra flavouring for those who want to know every detail of the story.

I would honestly include Flight of the Eisenstein into the original trilogy, making it a quadrilogy. It continues Galaxy in Flames rather directly.