The Horus Heresy: Preparing for Sons of the Selenar

I don’t know about you, but after nearly 15 years and goodness knows how many stories, I’m increasingly finding it tricky to keep track of characters and story arcs in Black Library’s Horus Heresy series. Not so much the main series beats, but the smaller arcs and threads that run throughout the Heresy – there are just so many of them, and in some cases it’s been years since I last read these stories. Now that the Siege of Terra sub-series (or whatever you want to call it) is here, it feels more important than ever to have a good handle on who’s who; I want to get as much enjoyment out of these final few books as possible!

Having just got my hands on a copy of Graham McNeill’s Siege of Terra novella Sons of the Selenar, I realised that I really couldn’t remember much about the characters I was going to be reading about. I could have jumped straight in and I’m sure I would have got the gist, but as this was likely going to be the final mission for the crew of the Sisypheum, I wanted the book to have the greatest possible impact! With that in mind, I dug back through my copies of previous Heresy books and revisited each of the key stories which lead up to Sons of the Selenar. Having done so, I thought I would put together a quick article pointing out what those stories are and where to find them, in case it’s useful to anyone else.

I’ll start with just a list of the previous stories in which these characters appeared, in case that’s all you’re looking for:

1. Kryptos – short story
2. Angel Exterminatus – novel
3. The Seventh Serpent – novella

If you just read/re-read those three stories then you should be up to speed with the characters of Nykona Sharrowkin, Sabik Wayland and the rest of the Sisypheum’s crew. If you want the full picture, however, there are a few other stories you might consider brushing up on, which I’ll point out below as I talk a little bit about each one.

NOTE: first of all, the obvious caveat – if you really want the full picture, you’re best of reading everything – all the novels, novellas, short stories etc. That being said, that’s a potentially huge commitment. At the very least, however, for this particular arc you’ll want to make sure you’re familiar with the big events leading up to and including the Dropsite Massacre on Isstvan 5 – so I’ve written this on the assumption that you’ll have read the original Heresy trilogy (Horus Rising, False Gods and Galaxy in Flames) along with Graham McNeill’s Fulgrim.

Kryptos
Technically the story of the Sisypheum and its crew starts with the Dropsite Massacre on Isstvan 5, but (as far as I’m aware) none of these characters featured in the previous stories which cover that event. Instead, they make their first appearance in Graham McNeill’s short story Kryptos, which takes place on the once-loyal Forge World of Cavor Sarta. This introduces the central pairing of Sharrowkin and Wayland, as well as the titular Kryptos which proves crucial to the ongoing successes (such as they are) of the Sisypheum. It’s a fun little short story, and while you could jump straight into Angel Exterminatus I would definitely recommend checking this out first.

Kryptos is available as a standalone e-short (first published in 2012), but from a value perspective you’re probably best off picking up the anthology Legacies of Betrayal (2014, book 31 in the series) which features this and 18 other stories. You can read my review of Legacies of Betrayal here.

Angel Exterminatus
The core of this novel – book 23 in the series, and Graham McNeill’s sixth – is focused on the relationship between Perturabo and Fulgrim, but the Sisypheum and its crew play an important part throughout. It’s in this book that the rest of the crew are introduced – the wounded Iron Hands Captain Branthan, Apothecary Atesh Tarsa of the Salamanders, the cyber eagle Garuda, and Captain Cadmus Tyro and his Iron Hands brothers. Tension and mysteries established here go on to play important parts in the stories to come, and frankly it’s just an excellent novel. You’ll notice that as book 23, published in 2012, this comes eight books earlier than Legacies of Betrayal, but don’t let that fool you – read Kryptos first and then Angel Exterminatus!

Shattered Legions – including The Seventh Serpent
I’ve included the Shattered Legions anthology here for two reasons, the main one being because it contains Graham McNeill’s novella The Seventh Serpent, which is the next story to feature the crew of the Sisypheum. First released as a Limited Edition in 2014 before following the usual pattern of getting a ‘standard’ release and then eventually being bundled up into an anthology, The Seventh Serpent pits the Sisypheum against the Alpha Legion and offers an enjoyably twisty tale. There’s something very satisfying about watching Iron Hands deal with situations which they find really, really uncomfortable.

The second reason I mention the anthology is that while The Seventh Serpent is the only story in Shattered Legions to directly feature Sharrowkin, Wayland and the others, several of the other stories have relevance for the crew of the Sisypheum. You absolutely don’t need to read the whole anthology to enjoy either The Seventh Serpent or Sons of the Selenar, but in my opinion you’ll get more out of the wider arc by absorbing yourself fully in the Shattered Legions arc. I listened to the audiobook edition of the anthology, which I found was a brilliant way of revisiting stories I’d read before (and I also just have a soft spot for these stories).

Check out my reviews of The Seventh Serpent and Shattered Legions for a bit more info (bear in mind my Seventh Serpent review is from 2014, the year I started Track of Words…so it’s a bit rough around the edges!).

The Solar War by John French
The first novel in the Siege of Terra series, this doesn’t feature the crew of the Sisypheum – in fact there isn’t a single Iron Hand, Raven Guard or Salamander in its dramatis personae. I’ve included it here, however, because it provides the backdrop to the events of Sons of the Selenar. I wouldn’t say that either of these two books really contains spoilers for the other, and once again you could read Sons of the Selenar without having first read The Solar War and still enjoy it…but personally I feel like it’s worth knowing what’s going on ‘out of shot’, so to speak.

For more information, check out my review of The Solar War and this Rapid Fire interview with John French.

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So there you have it, my suggestions for what to read or reread before tackling Sons of the Selenar. I hope that was useful! You might also want to check out my Rapid Fire interview with Graham McNeill, which you can read here.

I didn’t actually re-read The Solar War for this project, as it’s not that long ago that I read it for the first time and can still remember what happened (give it another year, however, and I’ll probably have forgotten!), but I had a blast revisiting the other stories I’ve mentioned here. I haven’t yet reviewed Sons of the Selenar – I’ll update this article once my review is live – but suffice to say I’m glad I took the time to go back to the beginning for these characters as I felt 100% engaged in their story even as McNeill twisted the knife (you didn’t expect they’d get off lightly, did you?)!

In fact, I enjoyed my reread/re-listen so much that I could be tempted to do the same for future Siege of Terra stories, depending on which characters are involved. I’d love to know if you’ve done the same or if you jumped straight in, and also whether you would be interested in more recap articles like this! Let me know in the comments below, or find me on Twitter to have a chat about it!

Click here to order Sons of the Selenar.