Tag Archives: Horus Heresy

QUICK REVIEW: The Harrowing – Rob Sanders

First published in 2014’s Sedition’s Gate Limited Edition anthology, and then in 2016’s War Without End, Rob Sanders’ Alpha Legion short story The Harrowing now gets the e-short treatment as well. Planted among the crew of the Mechanicus ark freighter Omnissiax, an Alpha Legion infiltrator activates to support and facilitate a brutal, calculated assault on the vessel. While their operatives work to sow confusion, the Alpha Legion apply ‘sheer force and tactical relentlessness’ as they take on the vessel’s defence force, using every weapon at their disposal.
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Black Library – What A Week!

It’s hard to deny that 2015 was something of a dry year for Black Library fans, at least in comparison with previous years, but thankfully things have really picked up in 2016. In fact, as a new week begins I’m looking back at last week’s releases and thinking…what a week!
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Black Library – 2016 Summer of Reading

For the third year in a row Black Library have run their Summer of Reading campaign – after 2015’s three week-long campaign it appears we’re back to a single week for 2016 (so far, at least). What a week it’s been, though – seven brand new short stories, including two new Horus Heresy tales and two different Inquisitors. That’s right, not only is there the first Black Library outing for Inquisitor Covenant, but there’s also a long-awaited outing for Gregor Eisenhorn!
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QUICK REVIEW: Myriad – Rob Sanders

Day five of Black Library’s 2016 Summer of Reading campaign sees a return to the Horus Heresy with Rob Sanders’ Myriad, which follows on from his 2015 novella Cybernetica. Mars is overrun by the twisted machines of the Dark Mechanicum, yet small cells of loyalists remain in hiding, doing what they can to fight back. Kallistra Lennox, formerly a princeps of the Collegia Titanica, leads a mission to sabotage a corrupted Warlord Titan, but returns to the rebels’ hidden base bearing something which might change the face of the war for Mars completely.
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QUICK REVIEW: Blackshield – Chris Wraight

The first short story in Black Library’s 2016 Summer of Reading campaign, Chris Wraight’s Blackshield follows Khorak, a Death Guard legionary commanding an old and battered warship and a handful of legionaries. Pursued by unknown enemies and forced to set down on the murky, toxic world of Agarvian he leads his men in the sort of stoic, stubborn slog typical of the Death Guard, determined to stay alive long enough to blood his pursuers. All the while the identity of his enemies remains unclear, while Khorak’s loyalties are…uncertain.
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QUICK REVIEW: The Heart of the Pharos – L.J. Goulding

Originally published as The Dark Between the Stars before being swiftly renamed, presumably for copyright reasons, L.J. Goulding’s Horus Heresy audio drama The Heart of the Pharos fits neatly between the novels The Unremembered Empire and Pharos, narratively. Set on Sotha, it sees the Ultramarine Scout Tebecai remembering the mission he was on with his fellow Scout Oberdeii, deep within the tunnels beneath Mount Pharos. Down there in the darkness with just each other for company, the two scouts find something…and Tebecai’s commanders want to know about it.
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The Horus Heresy: Tallarn series – Interview with John French (July 2016)

Within Black Library’s epic and ever-growing Horus Heresy series there are a few sub-series, collections of stories which fit together to form a story arc in their own right as well as contributing towards the whole series. One such arc is the story of the Battle of Tallarn, as told (primarily) by John French, and with the release of the short story Tallarn: Siren this arc has now come to a close.

EDIT (July 2017): a year after writing this review, the collected Tallarn stories (most of them, anyway) are now available in a single volume – appropriately just named Tallarn – which forms book 45 of the Horus Heresy series.
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QUICK REVIEW – Tallarn : Siren – John French

Set early on in the Tallarn arc within the wider Horus Heresy series, John French’s Tallarn : Siren finds a handful of Imperial citizens holed up in a tiny underground shelter with the last surviving astropath on the planet. As they desperately try to make contact with any other survivors, they attract the attention of both Marshall Lycus of the Imperial Fists and the invading Iron Warriors, one determined to use the astropath to send word of the planet’s fate, the other keen to prevent that happening. The shelter’s occupants await rescue, but fate may have something else in store for them.
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The Path of Heaven – Chris Wraight

Book 36 in Black Library’s Horus Heresy series, and (incredibly) the fourth in the series released so far in 2016, The Path of Heaven sees Chris Wraight pick up where he left off in Scars – albeit several years further on in the timeline. After years of hit and run attacks aimed at slowing Horus’ advance on Terra, the Scars now find themselves trapped with no route back to the throneworld and with traitor forces closing in, led by Mortarion. With his options limited, Jaghatai is forced to take more and more risks to avoid the straight fight that he knows would spell doom for his legion.

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QUICK REVIEW : Allegiance – Chris Wraight

Available within either the Sedition’s Gate or War Without End anthologies [EDIT: and now as a standalone e-short], Chris Wraight’s short story Allegiance takes an interesting look at the concept of loyalty in a legionary by asking if it’s possible for a member of one legion to change his allegiance to another legion entirely. Following on directly from Scars it focuses on Revuel Arvida, the Thousand Sons legionary recuperating in the company of Yesugei and the White Scars. As he slowly heals, recovering his esoteric talents alongside his physical health, he realises Yesugei is both testing him and hoping to persuade him to join the White Scars permanently.
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