Tag Archives: Iron Warriors

40k Reading Order: Ultramarines and Iron Warriors – Graham McNeill

Welcome to this 40k Reading Order article, where today I’m actually looking at two series which intersect and overlap, both by Graham McNeill, as part of an ongoing set of articles in which I’m providing recommended orders for various Black Library series. The Ultramarines series – (mostly) featuring Uriel Ventris – and the Iron Warriors series – featuring Warsmith Honsou – can be read separately, but fit together brilliantly to form one larger whole, and between them they include almost 30 stories. Graham has kindly provided his suggested (in-universe chronological) reading order for the whole lot, so if you’ve ever wanted to read these series but haven’t known where to start, look no further than this article!

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Storm of Iron – Graham McNeill

2002’s classic Iron Warriors novel Storm of Iron was Graham McNeill’s second Black Library novel, and introduced us to Honsou, a villain who would go on to feature heavily in future books. On the barren world of Hydra Cordatus, the 383rd Jouran Dragoons man the defences of an Adeptus Mechanicus fortress. Nobody seems quite sure exactly what they’re defending, but a massive invasion force of Iron Warriors suggests it’s something important. The Imperial defenders believe themselves safe behind formidable fortress walls, but the Iron Warriors bring 10,000 years of guile and brutality as well as their mastery of siegecraft.

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Warhammer 40,000 Legends Issue Thirteen – Storm of Iron by Graham McNeill

Issue thirteen of the Warhammer 40,000 Legends Collection takes us back to 2002 for Graham McNeill’s much-loved Iron Warriors novel Storm of Iron. One of Graham’s earliest Black Library novels – alongside Nightbringer, which was also released in 2002 – this tells the story of the Iron Warriors’ invasion of Hydra Cordatus, and introduces a certain Iron Warrior named Honsou who went on to have a rather important career and feature heavily in a number of his other novels. It’s still widely considered a genuine classic Black Library novel, over fifteen years after publication; at the time of writing this article it rates at an impressive 4.12 on Goodreads.

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QUICK REVIEW: The Emperor’s Architect – Guy Haley

A companion piece to the Primarchs novel Hammer of Olympia, Guy Haley’s short story The Emperor’s Architect is an interleaved tale combining glimpses of Perturabo’s earliest days with a Crusade-era story of two Remembrancers attempting to write the definitive history of the Iron Warriors’ primarch. Until now the Lord of Iron’s story began on the Phyrgean cliffs, but here we see Perturabo’s first days on Olympia and his earliest, almost-forgotten interactions with humans. Meanwhile Olivier and Marissa LeBon’s unusual mission provides a personal drama tackling faith, relationship troubles and different perspectives on the truth as they delve into Perturabo’s complex and challenging character.

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QUICK REVIEW: Stone and Iron – Robbie MacNiven

The first audio drama in the Horus Heresy Primarchs series, Robbie MacNiven’s Perturabo: Stone and Iron sees the Hammer of Olympia leading the inexperienced 33rd Grand Battalion of the Iron Warriors into battle. Fighting against greenskins in support of their Imperial Fists cousins, the Iron Warriors are under close scrutiny by their primarch even as they follow his orders. Though his officers seem leery of the VIIth Legion’s efforts, Perturabo sees an opportunity to impart an important lesson to his sons using the Fists as his example.

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Perturabo: Hammer of Olympia – Guy Haley

Guy Haley’s first contribution to Black Library’s The Horus Heresy Primarchs series is Perturabo: The Hammer of Olympia, appropriately the fourth book in the series for the IVth Legion. For the first time in the series we get an origin story, with the narrative split between Perturabo’s early years on Olympia and the ongoing difficulties his sons face during a campaign against the time-manipulating hrud. With the additional viewpoints of Warsmith Dantioch and Fortreidon, a newly-inducted legionary, it’s a layered depiction of Perturabo, the events which moulded his character and that of his legion, and their inevitable fate.

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QUICK REVIEW: The Corpse Road – Graham McNeill

Graham McNeill’s short story The Corpse Road does for Honsou what Do Eagles Still Circle the Mountain? did for Uriel Ventris, picking up after The Chapter’s Due and showing us what the Warsmith did next. While Ventris went off hunting orks, Honsou took an unusual route out of the Ultramarines’ domain…in a corpse-hauler. His mission to see Ultramar burn may not have ended how he’d hoped, but his ‘failure’ certainly hasn’t dented his ambition. Here we get a sense of what he’s got his sights set on next…

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QUICK REVIEW : Blood and Iron – Robbie MacNiven

Day fifteen in the 2015 Black Library Advent Calendar provides Blood and Iron, Robbie MacNiven’s second contribution and the third story to feature the might of the Iron Warriors. On the Dark Mechanicum forge world of Dementius, Warpsmith Ferrix oversees the gory rituals necessary to bind a powerful daemon into the body of a captured Titan, sacrificing much to create a weapon of devastating power. As the blood flows and the daemon rises, Ferrix knows he must use all of his knowledge and skill to complete his greatest work.
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QUICK REVIEW : Black Iron – Graeme Lyon

Day eleven in Black Library’s 2015 Advent Calendar sees the second Iron Warriors story in short order, in the shape of Graeme Lyon’s Black Iron. Warsmith Kallus, tired of standing as castellan on his legion’s home planet Medrengard, approaches Abaddon the Despoiler with a view to selling his to the Black Legion in exchange for a chance of action and greater glory. Sent on a mission to capture an Iron Warriors-held forge world in the name of his new legion, he leads his warband against his former brothers without second thought.
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QUICK REVIEW : Siegemaster – Chris Wraight

Day Nine of Black Library’s 2015 Advent Calendar returns to 40K and sees the first involvement of the Iron Warriors, with Siegemaster by Chris Wraight. Warsmith Bakulos journeys through the bleak, battle-wracked world of Harrowar in search of an absent lieutenant, seeking answers to why the war is still unfinished despite all the precious resources that have been expended. As he searches through endless siegeworks he reflects on his history with the absentee Iron Warrior, looking back at battles fought long ago.
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