R_F_D

The Track of Words review site has done a "current 40k" timeline here: https://www.trackofwords.com/2021/01/10/black-library-new-40k-reading-list/ They've also written reviews for a fair number of the books above.

Wholeheartedly recommend Tymell's list! The Imperial Truth podcast did a couple of episodes (116&117) where they discussed what they thought you had to read and what you could miss: https://theimperialtruth.com/category/episodes/page/4/ You might also benefit from a copy of Visions of Heresy, which is the "background"(?) book to the lore.

Sorry to hear this. How big are we talking without spoiling things? (Maybe using the reveal in Legion as a yardstick?)

Have many people received their copies? Mine's in an order with Mortis and hasn't been despatched yet.

Really really struggled with Descent of Angels this month. I've read it a couple of times before and not picked up on things (both in terms of the plot and writing style) and when I did it was all I could see and it bugged me. I was also actively pushing "this doesn't further the HH narrative" out of my mind, which is something I haven't really experienced before. Was DA collector (2nd/3rd Ed.) before I stopped and I remember being happy that the DAs got a look in to the HH, even though I knew from the lore it would be limited. Remember thinking DoA was okay and didn't recall encountering my current gripes. To put in some additional context, I read the 1st 5 books over the summer in the same sort of time it took me to read DoA, and I've read those the same number of times (give or take). Seen a couple of people posting positively on it so would be interested on hearing their takes. Currently reading Legion and enjoying it as much as I have done previously (although as an Abnett fan-boy that's not hard) will probably carry on to read Battle for the Abyss before taking a break.

My bad, wasn't sure which is why I put seven(ish?) - just knew it was less than 10.

I think I've heard this at the BL Weekenders as well. The other thing was that they expected the whole series to be seven(ish?) or so books at most? I agree wholeheartedly with this. Although my friends have speculated that the Beast Arises series had more of an impact on the creation of writers rooms? (Not read TBA but have a rough idea of the issues readers have reported on.) I do also wonder if the fact that GW Studio(correct term?) is now pushing the wider narrative and timeline along means that there does need to be a more defined writers room framework within BL? Anyways, getting off topic. @TorvaldTheMild thanks for starting this thread, like you I'm reading them again and getting new appreciations/understandings of the HH - for better or for worse!

I had this very thought yesterday whilst re-reading Descent of Angels. (I'm very slowly doing a full series read through as I've only ever read up to Scars.) The tonal shift of Horus Rising away from the 40k stuff before (and since) is still so so noticeable even when re-reading it six months ago. I think I had more objections to False Gods in earlier read throughs than I did this last time. I understand the criticism about Horus' fall, and have felt it myself, but this last read I thought it worked. I guess there is only so much torturing of the soul (to poorly coin a phrase) you can put on the page before it gets a bit repetitive.

The latest Horus Heresy characters series will be a book on Luther by Gav Thorpe. The Warhammer Community post isn't particularly full of detail but it isn't outside of the realms of possibility that it could touch on the war on Caliban.

The Limited Edition or the normal one? Because I'm so picking up that Limited Edition if it's available. LE I think, standard I think won't be available for 3-6 months.

It was available at the BL Weekender and I think it is going up online in December.

Just to flag that the LE was described as an "epic epic" edition. No mention of cost but we were assured by the 3 Editors in the Coming Soon talk that every LE bought came with a copy of Aaron. That I think is a legally binding guarantee and probably also canon.

Only showing 5 files when I explore the Zip file before extracting. But yes, it is odd - would have thought Saturday's one would be the one to be missing!

Bought the bundle today to avoid the issue the OP raised. My bundle is missing Thursday's story by Nick Kyme...

I've only read Tallarn Executioner so I can't comment too much. However the Tallern hardback is basically one whole arc of the HH story. Whether it is integral, I'll let others say. For me, however, Tallarn was always a part of the HH story I knew, so I'm looking forward to it whenever I get to.