The Horus Heresy - Favourite book (or books) so far?

[valanus]

Hello all, I have just been re-reading the entire HH series so far, one of the benefits of being a very fast reader and I was just wondering what were you guys favourite book or books in the series so far. I have enjoyed most of them to be honest, even the weaker ones such as Battle For the Abyss and Mechanicum (in my opinion only) are still enjoyable. Haven't read one so far that i've thought was truly rubbish.

My favourites so far would have to be Legion, mainly for the some really excellent characters such as Jon Gramatticus, Horus Rising and Galaxy in Flames once again for some really great characters (more Loken please!) and have enjoyed A Thousand Sons a lot more the second time round.

Any thought from your good selves...?

[quiethood]

Well, it's premature, but I'm pretty sure the book that will be my favorite(s) are the ones Aaron Dembski-Bowden writes, because so far I love his 40k work, and I think First Heretic will be amazing. My problem is that I love, as whole, a different bunch of parts from the books and in certain books I like the characters more than the story arc. Poor Torgadon, he was pretty much the best character from the first 3 books. The 2 Dark Angel and the Alpha Legion books are very insightful, while the first 4 books in the Heresy series just kick major butt. So far the World Eaters have had some of the most likable characters. After Desh'ea is one of my favorite stories of the Heresy so far. I'm kinda hoping for a book that maybe the rivalry between Angron and Sanguinius is flushed out, or there needs to be an episode of deadliest warrior dedicated to just them ;) . Though, I am looking forward to Prospero Burns, because I think that it will complement A Thousand Sons very nicely, and fill in some blanks. Again, I found Arhiman to be very likeable, and Leman Russ was just plain bad.

But if I had to pick a fav thus far, it would be one of these, in no particular order: Fulgrim, Flight of the Eisenstein, or Horus Rising.

[Pigeons]

fulgrim and legion so far.

 

 

 

terrible ones so far: descent of angels and battle for the abyss.

 

 

 

i'm only halfway through abyss though, maybe it'll redeem itself in the end.

 

 

 

edit: in fact i think legion will be the best period, simply because the reason the alpha legion turns traitor was flipping awesome.

 

 

2nd edit: the more i read of battle for the abyss, the more furious i get. i'm a writer myself, and this guy...it's just a case study in what NOT to do in writing.

 

 

i about lost it when Cestus described an event that he WASN'T IN THE ROOM TO SEE.

 

 

i mean how do you make a mistake like that? cestus enters the chamber with brynngar, sees that he's unarmoured and makes a comment about how two menials helped him take his armor off. cool how you knew that when it happened BEFORE you had entered the room.

 

 

ugh learn to keep your story straight.

 

 

 

or the paragraph in that same chapter where he goes from telling his THOUGHTS to telling his setting, in the same long run on sentence. i mean...really?

 

dsfsdsdf

[Priest33]

Legion, Fulgrim and the 3 Horus books.. (EVEN IF I HATE THE WAY THEY DESCRIBED HORUS'S FALL)

 

Legion is just plain awesome.

 

Fulgrim is rather epic and we get to see a lot of events from different points of view.

 

Horus books cause of Loken and Torgaddon (and Khârn!) who really made these books worth reading. Cant for the life of me remember who wrote Horus's fall but he needs to be shot really.

[Liquid_awesomes]

I really enjoyed The last church in Tales of Heresy.

 

I hated Battle for the Abyss, it was random, unnessesery and pointless.

 

I thought Fulgrim could have been done over two books to really explore why they fell, as could of Legion.

 

The upcoming one about the Assassins should be quite good, as long as it simply isn't just a life story of a trainee who gets tempted by chaos.

[Grim Dog Studios]

A Thousand Sons, just because i like to read about the thousand sons getting their butts whupped by space wolves.

[Monarch]

Fulgrim for its first-class portrayl of the Emperor's Children and the pain of their fall. I could just feel it as i read the despair of the characters.

 

Just finished A Thousand Sons and loved it! The story of Magnus really shocked me. The Thousand Sons were so powerful, and it really showed the Wolves to be a bit mindless.

[Artein]

I'm just reading Battle for the Abyss, so I won't rate it (or later books) before finishing it (or them)

 

1. Legion

2. Fulgrim

 

And I really liked Descent of Angels, not sure why you hate it.

And I'm not a fan of Horus Rising, not sure why you love it.

[Pigeons]

I'm just reading Battle for the Abyss, so I won't rate it (or later books) before finishing it (or them)

 

1. Legion

2. Fulgrim

 

And I really liked Descent of Angels, not sure why you hate it.

And I'm not a fan of Horus Rising, not sure why you love it.

 

 

 

i hated descent of angels because it was a complete disconnect from the rest of the series. i went from reading about fulgrims fall and the dropsite massacre to feeling like i was in a fantasy novel, reading about knights on horseback fighting monsters.

 

 

 

i don't know, it just really slowed down the series for me.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

i was also VERY annoyed at their cop out of describing the emperor/having him talk by knocking out the main character right before he came down to caliban -.-

[lemanruss10]

In my opinion two of the best stories was the Last Church and Blood Gmaes, due to the fact they portray Terra a planet so important and yet has rarely featured in any books

[Dràyhèn]

My top three from the HH-series would be the following ones:

 

Galaxy In Flames

Due to the epicness of the firestorm on Isstvan IV. The poor Loken slowly getting crushed beneath the massive mountain of stone, sadly watching the ungodly scene unfolding in front of his eyes - now that was a cool ending. I really liked how Loken unveiled the plot piece by piece, the way the pieces stuck together slowly to form the big picture. And I was totally hooked in the end by Abaddon's show-down. The 1st captain coming personally to beat the crap out of upstart Loken and Torgaddon. I could see Abaddon's intimidating bulk through my mind's eye, I could feel Loken's panic when he was chased.

 

Fulgrim

Very nearly the best of the series. The fall of Fulgrim and his legion was just horrible. The feeling the book conveyed was nauseating to the core - the wrongness of it and all the despair got my head flooded with a mixture of emotions. Also, I couldn't keep myself from feeling some sympathy to Ferrus as he was finally decapped by daemon-Fulgrim. It was so damn refreshing to see the devil of the day being for once somehow inhuman. Would've been boring if Fulgrim had done it by himself in cold-blood. The fall of the III Legion was masterfully portrayed, I loved the book from the beginning.

 

Legion

This one was a surprise. Even though it handled the legion most adept at subterfuge and stealth, this came out of the blue. This book was so full of secrets and half-truths that it kept me in a tight grip all the way up. I was fascinated by the way the Alphas operated, and John Grammaticus must be one of the most interesting characters so far. Abnett got them spot-on in this one, just as they should be.

[Gree]

For me, the best will always be Horus Rising. The Depiction of Horus first appearing will always be etched into my memory.

 

However a Thousand Sons comes quite close. Before I was never too attatched to the Sons, but after I grew to be quite a big fan of them. McNeill's depiction of Magnus's fall is very well done, better than Fulgrim in my opinion. I myself actually found Ahriman to be a likeable and well-developed character. In all on a close second to Horus Rising.

[Iron Father Ferrum]

Drayhen nailed it for me, with a close fourth being Mechanicum.

[Vissah]

Horus Rising, False Gods and Galaxy in Flames

[Rangeltoft]

Mechanicum is my favourite book, just couse I love the Ad Mech.

Second in line would be Tales of the Herasy, just love the way that the World Eaters are discribed.

Thirdly - A Thousand Sons, Those guys has always had a special place in my heart.

[Bigger-than-Jesus]

My fave has to be Fallen Angels, It really throws some light on one of the best groups of SM going fluffwise. Second is either tales or Mechanicum, purely because they detail non-SMs a lot. After that is A thousand sons, it really makes them even more tragic than they were, especially with their Daemon familiars.

[Brother Rathul]

Hopefully, an Imperial Fists novel when it comes out.

[Pigeons]

i'm really interested in reading about night haunter, hopefully we'll see a novel about the night lords.

[Raye]

I'm just reading Battle for the Abyss, so I won't rate it (or later books) before finishing it (or them)

 

1. Legion

2. Fulgrim

 

And I really liked Descent of Angels, not sure why you hate it.

And I'm not a fan of Horus Rising, not sure why you love it.

 

 

 

i hated descent of angels because it was a complete disconnect from the rest of the series. i went from reading about fulgrims fall and the dropsite massacre to feeling like i was in a fantasy novel, reading about knights on horseback fighting monsters.

 

i don't know, it just really slowed down the series for me.

 

I have to agree here. The whole time I was reading DoA I was thinking 'when are we going to get to the Space Marines?'. I liked the characters well enough, but the book spent a lot of time not doing a whole lot.

 

By contrast, I love the character development in the first three HH novels. The whole world really filled out and came alive for me reading those books, and the Dropsite Massacre was amazing to read.

 

Recently, I enjoyed Thousand Sons, even though a lot of people didn't like it much. Just made you feel very sorry for Ahriman!

[Antioch Bethel]

First: Legion. I couldn't put this on down! John Gramaticus was an awesome character, what with his Jedi mind tricks. And the Alpha Legion still remains a mystery, even though there was a whole book based on them. And when the Cabal tells "The Primarch" to step forward I was blown away. I'll leave it at that.

 

Second: Horus Rising. I can't remember the exact phrasing, but the first line was something like this. "I was there when Horus slew the Emperor." My heart leaped into my throat when I read that. I thought, did I get the wrong book? And then when Horus teleports down to the top of the tower in all his glory... Wow! I never thought I would like the great betrayer himself, but here I was grinning from ear to ear as I read that first chapter, and then the next and the next. That was the book that showed me what a Primarch could really do. I had always thought of them as stronger Marines, but they are so much more.

 

Third: Fallen Angels. The dual story lines kept me interested the whole way through and they were both interesting. You could really sense the rift in the Dark Angels beginning to develop.

 

Last: Battle for the Abyss. I didn't even finish it. I got halfway through and put it down, read a review that said that the whole story is sort of inconsequential and I left it at that.

[Dark Mechanicum]

The Dark King: I cant believe I forgot Night Lords...they get first.

 

Mechanicum: The Birth of the not much talked about Dark Mechanicum

 

Thousand Sons: The Council of Nikea and how a Storm Seer puts forth that psychic power is safe, along with an Ultramarine Librarian tossed in for good measure.

 

The First Heretic: Because its going to be Word Bearers

[A D-B]

The First Heretic: Because its going to be Word Bearers

 

"He stood at the heart of the killing fields, winged and haloed by amorphous contrails of psychic fire, shouting his brother's name into the storm. Corax answered with a shriek of his own - the call of the betrayer, the cry of the betrayed - and the raven met the heretic in a clash of crozius and claw." -- Excerpt from 'The Pilgrimage' by Cyrene Valantion.

[increaso]

"He stood at the heart of the killing fields, winged and haloed by amorphous contrails of psychic fire, shouting his brother's name into the storm. Corax answered with a shriek of his own - the call of the betrayer, the cry of the betrayed - and the raven met the heretic in a clash of crozius and claw." -- Excerpt from 'The Pilgrimage' by Cyrene Valantion.

 

I dare you to write something that is not pure awesome. I bet you can't.

 

On topic:

 

There are certain books i enjoyed for the story, others for exploring the lore (which unfortunately translates to me not enjoying the actual story that much) and those that did both.

 

I'll stick to the latter.

 

Mechanicum - We get drenched in lore and we have titans - what not to like?

Lightning Tower and Dark King - Always loved Night Haunter and actually like Dorn after Lightning Tower plus Malcador is always good

 

There are many many other great books but i can't just list the lost can i?

[Darkchild130]

I like Legion and Flight of the Eisenstein.

 

I absolutely hate the Dark Angels books, and battle for the abyss was pretty poo as well.

 

Darkchild

[Aqatone]

Horus Rising and Legion. Abnett remains the only author thus far who is able to describe and write Primarchs to my satisfaction. Flight of the Eistenstein was a jolly good romp, also. Nowhere near the Abnett standard, but really, that's a standard far too high for most BL authors. /willy mode

 

Excerpt from Horus Rising:

 

Inchoate light, green and dazzling, sputtered into being on the platform in front of his clawing hands. The teleport flare became too bright to behold, and then died, revealing a god standing on the edge of the platform. The god was a true giant, as large again to any Astartes warrior as an Astartes was to a normal man. His armour was white gold, like the sunlight at dawn, the work of master artificers. Many symbols covered its surfaces, the chief of which was the motif of a single, staring eye fashioned across the breastplate. Robes of white cloth fluttered out behind the terrible, haloed figure. Above the breastplate, the face was bare, grimacing, perfect in every dimension and detail, suffused in radiance. So beautiful. So very beautiful. For a moment, the god stood there, unflinching, beset by the gale of force, but unmoving, facing it down. Then he raised the storm bolter in his right hand and fired into the tumult.

 

One shot.

 

The echo of detonation rolled around the tower. There was a choking scream, half lost in the uproar, and then the uproar itself stilled abruptly. The wall of force died away. The hurricane faded. Splinters of glass tinkled as they rained back down onto the platform. ‘So will I deal with all tyrants and deceivers,’ rumbled a deep voice. Loken looked up at the god standing over him. ‘Lupercal…’ he murmured.

 

The god smiled. ‘Not so formal, please, captain,’ whispered Horus.

 

Hell. Yes.