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

[valanus]

There's not really a definitive description of him if I remember properly, as he's not even wearing the body he was born with according the the book, there is a description near the start:

" a well made man of mature years, strong in the back and arms, with a very handsome face and grey hair. The man wore a scarlet dress coat with ornate double frogging down the front."

 

Not sure if any other descriptions appear

[Walter Payton]

There's not really a definitive description of him if I remember properly, as he's not even wearing the body he was born with according the the book, there is a description near the start:

" a well made man of mature years, strong in the back and arms, with a very handsome face and grey hair. The man wore a scarlet dress coat with ornate double frogging down the front."

 

Not sure if any other descriptions appear

 

Cheers.

[Codicier Lucion]

A Thousand Sons due to the fact I always liked the idea of psychic space marines. And it was interesting to see how Magnus more or less doomed himself.

 

Flight of the Eisenstein was good as it carried over some of the characters I liked from the Luna Wolves trilogy, it also helped to clear up a lot of the confusion about who survived aboard the Eisenstein and how they survived. Though I thought it was a shame there wasn't much focus upon the legions besides the Death Guard.

 

Legion was a good one as it focused upon one of the much more mysterious legions which we knew little about even if it was somewhat irritating at times.

 

And finally Battle for the Abyss. It contained much of want I liked about Flight of the Eisenstein and added certain elements which I felt were missing. Namely the conflict between the marines from different legions undertaking an action which could get them all killed and fragmenting over the personal rivalries of others, as well as the different mentalities they had.

It also had a much more noticeable theme of hopelessness and threat during the trip through the warp which seemed to be missing from the book I’m comparing this to. The loyalists were beaten back at every turn and it resulted in a very bittersweet victory even by the standards of the rest of the series.

[valanus]

I agree with you about Battle for the Abyss, particularly the ending. I kind of liked the fact that even though they managed to destroy the Abyss there was still the uncertainty in their minds whether it would make a difference in the long run and that no one would ever even know what they did. That was an interesting ending for me...

[Iron Father Ferrum]

I hated Battle for the Abyss. While I can certainly understand the hopelessness factor you're talking about, the writing was horrid and the story was completely disconnected from the rest of the series.

[Capt. Lysander]

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.

 

I enjoyed The Last Church too: it inspired me to write a poem. Of the other books, I've never really thought about it. I would suppose the first 3 books, Legion, and A Thousand Sons.

[Artein]

I hated Battle for the Abyss. While I can certainly understand the hopelessness factor you're talking about, the writing was horrid and the story was completely disconnected from the rest of the series.

No, it wasn't. They were talking about Furious Abbys in Mechanicum. Legion was completely disconnected and still it was one of the best.

[Hyaenidae]

Tales....mainly because Khârn facing off against Angron was sick. Oh, and Blood Games was great, but I've had a fascination with the Custodes since the sabertooth artwork came out, so I'm being biased there.

[Iron Father Ferrum]

SPOILER ALERT! SPOILERS FOR BATTLE FOR THE ABYSS AHEAD!

 

 

I hated Battle for the Abyss. While I can certainly understand the hopelessness factor you're talking about, the writing was horrid and the story was completely disconnected from the rest of the series.

No, it wasn't. They were talking about Furious Abbys in Mechanicum. Legion was completely disconnected and still it was one of the best.

 

By that standard, everything after Fulgrim is completely disconnected as well. The point I was trying to make is that Abyss doesn't feed into the rest of the Horus Heresy plot very much. Legion gave us a reason why the Alphas sided with Horus; Abyss details a fight that is, at the end of the day, meaningless to the larger metaplot of the Heresy. The Ultras weren't at home to be destroyed; taking out their homeworld would devastate recruitment, sure, but the Legion itself would have survived to fight on. Taking out the Furious Abyss prevented the destruction of Ultramar but not the Ultramarines -- who played no part in the Heresy anyway since they were off to the galactic east doing their own thing. The Abyss's death killed a bunch of Word Bearers, sure, but they affected the Heresy as individuals, not as a Legion -- and enough of the Legion apparently survived because they still fought at Terra and continue to be a menace to the Imperium all these millennia later. The book was completely superfluous and really only showed on thing -- that there were members of the Traitor Legions that remained loyal, but we already saw that at Istvaan III.