The "Essential Heresy"

[Res Ipsa Loquitur]

It completely reinvented a legion just like The First Heretic did. Besides it delved into how the legions all "spied" on each others with secret agents, and how the seed for distrust between two prominent legions had been sown decades, if not centuries before Prospero and Nikea.

 

I would say that relates very much to the Heresy.

 

Ok, so my first post wherein I said it contributed nothing "of note" to the Heresy is closer to the truth than my subsequent post that says it contributes "literally nothing".

 

I don't agree that it reinvented a legion at all, there's nothing in there that isn't in A Thousand Sons in that regard and the spy angle was already completely apparent, again because of A Thousand Sons. Wyrdmake is not a subtle guy and neither was some of the writing in that novel.

 

So yes, Prospero Burns fleshes out an already apparent, incredibly minor part of the Heresy. I stand by my comment that it adds nothing of note to the storyline and is a good Space Wolves book but a bad Horus Heresy book.

[Brother Sergeant Scarus]

Hi Guys,

 

I’ve just finished Reading Fear to Tread and really enjoyed it. While reading it, I was thinking that it felt good to be reading a Horus Heresy book again that actually advanced the overall plot of the Heresy in a meaningful way.

 

That got me to thinking and I skipped to the front of the book and read through the list of the 21(!) books released so far (excluding audio dramas, limited edition releases, ebooks etc etc) that make up the series. I realised that (to me at least) there were only a handful of these that actually advanced the series in some meaningful way. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve really enjoyed the other books in the series, but I just feel like the list below would constitute the essential reading for the HH, and the rest are simply “nice-to-have fluff”.

 

What do you guys think? What in your opinion would be the “Essential Heresy”?

 

Mine is (in release order):

 

 

1 Horus Rising

2 False Gods

3 Galaxy in Flames

12 A Thousand Sons

14 The First Heretic

15 Prospero Burns

21 Fear to Tread

 

 

Thanks!

 

 

1 Horus Rising

2 False Gods

3 Galaxy in Flames

7 Legion

12 A Thousand Sons

14 The First Heretic

21 Fear to Tread

 

I'd also like to add in any of the short stories with the Night Lords in (Prince of Crows etc) - I love the scenes between Kurze and the Lion, and the interaction between the two legions - but I'm a huge Night Lords fan, so I guess that swings the bias!

 

I appreciate the Prospero Burns covers something pretty important from another perspective, but I just can't get behind it too much as I'm not a fan of the Rout.

[deepsix81]

Horus Rising

False Gods

Galaxy in Flames

Flight of the Eisenstein

Fulgrim

Legion

A Thousand Sons

The First Heretic (even with author objections)

Prospero Burns

The Outcast Dead (sometimes the best you can do is to prevent the other side from winning)

Know No Fear

Fear to Tread

 

I think Prospero is essential not only because it was super well-written, but also because it shows how Chaos managed to turn a mission of censure into a seek-and-destroy mission. The book spelled out how an otherwise uber-loyal son was delivered to Horus/Chaos.