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Are There Any Good Books on the Iron Hands?


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What it says in the title. I've been looking through my Black Library collection and have come to the saddening revelation that I lack any books actually about the Iron Hands, which hold the potential for being among the most interesting Space Marine Chapters. Are there any good series about them that I just haven't heard about? Or are they exclusively covered by the Codices and nothing else? As a Chapter they actually hold potential for being more interesting then even the Dark Angels, should a novel go for the true posthumanism of the Iron Hands and the path of the Machine God.

I enjoyed Wrath of Iron, it's worth it's asking price. There's also a strong representation of Iron Hands in the Heresy Book Angel Exterminatus, also well worth its asking price. The third, and probably most extensive and expensive source of Iron Hands fluff is Forge Worlds Horus Heresy Book 2: Massacre which features Iron Hands as one of it's four Legions.

 

Cheers,

Jono

Wrath of Iron and so far none other. Sad but true. Their HH books are quite worthless in my eye, poor characterization, poor concepts, lacks of philosophy, lack of empathy for the characters. Ferrus is indeed one in not the worst portrayed primarch in the series, thick as a plank, no depth of character whatsoever...

 

... and this grieves me because I really like the Iron Hands, but really really. 

Basically, I'd just re-iterate what's already been said:

 

40k: although the representation of the Chapter had become an abomination thanks to the latest Codex & the Raukaan supplement (guess what, loads of us migrated to 30k), Wrath of Iron is probably the best book in terms of capturing the psyche of the Iron Hands & how they function. Brutal, unsophisticated & relentless, without the 'angry marines' trope some other stuff has hobbled them with.

 

30k: Massacre all the way. I know its not a novel, but it has by far the best & most comprehensive background for the Xth Legion of any text. Otherwise, pretty much all the HH novels that feature the Iron Hands to any major extent make them look pretty dumb, and angry all the time. There have been some good representations of the Xth , but generally these have been fleeting mentions in books entirely dedicated to other factions.

 

Rule of thumb is: go by author, not by content.

Indeed I second IHF on HH: Massacre. FW did more credit to the Iron Hands in five or so pages of background than GW ever did in all those years. They are presented as the actual "high-intensity warfare" specialists, as the grinding, ruthless and brutally efficient machine of war they are. Their creed is strength and not unfocused fury so loved by many authors, strength of will, strength of limb and strength of heart, that is an Iron Hand in a nutshell, sadly it is not so in the HH novels. I love the Iron Hands, I would love to read about them but so far only Wrath of Iron, HH: Massacre and the short snippet of story in a SM codex (don't recall which) where the Iron Hands simply execute their guardsman allies for incompetence are the only books worth of notice for the 10th Legion. 

What it says in the title. I've been looking through my Black Library collection and have come to the saddening revelation that I lack any books actually about the Iron Hands, which hold the potential for being among the most interesting Space Marine Chapters. Are there any good series about them that I just haven't heard about? Or are they exclusively covered by the Codices and nothing else? As a Chapter they actually hold potential for being more interesting then even the Dark Angels, should a novel go for the true posthumanism of the Iron Hands and the path of the Machine God.

I know some haven't liked them at all (as illustrated within this very thread), but I've enjoyed several of their HH outings. The Damnation of Pythos surprised me by being an Iron Hands novel, and I feel their portrayal there was decent, with the contrast between a more optimistic outlook and a darker one. Riven showed some of the depths they might descend to after Ferrus Manus' death, and has a feeling more like melancholy and bitter sadness than anger and fury. Even the much-disliked Feat of Iron went down well with me, I liked the look at Ferrus Manus it gave us, and the obsessive character in it.

 

Less controversially, I'll definitely second the recommendation of the Forge World HH Book II, great IH background material in there, well worth a read.

  • 3 weeks later...

 

What it says in the title. I've been looking through my Black Library collection and have come to the saddening revelation that I lack any books actually about the Iron Hands, which hold the potential for being among the most interesting Space Marine Chapters. Are there any good series about them that I just haven't heard about? Or are they exclusively covered by the Codices and nothing else? As a Chapter they actually hold potential for being more interesting then even the Dark Angels, should a novel go for the true posthumanism of the Iron Hands and the path of the Machine God.

I know some haven't liked them at all (as illustrated within this very thread), but I've enjoyed several of their HH outings. The Damnation of Pythos surprised me by being an Iron Hands novel, and I feel their portrayal there was decent, with the contrast between a more optimistic outlook and a darker one. Riven showed some of the depths they might descend to after Ferrus Manus' death, and has a feeling more like melancholy and bitter sadness than anger and fury. Even the much-disliked Feat of Iron went down well with me, I liked the look at Ferrus Manus it gave us, and the obsessive character in it.

 

I also agree - appreciate that particularly with Pythos it could've been more nuanced, but I did enjoy the exploration of the flesh/iron divide.

Has anyone read Iron Soul?

 

As an aside how do you read e-book? Are the pdf's?

 

Sorry I'm a Tech-Luddite.

 

You'll need either an iProduct, or a reader/phone with an app that reads .mobi or .epub files. iBooks from iTunes, the other two direct from the BL website.

 

Cheers,

Jono

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