Horus Heresy Collection?

[INKS]

Hi there, I am new to this series. I want to start reading / listening from book 1 onward. 

I started to look for collections of books rather than buy then 1 book at a time. So far in english not a lot of luck.

However I came across:  

The Horus Heresy Audio Collection: Volume 1: The Horus Heresy Series

 

it has these stories: I don't understand how these fit at all into the Horus Heresy collection? These aren't book 1 are they?

 

 

• Raven's Flight by Gav Thorpe 
• Butcher's Nails by Aaron Dembski-Bowden 
• Templar by John French 
• Thief of Revelations by Graham McNeill 
• Hunter's Moon by Guy Haley 
• The Sigillite by Chris Wraight 
• 'Little Horus' by Dan Abnett

[DarkChaplain]

That one's just a collection of previously released audio dramas.

 

They were originally released on CD and as MP3s, and have a runtime of around 60-70 minutes each (with Thief of Revelations and Hunter's Moon having been bundled together, both around the 30-35 minute length). The notable exception is Little Horus, which was not originally an audio drama, but part of numbered book 16, an anthology of various short stories, and specifically recorded as an audio drama with adapted script for the collection.

 

So simply put: They're all over the place.

 

Regionally, omnibus editions do exist, like in Germany and I believe France. English omnibuses were a thing for a short while, but they were thematically grouped, and strangely so, rather than an actual full set. Those have been out of print for years.

 

Occasionally, there'll be the odd ebook bundle deal directly via Black Library, but you hardly save on those - at least not enough to make the upfront cost appealing whatsoever.

 

As far as the audio dramas and short stories go, you can mostly ignore them and only buy the numbered (audio)books, as especially from book 31 onwards, anthologies were almost entirely consisting of previously released e-shorts and audio drama prose versions. Anthologies before that point were often either purely new stuff (like books 10, 16, 20 and 25) or mixed (like 22). 22, incidentally, includes Raven's Flight from that collection. Various others were in 37, and so forth.

 

Chronologically, or in terms of reading order, the anthologies in print are again all over the place. I'd advise against reading most of those past 20 in one go, and instead splitting them up with the help of a guide / by thematic and faction links, since they're often relevant much earlier than they ended up in print - sometimes years went by between a short story being released as a prelude to an upcoming novel, and that short story being in a book.

 

 

For the record, the Horus Heresy HAS been on Humble Book Bundles before, both for ebooks and audiobook editions. However, the last such lineup wasn't two months ago, and they tend to happen towards that time every year. Chances are, it won't be worth waiting for that, especially with no guarantee what will be in it next time. They do shuffle things about quite a bit.

 

tl;dr no effective bundle options, ignore the audio drama box for the time being, and buy books 1-3 - Horus Rising, False Gods and Galaxy in Flames - to read the Opening Trilogy. After that, best refer to guides to see where to go next as far as short stories and novellas are concerned. Don't buy individual ebook shorts, they're bound to be printed/collected for cheaper somewhere already, with few endgame exceptions.

[INKS]

Thank you. I'll start with the first 3 and go from there.

It's odd to me that books 1 and 2 are easily found on black library but Galaxy in Flames isn't. Amazon has it so no big deal

[DarkChaplain]

Their website is honestly a mess. They frequently get rid of or abandon categories, too. It's been long overdue on getting an overhaul, just never really does. And this has been issue since the last overhaul they got, way back when...

[plastic_slug]

For a while, the Apple Books store was bundling the Horus Heresy Novels by book number into compilations of five novels. For example, the first one had books 1-5, etc. And you got a bit of a price break. Essentially you paid for four books, and you got the fifth ‘free’. However, they stopped at volume 7 with book 35 Eye of Terra being the final book covered this way. This was over four years ago now, so it seems unlikely Apple will finish up the numbered books Heresy compilations now