Era of Ruin

[grailkeeper]

Having finished this, its very mush skippable. I bought it for the ADB story cos I love ADB. Most of the stories are "fine" at best, but some are dull. I could have bought two or three pints for the price of this book, and my enjoyment of them would probably have lasted longer. 

[KJB]

Well, it’s taken many, many years, but Battle for the Abyss is no longer the worst book in the series

[grailkeeper]

23 minutes ago, KJB said:

Well, it’s taken many, many years, but Battle for the Abyss is no longer the worst book in the series

 

This book is basically inconsequential. Damnation of Pythos is what made me stop reading every book that came out. 

[Dornfist]

6 hours ago, grailkeeper said:

 

This book is basically inconsequential. Damnation of Pythos is what made me stop reading every book that came out. 

That book was the first Warhammer book I never finished. I skipped the last 100 pages, and found the ending "meh". 

[System Sound]

7 hours ago, KJB said:

Well, it’s taken many, many years, but Battle for the Abyss is no longer the worst book in the series

Yeah, it's called Vulkan Lives...

[DarkChaplain]

Damnation of Pythos was fantastic. That's all I've got to say.

[The Scorpion]

On 7/22/2025 at 2:51 AM, grailkeeper said:

 

This book is basically inconsequential. Damnation of Pythos is what made me stop reading every book that came out. 

It annoys me when people say that books are bad because they are inconsequential.

 

It makes me think of another story from Annadale: "The Unburdened", released as part of the Betrayal at Calth set

 

The story deals with Kurtha Sedd and his Word Bearers being stranded at Calth.

What could be more inconsequential than the Underworld War?

 

The protagonist seems to believe this, yet this is one of the best Word Bearer stories out there: themes of morality, crisis of faith and guilt, ideological differences, and the nature of Chaos.

 

You learn A LOT about the Word Bearers from following 5th company into the "heart of darkness" of the tunnels. It is not quite the Dark Coil, but you can FEEL the waxing and waning of the ruinous powers as time bleeds into a forever now

 

One of the best Horus Heresy stories, and in the grand scheme of things does not matter at all. Same with "The Deeper Darkness", which has one of the best demon depictions I've seen

Now, people are fully entitled to dislike Damnation of Pythos for a plethora of reasons. But because it is "inconsequential"? It is still within your rights, but come on fellas...

Edited July 25 by The Scorpion

[DarkChaplain]

The Unburdened was so good especially when read right after the utterly lackluster The Honoured. You basically need to read both for the full picture of the rivalry between Ultramarine dude and Kurtha Sedd, but it says a lot that I can still clearly remember Kurtha Sedd's name (and am ticked off about how he was done dirty in an Aeonid Thiel audio drama by Kyme) but not that of his rival.

[1ncarnadine]

Finished this on a plane flight yesterday.

 

My thoughts:

Angels of Another Age: This was ok. I think it almost belongs in a late-siege anthology that doesn't exist, rather than the post-Siege anthology, and felt like French just wanted to do his own take on the Black Rage and remarking on the Blood Angels going forward. Which was fine, but we've already seen some of this a bit in this series

 

Fulgurite: Hahaha, weird Fabius cameo but ok. Again, another story that feels like it's not really part of a post-Siege anthology. It's hard to place this with everything else, but I guess Erebus took a little detour while hopping through time and space to chase Oll and his crew? The short itself is probably the least interesting in the anthology. Just tying up the loose end of Narek, or setting up something else re: the fulgurite.

 

Fragments (All We Have Left): Another story that isn't post-Siege! Feels like something that was cut from TEatD, even though seemingly nothing was cut from TEatD. It was good, though. It's sad to think on the loss of even the most banal histories in this conflict, and the way the driest texts became a temporary reprieve is a fantastic thought.

 

Ex Libris: I am essentially always in for weird John French Ahriman warptime shenanigans, so I enjoyed this, though it was very short. Also the first story that understands the assignment in this anthology, because we're actually dealing with the metaphysical fallout of Horus's death.

 

System Purge: I was really in for the first half, remembering that at some point in The Last Wall we had a Dark Mechanicum character cameo in Inar Satarael. And I just love seeing into the Mechanicum in general. But it's just the obliterator virus being the obliterator virus. Very interesting set-up, very poor pay-off.

 

After the Dawn, the Darkness: Yes, excellent. This was good. I'd strongly argue some of the first few shorts of this should have been swapped out for more of this kind of end-cap story, actually dealing with aspects of the fallout of the conflict. This one does very well on the human side of things, giving Katsuhiro's story the ending it deserves. That the people who survive the Siege are essentially press-ganged is pretty brutal in and of itself, too. Again, I feel like there's more to say here, about how the Imperium treats its people, about the Ultramarines overseeing it, about the lives and politics at play, but still this was a great look into it.

Homebound: Oof, ouch. Amazing. The journey through the wasteland, reflecting on the devastation, and seeing the various ways the invasion has affected the world despite the increasing distance from the palace, was all handled pretty beautifully. This is a story about mourning, that times have past, and accepting the end of them. Not just for Ilya but for the White Scars as a legion, personified by Sojuk. Also, it's so painful to watch someone you love waste away. I'm going to add TMI, but I watched by his bedside as my father passed on last weekend, so this story hit extra hard. It was an end to a very long fight with a terrible disease. I'm glad his suffering is over and sad that he's gone. And that sums up my feelings on this one pretty well. Yeah, worth the price of the anthology for this one alone. 11/10. Actual art.

 

The Carrion Lord of the Imperium: Wow, we have really been starved for ADB content for a while, huh? This was great. I appreciate following Dio's perspective through from Unity to the end, and the story does a huge amount of lifting regarding the Talons of the Emperor with limited pages. I have a pet theory with the Custodes, that their souls are bound to the Emperor's own amid the alchemical process that creates them. So when Dio admits he's getting nightmares, I had to wonder how that relates to the Emperor himself. And I wondered if there's a second unspoken question after Dio's first; "and are your dreams nightmares too?" But hey, that's just my read. Also a really dark juxtaposition of how the Sisters are treated after the Heresy vs Aphone in Fragments.

[cheywood]

Homebound alone makes this anthology worthwhile. It’s a perfect coda for Wraight’s heresy work, and one of the best short stories BL has published. I cried multiple times. What an incredible writer he’s become over the years. I’m so excited for Ashes of Imperium.

[Mordred]

On 7/26/2025 at 5:49 PM, cheywood said:

Homebound alone makes this anthology worthwhile. It’s a perfect coda for Wraight’s heresy work, and one of the best short stories BL has published. I cried multiple times. What an incredible writer he’s become over the years. I’m so excited for Ashes of Imperium.

 

Could not agree more, apart from further humanising the White Scars, it's a quiet singular story at the end of the world. It reminds me a bit of The Last Church, in the fact it sort of stands alone, and is an end of things - it is a peaceful and fitting end for Ilya Ravillion too, when so many characters have died in awful ways, she has the choice and freedom to go back to the place where deep down she was most happiest in her life.

   

[The Scorpion]

On 7/25/2025 at 2:09 PM, 1ncarnadine said:

 I have a pet theory with the Custodes, that their souls are bound to the Emperor's own amid the alchemical process that creates them. So when Dio admits he's getting nightmares, I had to wonder how that relates to the Emperor himself. And I wondered if there's a second unspoken question after Dio's first; "and are your dreams nightmares too?" But hey, that's just my read. Also a really dark juxtaposition of how the Sisters are treated after the Heresy vs Aphone in Fragments.

I think this implied in a lot of the novels, mostly in TEATD, where Big E speaks trough his Custodians

 

"My King, do you dream?"

 

The unspoken questions are the most interesting thing about this story: so much talk is made of the Emperor's Dream, his Great Work. The Emperor's Flagship is even called the Imperator Sominum.

 

I feel like it would be massive if the Emperor didn't dream. Custodians, who are close to the Emperor, by and large do not dream either. Dio does, but he is a a rarity. Rare enough to be asked of the Emperor to record his dreams.

 

And what dreams does Diocletian have: countless prayers, desperate prayers, unanswered prayers.

 

The menials ask him if he thinks anything of the fact that over time they have become nightmares.

Dio claims he doesn't, and he might even believe this, but in truth they keep him up at night.

 

I think these are the Emperor's dreams. Dreams turned to nightmares ever since he's been bound to the Throne.

If he asked Dio to record them, it might have been cuz he couldn't remember them himself.

 

But now, he's forever stuck in a state of sleep. What Dio dreams is the Emperor's current reality: "Physically starved and psychically bloated" by the the undying belief of billions upon billions of souls. A belief that is vain hope the material realm and inescapable fate in the empyrean, slowly pushing the Emperor once again towards the Dark King.

Edited July 28 by The Scorpion

[Krelious]

On 7/16/2025 at 6:36 AM, grailkeeper said:

Having finished this, its very mush skippable. I bought it for the ADB story cos I love ADB. Most of the stories are "fine" at best, but some are dull. I could have bought two or three pints for the price of this book, and my enjoyment of them would probably have lasted longer. 

I'd agree I buckled and bought it before getting the limited edition which I might just end up skipping. I read most of the book and started with ADB and has a bunch of eh whatevers. The only slightly interesting story so far was Ahriman's and it ended up being extremely redundant saying over and over again the Death of Horus caused a void, implosion, psychic crisis whatever I get it. 

 

I feel like the only good thing about it was a bad element thats so bad its good that Erebus is no longer a character, hes a plot device whenever you want to tie off loose ends he just teleports to where you need him to be and kills off a cool character. 

 

Maybe there should have been a story about Guilliman interacting with the ship's janitor while he has nothing to do and then Horus dies and whatever the janitor says has something poignant in it that Guilliman learns from in some sort of foreshadowing to making the codex astartes 

[Krelious]

On 7/24/2025 at 10:58 PM, The Scorpion said:

It annoys me when people say that books are bad because they are inconsequential.

 

It makes me think of another story from Annadale: "The Unburdened", released as part of the Betrayal at Calth set

 

The story deals with Kurtha Sedd and his Word Bearers being stranded at Calth.

What could be more inconsequential than the Underworld War?

 

The protagonist seems to believe this, yet this is one of the best Word Bearer stories out there: themes of morality, crisis of faith and guilt, ideological differences, and the nature of Chaos.

 

You learn A LOT about the Word Bearers from following 5th company into the "heart of darkness" of the tunnels. It is not quite the Dark Coil, but you can FEEL the waxing and waning of the ruinous powers as time bleeds into a forever now

 

One of the best Horus Heresy stories, and in the grand scheme of things does not matter at all. Same with "The Deeper Darkness", which has one of the best demon depictions I've seen

Now, people are fully entitled to dislike Damnation of Pythos for a plethora of reasons. But because it is "inconsequential"? It is still within your rights, but come on fellas...

Yeah the thing is this book was marketed as the true end of the Heresy kinda tying off loose ends and introducing elements of the scouring, instead its a whole bunch of nothing and feels like a shallow cash grab. Maybe its a meta book where your expectations are to be ruined..

 

I wouldnt say the book is necessarily bad but its like whats the point? I mean every anthology collection ive read has had at least one major story in it thats a huge plot point development or had some interesting tie ins. Like that short story where Sevatar helps that girl on the dark angels ship is better than everything in this book. 

 

And to me its really about quality control over quantity, I dont want to pay 40$ and invest my time into reading middling slop that has no bearing on anything or has any real plot development. We already had the black rage in The End and the Death, it doesnt need to be covered again, Asking the Emperor if he dreams is cute but pointless. Im not expecting much out of short stories but what id like is maybe a course of 6 different appetizers like say calamari or chicken skewers, instead what I got was like 8 different boxes of french fries with slightly different spices or dipping sauces. 

[darkhorse0607]

1 hour ago, Krelious said:

Yeah the thing is this book was marketed as the true end of the Heresy kinda tying off loose ends and introducing elements of the scouring, instead its a whole bunch of nothing and feels like a shallow cash grab. Maybe its a meta book where your expectations are to be ruined..

 

 

I've seen a lot of discussion (more driven by Leutin on Youtube than anything, but I disagree with a lot of what he says so who knows how off-base I am), that we all misunderstood, it's not actually the end of the Siege, but it's more laying the groundwork for the Scouring

 

And that's nonsense too, because it fails on that side, and GW flatout said the opposite, that it was a conclusion to many of the lines they hadn't closed off already

 

Ultimately it goes back to something we have said over and over, GW does an absolutely awful job of marketing novels and managing expectations.

 

They said that this was the book to tie up loose ends and really cement things. Because of that folks have a certain standard of what they expect, so when it's not that we rabble for a few pages on here (although after End and the Death, we're doing pretty good with self-control with only 4). If they had just said in the beginning "Hey, these are some of the short stories we had written during the Siege but it felt appropriate to put them in an anthology rather than an existing novel" then a) it still would have sold out and b) the reception might have been better

 

But I guess that's all water under the bridge, I'll be ready for the next "BIGGEST MOST GROUNDBREAKING THING SINCE THE HORUS HERESY" thread when that inevitably happens

[Krelious]

I will say after basically finishing the book, I skipped Guy Haley's story and Dan Abnetts because I wasnt at all interested in them I think the clear winner for the best of them is Chris Wraight's story, Homebound, albeit Im guessing he wrote this before The End and the Death came out so theres this confusion as to whether or not the Emperor deleted Horus' soul. You would think these guys would communicate on these things and cross reference. Crazy I really dont remember this woman Illya and I just read Path of Heaven a couple months ago and yet she gets the best story in the bunch. 

[Kenzaburo]

I was actually looking forward to getting this book, had it preordered on Amazon. I did the same for most of the Siege books, with no problem at all. This time around Amazon suddenly postponed the delivery a few days after release and now let me know that there's no clear date when they can deliver and instead prompting me to actually cancel the preorder. 

 

Seems like, again, BL screwed up on the amount of produced books, really. If I didn't know better I'd say this is Amazon's fault. But honestly, I feel this is just again due to limited quantities available and overselling stuff.

 

I feel like there's almost no reason to bother with physical BL releases by now. Hardcovers sell out fast, paperbacks take ages to come out and are then never rereleased. I'm not sure if I've ever dealt with such an unreliable book publisher... it's strange and sad.