The Horus Hersey: War Without End
War Without End –
Heresy Begets Retribution, the 33rd book in the Horus Heresy series, is a
collection of 21 short stories by 11 authors including: Graham McNeill, Aaron
Dembski-Bowden, Nick Kyme, Gav Thorpe, and James Swallow. At 535 pages, this book is chock-full of good
stuff. Want to hear about Space Wolves,
World Eaters, Salamanders, Iron Hands, Dark Angels, Alpha Legion, Thousand
Sons, White Scars, Blood Angels, Ultramarines, Emperor’s Children, Night Lords,
or Sons of Horus? They’re all in there. What about the Primarchs? Can’t forget them! This collection contains stories about Horus,
Mortarion, Sanguinius, Guilliman, Lion El’Jonson, Ferrus Manus, Fulgrim, and
Vulkan (pre-crazy). But wait! There’s
more! Imperial Knights, Legio Custodes,
Vindacare Assassins, Malcador the Sigillite, and mysterious Space Marines in
unmarked grey armor. (Hmmmm, I wonder who they could be…) And where would a book in the Horus Heresy be
without a myriad of daemons and denizens of the warp?
Each story made me want to head straight to Huscarl Hobbies
and Games and talk about it with whoever would listen (remembering to mention “spoiler
alert” before every sentence, of course).
Of all the stories in this book, my favorite was about the
Ultramarines. Before the Battle of Calth,
the Ultramarines were a bunch of set-in-their-way, closed-minded, stuck-up
jerks. After the Battle of Calth, and
the subsequent destruction of the 500 worlds brought on by the Word Bearers and
World Eaters, a select few Ultramarines get over themselves and learn to
adapt. This story is about a captain
that does just that, which makes this story stand out for me. Granted, I would never want to play the
Ultramarines, but you kind of have to feel for them, at least a little.
As for me, I am on to the next book, Pharos – The Dying of the Light.
Who knows? If I like it, I may write a blog post about it. If I don’t like it, I may write a blog post
about it. You never know.
Good reading!
Jason H
