Two Greats, Three Average and Two Stinkers

TLDR: "After De'shea" and "The Last Church" are amazing; "Blood Games", "Wolf at the Door", and "Scions of the Storm" are okay; and "Call of the Lion" and "The Voice" are painfully bad.

As with most music albums, frequently compilations of short stories tend to have a couple of good works that buoy the lackluster ones. Let's cover each of the stories in a quick paragraph.

Blood Games: One of Dan Abnett's weaker works, the main merit of it is that it gives insight to the Custodian Guard. The overall problem it has with it is that it is split into two story arcs, and neither is developed particularly well. Story works well enough, though Abnett's prose can get over-heavy at times. I do get the feeling he was trying to fill word count at times, which is not like him. The main draw is that it gives a bit of development to a character that will appear later in the Horus Heresy series.

Wolf at the Door: A reasonable entry into the series, but frankly unimportant to either the larger narrative or to give insight to the workings of the Space Wolves. Perhaps it served a better purpose before Prospero Burns, but as it stands now, it doesn't add anything. Story is entertaining enough, with some characters you find interesting. I could not imagine anyone recommending this story to someone else, however, or remembering it long enough to recommend.

Scions of the Storm: I get the impression that Anthony Reynolds is a fan of Dan Abnett works, because the story seems to have borrowed elements of First and Only and Horus Rising, but doesn't make very good use of either. Like all of the first five stories in this compilation, a lot of repeated narrative and dead language is used, seemingly to fill space until the last leg of the story which is where it really shines. The conversation with Lorgar is handled very well and paints a vivid picture of who Lorgar really is. Pretty much the rest of the story is forgettable.

The Voice: Easily the worst story on the compilation, it combines problems that people have with extended universe books with problems people have with sci fi books. Action is frequently interrupted for in depth "who cares" description. The author calls back to another book he wrote far more than he should (Flight of the Eisenstein). And the main idea of the story is self enclosed, so it doesn't matter to the larger narrative of the Horus Heresy. Completely skippable unless you're really interested in what happened to the Sisters of Silence after Flight of the Eisenstein.

Call of the Lion: A very weak story with a very weak premise. The conflict in the story is predictable and not very interesting. Rather than trying to demonstrate an ideological struggle (which should be the centerpoint of the Dark Angels) it instead has two captains bickering with one mostly correct, and the other unambiguously wrong. It's just friction for the sake of friction and reminds me of some of the worst moments in the Garro series.

The Last Church: Speaking as someone who hates Graham McNeill's works, I was astonished at how good this story really was. The focus of the story does a great job explaining and uncovering what the Imperial Truth is from two different perspectives. It really builds up the pre-heresy narrative in a way that rarely is done through the Horus Heresy novels. The characters in the story are both excellent as well. My favorite work by McNeill.

After Desh'ea: Though it doesn't measure up to the later World Eaters stories, it does a great job introducing Angron and Kharn to the Horus Heresy narrative apart from the Sons of Horus stories. Though everything in here is covered in Betrayer, and this story is skippable, it really helps walking through the situation in Kharn's shoes and seeing the events unfolding through his eyes.

In closing, this compilation may be worth it for "The Last Church" and "After Desh'ea" if you're a Horus Heresy fan. Perhaps if you're really into Space Wolves, the Custodian Guard or Word Bearers, you may be more forgiving of those three stories than I was. If you are a casual reader of the Horus Heresy series, pass this one up. It contains nothing relevant to the rest of the stories. If you have not read any of the Horus Heresy books, do not start here.

4 people found this helpful

A solid read

The last church was awesome story, and the book as a whole is real good too

3 people found this helpful

Short Stories are the best stories

Luetin09 was absolutely right when he said that 40k short stories are the best place to start. They are succinct, and full of facts about the Imperium of Mankind. I wish I had known about them when I got started because they would have answered so many of my questions.

2 people found this helpful

Not worth an Audible Credit

Gareth Armstrong, Toby Longworth and Jonathan Keeble should be the only narrator's used by the Black Library. everyone else? Not a fan. The stories were, in my opinion not the best in the Horus Heresy series.

5 people found this helpful

A total oddity in the series, a tossup in quality

Abnett surprisingly doesn't have the best work here as he does the previous 9 novels, Mike Lee's Space Wolves story was the standout. It seems Abnett works better in the long form, and Lee makes a better short form story. Frankly, I liked Lee's brief story more than about half of the previous 9 full novels. McNeill is still the worst writer of the bunch, with the story of 14-year-old reddit atheist Emperor making me cringe repeatedly. I liked the brief descriptions of the unification wars and the fact this wasn't very long to listen to. The Sisters of Silence story had some good depictions of the warp messing with reality.

At this point I think I am making a sunk cost fallacy to continue forward in the series. I would strongly suggest if you aren't as driven by stupidity as I am you pick and choose from here on what you listen to; there's some tremendous gaps in quality between the best and worst of the series, and this series has ultimately painted a very negative light on the 40k IP for me.

1 person found this helpful

fun to get the short stories that fill in the gaps

the last church is easily one of my favorite pieces of lore from the entire 40K universe. it really showcases how much of a benevolent dick the emperor of mankind truly is. Also it would be very interesting to see an alternate history where angron never receives the nails.

Great collection of short stories

This series of novels and compilations of short stories are all excellent. Here are a collection of several short stories from the age of primarchs and like all others has been brought to life with such excellent voice acting that truly immersed you in the world created by the authors. A great listen and like many I agree that the short story compilations might be a good place to start to give you a flavor of the warhammer world if you do not wish to start at the beginning of the Horus heresy series this is a great place to start. For new and experienced readers of the series these short stories are great.

Well done

"The last church" had to be one of my favorite stories so far, well done.

Nice short stories

Good short stories to listen to. The last church was by far the best followed by the world eaters reuniting with their Primarch.

A bunch of short stories

Honestly the short stories were okay, but nothing too spectacular. Since they’re so short, you don’t have enough time to have any emotional bond to the characters.