C. Z. DunnRecensioner

This was a rather strange short story. I might be missing something (importance of the characters maybe and role they play in larger lore) but this one was as straight-forward veni-vidi-vici (although instead of vici one should say barely survived).

When shuttle with barely alive and heavily mutilated Space Wolves Space Marines onboard is intercepted by Knight Errant group. Using the powers of the Space Marines Librarian order Knight Errant will extract the memories from the survivor. To say Kurze's Space Marines acted as savage homicidal psychopaths (lots of redundant terms here right :)) would be under-statement. Survivors are sent to ensure terror spreads and fear starts to control the remaining Loyalist forces.

Three stars only because I cannot place the story in wider context and story was way too short to flesh out the characters.

Recommended to all fans of Warhammer 40k universe and especially Horus Heresy era stories.

A Knights Errant story collected in Endless War, rather than Errant Knights?

Even More Annoying Magic Man made the absolutely genius decision to send some Knight Errant Space Wolves to act as official observers of Night Lords behaviour...and it went about as well as you might think.

Judging by other people's reviews, I seem to have a rather different experience of these audio dramas than most. I seem to love ones that others hate or feel indifferent and not emotionally engaged by ones find emotional and really like. This is one of them.

I've come to regard this as an audio drama I listened to. It's not good. It's not bad. It's just another very obvious story that literally does nothing to further the stories of the this period or show greater depths of anyone or anything. Maybe an injured Space Wolf will be a character another day and have a grudge against the Nighthaunter. We get the names of a couple of Errant Knights we haven't seen. Beyond these, it seems to confirm that the Imperium's dad's aren't on the same pages, which has already been made abundantly clear.

Honestly, this just didn't do anything for me, regardless of how competent it is. The only frisson of feeling I had was a little wry amusement at Space Wolves getting Curze stomped after what their Legion does to the Thousand Sons.

Truly can only recommend this for an utter Knights Errant completionist or someone who has listened to almost every other audio drama going.

A mixed bag, as is so often the case with Black Library. Gardens Of Tycho - good detective story, would read more if there was any. Fear Itself - featuring EMDR as a tool for overcoming tyranid trauma, worthy but not very interesting otherwise. Prometheus Requiem - in which Nick Kyme is boring about Salamanders. Mistress Baeda's Gift - fun and wry. Iron Inferno - boring. Sanctified - a bit dull. Faces- entertainingly weird. Unity - quite good but missed some tricks. The Core - best of the bunch, ADB's Night Lords are a step beyond most BL authors. Ambition Knows... - ok if you like Necrons I guess.

Another offering from the Dark Angels Audio collection and another time I can't really tell if I rather enjoyed it or if my enjoyment has become markedly scaled after finding the first two offerings so weak.

It's a decent outing and for what is essentially the setup for 6th Edition (I think) with the Dark Vengeance box set actually containing a bunch of these characters it is far better than I would expect for a direct tabletop tie-in.

The Dangels are a little bland in this, but they aren't just the grumpy edgelords that it's not enjoyable to follow, and the machinations of various renegades, Dangels, and the forever quest for the Fallen has at least a little more going for it in this.

I wish good reads did half stars as this is 3.5/5, but 3 would be unfair.

A Mixed Bag That Gets Progressively Better

Opens with two extremely average and unsatisfying shorts, followed by two slightly longer pieces that actually have some substance, and ends with a short that is just about the most perfect kind of 40K story, remembering that the Imperium aren't the good guys and that the Dark Angels' relationship with the Fallen is supposed to actually be interesting and heartbreaking, not just edgelord posturing.

Black Library audio work is almost always great and these are pretty fantastic.

This is the first 40K story I've read/ heard in a while that actually has a nice mix of character, action, and interest.

Just a good 40k story 4.5/5

This is literally everything I could want from a Warhammer 40K story. There's actual criticism of all manner of aspects the Imperium, both called out by the protagonist and show in the text, some action, a fascinating and perfectly embodied named character, an Astartes being appropriately immense, inhuman, and unforgiving.

The hypocrisy and awfulness is the point. Way too much in GW and BL lionise the Space Marines and Imperium, but this shows things as ridiculous and awful as they are and in a fun and compelling way.

Truly the cherry on top of a very mixed Dark Angels Audio Collection.

I kept this one for the Alpha Legion story 'The Long Games at Carcarias, which is a great story, but upon a reread I find that maybe the bookshelf space could be better used! Runes is boring, The Rewards of Tolerance is OK but nothing special, same with Black Dawn. Heart of Rage was boring and badly written, whereas But Dust In The Wind was just boring. Exhumed was well written but uninspiring, Primary Instinct felt like it was aiming for profundity but missed, and finally Sacrifice was a rare Ben Counter story that was a good read. One for the fanboys only.

The best of the HH short story collections, thus far.

Honestly, this is nearly all crap. What saves it are three absolute crackers: The Last Detail, The Trial of the Mantis Warriors, and Orphans of the Kraken. What is interesting is that the authors of these three stories never did anything else good for GW - indeed none of them did much at all for GW apart from these stories. On the other hand, all the other authors represented here did LOADS of other things for GW but their contributions here are stinkers. The best of the rest is Graham McNeill's Consequences, which is well written and well paced and far better than any of his actual novels starring the same characters. Nick Kyme. Mitchel Scanlan, Jonathan Green, Ben Clunter, James Swallow, and Aaron Dembski Bowden all produce stories that are so crap I couldn't read them. Dull, poorly plotted and/or paced, crappy dialect, all absolute crap. A good thing none of these guys are editor in chief at Black Library eh? Apart from the works I mentioned, avoid.

Creados a imagen y semejanza del Emperador, los primarcas se creyeron los príncipes del universo durante mucho tiempo. Dirigieron a las legiones de marines espaciales en una gloriosa conquista de la galaxia, y ningún enemigo del Imperio fue capaz de resistírseles. Pero incluso en el seno de una hermandad tan legendaria, las semillas de la discordia han sido sembradas hace tiempo, mucho antes de que el traicionero Señor de la Guerra, Horus, proclamase su gran herejía. Esta antología contiene cuatro novelas cortas, cada una de ellas centrada en alguno de los guerreros y caudillos más poderosos que la Humanidad jamás haya conocido: Fulgrim, Ferrus Manus, Lion El’Jonson y los primarcas gemelos, Alpharius y Omegon

Después de la traición de Isstvan V, Horus comienza su campaña contra el Emperador, una guerra a escala galáctica que tiene como objetivo final Terra. Pero el camino que lleva al enfrentamiento entre padre e hijo es muy largo: siete años llenos de secretos y de silencios, de planes y de proyectos. Los años más oscuros de la Herejía de Horus están a punto de ser desvelados.

Usual gothic and brutal stories from the Warhammer 40k universe.½

I managed to get through this book. It took me a bit longer than usual. I tend to read more than one book at once, so when it comes to anthologies, reading a bit here and a bit there is normal for me. However, this took me a bit longer than usual. Part of the reason is that it did have some stories that were just average.So those did not keep my attention as well. Since I was aiming to read all the book, rather than skipping, it took me a bit longer. After reading the Ciaphas Cain volume, which I enjoyed immensely (it is still one of my all time favorites, and I gave it five stars here), this was just not as engaging. But I still liked this volume overall because it had some very good stories, which make the volume worth reading. Some of the stories that stuck with me include: "Know Thine Enemy" about the chaplain; the one about the lucky tank soldier; the story of the ork hunter; and the tale of the memory collector. The Ravenor tale is one I may revisit when I get ready to read the new Ravenor omnibus volume. Overall, this was an entertaining volume. I think that fans of WH40K will definitely enjoy it. For the casual reader of scifi or military scifi, I think they will skim and find the stories they like, skipping the others. Overall, I liked it, but I get the feeling there are better works in the WH40K series.

I liked the collection for the most part, but like many anthologies, there are always one or two stories that are either uneven or just not as good compared to the others. In addition, this may be a bit of a peeve, but "victory" as a concept is a bit liberal of a term for a story or two in this anthology. Fans of Warhammer 40K will certainly enjoy this volume. Like other volumes in this series, this is a collection of novellas or longer stories. The stories each feature a chapter of the Space Marines. Let me say a bit about some of the stories without spoiling things.

I liked a bit the ending of the Renegades story (yes, there is a story of renegage Space Marines. If you wanted to see a bit from the view of these marines, this is it). For me, one of the best stories was the one featuring the Grey Knights. The sacrifice idea is woven well into the story as readers get to see what it takes to bless and make holy the implements of war that the Grey Knights use. If you want more of the Inquisition, there is also a Deathwatch story. Between these two, I enjoyed the Grey Knights a bit more, but they are both good. If you just took for granted that their bullets were made holy somehow and the runes on their armors were just put there, this story may open your eyes. I definitely found it fascinating in a creepy sort of way. But there are also stories of marines making their last stand that readers of this collection will enjoy. In terms of stories I did not really like the Crimson Consuls story just did not work for me. It seemed too long, and I certainly found the ending disappointing. But that is me. Readers who like intrigue and machinations may like it better.

Overall, there is a bit of everything for readers, so for some adventure with the Space Marines and a nice sampling, you can pick this volume up.

I have to say that compared to other anthologies I have read in this vein (Legends of the Space Marines and Victories of the Space Marines), this one was very disappointing. I know short story anthologies can be hit and miss depending on the selections. Some stories are good, and might redeem an otherwise so-so anthology. Other stories less so. Well, in this case, there were no real good stories. A lot of them were basically slow-plodding tales that were more of a chore to read than anything else. After my previous reading experiences in this series of anthologies, this one was a real letdown for me as a reader. If Black Library chooses to make another anthology of Space Marines, they probably need to be a bit more selective of who writes stories for it. This one was not a good example of the best Black Library can and does put out. However, there are still plenty of other good things to read in the WH 40K universe, so I am just chalking this up as a loss and moving on to something else.

A pretty good collection of stories about the Space Marines. It is more a collection of novellas or longer short stories as opposed to just short pieces, but it is well worth reading. There are some very good works here. I did enjoy the story about Ventris and the Ultramarines, even though if you have read the Ultramarines novels, you know where things are headed. The story gives a bit more insight into events from the novels. If you are a fan of the Space Marines, you will enjoy this book. If you are looking for an entry point into WH40K and the Space Marines, this is a pretty good book for that.

Another anthology of WH40K stories related to the Horus Heresy. Took a while on this one as I put it down several times to work on other novels, but still enjoyed the stories when I got to them.

I had mixed feelings on this one. On one hand, it was fun reading about four of the primarchs involved in the Heresy. On the other hand, one of the stories was good, two were so-so, and one just bored me to tears.

The best was the last one concerning Omegon/Alpharius, although it took me a bit to realize that Sanders was jumping around in the story time-wise. The deception used by the Alpha Legion on both sides was very clever. The first and third stories concerning Fulgrim and Lion were ok to read, just not up to what I have experienced so far reading the Horus Heresy. I did enjoy how Fulgrim's Slaneeshi possessed body was dealt with and how Lion fought the forces of chaos in the warp as he fled the Night Lords.

The story concerning Ferrus Manus did nothing for me, did not advance any character in this portion at all. I've always read short stories with some trepidation as I feel that a lot of times there is simply not enough time to develop plot and characters to a sufficient degree as in a full length novel. This also seems to be the case here as all four authors in this collection seem very rushed or otherwise non-committal to the overall story. Here's to hoping that the next Heresy novel avoids this.½

Set in the era around the rebellion of Horus against the Emperor, 10,000 years before the gaming background, wuith the Emperor heading back to Ancient Terra instead of leading the Crusades of the Space Legions against the alien xenos. The Primarch, leaders of the greatest armed force ever seen. But There's disension in the ranks of the supposed loyal for as Horus gets ideas above his station and tries to turn his brothers against their Father the Emperor. But like all civil wars, this war is deadly with Brother Astartes facing off against different legions and, sometimes, against Brother Legionnaires.

In this book, the authors all take a look at Primarch of some of the Traitor and Loyalist Legions. Most of the tales are fairly standard science fiction, without too much of the rather weirder Dark Powers that can be added to the Warhammer scenarios. I did find that a list of the various Legions and their loyalties gave one some help in working out the alignment of some of the forces in these stories - some of the authors enjoyed writing about the Traitor Legions rather too much...

Another collection of outstanding Space Marines short stories by various excellent Warhammer 40K authors. Not really much more to say about it than that. Sorry so short.½

Enjoyed this collection of space marine stories. Good light reading which doesn't requre much thought but explores the background of 10 chapters of space marines. Something for everyone here, even if you don't like every story.

Another collection of outstanding Space Marines short stories by various excellent Warhammer 40K authors. The last story by Aaron Dembski-Bowden about Gaius Point really was the best one in this series.