Earn Tales Of Heresy (The Horus Heresy #10) Documented By Nick Kyme Offered In Physical Book

at first glance it seems GW isn't advancing the main plot at an acceptable pace when you consider the shear scale of the story they really aren't doing too bad of a job, and so far all of the side trips have been at least entertaining.
Decent of Angels seemed out of place before the publication of Fallen Angels despite the importance of the Dark Angels story in the time of the Heresy, Since Fallen Angels however I think the books' importance to, and place in the over all picture is more obvious,

Parts of Tales of Heresy are similarly important pieces of the puzzle that would be hard to fit in elsewhere but needed to be gotten out before the series got too much further along.
The rest are interesting side notes lose ends or bits or characterization that also would be hard to fit elsewhere, serve to flesh out the size of the collection and which GW are probably afraid wouldn't generate as much interest or revenue if published at a time other then when everyone is waiting for the next book in this series.




I'll review each of the stories individually,



"Blood Games", is a great action adventure piece which shouldn't surprise anyone since it was written by Dan Abnett, but it also gives us our first look at the Adeptus Custodes and the effect of the war on Terra, and the effect of Terra on the War.
It also shows some early signs of how the hugely bloated government machinery necessary to run such a large empire and the atmosphere of mistrust and jealously guarded but overlapping areas of responsibility lead to stepping on toes and eventually to the bitter rivalries and even outright war between powerful factions within the empire which are possibly it's greatest weakness in thest millennium.




"Wolf at the Door" by Mike Lee Does a lot to show us the attitude and character of the crusade era empire in general and the crusade era Astartes in particular.
How far they're willing to go, and where they are not willing to bend, The ending was very imperial, It's always good to see the Wolves of Fenris of course, and they have been absent from the series so far, but since there was nothing specifically Wolfish about this story I would have proffered it if they had taken the opportunity to use and flesh out one of the more obscure legions.




"Scions of the Storm" by Anthony Reynolds gives us our first first good look at Lorgar and the Word Bearers, and about time too since you could reasonably argue that this whole mess is their damn fault.
The exact motivation for the attack is still not totally clear to me, though, Was it Lorgar destroying what he had intended as a gift for the Emperor who he has now turned his back on Or was it truly done on the Emperor's orders as part of his quest to slip the chains of his godhood and eliminate religion entirely If the latter as I believe, then it is indeed a defining moment for Lorgar who will now spend his worship, rejected by the Emperor, on others who will gladly accept it.
I'm sure there's a name for that particular Psychopathology



"The Voice" by James Swallow is a tying up of lose ends, character wise with some familiar faces.
The story shows how the prejudice and inflexibility of many of the Empire's pseudoreligious for the moment at least, later they'll be clearly religious important defenders goes a long way towards destroying any hope of an end to the eternal war.




"Call of the Lion" by Gav Thorpe could have been done as a prolog to Fallen Angels, It shows how paranoia and prejudice on either the part of Lion el'Johnson or the Calibanite Dark Angels starts to further drive in the wedges that will ultimatly split the legion.
It also brings in the character of Chaper Master Astelan, first introduced in the novel "Angels of Darkness", which you should read if you haven't, it's one of the bestK books ever written.




"The Last Church" by Graham McNeil is chronologically the earliest story yet, It takes place before the Great Crusade has even reconquered all of Terra, The main body of the story is the attempts of a god to convince a priest of the uselessness of religion, The philosophical implications are obviously many and interesting and I'll leave you to explore them on your own, Many people fail to see the connection to the heresy since it takes place so long before the rest of the books but this is actually one of the most important elements of the over all story.
The destruction of religion on Terra is the first heavy blow in the Emperor's war on the gods, to deny them the physical realm by not only cutting off the power of worship from their followers but attempting to end religious thought altogether and prevent them from recruiting new worshipers.
The entire heresy is a return stroke by the ruinous powers for the blow we see struck in this story,



"After Desh'ea" by Matthew Farer Gives some much needed depth to the otherwise two dimensional Angron, Karn and the World Eaters, Previously they had been nothing but foamy mouthed berserkers intent on hacking up everything in front of them, Now at least we have some idea, as to why, In Angron's case, a thirst for revenge he can never slake and which is ultimately focused on the Emperor making him an easy convert, The religious awe with which most Astartes view their primarchs is well illustrated here and shows how even this crazy bastard was able to drag most of his legion into madness along with him.
I am writing this review for one and ONLY one story, The Last Church by Graham McNeill, Trust me, if you thinkK is all about swords ripping through flesh and bone, you're wrong, well not entirely, it has that in gushing, flowing torrents of hot, warm and sticky blood, naught for naught do we Khronates chant BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD all CAPS DAMN YOU, KHORNE DEMANDS CAPS!! but it also has this, a story where no one dies, and not a sword is lifted.
This is a dialogue, pure and simple between only two people, its more like a fairy tale vibe than anything, if fairy tales had warriors made of Iron and a world gone to hell and that's just the early days ofK but if you do wish to read something worthwhile that is surprisingly philosophical for a setting where Chainswords YEAH! are a thing read the Last Church, and if you dont feel sad, just a

little bit sad at the end, you Sir, are doing Grimdark all wrong!! GM, Dan Abnett and Aaron DembskiBowden are the KINGS ofK story writing, oh and for my two cents, FUCK.
MATT. WARD. and now, time to kill some SPESS MEHREENS!! BLOOOOOOOOOOD FOOOOOR THE BLOOOOOOOD GOOOOOOD!! In a short story collection I like to rate the story and then give an overall rating to the book itself.
.stars

Dan Abnett Blood Games Great author and who doesn't love a story about the Adeptus Custodes,
Matt Farrer After Deshea Blown away, I had read Betrayer a few months ago and the juxtaposition of the final scene of it to this one is amazing, I never really liked Kharn in the tabletop game, but he is a really awesome character in these novels,
Mike Lee Wolf at the Door Really good, Space Wolves and Dark Eldar, plus a a good story to boot!,
Graham McNeill The Last Church It was good and go with your instincts, There is some pretty good Revelation and a good human look at the world after Unity,
James Swallow The Voice Sisters of Silence
Anthony Reynolds Scions of the Storm Not my favorite Word Bearers story but still good,
Gav Thorpe Call of the Lion Sad to say, I love the Dark Angels chapter but this one was hard to place in the timeline for me, I did like the powerlessness that the Space Marines seemed to have here, .