Horus Heresy: Tales of Heresy

"Blood Games", a brilliantly conceived Palace Custodes short story with spies, hidden plans, and assassination attempts so close to the Throne of Terra you can hear the wolves gather. A precursor to the Hersey is "Wolf at the Door" with the Space Wolves quelling a rebellion but, regrettably becomes drivel and had nothing of real import. A better precursor to the Great Fall is "Scions of the Storm" revealing the madness that is to quickly become the Word Bearers. "The Voice" delivers a Sisters of Battle mystery as the Sisters struggle with their faith, pride, and honour. Though "Call of the Lion" is more of a novelette than a short story, it gives us a glimpse into the rift of the knightly Dark Angels. This well written novelette was by far more superior to the entire novel "Descent of Angels". "After Desh'ea", a tale of jolting violence, we witness the ascension of the infamous World Eaters Primarch Angron. Finally, there's Graham McNeill's literary powerhouse "The Last Church" that has got to be one of the most thought provoking short stories to ever come out of the Black Library.

Tales of Heresy tries to weave together a more complete tapestry than the one occupied by the canonical HH novels, touching on the strains of the Legions facing the near end of the Crusade, to the rarely used Sisters of Silence and the ominous Black Ships. While a majority of shorts involve Space Marines, surprise surprise, a few of the more off-color stories are of a higher philosophical tone than most BL fiction, including a discourse between the Emperor and a Terran priest which I found delightful. Most of the stories are somewhat cookie-cutter feeling of the familiar smash and blast that we know and love, but there are enough high points to make every story worth reading. While theres nothing in this book that'll knock your socks off, unless you're a armchair philosopher that bashes religion every chance it gets(like yours truly).

This book i basically...10 I think... short stories. Defiantly a mix of good, great, and not so great. Abnett keeps coming up with new "angles" and different parts of the overall story. While one or two of the stories pose the question of "why is this in here?", none of them are un-enjoyable. What is great is that almost all of the authors from the previous books have a short. Except Mitchell Scanlon.....THANK GOD.

Blood Games by Dan Abnett A blood game is when one or more warriors are released and then try to get back within striking distance of their master. Once captured, those dealing with intelligence will go through the strategies used in order to strengthen security. But what happens if it is not a game? Wolf at the Door by Mike Lee The Space Wolves land on a planet hoping to reclaim a lost world in the Allfather's name. They find themselves facing xenos. Scions of the Storm by Anthony Reynolds The Word Bearers were told that the world designated Forty-seven Sixteen must burn due to its incompatible profane beliefs. But are the people of the planet really in the wrong? The Voice by James Swallow When one of their Black Ships goes missing the Storm Dagger cadre, Sisters of Silence, go hunting. What they find is horrific. Call of the Lion by Gav Thorpe The Dark Angels locate a previously unknown civilization on a planet and hope to bring a peaceful introduction to the Enlightenment of the Emperor. However, upon landing battle erupts. The Last Church by Graham McNeill War has torn the world asunder. Only one church remains. Uriah is preparing for midnight mass. Instead of the ones he expects, a man calling himself "Revelation" enters the church. After Desh'ea by Matthew Farrer The War Hounds have finally found their primarch. But before the War Hounds can follow their primarch into battle, they must first reach the primarch's sanity without ever raising hand against him. **** Seven tales set during the Horus Heresy era. Since opinions on stories and on the writing styles of authors differ, I will only say that I found a couple of these tales to be decent but the majority of them to be outstanding. I could never guess what the ending to any one of them would be. An exceptional example of W40K from some of its finest authors. **** Reviewed by Detra Fitch of Huntress Reviews.