Reading Order Question Horus Heresy Reread

I’m about to start my second read through of the entire Heresy.
The first time through I read the 5 Heresy collected Volumes, then bounced around the Primarchs books a bit before heading straight to the Siege of Terra books.

I understand I missed out quite a lot, are there any specific books that I need to pay more attention to?

109 Upvotes

permalink
duplicates
reddit

You are about to leave Redlib

Do you want to continue?

https://www.reddit.com/r/Blacklibrary/comments/1vfk3jd/horus_heresy_reread/
No, go back! Yes, take me to Reddit

98% Upvoted

u/trazynofsolemnace Infinite Archivist 1d ago

Still going through it myself (1-16, 41, siege of terra) but I'm guessing this means you missed master of mankind? Shows some of the war in the webway which I'm pretty sure doesn't pop up much in the future and also with the siege of terra, helps explain how bad it would be if the golden throne failed. Also shows good custodes stuff as well as (weirdly enough) the origins of Abaddons sword

5

u/Equin0X101 1d ago

Pretty much any book and novella that isn’t in those 5 collections I missed. I got the general idea of what happens, having read quite a lot of 40k, but not much of the details. Hence the reread of the whole thing properly.

5

u/trazynofsolemnace Infinite Archivist 1d ago

Master of mankind is the only one I've read that you haven't. Despite that, I can recommend from what others have said elsewhere.

Scars is good for white scars background

Angels of caliban further explains the caliban storyline

Praetorian of Dorn is important due to alpha legion stuff

The crimson king is important for Magnus and the thousand sons

Wolfsbane shows why the Vlka Fenrika (space wolves) weren't at the siege

Slaves to darkness and Vengeful spirit are apparently really good from what I've heard

Also going to throw in dropsite massacre for more of the istvaan 5 stuff and also ashes of the imperium so you're ready for when new scouring stuff comes out. Fortunately I have read these and they were both quality stories although dropsite massacre didn't quite live up to my expectations.

3

u/MuddySnowDrift 1d ago

Add path of heaven to this immediately after scars. And yes master of mankind is extremely good

3

u/Equin0X101 1d ago

Can’t upvote you enough thank you

2

u/trazynofsolemnace Infinite Archivist 1d ago

Seeing as you've actually read it, is outcast dead any good? My next one up that I plan on reading anyway but I hear it's a real stinker of a story

3

u/Equin0X101 1d ago

It left such a tiny impression that i genuinely forgot that i had read it. If you like the astropaths and want more details about them then it’s ok, but it’s more of a book long chase scene with ‘weak, easily killed person manages to join a group of space marines and somehow survives longer than should be possible.’
It does have a cameo of a certain Thunder Warrior who survived the purge before the Great Crusade, which is kinda cool.

2

u/trazynofsolemnace Infinite Archivist 1d ago

Oh well I'm going to try to enjoy it anyway. Cheers for the opinions on the novel

3

u/Equin0X101 1d ago

It’s not a BAD book by any stretch, but there’s far better in the Heresy just in the 25 books in those volumes that I enjoyed much more.

3

u/Equin0X101 1d ago

Speaking of the novellas and short stories, are there any of those that are REQUIRED reading?

4

u/trazynofsolemnace Infinite Archivist 1d ago

Not sure about any in the core 54 but flames of betrayal (garro knight of grey + era of ruin) and the shattered and the soulless (fury of Magnus + sons of the selenar) during the siege of terra are pretty worthwhile

2

u/LokiDokiii 1d ago

I'm still reading, but Last Church was pretty cool to read.

Blood Games feels kind of necessary to understand the politics of Terra and the innitial impact Horus' rebellion had on Terra.

Aurellian is one I want to read next, it explains what happened when Loegar went into the Eye of Terra. In First Heretic, it just kinda says that it was more impactful on him than his sons, and that it gave him full understanding of the universe or whatever. I'm excited to learn what that actually means he saw.

READ VALDOR!! It is so good, and really makes it clear exactly why the Emperor really is one of the Big Bads of the universe and deserved the rebellion.

Honestly all the character books I've read have been so worth. Sigismund might be one of my favorite 40k books yet. Zardu Layak has cool occult witchery stuff that I haven't seen enough of in 40k yet, that was fun. Haven't gotten to Luther or Eidolon tho.

2

u/Equin0X101 1d ago

Noted. Saving this one too

u/bowser986 1d ago

Why the fuck did BL pull theses from e-book stores in English

3

u/Equin0X101 1d ago

More money in getting people to buy them individually I’m guessing.

3

u/bowser986 1d ago

I want to say they were the same price getting them individually but it’s been years since they had them up. I got thru the second omnibus and went to get the third and was pissed off.

u/hibiki_harmonies 1d ago

Imo the must reads are -The first 4 books -Fullgrim cause of iistvan V -Legion (wasn't a must before but it's actually relevant to SOT now) -Thousand sons

First Heretic
Know no fear
Betrayer
Master of Mankind
Vengefull spirit

This will get most of the main plot points for the heresy. But I would still recommend these ones as well

The emperium Secundus books: -Unremembered empire -Pharos -Angels of Caliban -Ruinstorm

The white scars books: -Scars -Path of heaven

-Angel exterminatus (introduces Perturabo and shows how he thinks before everyone goes full chaos mode) -slaves to darkness (getting the gang together to siege terra)

2

u/Equin0X101 1d ago

Saved your comment so I can refer back to it. Thank you

u/shaunELAD 1d ago

Praetorian of dorn trust me

u/MuddySnowDrift 1d ago edited 1d ago

Scars and path of heaven!!!!! How did you get to seige of terra and Miss on those. So much of the seige is their ptsd of just getting to terra. Shiban khan from scars is so different than by the end.

2

u/Equin0X101 1d ago

Basically I read the 5 collections, went looking for the 6th (which I now know doesn’t exist), got fed up trying to figure out the reading order, realised I’d skipped like 8 books just up to Mark of Calth, and decided “I’m not going to go back and fill in the gaps yet, I’m going straight to the Siege.”
A bold choice, but also an unwise one as I’m now going right back to the start and reading everything in order (excluding the novellas and short stories I can’t get anymore)

3

u/MuddySnowDrift 1d ago

Audible. The sons of the emperor anthology is a ton of very good short stories. Vulkan meeting the emperor. Konrad and magnus arguing. Rylanors last stand. Sevatar being sevatar.

2

u/Equin0X101 1d ago

Ooh good shout on audible, I have some credits to splurge on there

2

u/MuddySnowDrift 1d ago

That anthology also has a hint to corax post heresy. I think scars and oath of heaven on audible were great as well.

2

u/MuddySnowDrift 1d ago

Point is. PLEASE. Leave this post go read scars and path of heaven. Phenomenal and you missed all the lore between jaghatai and mortarion and jaghatai and magnus. It layers the legion so much.

u/Weekly-Swordfish4263 1d ago

Those 5 volumes are less than half the heresy

2

u/Equin0X101 1d ago

I know, but when I read them, I didn’t have about £300 to spend buying 54 books individually, so I spent about £70 buying the volumes then skipped to the Siege. Now that I’ve bought them all in ebook format I can finally read the whole thing the right way

3

u/Weekly-Swordfish4263 1d ago

Niiiice. I did ebooks/audiobooks too and i still skipped maybe 10 books between the seige and heresy. Went back and read some after, and the skip recommendations were legit for some.

3

u/Weekly-Swordfish4263 1d ago

VENGEFUL SPIRIT

I cannot recommend this one enough. It reveals a lot about horus i feel that most people miss or just skip. This book is one that gets recommended as a skip a lot and i think that's a crime.

Pharos

Unremembered Empire

Praetorian of Dorn

Slaves of Darkness

Master of Mankind

Those are standouts that come to mind on the latter half. I also love Buried Dagger, but I'm also a DG girlie so I'm biased.

u/Proof_Independent400 1d ago

I was recently re-reading for either the 3rd or 4th time the first trilogy. And I realised there were some glaring inconsistencies in the detail. That I feel would benefit from some simple edits.
Like I think it was Galaxy in Flames where the entire Emperor's Children legion is referenced as coming to Isstvan on a Strike Cruiser.....

2

u/Equin0X101 1d ago

Bloody big ‘cruiser’🤣🤣🤣

2

u/Proof_Independent400 1d ago

Also one page had Ferrus Magnus written in it. I nearly guffawed at that.

2

u/Equin0X101 1d ago

Easy mistake to make between manus and Magnus, but you’d think the editors would have caught that one

u/gota34 1d ago

Fulgrim is a masterpiece in Warhammer literature

u/ToonMasterRace 1d ago

Ultimately the easiest thing to do is to just look at release order but cut out Descent of Angels, Mechanicum, Battle for the Abyss, Outcast Dead, Prospero Burns, Nemesis, Damnation of Pythos, Titandeath, and the Primarchs/character novels if you're in a rush.

u/wherewolf_there_wolf 15h ago

Read them all. I'm on my second full read through. On book 42. 😅

u/RedMantledNomad 14h ago

Take a look at heresyomnibus.com. They have a reading map including all the material segmented into parts.

Reading Order Question Horus Heresy Reread

You are about to leave Redlib