For the first time since Tales of Heresy, we are delving into a book of short stories that are following the legions of the Adeptus Astartes (better known as the Space Marines).

Space Marines are inherently fun. After all, they’re living walls of muscle and armor. They excel at causing complete death, destruction and mayhem on a battlefield and that’s before any of the really big guns (like Dreadnoughts) come into play.

However, there are things that make them harder to write about.

In a weird way the books came across as more hard hitting than some of the video games that have been released, like Warhammer 40,000: Fire Warrior or early Warhammer 40k PC games.

The action was a lot more hectic. The characters were more realistic. There also happened to be a lot more honesty in the books than in early Warhammer games and Fire Warrior. Through the development of the story you’re witnessing the history that is merely mentioned in the games. You are seeing the heroes and villains of the galactic civil war that grew from Warmaster Horus’s decision to betray the God-Emperor.

Click through for a recap of the Horus Heresy novels…

Title: The Horus Heresy: Battle for the AbyssAuthor: Ben CounterPublisher: The Black LibraryRelease Date: September 2008Price: $7.99Rating: One thumb up and one thumb sideways, 80/100, B-, *** out of five.Pros: It’s the first book that all events happen after Horus’s betrayal of the Imperium so it’s all new. The story never stops moving. The feel of the book is incredibly faithful to the feel of Dawn of War and Dark Heresy.Cons: Character development could be done better. It could also take more time to develop the events more.Overall: This book in a way is lackluster but it’s still pretty good and a lot of fun to read.

Battle for the Abyss in a way is an incredible installment of The Horus Heresy series. In other ways it could have been so much better.

Click through for the full review…

Title: The Horus Heresy: Galaxy in FlamesAuthor: Ben CounterPublisher: The Black LibraryRelease Date: 2006Price: $7.99Rating: Two thumbs up, 90/100, B+, **** out of five.Pros: Quick pace, gives more explanation to different events, develops all major characters wonderfully, fixes most of the problems that popped up with False GodsCons: The pace is occasionally too quick for the level of detail that it has, still has some of the same problem that False Gods had.Overall: It’s well worth the money, even with the pacing and detail flaws.

Horus Rising and False Gods opened up the story of the Horus Heresy. It followed the formerly honorable Space Marines legion known as the Luna Wolves. Galaxy in Flames follows the quickly fracturing Luna Wolves as some remain true to the Emperor and some remain true to Warmaster Horus.

This is one of the hardest books in the Horus Heresy to read because it’s the most heartbreaking…