Horus Hearsay #31 – Legacies of Betrayal and Time Wasting

Here we are, yet again with ANOTHER collection of Horus Heresy short stories. How badly did (and does) the Black Library want to pad out this series? I can’t help but think that all of these short story collections would be better served in a giant omnibus of HH short stories. Which I suppose wouldn’t help too much since they keep publishing new ones. Regardless, we have book #31, Legacies of Betrayal, a collection of one novella and 18 short stories. Let’s get this over with.

Previously, in the HH Publication Schedule…

I was able to get through this collection somewhat quickly because I had already listened to a few of them as audio dramas. I figured that maybe they were made into audio dramas after this book released, but the Editor’s note in the back of the book says HAHAHAHAHA no. All of these stories were already published once before. He then oh so kindly pointed out that oh hey this is TOTALLY not a haphazard anthology of short stories.

Yeah, I’m pressing X to doubt. I used to think Jen was being overly harsh that this series was padded. I’m not sure she was being harsh enough. This is money-grabbing ridiculous, even for the Black Library.

What’s Hot

I did enjoy a few of the stories, I’ll give it that. “Butcher’s Nails” by Aaron Dembski-Bowden was an interesting look into Angron’s thought process for forcing the Nails on his sons. “Guardian of the Order” by Gav Thorpe showed the current state of Caliban and the relationships between Cypher, Zahariel, and Luther. I enjoyed learning what happened to Thiel in “Censure” by Nick Kyme. I even liked “Lucius, the Eternal Blade” by Graham McNeill, mainly because it introduced the relationship between Ahriman and Sanakht.

“Warmaster” by John French, however, is my absolute favorite. I’m a sucker for learning how the brothers feel about one another, and this one was especially delightful since Horus was lamenting the brothers that sided with him.

“‘Strange is it not, that so many I wish beside me stand against me, while at my back are only the flawed and damaged. I am a master of broken monsters.'”

That’s the money quote for the entire Horus Heresy.

What’s Not

Unfortunately, this includes everything else. Sure, Chris Wraight’s novella, Brotherhood of the Storm, provided interesting insight into the differences between the Chogoris and Terran White Scars, but everything else felt unneeded. The rest of these short stories are nothing but filler that serve best outside of the novel series as a whole.

I almost feel cheated with how many collections of short stories there are in this series. The series has enough pointless novels as it is, but to toss in short story collections that don’t move the plot forward?

Starting to think the true betrayal in Legacies of Betrayal was the betrayal of my time. Because it was wasted, you see.

Thirty-one books down, 23 books to go.

Horus Hearsay is dedicated to Keri’s journey through the Horus Heresy saga. The chronicling of the Horus Heresy began over ten years ago, with currently 54 books in total, not counting The Primarchs series or the various short stories. Horus Hearsay will only cover the main novels.