February 2024 Read using the Horus Heresy Omnibus Project Reading Order - Omnibus IV Shattersong (https://www.heresyomnibus.com/omnibus/iv-shattersong) as part of my Oath of Moment to complete the Horus Heresy saga and extras.

This is my fifth Primarchs novel and it is the most perfectly imperfect so far, I was eager for any Lorgar lore, but disappointed by Bearer of the Word, found Lord of Ultramar well-written but truly an unpleasant reading experience, Master of Prospero was an utter shock, becoming one of my favourite past/ side stories of the Horus Heresy, and The Great Wolf was bolter porn as art until it all came together perfectly at the end and left me sobbing.

Fulgrim and the III Legion are in their early days with incredibly low numbers, after being devastated to only 200 due to a geneseed flaw during a difficult campaign (I think) with Fabius Bile being one of the few original Emperor's Children, and they have come to bring planet autocratic capitalism to Compliance. Charisma and guile are the weapons the Phoenician would most like to bring to bear...

This seems to be a novel that knows exactly what it is trying to do and executes it perfectly. While this doesn't hit the exalted heights of parts of Graham McNeill's Fulgrim, it doesn't come anywhere near the lows, misogyny, and, in my personal opinion, utter mess of the handling of significant tertiary storylines either.

The Earth didn't move for me in the way it did for McNeill's Prospero Burns and Annandale's The Unburdened, but I genuinely had an awesome times with this novel and the way Reynolds makes perfect use of telling a tale much earlier on in Fulgrim's career that does a wonderful job of illuminating elements of the Primarch, his Palatine progeny, and the future Chief Apothecary's past, personality, and shedding light on their initial motivations and how they ended up as they did.

I genuinely felt sympathy for Fulgrim and Fabius and feel I understand their characters and arcs far more than I ever have from the main Horus Heresy series. This is not surprising with Reynolds having written about the Repairer of Ruin for a decade now. The bullying Bile receives from his battle brothers is heartbreaking and he really does seem to be trying to do good, haunted by losing so many of his First Founding fraternity, which makes his fall to becoming the Dark Millennium's Mengler and the galaxy's foremost Rocky Horror Picture Show fan, cosplaying Riff Riff 24/7 all the more tragic. Just as with the burning desire to prove himself and self-assurance in Fulgrim that will fester into preening narcissism, the zeal for vivisection is there, but this is one of those wonderful glimpses of what could have been.

This book also manages to do the main thing I want from Warhammer, and especially the Horus Heresy--humanising and making its mythological figures sympathetic, showing their attempts to not be the worst, and then circumstance and the cruelty and inhumanity of the Imperium being evident as it forces them to kill the parts of them that makes them feel and become the monsters they were created to be.

Bloody brilliant, if non-essential for the main Horus Heresy storyline, book I thoroughly recommend and would consider essential reading for any fans of Fulgrim, Fabius, or the Emperor's Children.

Through using the Horus Heresy Omnibus Project (www.heresyomnibus.com) and my own choices, I have currently read 10 Horus Heresy novels, 11 short stories/ audio dramas, as well as the 2 Betrayal at Calth novellas and the Macragge's Honour graphic novel, 5 Primarchs novels, 3 Primarchs short stories/ audio, dramas, and 2 Warhammer 40K further reading novels...this run. I can't say enough good about the way the Horus Heresy Omnibus Project suggestions. I'm loving it! Especially after originally reading to the releases and being so frustrated at having to wait so long for a narrative to continue. ( )

I am not familiar with the Emperors Children and always thought of them as a pretty disturbed, sadomasochistic personalities. They act outright, no holding back, just driven by thirst for more sensory overload of any kind.

That is why I was taken back by this novel - Fulgrim and Emperor's Children (chosen 6 warriors Fulgrim took to place planet Byzas into full Imperial compliance) are acting more like Alpha Legion, even Custodes. Underhand strategy, luring out assassins and revolutionaries to strike them down, covert missions and assassinations..... very very black-ops-like actions.

Fulgrim's actions and especially his conversations with Imperial envoy Pyke (and this madam is one of the most deadly female characters I've seen) and local politicians from Byzas are excellent and provide means to flesh out Fulgrim ever so more ("Hubris, your name is Fulgrim").

Highly recommended for all fans of W40K and Horus Heresy. ( )

So Prince Lotor decides to conquer a world with a token force of marines to showoff to the Emperor...

It's not a horrible story, but it takes a long time to resolve some relatively petty political maneuvering. In the end, it really doesn't tell us much about Fulgrim besides he's exactly what you thought he was before cracking open this book. ( )