The Horus Heresy series is now quite large, and despite the fact that I've read more of them than any other 40k nerd I know, there's still a great deal of them I don't have. Nevertheless, in the spirit of, um, bite-size-ism, here's a rundown of some of my favorite and least favorite novels in list form that should be easier to digest than reading all the reviews in a row (although I suggest you do that too - let's see if we can get the daily visit stat into the double digits!!!!!1)
Best novels: Opening trilogy (Horus Rising, False Gods, Galaxy in Flames), Flight of the Eisenstein, A Thousand Sons, The First Heretic
Lots of 40k books have incredible violence, and while these books have no shortage of bloodshed, they also share strong stories, interesting characters, and are some of the hardest books to put down out there. I'd rank The First Heretic and A Thousand Sons as the best two 40k books published hands down.
Honorable Mention: Fear to Tread
Not quite in the top tier but also quite excellent, and that's no small feat considering this is something like the 26th book in the series.
Worst novels: Fulgrim, Legion, Descent of Angels
Fulgrim and Legion are just unpleasant to read; Fulgrim never goes anywhere and never gives the reader a reason to care, and Legion is a big messy stew of weird concepts and terms that never really comes together. Both books do pick up at the very end, but they're painful slogs until you get to that point.
N. Web: Descent of Angels just absolutely stinks. Playing devil's advocate I guess I can sort of see it as a weird case of an anti-perfect Mary Sue story where the superstar Space Marine main character SURPRISE turns out to be on the side of the Dark Angels that fall to Chaos, but if that's even what the author was going for, it's not obvious and just falls flat.
Biggest disappointment: Prospero Burns, Deliverance Lost
Well, you can't be disappointed unless you had high hopes, and both of these looked quite good: A sequel/companion to the excellent Thousand Sons, and a novel focusing on the up until now ignored Raven Guard. Both books not only failed up to live up to expectations, but Deliverance Lost is kind of boring, and Prospero Burns flat out stunk.
Best pleasant surprise: The Age of Darkness
I didn't know this was a short story collection, and I'm glad I didn't, because I never buy them, and this is a great book, just missing out on being among the best because of a not very good Graham McNeill opener, and my still-ingrained distaste for short story collections.
Craziest Book: Nemesis
It takes some doing to be the most insane book in a 40k series, but I don't have any doubt about this. I had trouble keeping the characters straight and staying awake through some parts of the divided plot, and I STILL don't understand how a pariah can have a wraithskin, but here we are. Nemesis.
Perfectly Skippable: Mechanicum, The Outcast Dead
There's nothing really wrong with Mechanicum; it's just kind of there, which is a little disappointing considering the events it covers. The Outcast Dead is Graham McNeil at his worst, and it's so boring I forgot everything except the ending, which I only remember because of how dumb it was.
I should have known better: Fulgrim
N. Web told me how crappy this book was, and I got it anyway. Why? Well, it's next after Flight of the Eisenstein, and, uh, I don't really know. Suffice to say, I have been shown who is the boss.
Books I want: Betrayer, Angel Exterminatus, Know No Fear
Two of these are yet to be released - Betrayer is by the author of The First Heretic, and Angel Exterminatus is about the Iron Warriors. Know No Fear is on my wish list, hint hint, and hopefully features the Ultrasmurfs getting beaten up by the Word Bearers and Orks.
Watch this post as time goes on; Hopefully the titles on "Books I want" will graduate to pleasant surprise or best novels, and not the dreaded biggest disappointment or worst novels.
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