Cthonia's Reckoning

The Horus Heresy

By: John French, Michael F. Haspil, Gary Kloster, Nicholas Wolf, Noah van Nguyen, Gav Thorpe, Chris Forrester

Narrated by: Gareth Armstrong

Length: 5 hrs and 39 mins

Publisher's summary

A Horus Heresy Anthology

In the final years of the Horus Heresy, all eyes were on the Siege of Terra. But out in the vast darkness of space, war raged over a thousand other worlds—including the home world of the Sons of Horus, Cthonia.

LISTEN TO IT BECAUSE

Witness the bitter, spiteful struggle between the Imperial Fists and the Sons of Horus over the Warmaster's home planet of Cthonia, in seven stories from a variety of authors.

DESCRIPTION

After seven long years of conflict, the Horus Heresy nears its end. But now, as the Warmaster Horus marches on Terra to rip his father from the Throne, the seat of the arch-traitor’s power lies empty. Cthonia, a world once dominated by brutal murder-gangs, is occupied by the Emperor’s praetorians—the indomitable Imperial Fists. For the Sons of Horus, this outrage demands a reckoning. From the towering heights of Traitor’s Gate, stronghold of the VII Legion, to the unending warrens in the planet’s crust, the two sides slaughter one another without remorse. It is a war of spite, and only the most ruthless will rise to claim Cthonia.

CONTENTS

• Sons of Cthonia by John French
• To the Last by Michael F Haspil
• The Gangs Beneath by Gary Kloster
• The Flesh Harvest by Nicholas Wolf
• Traitor's Faith by Noah Van Nguyen
• For Hate's Sake by Gav Thorpe
• Postulant by Chris Forrester

Read by Gary Armstrong.

©2022 Games Workshop Limited (P)2022 Games Workshop Limited

Not Quite What I Was Expecting

It definitely gives you plenty of Sons of Horus vs Fist stories but it feel like this was a missed opportunity to really flesh out Cthonia. What bits we do get is pretty vague.

Very Good Anthology

Most anthologies are usually a mixture of the good, the bad and the indifferent, This book is neither bad nor indifferent and succeeds in capturing the scope and character of the conflict.

A Prelude

This feels like a short story compendium/supplement of stories like the Mark of Calth was to Know No Fear. Not a bad thing by any stretch as it adds a lot of character to the conflict, but it leaves me hoping for a full novel on the siege of Cthonia at some point.

Wasted Opportunity

Another review likened this to The Mark of Calth anthology, and that’s spot on. The problem is, there’s no parent novel (like Know No Fear) for it to build off of. The result is a collection of tales that just float there, unhinged from a strong narrative or touch points. The reader is asked to place them in a vague context of a conflict on Cthonia that is further obscured by many authors’ focus on being overly philosophical rather than telling a well developed story. If there was a full novel to hang these on, it would probably work. As it stands, it falls apart.

Luckily, Gareth Armstrong provides a solid performance throughout. A nice change from the sloppy narration in the last view Siege of Terra books.

***minor spoilers***
Every anthology has good and bad parts. For me, roughly speaking:

The Good:
To the Last (Haslip), The Gangs Beneath (Kloster), and Postulant (Forrester)

All three of these have strong, well developed characters and tell a clear story. They do a good job of working in larger themes and questions in a way that makes them feel natural and engaging and doesn’t sacrifice narrative flow and power.

The Bad:
The Flesh Harvest (Wolf) and Traitor’s Faith (van Nguyen)

These are bad for different reasons. Wolf writes a very engaging story, but it falls down on two significant points. First, it’s not really about Cthonia. It could take place in pretty much any underhive anywhere and feels disconnected from any broader arc. It made the transition to and from
This story very jarring as I tried to actually fit these tales together. Second, instead of slowly building the narrative, Wolf bait and switches the reader in a way that feels very ham fisted and and frustrating. The last third jumps the shark in a way that makes the eyes roll but doesn’t commit to it in a way that makes them pop.

Van Nguyen, on the other hand, is shallow and ham fisted throughout. There’s a good narrative arc whose potential the author fails to live up to.

The Ugly:
Sons of Cthonia (French) and For Hate’s Sake (Thorp)

French and Thorp focus on philosophical questions and meta-discussion of the major themes of the series in a way that feel flat and derivative because it lacks context and meat. If you put the two stories together, it could pass for an inside baseball conversation between the two authors. Their characters are two dimensional and lack any sort of vital spark. The story progression is predictable and not engaging.

Created to sell toys.

This collection of short stories about a previously unexplored part of the Horus Heresy comes across as a mostly average tie in to the recently released HH boxed set and miniatures. Nothing here advances the overall story. It is a series of one-offs with no-name characters you will struggle to connect to. Narration is good but he goes a little fast and I kept having to rewind because I could not keep track of which character I was suddenly in the perspective of. That probably says a lot about the writing as well.
If you’re a fan of the series and have read/listened to them all, this is an ok selection of B and C list BL authors that can lightly scratch the itch for something more substantial. Otherwise, save your credits.

Mike Haspil nails void warfare

decent filler stories giving inside deep lore but one story stood out in particular by Mr. Mike Haspil. I'm not a huge fan of void warfare and this story had me leaning in to listen closer. it was simply amazing if anything grab this book for that story only

Mostly mediocre

As expected there's nothing impressive happening here. Just some various storiea mostly about Fists and Sons of Horus fighting.

One exception is the rather excellent story: 'To the Last' about a ship captain and her crew battling ships in the void above Cthonia. That was a gem among the mostly banale storiea about marines shouting platitudes while killing each other.

Meeh

Confusing, to many writers with great backgrounds. Hard to follow when jumping between characters on both sides.

Didn't care for it

Voice actor making space marine sound like serfs like a peon from warcraft 2. Also some incidents of space Marines thinking about retreat, An imperial fist thinking of retreating from a single Son of Horus to get with his brothers to aid in his fight, vs, fighting the single enemy.

Could have been better

A bunch of disconnected stories. Would have been better as a longer continuous story of what happened to Cthonia.