Era of Ruin

The Horus Heresy: Siege of Terra

De: Dan Abnett, Aaron Dembski-Bowden, John French, Guy Haley, Nick Kyme, Gav Thorpe, Chris Wraight

Narrado por: Shogo Miyakita, Colleen Prendergast, Jonathan Keeble

A Siege of Terra Anthology

Horus is dead. His Heresy is over. The scars of mankind’s great schism will never fully heal. For those left behind, a new Era of Ruin is dawning, promising both new beginnings and fresh peril for an Imperium riven by trauma and war.

LISTEN TO IT BECAUSE

This is the final instalment of the Horus Heresy – but that was just the beginning of a much darker tale which will be 10,000 years in the telling. These short stories show us glimpses of the stories that spun out of the Siege of Terra as the fledgling Imperium put together the pieces after the galaxy-shattering destruction, and those who fought on both sides, as they try to move on from the unthinkable events of the bloody conflict.

THE STORY

In Chris Wraight’s Homebound, Ilya Ravallion must choose between the decimated White Scars and living out what remains of her life in peace. An embattled Ahzek Ahriman must race against time to learn what he can of the warp before its gates close to him forever in Ex Libris by John French.

Featuring tales from Dan Abnett, Aaron Dembski-Bowden, Guy Haley and many more, this anthology follows mighty Custodians, scheming sorcerers, and the lowly footsoldiers of the Imperial Army as all negotiate the devastating aftermath of Humanity's greatest reckoning.

CONTENTS

– Introduction, by Jacob Youngs

– Angels of Another Age, by John French

– Fulgurite, by Nick Kyme

– Fragments (All We Have Left), by Dan Abnett

– Ex Libris, by John French

– System Purge, by Gav Thorpe

– After the Dawn, the Darkness, by Guy Haley

– Homebound, by Chris Wraight

– The Carrion Lord of the Imperium, by Aaron Dembski-Bowden

Audio is narrated by Shogo Miyakita, Colleen Prendergast, and Jonathan Keeble. Runtime 8 hours and 31 minutes approx.

©2025 Games Workshop Limited (P)2025 Games Workshop Limited

Finishes Unnecessary Loose Ends Well Enough

The point of this volume does not seem to be that of concluding the The Siege of Terra but to tie up some loose ends and tell some interesting stories that the authors still had, that could not or should not have been included in what was already a very long main story.

Some of these stories are more interesting than others and will be re-read and others just add some color or tone to the setting. In general they generate a tone of ruin in the aftermath of the main story that will bridge the gap to the next main plot line of The Scouring.

I honestly wanted to see the Avenging Son arrive, and feel what he felt and watch his too late legion interact with the surviving broken legions and primarchs but that isn’t what this story is about; it clearly dances around the edges of this leaving it for another day.

Overall this omnibus (of sorts) is middle of the road in quality and desirable information. Some stories, like those involving the Custodes have some depth and will require relistening.

The audio performance is fair.

(one day we will get the 3rd Bequin novel, probably the day Winds of Winter is released 😉)

no ground breaking revelations

good voice acting but the story focuses on random loose ends that didn't play huge roles in the heresy, waste of a credit.

loved to see the resolution of some stories

so many threads unresolved so many opportunities to finish stories like what happened to John gramaticus and other integral characters

“Okay” Stories

Please never let Shogo narrate another story. He is so flat and droning. It’s a jarring shift from the dynamic emotional reading we get from Johnathan Keeble and Toby Longworth. Most of the stories are interesting enough but by the throne this narration nearly put me to sleep.

Not Necessary

You can skip this one unless you're a completionist. The stories end minor narrative arcs.

Great follow up

While there are other characters that I wanted to hear about as well, this is a good way to bridge the gap between the siege and what came after!

Temper Your Expectations

It's a great anthology. It gives insight into the aftermath of the siege of terra and some of the surviving characters. Don't expect any major reveals or developments. It's an anthology, not The End And The Death Volume 4. I work or drive while I listen so I will have to revisit some of these stories but the last three had moments that I really appreciated for the characters involved and I really look forward to what may come next for them.

Disappointing

Fine, but neither satisfying nor worth a second listen. Many of these are following individual characters and wrapping up their stories and only a couple of them get an ending that makes any sense and feels right. The authors are trying to make big, grandiose, often ham-fisted points in the best Warhammer tradition but neither their style nor their content in these particular works really gets close to that in a way that isn’t eye-roll inducing or so predictable the effect lands. None of this is helped by the Shogo’s narration, which is flat and unengaging.

Not terribly awful but nothing awesome

Was pretty let down and couldn’t get invested in half the stories. Some of them are okay and the shorter ones had far more interesting topics than the longer ones. To be fair there are a few plot points I thought were “neat” but that’s all. Really just felt like filler that teases you of something super important but it’s not. White scars did get a lot of love so genuinely happy for them.