Born of Flame

The Horus Heresy, Book 50

By: Nick Kyme

Narrated by: Jonathan Keeble, Saul Reichlin

Length: 15 hrs and 54 mins

Publisher's Summary

Born of the fiery world of Nocturne, the Salamanders believe in self-sacrifice and the sanctity of human life. 

Their father, Vulkan, was raised on this world, a blacksmith's son from humble origins who became a primarch of the Emperor of Mankind and forged his sons into a Legion. Their saga is one of heroism, betrayal, tragedy and rebirth. They have returned from the edge of extinction more than once, forever embattled, never bowed, the Legion and their primarch the epitome of defiance in the face of adversity. Unto the anvil, born of flame.

©2018 Games Workshop Limited (P)2018 Games Workshop Limited

Tales of the Salamanders Legion

A collection of novellas of the Salamanders and the Shattered Legions. Some stories intersect with novels and stories from early in the Heresy era. Overall, an enjoyable collection and one that I had been looking forward to completing for some time. It was worth the wait to me.

Some recycled material

I’m not a fan of recycling old stories. While I can understand that it was done in order to set the tone for the final piece, I feel like it was a missed opportunity to explore new perspectives within that older material.

excellence

best salamanders story yet, really dwells deep into the story line. I highly recommend listening to this story.

disliked one of the narrators

I noticed that I started to get annoyed with Saul Reichlin's voice. Vastly prefer Keeble

Narrator makes the difference

I think this book in the series is a shining example of how the narrator for these audiobooks makes all the difference in how engaging the story is. Nothing against Saul Reichlin, but the first couple stories where he narrated could have been so good, but the lack of inflection between characters and his narration mode made it a bit of a slog. But once Jonathan Keeble picked up the reins, it was a completely different book. He brings such life to the characters even when the stories are not as action packed. And I'm very happy that I listened to it all the way through.

boring

so sleepy yawwwwn. very boring. not a good collection of stories at all. sleepy yawn

An anthology

I love 40K but this book has almost nothing to do with the Horus Heresy. You can skip this one.

Great!

I thought that the ending was perfect! Don't skip this one and remember Vulkan lives!

kill off Vulcan already.

ok story line, but by the end you'll be sick of hearing the words "Vulcan lives".
Vulcan lives.... shut up
Vulcan lives...... shut up
Vulcan lives........ SHUT UP!!!

Slow with a strong tail, as befits a drake

If you like the Salamanders and closing up gaps you didn’t know existed, this is a great anthology. They can be a bit slow, but they pick up towards the end. VULKAN LIVES!

Vulkan Lives! Vulkan Lives! Vulkan Lives!

Get used to hearing this once pretty cool mantra. As it gets thrown into almost every conversation and overused excessively, eventually making you want to grit your teeth every time it is uttered.

I didn't exactly enjoy this book, it is an amalgamation of short-ish stories, about 5 in total. I'm not sure whether to attribute it to bad writing or bad delivery, but they start off weak and only get marginally better by the end. The first couple were pretty hard listening and more than once I had to force myself to go back to it. As they are written in an overly descriptive manner, constantly stating the obvious and are particularly dull. The change of reader certainly improved things and I do think the writing improved as well as it went on but overall the book remained dull and uninspiring.

There was a couple of good scenes and the occasional interesting dilemma but their full potential was never really fully explored.

If your a die hard Salamanders fan you may enjoy this, though ultimately I felt it didn't add anything to the overall Heresy narrative.

Vulkan Liiiiives...

if I hear that one more time I swear I will go insane. Seriously, this was the hardest HH to get through not because it was badly written but because it was just boring. Nick Kyme seems to be getting worse and he writes the Salamanders so one-dimensional... blacksmithing terms, check! fire imagery, check! semi-religious delusion, double check! I can't wait to get back to reading about an interesting Legion, which at this point is almost everyone else.

Great collection

Really enjoyed the multiple stories in this. The longest and last sons of the forge was great. Would recommend for a salamander fan.

a little disappointing HH novel

big fan of the hh but this series of mostly long stories loosely based around the salamanders felt disjointed. hard to keep track of the characters or to warm to any in particular. good length of time

Lost interest

After book 49 for me overall this was a real let down. I just struggled with the first narrator I ended up skipping ahead to JK. Voices for demons really need some work. Sorry.

skippable

Not terrible but nothing of substance to the main plot, skip it unless you really like salamanders

A bit dull

Not the most gripping of HH books if you want to complete the set it’s worth doing but if you’re just in it for the story miss it out

Vulkan lives.... Was istvaan 5j justified? Yes.

I loved the salamanders going into the Horus heresy however they have quickly turned to my most hated legion. Every time I hear Vulkan lives I want to pat Horus on the back for what he did to them at Istvaan 5.

It's every other line that comes out of a salamanders mouth.

This is a series of short stories that offer little to the over all Horus Heresy. I would recommend skipping this one & getting one of the later titles.

volkan my live, but these short stories are not me

the only book in hh I've not finished, loved volkan books in the past, but these are short stories set in the past. decent background ect but not for me