Descent of Angels

The Horus Heresy, Book 6

By: Mitchel Scanlon

Narrated by: Gareth Armstrong

Length: 10 hrs and 32 mins

Publisher's summary

The planet of Caliban exists much as it has for thousands of years - the knightly orders protect the common people, fighting back the beasts that lurk in the depths of the seemingly endless forests.

Young Zahariel and Nemiel aspire to join the greatest of the orders, led by the example of mighty Lion El'Jonson and his vision of a peaceful and unified world. But the coming of the Imperium brings new concerns and a new destiny for the Lion as part of the Great Crusade, and the sons of Caliban must decide if they will follow him to glory among the stars.

©2007 Games Workshop Limited (P)2013 Games Workshop Limited

Learning about the Dark Angel's Origins

I thoroughly enjoyed learning about the origins of the Dark Angels, and the Primarch, Lion Johnson.

good but not directly relevant

Like others have mentioned, this is a great story with a good performance but it does not have anything to really do with the heresy. The development if the characters is very nice and it was interesting to hear the perspective of peoples transitions to astartes.

great first read for dark Angel's fans

this is a fantastic way to dive right into the early dark angels history. excellent narration too.

Too much medieval society, not enough space

The characters are well written and Gareth Armstrong's narration is as excellent as ever. So what's the problem? Most of he book takes place on a medieval planet. It's largely a story about medieval characters who become space marines at the end of the book rather than a book about Space Marines. There's nothing wrong with that—and I applaud the series for branching out a bit—it's just not my particular cup of tea.

ups and downs

exciting at points, a slough at others. the performance of the reader makes it bearable

poorly rated

i enjoyed this quite a bit. the performance as always was fantastic. thestory of the DA is quite different from the previous in the series, but doesnt diminish the plot. i dont play DA and thoroughly enjoyed it.

The seeds of envy and hatred

The Descent of Angels is a wonderful title filled with tales of the knightly order from which Lion El Johnson came, following the story of a young boy growing into manhood as a Knight. A tale of wonder and wisdom, with sprinklings of mysticism, serves as a look into the morals and teachings of the astartes within the Dark Angels legion. It goes to show the overshadowing of the Lion’s achievements of his brother, Luther, an equally great man cursed to live in the shadow of the legendary Primarch’s legacy. The story was well written and narrated, while the accent (whether the narrator’s own or simply a choice for the book) is a little strange to my own tastes for a story of this style, helps to show the youth of the protagonist and his peers, while showing the superiority of their teachers and fellow brother knights. If you enjoy the aesthetic of the Dark Angels, I highly recommend this title for its rich atmosphere and heavy themes of knighthood and chivalry, and is a rather peculiar addition to the heresy series but would be a good stand alone read simply for the lore of the Dark Angel’s origin.

It just kind of ended...

Loved the story. Narration was great. Characters were great. Ending was sudden and unfulfilling.

Well read, story is kinda slow but interesting

The narrator did everything to capture each character in a unique way, which made the somewhat slow story more digestable.

Good listen

I have listened to it a few times now and it's great every time. If you want the in your face grimdark 40K experience it's slow but it pushes all the right buttons for me.