Fury of Magnus

Siege of Terra: The Horus Heresy

By: Graham McNeill

Narrated by: Jonathan Keeble

Length: 6 hrs and 44 mins

Publisher's Summary

A Siege of Terra novella

In the midst of the Siege of Terra, Magnus the Red embarks on a very personal mission – one that will bring him face to face with the Emperor once more!

Listen to it because:

Discover the end of Magnus' journey from Prospero to treachery on Terra in a deeply moving and elegiac tale that sees him finally choose his side and take his place amongst his brothers.

The story:

Of all the Emperor’s sons who fell to Chaos, it is perhaps Magnus the Red whose tale is the most tragic. Sanctioned because of his desire for knowledge, chastised, judged, and shattered to his very elements – there is much for the Crimson King to feel vengeful for. Yet revenge is not the only thing that draws him to Terra alongside the Warmaster’s besieging armies. He seeks something, a fragment, the missing piece of himself that lies within the most impregnable place on the planet – the inner sanctum of the Imperial Palace. As the greatest conflict of the ages reaches fever pitch, Magnus fights his own inner battle. To be whole once more, he must not only overcome the fiercest of defences, but also face the one being whom he loves and hates with equal fervour more than any other – his errant father, the Emperor of Mankind.

©2020 Games Workshop Limited (P)2020 Games Workshop Limited

Great Book!

I am relieved!
Several Black Library offerings recently have been less than stellar. This work from Graham McNeill breaks that streak.

Keeble's narration is nearly flawless.

McNeill is reliably canon, detail oriented, and every one of his stories builds in intensity and tempo until the end.

For the experienced GW reader, you get a lot of solid lore and detail. For the newer reader, McNeill provides a look into the mind and heart of all the players.

It is easy to forget the quality of an author when you read a lot of books and haven't read one of their offerings in a while. I was just reminded of why I love the work of Graham McNeill!

An End and A Beginning

I love the Thousand Sons and have ravenously devoured all books related to them. Fury of Magnus weaves the many threads and characters from the Horus Heresy series that relate to the 15th Legion together and makes deft acknowledgement of the books and details from the 40K period books as well. Critically, it finds a satisfying way to present the long missing piece of how the Thousand Sons truly fell to Chaos. How the melancholic did Magnus and the Legion evolve into the evil warlocks of the 41st Millennium? Great wrongs done to them and impossible choices given lead them to the dark roads of the future in a fully satisfying way. Highly recommend you read Magnus the Red, Legion, False Gods, A Galaxy in Flames, Thousand Sons, Scars, A Path to Heaven, Vengeful Spirit, Crimson King, Master of Mankind, Slaves to Darkness, Solar War, Lost and the Damned, Saturnine, and then Fury of Magnus so that you can trace the narrative and characters more fully.

Weak

Insultingly bad. Not just to me, but to Magnus. He is one of the most interesting characters in the 40k universe and for his role in the Horus Heresy to be concluded in such an insubstantial and flimsy way is just.... disappointing.

I've been waiting for this

I've always liked the 15th legion. This story was vindicating and shows that Magnus was practically forced to betray the Emperor.

so much build up, but no payoff

One really can skip this book. It does a great job painting the devastation of this war. The ending really didn't sit well with me. It was predictable, wanting more, and just short.

story: The big E being so old and wise really needs to take a basic sales class. I mean come on. sure let's help find a way to help Magnus sons. Y not? Just keep an eye on them and not have them as enemies. so much build up and sacrifice to not find a basic solution. ugggghhh, Just disappointing

Magnus is still a idiot

Magnus had the chance for everything he wanted and he gave it away for the handful legionaries had have left. Bold move Cotten. Let’s see how this plays out for the next 10 millennium.

Magnificent!

Another beautiful, poignant chapter in this rich universe. I was captivated from the first sentence and not released until the very end. The writing and narration are top notch, as always. Highly recommended to anyone who's made it through the rest of the Siege of Terra series.

a weak book for the siege of terra

short HH book that barely progresses the plot. inconsistent behavior from long-term characters. It has a few throwbacks to some of the other books in the series but the behavior from magnus, arihman, and malcador almost out-of-charater. a far fall from the thousand sun/prospero burns.
the audio narration was good as usual.

Thousand Sons got what they deserved

I've enjoyed the Thousand Sons' story even if I'm not much of a fan of Magnus and his Legion. This is a loose ends story. The events in it are important enough that they needed to be told but not in one of the "main" storyline books. By the time the book has ended Magnus, Ahriman and the rest are well on their way to being the bad guys they are in 40k. Some surprising side, and main, characters from previous books turn up to influence events. There are several big conversations that needed to be had in regards to the burning of Prospero. All in all I enjoyed this one. If you don't like the side stories that have delayed the HH and Seige this won't change your mind, but if you're a competionist like me and have stuck with this thing from the beginning and want to see stories finished then, enjoy.

Best Book in the Seige of Terra

This is surprisingly better than Saturnine in terms of both plot and narration. Nuff said

fury of magnus... enough said

was a enjoyable story. kinda feel like it should have been given a novel instead of a novella as pacing seemed a little fast and ended too soon . other than that quite enjoyable

Outstanding

Awesome. Both story and narrative is superb. Can’t wait for the next book. Even after so many years this epic story is still the best. More please

Good listen overall

I enjoyed the story and the build up to Magnus's rejection of his father's offer of returning to his side.
Although I did find Magnus shallow and full of hubris.

Whilst many reviews have stated Magnus is unfortunate or did nothing wrong, I see it differently.

Throughout his personal story he repeatedly shows over confidence and a lack of true remorse and a level of hubris worse than his father.

I found his ultimate betrayal sad but inevitable.

A very good story

awesome and tragic, a number of loose ends tied to together. very much worth it and wish to t was longer.

Then I woke up and it was all a dream...

You know why your school teachers told you not to write stories that ended 'it was all a dream?' Because it's damn annoying to discover at the end of a story that the events you just put time into understanding had no importance whatsoever. That's kind of the cheated feeling one gets at the end of Fury of Magnus.

Anyone listening to this audiobook hoping it moves The Siege of Terra's narrative forward after the events of Saturnine is going to be disappointed. Like Graham McNeill's previous SoT novella, Sons of the Selenar, this slim contribution is an adjunct to the main story. The overall plot for the series has clearly been planned in such a way the main plot points occur in the novels. It seems the folks at Black Library have learnt from the enormous, sprawling mess of novels, anthologies and standalone short stories that is the Horus Heresy. Unfortunately there remains numerous loose ends, minor characters and little teasers that were thrown up by the huge number of stories in the Heresy. The answer, it seems is to stuff a bunch of them into the lightweight plot of Fury of Magnus.

I won't divulge anything approaching a spoiler, but it becomes fairly clear once this story is underway that nothing much of consequence is going to happen. It's quickly obvious that Black Library's brief to McNeill was something along the lines of, 'Hey mate, can you sort of tie up these loose ends and explain what happened to these characters, because Dan Abnett says he hasn't a got a monkey's what to do with them." Consequently, a number of minor characters turn up here, only to have their story arcs ended in a disappointing plot cul-de-sac.

Of course, it doesn't feel entirely inconsequential. The main presence is Magnus after all. Plus we get other primarchs, Malcador and even a cameo from the Master of Mankind himself. The main problem for my enjoyment was the realisation that NOTHING would happen which affects the overall situation at the end of Saturnine and the beginning of the next novel. As a result there is very little tension or plot to speak of in Fury of Magnus. The one surprising event in the story gets quickly reversed and even that's not a surprise because we know the character in question CANNOT die until later on....

(Okay, okay - ONE major thing happens, but it's not a surprise as it's already a well-established point of the lore and one that has little or no bearing on the outcome of the siege).

Good bits? There's some. McNeill's reliably good at making wonky W40k lore sound plausible. There's a few fun reveals about the Master of Mankind's plan for the galaxy. Plus, we get Jonathan Keeble's usual, spell-binding performance as the big E (His monopoly as narrator of the later Heresy audiobooks has to be due in some part to this. He's nailed the Emperor's voice to the extent that it's impossible to imagine anyone else doing it). Um, and a loyalist primarch turns up. You might be able to guess which one. Yeah, that's right - the one who has NO bearing on the rest of the Siege...

Ultimately Fury of Magnus teases that it will deliver big events, but at the end, nothing that occurred has altered the situation from the start. One for the die-hard lore fans. Me, I felt a bit cheated. Next Seige of Terra novel, please.

Wow

One of the more galloping entries in the Siege of Terra series. lots of depth, character progression, easy to get into. burned through this in two days!!

Magnus really is quite furious

It’s a shame as there are parts of this book when you are hoping that Magnus will come back to the light of the emperor (even though we know it doesn’t happen) the story is so well told and so superbly narrated you can believe he will

A great one for Primarch interactions.

one of the best books in the siege of terra books. really enjoyed the interactions between all the characters. no dead weight story lines here.

Absolutely brilliant

Excellent listen, very well presented and the story is sublime. Felt really sorry for Magnus at the end

Great listen!

Really enjoyed this book.....but left me feeling sad at the final fall of Magnus.