Prospero Burns

The Horus Heresy, Book 15

By: Dan Abnett

Narrated by: Gareth Armstrong

Length: 12 hrs and 52 mins

Publisher's Summary

The Emperor is enraged. Primarch Magnus the Red of the Thousand Sons Legion has made a terrible mistake that endangers the very safety of Terra. With no other choice, the Emperor charges Leman Russ, Primarch of the Space Wolves, with the apprehension of his brother from the Thousand Sons home world of Prospero.

This planet of sorcerers will not be easy to overcome, but Russ and his Space Wolves are not easily deterred. With wrath in his heart, Russ is determined to bring Magnus to justice and bring about the fall of Prospero.

©2011 Games Workshop Limited (P)2010 Games Workshop Limited

Skips over the burning of Prospero

It's a good story and a good view into the history of the Space Wolves. But for a book titled Prospero Burns, you expect a good account of the Space Wolves attack on Prospero. That is missing here. The attack on Prospero is reduced to literally just a few lines.

If you're looking for the attack on Prospero, the book you want is A Thousand Sons.

Only HH book to make my eyes water due to death

This book starts you off with an annoyance at first until you discover its not annoying at all but a beautifully weaved plan that has you realize it's all meant to be.

1000 Sons Was better

If you are a big fan of space wolves you might like this perspective a little bit better however I felt that the first 2/3 of this book were incredibly slow and when it finally got to the action it felt short-lived. Narration was great

Not What I Expected But Good in its Own Way

First off, Prospero Burns is NOT a bad book. I found the story very engaging and it tells a lot about the culture of Fenris and the Space Wolves. This book is packed with suspense.

But all that being said, I don't think it belongs in the cover it's in. This seems like more of a prelude to the Burning of Prospero, rather than a book about it. If you want to read about the Space Wolves, this book is an essential read. If you want to learn about them in action, it's a very good book, the Battle scenes are very well written and narrated. But the actual Burning of Prospero takes up very little of the book so if that's what you're after you may be let down.

But as I said before, this is a very nice story and if you're looking for a compelling listen this book will not let you down.

Not about the burning of prospero

it was well performed but it was Not about a character or story I cared about. It's about a random human who joins the Rout as a skjald. he is not an interesting character and we don't spend more than an hour on prospero. When we do get to prospero the story focuses not on the tragedy of Magnus or on Russ' feelings but on the main character's back story. total waste of a good setting.

Seems odd at first but the wait is worth it

About 3/4 of the way through the story everything unfolds and becomes well worth the wait. If it doesn’t make full sense in the beginning just wait for it. The end is great and not what you think it will be.

That last chapter. Wow!

I struggled to get into the book at the start and had to restart entire chapters cause I realized I hadn't even been listening.

once immersed though following along as, step by step, battle by battle, Kasper becomes one of the Vlka Fenryka. You don't realize it until the last chapter that you kinda feel like you'te part of the pack also as the Skald tells one of his best accounts.

that last chapter is amazing!

There ARE wolves on fenris

So the most common criticism that prospers burns gets is that the burning of prospero is barely present. And yeah that’s valid but I don’t think that was the point of the book. It’s supposed to be the spacewolves version of a thousand sons. Showing the legion in a sympathetic light through a human character. We see their culture and why they fight the way they do. Every character is easy to get behind even the most gruff. Kasper Hawser is an amazing human character interesting in how deep he gets into the culture of fenris and the vlka fenryka.

Good story

not a bad story if you want to know about the wolves of fenris and the burning of prospero

Just wow

I had low expectations and was blown away. Read this book. It is worth your time to have a legion revealed in this way.

Meh, it's OK, gets better.

I'm not sure if it's the distraction of a global pandemic but while I normally love Dan Abnett's stuff I was underwhelmed by this one. It possibly is better read than listened to as I found the transitions between intertwined "current time " and "flashback" really hard to track in the first sections and an annoying audio burble was present on some of the narration. Adds a little overall to the heresy story. The last third the narrator becomes more of a storyteller (no spoilers, it makes sense) and that does transform how the story flows. Last third ,very good.

Takes quite a while to get going, but worth it

This is a gorgeous insight into the Space Wolves' history. It's a real slow burn but by the end of it I was gripped.

“There are no leopards on Fenris...”

Prospero burns...slowly, painfully slowly at times!
I still found this an endearing journey into wolf lore, fluff and gore.
Probably a series favourite now I’ve made it through the fight.

I feel a strong urge to swing an axe.

*wet leopard chuckle*

Weak

By far the weakest in the series so far. Pretty disappointing to have no pov from an Astartes character for this conflict

A must for any warhammer 40k fans!

after completing the horus herecy books I looked to this to add more depth to the story and it didn't disappoint!. plot twists and several revelations building on what I've learned already make it a must read for anyone interested in the fall of horus and the creation of the imperium as we know it!. however, thousand sons players such as myself beware, it's not an easy final 3 chapters to listen to!

a strong addition to the series

I wasn't sure about this one at the start, it took me a little to get into the swing of it, but once it gets going its absolutely fantastic.

A good introduction to the Space Wolves Legion

Although the Burning of Prospero makes up only the last 10 percent of the novel, it is nevertheless a good introduction to the 6th Legion's culture and way of war. A must read for anyone interested in the Space Wolves before they turned into the cartoonish caricatures they are presented as in 40k.

over hyped?

I feel that this was over hyped - while the fluff content was great, there wasn't enough detail during the route of prospero to dictate such a lofty reputation.

Much less Prospero burning than one might expect

Foe those wanting to hear about the bit of Prospero, that happens elsewhere. This was okay, takes a while to get going and all the time hopping is a little confusing due to the reader not breaking at all between what I imagine in the text would be paragraph breaks and spaces

Not as good as some of the other WH40k books

I really enjoy the WH40k books but this one is a bit hit and miss. The performance is good but the story is slow to start and does not contain as much action as the others and the linkage to the wider heresy is only brought in right at the end.