Vengeful Spirit

The Horus Heresy, Book 29

By: Graham McNeill

Narrated by: Gareth Armstrong

Length: 15 hrs and 11 mins

Publisher's Summary

Once the brightest star in the Imperium and always first among his primarch brothers, Horus has dragged the Space Marine Legions into the bloodiest conflict that the galaxy has ever seen. While their allies wage war on a thousand different fronts, the XVIth Legion descend upon the Knight world of Molech - home to the ruling House Devine, and a principle stronghold of the Imperial Army.

The forces loyal to the Emperor stand ready to defy the Warmaster, but just what could have drawn Horus to attack such a well defended planet, and what might he be willing to sacrifice to fulfill his own dark destiny?

©2014 Games Workshop Limited (P)2014 Games Workshop Limited

Like Father like Son

Great look into the journey of Horus going from manipulated rebel to full on Chaos Primarch.

Not perfect, but good enough

I usually don´t write reviews, but I have to share my thoughts on this one.
First - overall story is nice, I liked it. But I have really rooted for the "good guys" and was sad to see so many desperate moments ruining their day and I really wished the "bad guys" just die, how can they survive so much. Even when I know, that Horus will survive, I wished so much many times that he just dies... partly because it felt almost like "cheating" the way how they overcame obstacles... strange magic here, huge ton of luck there, coincidence over there, it happened so many times, that I just felt like "aaaagh, die already!". Especially when Imperator titen fell, that felt quite cheap the way it happened and why... but well, I guess that is the point of "Choass" and their ways...
And second - the narator did really good job, but I just wish they have used the same narrator as for the first three Horus Heresy books, specifialy because of Garviel Locan character - he so much deserved the rough, tough voice he had in the first three book and he deserved it so much more with what he had to face in this book, it was very strange to hear him speak in "school-boy" like soft voice, the comparison of that voice difference was quite breaking the immertion for me many times.
But overall, I have enjoyed the book :)

Repeative battles, does not advance timeline

spoiler alert


This book is a repeat of all the prior books no new content aside from Horus got God like powers. They don't explain anything about what he did to get it.

He just went to the planet went through the portal and got like God like powers literally the most important part of this book is a few minutes. The rest is just the same tired battles and surprise surprise something terrible happens to the Good guys which makes Horus defeat overwhelming odds again.

great!

Loved hearing Loken come back from the first couple of books and seeing how his character has been changed by what happened.

Narrator

Love the story but the narrator lacked enthusiasm during fights and didn’t quite capture emotions in characters.

A pretty good book, but I might be biased😉

A damn good addition to the heresy series, full of feelz.
Only thing that is bothering me is how Garviel Loken is alive, i remember that we dont see a dead body back in the 3rd book, but maybe i missed something or they dont really explane how they found him?

On a side note, as a Dane having the stories of H.C. Andersen be shown in 40k, and explisedly written in danish filled me with a national pride that i rarely feel,
Fuck yeah the things that denmark is most famous for is Vikings, one if the best poets/story writer in history AKA H. C. Andersen, a important Philosopher AKA Søren Kierkegaard, and we have one of the most socially equal countries in the world, FUCK YEAH WE RULE!
XD erhm its a good book😋

Little disappointed

I thought it would move faster with some sense of urgency but fell flat at the end 5 pathfinders kill 30 Lupercai while Horus stands there doing nothing wasn’t bad just was expecting better for this one

Overall, story is good. Nice to have Loken back.

I like the story. it doesn't push the overall heresy story forward much but it's a fun listen. I enjoyed having Loken back in the picture and see the struggles he was going through.

My biggest grip with this was the VA. Gareth Armstrong has a great voice for narrating and stories where there's a handful of characters but this book had me confused in the beginning. the first hour I had to listen to twice to figure out who was who. Horus and everyone on the mournival sounded exactly the same. also, it was a bit jarring to hear everyone from the SoH be so chipper and up beat. Books leading up to this one showcased them with slowly darkening demeanors and voices that matched that.

Great introduction to the next part of the heresy

Constant action, references to pivotal points in the heresy, not boring for a minute

Gareth Armstrong makes this one

The story feels a little bloated in places, but despite that I really enjoyed hearing Gareth Armstrong's voices. It was very easy to tell who was speaking even before the speaker is identified by the narrative. Worth the listen!

Poor narration

Honestly I wish Black Library would stop getting Gareth Armstrong to narrate their books, he's the worst part of every audio book he narrates and it's honestly disappointing.

This book is rated far too highly for shorts

Another one of the MANY books that are falsely advertised as the horus heresy. This is just another book of shorts that is labelled as the heresy series so they can justify trying to sell you an extra 15+ books that dont actually matter

Progress

Moves the main story arc along nicely rather than just another pointof view or side story. well narrated.

boring

could not finish this book. I found every minute a struggle to get past for me

disappointing

One of my favourite authors and his previous work is gold, but I feel hes let this one down and concentrates more on theatrics and over the top dramatic gimmicks to explain situation rather than getting teeth into the story.

I also didnt enjoy the narrator.

Not bad but not great

While advancing the Hours Heresy story, this book feels like it was rushed, or it was meant as a trilogy like the first three books. There are so many characters and character arcs that I had a hard time caring for any one of them. And by the time the story returned to an arc I was previously interested in, I had already lost interest in that arc (like for example Horus's journey to the endgame). Also I feel that too much attention was given to the description of warfare and battles, so much so that by the time any battles finish I had a hard time remembering what was the battle fought for. This also means less time for character dialogue and development. One last gripe I have with this book is that it's climax was a bit disappointing in the way it was constructed, despite its major significance to the Heresy. It felt as if it was glanced over and then the story moved on.
All in all it's a good Heresy story but with a mediocre execution.

great story narration questionable.

okay great story, narration not great. worth the credits espeshally if you like the heresy, can you skip this book? yes but it helps if you did partake.

awesome

my new favourite in the series. story is interesting and there's plenty of action

Great book in the series! Definitely recommend it

Saw some bad reviews for this book. Mainly for the narration and overall development of the storyline. I disagree with those reviews after finishing the audiobook. The narration wasn't bad at all. I'd like a better voice for Abaddon that makes his character much more sinister. But that's about it. As for the storyline I thought it was brilliant. Necessary read in the Horus heresy series. I'd definitely recommend anyone to give it a go and ignore the negative reviews before you listen to it yourself.

Brilliant

I have read books 1 to 4 and 19. I managed to under stand the story with some checking of facts via Google. This did not stop me loving this story! 5 Stars