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[nenjin]

That's not exactly how the books paint it. There is an actual webway portal IN the throne room. That's what Magnus broke through, that's what the Emperor was trying to open. The Golden Throne, at least as I understand it, wasn't part of that project.

[GiglameshDespair]

The Golden Throne was the initial gate in the Imperial Webway project where the Emperor was basically building his way into the Webway so that humans wouldn't have to rely on shitty warp travel.
Or it was going to be before Magnus fucked it up and caused a demonic incursion that the Custodes have been fighting for the past 10,000 years.

Yeah, that. The webway portal was the Emps attempt to make a safe form of warp travel.

Then the Emperor had to sit on it so Terra didn't get eaten by the Warp. When he went to fight Horus, Malcador sat on it instead as the only psyker remotely powerful enough to use it, but he crumbled to dust as a result and is very, very dead. Possibly his soul, too. And thus died the most competent and reliable dude in the whole 40k mythos.

[Xantalos]

That's not exactly how the books paint it. There is an actual webway portal IN the throne room. That's what Magnus broke through, that's what the Emperor was trying to open. The Golden Throne, at least as I understand it, wasn't part of that project.

I dunno then, from what I remember it was some ancient artifact that let him focus his powers into manually constructing a section of Webway to connect to the whole network or something.

Checking sources from teh internets, yeah it was a device that amplified psychic power that Emps MacGyvered into a preservation device when he got beaten up.

[nenjin]

Well I guess we'll know the truth of it soon. The HH series of novels are rapidly approaching the Battle for Terra. Assuming they don't stuff another couple years worth of short stories in there. (The most recent entry is made up of short stories ranging from 2 to 10 pages. Seems like every couple of books they release that actual deal with history, they insert a filler novel in there.)

[Xantalos]

Oh, those are actually still going? I thought it was complete already what with the description of the emperor's lazer being more powerful than a supernova and shit.

[nenjin]

Nah, it's not even close to finished. There's the build up to the Battle for Terra, the Battle for Terra (which will get a lot of play I think) then the aftermath.

[Xantalos]

Woah damn then.
And yeah the Battle of Terra's definetely going to get a shit-ton of coverage - just as the Heresy was the biggest event in the Imperium's history, so the battle of Terra was the biggest event in the heresy, and the duel between father and son was the biggest event in the battle.
Man there were so many awesome moments in that from what I vaguely remember.
Hmm.
D'you happen to know which book started off the series? I'd like to get into them.

[nenjin]

Horus Rising is the first book.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Horus_Heresy_%28novels%29

Currently on Book 32 and going strong.

[Xantalos]

Daaaamn son.
Welp better get reading then.

[Digital Hellhound]

Well I guess we'll know the truth of it soon. The HH series of novels are rapidly approaching the Battle for Terra. Assuming they don't stuff another couple years worth of short stories in there. (The most recent entry is made up of short stories ranging from 2 to 10 pages. Seems like every couple of books they release that actual deal with history, they insert a filler novel in there.)

Yeah, Legacies of Betrayal was a really weird book. It had one (or two?) longer novellas, then a few normal-length short stories - and a lot of bizarre, super-short stories that were more like single scenes that really didn't show much anything.

@Xant:

I haven't read each and every book, but I can recommend the first five or so - not because they're necessarily super-good, but because they're kinda essential to understanding the whole thing - then Legion, Mechanicum, Tales of Heresy (this is the best of the collections by far), A Thousand Sons, Prospero Burns, Know No Fear (I used to think McNeill was the best when it came to writing scenes of combat and destruction, but hooooly shiiit Abnett), Unremembered Empire and Scars.

I'm sure you'll choose which ones interest you most, and people might disagree with me here, but these are my favorites. I wanted to like Fear to Tread (I want to see Sanguinius in all his glory, damnit), but it was kinda dull, bah. The Outcast Dead and Nemesis also focus on something else than Marines, so that already makes them stand out - they have some cool bits, so go fer 'em too.

I haven't read Battle for the Abyss (I think), Fallen Angels, The Primarchs, Shadows of Treachery, Angel Exterminatus (though I might get it next), Mark of Calth, Damnation of Pythos or Vengeful Spirit, or any of the audiobooks and whatnot. Are these any good, anyone?

[nenjin]

Yeah, Legacies of Betrayal was a really weird book. It had one (or two?) longer novellas, then a few normal-length short stories - and a lot of bizarre, super-short stories that were more like single scenes that really didn't show much anything.

I think, had I gone into LoB from other HH books, the format would have made more sense. But coming from other 40k novels to jump back into the HH....yeah, the format definitely struck me as weird. There's one story where Horus is basically doing "Alas Poor Yorick" with the skull of Ferrus Manus, talking to himself. And a lot of the stories are meant to expand on the lives of characters already covered in the HH novels (like Sharrowkyn.) But consider the...what? Probably 10,000 pages of literature up to know, I could barely remember who these people were or what they had done in the Heresy up until now. It made for a fairly weird read through.

Also, because Angron gets quite a few stories in LoB, it really highlights how different authors handle things. In one story he's articulate and well, human, talking to Lorgar about beating up some Dark Eldar. In another story, taking place at pretty much the exact same time, he's a "maddened beast chained up in the belly of the Conqueror, warping the ship around himself with the power of the Warp."

but hooooly shiiit Abnett

Ditto. I like McNeil but compared to Abnett, he's writing at the 8th grade level If they were to pick one author to represent the 40k IP, Abnett would get my vote. But he has a pretty successful writing career outside of 40k, so I imagine he'll always be a sort of guest author. Despite writing the best fucking Imperial Guard novels fucking ever.

Props to McNeil thought for writing some of the more fucked up shit to come out of "Nu-Hammer." (Nothing holds a candle to how messed up the early 80s 40k stuff was.) McNeil is responsible for gems of literature like the Inculaba or whatever that Chaos Space Marine breeding thing is called.

[Digital Hellhound]

I don't think those two particular Angron stories were set at the same time, though.

Spoiler: Spoilerish for Betrayer, IIRC (click to show/hide)

The 'maddened beast' one seems to be after the events of Betrayer (I think it's that book, anyway), after his Ascension at the end. He is literally a maddened daemon-beast, which his why the rest of the Legion is being affected so much. The Lorgar-Eldar story is set earlier in the Shadow Crusade or whatever, way before he got turned into said daemon prince/thing.

I used to think Abnett was the best overall, but when it came to writing combat scenes, McNeill had no equal (I remember being hella impressed with the Ultramarines books, but I should probably reread them, it's been years). Now... maybe Abnett is just the best at everything out of the BL authors.

[nenjin]

And yet:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The short story where the Navigator of the Conqueror blows her brains out "for the Emperor" distinctly mentions the ship traveling alongside Lorgar's ship in the Warp, and Lorgar coming to her to tell her to use the power of Chaos to "navigate fasterer."

I'm not saying you're wrong, but they aren't doing the reader any chronological favors along the way.

[Digital Hellhound]

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I'm not sure how that'd be chronologically iffy. That Navigator story is also at the early stages of the Shadow Crusade - whether before or after the Dark Eldar story doesn't really matter. It's clear Lorgar is openly using and allied with Chaos at that point already, even if Angron isn't (he seems indifferent and doesn't really care when Lorgar tries to sell it to him, as I recall).

I wonder if in the aftermath of that, Angron raged at Lorgar for interfering in the running of his ship. Veery likely.

Can you clarify which part you think breaks the chronology? Angron is basically offscreen for that story, but it seemed to me it was set close to the Eldar story.

[nenjin]

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I'm not sure how that'd be chronologically iffy. That Navigator story is also at the early stages of the Shadow Crusade - whether before or after the Dark Eldar story doesn't really matter. It's clear Lorgar is openly using and allied with Chaos at that point already, even if Angron isn't (he seems indifferent and doesn't really care when Lorgar tries to sell it to him, as I recall).

I wonder if in the aftermath of that, Angron raged at Lorgar for interfering in the running of his ship. Veery likely.

Can you clarify which part you think breaks the chronology? Angron is basically offscreen for that story, but it seemed to me it was set close to the Eldar story.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

It's just in one story, the first one about Angron in LoB, he's whole(ish.) Honestly more stable than in a lot of HH novels I've read. In the latter LoB story, he's in his bestial state, chained to the belly of his ship, I assume after he and Lysander tangled and he "ascended." If that's all true though, the first story paints the beginning/middle of the Shadow War, the second the end of it, without really cluing the reader in. Or assuming the reader is completely up to date with Lorgar/Angron's movements over the course of the Shadow War, which I'm surely not.

Like, I don't doubt the continuity of the stories presented, but would it be so freaking hard to put a time stamp on some of them? It's like telling the opening parables of the Life of Jesus, then jumping to his crucifixion immediately afterward.