Of all the legions in the Horus Heresy series, the ones who keep getting the short end of the stick are the Iron Hands. With its legionaries often stuck playing second fiddle to a book’s true protagonists, with no character study of Ferrus Manus in sight, and even the Death Guard having been offered more time in the limelight of late. This book is the one which finally corrects that, and it was well worth the wait despite the lack of Ferrus. However, what makes this one truly interesting is its focus upon aspect all too often overlooked in Warhammer. A genre which is key to the franchise but is far too often brushed aside in many tales: Horror.
Set in the aftermath of the Drop Site Massacre, the book follows the surviving astartes of the Shattered Legions. Having been scattered to the winds and reduced to guerrilla tactics, few survived the great betrayal and they now fight in the name of retribution. However, the scars of that nightmare conflict remain fresh and the Iron Hands of the Veritas Ferrum find their hatred directed as much at their fellow survivors from the Salamanders and Raven Guard as their arch foes. However, as they enter the Pandorax system, none among them truly realise that true damnation them on the world of Pythos…
Now this is the kind of book I've been waiting for, one of the things that fascinates me about the heresy is the emergence of chaos, this is an element that should make the Astartes question everything they were taught, and should even fill them with fear, yet it's almost always glossed over, in other books whenever an Astartes sees something supernatural their reaction is usually "Well that's odd, but I've got a job to do." At least this book looks at it in far more detail going by the review, and I think I'm going to have to pick it up.
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