Repeats old stories

I may be going mad but at least two of these short stories are repeats from a previous book. As others have said after wolfsbane this is a slow slog. it goes back to Istvan again. this book is about 20 too late in the series. All short stories from Salamandas and Iron Hands.

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a little disappointing HH novel

big fan of the hh but this series of mostly long stories loosely based around the salamanders felt disjointed. hard to keep track of the characters or to warm to any in particular. good length of time

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The biggest problem this book has....

....is that it follows Wolfsbane. The previous books leaves you ready to crack on and get to the siege, so this dragging you back to the beginning can seem almost cruel. That said you can happily skip this and not miss out on too much, unless you are a massive Salamanders and Iron Hands fan. For me I consider it a must read and a welcome addition to the Salamanders story.....
Two narrators, both do a cracking job, though I prefer one over the other. All in I would say it's worth a credit.

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1 person found this helpful

Great collection

Really enjoyed the multiple stories in this. The longest and last sons of the forge was great. Would recommend for a salamander fan.

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A bit dull

Not the most gripping of HH books if you want to complete the set it’s worth doing but if you’re just in it for the story miss it out

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Lost interest

After book 49 for me overall this was a real let down. I just struggled with the first narrator I ended up skipping ahead to JK. Voices for demons really need some work. Sorry.

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Vulkan lives.... Was istvaan 5j justified? Yes.

I loved the salamanders going into the Horus heresy however they have quickly turned to my most hated legion. Every time I hear Vulkan lives I want to pat Horus on the back for what he did to them at Istvaan 5.

It's every other line that comes out of a salamanders mouth.

This is a series of short stories that offer little to the over all Horus Heresy. I would recommend skipping this one & getting one of the later titles.

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1 person found this helpful

skippable

Not terrible but nothing of substance to the main plot, skip it unless you really like salamanders

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Vulkan Lives! Vulkan Lives! Vulkan Lives!

Get used to hearing this once pretty cool mantra. As it gets thrown into almost every conversation and overused excessively, eventually making you want to grit your teeth every time it is uttered.

I didn't exactly enjoy this book, it is an amalgamation of short-ish stories, about 5 in total. I'm not sure whether to attribute it to bad writing or bad delivery, but they start off weak and only get marginally better by the end. The first couple were pretty hard listening and more than once I had to force myself to go back to it. As they are written in an overly descriptive manner, constantly stating the obvious and are particularly dull. The change of reader certainly improved things and I do think the writing improved as well as it went on but overall the book remained dull and uninspiring.

There was a couple of good scenes and the occasional interesting dilemma but their full potential was never really fully explored.

If your a die hard Salamanders fan you may enjoy this, though ultimately I felt it didn't add anything to the overall Heresy narrative.

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9 people found this helpful

Just repeats and yet more "Vulkan lives" }:-(

Yeesh, where to begin...

After 49 books and the previous (excellent, IMHO) installment 'Wolfsbane' putting Horus poised to attack Beta Garmon, you'd think things would be cracking along and setting up for The Siege of Terra...

WRONG!!

Instead, this dire, completely unnecessary entry takes us BACK TO ISSTVAN for yet more dropsite massacre survivor tales and more Salamanders moaning "Vulkan! / Vulkan Lives! / Vulkan this! / Vulkan that!" ad nauseam. JFC, it's BOOK 50! We all know what happened at Isstvan!

I don't like leaving bad reviews but my god this book annoyed me. With the exception of the very good "Unremembered Empire", the whole Salamanders funeral procession of a story arc has been an utter dirge and the real low point of the whole HH saga for me. The constant blacksmithing analogies and incessant "Vulkan Lives" have made me now actively dislike The Salamanders legion. Why on earth they've been given so much page time - 4 books now - is beyond me when literally every other legion is way more interesting. I stuck it out purely for completion but listened to it at 1.5x

Oh and just to rub salt in the wound, several of these are repeats from other anthologies!

Jonathan Keeble and the final 'Sons of the Forge' story saves it from becoming a complete catastrophe. But why this is book 50 in the HH, and why it got a dedicated entry at all is a question only The Emperor could answer.

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