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The Honoured
- The Horus Heresy Series
- Narrated by: Jonathan Keeble
- Length: 5 hrs and 36 mins
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The Honoured
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Summary
In the immediate aftermath of the Word Bearers' attack on Calth, survivors from both sides were driven into the subterranean arcology shelters by the tortured Veridian star.
While their primarch Roboute Guilliman had planned for many seemingly unthinkable eventualities, the Ultramarines now face a new war in the underworld - could Steloc Aethon, renowned captain of 'the Honoured 19th' Company, be the one to lead them to ultimate victory over the traitors? Perhaps, if he can master his own bitter desire for vengeance....
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Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- Christopher Wright
- 17-12-21
Meh...
I find that when it comes to the Ultramarine acts, scenes, books, characters, merch, games or inserts - there are basically TWO categories... Either insanely good, or mind numbingly "punch-me-in-the-junk-to-stay-awake" mediocre.
Know No Fear was INSANELY GOOD... If I had it in book form I would have torn out all of the pages and rolled in them, just to be even closer to the story...
This was just plain meh... if I wasn't on a cycle bike for large parts of it, I'd have just stopped, like a turned off blender... out of sheer boredom.
But I finish, support and listen to it because I'm a mega fan. Luckily this is more of an aside... but still, if you gonna do a Legion, become the frikken Legion heart and soul.
Anyhow, on to: the Unburdened!!!
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- Sebrina Autumn Calkins
- 06-02-24
Disappointing for Horus Heresy. OK 'Bolter Porn'
I really don't want to be too disparaging, it's certainly not as actually offensive and disturbing to see published by Black Library like Illyrium, which has no redeeming qualities in my opinion, it doesn't have the casual, at times pointed and upsetting misogyny of a number of Abnett's otherwise brilliant books, and it doesn't get into some really weird bioessentialist and worrying sexism and misogyny, particularly in Fulgrim, of the otherwise great McNeill. (My calling them otherwise brilliant or great in no way condones or excuses the harmful aspects of some of their writing, which I will always call out in reviews. It is simply making the point that when they aren't doing that I thoroughly enjoy their writing, so I have to suffer through that unacceptable bullshit it I want to be able to read the Horus Heresy, cool stories about the Inquisition, etc.)
What The Honoured does do is fundamentally not reach anywhere near the bottom of the bar for the Horus Heresy series in my personal opinion. On the rare occasion this happens I always point out just how much I love this series and that reading the opening quadrilogy again recently, after getting back into reading...everything in the last year, after lacking the capacity and drive for a long time, made me realise just how good this series is, not 'for Warhammer books', which I otherwise grade on a curve, but without qualifier. They are at least as good, if not better (if such a thing can actually be quantified when discussing art) than many well-respected and classic books, in general literature as well as within fantasy and science fiction. They set themselves standards in the work and established expectations in their readers, so I do my best to meet each one, at least the books (I am sometimes swayed by just having a lot of fun with a short story or audio drama) with this in mind.
I feel like this could be a fault that should be laid at Black Library's feet, rather than Sanders', as I am not sure I believe this novella, released alongside The Unburdened, collected together at Betrayal at Calth, were ever planned to be a part of the Horus Heresy series. I believe their primary intent was to be supporting stories for and including the characters seen in the Betrayal at Calth box set that marked the first release of plastic Heresy Era models, but they were released as officially part of the Horus Heresy series.
I hate to say it, but I really struggled with this book and, if I wasn't the autistic completionist I am and hadn't caved and bought the audiobooks yesterday, I don't think I would have gotten through it. Keeble's narration and his unique ability to embue the narration of action with such energy made a huge difference, but, even with that, by the end I was checked out and running down the clock. This novella is largely 'bolter porn', meaning that it almost entirely over the top action and violence, things you absolutely do want and have to expect in stories in the Dark Millennia, but the term makes sense in that pretty much being all that this is.
As a Horus Heresy book it seems to miss the essence that has charged the Heresy isn't simply that many of the Legions fought and lived and died together, but rather it's the emotional weight of relationships established within these testing crucbles of war--the substantiated, variously intense and interwoven relationships between Loken, Tarvitz, and Garro in the opening books being a perfect example--and the intensity of pain and grief felt by personal perfidy of former friends turning on each other and aligning themselves with regimes neither one can understand as a thing but wrong and evil. The purported friendship between Aethon and Kurtha Sedd is referenced a bunch and the Ultramarines Captain has a memory of battling Orks alongside Sedd and the Word Bearer saving his life, but there is not deeper connection beyond us being told there is, and even when we are in Aethon's thoughts there isn't any significant sorrow or heartache expressed in a meaningful way. This relationship is a step up from referencing bringing a nest of gundarks to Compliance, but as presented it is barely warmer than the scene Lorgar receiving Illuminarum from Ferrus Mannus as "thanks for the “reinforcement”".
Ultimately, this came across like a brilliant write up of the tabletop game, rather than a Horus Heresy novella. I can't in good faith recommend it to anyone beyond the absolute completionist.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 08-03-24
More tales of woe from the underground war
Genuinely moving in parts, it did not end like I thought it would. Which is a good thing. Not necessary for the overall continuation of the HH series, still an excellent listen.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 19-11-24
In the darkness there is... not that much, really
The book describes some interesting details about the underground battle on Calth and does a pretty good job at building gloomy atmosphere. There is not much in terms of the story however, the descriptions of firefight constitute a large portion of the contents. Horror-like parts are the strongest point of the book.
I think it is worth reading, but quite forgettable.
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story1 out of 5 stars
- Kiel Vaughan
- 09-02-21
Boring
Endlessly predictable clashes of power armour vs terminator armour. This is pretty much the entire story. Word bearer smacks terminator with chainsaw... nothing happens! Word bearer gets destroyed by chain fist surprise surprise!
There is hardly any character development at all it’s just boring combat with no surprises at all, there are hardly any scene visualisations, you don’t know where you are half the time, it’s seems like it’s building to some big secret ending between the main character and antagonist but then.... nothing.. I had to relisten see id missed something.
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