Black Library and Horus Heresy Question

A very quick question. I want to read a specific book about one chapter of marines, tho' I do want to read the series at some point, would I be ruining the series by skipping 6 books or can I jump in slightly?

Well, I've only read up to A Thousand Sons (excluding Fall of Angels and Descent of Angels, since I've heard they suck). But I believe that only 1 - 4 (Horus Rising, False Gods, Galaxy in Flames and Flight of the Eisenstein) follows a direct story line (how it began, obviously), while the others just take different parts of the war and kind of zooms in on them.

In other words yes, I think you should be safe.

Skipping six books...that should mean Legion if I can picture my bookshelf right. In which case, no, it shouldn't be an issue to dive right in. It is rather different than the other books, but what do you expect from the Alpha Legion?

As ColouredBanna said, the first four books follow a direct story line leading up to the Drop Site Massacare and beyond. For some of the other books I'd said its better to read these four first, like Fulgrim links in toward the end. However you'll be safe with things like Decent of Angels, Legion, The First Heretic and others.

Edit: Oh and just to defend an often "overlook" book, I really liked Decent of Angels. It's not big on boom-bastic Space Marine battles where they commit geonocide like Fulgrim, but rather it deals with the changes that happen to a Space Marine homeworld. It is entirely set on Caliban, mostly before Emperor comes and finds Johnson. You have to like fantasy as well as sci-fi, but it's gooooood.

It should be fine; Legion is a stand alone novel anyway.

I have made a decision that Alpha Legion will be my new army come sixth addition as long as my Dark Eldar are finished by then - I bought Horus Rising for £1 off eBay, figured I'd take the time and enjoy the series.

Yeah I would atleast read horus rising-flight of the eisenstien first, as that sets every other book up. After that baring the oddity like decent of angels (and the other DA one, but cant remember the name) and a thousand sons/prospero burns, most of the HH are one shots, but give you an overarching story

ColoredBanana wrote:

Well, I've only read up to A Thousand Sons (excluding Fall of Angels and Descent of Angels, since I've heard they suck). But I believe that only 1 - 4 (Horus Rising, False Gods, Galaxy in Flames and Flight of the Eisenstein) follows a direct story line (how it began, obviously), while the others just take different parts of the war and kind of zooms in on them.

In other words yes, I think you should be safe.

Exactly. The other books weave in and out of those story lines.
Do yourself a favor and SKIP Fulgrim. I love the Emperor's Children, but that book suuuucked

As an alternate viewpoint - Fulgrim was one of my favorite of the books (I also loved Mechanicum, which seems to be one of the most hated, and thought the Alpha Legion one was stupid bad, while most other people loved it...meh)

Alpha Legion was ok... at best. Fulgrim was such a hard read for me. Idk why, but it really dragged me out of the HH in general, which is why Ive barely gotten through the first chapter of mechanicum... I really need to continue on and get through the rest of them :/