The Golden One - Horus Heresy Reading List

00:00:00.000 Greetings, my esteemed subscribers. Pre-Heresy Fulgrim here, checking in with a much-awaited

00:00:08.760 video on the Horus Heresy, and more specifically on my Horus Heresy reading list. If you want to

00:00:16.780 get straight into it, you can follow the first link in the description box below. You'll get

00:00:21.860 to my page where I have listed 30 books from the series which I recommend you to read. I composed,

00:00:30.800 compiled the list with some assistance from you a while back. I asked if you had any additions you

00:00:37.920 would like to see in the list, and I took your recommendations into consideration and I added a

00:00:45.840 few more books to the list. Now, I do realize that reading the entire series, 54 books, it makes for

00:00:53.440 quite the time investment, so I tried to shorten it down, but at the same time in a way that you would

00:01:00.780 get the full story. Something to point out here as well, that the series isn't actually finished. It

00:01:06.640 continues with The Siege of Terra, so maybe I'll make another video later on when that series is

00:01:13.920 concluded. So anyway, the book to start with is, of course, The Masterpiece by Dan Abnett,

00:01:20.480 Horus Rising. This is also the book that got me hooked. So, a few years back, well, many years now,

00:01:28.440 2013, I decided to read some science fiction because I had never read any science fiction before. I had

00:01:35.800 never read anything Warhammer 40,000 before. Now, technically speaking, this is Warhammer 30,000.

00:01:43.380 Since it is set 10,000 years before the current Warhammer 40,000 setting. Now, previously, I had been a

00:01:50.940 fan of Tolkien, of course, and of Warhammer fantasy. Otherwise, I hadn't been much of a fantasy fan. I am

00:01:58.220 still not the main genre of books. I've read historical fiction, and I'm still not a fan necessarily of

00:02:06.740 science fiction. I'm not necessarily even a fan of Warhammer 40,000. I'm specifically a fan of

00:02:13.220 The Horus Heresy, so that is to make it very precise if I read something. So, of course, I do often get

00:02:20.580 recommendations for science fiction books, but yeah, no, I limit my science fiction interest to

00:02:26.880 Warhammer 40,000 or, more specifically, Warhammer 30,000. Anyway, I read it, and I got absolutely

00:02:36.220 hooked by the narrative, by the feel, by the epic sensation of things. The absolutely compelling

00:02:44.560 theme of a god emperor who creates 20 genetically modified suns with the help of the dark gods.

00:02:52.920 And the feel itself is the most important thing. The feel is one of a modern-day Iliad and Odyssey.

00:03:00.720 That is the epicness of it all, that you have gods, you have demigods, you have mortals. The mortals

00:03:06.920 in The Horus Heresy, they aren't overly interesting, to be honest. I more like to read about the Primarchs 1.00

00:03:14.100 and the Adeptus Astartes. Now, anyway, you might wonder, is there any political or philosophical

00:03:22.260 message in the books? No, there aren't any such things, except for, you know, a few philosophical

00:03:29.460 discussions, and you will probably recognize some thoughts and some historical, you know, characters

00:03:35.940 in the books as well. I would like to know more specifically what Dan Abnett and this author,

00:03:46.260 Aaron Dembski-Bowden, what their metaphysical inspirations were for writing the lore.

00:03:53.460 Speaking of which, this is one of the most interesting parts of the entire universe, the entire setting of

00:04:00.940 Horus Heresy, the metaphysics. So, to give an example, you have demons, of course, and this is a good example

00:04:07.640 from this fine book, one of my favorite books. The creation of demons. So, one of the most powerful

00:04:13.720 demons in the entire existence in the universe is the demon of the first murder. So, a horrendous sin,

00:04:22.680 the first murder in humanity's history. That sin, the evil, it created something in the immaterium, 1.00

00:04:29.560 so the parallel world, and that was the extremely powerful demon. So, you do something bad in this

00:04:36.680 world, and it has an effect on the other world, the immaterium. And sometimes the immaterium can leak

00:04:43.160 into the physical realm, and there you have demon incursions and stuff like that. And I won't spoil

00:04:50.440 anything, but this also has to do with the fall of Horus, that he gets corrupted by these other

00:04:57.720 powers. And then it goes on in some really interesting stuff, an interesting dynamic between

00:05:02.920 the emperor and the dark gods that he may or may not have had dealings with before. So, very interesting,

00:05:11.480 very interesting stuff indeed. So, another one of my favorite books, same author, the first heretic. 0.88

00:05:17.640 And this is also centered on religion, one could say faith, finding a true calling. Now, this is,

00:05:24.760 of course, a bit of a tragedy, because it goes from good to worse, so to speak. He gets corrupted,

00:05:31.640 as we would see it, the Primark in that story. So, very interesting, very well written, and just

00:05:39.000 overall exciting and epic. So, anyway, I could talk a lot more about the Horus heresy, but if I would just

00:05:45.320 say why I am a fan of it, it's because of the epic feel, reading about heroic demigods on a very grand

00:05:54.200 scale, and you have these rivalries between the brothers, some are loyal to the emperor, some are

00:05:59.480 loyal to Horus, intrigues, rivalries, everything like that, on a truly epic scale. So, anyway, do check out

00:06:07.640 the reading list, and if you want to read the series, you start with this, see if you like it or not.

00:06:13.240 If you don't like it, there are many other books to read. If you do like it, you can read some more.

00:06:17.960 It's all up to you. I hope this reading list is helpful, at least. So, anyway, thank you for watching.

00:06:27.880 X-X-O, BOOM! 0.97

00:06:37.640 X-X-O,!

The Golden One - May 27, 2022

Horus Heresy Reading List

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