From 31-40 of the Horus Heresy there are 5 collections of novellas and short stories, mostly from earlier in the Heresy.  The Silent War tries to impose a guiding theme, but it’s pretty imaginary.

The Silent Phoney War

As I understand The Silent War, we get insight into how the Imperium defended itself at the highest level.  While preparing the defences, the regent Malcador sends special forces out on critical missions such as:

 ...obtaining the Rosetta Stone.  Apparently it’s important for hope. 

Viewing the collection holistically, the whole conceit is a joke. The reality is that Malcador serves as (weak) exposition.  He’s the titular Charlie sending his Angels flouncing off on their self-contained adventures.

The main point is that the galactic conflict remains hidden from us.  There are no grand strategic insights because there is a pre=set narrative to the Horus Heresy and the authors don’t really have the room to weave it into a struggle across a million worlds.  The Horus Heresy is a small universe, which is fine, but it would be laughable to pretend this collection changes that impression.

Otherwise the stories are mediocre, with a few good ones, but nothing outstanding.  The “fix” to The Outcast Dead requires head-splitting mental gymnastics:
 
Nagasena tries to process this information, but the pain from his wounds is overwhelming his thought processes.

 The Purge

As for the main novella, I guess I will begrudgingly transfer over my review (and rating) for The Purge across to this collection.  The novella does not really fit the collection, but Games Workshop had to stuff it somewhere, I guess.

The champion had never been beaten blade-to-blade, but as he turned to find a new foe, a stray bolt from out of the smoke took him in the eye. It punched through his left visor lens and detonated in his brain pan. He fell without a sound, blades slipping into the mud from his lifeless fingers. The warrior had been almost obsessive in his training. That had counted for nothing at the last. It was an ignoble end.
 
The Purge is primarily a character creation story for a minor figure in Reynolds’ Word Bearers’ trilogy (which does not fit the point of The Silent War at all... lol). We are told a lot of important things about Sor Talgron, but mostly he just hangs out while others do the work.

There’s an additional “surprise” left on Terra but it seems like no other author picked up on it for the Siege of Terra series, unless they enter the story very very late.

As for the primarchs, Rogal Dorn features, or at least a version of him that must have just suffered a traumatic brain injury.

It’s an enjoyable, combat heavy novella that also gives the Ultramarines a little bit of bite, but you’d lose nothing by browsing the wiki.

 

 

This anthology (coming ever other book in the series it seems) focuses on Malcador the Sigilite and his plans to influence the Imperiums role in defeating Horus and the insurgency. Some of the short stories are VERY good like Ghost Speak Not and The Sigilitie, some are meh like The Watcher. I don't think it's a must read in the HEresy series to keep up with events, but it is a good insight into the mysterious inner working of Malcador's influence on the Imperium.

May 2024 Read using the Horus Heresy Omnibus Project Reading Order (www.heresyomnibus.com).

Only just realised I finished this a while back!

I have reviewed everything in here separately on here.

All the anthologies are awesome and they all have vacillating quality, but more than enough great stuff.

Through the Horus Heresy Omnibus Project and my own additions, I have currently read all 54 Horus Heresy main series novels (+1 repeat), all 25 novellas (+2 repeats), 137 short stories/ audio dramas (inc. 10+ repeats), as well as the Macragge's Honour graphic novel, all 17 Primarchs novels, 4 Primarchs short stories/ audio dramas, 3 Characters novels, and 2 Warhammer 40K further reading novels and 1 short story...this run, as well as writing 1 short story myself.

I couldn't be more appreciative of the phenomenal work of the Horus Heresy Omnibus Project, which has made this ridiculous endeavour all the better and has inspired me to create and collate a collection of Horus Heresy and Warhammer 40,000 documents and checklists (http://tiny.cc/im00yz). There are now too many items to list here, but there is a contents and explainer document here (http://tiny.cc/nj00yz).

The interesting thing is that the stories form sort of a backdrop to the creation of the Grey Knights. Other than that, all the stories are about marines, thus difficult to identify with and generally lead to nothing. The Purge is by far the best.