Mark of Calth: The Horus Heresy, Book 25

The stories in this anthology, apart from their vivid evocation of life on and under Calth after the great betrayal, knit together some fascinating strands of the grand plot — but unravelled and spun out many more....

Mark of Calth is hit and miss. You may like how it deviates from the regular writing style of the Horus Heresy or you may hate it. There were two characters I loved from a previous installment, an Ultramarine with half a ceramic face and his protector, which show up again here. They make an appearance, but do not take center stage or get developed at all. I had honestly forgot about them by this point, after reading some Space Marine novels and other stuff. That was the Graham McNiel story and I have to say, the writing style really left me confused, not knowing what was happening half the time. And with all stories, if this is where all these characters from this book die off, I really don't see any relevance as to why they brought them back. I'm not too in depth with the lore, maybe one of these characters becomes the founding master for a later chapter, I'm not sure, but I think it would be nice to get some info on stuff like that from the actual read, like having a current character remember or discover how the chapter came to be tracing that back to Calth or anywhere in these plot lines.The most interesting story to me was about the athame by John French; I actually loved that perspective, wish it could have been more fleshed out and in depth. Disliked the perpetual continuity right after. I just don't like the thought of perpetuals. Bowden's tale (not in order) was okay, cool character, but you know what happens to any cool character that pops up.Overall, I'm not a fan of the Calth atrocity, every event and connection is so far apart it's hard to get a clear picture of what and why its happening. This will most likely continue affecting the Horus Heresy because its in a direct series and time line wise, in and out of order. As a stand alone, I would have given it 1-2 stars, being it was so unclear, gave it 3 because it ties into the Heresy, although I don't know at what importance.

As a 40K fiction fan of the First Order--and a huge fan of all things Ultramarine--this novel was a delight. The Horus Heresy line is fantastic, and I encourage readers of it who have yet to sample this segment of the story arc to do so with all speed! Imperator Vult! ('the Emperor Wills It!') Enjoy--I did. The characters are well-developed, the plot and pacing move nicely. The piece is structured intelligently, and pleasant to read. I will find more of this authors work--and so should you.

Originally I have glossed over these short story books, to get to the meat of the Horus Heresy. No more!

Doesn't add much to the overall story of Calth. Boring.

I pretty much enjoy all of the Horus Heresy books. I enjoy them for what they are so my critiques are pretty standard.The book covers a few different angles during the battle(s) on Calth. Enjoyed the reading and would recommend.

An entertaining collection of Ultra Marine on Word Bearer stories, all well written.If you've followed the Horus Heresy series, you need to add this volume to your collection.If you haven't started the series, or just want to get a glimpse of the Warhammer 40K universe, this is a good place to start.

I would recommend reading or rereading Know No Fear prior to reading this book to get up to speed with what is going on, or at least a refresher if you already read Know No Fear. All the short stories are good but the last Three are very good.

Bonnes histoires. Bien écrit. Mais…. Rendu aussi loin dans la série me donne des complications à suivre tous les histoires … Ça fait beaucoup de retour à chercher dans les romans précédents pour tout comprendre et ne rien perdre.Mais bon livre dans la suite de la série

amazing, Ive read most of the horus heresy, and these short stories have became my second favourite(tales of heresy being my fav still), highly recommend to fans of the heresy, 40k or science fiction in general

Excellent!

Mark of Calth (MoC) is an anthology of 8 stories set on Calth during the Horus Heresy.However, you MUST have read "Know No Fear" by Dan Abnett (and possibly "The First Heretic" by AD-B) for this book to make any sense. There are several Ultramarine and Word Bearer characters throughout that appear previously, or events are referenced that you'll want to be familiar with. I waited nearly 2 years between reading KNF and this, and some parts went over my head. It *might* be better to read this first before reading "Betrayer".As a collection, some pieces are better than others, but overall the additional info from various perspectives that this book provides to that battle is great.The first book, "Shards of Erebus", explains how certain knives are first forged, and these provide almost a running theme through several of the other books here.The second, "Calth that Was" is novella-length, and is written from the perspective of Remus Ventanus and Maloq Kartho, generally explaining the context of the Underworld War."Dark Heart" was next, following a young Word Bearers acolyte named Marduk, and whilst good, probably meant more for people who have read the Word Bearers series by Anthony Reynolds."The Traveller" was probably the worst for me - I wasn't really that interested with the plot, and the "twist" at the end (if you can call it that?) left me thinking "So what?"."A Deeper Darkness" was next. I enjoyed this one, but it was a bit slow to start with, and it didn't really add much to the overall Calth or HH plot.AD-B's "The Underworld War" is set deep into this stage of the Calth conflict, and follows a member of the Gal Vorbak, and explains how he first came to be possessed. It also features my favourite heretic, Argel Tal, reveals more about why certain Word Bearers were chosen for Calth, and impacts on the events in "Betrayer"."Athame" was next and was ok I guess, tracing the titular weapon from its discovery through various owners. I didn't get the 8th section though - who was it talking about?Finally, "Unmarked" was one of the stronger works for me. It follows Oll Persson's group after he cuts a hole into the warp, and their journey onwards. Particularly interesting is his conversation with fellow Perpetual John Grammaticus, and the hints dropped in this one that are followed up in "The Unremembered Empire". Also, heavy hints dropped that Oll knew the Emperor at the dawn of civilization, but decided he didn't want any part of the Emperor's schemes and was therefore not a part of his inner circle.A good collection, buy it if you're a HH enthusiast, but make sure you've read KNF first (and preferably fairly recently!)

I love the Horus Heresy series - but hate it when they come out with another of the short story collections. I'll buy and read all of the series (but only in the mass market paperback size so they all look the same on the shelf, so am also annoyed that I have to wait longer for them to be released).The short story collections just lack the depth, narrative and character exploration found in the full books, for example in Betrayer, and are a read once and shelve book - there's no point going back to re-read, unlike with the first 5 books in the series.