The Story

The galaxy is burning. The Emperor’s loyal primarchs prepare to do battle with Warmaster Horus and his turncoat Legions on the black sand of Isstvan. Such dark times herald new and yet more terrible things still to come, and when Astropath Kai Zulane unwittingly learns a secret that threatens to tip the balance of the war, he is forced to flee for his life. Alongside a mysterious band of renegades, he plunges into the deadly underworld of Terra itself, hunted like a criminal by those he once trusted. In the face of betrayal, Kai must decide where his own loyalties lie and whether some truths should be buried forever.

(November 2011 • ISBN 9781849700863)

Trailer

Review

Ok, the book has been out since November and I only just finished it today, so sue me, I went on holiday for Christmas and was too busy to read (contrary to belief I do have a life outside gaming and Games Workshop things)

But yeah, finally finished The Outcast Dead, the fourth installment of The Horus Heresy series from Graham McNeill, of which my favourite Horus Heresy novel written by him so far has been Fulgrim and like Fulgrim, The Outcast Dead slowly, but surely gets the reader into the life of the main characters and although it feels slow, makes you care for them.

The Outcast Dead, (spoilers ahead) are a group of "traitor" Space Marines, help in an Imperial prison on Earth, but we are only introduced to them in the last third of the book and thats when all the main action takes place, however unlike other Horus Heresy novels that have, albeit brilliantly, surfed on a wave of action and lore, but The Outcast Dead is purely a character set up and one that works brilliantly and also makes you want to question the regime the Imperium lays down on mankind.  A moral tale if ever there was one.

All in all, this is an amazing book to break up the amount of action from other books, especially after The First Heretic that came before and before Deliverance Lost (which I am starting tonight and really looking forward too)

All in all, if you are reading the Horus Heresy novels, you will enjoy this one as much as others.  Graham McNeill has done a fantastic characterisation and you really get to know and like the characters, even the not so likable ones like Tagore, the World Eaters Sargeant

All in all, a great read, well worth buying and one to keep and reread in the future!  All inmates must read ASAP

~Lonesamurai