Horus Heresy Audiobooks
A continously updated list of Horus Heresy audiobooks I've listened to, or plan on listening to. Comments, etc are in [square brackets]
Last updated: 20/06/2025
- Horus Rising
- [The first novel that starts it all off! Very strong start to the series with the opening sentence, "I was there the day Horus slew the Emperor." - iconic! We see Horus' discontent with the Emperor, yet overall Horus comes across as a pretty decent Primarch. I guess that makes his fall all the worse!]
[READ] - False Gods
- [Horus gets stabbed with the magic sword and falls to Chaos like a house of cards! A very very swift fall, but it sets the stage for what's to come. I thought the introduction of the Nurgle rot and the vivid descriptions of the nurgle-infected astartes captain was stomach churningly good. ]
[READ] - Galaxy in Flames
- [Horus stokes the chaos worship further, kills all the Remembrancers on his ship and we see the battle of Istvaan 3 from the POV of the Sons Of Horus and Saul Tarvitz. The last stand of the Loyalist Sons Of Horus, World Eaters, and Emperor's children is a passage of pure beauty. "Did we hurt them, captain? Did this mean anything?"]
[READ]
- The Flight of the Eisenstein
- [Say hello to Nathaniel Garro, probably the first Astartes to find his faith and worship of the Emperor. A powerful and pivotal moment, imo. We see the battle of Istvaan 3 from the Loyalist Deathguard's perspective and then there's the infamous "We'll go together then, shall we?" moment when manly tears will be shed.
[READ]
This is the first time I've heard of Johnathon Keeble (this book's narrator). I became an instant fan of his voice.] - Fulgrim
- ["Fulgrim", aka, watching-the-fall-of-the-Emperor's-Children legion to the chaotic forces of Slaanesh in real-time! Aside from Ian Watson's warhammer 40k books in the 90s, this whole book is as hedonistic and visceral as it gets with its slaaneshy descriptions. The unironically bloody and literally orgasmic Maraviglia concert towards the latter third of the book is eye-poppingly excessive! Fits the Slaanesh theme rather well, then!]
[READ] - Descent of Angels
A thoroughly fascinating look at pre-imperium Caliban, home of Lion'el Johnson. It follows the trials and tribulations of Zahariel and his best friend/rival Nemiel as they go through the trials to become part of a Knight Order of Caliban (think medieval society but they use crude chainsword type weapons and flintlock guns), all the way through to the arrival of the Astartes and the two boys becoming astartes. Can't recommend this enough for something different from the usual "space marine" heavy books. [READ]
- Legion
[UNREAD]
- Battle for the Abyss
A merry band of loyalist space marines (ultramarines, world eaters, space wolves, and thousand sons, go on a merry romp to annoy the word bearers as they try and destroy the Ultramine world of Mccragge during the opening stages of the battle of Calth. Definitely an enjoyable book (I'm a sucker for these "ragtag group of misfits go adventuring" type stories, and the word bearers aboard the battleship "The Furious Abyss" are suitably evil and makes you hate their fall to chaos even more. Honourable mention though to the "psyker warp mines" the Word Bearers used to disrupt the warp - very grimdark!! [READ]
- Mechanicum
- [Toby Longworth narrating this is absolute ear-candy! And this book focuses on The Schism Of Mars. aka the martian civil war. It's got it all: Epic Knight combat and battles, philosophical musings on machine-spirits in the mechanicum, and the "great lie of mars" is revealed! I'm a big fan of the Mechanicum and the Adeptus Mechanicus, so this is one of my favourites!]
[READ] - Tales of Heresy
- [An anthology series of short stories narrated by several different narrators. Keeble makes an appearence, and Emma Gregory narrates the Sisters Of Silence story, "The Voice", which is a very cool look at the Sisters Of Silence since their first Heresy appearence in Eisenstein. Other stories of note are "The Last Church, "After Desh'ea", and "Wolf At The Door."]
[READ] - Fallen Angels
[UNREAD]
- A Thousand Sons
- [Yer a wizard, Ahriman! Holy shit, this book is basically all about The Thousand Sons. AKA the space wizards of the Imperium. I'm not usually a fan of mages and such, but I really enjoyed listening to all the cool psychic shenanigans the legion gets up to. Mid-battle precognition, conjuring fireballs, and lots of astral projection - space marines conciously flying their souls through the warp. Also.. Magnus did nothing wrong! *cackles*]
[READ] - Nemesis
- [Alot of people complain that the Horus Heresy series is jam-packed with a fuckton of filler that hardly advances the plot. They'd be surely right about this one. You can already see the outcome a mile away before you even open the book.
The plot is simple: The officio Assassinorum assemble a team of Assassins, one from each House/clade/Temple to go and assassinate Horus himself on the planet Dagotan. Yeah, you can already see it'll end badly for our murderous assassins! Johnathon Keeble gives a fantastic performance as usual, utilising a range of voices for all the characters, both male and female.
If you like the Warhammer assassins, you'll love this one where 6 of them must work together and utilise their skills to try and take out Horus. The eversor assassin is one of the highlights of the book and practically steals the spotlight whenever he's in a scene. Only downside to this whacky adventure is that Keeble can't do female voices very well. Toby Longworth (narrated "Mechanicum") or David Timson (narrated "Fulgrim") would've been much better. ]
[READ] - The First Heretic
- [Gareth Armstrong is narrating this epic tale of the faith and daemons! It really takes the phrase "when God gives you lemons, you find a new God!" seriously. Argel Tal is our protagonist in thie book and his friendship with the custodian, Aquillion, is both wholesome and very tragic. Cyrene Valantion, the blind survivor of the destruction of Monarchia is an intruiging character and is both figuratively and literally blind to the horrors of Chaos. Lorgar, the Primarch of the Word Bearers, gives speeches and monologues like a seasoned orator, and the narrator, Gareth Armstrong brings the fire and fury into his speeches with a passion!]
[READ] - Prospero Burns
[UNREAD]
- Age of Darkness
Another collection of short stories. Again some hits and some misses. I particularly enjoyed the Alpha Legion focused story, "Liar's Due", which not only gives a view of the human agents of the Legion, but also a look at the life of the average Imperium citizen on an agri-world. "Rules Of Engagement", "Forgotten Sons", "Iron Within", and "The Last Remembrancer" are all excellent stories too.
- The Outcast Dead
Follows along the exploits of a severely traumatised astropath named Kai Zulane, who comes back to Terra to serve at the City Of Sight (basically Terra's astropathic relay), only to get tortured psychically. He manages to escape and goes on the run with his space marine rescuers because of what he discovers about the future of the Imperium and the knowledge of the Emperor's "death"/enthronement. [READ]
- Deliverance Lost
Deliverance Lost really made me like Corvus Corax and the Raven Guard space marines, we see Corax escape from Istvaan V and him internally reeling at his brothers' betrayal and the fact nearly his entire legion was wiped out, leaving roughly 3000-4000 space marines alive. He goes back to Terra to try and rebuild his forces, but the Alpha Legion has other plans... The alpha legion subplot is a fun espionage romp and you really see just how insidious the infiltration of a legion by the Alpha Legion can be. [READ]
- Know No Fear
An entire book dedicated to the Ultramarines, and the Word Bearers enacting their vengeance/betrayal on the planet of Calth. The set-pieces in this book are fantastic. As someone put it on reddit: "The author awarded himself the special effects budget of Michael Bay and set to work."!! You've got wild kamikaze spaceships and glorious destruction of ships in painstaking detail. You've got capital ships falling out of the sky and it subsequently raining tanks! I liked the look at Guilliman's musing on his views of both as a conqueror and a more forward-thinking "what happens after the great crusade ends" administrator. The look at the tactical manual that is the Codex Astartes and the Ultramarines' doctrine of plans (called "a theoretical") vs enacting those plans (called "a practical") is very fascinating. This book is more or less the sequel to "The First Heretic" and it's briliant!
[READ] - The Primarchs
[UNREAD]
- Fear to Tread
[UNREAD]
- Shadows of Treachery
[UNREAD]
- Angel Exterminatus
This story should really be titled "Fulgrim and Perturabo's excellent adventure (now with more body horror)"! It's truely a wild ride as the these two traitor primatchs and their legion go on a trip through the warp to find a super-weapon called the "Angel Exterminatus". We get to see just how far the Emperor's Children have fallen and the sheer body horror flesh-splicing of Apothecary Fabius Bile as he creates mutated 'cannon fodder' from humans and fellow space marines alike. We see alot of the Emperor's Children's degenerecy and debauchery from the eyes of the Iron Warriors and yeah, the EC have fallen hard since 'Fulgrim'! Perturabo and the Iron Warriors are a treat to read about too. I spent more time rolling my eyes at Perturabo being butthurt about his very impressive achievements (both in siegecraft and trench-defense) not being celebrated the way he'd like, though it was absolutely incredible to listen to Perturabo being an absolute powerhouse in melee combat - the first time he appears in combat in the opening chapters leave you in awe! David Timson narrated this book, and he was excellent! [READ]
- Betrayer
Betrayer is as much of a book about the World Eaters as it is about the Word Bearers. Primarily it's a book about Lorgar and Angron, Kharn and Argel Tal, with Erebus just walking around being his usual chaotic scheming self, and Lotara Sarrin being the "takes no shit" and "no fucks given" captain of Angron's ship, The Conqueror. Then there's Lhorke, the dreadnought of the World Eaters who was never implanted with the Butcher's Nails. Lhorke offers a pre-Nails insight into the Legion and his own observations as his legion (and especially Angron), fall further and further to the Nails. I will say too that I thoroughly enjoyed the bromance that was between Kharn and Argel Tal.
There's a particularly great moment after a battle where they're mercy killing Ultramarines and Kharn is dicussing why Argel Tal follows the chaos Gods and follows his Primarch. They have a very frank discussion where Argel Tal reiterates that he doesn't like it, but the chaos gods and the darkness of the warp is the truth which deserves to be worshipped. They are battle-brothers in the truest sense of the word and as good friends, they bring out the best in one another - this is both their strength and ultimately, their weakness.
In so far as this is the finale of the "First Heretic-Know No Fear-Betrayer" trilogy of the Word Bearers, this book is an absolute treat. I simply can't recommend it enough.
[READ]>
- Mark of Calth
A collection of short stories continuing on from the betrayal at Calth in "Know No Fear". I enjoyed some of these, especially "Dark Heart" and "The Traveler" being my favourites. Dark Heart is a fantastic short story about how chaos apprentices will rise to destroy their masters in a bid for power. Not unlike the "Rule Of 2" in Star Wars. "The Traveler" is some good old fashioned chaos-fueled horror deep beneath the surface of Calth inside the catacombs and tunnels where the civilians take refuge - it's like The Shining levels of psychological horror. [READ]
- Vulkan Lives
[UNREAD]
- The Unremembered Empire
[UNREAD]
- Scars
[UNREAD]
- Vengeful Spirit
For some awesome Knight combat and a full on invasion of the planet 'Molech' by the Sons Of Horus, this book is great. It also does the tried-and-true thing of "if you're going to focus on the traitor space marines, they need someone worse to fight against". In the spirit (a vengeful spirit, if you will!) of that, enter House Device, the ruling Knight house of the planet Molech. The Devine family are literally inbred, incestual abusers without even a single redeeming quality. Raevin, has sexual relations regularly with his sister, Lics. Lics herself is involved in 'the cult of the serpent', which is definitely a Slaaneshi sex cult and its rituals made Raevin's stomach turn when he witnessed what his sister-wife participated in once. The specifics of it was left up to the listener's imagination. So you've got the traitorous space marines on one side, and the batshit crazy House Devine on the other, so honestly I was rooting for both forces to fuck each other up! Predictably, given its a space marine legion vs Imperium-aligned mortals, the outcome is never in question: Molech's knights get stomped! [READ]
- The Damnation of Pythos
[UNREAD]
- Legacies of Betrayal
[UNREAD]
- Deathfire
[UNREAD]
- War Without End
[UNREAD]
- Pharos
[UNREAD]
- Eye of Terra
[UNREAD]
- The Path of Heaven
[UNREAD]
- The Silent War
[UNREAD]
- Angels of Caliban
[UNREAD]
- Praetorian of Dorn
[UNREAD]
- Corax
6 short stories all about Corax and the Raven Guard, also a direct continuation of the aftermath of Deliverance Lost. Soulforge contains some interesting tid-bits about the nature and origin of the Primarchs, and Corax learning of the nature of Chaos. "The Value Of Fear" is a great short story featuring a loyalist Night Lord working with the Ravenguard against his own brothers. It's interesting and hilarious seeing Corax managing to scare the Night Lord shitless near the end. The RG are truely the 'loyalist mirror' to the Night Lords! The final novella, 'The Weregeld', is absolutely heart-wrenching, especially towards the end. I won't spoil it, but damn, it's a tearjerker! [READ]
- The Master of Mankind
[UNREAD]
- Garro
[UNREAD]
- Shattered Legions
[UNREAD]
- The Crimson King
[UNREAD]
- Tallarn
[UNREAD]
- Ruinstorm
[UNREAD]
- Old Earth
[UNREAD]
- The Burden of Loyalty
[UNREAD]
- Wolfsbane
[UNREAD]
- Born of Flame
[UNREAD]
- Slaves to Darkness
[UNREAD]
- Heralds of the Siege
[UNREAD]
- Titandeath
[UNREAD]
- The Buried Dagger
[UNREAD]
- The Solar War
[UNREAD]
- The Lost and the Damned
[UNREAD]
- The First Wall
[UNREAD]
- Saturnine
[UNREAD]
- Mortis
[UNREAD]
- Warhawk
[UNREAD]
- Echoes of Eternity
[UNREAD]