War Never Ends
Warhammer 40,000 fiction is based off the table-top strategy game that has been around for a little over 20 years. The premise of the game is that it is the 41st millennium and, despite the time for advancement, some parts of human society has actually regressed.The series of The Horus Heresy covers the time when some of the forces of the God-Emperor turned their back on the Imperium of Mankind. It takes place roughly around the 31st millennium through the 37th or 38th millennium and covers the fall from grace of the traitor Space Marines legions. The series itself is up to nine books as well as multiple short stories that cover the events to a certain extent in the rulebooks and codexes of the strategy game.
The novel series is one of the more interesting and better written collections of books that are based on games and give a lot of insight to the starting 20 space marines legions and why some stayed loyal while others joined the forces of Chaos. It also gives a lot of insight toward the starting legions' personal military philosophies. There is only one book that doesn't cover a legion but it does cover the enigmatic tech-priests of Mars.
The first three books (Horus Rising, False Gods and Galaxy in Flames) covers one of the more influential legions to go traitor, the Luna Wolves. The reason they are one of the more influential legions is that they are lead by the head of the Emperor's military might, Warmaster Horus Lupercal. Their general philosophy is to learn from all enemies, regardless of how easily they were crushed. It is this reason that they find themselves to be one of the best and most effective legions before their fall from grace. These first three books follow very specific members of the Luna Wolves though. They follow Horus to some extent. They mostly follow the remembrances (journalists, artists, poets, etc.) and members of Horus's Mournival. The Mournival is a council set up to advise the Warmaster in all his endeavors. They are the top four company commanders in the legion and the Mournival is an unofficial organization that holds a lot of political sway with Horus.
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