Fear to Tread: The Next Horus Heresy Novel

Old School here with a quick peice from the upcoming Horus Heresy novel, Fear to Tread, featuring the Blood Angels.

Fear to Read

The Blood Angels are one of the most charismatic and adored of the Legiones Astartes, but they haven’t got their own Horus Heresy book... Until now.
For a moment, Sejanus thought he saw something dark pass over Horus’s face; then the instant was gone. ‘We have dethroned all the gods,’ said the Luna Wolf, ‘and you are only pale shadows of those things.’
The grey let off a hooting cry in its own language and the legion of nephilim advanced, each of them phosphorescing an angry yellow. ‘We will destroy you,’ it said. ‘We outnumber you.’
Horus gave a rueful nod and drew his sword, a massive scimitar-curve of oiled steel and adamantium. ‘You will try,’ he said. ‘But today you face the Emperor’s sons, his warriors. We are the Luna Wolves, and this Legion is the anvil upon which you will be broken.’
From high overhead there was a low crackle and a sound like distant thunder as sonic booms from the upper atmosphere reached the desert floor. Sejanus looked up, his acute eyesight picking out lines of white contrails, hundreds in number, flaring out behind great crimson tears and scarlet-hued hawks as they fell at supersonic speeds towards the silver sands.
‘We are the anvil,’ Horus repeated, pointing with his sword. ‘Now behold the hammer.’
The heavens screamed.
Ejected from the launch tubes of a dozen capital ships and battle-barges in low orbit, a rain of ceramite capsules tore through the outer atmosphere of Melchior and fell like flaming meteors towards the Silver Desert. Falling with them were diving hawks; Stormbirds and assault gunships turning and wheeling through the air towards the gargantuan nephilim encampment.
They were red as blood, red as fury, and within they carried company upon company of the warriors of the IX Legion Astartes. The speed of their assault was the key to victory; the alien invaders and their zealots had successfully been drawn out to confront the massed forces of the Luna Wolves, leaving the defences on their flanks thinned and permeable. But the xenos giants were not slow in their thinking, and the moment they understood that they had been duped, they would attempt to regroup and fortify.
The Blood Angels would not allow that to happen. The nephilim would be broken and cut down, their cohesion shattered by the brutal deep strike that even now was moments from point of impact.
Fear to Tread will be released in September, set a reminder now to make sure you don’t miss it. If you can’t wait that long to read more about the Sons of Sanguinius, there is an extended extract in this month’s Hammer And Bolter, available to download on Friday.

-OST Back again -- That's it folks. Make sure you check it out on the Black Library Web site.


Are you a Horus Heresy reader? Have you read them all or just some? Are you a fanatic or a casual reader of the books? I know the authors here range from historians of the Heresy to folks who have casually dipped their toe in the Heresy waters, so we always like to hear what people think about the series and where it is heading.


Personally, I think this blurb is pretty cool and while I would love to see the story move forward, I actually like where this is heading so far. Horus is a little too theatrical in this scene, but it makes for good war porn in my opinion. As in all Heresy books, I am sure secrets will be revealed and revelations will dawn on the reader that will have a greater impact on the endgame. Hopefully, the goal of this book is to establish the bond of brotherhood that makes the death of Sanguinius at the hands of Horus such a tragedy.

Perhaps even more interesting is the fight on the cover!