Every fan of Warhammer 40,000 has heard of the First Founding Chapters such as the Ultramarines, Blood Angels, and Imperial Fists, but with this anthology, The Successors get their time to shine. Three full Titan Legions of the Mechanicum and close to two million soldiers of the Imperialis Auxilia stood alongside them to face the Traitors in a battle that would determine the fate of Mankind for the next 10,000 years.

Ancient map depicting the disposition of both Traitor and Loyalist forces around the Imperial Palace at the start of the Siege of Terra. It’s a true artefact of the conflict – with this map unfurled on your desk, you’ll feel like Rogal Dorn himself as he strives against the odds to oversee an impossible defence. Index Astartes III, "Chosen of Khorne - The World Eaters Space Marine Legion", "The Lost and the Damned - The Death Guard Space Marine Legion", "Masters of Forbidden Knowledge - The Thousand Sons Space Marine Legion" Warhammer Community: The End and the Death Volume III – The Final Cover Reveal (posted 9/8/2023) (last accessed 9/8/2023) There are bizarre incongruous stretches where the author, with unambiguous rhetoric, uses narration to demand the reader reinterpret previously established events or characterizations of key characters from prior books or authors. This isn't inherently bad in theory, but is executed so poorly it comes across as polarizing and jarring; more retcon than re-contextualization.

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At this point, the Siege of Terra-series and the author behind its seventh installment need no introduction. So let me get straight to the point: I loved Echoes of Eternity. Chaos Cultists, Traitor Imperialis Auxilia and Renegade Imperialis Militia troops made their invocations and blood sacrifices, thinning the barriers to the Immaterium and calling down the Greater Daemons of Chaos from the Warp directly onto Terran soil. This Book is blessed and cursed by its Author choices more than anything else. It leads to a mix of stark choices where its a pleasant suprise for the World Bearers and World Eaters Book Chapters. Not a camaderie but a understanding of purpose and grimness that shines in subtle manipulation with Kargos (WE) and Iznar (WB) Instead, the Word Bearers still loyal to the Warmaster are led to Terra by the Dark Apostle Zardu Layak. Facing them were the armies of Chaos under Warmaster Horus which included nine Legions of Chaos Space Marines, traitorous forces of the Imperial Army, Daemonic hordes, and the Titan Legions of the Dark Mechanicum. [1a] Mars, the capital of the Adeptus Mechanicus, had recently fallen to the traitor forces. The situation had become disastrous for the Imperium and the forces of the Emperor. Horus, sensing that he could decisively end the conflict and overthrow the Emperor once and for all, began to move on Terra. Rogal Dorn, of the Imperial Fists, was given overall command of the defenses of humanity's homeworld while the Emperor himself was busy with his own secret project, the Golden Throne. [1a] In addition to the loyalist Space Marine forces deployed in the Sol System, the loyalists were bolstered by the Custodian Guard, Sisters of Silence, millions of Imperial Army troops as well as various Mechanicum forces such as Titan Legions, Knights, Legio Cybernetica, and Skitarii. Much of Terra's population was forcibly conscripted in the stages before the battle, with millions of terrified Conscripts being handed a Lasgun with virtually no training. Most of these were deployed in the 3-layered trench network around the Walls of the Imperial Palace, with Dorn intending to save his Astartes and Mechanicum troops for the later stages of the battle. [9a]

And in the context of the Siege, I'm not sure this is the novel that the series needed at this penultimate position. It's too intimate for that. Too closed off from other cast members, events elsewhere, and simply refused to comment on other plotlines. I understand that this is, in some ways, the point ADB was going for... but it's a bummer as part 7 of an 8(9) part series. The Warmaster Horus aboard his ship, the Vengeful Spirit, directing the Traitor Legions during the Siege of TerraNevertheless, Horus lowered the void shields of his great vessel, the Gloriana-class Battleship Vengeful Spirit. The lowering of these shields was detected by the Loyalist vessels in orbit and the information was relayed to the Imperial Palace.

To me, this book feels strange, especially when looked at in the context of the Siege of Terra series. It feels disconnected - deliberately so, going by the author's afterword. It's at the same time very limited in scope while also featuring more than enough strings that I do not think really mattered all that much in the immediate context of the penultimate Siege novel.

Table of Contents

It was then that the Emperor whispered instructions to Dorn, urging the Imperial Fists' Primarch to take Him to the device known as the Golden Throne in the inner sanctum of the Imperial Palace. For the Emperor’s beleaguered forces, the end has come. The Khan lies on the edge of death. Rogal Dorn is encircled, fighting his own war at Bhab Bastion. Guilliman will not reach Terra in time. Without his brothers, Sanguinius – the Angel of the Ninth Legion – waits on the final battlements, hoping to rally a desperate band of defenders and refugees for one last stand.