Heroes of the Space Marines

Heroes of the Space Marines

by Nick Kyme (Editor), Lindsey Priestley (Editor), Darren Cox (Contributor)

In the grim darkness of the Warhammer 40,000 universe mankind is beset by foes in a galaxy wracked by eternal war. Step forth the Space Marines, superhuman warriors and the ultimate protectors of humanity. Heroes of the Space Marines is an anthology of stories about these brave champions and their dark counterparts, the Chaos Space Marines.

This anthology features an Ultramarines series tie-in by Graham McNeill featuring the Iron Warrior Honsou, a prequel story to the forthcoming Salamander series by Nick Kyme, a tie–in to the new Imperial Fists series by Chris Roberson and all–new Deathwatch and Night Lords stories, setting the stars ablaze with the fury of the Space Marines.

Contents
Darren Cox - No Fear
Aaron Dembski-Bowden - One Hate
Peter Fehervari - Nightfall
Richard Ford - Labyrinth
Nick Kyme - Fires of War
Graham McNeill - Skull Harvest
Dylan Owen - Honour Among Fiends
Steve Parker - Headhunted
Chris Roberson - Gauntlet Run
Gav Thorpe - Renegades

Genres: Science Fiction, 40k, Fiction, Anthologies, Fantasy, Military Fiction, War

416 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published February 1, 2009

About the author

Nick Kyme (b. 1977) writes mostly for Black Library. His credits include the popular Salamanders series and several audio dramas.

Reviews

[Andrew Ziegler · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think this book is pretty good, but not awesome. In my opinion only 3 of the short stories are really worthy of the subject matter, and 2 of them are almost exactly the same.

I want a book about the heroes of the space marines to actually be about the heroes of the space marines.

One Hate
They Shall Know No Fear
Headhunted

All of those are the heroic Space Marine fluff style stuff that makes me want to die a hero, and that is exactly what I was looking for when I cracked the book. The other stories, those tales of chaos marines or filler of the Salamanders were really well written, and interesting, but not what I expected in this collection.

[Eliran · Rating 4 out of 5]

For some reason, Goodreads only counted to page 320(midway through one of the stories!), the book itself has 408 pages, and 10 stories. Like most anthologies, there is a mixed quality of writing included; however, I liked 8 out of the 10 stories, so it's an overall win for me(used bookstore pickup, my $5 stretched a long way!)
Out of the 8 stories I liked the ones that stood out the best and that made this anthology worthwhile were: Honor Among Fiends, Fires of War, Labyrinth, Headhunted, And They Shall Know No Fear, and, One Hate(details on each in my updates). Fires of War was pretty much novel length and took up a good chunk of the book. I was rather dissapointed in the first story, "The Skull Harvest" by Graham McNeil, I've read his other works and have enjoyed them, so I had high expectations, but was severely let down. As other commenters mentioned, the title does clash with a few stories, as some of them deal with Chaos Space Marines, who are hardly heroic!
Overall, great collection of stories if you enjoy the Warhammer 40K universe. I believe the 8 I mentioned are good enough for even non-40k fans to read; pulpy, war-torn sci-fi reading!

[Paulo "paper books only" · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well, this was very interesting try...
I was going on vacations for 7 days so I brought this so I could read one or two stories per day while reading all other novels at the same time.

Graham McNeill - Skull Harvest - 5/5 - Connects with Iron Warrior Series he has written.
This tale - don't know what it has to do with Heroes of Space Marines since it focus solely on chaos space marines and how they get more warriors under their belt. This is my first foray into Honsou but I sure love it. Oh there is the inclusion of Huron BlackHeart the Tyrant and it was interesting to see that every chaos space marines present on that reunion bow to him. IT felt strange but at the same intriguing.

Chris Roberson - Gauntlet Run- 2/5 - Connects with Sons of Dorn novel
Since I have not read the novel I don't know if this is set before or after... This is basically scouts from Imperial Fists trying to hunt orks. The least appealing story to me - but what do I know after all a follow up book was written afterwards

Gav Thorpe - Renegades - 3/5 It's avenging sons story - to my knowledge doesn't connect to any previous publish tale.
So they are helping a imperial world but things are not going their way. Decisions that must be made and well - Heroes as in the name of the book says are not present here. Well some are not. IT was a interesting fall from grace story.

Dylan Owen - Honour Among Fiends 3/5 - Black Legion vs Imperial Fists - Doesn't connect with anything
So a Black Legion's Scaevolla has a grudge against the imperial fists and so he hunts and kills them. As new space marines are "recruited" using previous progenoid gland he then goes hunting again. It's like a game... It was a interesting story.

Nick Kyme - Fires of War 2/5 - It's a prequel; connected with the Salamanders series.
I don't know much about Salamanders and I couldn't connect with this tale because I didn't understand that much about them.. It's okish short story.

Richard Ford - Labyrinth 4/5 - Sons of Malice story. Doesn't connect with anything else
Predictable ending? Well ... no. Basically the sons of malice from time to time (100 years) go to a place where any of their marines can try making a trial to be closer to Malice. Although the adversities where cool I really enjoy the ending since I predicted what was going to happen and then the author throws a curve ball.

Steve Parker - Headhunted 3/5 - Deathwatch short story. It's publish in at least two more novels - damn. I don't know the interesting on this tale to be publish on three anthologies. It's a team of Deathwatch (as you probably know,they are taken from different chapters with different beliefs trying to work together. It's a OK.

Darren Cox - And they shall know No Fear - 5/5 Black Templars
This is not connected to anything else but it was a interesting tale.
VERY good story and Helbrecht appears on the last page. Nice addition... even him started small.

Peter Fehervari - Nightfall - 4/5 It's the first publish story on his magnus opus. IT can be read individually.
Night Lords - how they recruit new recruiters? Well read the story. It's very cool, very short.

Aaron Dembski-Bowden - One Hate -4/5 It connects with Crimson Fists novel he publish on the Space Marines Battle series
This is very straightforward tale on crimson fists helping imperial guard while on their own mission. Very cool and I understand why Bowden is so much love overall. Eagearly to read something more from him.

[Phil · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think anthologies might be my favourite way to read 40k and this book is no exception.

It's odd, considering the title, that there isn't a great deal of heroics in these stories. Or Space Marines. The stories are mostly about traitor Astartes, so don't let the title put you off.

My picks would be:

The Skull Harvest - one of those great "fill in the blanks" shorts; full of colour. Mostly blood.

Honour Among Fiends - another chaos warband wades around in blood and entrails. Great sense of rivalry between the dark powers.

The Labyrinth - bit like The Hunger Games but with more blood.

Nightfall - a story of the Night Lords. Again, more blood. And dismemberment.

So, honestly, I have no idea why they chose this title. Blood is a theme.

[Camille · Rating 3 out of 5]

My first Warhammer 40k book. Military sci fi but more brutal. This is an anthology so the quality is not consistent but some stories are surprisingly good. I'll be sure to check out other books set in the same universe.

[Andy Phillips · Rating 4 out of 5]

This isn't a bad collection, but not really what I expected. There are some stories about loyalist marines slicing their way through hordes of xenos and so on, but quite a few stories are about Chaos marines, initiates etc. The stories are:

'The Skull Harvest' by Graham McNeill - Chaos warbands, including the Iron Warriors who show up in other books, fighting in some sort of competition.

'Gauntlet Run' by Chris Robertson - Imperial Fist scouts fighting orks.

'Renegades' by Gav Thorpe - The Avenging Sons put down a rebellion on an Imperial world.

'Honour Among Fiends' by Dylan Owen - A veteran Black Legion squad in combat with Imperial Fists.

'Fires of War' by Nick Kyme - Salamanders try to liberate Imperial flying cities.

'The Labyrinth' by Richard Ford - A group of the Sons Of Malice traitor marines undergo a test to join an elite group.

'Headhunted' by Steve Parker - A Deathwatch kill team boards an Ork spaceship on a mission to assassinate the warboss.

'And They Shall Know No Fear...' by Darren Cox - Black Templars and Sisters of Battle fight against cultists.

'Nightfall' by Peter Fehervari - There is friction within a Night Lords squad when they visit a planet to pick up new recruits.

'One Hate' by Aaron Dembski-Bowden - Crimson Fists aid the Imperial Guard while on a mission of their own.

[Yohannis Coomanis · Rating 2 out of 5]

Pretty decent quality writing for the most part, some stories are unfortunately underwhelming, but there's three stories are worth mentioning.


Renegades

Easily my favorite short story, really pushes the irony of the title to its most bitter format. It starts off as your average spess mahreen fluff but as the situation grows dire the space marines slowly crack under pressure and do some heinous things. What makes it so effective is that you can't blame them for doing what they did, making the ending all the more somber.

And They Shall No Know Fear

Not too much to say, just some very fun action involving some rather brutal Black Templars and their friends in the Sisters.

One Hate

Effective, funny and gripping. I quite enjoyed the banter between the commissar and his sub 60 IQ underling. The Champlain himself and his relationship with his squad and the human troops was rather engaging.

[Christopher Nilssen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Heroes of the Space Marines felt massive and uneven. For someone who's halfway through the Horus Heresy, a few of the stories were spoilers-lite, but nothing egregious. Many of the shorts contained in this omnibus were the authors' first publications, and it shows. Still, everone's got to start somewhere.

A welcome surprise was Steve Parker's entry, Headhunted, which I savored. It's funny reading work by someone I know: I could imagine him penning this between Berlitz lessons or after his usual Herculean training sessions, Tokyo's summer heat bursting from his shaven pate in thick runnels of sweat.

Every story in the book ended with "read more about the X Chapter of the Space Marines in the Black Library", reinforcing the fact that Game Workshop has an endless supply of further grimdark scribblings should one be so inclined.

It would be the project of a lifetime to attempt to consume it all.

[Sean O'Brien · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. I read it during my breaks at work. I think Anthologies are a great work break book since you can easily get into the story without having to think about what happened since your last shift. There were some subpar stories but they were middle of the road at worst. The good short stories here hit really high highs.

[Jay · Rating 4 out of 5]

Don't get me wrong, the stories contained within are all great examples of the 40k universe. My only gripe is similar to those in other reviews of this book: Traitorous Chaos Marines are not heroes!

The Astartes are supposed to be the greatest embodiment of the Emperor's will, sworn to defend humanity at its darkest times. The stories of Chaos victories don't belong in this book.

[Mark Ford · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some good rip roaring, 40k blood 'n' guts action in the never ending war on chaos and xenos.

[Steve · Rating 5 out of 5]

A nice collection of short stories, covering the Astartes and Chaos Marines.

[Martin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sone is great and some is ok and some is bad, because of 'reasons' the Dark Angel won.

[Piotr Uryga · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's definitely good entry set of stories in 40k universe.

I actually liked it, but expected more Space Marines focused stories.

I can't stand the ones which treat Traitors as protagonists.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved every story.

[Puneetsingh · Rating 5 out of 5]

So in the grim darkness of the future I have become a 40k fan . This is the first book I read after watching too many YouTube shorts

[75338 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good if you’re interested in the subject and keep an open mind. Occasionally brilliant writing.

[Mitch · Rating 3 out of 5]

Favorite story "The Skull Harvest"

[Ulzeta · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quite fun.

[Vansh · Rating 4 out of 5]

First look into warhammer. Definitely enjoyed it!

[Pedro Medeiros · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book! Loved the introduction of the High Marshal Hellbrecht has a scout and the story about Malal.

[Michael Elder · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun enough collection of short stories, but tragically nothing really stood out to me. A lot of Bolter Porn, some mild character work, nothing crazy but if you can't commit to a full novel but need a little space marine fix it will do.

[Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

As with all anthologies some of the stories in this book are much better than others, and everyone will have different ideas about which are which. But this is a really good intro to many of the series the Black Library has going, so it's worth reading just for that - assuming you have any interest in the 40K universe, and if you don't why are you reading this anyway? Perhaps to see if you might be interested I guess, in which case this is again a good place to start.

It potentially highlights the sameness of the series but there are enough differences to intrigue different people. It was interesting to have some Chaos in there too, kept things interesting.

[Luiz Larini · Rating 2 out of 5]

Heroes of the space marines? Maybe two or three stories could be said to be that. I did write a separate review for each story, so I believe I can have 3 stars as my general feeling. Quite a pity this site doesn't allow me to select 2.5.

This was my first warhammer 40k book, and the only real thing it made me think was "Why would anyone even like the space marines?"

Since my next book will be of warhammer crime I wonder if this thought will even change

[Steven · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book of stories hasn't won me over to becoming a Warhammer fan. Some stories were better than others but all fell into the same pattern of bombastic language. Plenty of eviscera but no real character development. Books like this are ones I find take me a long time to get through. I was intrigued enough to buy this book however, I don't feel I can say I have any enthusiasm to read anymore.

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading these short stories, you know what you are going to get with Warhammer 40,000 novels; lots of bloodshed and action.

For sci-fi fluff you really can't beat it. Pages and pages of futuristic battles. My favourite of the stories was the one centred around the betrayal of the Avenging Sons third company.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Have to admit, the only story that stuck out for me was The Skull Harvest.
Outside of that story, none of the others really stuck out in my mind and that story is really the reason for my rating.

Decent read, just kind of up and down with the different writers and stories.

[Andy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Outstanding collection of short stories by various Black Library authors on the grim stories of the Space Marines. And They Shall Know No Fear...is the standout in this collection. Recommended for any WH40K fan.....

[Mochnant · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ten stories, with 5 of them being focused on Chaos Space Marines hardly makes for a "heroes" collection, but aside from that, the book was good. The quality was varying, but generally typical of the fiction, with a few gems by new authors. I could see a few new series spawned from these.

[Christoph Kappel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a collection of various short stories related to the Warhammer 40k universe and for me a good entry into this universe. As I've said, it is a collection of different authors with varying styles and quality.

My personal favourite story was Headhunted.