Legends of the Space Marines

Legends of the Space Marines

by Christian Z. Dunn (Editor)

Space Marines and their evil counterparts, the Traitor Marines, epitomise the wartorn. Warhammer 40,000 universe. This short story collection focuses entirely on these superhuman warrior, telling high-action tales of heroism and savagery. Combining the talents of Black Library favorite authors such as Mike Lee and Nick Kyme with hot new talent, this collection is not to be missed

Genres: Science Fiction, 40k, Anthologies, Fiction, Fantasy, Media Tie In, Short Stories

544 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published April 27, 2010

About the author

Christian Dunn, sometimes credited as C.Z. Dunn, is a senior editor for Black Library.

Librarian note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Reviews

[Lori · Rating 4 out of 5]

Why do I keep reading this stupid shit. Send help.

[Edoardo Albert · Rating 3 out of 5]

A collection of short stories featuring Space Marines from chapters famous (Ultramarines, White Scars) to little known (Mantis Warriors). They're all competently written and enjoyable enough, but I think there's a fundamental problem with 40k stories that take Space Marines as heroes: these genetically engineered superwarriors have such a limited emotional palette that they, rather quickly, become fairly boring to read about. Let's list the emotions they don't feel: fear (obviously), love (even more obviously), lust (thankfully), curiosity (mostly), wonder (sadly). Much as I enjoy reading about the 40k universe, I sometimes think that this lack of awe is its fundamental problem. After all, it's a universe where wonders don't just exist, they can kill you! It's a re-enchanted universe, full of elves and monsters and all manner of extraordinary things, but all there is, is War. Naturally enough, I suppose, given that 40k is a war game, but in the context of Black Library stories I think it's no coincidence that the best 40k writer, Dan Abnett, has almost completely avoided writing about Space Marines (his one effort, 'Brothers of the Snake', being one of his weakest efforts); humans might be easier to kill than Space Marines, but they're a lot more interesting!

[Martin Rice · Rating 4 out of 5]

Writing this with the help of the 40k lexicanuim Emperor bless that site :)
http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Legen...

Over all I enjoyed the hell out of this anthology even if it was written five years ago and makes me feel very old lol the two stories for me that stood out the most are The last detail and Orphans of the Kraken both show space marines in a very human way and show us that whilst they are super human they are ONLY super human and under all the power armour, genetic implants, training and mental condtioning they are still in many ways just as frail as you and I and they have a breaking point both stories show how they deal with and come to terms there own breaking points.

Hell Night

by Nick Kyme
A battle force of the Salamanders, led by Sergeants Dak'ir and Tsu'gan, accompanied by Librarian Pyriel, embarks to the planet of Vaporis where the 135th Phalanx Regiment of the Imperial Guard are besieging the rebel-held city of Aphium. The rebels' void shield is holding strong, and the Imperial artillery is running dangerously low on ammunition, but that is not the worst thing the Guardsmen face. Ghostly bells are ringing and spectres are rising out of the battlefield and dragging soldiers beneath the earth. Commissar Loth refuses to believe in these spectres and has the ranking General executed for cowardice, along with any soldiers who dare to suggest that these spectres are real. The Imperial forces must attack again, and they must do so on "Hell Night," the solstice of the planet's annual cycle, when the night is longest.

Nick mate as per usual damn good tale and shows good conflict between the salamanders who are often painted as the universal 'good guys' as far as they can be in a grim dark setting lol

Cover of Darkness

by Mitchel Scanlon
A squad of White Scars led by Sergeant Kergis, advance under darkness on bikes through a geyser field with the purpose of destroying the main power facility for the planet of Tephra VII, a large geothermal power plant functioning within a volcano, the Ignis Mons. This power station feeds the continent and the void shields for the capital city of the planet, Choldis, where the main invasion and assault will take place at dawn. Kergis and his men meet up with the advance Scout Squad and their Sergeant, Balat, Kergis's old mentor. The scouts advise their brothers of their reconnaissance and stay behind to secure the bikes.

Simple we need more from this author cracking short moving onto the next one

The Relic

by Jonathan Green
Dreadnought Jarold leads a battle company of Black Templars to the Deadlands of Armageddon in order to chase the Orks of the Blood Scar tribe who ravaged the Chapter Keep on Solemnus and took the Company Champion Ansgar and his symbols of rank. The Black Templars destroy an initial band of Orks and then proceed to track a signal, which turns out to be an ice entombed Dreadnought of the Crimson Fists Chapter.

This one blew me away somewhat it shows the Templars in a damn good way I hope to see more from this author at some point highly enjoyable story.

Twelve Wolves

by Ben Counter
A serf of the Space Wolves tells a tale in a banquet hall of The Fang of two Space Wolves, Daegalan and Hrothgar who are out on the slopes of Fenris whilst the forces of Cardinal Bucharis besiege the Fang.
The two warriors, one a young Blood Claw and the other a grizzled Long Fang, commit hit-and-run attacks against troops moving guns and equipment to the front, eventually having a taskforce sent after them. All the while Daegalan is teaching the young Hrothgar how the Twelve Wolves of Fenris are always beside them in battle, whether at home, on foreign soil or in the stars. Each of the twelve Great Companies takes its symbol and battle style from one of those twelve wolves, each of whom has a different lesson to impart.

By all accounts this is an old one re-printed here I'd never read it before this and loved how Ben showed the different aspects of the wolves.

The Returned

by James Swallow
The Doom Eagles' homeworld of Gathis is rocked by an unexpected event. Veteran Sergeant Tarikus has been rescued, after he was thought dead when the medical frigate he was recovering on was attacked by the Red Corsairs.
Tarikus relates that he was actually captured by the Corsairs, who sold him to the minions of Fabius Bile. He was imprisoned on Dynikas V, where he was tortured and experimented upon by Bile. He was eventually rescued by the Blood Angels and returned to his Chapter.

Now this one showed just how differnt a chapter can be in terms of just its mental outlook the doom eagles are very scary in how they view things but in a good way they've popped up before in another short involving nurgle and virus bombs, goes as well as you can guess.

Consequences

by Graham McNeill
The 4th Company of the Ultramarines returns from Tarsis Ultra after their narrow victory over the Tyranids. Shortly after their arrival, Captain Uriel Ventris and Sergeant Pasanius Lysane are both placed under arrest and charged with breaking from the Codex Astartes, a crime punishable by execution.

Fills in a gap between the third ultramarine book and the start of the fourth nice little niche detail filler for the over all series.

The Last Detail

by Paul Kearney
A man and his son are hiding in a bunker underneath their home, sheltering from a conflict above. They leave to explore their surroundings, finding devastation and eventually a Space Marine, wounded, with destroyed power armour and trapped underneath a rock fall. This Astartes explains that his chapter was on their world fighting a Chaos Warband called the Punishers, who had hoped to take this world in order to forge a bridgehead and go on to conquer the rest of the sector.

This for me was the BEST short story I've read in a long bloody time :) rather glad Paul got a full novel (yet to released) about this chapter as what he does here is a damn good yarn from start to finish Brother Pieter shows yes a marine can die but he keeps swinging till he does in what ever way he can, and is in my opinion the ideal kind of space marine hero for the grim dark setting, if you can buy this as seperate E-short you will not be surprised at just WHY it got a full novel.

The Trial of the Mantis Warriors

by C.S. Goto
Khoisan Neotera, the Chapter Master of the Mantis Warriors, is tried by a panel of unseen interrogators, including other Chapter Masters, several Librarians, and representatives from the Inquisition or the Adepta Sororitas. They state that his guilt, and that of the Mantis Warriors, is beyond doubt, and all they wish is for some explanation of why a loyal Space Marine chapter would side with the Tyrant of Badab.

Yeah it was alright Mr Goto is a contraversial figure in 40k novels lol I liked this story but lots of people don't like him and I respect there opinion.

Orphans of the Kraken

by Richard Williams
Sergeant Tiresias and his four neophytes board a derelict Tyranid Bio-ship as a Salvation Team, with the aim of finding any survivors of the Fifth Company of the Scythes of the Emperor. They find the remains of a number of their Chapter in a chamber with the remains of a number of slain Tyranid Bio-Titans.

Just like the last detail I loved how this showed aspects and details of 40k we don't normally see, like just what does the imperuim do with hive ships and the aftermaths of a war against a tyranid splinter fleet? The Sycthes Of The Emperor chapter in this paid a heavy price to stop a splinter fleet, it show the cost of that price in a number of ways and how some dealt with it.

At Gaius Point

by Aaron Dembski-Bowden
A squad of Flesh Tearers are shot down on Armageddon. Only two Marines survive the crash, Brothers Zavien and Jarl. Zavien is forced to pursue Jarl as he is consumed by the Black Rage, an unfortunate legacy of their Primarch Sanguinius. Jarl unfortunately makes contact with a squad of the Order of the Argent Shroud, mistaking them for Traitor Marines attacking the Imperial Palace during the Battle of Terra.

What it says on the tin I liked this for what it showed and depicted throughly enjoyable :)

[Mark Ford · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fanatical soldiers of the far future, dying for honour and the love of the Emperor of Mankind, fighting daemonic forces of evil and chaos bent on destroying humanity.
Errr ok.
Thought i'd like this collection of stories more than i did but i just not sure, this stuff used to be right up my alley and floated my boat but..........
The writing and world building are excellent, i'm not disputing that.
Just the constant never ending chaos of war with no end in sight is a bit depressing, there's no light moments, a bit of levity wouldn't go amiss would it.
Everyone's so dour and melancholic.
Oh well all in all some pretty good tales of derring-do and ultimate sacrifice in the name of honour and empire.

[Andy Phillips · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you're not a fan of Warhammer 40,000 and you don't know what a Space Marine is, I'm not sure I would bother with this book. They aren't bad stories without the background knowledge, but a bit too much is taken for granted. I also found that some stories referred to other stories that I haven't read, but that didn't matter too much.

There are ten separate stories featuring a variety of chapters (and not just the really popular ones) fighting a variety of enemies. As with most compilations, some stories are better than others, but I didn't think any were terrible.

[Tamas · Rating 3 out of 5]

Teaser chapter for a book, filler, more filler, teaser for yet another book, even more filler... What I expected was a collection of short stories where the concept is good but not worth expanding into a whole novel. Instead, it's the literary version bologna sausage, random chapters left out from books that weren't good enough, scraped together and repackaged. None of it is truly bad (for 40k slop), but it's just a lazy cashgrab.

[Ricardo Portella · Rating 3 out of 5]

A collection of 10 short stories about Space Marines. Like most short stories collection it's a mixed bag. Some a good, others are not so good. Unless you are die hard fan of Space Marines you can skip this book.

[Weekend Critic · Rating 4 out of 5]

7/10 Hell Night
6/10 Cover of Darkness
3/10 The Relic
5/10 Twelve Wolves
8/10 The Returned
4/10 Consequences
10/10 The Last Detail
0/10 The Trial of the Mantis Warriors
11/10 Orphans of the Kraken
12/10 At Gaius Point

[Jay · Rating 5 out of 5]

A nice collection of short stories about the Emperor’s genetically engineered “best of the best”.
Packed with heroic moments I found my favourite story to be The Last Detail by Paul Kearney. A typical example of the heroism of the Astartes in their quest to destroy the great enemy

[Anthony Emmel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some stories are barely passable, a couple are crap, a couple are gems. Typical genre fiction.

[Ulzeta · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun read.

[Jean-Luc · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you're into Space Marines, then you're into cheese. No way around it. In that case, one of the stories, Consequences by Graham McNeill, is worth the price of admission all by itself. For example:

[Uriel Ventris] andPasanius marched in silence after the Chapter's Masters, their chains removed and armour stored in the 4th Company's armorium. Both wore unadorned black chitons, their bare feet warmed by the sun-kissed earth.

No guards accompanied the sombre column. Though guilty, they were still Ultramarines and would meet their fate with courage and honour.

Also:

As the gateway drew closer, he saw Learchus in the line of Space Marines ahead of him. He reached his former sargeant and saw that Learchus was not turning his back as every other Ultramarine had.

Uriel stopped and said, 'Sergeant, you must turn your back.'

'No, captain, I will not, I will see you on your way.'

Uriel smiled and held out his hand to Learchus, who shook it proudly.

'I will look after the men of the company until you return,' promised Learchus.

'I know you will, Learchus. I bid you farewell, but now you must turn from us.'

Learchus nodded slowly and saluted before turning his back on his former captain.

If, like me, you teared up when you read that, then this is the book for you.

The other stories are about:

* Space Marines against ghosts.
* Space Marines against Chaos Marines.
* Space Marines against Orcs.
* Space Marines against traitor Guard.
* Space Marines against one of their own. (Or is he?!)
* A single Space Marine against Chaos Marines.
* Space Marines against Tyrannid.
* A single Space Marine trying to track down another Space Marine before Sisters of Battle can get to him.

In an earlier review, I mentioned the Doom Guards seemed to be such clowns that they couldn't possibly be a real chapter. Alas, they are. They are no less clownish in this books.

OTOH, the Salamanders redeem themselves. Or maybe they don't, I didn't quite catch the chronology so I can't be sure if the story here occurs before their hulking space fail, but either way they don't come across as completely incompetent buffoons, and that's always a plus.

All in all, an unfortunate lack of Necrons and Eldar but, other than that, something for everyone!

[Ian · Rating 3 out of 5]

This collection suffers from the same thing that most Black Library 40k fiction does. It all has a very similar tone and glosses over the interesting parts in favor of adolecent power fantasy.

Sure, some stories are much, much better than others, but in the end, they fight for honor and the god-emperor, for their battle brothers, obey the codex, blah blah blah. I have a feeling that some of these stories bite off WAY more than they can fit into a 30-40 page story, but do wonders with the limits. A standout involved two civilians crawling out of a bunker and finding a wounded Marine. It was fantastic for it's a straightforward narrative (far too many of theses have confusing flashbacks), and because it took a step back from the iconic Marine.

It's actually pretty ridiculous just how expansive the Warhammer 4ok universe is. There are hundreds of Space Marine chapters, and each one with their own unique backstory and 'fluff'. That's just one segment of one faction. Just go diving though a wiki sometime. It's every teen-aged fantasy in one violent universe. Massive space-wrecks filled with aliens? Check. Guns that fire mini-rockets? Check. Chainswords? Massive walking tanks? Check check and check. It's cheese, but there's a place for it to be sure. Everyone needs an adventure sometimes.

As you can tell, the target market is somewhere in the white male 14-18 range, and the Black Library releases reflect that. While violent, they're never actually gory. A nasty headshot simply turns a head into "red mist", or "ruins" a face. Explosions "decimate" or "blacken". Oh, and they nicely sidestep the nasty part where the Space Marines are essentially neutered child soldiers abducted from their social structure, hyped up on drugs and gene therapy, and told to kill for religious reasons.

If you're ok with 40k being a place for sci-fi war stories instead of being a dark, conflicted place without many true heroes, there are worse places to start than this book.

[Danny · Rating 3 out of 5]

While the book is a good compilation of short stories focusing on the various legendary exploits of Space Marines from a variety of chapters, the book as a whole delivers very little new material to Warhammer 40,000 universe. This isn't a terrible thing taking into consideration the dark 41st millennium which is the setting for these stories. In this time of darkness there is only war, war which is destined to engulf, devour and destroy the whole of the galaxy. Bleak stuff. Great launching point for the dark, gothic and many times brooding tone of the stories presented within. If you haven't read a 40K book, or are curious about these "space marines" this is an excellent collection to introduce you to the many threats mankind faces in the far future. For long term fans and readers however, the stories in this collection might seem a bit cliche or similar to stories already printed. There are several exceptions, but mostly in terms of narrative style and theme. Graham Mcneil's short story for instance deals entirely with the concept of honor and integrity without a single gunshot being fired in the story. Another surprising gem was Ben Counter's Space Wolves short story which was delivered extraordinarily well as a myth and cautionary tale given as verbal record only, delivering a story told by a storyteller. While personally not a fan of Mr. Counter's other work, his story's narrative impressed and intrigued me. If you are looking for tales of action and heroic deeds then you should like this book. For others looking for more substance in their 40K literature then I would suggest a Horus Heresy book, Rinn's World, Helsreach or one of the Inquisition books written by Dan Abnett.

[Chris · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a fairly typical Warhammer 40,000 book, full of the sort of bloody battles and mayhem any reader of the genre will be familiar with. It is a collection of short stories focussing on the saviours of humanity; the Space Marines.

I didn't enjoy this book as much as 'Heroes of the Space Marines' (another collection of short stories) which was shorter and generally a better book. I was impressed with one story in particular: Twelve Wolves. I thought it was very imaginative. Some of the others were pretty awful particularly 'The Returned' which I found to be terminally dull. None of them stood out in particular leading me to ultimately be disappointed with this collection which was also too long.

[Angel · Rating 4 out of 5]

A pretty good collection of stories about the Space Marines. It is more a collection of novellas or longer short stories as opposed to just short pieces, but it is well worth reading. There are some very good works here. I did enjoy the story about Ventris and the Ultramarines, even though if you have read the Ultramarines novels, you know where things are headed. The story gives a bit more insight into events from the novels. If you are a fan of the Space Marines, you will enjoy this book. If you are looking for an entry point into WH40K and the Space Marines, this is a pretty good book for that.

[Jonathan · Rating 5 out of 5]

These stories are a collection of triumphs, tragedies, Heresy, and loyalty. Within these pages are the life blood of millions. Within these pages, the space marines are expressed not only as defenders of mankind, as the tireless gods who protect their weaker human counterparts, but as human. Super-human, but still human. This book shows their flaws, their weaknesses, and yes their strength as well, but it truly embodies the space marines body and soul.
If you know what Warhammer 40,000 is, read this book.

[Steven Liggett · Rating 4 out of 5]

For a hundred centuries the Corpse Emperor has been sealed, writhing in his golden throne.
Ruler over the million worlds worlds of man-kind, his will over the realm of man is enforced by the Adeptus Astartes - The Space Marines.
From the Black Library, demons, mutants, heretics, aliens beware; 10 stories of the valiant Space Marines. Over 500 action packed pages.

[Andy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another collection of outstanding Space Marines short stories by various excellent Warhammer 40K authors. The last story by Aaron Dembski-Bowden about Gaius Point really was the best one in this series.

[Rob Sanchez]

Read the first two quickly they were pretty good, but then a saga type spacewolf story and a dreadfully boring dreadnought story. I lost interest, I will be back for this one soon though.

[Ramone · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very nice collection of various Space Marine lore. The Space Wolf story is awesome. The Mantis Warrior story is a bit confusing...

[Cocolito · Rating 4 out of 5]

Over all, I like this book. I have a video review on each of the stories in this book at blip.tv/choppyreviews if anyone is interested in my opinion.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Twelve Wolves, The Last Detail, Orphans of the Keaken, and At Gaius Point were my favorite short stories.

[Christian · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of fair short stories to pass the time. Sorry, nothing profound here.

[Christopher · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall I liked it, but some of the short stories weren't as good as the rest. But I would recommend this to anyone who likes Space Marines.

[Anders · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good collection of W40k stories with a wide variety of stories from many different chapters.