Mortis: The Horus Heresy - Siege of Terra (The Horus Heresy: Siege of Terra 5)

The Siege of Terra #5

by John French, Stefan Behrenbruch (Translator)

Siege of Terra Book 5

After a series of victories, the Imperial forces are on the back foot once more. The power of Chaos is rising, the Traitors gain ground, and all hope seems lost. Can Terra endure?

READ IT BECAUSE
Delve back into the biggest war in Imperial history, which is getting even bigger as Traitor Titans land and the influence of the warp grows, plaguing the defenders in all sorts of vile ways.

THE STORY
The victories of Saturnine and the sacrifices of the Eternity Wall space port have faded into the hope of yesterday. Denied but not defeated, the Traitors intensify their assault on the Imperial Palace. With the principal space ports in Horus’ hands, the Warmaster now drains the heavens of his reserves.

As the pressure of the assault increases, the power of Chaos waxes. The waking lives of the defenders are filled with despair, while their dreams pull them in search of a false paradise. As the fabric of the defences fails and the will of those who stand on them cracks, Horus commands the Titans of the Legio Mortis to breach the walls. Against them stands the might of Mercury Wall and the strength of the Legio Ignatum. Ancient rivals, the god-engines of both Legions meet in battle, while within the walls a few desperate individuals seek a way to turn back the tide of the warp’s malign influence. Across Terra, lost warriors and travellers make their way through wastelands and gardens of horror, towards home and an unknown future.

Genres: 40k, Science Fiction, Fiction, Audiobook, Fantasy, Space Opera, Science Fiction Fantasy

627 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 16, 2021

About the author

John French is a writer and freelance game designer from Nottingham, England. His novels include the Ahriman series from Black Library, and The Lord of Nightmares trilogy for Fantasy Flight. The rest of his work can be seen scattered through a number of other books, including the New York Times bestselling anthology Age of Darkness. When he is not thinking of ways that dark and corrupting beings could destroy reality and space, John enjoys talking about why it would be a good idea... that and drinking good wine.

Reviews

[Gian Franco · Rating 1 out of 5]

Mortis introduces many new uninteresting characters that we don’t care about, which is baffling considering most people come here to read about the characters we grew to admire throughout the Horus Heresy series.
Where is Loken where is Ahriman where is Garro where is Sigismund where is Kharn ? (the list goes on). Most of the new characters are female and are childishly depicted as angels of battle who have no flaws. Almost every act of cowardice or cruelty are perpetrated by their male counterparts. This faux equality that echos every day politically correct life makes it difficult to get immersed in a supposed epic space fantasy novel.

The primarchs do nothing but talk.
Interesting moments are few and far between. Nothing really advances the main plot. Total waste that I pre-ordered this book after the good will of Saturnine.

[RogueHarliquin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Overall thus far the Siege of Terra has been disappointing and Mortis is another entry that doesn't lift the overall quality.

Needless plots that add little to the overall story, new characters with uninteresting interpersonal conflicts that seem like they're only there to tick the boxes of having interpersonal conflicts.

Yet another book that inflicts the "perpetuals" story line on the reader which is becoming more tedious as time goes both in concept (if there is one) and the actual writing, did we really need to read about people cutting yet another hole in reality that many times. I'm all for taking the time to tell a good story and not just dot point the events but this plot isn't a good story.

No I'm not interested in pointless backstory of a pointless characters that's not going to achieve anything many of us already know how this all ends. The Heresy and the Siege should have been about telling an interesting story to get us to the known end. While the Heresy became bloated with books and anthologies that didn't move the story forward the Siege it seems is bloated by design

Worse this is a 550 page novel that literally ends in the middle of events, yes it's part of a larger story but each book should also stand alone removing the parts of this book that add nothing would have allowed for its own story to be told.

[Hanz Löwe · Rating 2 out of 5]

I remember criticising another of French’s book “the crimson fist” for having weird logic, this book circumvents the problem by having no logic at all, or at least not showing it. This is the main problem of this book for me, nothing is explained here, most conversations are short and ended with innuendoes. And even when the action actually takes place later, you couldn’t help but wonder what is happening here or why are we here, and the author is supposed to explain all that! And I suspect even the author thought it was a problem, because according to my kindle, a little bit less than 10% of the entire book is afterwords from French explaining what happens in each scene of the book.

This is for me most disappointing, I like warhammer books because sometimes with writers like Abnett you find something more than bolter porn, you find a fully developed fantasy world that is different but not fully detached from ours, and every book is a very small glimpse into that world. This one is like watching through a window a pirated movie from the cinema in another person’s computer screen, nothing is learned apart from some blurry motions

[Brendan Davis · Rating 2 out of 5]

If this book was 200 pages shorter it would be a great addition to the series. As it is boring storylines, tedious action scenes, and a meandering dullness make a lackluster middle point for the Siege of Terra. Ironically Legio Mortis barely feature in the novel. The Titan storylines, already lacking interesting characters or any sort of hook, only use Mortis as stock Titan antagonists. We don't see anything from Mortis' perspective, or understand what their legion has gone through. They show up, threaten characters we as the readers have zero attachment to, and are very evil bad men.

[AA_Logan · Rating 5 out of 5]

By this point in the series, the Horus Heresy is propelled by it’s own momentum. We know where the overall arc is heading, and every page published inches us closer to that final confrontation. What is left for the individual books to do is hit the beats we as readers expect and throw in some unexpected but retrospectively obvious flourishes, and Mortis does this mighty well.

This is probably the book in the series with the sparsest population of Astartes, both as characters with speaking roles and as a presence within the Siege of Terra- Mortis, as the name suggests, is concerned with grander conflicts. French ties together existing plot threads in inviting ways and drops some truly unexpected bombshells. As with several more recent works published in the Horus Heresy line, hints are dropped as to pre-Unification times, and ideas that will bear fruit in the far future are sown.

In my eyes, The First Wall and Saturnine were incredibly hard acts to follow, and Mortis, like the Solar War before it, responds by changing the tempo, it’s focus being on the grim inevitability of this conflict and sets things up beautifully for the closing books of the series.

[burak yüksel · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh at best.

I loved John French's Solar War in Siege series. I tell you this so you know i'm not biased against him.

I waited for this book a long time after Saturnine (which was disapoinment again) and this was a huge let down.

I forced myself again and again to finish the book. Nothing ever happens in the story. We get some teases that something might happen and then return to endless touchy feely chapters about nameless mortals. It is like watching a four hour long European European art movie..

This is Horus Heresy. This is Siege of Terra. This is the final chapter. It is a legion war, a Primarch struggle. Mortals are only for the side show. There is literally no Astartes battle in the book. Only redeeming quality of the book was cool Titan battles at the later parts of it. It is the only reason for my two star rating instead of one.

And don't get me started on Perpetual storyline that goes nowhere. It is just filler that bores the hell out of me. Dan Abnett you earned a special place at Nurgle's court for inventing the concept..

[INRI · Rating 1 out of 5]

The Worst Book in the Siege of Terra series

HH hasn't seen any thing as horrible as this book for a long time.

The book is very long and dragged out with ridiculous numbers of totally irrelevant and insignificant characters. The overall tempo is obnoxiously slow and there are a lot of battle scenes that are totally meaningless.

John French had committed a heresy that is as horrible as Tallarn.

[RatGrrrl · Rating 2 out of 5]

September 2024 Read using the Horus Heresy Omnibus Project Reading Order Omnibus XXI The Siege of Terra (https://www.heresyomnibus.com/omnibus...) as part of my Oath of Moment to complete the Horus Heresy series and extras.

I can't believe it was only June when I read Fury of Magnus and lost all hope for Black Library and Games Workshop's understanding for their own universe because Graham McNeill, on top of his rampant bioessentialism and misogyny throughout the series, engaged in the most trite and unnecessary fascist apologia. Thankfully, some of the most positive things I can say about this novel are that it engages in damage control in that it makes clear that no, space fascism wasn't the only option and that the Emperor unleashed5 all the horrors of the 31st and 41st Millennia on the universe by his own actions and makes Katt, one of the Sliders on Oll and John's Bogus Journey, originally from Know No Fear, into an actual character, as opposed to the 'girl' as job/ character as Abnett had previously written her. These bits of bad writing shouldn't have needed course correction, but I'm bloody glad they did.

This was a difficult novel to come back to after a hiatus because, aside from a few hours after ten hours and then a few hours more of what genuinely felt like a mix between a painstaking description of Titans wrestling in porridge, only less interesting than that sounds, and what would babe been a brilliant battle report of an epic game of Epic 40K/ Titanicus, but not a novel.

The revelations about Oll's history and some of the descriptions of the insidious influence of Chaos on the defenders and the manifest Realms of Chaos were fantastic. Yes, I was overcome with nerd excitement for some of the lore I wasn't aware of, but I genuinely believe that the writing, both the prose and the handling of character and dialogue, for the moments with Oll and John were of a caliber far higher than anything else in this book.

Unfortunately, I don't think what makes up less than a fifth of an otherwise entirely stodgy and uninteresting book that were I reading it as a standalone novel and wasn't committed to finishing this series this year I would absolutely have DNF'd long before the good bits means I can rate this higher.

I really don't know what else to say about this. I didn't think any of the characters, outside of Oll, John, and Katt, had any weight or realisation. I found the constant bravado and pontification of the Princeps of the Titan Legions incredibly boring. The already know eventual breaking of the walls and advance of the Traitor forces to have nothing new or interesting to hold my interest. Even my beloved Ordo Sinister turning up did little for me.

The White Scars and the Sindermann and Co plot lines had unrealised potential, but weren't handled in a particular interesting way or written with the same flare I know French is absolutely capable of, so they just became another part of the grey goo with the Titandeath 2: Terra Boogaloo.

I was going to give this a three for the damage control and the good bit, and I am genuinely grateful for those moments, but if it weren't for the goodwill accrued from playing Space Marine 2 and listening to this while on my second playthrough of the campaign I don't think I could read this. Truly disappointing for the tail end of this entire endeavour and from one of the most consistent and brilliant of the Black Library authors.

Through the Horus Heresy Omnibus Project and my own additions, I have currently read* ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING EXCEPT SAVE FOR THE REST OF THE SIEGE OF TERRA!!! All 54 Horus Heresy main series novels (+1 repeat), 25 novellas (+2 repeats), 5 Siege of Terra Novels, 1 Siege of Terra Novella, Cthonia's Reckoning, Macragge's Honour graphic novel, all 17 Primarchs novels, All 4 Primarchs antholologies, 3 Characters novels (& eagerly awaiting Eidolon's), and 191 short stories/ audio dramas across the Horus Heresy (inc. 11+ repeats). Plus, 2 Warhammer 40K further reading novels and 1 short story...this run, as well as writing 1 short story myself.

I couldn't be more appreciative of the phenomenal work of the Horus Heresy Omnibus Project, which has made this ridiculous endeavour all the better and has inspired me to create and collate a collection of Horus Heresy and Warhammer 40,000 documents and checklists (http://tiny.cc/im00yz). There are now too many items to list here, but there is a contents and explainer document here (http://tiny.cc/nj00yz).

*My tracking consistently proves shoddy, but I'm doing my best.

[Gianfranco Mancini · Rating 4 out of 5]

‘The Emperor knows,’ Katsuhiro had said to himself, in the rattling, cramped dark of the cargo hauler that had shifted him down the line. ‘The Emperor protects.’
He must have said it louder than he meant to because someone had echoed the words.
‘He protects…’
And then a few more before the phrase had faded.
He said it again, now, in the dawn light on Marmax South, and knew it was true.

Book five of the Siege of Terra is a brick of a tome about the quick escalation of the confict on Terra, with Legio Mortis deployed at last after Traitors gaining control of Palace space-ports, Imperial forces falling into despair, and power of Chaos rising to its peak.

The room was still, the vox a crackle of static over waiting ears. ‘We hold and the enemy will be undone.’
The cogs turned in the magos-emissary’s skull.
‘Much remains uncertain,’ he said.
Rogal Dorn looked at the magos for a long moment, and then smiled.
‘Then we will do the one thing that will put an end to all uncertainty – we will win.’

A massive book about journeys too, with so many characters trying to get somewhere: revived Shiban Khan and his companions, dead and alive ones, on a trek through the ruins of the Greater Palace to reach safeness, Ollanius Persson and his crew looking for John Grammaticus, Corswain's Dark Angels descending on The Throneworld aboard the Imperator Somnium flagship to turn themselves into bringers of light and relight the Astronomican inside the Hollow Mountain, and the Death's Heads Titans advancing inexorably towards the Mercury Wall.

The Legio Ignatum was ancient, one of the Triad Ferrum Morgulus – the first of the Titan Legions, who had walked to war since the earliest ages – whose god-machines had souls which lived in mechanisms crafted by lost forges and fires. They were to be revered, holy-beyond-holy manifestations of the Omnissiah’s wrath in war. Yet the Legio did not bow and scrape or look like the priests of this newborn age.

Not bad at all and I enjoyed a lot the many storylines, twists and characters, since Perturabo leaving bittered and disgusted the battlefield to the Emperor's Children plasming Terra into the earthly paradise in the vision of their god Slaanesh.

In times of peace, the great space ports of Terra had moved billions of tons of cargo and millions of people from orbit to surface and back every hour. Now they were turned to a single purpose: to move every scrap of remaining men and materiel from the Warmaster’s fleet to the surface of Terra. The cycle of ships and landing craft turned tirelessly, each one locked into a schedule and pattern that ran to the minute.

Never been much a fan of the Cabal storyline started thirteen years ago in Dan Abnett's Legion, but I totally digged how Oll, John and the rest of their crews, join at last with Cyrene Valantion the Blessed Lady a certain blind lady psyker called Actae and Alpharius-Omegon her companion to save the future.

The burnished skull of Ferrus Manus rested under the blade claws of his left hand. His face was open, serene, welcoming.
‘My brother,’ said Horus, standing as Perturabo advanced. Forrix held a step behind his lord. Argonis had moved to stand beside the throne. The equerry seemed out of place beside the dazzling presence of the Warmaster of Mankind.
Perturabo bowed his head briefly.
‘My Warmaster,’ he said.

I was expecting at last one or more chapters from the Dies Irae crew point of view in a novel with the infamous Imperator battle-class Titan on its cover, sadly it not happened and the the long waited scene since I've read Graham McNeill's Storm of Iron so many years ago, about that monster crashing open the Imperial Palace doors, is just delayed for now

Legio Mortis, the Death’s Heads, largest of the Titan Legios, first to bow to Horus and the new age – a legion whose name was a promise to those who would face them in battle. Until now they had not walked on Terra, but slept in coffin ships in the dark of the void above the world. Slept, and waited.

Besides that, this novel is a great and bleak 550+ pages long set-up to final three books of the Horus Heresy, an incredible journey that I'm sad is nearly over.

‘The seal of the Ordo Sinister is yours, and with it we are yours, too,’ said Aurum, and then he knelt. ‘The Titans of our ordo walk at your will.’
Rogal Dorn looked at Archamus.
‘Give the word to Zagreus Kane and the wall commanders. Open the weapon reserves. All of them.’ He looked back at the kneeling Ordo Sinister prefect.
‘Rise,’ he said, ‘and by my will, walk.’

Onwards to the next book.

Oll looked from the warrior to Actae.
‘Do we have an understanding?’ she asked.
‘Oll,’ gasped John. ‘Oll, this is not… they are not…’
Oll was looking at Actae.
Choices, prices, consequences, just like there always were…
‘Okay,’ he said at last. ‘We have an accord.’ Then he looked up at the warrior who had come with Actae. ‘And you?’ he asked. ‘Who and what are you?’
‘I am Alpharius,’ replied the warrior.

No backward step.

[75338 · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is sometimes a pain to read. Overly bombastic and flowery language abounds, to the point where it’s just kind of cringe worthy. The author continually tries and fails to evoke some sort of supernatural imagery and extreme hyperbole by wrenching his word choice into the realm of “WTF is this overwrought self important crap.”

Here’s to hoping this series is over soon, I’m kind of committed now, I just don’t want to read more bombastic pompous unnatural descriptions.

This book is only for true fans of 40K Who just absolutely have to follow the story no matter how poorly written a book is, and those who do not care about well written novels.

[Juliano Dutra · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5

[Deniz Yildiz · Rating 1 out of 5]

I have been reading the Horus Heresy for about ten years. I have red about 40 of the Books from the series. Even red the night lords trilogy. The black legion series, Kharn: eater of worlds, the Horus heresy: collected visions etc etc.

So its fair to say I am a fan of the 40K universe. And to be fair. Most books are great and some are not so great and then there is the Siege of terra. I thought this would be the magnum opus of it all. The serie where all the great story lines of the series would come together. Where all the characters like Loken, Garro, Kharn, Typhus, Lucius, Abaddon, Fulgrim, Mortarion, Valdor etc etc would come together for the final clash. Least not forget HORUS FRIGGIN LUPPERCAL!

But no instead of this lets focus on new and unknown characters like Fafnirr Rann, a human Soldier katsuhiro and the everlasting story of the perpetuals. And in this book Mortis unkown princips of the titans. With this book I did something I never done before while reading a 40k book. After like page 200 I just skipped pages without reading. I hope this says enough about this book. It was just that bad.

Already part Fiva of the Siege of terra and just two to go. It feels like season eight of Game of Thrones. At least those guys had the decency to keep the story about the main characters....

Verdict mortis 1/5 ( a full 1 star for having ten interesting pages about Perturabo)

Verdict siege of terra overall 2/5.

Do yourself a favour. Wanna red some good fluff about the final battle. Just check out id4chan, lexicanum etc etc.

[Andy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think there was a story here. Maybe a good one. But much like I'm reading the last of these 80 odd works of tie-in genre fiction about the mythic history of a game about toy soldiers basically just because I'm in too deep and inertia is powerful, so too is the story drowned amid endless "PEW PEW" noises because the inertia of this series is too powerful. No time to do the unexpected. Inertia dictates we follow the path. Crashes and explosions and easter eggs about plastic figurines you liked as a teenager.

Exhausting.

Still, two left now? And they're going to be written by the authors who dive into things like "character" and "emotional resonance?"

Maybe there's a chance then.

And maybe, then, this book is actually a meta story about reading this series? Because you'd expect characters at the very end of a bloody, endless civil war to be ground down into the dirt, hoping beyond hope that maybe, just maybe there's a chance?

I don't know. I'm tired of it all now.

Two stars.

[Tea · Rating 2 out of 5]

When I saw the title Mortis, Mechanicum came into my mind and I was so eager to read it... Titans, finally, but as soon as I started to read, the "oh yeah" became a huge "WTF".
I´m still trying to force myself to read the rest 2/3, which has nothing to do with Mortis or Ignatum, but my will is fading, day by day less interest.
For cogs sake! What was the goal here? Why Mortis, if they get the role of a simple wrecking ball? Not a glimpse into the Chaos tainted cockpits of their once-mighty war machines, not a single crew twisted by the ruinous powers introduced. So much potential in Ignatum, so much potential in the titan vs. titan battle scenes or in Tetracauron himself (who landed in my Top5 all-time-favourite engine commanders just in an instant) - all wasted because of the shifting between uninteresting side-stories and unnecessary, pointless characters.
Less should have been more.

[Humberto Cadena · Rating 1 out of 5]

I´m sorry, i am mexican and i have to express myself in spanish, you can google translate this latter.
Mientras mas pienso en esta reseña menos estrellas pienso darle al libro.
Casi 600 paginas en las que no pasa casi nada. Parece ser que John no entiende que esta es la recta final. estamos en la segunda mitad del asedio, es ahora cuando deberiamos ver historias llenas de accion, traicion, revelaciones, muerte, explosiones tipo michael bay.
En camnio John nos dio 600 paginas de personajes secundarios queriendo ser protagoniscas con historias sumamente largas que no dejan nada y terminan en...... bleh.
Para quienes hace meses vimos esta portada con un enorme titan en el palacio nos vimos decepcionados porque la Legion Mortis tiene casi ninguna aparicion en la historia.
Donde esta Ahriman? Loken? el Leon? Guilliman? Corax? el Khan? Abaddon?
Ya tuvieron 54 libros para hacer todos los viajes abstractos surrealistas metafisicos posibles en la historia, el 5o libro del asedio no debio tener lugar para algo asi.

[Jo Turner · Rating 4 out of 5]

The entry that finally captures how horrifying the Siege would be for the people at ground level. Titan combat abounds, but the focus on human perspectives really brings the scale and the stakes into focus. The prose and tone are excellent, and generally make up for the occasionally flat characterization.

[Jonathan Merrill · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book

The story of the siege is getting better and the toll its taking on the everyone is surprising both on the enemy and the defends. Loved the sense of desperation that comes at the end as the defenders release the unthinkable weapons against the enemy

[Ceylan Arduin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mortis was nice to read but a little bit too long. I also expected the Legio Mortis to be featured more often. Otherwise a very nice book.

[Matt TB · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed it a lot, not as breathtakingly epic as Saturnine (I wonder if any warhammer reading ever will be again).
Lots of nuggets for fans to find, great Titan action.

[Mark · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really wanted to like this book. I tried, stuck with it but in the end apart from some cool background stuff I found it did not really add anything to progress the Siege of Terra plot. This could easily have been a novella rather than another filler novel. There are Titans but do not be fooled they are not in the book as much as you might expect. Most of it is focused on secondary characters that again would have been better in a novella rather than a main book.

Read if you want to say you have read the whole Siege of Terra series otherwise you could skip this and you won't really have missed anything.

[Tim Van Lipzig · Rating 5 out of 5]

mors (genitive mortis) (fem.) [Latin]: 1. corpse 2. death 3. annihilation

John French returns to the Siege with Mortis, the fifth installment in the eight-part-series that caps off the Horus Heresy. That gives French the distinction of 1. being the first author to write two Siege novels and 2. being the author to kick off both the first and last half of the series. Mortis functions therfore somewhat as the Midpoint of the overarching story.

Going into a new Siege novel, I'm always interested to discover what this novel will be *about*. Every novel is about a new phase of the Siege, obviously, but every author adds lots of nuance, thematic substance and personal, distinctive flavour that's not predetermined by the "historic" bullet points they have to cover.

What's Mortis about, then? And is it good?

Starting with the obvious (we all saw the cover): this is about the clash of the Titans, which are finally loosed upon the battlefield in full strength. The loyal Titan Legios and Knight Houses gather around Legio Ignatum to walk into apocalyptic battle against the god-machines of Horus. French takes his time to set the scene and slowly build towards the epic showdown between Legio Ignatum and their nemesis, and the battles are all engaging, exciting or fearsome, pulling out surprises and twists whenever it could start to go stale or become too one-note.

Hence the title: Mortis, as in Legio Mortis, the Death Head's, the first and most terrible of the Traitor Legios that walks against the defenders of the Palace.

The build-up to and eventual clash between the Titans takes up only roughly a third of the novels' page count, in my estimat. Which is more than enough, believe me - Mortis is the longest Siege-novel yet, even longer than Abnett's Saturnine, so there's more than enough room for French to deliver on the "This Is The One About Titans"-part of his work assignment. But it allows him also plenty of room for various other story threads: Oll Persson and his crew on their odyssey through time, space and the madness beyond the battlefields. Shiban Khan, shot from the sky and heavily wounded in the final moments of the last book, on a seemingly endless track across the wastelands. Katsuhiro, our man on the ground, experiencing ever deeper hells in the trenches of the war. Mauer, an intelligence officer of a newly formed department, hunting for a solution to the psychic blight that threatens to destroy humanity from the inside. All these stories, including the Titans', share the motif of the Journey Into The Underworld: characters experiencing a fall, a descent, or a journey of themselves and, indeed, a transformation of the world itself, into a hopeless Tartarus or a treacherous Elysium. Even the battles between the Titans quickly develop from the usual shock-and-awe, submarine-esque cat-and-mouse clashes into a what feels like a Princep's feverish nightmare.

Hence the title: Mortis, death, the threshold and gateway to the realm of Hades and all the wonders and horrors under his reign.

The novel functions also, as I've mentioned above, as the Midpoint of the series as a whole, or rather as the second half of the Midpoint after Saturnine. It's a book of endings: about the end of the rational, physical warfare masterminded by the generals of the IV and VII Legions, which peaked with the Saturnine Gamble of the last book, giving way to the battle of the supernatural and the mythical. About the end of the time of the Great Crusade and the Emperor's Imperium, giving way to something even more desperate, even more cruel, even more callous. About the end of the world as these characters knew it, giving way to the final birthpangs of what will become the dystopia of the 41st millenium.

Hence the title: Mortis, the annihilation of that which is, making way for that which will be.

It's therefore the perfect book to call the curtain on the first and start off the final half of the Siege and therefore the final moments of the Horus Heresy itself, 15 years its first novel was released. It sets the stage for the final three books tonally and thematically and plays into the strengths of its author, while still delivering all the bombast that one can expect from these stories. I particularly liked that it didn't make the latter it's main focus and instead told a thematically consistent story about desperation and defiance heavily influenced by the Greek myths that Oll Persson so often reminisces about.

After some bumps in the early parts of the road, the Siege as a series is now in full swing and is starting to form up to an impressive shape. I am more excited for the final three books than ever before. Hats off to John French to coming back for more and managing to nail it again. No backward step.

[Russell Tassicker · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoy John's writing, even if there are a few too many things smelling of burnt sugar and superweapons described by their ability to kill entire armies/cities/civilizations. Unfortunately this book felt fairly superfluous in the story of the Siege. The main storyline, inasmuch as there is one, is of a battle between loyal and traitor titan legions, though the objectives of the aggressors are obscure - they are attacking the strongest point of their enemy's fortress, why? There are myriad B storylines, which mostly involve groups of people walking through a variety of wastelands, peppered with references to Greek mythology, and by the end of the book they are all yet to have meaningfully advanced their goals.

This is not a bad book, but as part of the capstone arc of an incredibly grand and long-running multi-author series it felt like filler. Hoping that the next one will finally get down to business.

[Gergely · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars, and 1.5 of those is due to Ollannius and the Legio Ignatum/Legio Invicta storylines. The rest is ... tiring and at this point, I just want to get it over with.

The writing itself is competent, the warp-based episodes of the Emperor and Horus are suitably symbolic and poetic, but even so, the whole buildup is just dragging on and on and on.

[Peter McAuley · Rating 2 out of 5]

The most and really for me the only disappointing book in the siege series to date. No focus, countless side stories, ignoring major incidents and other glaring faults make this book a chore and a bore. An 8 book series covering the siege can’t afford to miss like this. Naff

[Ludivco Street · Rating 2 out of 5]

Worst so far

Pity. Overwritten, dull, overlong, pointless, dull, clumsy, dithering, aimless, waste of a good writer, padding, need to sell books, dull.

[Horus Lupercal Online · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the first book of the Siege of Terra series that I found to be…well…a little underwhelming to say the least. It’s a long book, which would not matter if these 550+ pages where all interesting. But…they were not. I love Titan warfare, and the book is chock full of scenes with them. Sadly though quite a few of these scenes were very similar, drawn out, and at times even boring. Not everything was bad though. Some interesting plot developments, a few surprises here and there, did save this book from becoming a total failure. And well…despite the fact that the battlescenes between Titans weren’t all good, there were moments that I did enjoy. Overall though, for me this has been my least favourite novel of the series so far.

[Aaron Jeff · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book could have been 200+ pages shorter.

The storyline with Oll and John Grammaticus felt like it went absolutely nowhere and felt unnecessary.

The overall storyline didn’t advance very far.

For a book titled “Mortis” after the Legio Mortis, it felt like the titan battles were a subplot of everything else in the book, and were barely touched on.

There were interesting parts of the book, but overall it felt lackadaisical. Writing a lot but saying very little.

I have read Sigismund by the same author and found that a much better picture of his writing than this book.

So far my least favorite in the series.

[Jacob Bennike · Rating 2 out of 5]

What a confusing mess. Maybe it’s better if you read the book rather than listen to the audiobook, but it switches around too many stories too often to make it possible to keep track (or interest) in all of them. At least for me it did. Sometimes I’d half zone out and then realize that we were back to one of the stories that I was actually interested in and then have to rewind.

I think it could’ve been a good book. The story isn’t as bad as the first three books in the Siege of Terra series, bad as in those three books could’ve been a footnote, so I think it’s a shame that the author had to mix so many stories into each other.

If you can keep track of them all at once, then maybe you’ll get more out of the book than I did.

[Ethan Nunya · Rating 2 out of 5]

I struggled with this one. A titan book in the middle of the siege that’s also telling a legionnaire story that’s also telling a human story that’s also furthering the plot….. I felt like this book was trying to do and be too much. I lost track of who some of the characters were with the rapid perspective shifts. The second half saved it however. I found the story much more engaging once events were unfolding and the book wasn’t focusing on prep. It’s a must read for the siege because there’s plot critical information but I don’t love it as a novel.

[Carl Asson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Lots of focus on mortal characters with uninteresting stories that won't come to fruition or carry on into the following books, and only really got interesting towards the end with the larger titan battles and with chapters that actually progress the overall story of the seige of terra