# The Horus Heresy The Seventh Serpent



## evanswolves (Jun 16, 2013)

Www.blacklibrary.com/exclusive-products/seventh-serpent-limited-edition.html

The Seventh Serpent is a brand new Horus Heresy book from Graham McNeill, author of False Gods, Angel Exterminatus and the New York Times bestselling novel A Thousand Sons. 

The story of The Seventh Serpent features the sons of Alpharius in battle against the Shattered Legions of the Iron Hands, Raven Guard and Salamanders. Expect intrigue and action in equal measure as the Alpha Legion take to the field in force.


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## Vaz (Mar 19, 2008)




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## Lord of the Night (Nov 18, 2009)

Will definitely get this once it comes out in a non-LE form like Brotherhood of the Storm and Aurelian did.


LotN


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## Doelago (Nov 29, 2009)

The limited edition crazy train has really been pushing it as of late, now has it not?


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## Child-of-the-Emperor (Feb 22, 2009)

New Alpha Legion? Good.

More Shattered Legion? Bad.

£30? Bad.

McNeill? Bad (or at least risky).


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## Malus Darkblade (Jan 8, 2010)

Child-of-the-Emperor said:


> New Alpha Legion? Good.
> 
> More Shattered Legion? Bad.
> 
> ...


We should start a fundraiser and send you $1 to buy and review it.


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## Khorne's Fist (Jul 18, 2008)

evanswolves said:


> ...in battle against the Shattered Legions


More pointless shattered legion stuff? Fucking hell. Move on, BL. :boredom::boredom::no:


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## Scrad (Apr 4, 2014)

I'm worn out from novellas.

Maybe if it was full length it wouldn't have to focus on the Shattered Legions so much :angel:


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## MontytheMighty (Jul 21, 2009)

I'd have faith in McNeill to write something good...

if I were retarded


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## Squire (Jan 15, 2013)

£30 for a short story??


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## Angel of Blood (Aug 18, 2010)

4000 copies? Odd decision seeing as none of the latest HH Limited Editions have sold out. Most are still on sale


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## Squire (Jan 15, 2013)

When it's called a 'novella' just how many pages are we talking? I want this book for the AL, am sick of the RG, S and IH but all in all I'd possibly pay for 200+ pages. Even an eye watering £30. 

The shattered legions... these days I wish they'd just been slaughtered to a man at Istvaan so we didn't have to constantly hear about them. The amount of attention they get you'd be forgiven for assuming they're the most important of the first founding legions, when in reality they are probably bottom three.


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## evanswolves (Jun 16, 2013)

Around 120 pages


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## Child-of-the-Emperor (Feb 22, 2009)

Malus Darkblade said:


> We should start a fundraiser and send you $1 to buy and review it.


Firstly, that doesn't make sense - $1 wouldn't be much use to me. Secondly, stop sarcastically pouncing on everything I say recently would ya? Thanks.


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## Vaz (Mar 19, 2008)

Maybe he meant $1 each?


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## kwak76 (Nov 29, 2010)

Black library is business after all and wants to milk it for what's it worth but I think these expensive novel is not the way to go. I mean when will we see the end of the Horus heresy already??

There are so many other stories they can tell about the warhammer 40k universe. They can even go back to the dark age or even gasp...go forward to 40k . It's kind of like what's coming out of black library lately is just not that great.


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## Malus Darkblade (Jan 8, 2010)

Vaz said:


> Maybe he meant $1 each?


This.



Child-of-the-Emperor said:


> Firstly, that doesn't make sense - $1 wouldn't be much use to me. Secondly, stop sarcastically pouncing on everything I say recently would ya? Thanks.


No sarcasm was intended nor do I recall any time I was being sarcastic.


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## Squire (Jan 15, 2013)

Imagine McNeil wrote a classic of English literature, worthy of study for hundreds of years and amongst many people's favourite books of all time- but since it was a BL limited edition it just sort of disappeared after a while because, despite the universal five star and ten out of ten reviews, nobody could get hold of it? 

What then? What a shame that would be



evanswolves said:


> Around 120 pages


Thanks. 

Not worth 30 quid :angry:


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## Roninman (Jul 23, 2010)

evanswolves said:


> Www.blacklibrary.com/exclusive-products/seventh-serpent-limited-edition.html
> 
> The Seventh Serpent is a brand new Horus Heresy book from Graham McNeill, author of False Gods, Angel Exterminatus and the New York Times bestselling novel A Thousand Sons.
> 
> The story of The Seventh Serpent features the sons of Alpharius in battle against the Shattered Legions of the Iron Hands, Raven Guard and Salamanders. Expect intrigue and action in equal measure as the Alpha Legion take to the field in force.


No way in hell i would be buying this novel. It already has three things wrong: 

- Graham
- Limited edition
- Shattered legions


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## Count_the_Seven (May 19, 2010)

This series is now beyond parody.

I am now actively considering selling the LE books I have to pay for the FW books. 

It's ironic for me, as at book twenty something we are FINALLY getting to see the DG. But I've had it with these LE releases and other funky mkney-spinning schemes. 

Get yer arse tae Terra!

CtS


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## forkmaster (Jan 2, 2010)

I would also say I'm sick and tired of these LE novellas. They aren't a good marketing deal when it comes to earning money as selling many at a lower price is better than a few at a higher price, especially since no one is buying them anymore. Also the stories have gone to a stalemate and the regular 40k novels are progressing the story quicker than the HH are these days. Thankfully we have new interesting Scouring-novels from French with Ahriman and the rise of the Black Legion by our favorite ADB.


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## March of Time (Dec 4, 2009)

forkmaster said:


> I would also say I'm sick and tired of these LE novellas. They aren't a good marketing deal when it comes to earning money as selling many at a lower price is better than a few at a higher price, especially since no one is buying them anymore. Also the stories have gone to a stalemate and the regular 40k novels are progressing the story quicker than the HH are these days. Thankfully we have new interesting Scouring-novels from French with Ahriman and the rise of the Black Legion by our favorite ADB.


If your sick of the limited editions don't buy them and wait for the cheaper versions for the poor people!


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## Count_the_Seven (May 19, 2010)

You mean like Prince of Crows, which has gone the other way round to a hardcopy?

:wink:

Bottom line is this: the series is ridiculously overstretched and being used as little more than a cash cow. I for one have reached my limit, as has my wallet. I can get the info I need from other books in the stable and I'm sorely tempted to do it that way rather than through picking it out of tedious, repetitive bolter porn.

I see that the advent calendar is back and Lo! day one is a HH short story, four days before the release of the LE Novella.

BL know that readers want to keep up with events - it's a simple human need when following something, be it football or soap operas - and BL are milking this for all it's worth.

CtS


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## Vaz (Mar 19, 2008)

Prince of Crows was in Shadows of Treachery, though, which contained two shorts which people had already read, and The Crimson Fist (IIRC).


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## gen.ahab (Dec 22, 2009)

MontytheMighty said:


> I'd have faith in McNeill to write something good...
> 
> if I were retarded


Hey! It happened....... twice.... maybe once. 


Anyway though, $50 for something smaller than their standard stuff? Standard stuffthat I have issues paying whatever the hell they currently want for them? :laugh: Nah, thanks though.


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## Count_the_Seven (May 19, 2010)

That's my point, Vaz.

From book to separate novella. It's becoming so clear that the series is more about the coin than reaching Terra.

It's a shame, because concluding the main story wouldn't be a barrier to subsequent side stories.

Ho hum.

CtS


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## Vaz (Mar 19, 2008)

Ah, I see what you mean.

Honestly though, if they did conclude the series now, it would kill the series. Comparatively few will buy the books that don't deal with the momentous scouring events like the Iron Cage or Eskrador, Curze/M'Shen or Luther due to the experiences people have with the pre Siege of Terra build up.

If they'd done that originally without charging between 10 and 30 pounds for an inconsequential story (I'm still trying to work out what the fuck was the point in Promethean Sun, other than simply "versus dinosaurs yo"), then it wouldn't be such a problem.


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## Count_the_Seven (May 19, 2010)

I bought that line for a while, Vaz. Totally, but I've been thinking and I'm just not sure concluding would kill the series.

Example: Star Wars - IV V and VI, then I II and III. Interest in VII is huge (I'm stoked!). 

CtS


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## Vaz (Mar 19, 2008)

Curiosity, mainly. After fuckup a (although I liked the ewoks), they have fuckup b) jar jar (although i liked him, it's the racist in me), then c) hayden panetierre or whoever the name of old anakin was, we now have "will they fuck up again"?

Look at the Hobbit. It's a select hardcore fanbase that's as excited about this new one and many more of the hardcore fanbase for lotr in general has become pissed off the PJ's headcanon and fuck ups of the wider tolkien universe. 

The difference with those is that the appeal of a lotr or star wars film is much larger than the select horus heresy limited edition £0.25/page books are.


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## Count_the_Seven (May 19, 2010)

That's all true, it's the margins. The margins...


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## Sevatar (Aug 21, 2013)

Count_the_Seven said:


> That's all true, it's the margins. The margins...


Yeah, I wonder how long they'll keep this LE business up. Have any of the recent ones sold out yet?


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## forkmaster (Jan 2, 2010)

March of Time said:


> If your sick of the limited editions don't buy them and wait for the cheaper versions for the poor people!





Count_the_Seven said:


> From book to separate novella. It's becoming so clear that the series is more about the coin than reaching Terra.
> 
> It's a shame, because concluding the main story wouldn't be a barrier to subsequent side stories.
> 
> ...


Trust me, I aren't buying them. I'm just sick of being excluded from reading these stories and as CtS said, it feels more and more like milking instead of producing good progressive stories.


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## ckcrawford (Feb 4, 2009)

I don't mind them milking the Heresy, however, it seems to have lost a lot of potential. The series started having a few New York Times Best Sellers, but they didn't evolve in terms of quality. Its not like they didn't have any good novels in the last couple years. Frankly, I was surprised some of the novels didn't get that New York Times Best Seller status. 

But... lets be honest, its kind of hard to invest in. I guess they are relying on the small portion of our fan base that can afford to buy such mass quantity, but I feel its really aiming small with what they had accomplished. They had an Ultramarine movie... which was like... come on! Not only was it very mediocre, but it was disappointing that GW didn't see something that went beyond the small hobby and expand on it.


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## Count_the_Seven (May 19, 2010)

Fair post, CKC, and I agree with it all, except... I do mind them milking it.

CtS


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## Words_of_Truth (Sep 20, 2007)

Having problems ordering the book


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## evanswolves (Jun 16, 2013)

Not being sent out til the 24th.... Jesus, why not just put it on sale beginning of Jan!


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## Words_of_Truth (Sep 20, 2007)

Apparently the payment section for the site has gone down


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## March of Time (Dec 4, 2009)

evanswolves said:


> Not being sent out til the 24th.... Jesus, why not just put it on sale beginning of Jan!


It says it will be mailed from the 10th not the 24th!


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## evanswolves (Jun 16, 2013)

Yeah it does now, it originally said 24th Nov (which I thought was Dec on my phone lol)

Anyways, order for this and legacies of betrayal hs been made


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## Count_the_Seven (May 19, 2010)

Despite my misgivings I've just bought this!

It better be guid (for those outside of Scotland, "good")



CtS


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## Angel of Blood (Aug 18, 2010)

It's about the Sisypheum crew trying to assassinate Alpharius. Yeah.....ok then.


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## Words_of_Truth (Sep 20, 2007)

I've read it and actually really enjoyed it. I won't spoil it right now (unless asked to) but what I can say is that it followers in the foot steps of previous Alpha Legion books.


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## ckcrawford (Feb 4, 2009)

Words_of_Truth said:


> I've read it and actually really enjoyed it. I won't spoil it right now (unless asked to) but what I can say is that it followers in the foot steps of previous Alpha Legion books.


Cool... Proceed! opcorn:


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## Words_of_Truth (Sep 20, 2007)

Ok I'll give the general outline as far as I can tell and if you want me to elaborate lets me know.



The story starts with the crew of the _Sisypheum_ boarding a Alpha Legion ship, they take it after they overcome a brief trap set for them before the bridge

They strip the systems of all their knowledge and any valuable resources, as well as 5 additional bodies so the Salamander Apothecary can see if he can get to the root of them and their betrayal.

Thoic and Frater Thamatica prepare to guide it into a star, however another Alpha Legion ship shows up and Brother Wayland goes into action trying to power up the system and avoid being owned, in the process he puts the recently captured Alpha Legion ship in middle of a salvo and it gets incredible damaged, Sharrowkyn reminds Wayland that Thamatica and Thoic are still on board. Thamatica waits by a boarding tube but Thoic can't make it and gets sucked out of an air vent in a hale of fire.

The enemy Alpha Legion ship makes a very obvious error that makes Wayland start questioning things, but then a friendly ship turns up and it turns out to be Meduson. He executes the enemy ship very easily. Shortly after he arrives via a storm eagle but the first person out is Thoic, they had recovered him from space. Meduson was accompanied by his Equerry a knife wielding veteran studd collecting dude and a captain who has replaced his hand with a chained flail.

They converse and Sharrowkyn is anxious about this sudden appearence. Meduson said he was following the Alpha Legion ship because they had their own Kryptos (which apparently self destructed some how) but had ascertained there was to be a meeting with _the_ Alpharius. That plan had been scuppered by them ambushing the other ship and alerting the other Alpha Legion ship. Using the co ordinates they were able to retrieve via the stripping of the astrometric systems of the previous alpha legion ship they know where it's going to be.

After speaking to the Iron Hands captain who has the Iron Heart mounted on his chest (he wakes up full on depressed and talking about failure etc) they decide to go ahead and try and ambush Alpharius.

Sharrowkyn tries to infiltrate Meduson's ship because he doesn't totally trust them but he gets caught by Meduson whilst on the ship. Tyro, the captain in charge of the _Sisypheum_ is furious but Meduson calms him and says Sharrowkyn was doing what he would of done.

The Salamander doctor is still investigating one of the bodies recovered

They make it to the location of the meeting and discover a gigantic orbital plate like ship with tentacles hanging off it, it appears the Alpha Legion had their own little world that was ripe with starship grade promethium and were extracting it from the atmosphere. There's a strike cruiser docked by electromagnetic tethers that's resupplying.

They plan to infiltrate the station via using Alpha Legion armour, it works but Cybus is a very direct guy and makes for a terrible impersonator so Sharrowkyn saves the day and snipes the pilots of two land speeders and they proceed, they come upon a giant monolith looking temple thinking which is flanked by two titans retrofitted for loading.

They fake their way in by saying they are underfire from Raven Guard once in they kill all the Alpha Legion inside. They then receive a message saying Alpharius has arrived and is coming down in a craft. It's at this point that the Salamander doctor realises that what he's actually inspecting is an Iron Hands body disguised as a Alpha Legionairre (this was confusing for me cause I thought they got the body from the first ship) at roughly the same time Wayland realises what the weird radiation was, it was an electromagnetic tether, the ship that Meduson blew up was being remote operated.

Alpharius arrives and is confronted by Thoic and Cybus's group, Thoic greets Alpharius in a unusual manner before turning and blow Cybus's head off, a brawl erupts and Thoic attacks Alpharius, all the Iron Hands go down taking a number of Alpha Legion with them, Sharrowkyn takes a shot and hits Alpharius through the eyes killing him. Thoic is able to escape (he was an Alpha Legionairre legate who had transplanted his face etc to look like Thoic, Deliverance Lost style)

It's at this point Tyro, a long with Numen (the death Iron Hand) and and Frater Thamatica receive word telling them it as an ambush and are surrounded by Meduson and his entourage, turns out Meduson is actually Alpharius, a monologue goes on and then Tyro smiles, Alpharius asks him what hope he thinks he has, he say it's not him, it's Thamatica, using his servo armies thamatica brought the titan transporting claw crashing into the building drop rubble and all sorts on them. (I'll have to read this bit more because it got a little chaotic and I wasn't able to picture what was happening.)

Either way they eventually make it to their feet however Alpharius is waiting for them and he put four slugs in Tyro's chest after doing the usual "you only get one chance" he's done previously. A fight erupts and Thamatica tries to tackle Alpharius after a biref conversation where Alpharius explains what's gone on, it appears not all Alpha Legion agreed with Alpharius "revelations" as he puts it and remained loyal (so all the previous Alpha Legion they killed were actually loyal and the guy Sharrowkyn Asassinated wasn't Alpharius but the leader of the loyalists) Alpharius didn't know how to find them so he used the _Sisypheum_ to find it for them (it's not clear whether Meduson is actually dead or not, at least not for me).

Two other Iron Hands try to take on the knife wielding equerry but are slaughtered and Numen tackles the flail wielding captain, he wins putting a bullet through the head just as the knife wielder tries to shank him through the breastplate, Thamatica tries and fails to beat Alpharius but then Sharrowkyn turns up, he's intercepted by the knife wielder and the knife wielder is very good, Sharrowkyn compares him to Lucius, Sharrowkyn triumphs in the end using a nifty move and confronts Alpharius who throws the half dead body of Thamatica towards him where he comes to rest next to the near dead Tyro. 

Sharrowkyn prepares to confront Alpharius and says "you're not just a doppleganger are you" Alpharius responds by saying I'm as real as I need to be right now. Instead of fighting however, Alpharius tells him the wraithslip his brother taught him won't work on Alpharius but Sharrowkyn is good but he's not going to kill him he's been told not to kill him by Magnus and that Sharrowkyn obviously hasn't heard what's gone on on Deliverance. Sharrowkyn puts away his blade and Alpharius remarks "I like you Nykona, You're a man who'll saddle a gift horse rather than look it in the mouth." Sharrowkyn asks why all the secrecy, Alpharius tells him to ask Tyro if he survives then points out that he won't kill him but the flaming blown up ship Thamatica sabotaged by pumping explosives into the engine bay may well do. Wayland was last seen flying their craft but was hit by a missile it survived though with one less engine and was able to recover Tyro, Thamatica, Numen and Sharrowkyn.

Back on board the Sisypheum they were attacked by hostile ships. The mechanical bird who the captain under the iron heart owns goes "mental" and messes with the controls the next thing we see is Wayland's craft docks with the ship and they commend the Salamander apothecary, who had been given command of the ship, for destroy their attacks, however a big lumbering figures strides forth and says it was not him it was me, and there stands Brother Bombastus's dreadnought and implanted in it via crude biomechanical intefaces is Captain Ulrach Branthan, no sarcophagus, just him on the front of it.


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## forkmaster (Jan 2, 2010)

Words_of_Truth said:


> Ok I'll give the general outline as far as I can tell and if you want me to elaborate lets me know.
> 
> 
> 
> ...




This story sounded rather confusing to be honest. One thing with Alpha Legions pretendending to be other Space Marines, but here we have other Space Marines trying to be Alpha Legion? To be honest, the stories about the Alpha Legion are getting slightly predictable because if you try and trick your reader long enough, they will anticipate everything sooner or later. Soon it will almost be that you only get tricked if everything _*is*_ as its actually appears to be.


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## Words_of_Truth (Sep 20, 2007)

forkmaster said:


> This story sounded rather confusing to be honest. One thing with Alpha Legions pretendending to be other Space Marines, but here we have other Space Marines trying to be Alpha Legion? To be honest, the stories about the Alpha Legion are getting slightly predictable because if you try and trick your reader long enough, they will anticipate everything sooner or later. Soon it will almost be that you only get tricked if everything _*is*_ as its actually appears to be.




If I'm being honest I kind of guess when Meduson turned up that he wouldn't be who he said he'd be. As soon as you put Alpha Legion into the equation you immediately suspect the most unlikely to occur.

I think the biggest thing to come out of this book is Magnus the Red himself told Alpharius not to kill Sharrowkyn, which means Sharrowkyn factors into plans his plans it appears y et Sharrowkyn had never met Magnus.


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## forkmaster (Jan 2, 2010)

Words_of_Truth said:


> If I'm being honest I kind of guess when Meduson turned up that he wouldn't be who he said he'd be. As soon as you put Alpha Legion into the equation you immediately suspect the most unlikely to occur.
> 
> I think the biggest thing to come out of this book is Magnus the Red himself told Alpharius not to kill Sharrowkyn, which means Sharrowkyn factors into plans his plans it appears y et Sharrowkyn had never met Magnus.


Could perhaps be that their stories are entwined in the upcoming novel by McNeill called _The Crimson King_.


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## MontytheMighty (Jul 21, 2009)

Words_of_Truth said:


> The story starts with the crew of the _Sisypheum_ boarding a Alpha Legion ship, they take it after they overcome a brief trap set for them before the bridge
> 
> They strip the systems of all their knowledge and any valuable resources, as well as 5 additional bodies so the Salamander Apothecary can see if he can get to the root of them and their betrayal.
> 
> ...


What a bloody mess (not your summary for which I'm thankful, the plot of the story) 

Who is the knife-wielding guy? Is he supposed to be famous?


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## Words_of_Truth (Sep 20, 2007)

After going over it again..



His name was Ashur Maesan and he was supposedly a sergeant of the Iron Hands but that was most likely just his masquerade so I have no idea who he could really be. The name of the equerry was Gaskon Malthace, he was the guy with the flail hand and was killed by Numen.

Also I apologise for the the grammar of my original post, I was writing it quickly from memory and should of gone back over it, did a lot of mistakes stuff like death instead of deaf and thinking instead of thing.


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