The anticipation in this is written perfectly, I feel horrified at what is to come and I won't even have to endure it.

This reminded me a lot of the Tartar Steppe, warriors waiting for an enemy that does not come, all the while madness takes hold. It shows both the evil of the Space Marines and their desperation. Definitely a must-read.

I struggled to hold my attention in several parts of the book but that final part pulled me right back in.

John French's use of flashbacks is probably one of the most interesting ways I have seen them used. Both in this and other Horus Heresy stories of his I have read, the flashbacks just elevate the story to another level. Breaking the action up and giving more depth to the character of Sigismund is far better than just having a longer, uninterrupted sequence of action. Where other stories would suffer from the action sequences being too similar to each other and too dragged out, John French has solved this and made these stories tremendously more enjoyable to read.

I enjoyed this more than I thought I would, getting into reading the Horus Heresy I wasn't expecting to enjoy reading the perspectives of these fervent loyalists who were already very religious in their views (even if they didn't acknowledge this fact). But as it turns out the writers have done an extremely good job of portraying them, and especially in the short stories I can relate more to the characters such as Sigismund than I thought I would.

Quite a humorous short story, it worked really well to serve as a bit of a distraction from much of the heavier and more serious stories in the Horus Heresy. Wouldn't mind reading more stories which show the failings of the Imperium by highlighting its (comedic) incompetence and its tendency to hide behind bureaucracy (as so many authoritarian regimes have a tendency to do).