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).

A solid look into the psyche of a primarch. It manages to make you see redeemable qualities in arguably one of the worst primarchs, which is quite a feat. Wish it was longer because it could have just had that little bit more insight into Perturabo as a character.

This felt like one of the most emotional Horus Heresy stories I've read yet. Nearly every character's perspective has a quote about their state of being I keep coming back to. It also does a phenomenal job of showing Rogal Dorn care and, in a way, be one of the most paternal figures in the books.

Extremely well written, it tells a story of fear and doubt, experienced by a being who feels like they should be immune to those feelings.

Contrasting Conrad Curze with Rogal Dorn was genius. Both created to be a cog in the same imperial machine but also vastly different in appearance. Though this story does a really good job showing how they might not be so different after all, one character just knows what he was created to do while the other pretends he was made for something more and greater.

I feel quite conflicted about this book. It has its moments, but the fact those moments are when the story is not focused on the Primarch says a lot. When the book, part of the Primarchs series, is most interesting when the Primarch is not involved is not a good thing. Now the parts without the Primarch, with instead the iterator and the navigator were quite insteresting. But still, reading a whole book for a couple of interesting perspectives, when the majority is just quite bland prose and forgettable characters, probably isn't wort it.