The Outcast Dead

The Horus Heresy #17

by Graham McNeill

The galaxy is burning. The Emperor’s loyal primarchs prepare to do battle with Warmaster Horus and his turncoat Legions on the black sand of Isstvan. Such dark times herald new and yet more terrible things still to come, and when Astropath Kai Zulane unwittingly learns a secret that threatens to tip the balance of the war, he is forced to flee for his life. Alongside a mysterious band of renegades, he plunges into the deadly underworld of Terra itself, hunted like a criminal by those he once trusted. In the face of betrayal, Kai must decide where his own loyalties lie and whether some truths should be buried forever.

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

416 pages, Paperback

First published October 21, 2011

About the author

Hailing from Scotland, Graham McNeill narrowly escaped a career in surveying to work for Games Workshop as a games designer. He has a strong following with his novels Nightbringer, Warriors of Ultramar, Dead Sky, Black Sun and Storm of Iron.

Reviews

[Gianfranco Mancini · Rating 1 out of 5]

I had two huge issues with this novel: Magnus arriving on Terra AFTER the Isstvan massacre, and the Space Marines fighting unarmed full armoured long range equipped Custodes... McNeill fixed/explained first one later, but I just hated this book when it was released.
The Thunder Warriors stuff and the ending were good ones, have to give it a second chance sooner or later.

[Markus · Rating 4 out of 5]

I tend to find myself often enjoying the "side books" most in this series. The best Horus Heresy instalments are often the ones not advancing the military storyline of the war itself, but the ones exploring the universe and its various major and minor characters in greater depth. The Outcast Dead is no exception here.

Further exposition to the Astropaths was welcome, and the chess game interludes were masterfully done. No surprise, perhaps, as Graham McNeill is arguably the author I've appreciated the most in the series.

[Andrew Ziegler · Rating 4 out of 5]

McNeill is one of my favorite authors in the BL stable. I like his HH stuff, and I also enjoy his current timeline works, especially the Ultramarines' series. That being said, looking back, every entry of his into the HH has been a great book. False Gods rocked my world because it was in that first amazing trilogy and it involved the tragic fall of Horus. Fulgrim, Mechanicum, and Thousand Sons were all detailed introductions into Legions and parts of the Imperium that were really never delved into too deeply beyond a codex or two so they were all impressive. All that gave me cause for great excitement when I got my greedy little hands on the Outcast Dead.

I really enjoyed the Outcast Dead as a whole, and as a part of the larger tapestry of the HH. However, it took a REALLY long time to get going, in fact it was not until almost exactly at the halfway point did the action start. However, once it starts, holy crap, I could not put it down. I am a father of 3, I get no sleep, and have little time to myself to read, in fact that time comes at the end of my day for as long as I can stay awake...I went from the halfway mark to the end in one sitting last night.

Once the Outcast Dead get involved it is a rock and roll ride until the climactic battle. I wish this book had another 100 to 150 pages to really give the reader a chance to get into the individual Space Marines who made up the OD, because they were interesting, but only in a broad sweeping general character way. I think the Marines in Battle for the Abyss got a better treatment of character development. Of course Swallow did not have to deal with the half of the book that explained the inner workings of the psykers of earth. I also wish OD did not end with an ambiguous cliff hanger, not knowing if or when that story thread will be picked up again in this series is a little frustrating.

OD is a solid to exciting read. Not as powerful as McNeill's last entry the Thousand Sons, but let's face it, that book knocked your balls into the dirt and smiled while it did it.

[Robert McCarroll · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is a mess. It feels like it was created to fill a slot in a release schedule and hurriedly thrown together to do so. As a standalone book, it's a mess, as a link in the Heresey chain, it's a mess. It's reliant on and references continuity frequently, but expects you to ignore what is perhaps the most epic continuity fail I've seen in a novel series to date.

Lets get the smaller stuff out of the way first. These paragraphs are independant bullet-points dealing with different flaws.

Structurally, I have yet to figure out why it insists on switching to present tense when following one particular character. There is no logic behind it. Switching tense mid-book is obnoxious, especially given that the character in question does not represent 'now' more than any other character. Also, personally, I find present tense annoying, especially in long blocks. Pick a tense and stick with it (preferrably past, but that's just my pick)

This book seems to want to paint Dorn as an inept micro-manager who has no faith in the ability of his subordinates to carry out the basic functions of their office - even those whose basic functions he cannot do. Second-guessing the choirmaster of astropaths on who should send or recieve a given message when you're swapping enough messages to burn out choirs is asinine.

Our designated protagonist (or rather, the character we spend the most time with), Kai, has no agency. Throughout the book, he does nothing and makes no decisions which effect the course of the plot in any way. He is a glorified MacGuffin, and replacing him with an encrypted dataslate would actually fix several plot holes while not substantively changing the story. (More on that later)

This book makes the Custodes look like the Keystone Kops. One gets taken out while fully armed and armored by an unarmed and unarmored World Eater of all things. The World Eaters are the joke Legion, and the Custodes had a ranged weapon capable of taking out an Astartes mounted on his melee weapon, so that fight should have been an embarassing curb stomp in the other direction. The second is incapacitated for a while by being asked to recite his name. Custodes collect names the way third-world dictators collect medals, they just build up over time, unearned. Or so the evidence would suggest.

The ending had the distinct sense that the Author went "Oops, I'm approaching my target word count, lets wrap everything up and clear the board". While everyone was dying around them and a warp entity was on the march, an exchange happened that could have easily been Kai: "Quick, help me get into a trance, I have to go face my guilt." Roxanne: "What now?" Kai: "Yes." Roxanne: "Why does it have to be now?" Kai: "Because the book's ending and my arc needs closure." Since this didn't help kill the warp entity (the deus ex silent sisters did that) it was especially pointless and out of nowhere.

Speaking of the Silent Sisters, while their arrival can be waved away because the Imperials knew they were hunting Psykers, the absense of the Imperial Fists is more inexplicable. Of the heavy units on Terra, they are the most abundant, and this is something that Dorn apparently feels is important enough to make a personal appearance, so why no Fists? Or is this just Dorn micro-managing again?

Roxanne: "Kai, your eyes." Kai: "The Emprah gave them back to me." Roxanne: "Why?" Kai: "Because the author thought using one of the hundreds of guns laying around to shoot myself would be a less poetic end than looking into your third eye - which I can't do if I don't have any eyes."

I get installing a pict-caster into augmetic eyes, but where'd the audio feed come from? Kai: "We needed it for the plot"

All right, we've had our fun with plot holes, now for the big one:

Lets lay down some continuity. In "False Gods" Magnus tries to warn off Horus from the path of Chaos. He fails. In "Thousand Sons" we see this from Magnus' perspective. He immediately turns around and tries to warn the Emperor. This blows up the webway interface the Emperor was working on and gets the Wolves dispatched to kill him. After choosing Chaos, Horus spends months Fighting the Technocracy (also "False Gods") then travels to Istvaan and has a protracted campaign there. In "Outcast Dead", Roxanne states that it takes "Months" with a favorable warp current to get from Istvaan to Terra. The Eisenstein did not have favorable currents, and wasn't even pointed in the right direction as it fled Istvaan. After it met up with Dorn on the Phalanx, there were still months before Dorn and the news of the rebellion reached Terra. Then the retribution fleet had to be mustered and shipped back to Istvaan for the dropsite massacre. Thus from Davin to Istvaan, you are talking at least a year realtime, if not longer. In "Galaxy in Flames", Maloghurst the Twisted says that the Wolves are already en route to Prospero to kill Magnus. This fits with the overall timeline and would explain why they are unavailable to participate in the attack on Istvaan V.

All this says Magnus' warning to the Emperor takes place at least a year before the dropsite massacre. A sequence of events which fits neatly in place across books. "Outcast Dead" has Magnus showing up After Ferrus Manus is dead to warn the Emperor that Horus has turned. That is, after the Eisenstein has delivered its warning, a fleet assembled and dispatched and the ambush launched. It would make no sense for Magnus to use abilities that he was forbidden from using to warn the Emperor about something he already knew, and for the Wolves to just be sitting around while there are traitors at Istvaan. Mind you, this is not something that takes an anal retentive person like me to spot, they're key events of the series. Worse, who whote "False Gods", "Thousand Sons" and "Outcast Dead"? The same guy! How do you screw up key plot points from books you yourself wrote?

The reason Magnus' message got delayed was the same reason Kai's augmetic eyes had an audio feed, the plot demanded it. The titular 'Outcast Dead' would not have been arrested and imprisoned prior to the open knowledge of Horus' rebellion. So the events of the book had to take place after Istvaan III and the Flight of the Eisenstein. The problem is, there was no way Kai could have survived interrogation for a full year between the time to revelation was given to the astropaths to when the title characters are available to spring him from jail.

This is where replacing Kai with an encrypted data slate would have fixed the big problem. Have Kai dead to begin with, and have his arc be audio log flashbacks on the slate. We hear them as they get decrypted by various parties, and the last entry gets unlocked during the climactic battle. So while everyone is fighting and dying, the slate is prattling on at the vacant angel about facing his guilt over the Argo and the revelation stored in his head - then id destroyed by stray gunfire. We the readers still get all the pieces of the puzzle, but the continuity is restored. It would be no less disconnected from the rest of the yarn than all the times we slipped into Kai's subconscious.

Shorter me: If you are reading the Heresey for the arc, skip it. If you are looking for a standalone book, skip it. If you want to see the biggest continuity fail I've yet seen, pick it up.

[Chris Berko · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was okay for the most part. There were some cool scenes and some of the fights were pretty awesome, especially the ones involving the World Eaters, but overall I feel like this book was almost pointless. Except for a couple of sentences towards the end that had some weight and meaning it was totally unnecessary. To say anything more would be spoiler-ish so I won't delve too deep into why I didn't like it and I gotta tell you that I think it says a lot that the first Warhammer book that didn't knock my socks off is seventeen deep into this particular series not to mention the other trilogies I've read. I dunno, this book might have made a better prologue somewhere else because it definitely didn't need to be a full-length novel to tell the story. Bummer.

[David · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is the fifth Graham McNeill book I’ve read, and they all have pretty similar issues: shallow characterization, dull or pointless plots, rote descriptions of action and horror sequences that drain all the excitement out of them. I was hopeful after A Thousand Sons that he was upping his game a little (that one had all the same problems his other books had, but it was goofy enough for me to feel some good will towards it while reading it) but it seems like this is just how this guy writes. Obviously I’m an outlier here, this book is decently rated and McNeill frequently gets mentioned as a Black Library author that people really like. But for me, he’s a big no thank you.

Alan Moore wrote a (very good) book about writing comic books, and one of the things that’s stuck with me since reading it is when he talks about characterization. There was this idea that Silver Age comic writers and editors had that you had to be able to sum up a character in fifteen words or less. Solid advice at the time for various reasons, but one unintended downside was that it also led to a bunch of characters who’s list of traits didn’t run much deeper than “lady who speaks with a French accent” or “guy who has a metal leg.” I think at their worst, Horus Heresy books often run in to this same problem, quite often face first and at the speed of light.

Nowhere is that more obvious than with the title characters of The Outcast Dead. What are their names? No one cares. What do they want? They’re not too sure. How do you tell them all apart? Well there’s Sword Guy, and Guy Who Likes Guns But Only One Specific Type Of Gun, and there’s Guy Who Is Very Tall, and there’s like three separate Guys Who Are Very Angry. You get the idea. The guys who make up the titular Outcast Dead are the most egregious, but the entire book is filled with characters painted in these sort of broad strokes.

This book doesn’t do much better on plot either. The mcguffin the story is built around, a bit of secret knowledge psychically hidden away inside the brain of protagonist Kai Zulane, isn’t very secret in or out of universe (this is at least the third time in the series that we’ve been told some version of this stuff) and doesn’t amount to much more than “no one’s going to be happy with the outcome of this war and ten thousand years from now everybody is going to have a really bad time.” Which look, my experience with Warhammer begins and ends with the Horus Heresy books I’ve read so far and even I’m aware in very broad strokes of how this thing ends and where it goes afterwards, and was therefore very underwhelmed by this plot’s resolution. I can not imagine how boring these “revelations” must be if you’re the type of fan who just lives and breathes this stuff.

I don’t give out too many one star reviews, if I can point to anything at all that I liked in a book I’ll usually say it’s not a complete failure and bump the book up to two stars. With that in mind it’s difficult to point to much of anything about this book that actually works. So one star it is.

Maybe worth pointing out that the things that a lot of people who do dislike this book all seem to cite: the issues it causes with the series timeline and the faulty power scaling are just kind of irrelevant for me. I think a lifetime of reading super hero comics, with all the retcons and “who would beat who in a fight” arguments that come with that hobby have just made me completely uninterested in those kind of concerns. But also seventeen novels with more than a half dozen authors and however many editors all juggling bits and pieces of the story together and this is the first time there’s been any serious fuck up? That’s a pretty good track record for the series overall, honestly.

[Jason Ray Carney · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Outcast Dead is an unusual and structurally bifurcated entry in the Horus Heresy series. The novel’s first half is markedly introspective, atmospheric, and episodic, with a slow-burning narrative that dwells more on psychological disorientation than dramatic confrontation. The central figure, Kai Zulane—a damaged astropath recovering from a traumatic psychic event—serves as a fragile anchor amid a wide cast of characters and loosely connected scenes. The pacing here is meditative, even meandering, and will likely test the patience of readers expecting immediate stakes or action.

The second half, however, pivots sharply into a more kinetic and plot-driven mode. Without spoiling key developments, I’ll simply note that fans of post-Heresy Black Library fiction—particularly those invested in the mainline 40K setting—will find much more familiar ground here: breakouts, psychic duels, and ties to the broader meta-narrative of the Heresy. This portion of the novel connects more explicitly to the imperium’s secret histories and the slow unspooling of treachery that defines the series.

For me, the most compelling aspect of the novel is precisely this structural contrast. The first half’s moody introspection and the second half’s high-stakes momentum feel like two different novels stitched together—but not incoherently. In fact, the payoff of the second half depends on the groundwork laid in the first. Kai Zulane’s relationships, the mystery of his psychic burden, and the warp lore that surrounds him gain emotional and narrative weight only because we’ve lingered so long in his confusion and fragility.

This isn’t a top-tier Horus Heresy novel, at least not for me. But as a completionist, I’m glad I read it. I’d caution readers to persevere through the slow early chapters: there’s a rewarding and thematically rich story waiting on the other side. For those interested in Terra’s hidden history and the psychological cost of psychic service to the Imperium, The Outcast Dead offers something rare: a human-scaled tragedy in a universe of titanic conflict.

[Sud666 · Rating 4 out of 5]

When "The outcast dead" started I didn't think I'd like this book that much. I am not that familiar with looking at the outbreak of Horus' betrayal from the perspective of the Navigators and the Astra Telepathica.

The story follows Kai Zulane who is an astropath. Kai was aboard the Argos when it was caught up in a warp storm and he was the only survivor. This is happening in the shadow of the first reports coming in to Terra about Horus' treachery. Lord Dorn has sent several Legions to Istvaan to reign in Horus and bring him to justice. Little do they know that several of the Legions are Horus' fellow traitors.

In the meanwhile, it turns out that Kai might hold a terrible secret knowledge and now everyone wants what is in his head. Escaping Imperial custody with a group of Astartes who belong to "traitor" Legions. Sadly these Astartes had been on Terra for decades and their parent Legion's choice have them branded as traitors as well. Thus accompanied by a Thousand Son, 3 World Eaters and one of the Emperor's Children-they take a trip down into Terra's underworld and run into a blast from the past- renegade Thunder Warriors.

More than this I will not say. The book starts out slowly and Kai is not a likable character. in fact, almost none of the Imperials are sympathetic. It is the "traitor" Marines who actually have personalities. The fight between them and the Thunder Warriors (impressive how powerful the old Thunder Warriors were) and then them versus the Custodes was awesome! The World Eater who calmly, whilst still behind bars, declares "I will tear out your spine from your chest" and then later does it! To a Custodes, of all things was truly impressive. But it is in all the subtle "hidden" information where this book really shines. Now, finally, I realize why the Emperor was so infuriated with Magnus trying to warn him via the Warp. Not only did the Webway project get severely damaged, but many millions died-including many Astropaths who would have been vital during the Heresy when their services could have been considerable.

The story starts slow, but really picks up in the middle and the ending is quite interesting.

[Arnis · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Outcast Dead darbība The Horus Heresy vispārējās sērijas ietvaros lasītāju ved atpakaļ uz Terra/Zemi, kur šokējošie jaunumi par ne tikai līdz tam Imperatora uzticamākā dēla un primarka Horusa nodevību, bet arīdzan papildus četru no septiņu leģionu pievienošanos tam, kuriem vajadzēja šo ķecerību ātri un viegli sakaut.

https://poseidons99.com/2024/12/23/gr...

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'd probably give it 4.5. The story was interesting and many of the characters were really well developed. There were a lot of editing issues that took me out of the book hence the deduction.

[NekroRider · Rating 3 out of 5]

I finished this but am still not sure how to rate it - either 3.75 or 4/5 stars. I enjoyed all the plot lines and characters and there were a lot of very interesting tie-ins and revelations. Getting all that info about Astropaths/the Telepathica and City of Sight was very cool. First time we really get an inside look. There were just some lore inconsistencies or timeline questions that bugged me. For example some of the combat outcomes and relative strengths didn't make sense. I'm used to Astartes being so powerful even human mutants shouldn't last more than mere seconds hand-to-hand or be able to match their speed. Thinking back to Nemesis, for example, where it was a novelty just for the rage killer to be able to say that he finally managed to kill an Astartes. There were moments where both Astartes and Custodes seemed weirdly underpowered and it bugged me. Good read otherwise though!

[Kdm · Rating 5 out of 5]

What can I say? I constantly wanted to know what happened next and while the other books of the Horus Heresy were also good none had me enthralled like this one. An incredible cast of characters with intense confrontations.

[Steve · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't have a lot to say about this entry - it was good, but didn't blow me away. It explores some interesting, less-explored groups from the setting, but perhaps spends too much time "ramping up" to have enough room to explore those groups in a totally satisfying way.

In general, these sort of "side stories" within the greater Heresy are intriguing, and add (necessary!) color and context to the greater story, but are rarely as engaging as the main groups and conflicts.

[David Burton · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is the first time I've read anything by Graham McNeil that I actively disliked.

That's not to say there's nothing to like; a lot of the scenes are very good. It's undeniably interesting to see the Imperium through the eyes of an Astropath. Kai makes a very bad first impression but he grew on me as I came to understand his trauma. However, I don't know why most of these scenes are here. Seeing Terra's initial reaction to the news of the Dropsite Massacre, for example, is appropriately chilling; but what does it have to do with any of the characters introduced in this book? ("Great scene! Why did you write it?")

There are three prologue sections. THREE OF THEM. The main plot doesn't begin until halfway through the book; what the heck is with this pacing? Ostensibly the story is about Kai Zulane learning a grave secret that could tip the balance in the heresy, and running through Terra's criminal underworld. Problem is he doesn't even learn the secret in question and get locked up for it until halfway through the book! I get that you need to be introduced to the people he trusts, but we spend way too long on these scenes.

[Tazio Bettin · Rating 1 out of 5]

Just skip this one. Believe me. You'll wish you had listened to me. Total filler, adds very little, multiple continuity inconsistencies, characters you wish you could like but always fall short of being relatable, characters that are annoying racial stereotypes that are even out of place in the Warhammer universe if you ask me (a japanese guy with a katana who acts all philosophical and zen all the time, and does nothing relevant in the story). Worst book in the series so far. Poorly written, with repetitive flurries of adjectives that are only there to increase the page count. I lost count of how many times the book uses the words "numinous" and "actinic" (the latter, in the wrong way). Skip. Trust me.

[David · Rating 2 out of 5]

I thought a book that looked into the world of Warhammer 30/40k Astropaths and Navigators would be fascinating. It could have been. I wanted it to be. But this installment to the Horus Heresy series was a mess. Some of the characters in this book were just inexplicable, or had backstories which really didn’t make much sense. The escape from the most secure prison on Terra.... don’t even get me started on a what a dumb joke The was. I think this book was only slightly better than Battle for the Abyss. It is close, though, because while Battle for the Abyss was slow and plodding, it at least made some sense.

[Alasdair · Rating 5 out of 5]

Man this had a lot of very cool elements and was just such a good read.

[Shawn · Rating 2 out of 5]

Wow, yeah, I definitely could have skipped this one.

I always love to see some traitor marines act more loyal or neutral, but I really like when they're in more than just the latter half of the book they are in the title of.

Also, all the cool thunder warrior stuff people mention really isn't all that big. They could have been any other faction with minimal change.

The end of the book made my eyes roll out of my skull and think of how pointless this all was. I'm not someone who thinks every HH novel must be important to the overarching narrative to be worth the read. However, I expect to leave the book with something that makes me feel it was worth my time, be it memorable characters, fleshing out of important events, or really well done action. Outcast Dead techincally has all three, but none of it was really worth the price of admission or better than anything else I've read.

Pretty dissapointed but uh Kai was a good protagonist, and some imagery was really well done, I suppose.

2/5 Just skip it, you won't miss anything.

[Torradin341 · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was a hot mess. Read out of context, by which I mean, without having read any of the other HH books, it's enjoyable. There's several instances of internal logic failing, but the overall journey is fun. I don't know how much of that was Keeble's narration, however.

In context, as the 17th book in a series of established timeline and events, it's a disaster. The high notes of the story make sense, but all of the groundwork and threads that tie the plot together don't. There are many mistakes with the established timeline, and those mistakes are what this story is built on, so there aren't many easy fixes to be had.

It's no Battle for the Abyss, but it's not much better.

[Jean-Luc · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the opening trilogy of the Horus Heresy, the III (Emperor's Children), XII (World Eaters), XIV (Death Guard), and XVI (Luna Wolves) legions enacted exterminatus upon the rebellious world of Isstvan III. The 4 legions were declared traitoris excommunicatus, and 8 legions were dispatched to Isstvan V, which the traitors had fortified. But the legions weren't concentrated in one location! Some legionnaires were scattered throughout the galaxy... and some resided on Holy Terra itself! The few captured alive in the opening are sent to "The Vault", The Emperor's most secure prison.

Astropath Kai Zulane and navigator Roxanne Castana are the only survivors of a Gellar Field failure on an Ultramarines spaceship. Kai is sent to the City of Sight for rehabilitation by Choirmaster Nemo Zhi-Meng and fellow astropath Athena Diyos. During a catastrophic event, Kai is accidentally imprinted by Aniq Sarahina, Mistress of the Scholastica Psykana. As a result, Kai knows things he shouldn't. Kai has to die. But before he that, he must divulge his secrets. Kai is sent to The Vault for interrogation.

And that's when the renegade space marines imprisoned there (Severian from the Luna Wolves, Argentus Kiron from the Emperor's Children, Urhu Gythua from the Death Guard, and Tagore, Asubha & Subha from the World Eaters) decide they must make their escape. Calling themselves the Outcast Dead, they rescue Kai and hide in the Petitioner's City near the Imperial Palace, looking for a way offworld. Meanwhile, Roxanne, unwilling to deal with her family's bullshit, tries to lose herself in the Petitioner's City... but Babu Dhakal's men are painfully aware of her presence, and they have no intention of letting her slip through their grasp. Seer hunter Yasu Nagasena is ordered to assist Major Maxim Golovko in tracking down the Outcast Dead.

And the chase is on!


Some notes:

* I believe this book is the first look of the Imperium's view from Terra, Holy Terra, of events unfolding across the galaxy:

‘What in the world?’ said Vesca, rising up to look over the thousands of infocytes under his authority. Like the visual representation of a viral spread, white lights proliferated through the chamber with fearsome rapidity. The infocytes looked to their overseers, but Vesca had no idea what was going on. He floated down to Operative 38932’s terminal and ripped the sheet of meme-paper from his trembling fingers. He scanned the words printed there, each letter grainy and black from the smudged ink of the terminal. They didn’t make sense, the words and letters somehow jumbled in the wrong order in a way that was surely a misinterpretation.

‘No, no, no,’ said Vesca, shaking his head and relieved to have found the solution. ‘It’s a misinterpreted vision, that’s all it is. The choirs have got this one wrong. Yes, it’s the only possible explanation.’ His own hands were shaking and no matter how hard he tried to convince himself that this was simply a misinterpreted vision, he knew it was not. An incorrect vision might have triggered two or three requests for confirmation, but not thousands. With a sinking feeling in his gut that was like having the air sucked from his lungs, Vesca Ordin realised his infocytes were not requesting confirmation on the veracity of the message.

They were hoping he would tell them it wasn’t true.

The meme-paper slipped from his fingers, but the memory of what was printed there was forever etched on the neurons of his memory, each line a fresh horror building on the last.

Imperial counter-strike massacred on Isstvan V.

Vulkan and Corax missing. Ferrus Manus dead.

Night Lords, Iron Warriors, Alpha Legion and Word Bearers are with Horus Lupercal.

Having read the first 3 books, I obviously already knew this, but even still, just reading this chilled me to the bone and damn near stopped my heart.

* "'Maybe if the Emperor had spent longer than a day with Horus Lupercal, we wouldn't be in this mess.'" HOHOHO

* "Roxanne had read volumes of history in the family library ... teeming slums where millions of people lived cheek by jowl with one another in appalling poverty. ... To Roxanne's freshly-opened eyes, it didn't look like much had changed." The Emperor was not interested in any problem that couldn't be solved by shooting it, so perhaps it's a good thing He left these slums alone...

* "The Emperor alone had recognised this rapturous angel, and his heart broke to see it." Yes, His heart broke so hard He couldn't bear to listen to the warning Magnus had come all this way to give.

* "'The Legio Custodes does not make mistakes,' said Saturnalia." Really? Explain why the Space Wolves went to Prospero to kill Magnus rather than capture him.

* It's on the Indian subcontinent, so of course the Thunder Warrior's name is Babu.

* "Yet Babu Dhakal appeared to bear his creator no ill-will for this monstrous betrayal." That would make the Thunder Warriors more loyal to The Emperor than the Legiones Astartes. How did He screw this up so badly?


My only complaint is that the book's actual ending is in a short story called Wolf Hunt by the same author. That's a bit of a copout. Still, this tragedy is worth it because it features so many great characters... Characters we will probably never see again, but "The light that burns twice as bright burns half as long, and you have burned so very very brightly"...

[Euan · Rating 3 out of 5]

The good old-fashioned ‘jail break’ plot was interesting and fast-paced, and allowed us to see sides of the Astartes that we don’t often see. However, the novel crawls along for its first two-thirds with little character development or progression of the story. Being set entirely on Terra was refreshing and something never seen before in the Horus Heresy series (with the exception of a few short stories). Overall, it is an interesting addition to the series but it does not feel like a standout.

[Matthew Hipsher · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was ok, but there were so many plot lines to follow, sometimes it felt like this book was searching for a one true story to tell and it couldn't make up it's mind.

It was interesting to see the role the Emperor himself played in the events of the Heresy unfolding and how the psychic abilities and the Warp remain the underlying causes, bringing Magus's actions even more into focus.

An ok book, a necessity for continuing the series, but could have been better.

[Lucas · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first half of this book was slow, very slow, and lacked much character building. My only other critique is that Custodes continue to be woefully underpowered, named characters cut through them like nothing. Both of those very nearly gave this three stars.

However, the second half was fast paced in the best way and kept me enraptured. The primary theme, that the struggle was hopeless is mirrored well by several supporting arcs that came together miraculously.

[Gordon Rose · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book takes us back to Terra in the early days of the Heresy and gives us glimpse of life in the underbelly of the Emperor’s palace. It gives a closer look at the astropaths, focusing in on one in particular; who harbours a vision of what might come to pass at the end of the heresy. Introduces Severian, and Arik Taranis. Fun read, a thriller, not critical to the overall Heresy arc.

[Wilson Tun · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book felt incoherent and incomplete with a lot of plot holes in the story. In the end, I decided to shut my brain off and finish the book before I lose any more brain cells from the horror of muddy waters of ambiguous Warhammer 40K plot during its early years.

Not recommended unless you really want to read ALL of Horus Heresy books like how I’m planning to do. Otherwise, just skip this. It won’t really ruin the immersion.

[Tim · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Outcast Dead tells the story of the Heresy again. But this time as seen from Terra.

The story is divided in two parts: the first part is mainly reiterating all the events from Isstvaan, and the horror from realization it provokes in the Imperial Palace. Also in the first part we get a view on how things work in the City of Astropaths.

The breaking point between the two parts is actually a temporal contradiction toward other books of McNeill. It works for this story, but it can be seen as a serious retcon from previous stories. At a forum where this issue was debated, McNeill's colleague Aaron Dembski-Bowden defended the contradiction as "The Warp Screws Shit Up". And, well, okay, I'm willing to go along with it. When reading the contradiction I was a bit bored with it... but okay, fine: The Warp Screws Shit Up.

The second part of the story is a lot more interesting: six marines of traitor-chapters try to chaperone an astropath that has "a terrible truth" embedded in his mind off Terra. Seeing as the whole series is a prequel to the current state of the WH40K universe it's not hard to imagine what the "terrible truth" is.

The marines themselves are much more interesting: they were taken captive on Terra when Horus defected, and because of this they are naturally loyal to their primarchs. But seeing as they are away for decades from their legions, they have no idea what exactly happened to their chapters. And should they know, it's very doubtful for some they would still be that loyal. Whatever the case, these marines are obviously the "good guys": driven by loyalty, brotherhood and honour; while their pursuers are those that would commit genocide just because their orders say so.

The thing I really didn't like about the book is the ending, or rather, the various endings. Some parts of the story are wrapped up quickly and sloppily, like the main character, or the Thousand Son space marine. While other parts of the story (the hunter, the Thunder Warriors, the Son of Horus) are left hanging as loose threads for the only reason (or so it seems) of having loose threads in the story. Even though it's quite clear that this storyline won't ever have a sequel (if against all odds it will, then I apologize in advance).

In summary: both because it's Horus Heresy, and because it's McNeill the story is more than worth reading. But it's not the best work McNeill delivered in the HH. The temporal issue, and the ending spoiled the whole thing somewhat for me.

[Michelle Nelms · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another great entry in the Horus Heresy series.

I loved getting to know more about the astropaths. There were some really neat strands from other stores in the series coming together a little.

Kai's story is compelling and his grief is understandable.

I'd absolutely recommend reading this one, but it's one that you'll need earlier books for background in order to understand what's going on.

[Simon Mee · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Outcast Dead is the one that stuffed up the timeline.

Made Custodes killable by two Space Marines, or by an unarmoured and barely armed Space Marine, or by a homesick human with an itchy trigger.

But that’s fine. They fixed the timeline part at least, in separate short story audiobook about something completely different. So no big deal, apparently.

So what does The Outcast Dead serve? Plot or character?

Plot

‘Because sometimes the only victory possible is to keep your opponent from winning.’

The McGuffin here is a vision of the grimdark future. If the traitors get it, they will win... ...somehow. Never mind the Alpha Legion have already seen a vision of the future. The dream never makes it to the traitors, instead THE EMPEROR OF MANKIND gets the vision and says "well, doesn't help me, but at least my future crippled visage is a secret for now."

Inspiring stuff.

And, unfortunately, it creates a problem worse than the (barely) fixed timeline issue: The McGuffin shows THE EMPEROR OF MANKIND his showdown with Horus, which implicitly depowers certain critical scenes in that showdown (which exist in the wider lore, but are still to be written in this series). If whoever writes that scene is going to be faithful to The Outcast Dead, the THE EMPEROR OF MANKIND’s emotional range during the most famous and most emotionally charged setpiece in the Warhammer 40K universe is going to be:

“Seen it. Seen it. Yep… …seeeeeeeeeennnnn it."

The plot that's not only dull within the story, but actively dulls the climax of the Horus Heresy, an event laden with 10,000 years of consequences.

I admit is not a big issue in the long run, because it can be sidestepped or ignored as needed, but it does speak to the lack of care in this book.

The second half connects poorly with the first half, and both halves are constrained by a lack of space. The Thunder Warrior subplot lacks the calcium to even be called barebones. The Deus Ex Machina in the final fight is separated by nearly the entire book from its setup, which blunts its emotional impact. McNeill emphasises the recklessness of Ferrus Manus, even though it is irrelevant to what happened at Istvaan V – Manus becomes a beheaded Chekov’s gun.

There are good setpieces and moments of cleverness and interesting world building, with a heavy emphasis on the horror. But McNeill is a good writer, so good setpieces, cleverness and worldbuilding is a minimum expectation.

Character

Ten thousand deaths screaming in his head had unhinged his mind for a time, and he wasn’t entirely sure it had returned to him intact.

The Outcast Dead isn't the first, or last, Warhammer 40K book to not worry about coherency in plot. However, it doesn't worry about character much either. There’s a few other characters than those listed below, but a guy like Nagasena is clearly going to be used elsewhere and isn’t worth mentioning one way or the other.

Kai Zulane

He’s the best astropath in the Imperium, but damaged goods. But give him time and tutelage and he’ll be back, baby! Wait… …he’s McGuffinised damaged goods again… …but then he’s back, baby! Back… …having a dream about a chess game and how it’s not his fault everyone died on his starship, which no one really appeared to blame him for anyway… …annnnddddddddddddd he’s dead.

The lead character of the The Outcast Dead teaches us about astropathy from the viewpoint of a guy who is no longer able to do astropathy. Unsurprisingly, he’s not very interesting.

Roxanne Castana, Athena Diyos, Aniq Sarahina, Adept Hiriko

In Mechanicum, McNeill solved the problem with his portrayals of female characters in Fulgrim by writing them as males. Here, he doesn’t write much about them at all, even though they each have backgrounds that could carry the story, or any story, better than Kai. The treatments of Roxanne and Athena are particularly egregious as they both share deliberate commonalities with Kai. I get all these characters are meant to be waystations on the path of Kai’s character development, but Kai has no actual development! I wish McNeill had spent more time at the waystations.

The Outcast Dead

In respect of those seven escaped Space Marines, yeah, maybe, especially with Atharva of the Thousand Sons. But they primarily fight and die, and there’s a real disconnect about what their (and again, especially Atharva) stated motivation of escaping back to Horus and their involvement with McGuffinised Kai, especially especially Artharva’s final sacrifice so Kai can have a nice dream about a chess game and not be blamed for something that never seemed to be his fault.

THE EMPEROR OF MANKIND

The most consistent thing about The Outcast Dead with the wider storyline, particularly The First Heretic, is that the THE EMPEROR OF MANKIND is a dick. He literally pops into Kai’s dreams, takes what he needs, then says well, “our game is done”, hope you don’t have any hard feelings Kai for torturing and attempting to murder you. Also, lol at everyone else around you being turned to pulp.

I do appreciate the consistency here.

Rogal Dorn

‘I know that well enough, but Lord Dorn is impatient for news of Ferrus Manus’s fleet. And he has a gun.’

I think I’m meant to like Rogal Dorn. At least that is what all the Warhammer 40K wiki sites and YouTube lore videos keep telling me. But to date he’s been on a spectrum from running from boring to overly harsh, with The Outcast Dead extending that range to: awful.

Atharva shook his head. ‘He is not yours to command.’
Dorn laughed, though Kai heard uncertainty in the sound. ‘Of course he is,’ said Dorn, drawing a vast pistol of chased gold and ebony. ‘I am the Emperor’s chosen champion. Everything on Terra is mine to command.’

Dorn exists as a threat, rather than a personality.

The Outcast Dead is the worst Horus Heresy book so far. It’s fun in parts but it is overlong and inconsistent and it is not clear what the book serves.

[Dylan Murphy · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Outcast Dead started out extremely slowly. Though it was really interesting getting to see how the Heresy was effecting the Astropaths of the Imperium. It was painfully slow at first, compared to the fast paced novels I am used to reading in the series, but despite that it was still an interesting read. Switching from Roxanne, to Kai, to the Outcast Dead themselves kept the novel interesting.
The novel really picked up after Magnus's event on Terra. Though the time-frame of it is confusing, my Emperor has assured me it is resolved at a later date(in the Audio drama Wolf Hunt).
Following the Outcast Dead and their adventures across Terra was great fun, and I love each and every character involved. Particularly the Emperor's Children and Death Guard, as they made a wonderful, if not unlikely, pair.
The battles, though few and far between, were awesome, and I really hope we get to see more of Babu and his friends.
Great ending, and really the entire last half of the novel was wonderful

[Robert Mccarthy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Does an excellent job of detailing how the Horus Heresy was viewed from the standpoint of those living on Terra (the canon name of the Earth in the Warhammer 40k universe). I found the cast of characters to be very well rounded. My favorite being Babu Dhakal the living legend and relic of the Emperor's ascent and attempt to unify the people of Terra prior to the Great Crusade. A good historical and canonical overview of the times. Next to the god of Warhammer lore William King Graham McNeil is a close second. Bravo!