Hubris of Monarchia

The Horus Heresy Series

By: Andy Smillie

Narrated by: John Banks, Steve Conlin, Andrew Fettes, Matthew Hunt, Richard Reed, David Seddon

A Horus Heresy audio drama.

The Ultramarines muster at Calth to join their Word Bearers brothers in battle - but in the remnants of the Ghaslakh Empire, Captain Alcaeus would see his mission complete and the greenskin warlord dead before he joins his brethren.

Listen to it because: it's a study in obsession and the lurking dangers of treachery from the pen of Andy Smillie, a true master of the audio drama format.

The story: before the Warmaster's betrayal, the primarchs and their Legions were a warrior brotherhood without equal. At Calth, a planetary jewel in Ultramar's crown, a great mustering is taking place. Two proud Legions gather in hopes of healing the discord after the notorious shaming of the Word Bearers at Monarchia. Captain Alcaeus of the Ultramarines plans on joining the muster but will not rest until the remnants of the Ghaslakh Empire are purged utterly from the galaxy. For honour and glory, he has sworn an oath to succeed. His obsession in hunting down the greenskin overlord drives him to greater and greater feats, but in his zeal has Alcaeus not realised the true enemy in his Legion's midst?

©2018 Games Workshop Limited (P)2018 Games Workshop Limited

Another great audio drama from Andy Smillie

voice acting 5/5
sound effects 5/5
story: compelling and vividly written 5/5

Andy Smillie isdabes

4 stars for Word bearers/Ultramarine fans

Decent story and would recommend for Ultramarine and Word Bearers friends, but fine to skip if not. Story suffers a bit from jumping from present to memory and back again. Might of worked better as a simple story as opposed to audio drama, but the ending was so sweet.

If you’re going to write a story about the Ultramarines...

So many issues with this one. Skip if you’re a fan of the pre heresy Ultramarines.

Voice acting and overall composition was solid, but the author seems to have done very little research into existing lore before contradicting all of it.

I really couldnt get into this. Too much going on

A for effort, however there was too much going on at once for me. I got so lost 15 minutes in i stopped listening and dont plan on picking this back up again unfortunately. I couldnt tell who was saying what or what was happening when or where. I understand what they were trying to accomplish with this by adding sound affects to bring it to life but i feel as if the target was very well missed unfortunately. I love the warhammer books and audio books. I hope there will be more traditionally narrated material in the future.