Ferrus Manus: The Gorgon of Medusa (The Horus Heresy Primarchs Book 7)

The Iron Hands are definitely one of the coolest Legions to read about, especially seeing the difference in personality and psychology of the Iron Hands when compared to their Post-Heresy counterparts, after the death of Ferrus Manus. But this go around was lukewarm at best. It seems like another case of too many moving parts. SPOILERS For one thing, Elements of the Ultramarines, Thousand Sons, and Emperor's Children legions were involved here and apparently were too weak to pacify a world on their own without Ferrus Manus commanding them, which he didn't do until the very last chapters. Unfortunately, for me, there was not enough Ferrus Manus in this Ferrus Manus book. It centered around the different legion warriors involved in this pacification, a decimated Imperial Army regiment with bits and pieces of Ferrus Manus struggling to withhold his anger and trying to try different strategies to prove he can be the Emperor's Warmaster. Also, there is an assassination attempt on Ferrus Manus by an enemy psyker and a almost Necron-like, human mind to machine consciousness battle construct thing that seems inconsistent w/ what is known about primarch strengths. Apparently a human psyker can invade a primarch's mind and root around in his memories at will. Had no idea.The last chapters were what I wish the whole book had been, Pre-Heresy Iron Hands and Ferrus Manus fighting it out against huge odds, and actual meaningful dialogue between two primarchs that reveals more about their thought process and doubtsOn the whole, could have been better, but could have also been worse. At this point I'll just keep it to continue my collection of the Primarch series.

This book was my least favorite Primarch Series entry so far. Honestly, maybe 3 sequences within the book I found even moderately interesting, the rest was just bolter action filler. I was excited to actually get into the Iron Hands lore a bit, as I haven’t read any previous Iron Hand works, and I can say I won’t be going back any time soon.There were a few redeeming parts, but they were very few and far between. One brief sequence involving an Astartes “communing” with his ship’s spirit was interesting, as it at least hints that the Iron Hands are more Machine-God oriented, than God-Emperor focused. (An astartes legion following the mechanicum ideology does seem cool.) There was also a sequence involving an analysis of Ferrus’ through process regarding defeat, which, I found insightful. After all, the Primarchs are supposed to be so above human that they are practically demi-gods, so having a completely foreign and seemingly paradoxical view of victory and defeat seemed fitting and interesting. Also, there’s a semi-cool description of Ferrus as a titan of war in the final chapter that is pretty well written. But seriously, that’s all I got out of this thing.Other that just wasting time on a lot of minor, throw-away characters (Ferrus Manus in in the book for… maybe 3 chapters?), David Guymer has this really annoying tendency to begin describing a scene or situation without telling you who is actually present or to whom he is referring (he loves using pronouns without antecedents. Every. Time.) I realize this is a literary technique, but he uses it WAY too often. You will literally be 5 paragraphs into a scene before a name is actually dropped to revel who the heck he is describing. Then you feel like you have to go back and re-read the whole thing again, now that you can finally imagine which characters are present. It made reading this book a chore, having to constantly go back and re-read sections just to figure out what the heck the author was talking about.This book has been banished forever to my bookshelf for completionist purposes only. Dislike.

Kept me thoroughly engaged from beginning to end. David Guymer succeeds in making me care about Ferrus Manus with both insight into his way of thinking and exciting action sequences where Ferrus Manus goes beast mode. Side characters are well written especially the famed Gabriel Santar and a Emperors Children space marine named Akurduana, a swordsman of great skill. This book impressed me and I certainly recommend it.

Decent book. Writing (to me) is roundabout and doesn't flow nearly as much as others in the series, but I appreciate the story itself - although I appreciate literally any insight into any aspect of the 40k universe.Read Nicole's review, as I fully agree, and it accurately describes the writing style. I definitely keep and have read this mostly for completionist purposes.As always, its great to get a look inside the legion chapter and their primarch.

The book gave insight into the relationship between Ferrus and the Phoenician and the true level of the trafedy that was to follow. It would have been nice to give a little more depth into the legion and lay some groundwork as to why they are the way they are. Ferrus comes off as cold and demanding but there is little to explain why he is the way he is, or what makes the Iron Hands,

After 4 chapters done..literally uninteresting and just plain brining. I knew it would be iron hands are boring but I gave it a chance..nope. Literally just plain on boring.

Good book

The writing was jumbled at times but there were interesting insights as far as the great crusade, the iron hands, emperor’s children, etc.

This is the Primarchs’ Series book devoted to Ferrus Manus, also known as the Gorgon, the Primarch of the Iron Hands that have recently been the focus of a collection of short stories in “Shattered Legions” (in the Horus Heresy collection). There are at least a couple of interesting features that make this title worth reading.The first is the characterisation of Ferrus Manus. He is temperamental, barely in control of his emotions and therefore much more human than it seems despite his eagerness to seek the perfection of the machine. He also desperately needs to prove himself to both his brothers and his father, like a number of his other brothers afflicted with a similar flaw (Perturabo and Fulgrim in particular). The only one of his brothers that he genuinely love happens to be the outstandingly handsome and brilliant Fulgrim who is also a perfectionist, but much more subtle and cynical that the somewhat over trustful, blunt and brutal Primarch of the Iron Hands.The second interesting feature is that the relationship between the two Primarchs clearly shows how Fulgrim will be able to manipulate and betray his rash brother and bring him exactly where he wants him – to Isstvan V where he and his Legion can be trapped and broken alongside two other loyalist Primarchs and their own Legions.A third feature is that for all his bluntness and brutality, Ferrus Manus is a warrior, a fighter, a warlord, and one who leads from the front and by example. It is this that makes him who he is and it is a part of him and of his charisma and influence of his Legion. His attempts to imitate his brothers by adopting more restraint and reason in his tactics and strategy in order to preserve the industrial value of the overpopulated human Empire of Gardinaal and its rather horrible system of castes are well-described but bound to fail. So he will revert to his default mode and be true to pattern, lashing out against the enemy with an all-out assault that is intended to crush and conquer, not integrate and assimilate.I did however have a couple of misgivings. The first one is perhaps a bit unfair. Although the Iron Hands contain many Space Marines originating from Terra, and the book does contain multiple allusions to the Wars of Unification when the Emperor was only one warlord among others, I would have liked to learn more about these through the memories of some of the Iron Han or Emperor’s Children veterans. The second misgiving is however more justified. I wanted more about the reunion between the Emperor and Ferrus Manus. All I got was a quick mention that they fought when they meet, and an implication that the son lost when facing his father. How they meet and why they fought remains entirely unexplained.Four strong stars nevertheless.

A good read, showcasing just how much of a blunt instrument that Ferrus Manus is. And just how much of idiot moron he can be. A lot of great minor characters that you get introduced to, as well as some well known characters from other Horus Heresy novels.After reading this book, I have a great dislike of Ferrus Manus and his shortsightedness, but still a well written and good addition to the Warhammer mythos.

This is a great read, you don't often get to read about the Gorgon and his legion. I especially love how it takes place during the great crusade. Not a trace of heresy! I've always been looking for books that take place during the great crusade as sometimes you need a little break from heresy and betrayal. Pick this book up and the other primarchs books as they all mostly take place during the crusade. Great read.

Good read, found it to be one of the more interesting books out of the collection so far.

Good

Its the space wolves, so expect common sense to go out the window, that said it does contain some nonsense about belisarius crawl but this can be forgiven, just about.