Book Review // Horus Heresy All That Remains by James Swallow
We’re now about halfway through the War Without End anthology, and look at that, an early Grey Knights story has wandered onto the operating table. So grab your boltgun, adjust your psychic warding, and let’s dive in.
Details
Title: All That Remains
Author: James Swallow
Format: Part of War Without End
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Official Fluff
As Horus’s rebellion devours the galaxy, the dead number in the billions, but the wounded? They’re beyond counting. Flung from frontline duties and stuffed into whatever ships can still fly, these broken soldiers drift between the stars, praying they’ll heal in time to fight again.
Yet one such vessel, cast adrift in the warp, hides a secret. Onboard, a ragged handful of Imperial Army survivors uncover something disturbing, a truth that explains why so many of their comrades have vanished, and where they were taken.
This is no ordinary tragedy. It’s the start of something far more… sanctioned.
The Review
The entire story unfolds aboard a battered battleship limping through the void, a sort of half-functioning hospital ship loaded with the Imperium’s walking wounded. Shell-shocked troopers, warp-scarred rejects, men who’ve stared a little too long into the Immaterium and didn’t come back quite whole. In short: a crew you would not want on a long-haul flight.
But as the tale progresses, it becomes obvious these survivors all share something unusual. Little talents. Psychic flickers. Unwanted “gifts” courtesy of the warp. And someone, somewhere, knows it. Enter a lone Space Marine, clad in storm-grey, bearing the symbols of the Sigillite. He boards the ship with all the hospitality of a thunderstorm and promptly hijacks it. With a psychic shove and a few words that raise more questions than they answer, he sets course for Titan. Titan. That Titan.
From here the hints become neon signs: secret orders, psychic might, Malcador’s quiet hand at work. We’re watching the early foundations of the Grey Knights being paved with the bodies of the forgotten and the broken. It’s subtle, atmospheric, and very James Swallow, heavy on mood, light on exposition, and crackling with that “you’re glimpsing forbidden history” energy.
Is it mind-blowing? Not quite. But does it deliver a solid, intriguing origin tale for the Emperor’s favourite daemon-slayers? Absolutely. My only sticking point: the timeline. There’s mention of Thousand Sons daemon-summoning shenanigans that I thought happened later in the war? Maybe my memory’s failing or maybe these anthologies were arranged by a particularly mischievous scribe. Honestly, these shorts treat the timeline like a suggestion rather than a rule.
Still, an enjoyable addition to the lore vault, and well worth the quick read.
