The Kaban Project by Graham McNeill was originally published as bonus content in the Collected Visions Horus Heresy artbook. The Lightning Tower by Dan Abnett is the other half of the duology originally published as The Horus Heresy Chapbook. It is a character study of Rogal Dorn as he prepares the Imperial Palace's defences, exploring the primarch's sadness at the necessity of converting the palace into a fortress and following his introspection as he tries to discover what it is about Horus's rebellion that truly scares him. A thoughtful piece that captures the atmosphere on Terra in the lead-up to the Siege, it overlaps with the Terran scenes in The Crimson Fist but is really just a curio when read in isolation. Though more a vignette than a narrative, this short story casts light on some of the most defining moments in Night Lords history.
Killing his guards and escaping, Curze leads the Night Lords to Nostramo and commands the destruction of his homeworld before going on the run from the Imperium. It explores Konrad Curze's motivations for turning against the Imperium prior to the Heresy, kept in confinement after savagely beating Rogal Dorn when he came to chastise him for excessive bloodshed during the Cheraut compliance. The Dark King by Graham McNeill is half of a duology originally published as The Horus Heresy Chapbook. The final twist is identical to the one from Fear to Tread, but nevertheless The Crimson Fist is an excellent novella and a great introduction to the anthology. The climactic battle is gripping, the forced retreat of the Imperial Fists and the failure of the strike team sent to execute Perturabo lending real tragedy to what should have been Polux's triumph. The account of the fleet battle in this novella is one of the best in the Heresy series, French's writing making the action seem immediate and visceral, but the action is also tempered by character moments on Terra between Rogal Dorn and Sigismund that give the novella depth and pace.
Told from the first-person perspective of Alexis Polux, commander of the Imperial Fists Retribution Fleet sent to Isstvan III, it narrates the Battle of the Phall system after the Retribution Fleet is trapped by Warp storms and attacked by the Iron Warriors, led by Perturabo. The Crimson Fist by John French is the first of the original novellas. A mixed anthology, it contains five short stories previously released in other places and formats book-ended by two original novellas. Shadows of Treachery, edited by Nick Kyme and Christian Dunn, is the twenty-second installment in the Horus Heresy series.