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  • Luther: First of the Fallen

  • The Horus Heresy
  • Written by: Gav Thorpe
  • Narrated by: Andrew James Spooner
  • Length: 7 hrs and 32 mins
  • 4.7 out of 5 stars (66 ratings)

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Luther: First of the Fallen

Written by: Gav Thorpe
Narrated by: Andrew James Spooner
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Publisher's Summary

A Horus Heresy novel

Hero. Villain. Protector. Destroyer. Loyal. Fallen. Luther embodies the duality at the heart of the Dark Angels – but what is his story? Prepare to find out....

Listen to It Because

Get new insights into one of the key figures of the Horus Heresy, who shaped the destiny of the Dark Angels for 10 millennia, in a new novel by the master of First Legion fiction, Gav Thorpe.

The Story

Knight of the Angelicasta. Saviour of the Lion. Grand Master of the Order. Lord of the Dark Angels. Protector of Caliban. Chaos Heretic. Destroyer of Caliban. Sorcerer of the Abyss. Arch-traitor. Dark Oracle. First of the Fallen.

Can one man be all of these things?

Kept alive and imprisoned for 10,000 years, Luther is the curse and the salvation of the Dark Angels made manifest. None are so close to the heart and history of the Chapter as the man that embodies all that was great about the First Legion and all that is shameful about the Dark Angels. In his story is writ the tale of the Horus Heresy and the fall from Enlightenment in a single long life. Glory, honour, pride, shame and betrayal weave a tapestry of truth and lies that the Supreme Grand Masters of the Dark Angels have sought to understand and unbind across 10 bloody millennia. Luther claims repentance for his past deeds, but was it his sins that condemned the Chapter to its secretive fate, or should warnings from history have been more closely heeded?

Written by Gav Thorpe. Narrated by Andrew James Spooner.

©2021 Games Workshop Limited (P)2021 Games Workshop Limited

What listeners say about Luther: First of the Fallen

Average Customer Ratings
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  • SR
  • 2023-04-19

Excellent

A great story that spends a good amount of time looking back at the history of Caliban before the Lion rose to prominence as well as advancing the legend of the Dark Angels

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I regret waiting.

I love villains you just can't hate. A great story with a perfect performance. I had this title on my wish list for months I should have gotten it sooner.

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Buy it. Read it. Love it.

Gab Thorpe doesn’t amazing job of depicting Luther and the 1st Legion. Love the narrative from Luthers perspective. Makes you understand, sympathize and possibly agree with Luther I’m his beliefs.

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An In-depth Take on The Fall of the Imperium

I had no prejudice walking into this book as I misread and thought it'd be a Black Templars novel. Not at all disappointed however. This is an omnibus of the fall, where Luther wakes every 5-10 thousand years or so from stasis for another round of loveliness by his ever evolving chapter. every awakening is a new revelation. This is a novel that shows that Horus wasn't not wrong.

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Gav Thorpe at his best

Gav Thorpe effectively crafted the intrigue of the Dark Angels with Angels of Darkness and Luther: First of the Fallen marks a return to that unreliable narrator that made Angels of Darkness so compelling.

Masterfully weaving multiple writing styles across the tale, you are drawn in to the life of one of the more interesting, but least explored characters in the Dark Angels tragic tale.

Needless to say, I enjoyed it and would recommend it highly.

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One of the better BL books I've listened to

This book fleshes out Luther's character so well, and reveals a lot about the corruption of Caliban during the Horus Heresy. A must-read for Dark Angels fans.

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  • snozek
  • 2021-04-26

Way better then Gav's last book

Gav Thorpe is notoriously hot and cold as far as the books he writes for black library.

Some of his books are among the best of the Horus heresy, like deliverance loss or angels of Caliban. Others are so terrible that I really wish I had never read it, like Indomitus, his eldar novels, or some of his varied Dark Angel shorts.

It seems like black library had intended this book to bridge a number of different weak points in the lore of the genesis of the dark angels.

If this was the mission, than the author accomplished it very solidly.

The author has a bad habit however of making a straw man out of characters that are not ones your supposed to like.

The effect is that many of the stories are 2 dimensional until you reach 1 or 2 characters.

Presuming the previous mission, the author had a tough task, but used the vehicle of Luther as an effective bridge across seeming chasms of unwritten lore.

There are a few very difficult parts to the book however, these parts are shared with other books recently from black library generally and Gav particularly.

The forcing of politically correct agendas is really not necessary in the grim darkness of the 41st millennium. Nobody likes to be subtly or unsubtly propagandised, I really don't need female nights running around when that was never integral to the story.

In fact, it's kind of a put off. They are not any historical evidences of this happening anywhere in human history. It is just a modern political agenda that will pass later. It makes the work have less staying power and appeal ability.

Have and black library both have been pushing similar agendas with gender nonconformity, female empowerment, and how evil religion is.

S is really irritating and nobody really enjoys it. It is tolerated, not enjoyed.

Jumping onto that bandwagon, Gav also loves to permeate the work with the idea that everything is meaningless and there is no right or wrong.

Being a veteran of black library, the warhammer universe generally, and all sorts of similar fiction, this is one of the most annoying tropes out there is fiction.

It is a small minded, internally invalid outlook the defeats itself simply on its statement. I am not advocating one or another value set per se, but damn seems to love the depressing and meaningless angles in his characters.

Why does a character do any one thing instead of another thing if there is no hope of anything positive in the end? Gav doesn't know, or at least he doesn't seem to write anything.

That is why this is so strange about this particular book. The reader is hopeful of some kind of information contributing to the overall storyline of the dark angels. This keeps us turning the pages.

In this book, Gav understands that very well, which is why the book was very readable.

It seems strange that gave does not extend this understanding to characters in his books.

That being sad, Gav's work in this book is above average and is generally very solid.This is mostly because the subject is compelling and we really want to advance the overall storyline in the 40K universe.

He narrator, Mr. Spooner, did a phenomenal job! It is fairly rare to have a reader do so well that I have not heard before in 40k audios, but he did quite well. Hats off!

29 people found this helpful

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  • Christopher Alexander
  • 2021-05-26

Dull and trite

Nothing worse than a sci-fi author trying to be a philosopher. Also, the author’s politics emerges in boring fashion as a medieval society cares about tolerating immigrants and ensuring equality. It was like they had Twitter in space and everyone virtue signals instead of being interesting.

15 people found this helpful

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  • Frank
  • 2021-04-30

Outstanding!

Great story & narration! Even if you're not a DA fan it's still very immersive and paints a different picture of Luther.

4 people found this helpful

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  • Cody & Ashley
  • 2021-04-11

One great book I loved it

I loved this book one of the best I've heard so far. Full of great little stories and a insight of what it's l like to be a fallen.

2 people found this helpful

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  • Kjetil Moen
  • 2021-04-04

choppy

the sound is really choppy.
ive tried both the normal and large version.
as it stands now, it is unplayable

2 people found this helpful

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    2 out of 5 stars
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  • CHRIS SANDERS
  • 2022-03-28

Boring

Better suited for Warhammer not 40k.
Plodding story that was derivative, boring and lacking focus and originality.

1 person found this helpful

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  • Amazon Customer
  • 2021-09-30

Boorish but compelling

While it's well written its a tale told through the eyes of someone who speaks most of the time in allegory. So it's pretty drawn out in a way that highlights Luther's eccentricities. If you're a 40k buff like me and have some time check it out, otherwise I wouldn't call this mandatory reading.

1 person found this helpful

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  • mws73
  • 2021-09-15

Insightful

I liked the fact that it explained much about Luthers background that I hadn’t heard before. I liked how they portrayed him as a freedom fighter doing the right thing for Caliban and it’s people, not necessarily because of him being corrupted by Chaos. The Imperium corrupts everything it touches depending on what side you’re looking at it from.
I love how they introduce each successive DA chapter master over the millennia and how none of them listen to or take his warning seriously no mater the truth of his words, shows how far the DA have truly fallen since their heyday.
I hate that it was so short…I could have used another 3-4 hrs of details and technical mumbo jumbo, historical background and storytelling.
Thank you Mr Thorpe for another stupendous novel in my favorite escape from reality and
as usual the narration was spot on and Mr Spooner did great.

1 person found this helpful

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  • Anonymous User
  • 2021-05-14

Good S***

This story was the most human story I've listened to or read so far. "A"mazing

1 person found this helpful

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  • David
  • 2021-05-05

A Boring Meh

A few short stories from a prisoner to his captors that are meant to be lessons in their quest, yet the stories are so nuanced and meandering that no one understands them. Much the way I feel about this boring and anti-climatic book.

1 person found this helpful