The Horus Heresy Box Set Volumes 1-12 Review

It's very hard to argue against the popularity of the Horus Heresy book series from Black Library - having consistently conquered the New York Times Best Seller List. It's also hard to argue against their influence in the current Warhammer 40K universe - certainly in terms of miniature releases, but also fan fervor for more.
You would have to say that the current success of Forge World is built on the popularity if these books.
Well Black Library have just released one mother of a boxed set. 

My interest in the Horus Heresy goes way back - in fact back to White Dwarf 120 or so where there was a big double page black and white image of the Emperor facing off against Horus. At about the same time Space Marine and Adeptus Mechanicus were released showing pitch battles between Space Marines. The concept was huge - brother against brother on an epic (no pun intended) stage. I remember the big splash pages at the back of the White Dwarf issues showing the battle banners of the Traitor Legions - I even painted up a Thousand Sons marine in the now long-gone colour scheme of white with blue checks.. Such a great scheme!
The Hours Heresy grabbed me from there and never let go, but despite all that the book series has only partly seduced me, mainly due to it's obsession with Horus turning because of demons rather than demons coming to him because of his sadness at the seeming inhumanity of the Emperor..
My good friend, Rob is a massive fan and fills my head with the tales from each book after he digests it - but for me reading books is hard in my schedule.
Now, some years later, there's this massive boxed set with 12 volumes in it. Twelve!! Who knew?
-
First thing to say about this set is that it's massive!
The box is made of thick card with high res glossy artwork on the outside.
The side fap is velcroed down and lifts up so you can lie the box on it's back and have all the books, binder outwards peer out at you.
The books aren't on individual shelves, rather stacked on top of each other in two columns. 

Not the best pic in the world, but the shiny gold lettering threw my camera off!
As you would expect, it's quite a weighty tome, but looks fantastic. 
Apart from the first twelve books, you also get "Whispers of Heresy", an exclusive anthology of stories previously only available as Black Library audio dramas or eBook downloads.
You can see the titles of the short stories in the pics below.

I have to say, I'm really exited by this box set (technically it should be "Boxed Set" but lets move on!) because you know you have them all right there in order and in this big box looking all pretty!
Now as usual, there's always a concern over price, but I found it WAY below listed price here in Australia and even on Amazon.
As far as "Whispers of Heresy" goes, I will likely start there and then head back to the two novels I have read and go from there. I'm really looking forward to it.
If you've held off buying the series until now, or you'd like to start somewhere - why not start here? It's an outlay, but you'd be spending it anyway so may as well do it now and get the nice box!