The Horus Heresy series chronological order?

[Iron_Lord]

Problem is if Russ left to bring Magnus back, right after Istvaan V, he'd have pretty overwhelming evidence of Horus's guilt.

After arriving "back in time" and contacting Horus again, you'd expect him to still remember.

[Casper Hawser]

I'm only guessing at this but I wonder if Valdor takes the news to Russ but fails to tell him about Istvaan or they see that Horus is'nt in the Istvaan system so they think it has all been set up by Magnus.
I think McNeil hasn't finished telling this part of the story and i'm hoping all will be revealed at some point.

[Iron_Lord]

In most descriptions Russ was standing at the Emperor's side when Magnus comes through- after his message attempt, the Emperor gives instructions to Russ, who is "barely able to contain his wrath" at Magnus's actions.

[Lupe]

I think that the whole time line mess-up was intentional, really. BL's intent with the whole timeline cock-up was to show that the Warp works in mysterious ways, and that a message delivered in good faith can arrive late and cause irreparable damage in the process... Obviously, Tzeentch had something to do with this )

The thing is, the whole thing falls apart under close scrutiny, due to the author(s) choosing the wrong events as reference points. See, an ideal case scenario would not directly reference two contradicting accounts of the same event against each other, but would have a third event as the time frame to which the others are compared. Still, I'm not going to argue with Graham until the HH series is at an end... After all, he DID write some of the original background, so he can't be lightly blamed for messing it up by not being fully aware of the fluff...

[Casper Hawser]

Well going by the Horus Heresy books he's not mentioned as being there in a Thousand Son's or Outcast Dead (he is at Nikea) and apart from the Bill King story which I read in the early 90's Ive not read any of the older Litrature on the HH. I did say Horus wasn't at Istvaan when the Wolves and Custodes got in contact with him so maybe he convinces them it is all a ploy of Magnus.

[Nineswords]

As noted, many of the books span several 'eras' over the course of the Heresy and before it. I would perhaps think about clustering definitive events and establishing a timeline from there. As (literally) illustrated by my analysis of the timeline in LEGION, we know the following:

+202 years after the beginning of the Great Crusade: (opening chapter in HORUS RISING)
THE GREAT TRIUMPH AT ULLANOR

+21 months, 1 week (determined from events in LEGION)
ISTVAAN III

That 21 months is the period I'm really interested in, as many of the events in the first three books happen in this period. I'm about to re-read all the books again, and try and establish the XVI Legion timeline, which hopefully will correspond to what I've already plotted.

[Lupe]

As noted, many of the books span several 'eras' over the course of the Heresy and before it. I would perhaps think about clustering definitive events and establishing a timeline from there. As (literally) illustrated by my analysis of the timeline in LEGION, we know the following:

+202 years after the beginning of the Great Crusade: (opening chapter in HORUS RISING)
THE GREAT TRIUMPH AT ULLANOR

+21 months, 1 week (determined from events in LEGION)
ISTVAAN III

That 21 months is the period I'm really interested in, as many of the events in the first three books happen in this period. I'm about to re-read all the books again, and try and establish the XVI Legion timeline, which hopefully will correspond to what I've already plotted.

I would not take consistency between books for granted when it comes to the timeline.

For instance, the epilogue for Fallen Angels is set in the 200th year of the Great Crusade, with the Lion encountering the second wave of legions (Iron Warriors, Word Bearers, Night Lords and Alpha Legion) heading for Istvaan V.

[Nineswords]

I would not take consistency between books for granted when it comes to the timeline.

For instance, the epilogue for Fallen Angels is set in the 200th year of the Great Crusade, with the Lion encountering the second wave of legions (Iron Warriors, Word Bearers, Night Lords and Alpha Legion) heading for Istvaan V.

That's interesting. No doubt we will see a lot of overlaps we can simply put down to side-real adjustments and warp distortions! But still, I haven't seen a detailed timeline yet!

EDIT: Plotting the events of HORUS RISING in the same timeline as LEGION, the linear timeline shows the Luna Wolves at the start of their campaign against the Megarachnid on murder, when on the LEGION timeline, Istvaan III should've happened. Be mega cool to plot all of this stuff on and see where the overlaps are.

[nedius]

I think McNeil is showing how much the warp mucks around with travel and communications.

Magnus sets off to warn the Emperor the warp spits him out in the future which causes communication to break down with Terra right when they need it most (during Istvaan 5). Then when Russ is sent to bring Magnus back the warp spits him out in the past when he speaks to Horus he see's that Magnus has lied because Horus is crusading in Drakonis along side the World Eaters.

This is how I saw it anyway I could be wrong.

Still doesn't work.

At the end of False Gods, Russ has already been dispatched to capture Magnus, and Horus contacts Russ and it is heavily implied that Horus has convinced Russ to simply kill Magnus. If Russ was sent to get Magnus after Istvaan 5, even if he popped out of the warp in the past, he'd still be aware of Istvaan and would not be swayed by someone he already knew to be a traitor.

I can't see any way that any ammount of warp based shenannigans can explain it away. It's just a mistake.

[Casper Hawser]

I'm not trying to make it work I just think McNeil hasn't finished telling the story yet He's wrote False Gods, Thousand Son's and Outcast Dead this part of the plot seems to be his baby and I think/hope all will be revealed/explained but like I said I could be wrong. But I don't think he wrote all these novels and thought bugger the timeline.

[shadowhawk2008]

Graeme Lyon, one of the editors, has mentioned elsewhere that the sequence of events as presented in TOD, will be validated down the line although he hasn't given any specifics. So until we see that, its all still iffy. But I agree, the changes are too monumental to the established sequence that has played out so far and there HAS to be a reason for why Graham wrote what he did and what the editors "let pass".