
Willful Child
science fiction
Series · science fiction
The Black Legion series by Aaron Dembski-Bowden has 2 books and is best read in publication order, starting with The Talon of Horus (2014).
Start here: The Talon of Horus (2014) — then read straight through in publication order.
The order the books were released — the default way to read the series.
Black Legion is Aaron Dembski-Bowden's account of the Traitor Legions' lowest, most fractured point -- the decades after the Horus Heresy's defeat, when the Sons of Horus have scattered and the wider Chaos-aligned galaxy has all but forgotten Abaddon, the former First Captain who will eventually reforge them into the Black Legion. It's narrated by Iskandar Khayon, a former Thousand Sons sorcerer, recounting the story under Imperial Inquisition custody -- a framing device that lets Dembski-Bowden write almost entirely from the traitors' point of view without ever fully trusting his narrator.
The Talon of Horus (2014) follows Khayon and a small confederation of legionaries hunting through the Eye of Terror for Abaddon himself, hoping to convince him to pick up what Horus started; Black Legion (2017) pushes further into the warband's fracturing loyalties and the cost of the choice they've made. It's a direct spiritual sequel to Dembski-Bowden's Horus Heresy novels (The First Heretic, Betrayer), following some of the same Legions decades on, and one of Black Library's few series willing to spend an entire trilogy inside the psychology of the 40K setting's ostensible villains.
Two so far: The Talon of Horus (2014) and Black Legion (2017).
No. It was planned as a trilogy, reportedly with a third book under the working title Chaos Ascendant, but no third volume has been published or given a release date as of August 2026.
No, but it helps -- Black Legion is a direct spiritual sequel to Dembski-Bowden's own Horus Heresy novels (The First Heretic, Betrayer), following some of the same characters and Legions decades later.
Iskandar Khayon, a former Thousand Sons sorcerer, recounting the story from Imperial Inquisition custody -- an unreliable-narrator framing device that runs through both books.
Reading order last verified .