The Flight of the Eisenstein

The Flight of the Eisenstein by James Swallow is the fourth installment in the Horus Heresy series. It follows the trials of Battle-Captain Nathaniel Garro of the Death Guard, who must escape the Isstvan system and bring warning to the Emperor of Horus's betrayal.

The flight of the frigate Eisenstein from the events of Isstvan III is a long-established part of the Heresy lore, but Nathaniel Garro's involvement has not always been canon. Indeed, only after several retcons did the loyal Death Guard Battle-Captain become the man at the helm, and in this novel James Swallow finally settles him into his role. The Flight of the Eisenstein is a refreshingly straightforward novel, moving at a steady pace through the Death Guard's conquest of an alien ship to their involvement in the virus-bombing of Isstvan III. Events here overlap with those of the previous book and Swallow doesn't dwell too much on what has already been covered, giving us a slice of perspective from the loyalist Death Guard on the ground but keeping the focus on the action in orbit, where drama unfolds aboard the Eisenstein.

Garro is one of the loyalists marked for termination by the nascent alliance of traitors, but an injury on Isstvan Extremis consigns him instead to the Eisenstein, where the men of the Death Guard Second Company under Ignatius Grulgor are given leave to kill him. Getting the upper hand over the would-be murderers, Garro and his loyalists take on the refugees from the Vengeful Spirit then make a desperate bid for escape, determined to warn the Emperor of the betrayal unfolding around them. Damaged during their flight, the crew of the Eisenstein are flung into the Warp and must face the Nurgle-possessed corpses of Grulgor and his men, who have been reanimated to become the first Plague Marines. Only after enduring this and several other horrors are they rescued by the Imperial Fists, who transport them to Luna where Garro has to face one final trial before finding a new calling.

The Flight of the Eisenstein is a good novel that draws you in and pulls you along as events critical to the narrative of the Heresy unfold. It establishes Nathaniel Garro as a likeable and interesting hero and leaves him at the beginning of a new and even more intriguing chapter in his story, one covered by the future novel Garro. Overall The Flight of the Eisenstein it is a solid installment that should be read by all fans of the Heresy series.