“Legends of the Space Marines,” edited by Christian Dunn, is a collection of short stories focusing on the various Space Marine chapters. The stories vary greatly from one another and help to show the different sides of the Space Marines. All in all it's a pretty good collection.

First the list of stories and their focus chapter.

“Hell Night” by Nick Kyme, Salamanders

“Cover of Darkness” by Mitchell Scanlon, White Scars

“The Relic” by Jonathan Green, Black Templars

“Twelve Wolves” by Ben Counter, Space Wolves

“The Returned” by James Swallow, Doom Eagles

“Consequences” by Graham McNeil, Ultramarines

“The Last Detail” by Paul Kearney, Dark Hunters

“The Trial of the Mantis Warriors” by CS Goto, Mantis Warriors

“Orphans of the Kraken” by Richard Williams, Scythes of the Emperor

“At Gaius Point” by Aaron Dembski-Bowden, Flesh Tearers

Overall I think this is a pretty good collection. Like all short story collections there is always at least one not so good story. If I had to choose one for this book it would be “The Trial of the Mantis Warriors.” Another problem with short story collections is you don't get as much time to get to know a character. In the case of “Consequences,” it fits with the already established Ultramarines novels so it doesn't suffer from it as much. Their are little problems in some of the stories, most of them not too bad. The one that comes to mind is the fact that in "Orphans of the Kraken" they use a carnifex to remove the gene seed from dead marines. That definetly had me a little puzzled. Just imagining a Apothacary pulling out a pocket sized carnifex and having it dig out the gene seed. Other than small errors like that they are done fairly well.

As I mentioned "The Trial of the Mantis Warriors" is my least favorite story of the collection. I didn't particularly care for the main character and there were moments when I had to go back and think about what was being said. I'm sure there are those who will enjoy this story but considering its only one so-so story out of ten, thats not too bad.

One of the nice things is the fact that they can publish stories that are a little different from the norm. “The Relic” is told from the perspective of a Black Templars Dreadnought. Many of the stories are told from a first person perspective or in a style reminiscent of someone sitting around a table being told a story.

Overall I'd give it a 7 out of 10. Nothing particularly stellar or completely terrible. Space Marines fans will more than likely find something to latch onto in this collection. I look forward to seeing more of these kinds of stories.