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Helsreach Novel Discussion


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Well, what a glorious book.

 

I have finally got my hands on it and am up to Chapter: Knightfall

 

I love this book. The best one outside of the HH series. I will only slot it in somewhere on completion of the book. Sad day for the other Chapters, eh?

This is much better than the SW books. Maybe this shall help to re-consecrate my devotion to the Emperor's Favourite Chapter.

 

I am glad of the combat scenes-lite approach. I am not a fan of laboured combat unless it is important to the book. When I wrote my entry for the '09 short story contest on The Great Crusade forum, I deliberately avoided writing of actual combat scenes. This was on my heart and inspired by Pacific's excellent entry: That other place.

 

I read slowly, when it is good. Good books are not to be crunched and gobbled down, but sucked on and savoured.

So I find voices for the characters.

 

Grimaldus helmed is Darth Vader. Unhelmed he is 'only' James Earl Jones.

The AdMech guys use the Dawn of War voices.

Zahra is Galadriel, as done by Cate Blanchett, and has a metallic twang.

 

Delightful.

I gotta say, I've only just read a small part of Helsreach so far, but that rousing speech that Grimaldus gives to the Steel Legion just before the orks attack was so well written and so stirring I actually got chills and physically felt pumped up reading it. Just awesome writing by A-D-B! I don't think anything has transferred from page to real life so strongly for me.

It has to be said Helsreach is VERY well written.

 

I too was stirred by THE speach, pretty powerful stuff.

 

And the initiation

 

not to mention the whole "..we do not wear His symbol, we ARE His symbol..." Genius!

 

Top reading and no mistake!

The one thing about the book which kinda threw me: Grimmy (he's cool if I call him that, I asked) sorta seems to find his resolve/purpose/zeal a couple of different times. When he's talking to the Apothecary and he starts throwing gene-seed at him like "What the hell man!?" Grimmy goes "Yeah, you're right, I've been a putz, my bad." Then it's a couple of chapters before he goes "Oh my Emperor, I've been a putz! Let's kill some greenskins!" It kind of killed the epiphany moment for me.

 

Other than that, epic indeed. Many quotable lines, much goodness in the rabble rousing speeches, etc. Still glad I bought and read it, undoubtedly.

I just finished reading it for the 3rd time. Its just too good.

 

Only twice for me.. Too busy going through girlfriends to reread old books :devil:

 

HERESY! :lol:

 

Its a great read, read through it twice, meanwhile I've also read Cadian Blood (by the same author) and now I want even more another BT book by him. Maybe about the Jerulas crusade or even the terra crusade.

I'll admit, i found the initial portrayal of Grimaldus to be a little jarring. I mean there he was with emotions and doubts and not just shouting at unclean filthy psyker types. This wasn't what i'd signed up for.

 

I did however, sign up for a great read and that's exactly what i got. We all know Grimaldus, the hardcore nature of chaplains is somethings thats been present with marines for ages and he is nothing if not an exemplar of that. A novel solely about this unrelentingly brutal, extremely together, constantly unshakeable chaplain would have been hella exciting but i doubt it would've warranted a re read. Instead ADB Gave us a story that took the time to show the human side of the siege, the ordinary men and women who's city was burning all around them. We got to see a Grimaldus that had some emotional weight to him rather than just being some sort of ecclesiastical robocop.

 

The Grimaldus that we know and love on the tabletop isn't in this book much. He doesnt emerge until the dust has settled. This is the story of him fighting his inadequacies, rallying against a futile death and searching for purpose in the wake of his mentor's death.

Finished it today. Amazing.

 

Grimaldus is amazing. He has the vicious side of a Chaplain, a Black Templar Chaplain mind you, and a personality all his own. It is a amazing character who i believe has become the table top badass we all love. Before he had his doubts, and then realized how glorious he must make his last stand, also of his responsibly as Mordred's heir to the Reclusiarch title.. So that his brothers and the city he defended did not die for nothing. I am happy knowing that the TT Grimaldus is how ADB describes. I am buying his box set after reading this... I must paint this incredibly epic, and yet relatable flawed character.

 

I wish our Grimmy had better toughness, another wound/feel no pain, and board wide leadership buff. His presence inspiring all around him... With that, i would gladly pay 195 for just Grimmy.

I wish our Grimmy had better toughness, another wound/feel no pain, and board wide leadership buff. His presence inspiring all around him... With that, i would gladly pay 195 for just Grimmy.

 

Well, the RZ boost bubble was plenty nasty when Black Tide was still a trademark list ^_^ . Seemed fitting enough to represent his inspirational presence, too.

  • 2 months later...

Hi guys. So I finally got around to reading helsreach. It took me only two days and I thought the book was great. Now I know this was established in the fluff, but did any of you find the ending as anti-climactic as me?

 

It kinda reminded me of War of the worlds... you read the whole book/see the whole movie... and then all of a sudden its over and basically bacteria did it (I'm not even going to go into why the super-intelligent aliens didn't consider that when they decided to pick our planet out of all to live on... but I digress). The whole book builds up to the last stand at the temple and then rather than get the victory or defeat we crave, we get a cut and then a line about some volcanic eruption that decided everything...

 

I also found it strange that in 2-3 cases A D-B used statements like "in his memoirs he would" bla bla.. i.e. telling you the outcome before it happens, or who survives etc. I mean, that is completely fine as a literary tool. I just found that in this case it took me out of the moment. Especially since a lot of the book is in first person and present tense...

 

I still loved the book, these comments by no means reflect my enjoyment, just want to see if I'm the odd one out here.

Gunslinger- I see the point with the memoirs and signposting the outcome but at the end of the day, the book is about one of the most famous campaigns in 40k. Not to mention that the book is based upon a battle fought by a character in the Black Templar's codex. The battle and the outcome is there in that chunk of text in a game supplement that predated the novel by 5 years or so. ADB isn't really spoiling anything that isn't common knowledge. I can see it may have been a little jarring if you werent aware of the Armageddon campaign that much but the majority of the whole shebang is pretty common knowledge.

 

As for the ending: Valid point again. It's only holding true to the events of the Armageddon campaign (true to worldwide gaming campaign form, it was inconclusive). Things ground to a halt due to the season of fire when the planet goes volcanic and ash cloudy and hella crazy. It's a victory of sorts for the imperium because they were able to hold on until that point.

 

Didn't you feel that ADB was pointing towards a bit of a hollow victory? I think its foreshadowed quite alot, especially with the mentions of the damage being done to the industrial parts of the city. Surviving is the best case scenario for them. It's even mentioned that even if they won, that Armageddon is pretty much nobbled as an industrial player and as such, probably wont receive the same level of protection.

 

I like how that knowledge plays with the final ending, that bittersweet loss coupled with the sheer euphoria of survival. It only seems like a victory because the people are just so happy to have survived. There's nothing great about it, they just managed to make it through. Armageddon was a horrible, destructive, inconclusive war and that much is shown by how the Templars react to it with such a sense of disdain.

I still loved the book, these comments by no means reflect my enjoyment, just want to see if I'm the odd one out here.

 

If, by odd, you mean 'a Crusade has just been launched to hunt you down for your slur on the Knight's revered tome' then yes, you are odd.

Don't worry, you wont be in the state of odd for very long ;)

;)

I still loved the book, these comments by no means reflect my enjoyment, just want to see if I'm the odd one out here.

 

If, by odd, you mean 'a Crusade has just been launched to hunt you down for your slur on the Knight's revered tome' then yes, you are odd.

Don't worry, you wont be in the state of odd for very long ;)

;)

 

We may not adhere to the Codex Astartes but by God we have great people skills.

I still loved the book, these comments by no means reflect my enjoyment, just want to see if I'm the odd one out here.

 

If, by odd, you mean 'a Crusade has just been launched to hunt you down for your slur on the Knight's revered tome' then yes, you are odd.

Don't worry, you wont be in the state of odd for very long ;)

:)

 

We may not adhere to the Codex Astartes but by God we have great people skills.

 

By which god?.....

 

*pulls out Black Sword*

 

 

What was this about a god again?

B)

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