Horus Heresy

[Claws of Corax]

The Horus Heresy Novels have been running for a few years now.. We have seen the Blood Angels pop up in a number of them already..

 

With Black Library rushing torward the seige of Terra, I am concerned that Black Library are going to gloss over the Signus Cluster Ambush. Has anybody heard rumors of a BA novel?

 

I would be extremely displeased if the glorious BA Legion/Chapter were to be missed. Especially when they have done other famous Legions already:

 

Dark Angels ... Tick

Thousand Sons... Tick

Emperors Children.. Tick

Luna Wolves /Sons of Horus... Tick

Alpha Legion... Tick

Word Bearers... Tick

 

Now to my second point... Who would we like/dislike to write it?

 

As a big Aaron Dembski-Bowden fan boy I would grin like a child on Christmas if he wrote it. I would loath it if James Swallow wrote it. (Please someone from Black Library read this and take on board Fans comments)

 

Claws of Corax.

[Rider-75]

the novels aren't exactly coming out in a strictly chronological order, so there is every chance of the BA getting their 10mins of glory/

[Gunslinger87]

I would be very surprised if they didn't do it. Keep in mind that they will probably first and foremost focus on the traitor legions, as that is where the big character development happens.

 

They surely wont miss out on a huge event, especially if it is already in the HH collected visions book. You can expect a TL pov of the Signus. Possibly, it will be two books like Prospero, who knows. But I wouldn't be worried :-)

 

I think all of the major events will be covered and much much more...

[Gorlak]

Unfortunately, I think the 'big name' legions (I'm going to have offended with that aren't I?) may well all ready be reserved to certain authors now. There is some discussion of this over on Dakka that I have been following just today, with ADB commenting directly (Dead Blue Clown = Aaron Dembski-Bowden) -

Dead Blue Clown wrote:

Manchu wrote:

@Dead Blue Clown: I'm really enjoying The First Heretic, especially your protrayal of the primarchs. Do you have any plans for another contribution to the HH series? how would you feel about writing Ultramarines? Or is that territory staked out?

 

Thanks, dude, Muchos gracias.

 

I'd sell my left arm to get a crack at one of the really major Legions, but they're reserved by the guys that got there first. The Dark Angels are done and their tale is pretty set in stone in their last 2 books; Jim will almost certainly be doing the Blood Angels; Dan's got the Space Wolves covered; and if Graham doesn't end up doing the Ultramarines, I'll eat my shoes.

 

And really, it's hard to complain - there's still plenty of great stuff left. My next HH novel (and unless I explode, there'll almost definitely be one, as I'm the permanent 4th guy on the team now, I reckon) will most likely be about one of the less popular Legions that need some airtime (like the Word Bearers in TFH).

 

This sentiment ties in a bit with what Dan Abnett said in an interview for the Ultramarines movie - he was surprised he was writing it as McNeil was/is regarded as the Ultramarine writer.

 

I too am nervous about mr swallow being a foregone conclusion to right the BA centric books but that said, Flight of the Eisensein was pretty great, so who knows?

[Israfel]

Unfortunately Mr. Swallow has a great talent to mess with BA lore and write everything else pretty good. I would love is ADB wrote our novel, his description of the Black Rage in "At Gaius Point" was great! He also included BA in the "Soul Hunter" so we may always pray to the Emperor! ;)

[Brother Nathan]

whomever writes it, for some reason i have a feling it will be centered round a certain sanguary guard character....

[Arkio]

as much as it pains me, i'm pretty sure i saw somewhere on this board that swallow is writing the blood angels book for HH, his most recent work for the BA black tide was a cut above the rest of his BA books to date. so i have some hope. unfourtunatly i do not have the time to do the requisite search fu to find the citation of this so feel free to tell me i'm full of crap cause i'm not backing up my post.

[skawolf]

Having just finished "Red fury" and started "Black Tide", I don't think James isn't as bad as everyone seems to make him out to be. Though, admittedly I have not read the "deus" books and they seem to be the catalyst for the scorn of Mr. Swallow. I did notice a few typos and minor gramatical errors, but I couldn't do any better as my grasp of puntuation and spelling is not as great as I would like it to be. These small errors didn't take away from the story, to me at least.

 

As far as a blood angels HH book goes, I was wondering the same thing as I was at Barnes and Noble two days ago trying to pick a new novel. Thanks for starting this topic B)

[Volcatus]

Here's Mr. Swallow's list of projects: Incoming!

 

No mention of a new Blood Angels novel, HH or otherwise (although Heart of Rage will make it to print).

 

I'll add that I, for one, feel that James is finally getting the hang of writing Marine based work. Flight of the Eisenstein was fantastic. If he can start giving the Blood Angels the respect most of us feel they deserve, I think we'll be in safe hands in the future. However, if he carries on with making the BA look incompetent, weak, and with one-foot-in-the-warp... Yeah. ;)

[Taz]

Wow I didn't know there was this much animosity towards Swallow. >.>'

 

I didn't mind the Deus books too much, though some would say I'm a little too willing to accept something for what it is rather than what it should be. That being said, the Deus books WERE his first BL publications, and like was said above, Black Tide and Eisenstein were definitely good reads. If Swallow is taking over the BA heresy story I'll probably tear through it like I do every other HH book I get my hands on. Come on, guys. Are you really gonna pass on an HH novel just because of the first two books he wrote for BL? It could be worse. It could be C.S. Goto...

[Zid]

BA will get their due... hopefully its as epic as the thousand sons novel

[Terrahawk]

I'd prefer Abnett or ADB writing our HH Book and I'd love to see it centered on Signus. I am seriously considering kidnapping their loved ones and forcing them to write me Blood Angels fluff (both 30K and 40K) as in the movie Misery. (Obviously I'm only kidding ;))

 

Buuuuut, if Swallow is chosen I think I'll still remain pretty hopeful for the book. I've understood the HH series are a very collaborative effort and I'm sure the other authors will restrain Swallow's wilder plot ideas if necessary.

[Brother-Captain Devlonir]

The most important thing any writer has to remember when writing BA HH novels is that the Legion was a different beast at the time!

No Black Rage means a lot when it comes to determining how the Legion works and what is important for them. They were not a damned Legion at all, just a Blood Thirsty Legion led by a winged Primarch who was described to be the purest of them all.

 

I would say BA will be amongst the last one to be written as their story gets most interesting after Sanguinius died and their heroic struggle on Terra. Before that, we can mostly focus on their rivalry with the World Eaters, the admiration Horus had for Sanguinius, and their glorious fast paced victories in the name of the Emperor, but that gets old pretty fast.

 

I would not be surprised if another writer gets the BA books for that very same reason. The BA in the Heresy era universe are a different beast than they are today, a very different beast.

[LittleRuss]

Uh hello did any of you read Flight Of The Esienstine?????????? Its pretty good prob the best book outside the first 3 luna wolf books and james swallow worte that. I have only heard bad things about the BA books so I never read them but I wouldn't knock him as an author if anything he is trying drastic and creative things with his books although the excerpts I have read seem un BA to me...

[shatter]

I'm pretty sure Sanguinius was said to succumb to rage and mood upon occasion. Kind of like the wrath of god expressed in an archangel. The Black Rage may be his natural temperament without the calming affect of an awesome and all-seeing mind... which marines seldom have.

The exceptions are rage free and are equipped with mystical mental abilities that augment their roles.

Mephiston, Dante, Corbolo and Asteroth.

The story goes that the Black Rage is getting worse, ie. once upon a time it wasn't so prevalent or debilitating for the Sanguinius geneseed chapters. Before his death, I think it was present in every one of them but was assimilated and managed appropriately by the (super)human mind of the space marines themselves. I think the whole black Rage thing gives Blood Angels and the Imperium an interesting future.

 

Sanguinius and Angron are pretty similar. Two sides of the same coin.

I'm pretty sure this will be underlined when his turn in print comes.

 

I don't mind if Swallow does 'em. He's improved a great deal and is in my opinion OK to write for BA.

 

I'd prefer someone with a more constant record but if Swallow keeps growing in the directions he's shown he can, it'll be good or even great... of course I've frequently found myself wondering how much of his latest work for BL was edited by real authors. *sigh*

I wonder if GW supports him as a present writer to gloss over his (and therefore GW's) past by improving his average.

[Taz]

Sanguinius and Angron are pretty similar. Two sides of the same coin.

http://cdn3.knowyourmeme.com/system/profile/icon/4666/big/HANK_AND_RAGE_FACE_fin.jpg?1254773006

 

I think Mr.Hill properly illustrates my response to this statement.

[shatter]

hehe... I wondered if folks would flip on that bombshell of a statement. But they ARE similar. Philosophical/ethical flip-sides but the zeal for bloodshed is the same. Kind of underlined by many folks running BA counts as WE.

[Taz]

Angron was always a psycho. Sanguinius held aspect of himself in check

World Eaters were butchers before Khorne even entered the picture. At least Blood Angels had some class to them.

[Whitefireinferno]

OOO a subject I can add 2 cents too, Well Angron was one of the Primarchs that was a ticking time bomb thanks to big E and taking Angron from a warriors death, He in turn adapted his Phycosurgery mind thing to be used by His legion so I am going to Guess the WE were alot more like BA when they were the War Hounds(I think) but then the surgery turned them into raging nut jobs.

 

The BA we classed as Noble types But during the Midst of battle all hell would be unleashed which turned worse when Sang was Struck down and we cranked it up to 11 and now we have the lovable Blood thirsty guys in powerarmour we all here love .

 

But as to our HH book I would hope Mr Swallow stays the hell away from it because he has shown on 4 accounts that he cannot write about the BA without making them look stupid His other books are not too bad I just have to say I would Prefer for ADB or Dan to get to do ours. *Gah still havent been able to trackdown Heroes of the SpaceMarines to read "At Gauis Point"*

[Sviox]

I've read all the BA books by Swallow and at least the chapbook from GD was very interesting, and even had heresy era stuff on it. Anyone else read it? Haven't seen any discussion about that here.

[Chairman_woo]

Black Library books made me realise what a book snob I've become unfortunately. I may get flamed for saying this but even what seem to the BL's best writer (Dan Abnet right?) end up feeling rather averagely written. This is fine however as BL is essentially fan fiction and going on the standards of alot of star wars books its pretty good fan fiction (there are some unbelevably crap Star Wars novels), but its still fan fiction at the end of the day and when you've just read something like say Dune it can grate really hard. Gav thorpe's book interests me alot tho as he seems like he might actually be properly good but I've yet to touch a copy so who knows.

 

All of that said, I enjoyed the Horus trilogy (tho the quality varied somewhat between the 3 books) and flight of the Eisenstein is probbably the best written/planned of all of them. But I had to stop at Fulgrim it was awfull, I managed to struggle to chapter 4 before I gave up in frustration :( . Why do some authors seem to insist on making their Marines seem like they belong in the US Marine Corps? Rather than Medieval Knights or Warrior Monks with a hint of special forces or something (not too much of anything mind! 40k fluff is all about ripping off enough concepts at the same time that you produce something original). Certainly this seems to separate the Marine books I can read from the ones I give away, Astartes' are not cocky dick swingers (well maybe the wolfy ones), when I read a marine say "on your feet soldier" I stop reading. Shame really I was very much up for a decent account of the emperors children with that whole "most glorious and refined to most reviled and debauched legion" thing going on. But unfortunately it was not to be.

 

So in conclusion I can filter out most degrees of "bad writing" if the story is (or atleast seems at the time) interesting enough (I managed somehow to finish DaVinchi code without giving into the urge to find Dan Brown and force feed him his own hands, which I think should earn me a Medal or Knighthood of some sort)

 

so Jim Swallow..........flight of the Eisenstein brilliant, Deus Sanguinius however...(insert a suitably rude word of your choice here). Maybe he's just not the right guy for BA. That said I think BA are one of the hardest legions to write for as there are some extremely conflicting concepts going on (infact I'd say personal conflict would be the driving force behind the chapter/legions charachter) so maybe its the BA's fault for being one of (of not the) most emotionaly and intelectualy complex of the original legions.

[shatter]

Sounds as if we're of like minds... and I'm glad I didn't go out of my way to get Fulgrim.

 

I only compare BL books to other BL books. Makes little point in doing otherwise. It's the universe I dig, not the talent of it's workhorses. As long as they do justice to the universe and be what they are without pretension, then I'm happy and pleasantly surprised when they shine in the odd moments, usually by some kind of resonance from the beast within.

[Arkio]

you guys read nemisis yet? Swallows newest HH novel. amazing book. even had a little blurb in the back thanking all the other authors with assistance in palnning, writing, and editing of his book. i know for some the HH series are breaking the stories that built the universe see the thousand sons book and some of the early ones when compared w/ the 1st and 2nd edition books. For me the books are for escape, and they provide me with that. imo good books good writer, he has developed since the first few books of his i have read.

[Chairman_woo]

you guys read nemisis yet? Swallows newest HH novel. amazing book. even had a little blurb in the back thanking all the other authors with assistance in palnning, writing, and editing of his book. i know for some the HH series are breaking the stories that built the universe see the thousand sons book and some of the early ones when compared w/ the 1st and 2nd edition books. For me the books are for escape, and they provide me with that. imo good books good writer, he has developed since the first few books of his i have read.

 

I have not good sir but I shall endeavour to colapse that particular waveform from the shifting potentials of the eternally unfolding now! Great powers willing....

 

Srry been reading Aleister Crowley books all afternoon (Book of the Law & Book of Lies are certainly a hoot if you have the mindset), I think I'll give HH another go, Cant write them all off cause I hit a stinker I guess (tho I hear the Darkangels book is toilet paper which is a shame as they are my 2nd fave chapter after BA). Whats Nemesis about?

 

93/93

[shatter]

93/93

Crowley was one hoopy frood alright.

 

93 93/93 B)