The chosen of Khorne

[Brother Ambroz]

Doesn't look like anyone has posted about this yet but it looks like Anthony Reynolds is writing it. Maybe it'll shed some light on Khârn as something other than a mindless berzerker. It's not ADB but Reynolds has written some decent stuff (and some not so great stuff but haven't we all?). What do you all think?

[Captain Juan Juarez]

It's not ADB but..

 

Not pick on you, but that's a bit disrespectful dude.

[Brother Ambroz]

Not really considering this forum's fanboyism toward ADB. How exactly is this disrespectful?

 

I think he did a good job with Mark of Chaos. The Word Bearer's series wasn't bad either in my opinion. The thing I'm wondering is if he'll be able to measure up with a legendary character like Khârn?

[Wade Garrett]

. It's not ADB but Reynolds has written some decent stuff (and some not so great stuff but haven't we all?). What do you all think?

 

ADB isn't exactly Joe Abercrombie.

^_^

 

The antagonist (protaganist? Co-main character?) from Mark of Chaos was a Khornate champion and he managed to come off as more than a slavering lunatic, he even used (gasp!) tactics to take a fortress, so I am hopeful.

 

I just hope it doesn't turn out like C.L. Werner's "Favored of Khorne curb stomps everything" book from Warhammer Fantasy.

[Kol Saresk]

Blood for the Blood God? That actually was pretty decent. The Skulltaker just happened to be daemonically-infused with power and everyone else charged him. He just happened to walk through it. Even the Skulltaker used tactics. Reread the account of when he fought the beastmen. And then there is the Khornate daemon-hunter cheiftan, Skulltaker told him that while Khorne doesn't care where the blood comes from, he does. Displays a level of self-preservation that most of the slavering dogs of Khorne don't. And he still became a daemon prince at the end of it. Although technically he's an elevated Bloodletter where GW is concerned. But then again, even GW is self-contradicting when it writes fluff every now an then.

 

Okay, enough about WFB.

[Brother Nihm]

Okay, enough about WFB.

Yes please! :nuke:

 

A novel about Khârn eh?

Fun fun.

[Greyall]

Hmm...

 

Khârn, known with good reason as ‘the Betrayer’, is far more than just a crazed killer

 

You think this ties with what we've learned in "Rebirth", the short story in Age of Darkness?

 

 

Is Khârn sabotaging his own Legion out of regret?

 

[Brother Ambroz]

I just mentioned the WHF stuff because he hasn't written a whole lot of 40k with the exception of the WB series (which I enjoyed). I'm looking forward to it regardless. I really don't know what to expect from Khârn though so I'll be open to just about anything, apart from cuddling with kittens that is. The ADB statement was a disclaimer because sooner or later someone would've mentioned it.

[Wade Garrett]

Okay, enough about WFB

 

I forgot, this is the forum about those who need power armor and rapid fire rocket powered grenade launchers to face the horrors of Chaos. Discussion of those who do the same thing with a pointy piece of metal on a stick is probably "too manly".

 

As for BFTBG, it started to lose me at the point where the Skulltaker kills two Juggernauts, makes a double extra large sledgehammer out of the carcasses, and then uses it to knock down an entire castle. All by himself. Of course, all of this was taking place in the Chaos Wastes, where notions like "excess", "overkill", and "not physically possible" are more like polite suggestions than iron clad laws of reality.

 

And I am probably judging it too harshly because I thought I had spotted a plot twist about the Skulltaker's nature, and then it turned out I was wrong.

 

 

 

I thought we were building up to a reveal that the Skulltaker can never be defeated because whoever kills him/it gets claimed by Khorne as the new Skulltaker, sort of like how Lucius the Eternal works in 40k.

Thus, the Skulltaker tearing up the kingdom in the present would have been Tereyogtai Khan, and he would have been so especially ticked off at his successors because they ruined his dreams of an enduring empire by squabbling with one another like a pack of dogs. It turned out I was WAY off base, and the Skulltaker is just a quasi demonic bad ass that Khorne brings back from the dead when he dies.\

 

 

[Emperors Immortals]

Hmm...

 

Khârn, known with good reason as ‘the Betrayer’, is far more than just a crazed killer

 

You think this ties with what we've learned in "Rebirth", the short story in Age of Darkness?

 

 

Is Khârn sabotaging his own Legion out of regret?

 

 

 

 

Ah, now thats interesting. I had thought that Kharne was actually trying to inspire the WE into greater acts for the Blood God, on account of him believing they were too soft.

[Greyall]

That option isn't out of the way yet, but

the Thousand Son in "Rebirth" planted the seed of regret on Khârn's mind

, and it'd be interesting to see how that plays in the future, but I'm sure his actions at Skalathrax are also motivated by his [very Khornate] rage at his comrades' "cowardice". There may just be something more in there

[Redemption2994]

I was a bad boy and peeked at the spoilers... What books are those? I'd like to read them myself. Even the WHFB ones.

[Greyall]

The one I'm talking about is Age of Darkness

[A D-B]

. It's not ADB but Reynolds has written some decent stuff (and some not so great stuff but haven't we all?). What do you all think?

 

ADB isn't exactly Joe Abercrombie.

:)

 

 

Thank Christ.

[Captain Juan Juarez]

. It's not ADB but Reynolds has written some decent stuff (and some not so great stuff but haven't we all?). What do you all think?

 

ADB isn't exactly Joe Abercrombie.

;)

 

 

Thank Christ.

 

:cuss

 

Or, in a more human lexicon, why for?

[A D-B]

. It's not ADB but Reynolds has written some decent stuff (and some not so great stuff but haven't we all?). What do you all think?

 

ADB isn't exactly Joe Abercrombie.

;)

 

 

Thank Christ.

 

:cuss

 

Or, in a more human lexicon, why for?

 

It's weird to you that I don't want to be someone else?

 

I like my life, ta.

[Captain Juan Juarez]

It's weird to you that I don't want to be someone else?

 

Actually no, my cynical mind percieved it more as a criticism of him.

[A D-B]

It's weird to you that I don't want to be someone else?

 

Actually no, my cynical mind percieved it more as a criticism of him.

 

Oh! I getcha.

 

Naw, I like his writing a lot. Big fan, actually.

[Wade Garrett]

I was a bad boy and peeked at the spoilers... What books are those? I'd like to read them myself. Even the WHFB ones.

 

The one I was discussing is called, aptly enough "Blood for the Blood God", authored by C.L. Werner.

 

 

As to the tertiary conversation (puts on smoking jacket for appropriate pompousness)

Joe Abercrombie writes gripping deconstructions of the traditional fantasy literature that add a much needed element of realism and cynicism into a bloated genre that is all too often strangled by its own cliches.

 

Aaron Dembski Bowden writes tie in fiction about anatomically improbable superhumans with chainsaw hands punching things to death.

:cuss

 

Although I may be throwing off the numbers because I read and re read the First Heretic for its subtext about the human need to believe in something greater and how the road to hell is paved with the noblest of intentions, and the Last Arguement of Kings because I love how Joe describes the Bloody Nine chopping heads off. Eh, whatcha gonna do?

[Captain Juan Juarez]

It's weird to you that I don't want to be someone else?

 

Actually no, my cynical mind percieved it more as a criticism of him.

 

Oh! I getcha.

 

Naw, I like his writing a lot. Big fan, actually.

 

Where the confusion came from, I too belong to his fandom - particularly appreciate the Bloody Nine - and may now have to dig out the Kindle again to read his books. Patrick Rothfuss is another good writer, check out his The Name of the Wind.

 

On topic:

 

[Edit] ADB and JA do have some similarities, particularly in constructing interesting characters

 

Disclaimer: I am not a "Fan Boy".[/Edit]

 

How do you delve into a Champion of Khorne, in a novel, and still make the character interesting? The classic example wouldn't be prone to a discourse about the benefits of a nice Chardonnay.

[A D-B]

Joe Abercrombie writes gripping deconstructions of the traditional fantasy literature that add a much needed element of realism and cynicism into a bloated genre that is all too often strangled by its own cliches.

 

Aaron Dembski Bowden writes tie in fiction about anatomically improbable superhumans with chainsaw hands punching things to death.

:cuss

 

Although I may be throwing off the numbers because I read and re read the First Heretic for its subtext about the human need to believe in something greater and how the road to hell is paved with the noblest of intentions, and the Last Arguement of Kings because I love how Joe describes the Bloody Nine chopping heads off. Eh, whatcha gonna do?

 

He's almost 7 years older than me, and lacks the literary drag factor of slumming by writing tie-in - which is a common prejudice rarely tied into actual talent, and more about elitism and stereotypes.

 

Give me 7 years. We'll see how my fantasy genre novels do.

 

I also promise I'll never be as petty as he was, if a filthy tie-in author beats me to the David Gemmell prize, the way he was when Graham McNeill won over him. As much as I love his writing, he didn't come out of that smelling of roses.

[Wade Garrett]

A.D.B.

You don't have to sell me on the literary merit of "working stiff" authors.

The first books I got my hands on when I had forced my uncle and parents to read and re-read the Hobbit and the Narnia books to me until I memorized them were Timothy Zahn's Star Wars work, R.A. Salvatore's Icewind Dale Trilogy, and Margaret Weiss and Tracey Hickman's DragonLance books. From then till now I have maintained a mutually beneficial relationship with all of the above, wherein they keep writing tie in and genre books and I go broke buying them.

 

I'd say that someone like Revered Military Sci Fi Author Dan Abnett, whose novels are read and enjoyed by millions of people around the world, is a BETTER writer than say, James Joyce, whose work gets sweated over by college students taking literature courses and is forgotten about as soon as they turn in the final.

 

To jump to another conversaional rail:

Abercrombie took pot shots at McNeil over an award? Seriously? One would think that selling enough books to build a guest home entirely out of stacks of hundred dollar bills would be its own reward, and that anything other than that would be pure gravy, at least in the sense that you could be a gracious loser over a David Gemmell award. I mean, does it really make a difference if, for example, Stephen King beats J.K. Rowling for the "Fritz Leiber Best New Fantasy Starring A Main Character Whose Name No One Can Pronounce" Award?

 

Captain Juarez:

There's a thread where someone makes a pretty good comparison to Chaos and drug addiction, that might be the way to go with a relatable Champion of Khorne. He thinks he's got this thing under control, and it's going to get him the fame, power, and the women, and then one day he wakes up all alone, with nothing but a giant pile of skulls in front of him and the Chaos Undivided Cartel about to storm his fortress. He has a moment of clarity, realizes he has burned every bridge he ever had, some while he was standing on them, but it's too late and the only thing he can do is rev up his Chain Axe and scream "Say hello to my little...."err, I mean "BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD!"

[Greyall]

On the matter of writing Khornate Marines, I was re-reading Soul Hunter yesterday and noticed how much more degrading the Khorne vision that appeared to Talos is, compared to Tzeench and Slaanesh. I wondered...is Khornate worshipping an automatically faster route towards lunacy? Or does it simply depend on the worshiper's strength of will (and, of course, how fickle the Gods are, that day)?

 

Or is it just that the other Gods' servants are better at concealing their own descent into madness?

[Kol Saresk]

I would go with the concealment. Because when all you are worried about is killing, killing and more killing, you usually don't care what others think about you. Especially when they're about to be turned into a shish kabob.

[Wade Garrett]

It seems to me that most Marines have been raised from childhood to glory in war and slaughter, so it's only a hop, skip, and a jump to being a screaming beserker in the service of the Blood God, Chaos has to do a little more tinkering with their grey matter before they became obessive decadent hedonists or cackling spell slinging schemers.

 

There's a bit in the Horus Heresy novel Fulgrim where a group of Astartes and normal humans are hit with waves of make-you-crazy Slaanesh corruption, the baseline humans begin engaging in all manner of...ahem....stimulating activities, while the Marines start killing everything around them because that's the only form of emotional release they know. And this was from the effete influence of the foppish Prince of Pleasure. Now imagine those same Marines getting a face full "Kill everything that moves and offer it's skull to the Lord of Battles!"

 

It's not so much that Khorne worshippers descend into madness faster than those of Nurgle, Slaanesh, or Tzeencht, but that most Marines are already balancing on the knife edge that seperates a soldier from a feral out of control killer before they get their brains marinated in the aura of the Brass Throne.