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Is the Second omnibus any good?


khurdur

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Hey there,

 

I don't have the 2nd omnibus, but I've read 'Red Fury' and 'Black Tide' which are both in it. RF was a tad on the ridiculous side and it made the BAs to look like bumbling fools yet again - this time in their own fortress monestary no less. I was equally disappointed by the portrayal of Dante as nothing short of a distraught beggar.

 

Black Tide on the other hand was a good story IMHO and was worth trudging through RF to enjoy. I'm not a huge fan of JS' take on the BA mythos to say the least but I really do like the character of Rafen. I find him to be a strong character with realistic flaws. So if you like Rafen and a return to squad based action alongside Flesh Tearers, then you should be able to enjoy BT.

 

Just my two cents.

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Well you either get a novel about marines killing their way through several trees worth of paper, or you have a storyline which normally includes something going wrong and having to be fixed (more traditionally known as a 'story').

 

If you don't like the first Omnibus then its unlikely anything will change in the second. It basically follows the story further.

 

I found both to be pretty good, and honestly can't understand all the criticism, which I put down mainly to people not liking their army being portrayed as less than perfect. Coming from a Xenos background we are lucky if that's all that happens in any publication, so I found the BA books pretty good.

Some parts are slightly over the top, but from a realism perspective (as far as it can be expected in 40k) I found the storyline from the first book reasonable, and it followed through well to the second.

 

I didn't have an preconceived ideas though, and as I said coming from a Xenos perspective I don't mind seeing marines being made fools of, you just hope someone kills them quickly and they are replaced by someone better.

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My problem with swallow is that his story-telling abilities are less than stellar. His character development is poor....he even manages to make Mephiston and Dante rather boring. The story-development was poor...I found myself wishing the first omnibus would just finish. I skipped over 30 pages of pointless development to see what happened at the end just to finish the story. The final battle was of some passing interest. It's just flavourless.
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That you find it boring doesn't make it dry. Others found it fine myself included.

What would you actually fix?

The books aren't about Mephiston or Dante, they are about Rafen.

Do you expect character development for every marine in the books? Might be in the wrong universe.

 

Its kind of misleading to just tell people that it was dry/lacked story telling (what does that even mean? Seriously)/poor character development (really?) and made side characters boring...? I thought the books where a pretty even match for the first HH book.

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I find it funny that it is usually people who do not play BA that like the books.

 

And before someone says ' you just don't like your army to be less then perfect', i would KILL for BA books that make them 'less then perfect', at the moment its a wonder the chapter survived into the 41 millennium.

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True, the book is about Rafen. But, even as Meph and dante make a cameo, they should be portrayed as they are in the codex's fluff-ie mephiston should be radiating barely hidden power, and Dante should the mightiest paragon of the space marines alive. I wasn't pleased with their portrayal.

 

In ADB's soul hunter, true, the story is about Talos. However, Abbadon makes a cameo, and he is portayed as the all-powerful traitor that he is. No complaints their.

After are, space marines are supoosed to be all-powerful champions of humanity, to say nothing of personalities like Mephiston and Dante.

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True, the book is about Rafen. But, even as Meph and dante make a cameo, they should be portrayed as they are in the codex's fluff-ie mephiston should be radiating barely hidden power, and Dante should the mightiest paragon of the space marines alive. I wasn't pleased with their portrayal.

 

In ADB's soul hunter, true, the story is about Talos. However, Abbadon makes a cameo, and he is portayed as the all-powerful traitor that he is. No complaints their.

After are, space marines are supoosed to be all-powerful champions of humanity, to say nothing of personalities like Mephiston and Dante.

 

I agree 100%. The second omnibus is decent, it has its moments, but they are overshadowed by the poor story and character development.

 

Sun Reaver

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Swallows BA novels very disapointing. Def not equal to the worst hh novels.

 

To be honest he has really been improving his writing of the chapter since the first book for the most part, Red Fury was just...I'm not going there .I actually really enjoyed the shorts "Redeemed" and the newer "Bloodline". And to be blunt, if the first omnibus had just been "generic chapter 223" it probably wouldn't have had many complaints. At the end of the day he can tell a great story, and with the newer shorts I have a lot more confidence that we're going to be getting some great BA material from him in Fear to Tread.

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