News on More Heresy novels

[Domhnall]

I could be wrong, but I am assuming that the Scars have largely been ignored so far because they've not really had much story to tell as far as the Heresy goes.

 

They've obviously had campaigns going on in the background etc, but not really anything to do with the Heresy itself.

 

But I can imagine once the run to terra kicks in, and then the defence of terra, they'll have a quite a few stories to share round the campfire with us!

For example we might get one from them about how they had to make the difficult decision between helping Russ against the Alpha Legion, or leaving them to return to terra.

[Warsmith Aznable]

Rob Sanders CRUSHED those short stories, yeah. The Iron Within was refreshing and awesome...Serpent Beneath was a mind:cuss and totally brilliant and fitting of the Alpha Legion legacy.

 

Give that man more work! :(

 

I'd like to see Graham McNeill doing a full Iron Warriors book. I loved them in Storm of Iron, and Honsou as a Warsmith in the Ultramarines novels and short stories manages to be a moustache twirlingly evil villain but in a totally cool way, and I'd like to see some more of that out of Iron Warrior characters.

 

I like Abnett's work in general, but Prospero Burns really put me off me wanting him to write anything else for the HH series. I mean, it was a good book and he's a killer writer, I just felt it was more or less mislabeled.

 

The Iron Within was pretty cool, and I really liked The Serpent Beneath. The total "no idea what's really going on"-ness of the whole thing really captured Alpha Legion for me.

[Candleshoes]

I hope Dan Abnett doesn't get White Scars, i'd like to see someone else have a crack at it

 

Abnetts style would be lost on White Scars i think, i can see it being similar to Prospero Burns

 

 

Odd, as his writting style has actually kept all of his Heresy books extremely different than one another, more-so than any other Heresy author.

 

Horus Rising, a very explanitive and friendly novel, was done very differently than the slow puzzle that was Legion, which stylstically very different than the psychology and allegory heavy Prospero Burns, which scale wise was signifigantly different than the almost documentary sized Know No Fear, which was very different than the personal hesitation that was Little Horus, which was very different than the question-bombardment and skepticism that greeted readers with The Lightning Tower, which had none of the plot shift that Blood Games had.

 

With this bibliography for Heresy work, saying that him doing White Scars in a "similair" way to Prospero Burns, is highly unlikely.

[Gofy]

As far as the Unknown Legions...

The info is probably in a secret vault under Games Workshop, guarded by a real Legion of Astartes, and all who have entered were vaporised.

 

Just saying that we will never know, and I for one, while interested, donot really want to know all of the story. I like that it is secret.

 

Gofy

 

Dan Abnett is working on a book of them, didn't you know! :sweat:

 

http://26.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m1sqw30jqp1rneqlno1_400.jpg

 

Where did you get this pic?

[ale0x]

<_<

 

 

Someone just skimmed the thread, I see.

[Cyrox]

May I ask why you feel that way? Just out of curiousity....

 

I just can't get on with Abnett, let me explain:

 

IMO he spends far too much time writing about about everyone else in his books BUT astartes. I don't want to read about a remembrancer having dinner or a an Imperial army trooper smoking a fag; in that respect, Abnetts books are all the same. He spends way too much time arseing about with page filler, which most of the time is nonsense and has nothing to do with the plot. Sometimes its relevant and/or scene setting, but for the majority it's just boring.

 

Don't get me wrong, he is a good writer, I just don't dig his style.

[malika666]

Hmm, I got to disagree on that one there. What I think Abnett does is show the human side of things. Many Astartes novels seem to be nothing more than bolterp0rn, in other words: bad writing to justify some action scenes that go on for way to long.

 

In Horis Rising Abnett really managed to show the human side of the Great Crusade through those Remembrancers. Yes, there were Astartes in the book, but the human characters made it convincing, rather than just bad acting so we can get to the 'raaar....charge! blood hack hack hack slash slash slash' which many of the books, IMO, seem to suffer from.

[Brother Tancred]

Really looking forward to the next Ultramarines book to find out what went on after Calth in the 25 years which lead to the events in the epilogue of Know no Fear.

[Schultzhoffen]

I'd have to disagree about Abnett. I prefer reading about the small details. I find that I skim most action scenes in books I read. They all tend to be rather similar/boring.

 

Abnett is different. Some scenes from KNF are unforgettable.

[Apothecary Vaddon]

I'm the polar opposite. My eyes glaze over at too many details.

[b1soul]

Abnett's action scenes are great as well :wacko:

[Haranin]

I love Abnett's works... the small details, and the human struggle is what makes it interesting.

 

Space marine confronts a demon for the first time in the crusade and goes, that was weird...

 

A human does that... their response is more significant. They are not a genengineered super soldier.

 

Horus Rising would have not nearly been the book it was without the remberancers and the scholar advising the main character

[Conn Eremon]

I just can't get on with Abnett, let me explain:

 

IMO he spends far too much time writing about about everyone else in his books BUT astartes. I don't want to read about a remembrancer having dinner or a an Imperial army trooper smoking a fag; in that respect, Abnetts books are all the same. He spends way too much time arseing about with page filler, which most of the time is nonsense and has nothing to do with the plot. Sometimes its relevant and/or scene setting, but for the majority it's just boring.

 

Don't get me wrong, he is a good writer, I just don't dig his style.

 

That's actually what I like most about him. Many authors can make Marines an sympathetic, human individual, and do it well, but it always feels wrong to me. Like that's not how they actually are, it's how the authors made them for the sake of the readers. Because the readers need someone they can identify with, and Marines are not it. But when you get authors writing about the humans around the Marines, it gets so much better and believable, because you'll have the Marines where they're supposed to be: above and beyond us. There's connections you can make with them, but they're no longer human 'enough' to make them truly sympathetic. It'd be like reading a book by a child soldier, from his viewpoint, written while still fully in thrall.

 

So when you get Space Marine books, you tend to have only two kinds:

Marine viewpoint, where the protagonists are far more human than their brothers, with their humanity being the biggest part of their personality and what differentiates them from the rest.

Human viewpoint, where the dichotomy between humans and post-humans of 40k are divided as just that, mortal humans and genhanced Marines.

 

Now, if you have a really good author, like AD-B or Abnett, etc, then the first kinds of books are fascinating regardless, with my issue being imperceptible among all that's good about it. If you have anyone of lesser quality, you tend to get what one poster referred to as 'bolterpron,' which essentially covers it.

But done the second way, especially if it's one of the good authors, just makes it so much better. We're able to experience 40k as we actually would, a mortal human, perceiving as a mortal would all the things that have become beyond us, no matter their origins, without changing the character and personalities of certain individuals to better facilitate us, the readers.

 

I honestly think if Dan Abnett had written Prospero Burns from the Space Wolves' viewpoint rather than that remembrancer's, we would have had a lesser quality Prospero Burns.

 

And it's why I think that any book, no matter the author, that is from the viewpoint of the Emperor, or has some inner monologue or a glimpse into his thinking, will be the worst book. The Last Church is a prime example of this, where an attempt to show a pivotal moment was ruined because the author's attempts at portraying the Emperor ended up giving us someone who actually kind of seemed dumb. Not dumb as in uninteresting, I mean the Emperor was portrayed as being of sub-par intelligence.

[b1soul]

The Last Church is a prime example of this, where an attempt to show a pivotal moment was ruined because the author's attempts at portraying the Emperor ended up giving us someone who actually kind of seemed dumb. Not dumb as in uninteresting, I mean the Emperor was portrayed as being of sub-par intelligence.

How does he come across as being dumb? He strikes me as monumentally arrogant and ambitious, not necessarily stupid

[Conn Eremon]

The Last Church is a prime example of this, where an attempt to show a pivotal moment was ruined because the author's attempts at portraying the Emperor ended up giving us someone who actually kind of seemed dumb. Not dumb as in uninteresting, I mean the Emperor was portrayed as being of sub-par intelligence.

How does he come across as being dumb? He strikes me as monumentally arrogant and ambitious, not necessarily stupid

 

His stance against religion, as given within that book, was one of monumental stupidity. He blamed its message of being the sole cause of countless violent upheavals, while in the middle of a far greater upheaval perpetuated by his own message, something that was, in the book, brought up and dismissed by the Emperor. There were a lot of other things that bugged me, but I don't have the book on hand and that was the only specific example I can recall.

 

You know how some people tend to not like others who are like them, for those things about them that they share? Often, any attempts to reveal the similarities, especially when it's those features that cause disdain or open hatred, will be violently denied. To some degree, it happens to most people. There are certain things about ourselves that we inevitably don't like when we see it in others. Those who react the most, however, are easily noticeable and ridiculed for it. At the very least, people's opinions of them take a dip. Portraying the Emperor as that kind of person was a bad move. I believe I understand the point of it, showing his disdain for religion while giving glimpses of what will eventually give rise to his own, however the manner in which it was portrayed was of a less than brilliant man condemning an institution for the very things he does. As if the reason for it, or intent behind it, makes any difference when the ultimate outcome is the same. It was something I would expect to come out of 4chan's /tg/ board, alongside the Emprasque and Farseer Macha's romantic longings, but not from the Black Library or that author.

[Marinegamer97]

In the other unterview Dan says there´s a reference to the Iron Snakes in Know no Fear. Anybody know what he is refering to?

Not sure if anybody replied, but there is a series out ther about the iron snakes, starting with Brothers of the Snake, he may take reference to those books

[A D-B]

...and Farseer Macha's romantic longings...

 

Some of those rock.

 

Not in a canonical way, obviously.

[Lord Lorne Walkier]

In the other unterview Dan says there´s a reference to the Iron Snakes in Know no Fear. Anybody know what he is refering to?

There is a scene were the Iron Snakes Badge is described in Detail. I cant find it but it was in reference to a Ultra Captain or company. Would seem to indicate that they were a 2nd Founding chapter.

[Captain Idaho]

Cool, dig it out and let us know!

[Conn Eremon]

There is a scene were the Iron Snakes Badge is described in Detail. I cant find it but it was in reference to a Ultra Captain or company. Would seem to indicate that they were a 2nd Founding chapter.

 

3rd Founding happened relatively quickly. It's possible that the Company (I believe it was a Captain's personal heraldry that the Company adopted) that forms the basis of the Iron Snakes Chapter lives on in the Ultramarines for a time. The Captain might not be the founder, but the founder of the legacy that forms its basis.

 

Of course, with the Ultramarines being able to make a couple hundred 2nd Founding Chapters now, at the least, there's certainly room.