Scars by Chris Wraight

[cjp180]

Just want to give massive props to Chris and the tour de force that is Scars. I've read every HH book numerous times and IMHO this is right up there with the very best of the series. Truly I believe Chris has produced a book that's up there with the very best of Dan, Graeme, Aaron, James et al & I would heartily recommend this to anyone. Plus its got Bjorn in it !!!

[Conn Eremon]

I will admit, it was a nice read. Sometimes, I get so caught up in how much better authors like Dan Abnett and Aaron Dembski-Bowden are in comparison to those like McNeil, Counter, Thorpe and others, that it becomes difficult for me to trust an unknown name (as Wraight was to me at the time) with providing something that I won't cringe at. But none of what I read in Scars compares to what the aforementioned have done with the likes of Deliverance Lost, Battle for the Abyss or Angel Exterminatus. I wouldn't go so far myself as to say it was one of the best, but it was rather refreshing to read a book that was just good, with no prior bias preparing me to cringe.

[Perrin]

It was really good, I liked how the WS were made so unique from other marines.

[Chaeron]

I'm surprised that this hasn't been discussed more, because I truly believe this is one of the stand-out works of the series. Wraight's craftsmanship within the novel is masterful, it was a delight to read. I'd been waiting for the book port since it was first released, and it was absolutely worth that wait. It was refreshing in how well structured it was, both in terms of plot and characterisation, and just so rich. I'm looking forward to his next offering already.

[DinoDoc]

I will admit, it was a nice read. Sometimes, I get so caught up in how much better authors like Dan Abnett and Aaron Dembski-Bowden are in comparison to those like McNeil, Counter, Thorpe and others, that it becomes difficult for me to trust an unknown name (as Wraight was to me at the time) with providing something that I won't cringe at.

You need to read Battle of the Fang.

[Conn Eremon]

I had. Honestly, it wasn't good enough for me to put the author on my radar. It was just one of the many 'Ehhh' 40k literature. Not bad, but not really good either. Though it did leave me worried that he might end up another Thorpe.

 

Scars was the first book of his I read that did enough, either good or bad, for me take note of who wrote it. Fortunately, it was good.

[Lonewolf86]

Too right. After UE (which disappointed me. I liked the first half but after Curze arrived it just seemed a bit ridiculous) and Vulkan lives (also a bit disappointing especially considering I liked his Salamander series). Scars was great. Wraight took a character (Yesugi) who was an awful stereotype in the otherwise fantastic Thousand Sons and made him one of the most interesting in the series. He has built a great background to the Scars and really made them interesting, I felt all the legions in the book had their strengths and weaknesses with no one seemingly OPed. The wolves were great in it.

 

I especially liked the Mortarion Khan face off. Really made them both look good and highlighted their different styles and personality. I am glad I read Brotherhood of The Storm before it though which was also great.

 

I seriously might put Wraight as my favourite author for BL. The aforementioned HH books were great and Wrath of Iron, Battle of the Fang and Blood of Asaheim were all win. Where does he go wrong? I also rate Sanders highly too though that's just based off the superb Legion of the damned and Distant echoes of old night.

[Lonewolf86]

I'd love to see Wraight do a book on the Iron Hands in the heresy. It could fill in a bit of great crusade material and look at the Iron Hands trying to recover and rebuild on Medusa and their inter-legion struggles.

 

Rob Sanders would do a sweet book on the Fists or the Death Guard. Give this guy a full novel!

[SteelPaladin]

I really really really liked Scars, but I do think that Brotherhood of the Storm is almost essential for full enjoyment of the book. I loved the continuation of bits from one of my favorite stories in the series, The Serpent Beneath. I desperately want Rob Sanders to write a full length Heresy Novel...

 

Wraight has done a fantastic job fleshing out the White Scars, and I really hope he has more in store for them.

[Perrin]

I really really really liked Scars, but I do think that Brotherhood of the Storm is almost essential for full enjoyment of the book. I loved the continuation of bits from one of my favorite stories in the series, The Serpent Beneath. I desperately want Rob Sanders to write a full length Heresy Novel...

 

Wraight has done a fantastic job fleshing out the White Scars, and I really hope he has more in store for them.

 

I agree about Brotherhood of the Storm. I haven't read it, and a lot of the things in Scars between the Terran and Chogorian Khan seemed like the author assumed we already knew the characters, like a lot of character development was missing. Then afterwards I realised I should have read BotS first. Would it really be too much to include it with the hardback version?!

[Stormborn]

I'm hoping that Scars marks a return to form by the HH series after the disappointing Vulkan Lives and Unremembered Empire.  It was good to see the White Scars getting a bit of the lime light (expecially the White Scar with curly toed boots on his power armour).  Chris Wraight is one of my favourite BL authors.

[Chaeron]

 

I really really really liked Scars, but I do think that Brotherhood of the Storm is almost essential for full enjoyment of the book. I loved the continuation of bits from one of my favorite stories in the series, The Serpent Beneath. I desperately want Rob Sanders to write a full length Heresy Novel...

 

Wraight has done a fantastic job fleshing out the White Scars, and I really hope he has more in store for them.

 

I agree about Brotherhood of the Storm. I haven't read it, and a lot of the things in Scars between the Terran and Chogorian Khan seemed like the author assumed we already knew the characters, like a lot of character development was missing. Then afterwards I realised I should have read BotS first. Would it really be too much to include it with the hardback version?!

 

I don't think it was prerequisite, but it did add something - certainly. 

[helterskelter]

literally just finished it. i think he has portrayed all the primarchs involved rather well. the plot had me so hooked i stormed through the novel in 2 days, definitely one i'll be re-reading in the future

[Odsox]

It's a great, winding tale with multiple viewpoints, decent exposition and most importantly, brings some light on to the White Scars, who have until now been sorely, SORELY under-represented in the fluff.

 

Just don't listen to the English audiobook unless you really like the dubbed version of

.

 

"...the nature of Jaghatai Khan was... irrepressible!"

 

Od.

.

[Aegnor]

Just finished it yesterday. One of the very best books in the HH series in my opinion. Loved how Wraight fleshed out the White Scars and equally loved his take on the Wolves and the many different primarchs shown. The flashbacks with Magnum were awesome.

 

He did such a great great job of fitting into the existing universe, helping to fix some of the egregious clangers that had been dropped - Nikaea primary among them, and turning a Legion that had been the crudest of stereotypes into a fascinating, damn cool, bunch. In a way, it's a. Shame it was done as a week by week serial as maybe it didn't get the attention and splash a normal novel release would have. On the other hand, I think it's a format I'm happy to see BL experiment with.

 

I read Brotherhood of the Storm immediately before it and agree they really work as one story. I've been very impressed with everything I've read by Mr Wraight and at this stage he's probably almost snuck past Dan Abnett in terms of authors who's work I know I *HAVE* to read because it will be great. That puts him in a bracket of two, along with ADB.

 

Edit: The comparison between Wraight and Abnett is made on "recent form" - obviously Abnett has a huge body of awesome work behind him, but Wright has really emerged as one of the best authors in BL.

[Lord Lee]

I really enjoyed it, to the point that the White Scars are my next space marine project.

 

Lord Lee.

[[TA]Typher]

It was a very good book and showed the Khan in a light that I didn't expect. One of my favorites in the HH so far.

[JimmyJ]

I just finished Scars today.

 

I thought it was great. Really enjoyed it, was willing my commute to extend itself so I could read more.

 

 

 

It gave an interesting spin on the White Scars I thought: It made them (the Chogoris lot anyways) a very personable lot. I loved the depiction of The Khan, especially in the flashback to Ullanor and the discussions with Fulgrim, Mortarion and Sanguinus. I had a great picture in my head Jaghaiti just easing back in a chair, with an outward air of "I-just-don't-give-a-f*ck" whilst inside he's anything but, analysing and absorbing. Also, the first loyal primarch to really realise by the end of the book that maybe, just maybe the Emperor is a bit of a dick?

 

It gave an interesting dynamic for the continuation of the Scars in the HH timeline: are they a "shattered legion"? We could say they are at least a fractured one? With the amount of marines that were willing to rebel, the ones that slipped off and the ones that are seemingly gonna be sent off on penance crusades, a pet Thousand Son, it fills out some character and makes the path ahead uncertain....

 

Some of my home-brew marines went on secondment to the Scars, I'm now gonna have to mess with some fluff.......

[Perrin]

I think it's unlikely that any of the traitor Scars are going to be sent on penitent crusades just yet. I only read it the once, but do any traitor Scars leave the Legion? I thought they were pretty much full strength at the end of the book.

 

Also I wouldn't be surprised if that Thousand Son ends up with the Knights-Errant.

[JimmyJ]

I think it's unlikely that any of the traitor Scars are going to be sent on penitent crusades just yet. I only read it the once, but do any traitor Scars leave the Legion? I thought they were pretty much full strength at the end of the book.

 

Also I wouldn't be surprised if that Thousand Son ends up with the Knights-Errant.

 Last chapter, in the summing up section its said that several White Scar ships vanish off

"A few smaller vessels never made it to muster, either destroyed by the Death Guard or dissappearing quietly, presumed unwilling to accept the rejection of thier planned accord with the warmaster"

 

Also regarding the penitant crusade bit,

The Khan clasped his hands behind his back. "Warbands" he said, thoughtfully. "Infiltrators. You took this tactic from the Iron Hand. I will think on it. Perhaps some will serve this way"

 

Agreed about the Son, he's got grey knight/inquisition written all over him.

[b1soul]

I had. Honestly, it wasn't good enough for me to put the author on my radar. It was just one of the many 'Ehhh' 40k literature. Not bad, but not really good either. Though it did leave me worried that he might end up another Thorpe.

 

Scars was the first book of his I read that did enough, either good or bad, for me take note of who wrote it. Fortunately, it was good.

 

 

...so was Scars good or mediocre in your opinion

 

As for me, I thought Brotherhood of the Storm + Scars was the most enjoyable HH experience I've had since Horus Rising

 

Don't get me wrong, I also enjoyed Unremembered Empire, Betrayer, Know No Fear, The First Heretic, Prospero Burns, Legion, and A Thousand Sons...but Scars is cream of the crop among HH entries

[Conn Eremon]

I think it was good, but I also was not gripped by it the way Abnett or AD-B consistently do. I don't consider that a detraction, though. It was a good book.

 

As for my opinion of the author, I have two good books called Scars and Wrath of Iron. I have two mediocre story called Brotherhood of the Storm and Rebirth. And I have one book that can only be compared to the Ultramarines series in Battle of the Fang. These are the books that I have read of him where I made note of the author.

 

So I liked more than I disliked. But what I disliked was all kinds of bad and what I liked was simply good. To me, this puts him on the same level as McNeil. He has shown us he has the ability to write good books, but he has also shown us that he can horrifically maul a faction's fluff. But his ratio is better than McNeil's, so there is that.

[Scribe]

Do you really put Abnett (his HH works) on another level? For me, hes certainly not holding a candle to ADB, but I'm an unabashed ADB fanboy.

 

I think we need Sanders, and French to do some full length HH books to put Wraight into context a bit. I found Wrath of Iron gut punchingly (yes, thats not a word...) well done from almost all angles, now that I see Scars is available as a full book I'll likely pick that up and see what all the fuss is about.

 

Who's fluff did he maul? Battle of the Fang? I didnt think it was a mauling but im not a wolf fan by any means.

[Conn Eremon]

In my opinion:

 

Dan Abnett is the best sci-fi author that Black Library employs.

 

Aaron Dembski-Bowden is the best setting fiction writer that Black Library employs.

 

It sounds like a difference of semantics, but to me it is a distinction. They are different, and to me Dan Abnett is a little bit higher, but they are in most cases equal in my eyes.

 

To be perhaps more clear on it, I feel that Dan Abnett is the better 'general' author. Take the setting out of the equation, and Dan Abnett writes the better books. Put the setting back in the equation, and Dan Abnett does one thing that really resonates well with me, and that is that every faction he touches, whether Space Marine, Imperial Guard or factions within like Chapters and regiments, everything he touches he writes to be amazing. He writes from their perspective, and therefore writes with that perspective's bias. It's bombastic. I can see how that rubs people the wrong way, those people who have more or less chosen sides. Fans of one or more factions over another. Because that bias will either be in your favor or it will be opposed. When it's the latter, it must be like he is specifically writing against you. Using you as a specific example, Scribe, I'm thinking of his depiction of the Wolves. You're not a fan of the Wolves, and so reading something that is heavily biased in their favor must not be enjoyable for you.

 

But I'm not like that. I haven't chosen sides. For all that I like to say that I'm a Loyalist at heart, every single Legion, Chapter, Warband, regiment, Craftworld . . . There are no factions within 40k or 30k that I am not a fan of, that I am not biased towards rather than against. Human, Xenos or Chaos. I might have something I like to identify with the most, such as Imperial Space Marines, but I am no less a fan of the other factions because of it. So in that light, every bias that Dan puts in his books is in my favor. I never see a bias that is opposed to my interests, because my interests encompasses bias towards everything within 40k. Hell, I'm the kind of guy who wishes they had not retconned the Iron Hands the way they did in 40k, but likes both.

 

The trouble comes when people start taking the perspective's bias and assume that it is the setting's bias. And that is a lot of what I see when I see complaints about Abnett, though certainly not all.

 

AD-B on the other hand . . . Well, he writes for us. It might not be deliberate, and I don't mean 'us' as in our individual selves or even this forum as a whole, but the kind of 30/40k fan that you tend to see on boards like these. His style of writing is very specifically set to please that kind of fan, whether this is his intention or not. And because of that, I say he is the better writer of 30/40k fiction. People who read AD-B and enjoy his work feel that he just gets them.

 

And I think that is another way that sums it up.

 

Fans of AD-B get what they want.

 

Fans of Abnett want what they get.

 

Again, difference of semantics, but distinct enough for me.

 

And now that I think about it, in spite of all the depictions of AD-B as the "bad boy" of the Black Library, I actually view him as the 'safe option.' He's the one that I know I will get what I want. Abnett's the wild card, in my eyes. Especially, I'm sure, for those who have, like I said, 'picked sides.'

 

 

 

As for you question about my feelings on Wraight's handling of the Space Wolves in Battle of the Fang . . . To me, it really was like the Ultramarines series, where in order for the main guy to look best, those who oppose him are made to look bad. The character(s) weren't "good" on their own. This might be a normal thing in a lot of books, and can be easily overlooked. But in the Ultramarines series and the Battle of the Fang, those who 'opposed' the protagonists was everyone else. 

 

So, like Ventris, in order for this one group of Space Wolves to look good, the entire Thousand Sons legion, including their Primarch Magnus, and the entire rest of the Space Wolves, had to look as bad as possible.

 

Kol Saresk summed up my thoughts pretty well in another thread where I mentioned my dislike for this book (it was in reply to my post describing the book in my inner Wade voice):

 

 

So yeah, meant to be Mary Sue but comes across as demeaning and insulting for any fan of the faction that has dignity and self-respect. :D

[Scribe]

Some fair points there, I just find the approach of writing for a faction heavily as the protagonist belittles the rest of the setting. I don't have an issue with the Wolves, as again on a superficial level Battle of the Fang was fine to me and they certainly 'won' in that book...kind of? :p

 

I typed up reams of text, but realized it was my 'must rage about Prospero Burns' issue, and so deleted it.

 

I like balance I guess, I want it to make sense and cohesive. Same issue I had with Unremembered Empire and Roboute getting gunned down almost pitifully easily. Its out of balance with the rest of the setting.

 

I guess I just dont like when an author with Abnett's pull (and its obvious when you look at the impact of Prospero Burns and Legion on the setting) uses those powers for 'evil' and doesnt write with the setting in mind compared to the protagonists.

 

Or at least not enough so for this reader. :p