The Talon Of Horus

[A D-B]

So keen for this. Hope he has done justice to my favourite Legion!

 

STOP IT THE PRESSURE OH GOD

 

 

Is this going to be/is post or pre legion war?

 

Around the nebulous middle of the Legion Wars.

 

 

 

AD-B - would you be so kind as to let us know how many pages are in it?

 

Just seeing if I can justify paying that for the first edition.

 

I can't right now, but I'm sure there'll be more details soon. 

 

 

 

 

 

The price is not the most important part. If it is good it could have 40 pages and would still be worth it.

 

When I was asking about pre/post legion war, I wasn't thinking about heresy. But the titanic war most legions waged in the eye post heresy.

 

From what I get from the (frankly awesome) first chapter, it's during the Legions wars in the Eye.

 

I looked (briefly), but couldn't find the bit on ADB's blog to where he talks about this

 

I suspect he's stalking us, sipping a glass of whatever he drinks, petting a cat while smiling at our reactions.

 

Nuh-uh. I've been offline for almost two weeks. Lightning struck my house and annihilated our internet router. True story.

 

 

 

Jeske, it's set at the end of the Legion Wars, the point where the Sons of Horus have been all but wiped out and how the remnants of several broken Legions decide to go Abby hunting

 

Yep, (mostly) this. The narrator is in 999.M41 at two minutes to midnight. In The Talon of Horus, he's describing how some of the warlords and warriors who'll go on to form the Black Legion with Abaddon go looking for Ezekyle in the first place. It's a case of "getting the band together", to quote one of my test readers. The sequel, The Black Legion, will be set at the end of the Legion Wars, when the Black Legion rise and and basically win it, in the build-up to the First Black Crusade.

 

 

 

I would pay 200 GBP per chapter if he personally narrated the book to me whilst wearing a topknot.

 

I'd do that for free.

 

For. Free.

 

 

 

Well, for some of their stuff, the quick turnaround results in utterly dross products.

 

I started rereading Pariah earlier, and there on the page, Bequin "turned my heard at the noise".

 

A typo. In a published work that should have been proofed by at least three people (Dan, Nik, and their editor at the Library).

 

Dan is understandable. When an author goes over a manuscript that many times, they have an image in their head of what should be there, and then read it, making authors terrible at proofing their own work.

 

For one of the others not to have caught it? It can't be laid entirely at the BL's fault, but...

 

Not to mention the atrocious job they do on formatting the non-ipad codices.

 

Now, in absolute fairness, there're typos in practically every novel. I don't mean to suggest people should just let them slide - I do a full-body cringe every time I hear about one - but they're just part of the package. I read Robin Hobb's new novel Fool's Assassin a few days ago. I counted 6 typos; just the ones I remembered or spotted. David Gemmell's books are absolutely littered with them. Raymond Feist's Riftwar Saga has over half a dozen in every book, while Prince of the Blood is littered with them.

 

Not that I'm excusing it. I know some books have more than others, too. I'm just sayin'.

 

Dead on about the why-authors-miss-typos thing, though.

[the jeske]

 

Around the nebulous middle of the Legion Wars.

Awesome. Great stuff happened around that time. More fluff for legion era war is always a good thing. The clone saga alone could take up a book or two, and it was just a small part of what was going on.

 

 

Dan is understandable. When an author goes over a manuscript that many times, they have an image in their head of what should be there, and then read it, making authors terrible at proofing their own work.

 

In most high end companies there are teams of proof readers[as in more then one] working on the same text, and then they go over it again. Then they do translations and those are then translated back in to Russian by different teams, and if the text is the same it is good. A woe to the people,  if something not in favor of the firm goes through, as all of the dudes have to sign contracts that they have to pay for the difference out of their own pocket[and no giving the rights to all you have to parents or spouse does not work].

[Chaeron]

 

AD-B - would you be so kind as to let us know how many pages are in it?

 

Just seeing if I can justify paying that for the first edition.

 

I can't right now, but I'm sure there'll be more details soon. 

 

 

Well, for some of their stuff, the quick turnaround results in utterly dross products.

 

I started rereading Pariah earlier, and there on the page, Bequin "turned my heard at the noise".

 

A typo. In a published work that should have been proofed by at least three people (Dan, Nik, and their editor at the Library).

 

Dan is understandable. When an author goes over a manuscript that many times, they have an image in their head of what should be there, and then read it, making authors terrible at proofing their own work.

 

For one of the others not to have caught it? It can't be laid entirely at the BL's fault, but...

 

Not to mention the atrocious job they do on formatting the non-ipad codices.

 

Now, in absolute fairness, there're typos in practically every novel. I don't mean to suggest people should just let them slide - I do a full-body cringe every time I hear about one - but they're just part of the package. I read Robin Hobb's new novel Fool's Assassin a few days ago. I counted 6 typos; just the ones I remembered or spotted. David Gemmell's books are absolutely littered with them. Raymond Feist's Riftwar Saga has over half a dozen in every book, while Prince of the Blood is littered with them.

 

Not that I'm excusing it. I know some books have more than others, too. I'm just sayin'.

 

Dead on about the why-authors-miss-typos thing, though.

 

 

No problem: I will forgive you this once. And eagerly await more details.

 

Typos do seem to be getting worse, I was but a few pages into Stormcaller when I saw the first... 

 

Black Library - employ me as an editor and we won't have this!

 

 

 

 

(Okay, maybe one or two... But better than the "waste"/"waist" error from Iron Guard)

[incinerator950]

 

 

So keen for this. Hope he has done justice to my favourite Legion!

STOP IT THE PRESSURE OH GOD

 

Is this going to be/is post or pre legion war?

Around the nebulous middle of the Legion Wars.

 

 

AD-B - would you be so kind as to let us know how many pages are in it?

 

Just seeing if I can justify paying that for the first edition.

I can't right now, but I'm sure there'll be more details soon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The price is not the most important part. If it is good it could have 40 pages and would still be worth it.

 

When I was asking about pre/post legion war, I wasn't thinking about heresy. But the titanic war most legions waged in the eye post heresy.

From what I get from the (frankly awesome) first chapter, it's during the Legions wars in the Eye.

I looked (briefly), but couldn't find the bit on ADB's blog to where he talks about this

I suspect he's stalking us, sipping a glass of whatever he drinks, petting a cat while smiling at our reactions.

Nuh-uh. I've been offline for almost two weeks. Lightning struck my house and annihilated our internet router. True story.

 

 

Jeske, it's set at the end of the Legion Wars, the point where the Sons of Horus have been all but wiped out and how the remnants of several broken Legions decide to go Abby hunting

Yep, (mostly) this. The narrator is in 999.M41 at two minutes to midnight. In The Talon of Horus, he's describing how some of the warlords and warriors who'll go on to form the Black Legion with Abaddon go looking for Ezekyle in the first place. It's a case of "getting the band together", to quote one of my test readers. The sequel, The Black Legion, will be set at the end of the Legion Wars, when the Black Legion rise and and basically win it, in the build-up to the First Black Crusade.

 

 

I would pay 200 GBP per chapter if he personally narrated the book to me whilst wearing a topknot.

I'd do that for free.

 

For. Free.

 

 

Well, for some of their stuff, the quick turnaround results in utterly dross products.

 

I started rereading Pariah earlier, and there on the page, Bequin "turned my heard at the noise".

 

A typo. In a published work that should have been proofed by at least three people (Dan, Nik, and their editor at the Library).

 

Dan is understandable. When an author goes over a manuscript that many times, they have an image in their head of what should be there, and then read it, making authors terrible at proofing their own work.

 

For one of the others not to have caught it? It can't be laid entirely at the BL's fault, but...

 

Not to mention the atrocious job they do on formatting the non-ipad codices.

Now, in absolute fairness, there're typos in practically every novel. I don't mean to suggest people should just let them slide - I do a full-body cringe every time I hear about one - but they're just part of the package. I read Robin Hobb's new novel Fool's Assassin a few days ago. I counted 6 typos; just the ones I remembered or spotted. David Gemmell's books are absolutely littered with them. Raymond Feist's Riftwar Saga has over half a dozen in every book, while Prince of the Blood is littered with them.

 

Not that I'm excusing it. I know some books have more than others, too. I'm just sayin'.

 

Dead on about the why-authors-miss-typos thing, though.

I fail to understand the clarity of winning Legion Wars. The Slave Wars resulted in the near destruction of the Sons of Horus and their reorganization into the Black Legion. Which, the death blow to the EC was dealt by Khârn, along with his own Legion. Everyone else had started drifing or :cussing off to their own Demon Worlds on their own terms, not Abbadon's. Abbadon winning before his first Crusade is a joke when the Demon primarchs merely blessed him, because frankly, they stopped caring. He used the promise of Vengeance to grab anyone who was lost, abandoned, angry at the Emperor when the Primarchs took their promises and gained Demon status. They get used as a plot device to kill Loyalist primarchs or to setup the Grey Knights for hallowing victories.

 

I sincerely hope this isn't justifying the half assed lol everybody is mindless, talented Warbands but us Black Legionaires crap.

[Marshal Rohr]

The lightning was actually the current era incarnation of the Emperor attempting to stop you from converting more players to chaos.

[incinerator950]

So the two weeks you were gone, I went through the Dead Space trilogy on Zealot? Nice.

[Kol Saresk]

The Legion Wars were essentially the Underdog's War. All nine Traitor Legions fragmented in one version or another. And then, out of all that mess, a new Legion rose up and came out on top. Not only that, but it has stayed on top for the next ten thousand years. Twelve times it has launched massive Crusades into the Imperium, some of those only to get a small trinket or two. Twelve times the Black Legion has gathered to itself massive amounts of war materials and then just let it go. There's also the fact that Abaddon is responsible for inventing the Defiler and that he has built not one, but two Planetkillers.

 

And it all started one day in the Eye of Terror, when Abaddon turned to those who still followed him and said, "Enough is enough."

[Vesper]

We don't know for sure what happened to the first Planetkiller :).

[Kol Saresk]

Yeah, we kind of do. The Gothic War fluff from BFG records it being destroyed at long range by Lunar Class Cruisers because it was so slow moving.

[Vesper]

So they say.

Yet no trace of the ship was found where it was supposed to have taken place.

[incinerator950]

And I'm done venting. Thanks for listening guys.

[Vesper]

One Demon engine outdated (the commision from Abbadon is subsequently a book or two behind)

Wut ?

 

one Capital ship destroyed

See my last post about that.

 

 

while his more obvious defeats have been silenced

Wut ?

[Kol Saresk]

The more obvious defeats that spread acrosste width and breadth of the Imperium? You mean those? The ones that every turn have required the Imperium to turn its full attention to just to survive and push back, and yet for every one of these victories, the Imperium only has the death of a lieutenant or a ship to show for it? Mighty impressive Imperial victories on the Pyrhhic Scales I would say. Especially since one of those saw the death of Dorn.

 

Although that does bring up a question. Only a few of the Crusades are explicitly stated as being beaten. I think like the first, fourth and fifth I believe. The rest just sort of end. And as far as I know, its been that way forever. So wouldn't that mean that the background has always been pointing to the 13th being the endgame, rather than just the most recent?

[incinerator950]

Abbadon commisioning the Defiler did not make the new codex, it's as relavent as never having BTs turn to Chaos, even after the old Slaanesh turned shells with the sister story.

 

It's widely accepted the first planet killer was destroyed in the Gothic War when he gave control of it to one of his Lieutenants, which was destroyed in an ambush by long range torpedo fire.

 

Abbadon had made an accord with Huron, and their combined forces still lost to the IG/N, Dark Angels, and Grey Knights. Had Huron's secondary fleet not bailed him out, he would have lost a lot more when the Grey Knights closed the portal on the planet. That's the newest one off the top of my head, although I'm sure the fluffing from the Supplement makes it harder to remember anything.

 

It's unusual, parts of the background are still in limbo, while others are just starting. And it's entirely the Chaos perspective of the End is Nigh, the Imperial side is stalwart and both are really annoying.

[RapatoR]

Abbadon had made an accord with Huron, and their combined forces still lost to the IG/N, Dark Angels, and Grey Knights. Had Huron's secondary fleet not bailed him out, he would have lost a lot more when the Grey Knights closed the portal on the planet. That's the newest one off the top of my head, although I'm sure the fluffing from the Supplement makes it harder to remember anything.

 

It's unusual, parts of the background are still in limbo, while others are just starting. And it's entirely the Chaos perspective of the End is Nigh, the Imperial side is stalwart and both are really annoying.

Actually they both commited a very, very tiny fraction of their forces to that mission.

[incinerator950]

 

 

Abbadon had made an accord with Huron, and their combined forces still lost to the IG/N, Dark Angels, and Grey Knights. Had Huron's secondary fleet not bailed him out, he would have lost a lot more when the Grey Knights closed the portal on the planet. That's the newest one off the top of my head, although I'm sure the fluffing from the Supplement makes it harder to remember anything.

 

It's unusual, parts of the background are still in limbo, while others are just starting. And it's entirely the Chaos perspective of the End is Nigh, the Imperial side is stalwart and both are really annoying.

Actually they both commited a very, very tiny fraction of their forces to that mission.

Oh right, Huron has the forces the Size of a Legion. Toil and trouble and Abbadon has double.

[Vesper]

Well, I doubt you need the entire might of the Black Legion and the Red Corsairs to get a psyker on an imperial planet. Proof is, they managed to get the psyker with only a few guys.

[incinerator950]

Truthfully I didn't read fully into the Pandorax Campaign. That was the psyker to serve as the host for Slaanesh?

[Vesper]

Not confirmed, but very likely.

[incinerator950]

Well, I've seemingly charted the topic off course again.

[DarKnight]

http://www.blacklibrary.com/warhammer-40000/talon-of-horus-first-edition.html A link to the first chapter for those who way not frequent the BL Site or get the emails. Has it been long established that every machine spirit is a actual central nervous system? I've never heard of one described in such a way outside of one of the Mechanicum war machines. Perhaps just for larger mechs and star craft?

[*Furyou Miko]

No, not every machine spirit is a central nervous system. All Land Raider machine spirits are, some Rhino machine spirits were at one point (I believe it was a purchasable upgrade), but most machine spirits - the ones in bolters, cogitators, armour suits - are religious constructs rather than literal ones.

[Prodigal Son of Magnus]

How was Pandorax a failure? Sacrificing a couple grunts for a vessel capable of containing a GOD whose other canon appearance had his mear prescense kill every dark Eldar in the general area. Heck, if Slaanesh could use his full power while manifested I'd throw the entire Black Legion at the planet if that's what was needed.

[Slips]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CxM5sNOpUKY

 

 

OH DEAR GOD MUST...RESIST....IMPULSE....thank-god-black-library-doesn't-take-pay-pal... URGE...TO BUY...RISING...even if its 80 and rather overpriced AUGH!!!

[A D-B]

Jesus. That's a really cool trailer. Thanks for posting it, Slip - that was the first time I'd seen it.

 

I've got #0001* of the First Editions just like you'd expect, but BL have been really lovely on this whole project, sending me A3-sized copies of the internal artwork (now framed, ready to be mounted on a wall in the Aaronorium) as well as a print of the insane cover by Raymond Swanland.

 

Please enjoy this tedious slice of behind-the-scenes pointlessness.

 

 

 

* Actually, I have a magical unnumbered one, but the effect is much the same.