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The Next First Edition! Rebirth by Nick Kyme


Chaeron

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I'm just really struggling to see the reason behind releasing this so soon after Talon of Horus. Are they doing First Editions of all major BL books now? That seems excessive.

 

Talon of Horus made sense because its quite possibly the most anticipated BL book since Horus Rising. But a Salamanders novel? It doesn't make sense. 

They've been doing this for a while. BL has pretty much turned completely into GW, only they sell books for hilarious prices and make special editions that are hilariously overpriced. The Black Library apparently didn't get the memo about why special edition comics were bad in the 90's.

 

Don't get me wrong, I love the Limited Edition Horus Heresy novellas. I think they are a great concept, and a fantastic execution. Side stories that aren't required reading, but expand on the universe nicely. I have no problem with expensive limited editions, as long as they are well written. 

 

I'm just not sure that a Salamanders novel by Kyme could ever be worth this First Edition treatment. He has surprised me before, like with his novella Scorched Earth, but so far that was the exception. 

 

Now, a First Edition of something by Abnett, Wraight, or Sanders... Now we're talking. 

 

The problem is that this still is repeating what caused the comics crash in the 90's. Special Editions are a terrible idea to mass produce (especially for the Horus Heresy) as it deflates their value. Putting exclusive content into it just promotes piracy, which is why you'll often find torrent sites full of W40K content.

Although, that's nearly always been the case, and explained alongside it due to genetics and the radiation from living on Nocturne. I don't see it as being a problem now, especially not in how it's explained.

 

No, I mean that it was being done to what a lot of people perceived as "the African Chapter", not that people had a problem with it in its own right. Like, I remember a forum post by a Salamanders player talking about how what had attracted him to the army was that they seemed to be the only faction in the game that looked like him, and that sense of identification had been replaced with something frankly cartoonish. That kind of thing.

 

I can understand why they did it, the dichotomy of the most demonic-looking Marines also being the most compassionate is an important facet of the Chapter, and they obviously couldn't play to that with natural skin colours. But still.

Putting exclusive content into it just promotes piracy, which is why you'll often find torrent sites full of W40K content.

Yeah, because you definitely never saw any of that going on before they started putting exclusive content in them. rolleyes.gif

Putting exclusive content into it just promotes piracy, which is why you'll often find torrent sites full of W40K content.

Yeah, because you definitely never saw any of that going on before they started putting exclusive content in them. rolleyes.gif

I would think, if we're going to give any extra blame to one thing, that it's the increasing availability of getting stuff in electronic formats that has made it easier to pirate.

But I wouldn't be walking around saying that they are asking to have their stuff pirated because of that.

  • 2 weeks later...

So I've been re-reading the Salamanders Omnibus, and the best reason I can conclude on as to why the book series is just "meh" compared to stuff like the Night Lords trilogy isn't because Kyme is a poor writer or world builder (Kyme actually has given the Salamanders a lot to build on). The problem is the characters. Tsu'gan is flat as f****, so is Dak'ir. They're boring and are pretty much common tropes personalized- hell Dak'ir is just a walking a plot device, and is acknowledged at such in the very story. The best book was easily the second, simply because it focused on an interesting character with potential- Elysius, the one armed Chaplain.

 

If Kyrme really wants the next series to do well, he'll focus entirely on a new set of characters- Elysius, Fugis, and Argos as the mains. Just abandon Dak'ir and Tsu'gan.

So I've been re-reading the Salamanders Omnibus, and the best reason I can conclude on as to why the book series is just "meh" . . . isn't because Kyme is a poor writer. The problem is the characters.

. . . What?

 

So I've been re-reading the Salamanders Omnibus, and the best reason I can conclude on as to why the book series is just "meh" . . . isn't because Kyme is a poor writer. The problem is the characters.

. . . What?

 

I mean mechanically he writes well, it's not because of poor language. He just picked the dullest characters from the roster he made.

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