DarkChaplain Posted October 15, 2016 Share Posted October 15, 2016 I don't think I've met anyone who's read Goto. But seriously, that bad? The summaries I've read here do make it seem as though they've had a major lapse of sanity. I have. Goto is much worse than Battle for the Abyss (which I, admittedly, didn't even really dislike. It was a product of its time before they figured out what direction to take the HH series in, and while it doesn't do much at all for the series, it wasn't nearly as terrible as I expected going in). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jarl Kjaran Coldheart Posted October 16, 2016 Share Posted October 16, 2016 I got to the part where the Beast is slain was felt cheated. It was very underwhelming, and made me angry they dragged Vulkan into this just to later crap on the Beast later I cant really think of much nice to say about the book. Everything felt rushed and sloppy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sete Posted October 16, 2016 Share Posted October 16, 2016 I got to the part where the Beast is slain was felt cheated. It was very underwhelming, and made me angry they dragged Vulkan into this just to later crap on the Beast later I cant really think of much nice to say about the book. Everything felt rushed and sloppy. Despite liking the beginning yeah I share the same feelings towards the end of the book. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Felix Antipodes Posted October 16, 2016 Share Posted October 16, 2016 After plowing through this one it was obvious that editorially BL painted themselves into a corner, hence the third time lucky storyline. I don't blame Sanders too much, as he had a lot of plotlines to wrap up in very little space. I believe the story/start history of the series worked against a smooth, well balanced storyline. A finite multi-author series like this need a strong editorial hand to ensure a steady spread of the story. This is why a lot of trilogies become 4 or 5 volumes. They did try to explain why it worked this time It was implied that the Navy & Guard were holding back most of their supporting forces until Vangorich scared the crap out of their respective High Lords but it didn't convince me that this alone could turn the tide. Maybe if Rob had provided a basic listing of the Imperial forces involved (x squillions of IG, etc) it might seem more logical, but I feel that would have ended on the editing floor due to limited space. One more to go. We all know what the main storyline will be in that, I just hope Rob can wrap up the remaining plotlines still dangling without stealing too much space from the main topic. After all, there was 50 years between the beginning and end of The Beheading Era in the fluff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bluntblade Posted October 16, 2016 Share Posted October 16, 2016 So, things being dire enough for all the Astartes and a Primarch to go wasn't enough to prompt the Navy and Guard to get up off their arses? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Felix Antipodes Posted October 16, 2016 Share Posted October 16, 2016 No, the whole point of the series is the HLoT gatekeeping their organisations from each other. They only saw Koorland and Vulkan as threats to their power and would have been secretly pleased with their deaths. Nowhere in the series do they take the Ork threat seriously until near the end when it was almost too late. We saw individuals throughout the series who weren't happy with the orders coming from above but couldn't disobey them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarkChaplain Posted October 16, 2016 Share Posted October 16, 2016 Wasn't the Beheading, date-wise, barely a year after the outbreak of the Beast's Waaagh? No need to put Vangorich on hold at this point. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drooling blood Posted October 16, 2016 Share Posted October 16, 2016 Probably. But Vangorich has been sitting on his hands, through this whole thing. Hes failed as much as the rest of them. He'll now kill everyone, and everyone will blame Khaos, because reasons. (mainly marketing, I suspect) Where as if he knocked off one or two HLOTs at the start. they might have shifted their arses and none of this would have happened. The Ultras will turn up. Power fist the Inq. Then the SOS into getting some flying Rhinos (which turns them into battle sisters. They couldnt keep their vows of silence after that) and go home. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DukeLeto69 Posted October 16, 2016 Share Posted October 16, 2016 Need to qualify what I am about to say by admitting I have not yet read the latest TBA novel but having read the spoilers it really does appear that BL dropped the ball on this which is a real shame as the series started out so well. For my money the two best TBA novels were Gav Thorpe's. I know he gets a bad rap but he really got those two books right. While conversely the books by Annandale were generally the weak points in the series (though I also disliked Guymer's first book but really enjoyed his second book). The biggest issues for me with the series is the repetitive nature and missed opportunities, for example: - Attacking Ullanor three times - Wasting Vulkan so early in the series - Big reveal of 6 beasts then...meh - The same Inquisitor knowing (roughly) the whereabouts of the Sister of Silence AND Vulkan. Personally I think the discovery of Ullanor as the origin should maybe have been later in the series. Also, only attack it twice! Most importantly, why not have Vulkan involved in that final showdown somehow from the "other side" in the psychic green while in the real world the Sisters of Silence are preventing the Beast(s) from using their psychic powers enabling the combined Imperial forces a chance to actually win (at terrible cost). In fact it seems that Guymer's last book was closer to being what the ending should have been! Or how about the Mechanicus finding a way to teleport Ullanor into a star? Wasted opportunity. Only hope now is that Haley's The Beheading can redeem the series as a whole. Saying all that I have really enjoyed the serial concept and really hope BL do more to cover other events throughout the timeline. Perhaps though they need a better more formal plan and a tighter/smaller number of authors? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The_son_of_Dorn Posted October 16, 2016 Share Posted October 16, 2016 I do think the orc's having an emissary that can speak fluent gothic is pretty cool though. "Surrender now human, or face the wrath of thine spiky bits!" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mellow Posted October 16, 2016 Share Posted October 16, 2016 Having a few books building Koorland up as king of awesome was great... except for the bit where he turned out pretty bad and getting ripped to shreds. Having a Primarch self sacrifice for what was no victory at all was pointless. I'm sure he'll resurrect somewhere at some point in the future and go off in into hiding. I'm sure Vangoritch will just kill everyone and Thane will end him after getting a bit of a battering from Krule. You know. Lots of "final acts of strength" and "gritted teeth" and "damage runes on power armour" That kind of thing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
God-Potato of Mankind Posted October 16, 2016 Share Posted October 16, 2016 On the topic of unexplored plotlines, I just remembered but what the hell happened to the random Eldar who attacked the palace? Was there a point to that? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Knight of the Raven Posted October 16, 2016 Share Posted October 16, 2016 Eldar are jerks like that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarkChaplain Posted October 16, 2016 Share Posted October 16, 2016 On the topic of unexplored plotlines, I just remembered but what the hell happened to the random Eldar who attacked the palace? Was there a point to that? She's supposedly warning them about the upcoming Great Crusade, just about 50 or so years later. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drooling blood Posted October 16, 2016 Share Posted October 16, 2016 On the topic of unexplored plotlines, I just remembered but what the hell happened to the random Eldar who attacked the palace? Was there a point to that? No. Because GW. Or Locked up in the Inq fortress. For regular people. Maybe thats why the Ultras turned up. To talk to their half brosisther. Vulkan was swallowed by the green. He was sucked in to the ork psyke, then ahh buggeration and :cussery. Who knows if the other 5 beasts arent running around. But Rob MUST get to the Khaos, so it was BEHIND everything. Then he can describe how fething spikes are spikey for 10 pages, talk about something else for a page. Then describe the spikes again. There was either a lot of stuff cut from the end, to make room for marines lucky haha well invade through the sewers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drooling blood Posted October 16, 2016 Share Posted October 16, 2016 I do think the orc's having an emissary that can speak fluent gothic is pretty cool though. "Surrender now human, or face the wrath of thine spiky bits!" Ah the 2nd ed, not bolter fodder Orks. Oi up yerz tozza Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nazguire Posted October 17, 2016 Share Posted October 17, 2016 Having a few books building Koorland up as king of awesome was great... except for the bit where he turned out pretty bad and getting ripped to shreds. Having a Primarch self sacrifice for what was no victory at all was pointless. I'm sure he'll resurrect somewhere at some point in the future and go off in into hiding. I'm sure Vangoritch will just kill everyone and Thane will end him after getting a bit of a battering from Krule. You know. Lots of "final acts of strength" and "gritted teeth" and "damage runes on power armour" That kind of thing. 'damage runes on power armour' had me laughing heartily. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sothalor Posted October 18, 2016 Share Posted October 18, 2016 So the reason the bulk of the Imperium's military might was not involved against the Beast was because the High Lords were holding them back? The same High Lords that were literally crapping themselves when a teleporting Ork attack moon appeared in low Terran orbit and they threw all of their civilian populace and vessels against it in a desperate bid to fight it? *ahem* BULL. :cuss. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brother Dougal Posted October 18, 2016 Share Posted October 18, 2016 This only further motivates me to have the Beasts show up again in the End Times to get some ORK JUSTUS. "Oh, you puny humies thought you were done with us? Well think again! Break out Da Supah WAAAAAAAAGGGHHH!!!" But seriously, I still want to do a kind of kickstarter/gofundme thing for proper artwork for the Beast. Ork Primarchs Deserve Equal Treatment! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bluntblade Posted October 18, 2016 Share Posted October 18, 2016 Maybe that's Ghazhkull's destiny, to become a Beast by thinking he could be one Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brother Dougal Posted October 19, 2016 Share Posted October 19, 2016 There is something of a silver lining I could say, I guess. Throughout this whole entire series we've all said that what we like most isn't the great, epic battles they've had (although I thoroughly enjoyed The Beast Must Die and The Emperor Expects) but the politics and intrigue of the High Lords during the early stages of the series. Rather like the action, I feel this also showed better in earlier entries in the series. The plots of Vangorich and the Inquisitors. Juskina Tull's Proletarian Crusade ploy. The Lord-Admiral's posturing and Commander Udo's attempts at reigning in the Astartes. These were all really great, and the Orks showed up too, growing ever more potent along the way. The good news, hopefully, is that with the last entry being all about The Beheading, we may end the series with a bang if they can bring that kind of action and plotting back in for the finale. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bluntblade Posted October 21, 2016 Share Posted October 21, 2016 Part of me likes the perversity of the High Lords of Terra allowing one of the Emperor's own sons to die pointlessly so he doesn't threaten their power. The greater part of me wants to headbutt the wall. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HeritorA Posted October 21, 2016 Share Posted October 21, 2016 Part of me likes the perversity of the High Lords of Terra allowing one of the Emperor's own sons to die pointlessly so he doesn't threaten their power. The greater part of me wants to headbutt the wall. Shadow of Ullanor has a lot of points to that, had an amazing beginning, great inspirational actions and FAIL miserably with the horrible flat ending, which could be expected of course, but so 'ungrandeur' - that's a total cheat. Never expected from Rob to write such a passable book. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Felix Antipodes Posted October 21, 2016 Share Posted October 21, 2016 Noting that it took 11 books to cover a little more than a year I doubt that we will see more than the start of the Beheading since the fluff states that the Beheading period of anarchy lasted This sorry situation would last for almost a full standard century, until Chapter Master Agnathio of the Ultramarines gathered the support of over 50 of his fellow Chapter Masters from all over the galaxy, and a combined armada of over 50 Chapters of Space Marines descended upon Terra for the first time since the end of the Horus Heresy. Agnathio provided the warring factions with an ultimatum to either cease fighting and form a government immediately or be purged as Heretics. The factions, unable to withstand the military might of the equivalent of an entire Space Marine Legion of old, quickly fell into line, and a new set of High Lords of Terra were quickly elected and order restored at the heart of the Imperium. I also wonder if they will retcon that the Sable Swords were part of the force attempting to prevent/punish Vangorich (along with the Halo Brethren & Ultramarines) or finally acknowledge that some chapter names are recycled. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HeritorA Posted October 21, 2016 Share Posted October 21, 2016 Noting that it took 11 books to cover a little more than a year I doubt that we will see more than the start of the Beheading since the fluff states that the Beheading period of anarchy lasted This sorry situation would last for almost a full standard century, until Chapter Master Agnathio of the Ultramarines gathered the support of over 50 of his fellow Chapter Masters from all over the galaxy, and a combined armada of over 50 Chapters of Space Marines descended upon Terra for the first time since the end of the Horus Heresy. Agnathio provided the warring factions with an ultimatum to either cease fighting and form a government immediately or be purged as Heretics. The factions, unable to withstand the military might of the equivalent of an entire Space Marine Legion of old, quickly fell into line, and a new set of High Lords of Terra were quickly elected and order restored at the heart of the Imperium. I also wonder if they will retcon that the Sable Swords were part of the force attempting to prevent/punish Vangorich (along with the Halo Brethren & Ultramarines) or finally acknowledge that some chapter names are recycled. They could, after all they did a lot with Imperial Fists and everything related Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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