Petitioner's City Posted November 19, 2016 Share Posted November 19, 2016 It said the Phalanx was the largest Warp capable craft in the Imperium. Does that make it bigger than the Rock? Does anyone know what it actually looks like? The Phalanx was shown on the Soul Drinkers 6 cover, book titled Phalanx: http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/mediawiki/images/4/45/Phalanx_wallpaper.jpg Unfortunately the scale of that doesn't work the windows are too large for something babylon five or death star-sized (although this is true of all 40K space craft). i think it needs to allow more minificent details so as to appear more magnificent, and more technical. Actually why hasn't there been a 40K technical manual - it's the perfect IP! I guess the early Imperial Armour books kind of count, but they are restricted by model types... There is no deconstruction of a hive, no discussion of a transport network or the giant agricultural cutters in Malleus or the Imperial Palace in detail, etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Biscuittzz Posted November 19, 2016 Share Posted November 19, 2016 Been reading through this thread and while I can understand the reasons for people being annoyed, I can't understand why people didn't expect this to happen when you look at the authors of the series. Maybe with the exception of Abnett, the others are perhaps the weakest writers in the BL stable. Thorpe ruined Raven Gaurd, just as Annandale has done for the Grey Knights. Sure, all you need in here is Kyme to write a book in the series and everyone will really be sad. Call it subjective or objective it doesn't matter, there are good writers and bad. And this series unfortunately had the bad ones. Had ADB, Wraight or French had a hand in this we would be having a much different conversation. Off topic but hopefully BL have the top lads on the final HH books. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bluntblade Posted November 19, 2016 Share Posted November 19, 2016 I'm hoping Wraight handles the Scars at the Siege, French does the Fists and then AD-B tackles the Blood Angels Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarkChaplain Posted November 19, 2016 Share Posted November 19, 2016 "Weakest writers" my backside. Abnett's tied for worst in the series. But hey, let's overhype the same authors over and over... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The_son_of_Dorn Posted November 19, 2016 Share Posted November 19, 2016 That'st planx sucks. Shown me the eagle shaped gun laden death harbinger that the fists call home. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nazguire Posted November 19, 2016 Share Posted November 19, 2016 Rob Sanders is great. I feel like half the problems with TBA are more to do with editing decisions than anything - lets cram as much as we can into a novel half the size of a regular one and expect it to feel satisfying! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JH79 Posted November 19, 2016 Share Posted November 19, 2016 I see TBA as a very interesting business experiment for BL, I'm just surprised we haven't seen a board game release of some kind to go with it. They had been playing around with subscriptions of varying sizes and price for a few years before this series started and despite some very bad decisions re plot consistency, in principle I believe this style of release really does have legs. As many have mentioned, over a set period a novel subscription could be used to pad out and explore so many different aspects and era's of the Imperium's history. I would hope that BL learn from this though, take on board fan base reaction and feedback and then strive to improve upon what they have achieved here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarkChaplain Posted November 19, 2016 Share Posted November 19, 2016 I agree, as a concept it has a lot of promise. The problems were down to editorial nature and long delays, where the outlined story changed. We even saw stuff very late, like the Sisters of Silence cover disappearing. They started planning a long time ago, but then ended it on relatively short notice. With this experience under the belt, and the Horus Heresy being in the last stages, it seems like stuff like this would be the ideal next big thing. They just need to plan it out better ahead of time, and hopefully return to 400 page novels and reduce the number of installments a little, depending on topic. The Badab War would be a great thing to tackle here, and there's plenty of other relatively unexplored parts of the fluff that would lend themselves to this format. Anyway, I'll hopefully get my review of The Beheading written up tomorrow and then I can go about my series review/retrospect, something I've laid out for myself already but couldn't type up before finishing it all. It's been a fun, if bumpy year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TDF Posted November 20, 2016 Share Posted November 20, 2016 It said the Phalanx was the largest Warp capable craft in the Imperium. Does that make it bigger than the Rock? Does anyone know what it actually looks like? The Phalanx was shown on the Soul Drinkers 6 cover, book titled Phalanx: http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/mediawiki/images/4/45/Phalanx_wallpaper.jpg Unfortunately the scale of that doesn't work the windows are too large for something babylon five or death star-sized (although this is true of all 40K space craft). i think it needs to allow more minificent details so as to appear more magnificent, and more technical. Actually why hasn't there been a 40K technical manual - it's the perfect IP! I guess the early Imperial Armour books kind of count, but they are restricted by model types... There is no deconstruction of a hive, no discussion of a transport network or the giant agricultural cutters in Malleus or the Imperial Palace in detail, etc. Sadly there wasn't enough room to show the whole Phalanx. The artist could only draw Annex 6235-B-gamma before they ran out of space. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
klisof Posted November 20, 2016 Share Posted November 20, 2016 That's recycled art of a ramilies class star fort, the same type the fists exemplar used as a chapter fort. It's an exact match of the old BFF model. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DukeLeto69 Posted November 20, 2016 Share Posted November 20, 2016 I am in the same place as many people on this thread. TBA was overall a pretty satisfying and enjoyable experience. There were some weaker books but there were also some real corkers! Earlier on this thread I was pretty critical of The Shadow of Ullanor (and still maintain Rob Sanders may have been a plot victim of the excellent Last Son of Dorn by Guymer - Sanders is hit and miss for me, Predator Prey was great!) I really hope this has been a success and BL decide to do more "sequential series" to cover other events in the 10k timeline. Better/tighter editorial control and series planning would help. Possibly a smaller number of authors too? While the concept of 12 "episodes" spread across a year makes lots of business sense I personally think TBA would have worked well as a 10 book series with the key plot points of Echoes of the Long War and Hunt for Vulkan combined and The Last Son of Dorn and Shadow of Ullanor combined (and therefore only two attacks on Ullanor). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Petitioner's City Posted November 20, 2016 Share Posted November 20, 2016 That's recycled art of a ramilies class star fort, the same type the fists exemplar used as a chapter fort. It's an exact match of the old BFF model. It's more that improper scale is an issue more widely across the IP. Something the 'realistic' demands of a tech manual, rpg or the like might help with. Actually how did the FFG books deal with this? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mellow Posted November 20, 2016 Share Posted November 20, 2016 Not many other events happened in the 10k years between TBA and 40k did they. So probably nothing else will warrant a series to cover. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TDF Posted November 20, 2016 Share Posted November 20, 2016 Not many other events happened in the 10k years between TBA and 40k did they. So probably nothing else will warrant a series to cover. Age of Apostasy, Nova-Terra Interregnum, Moirae Schism, War of the False Primarch, multiple Black Crusades... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mellow Posted November 20, 2016 Share Posted November 20, 2016 Well hopefully all of that would be covered in one series rather than a series for each one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarkChaplain Posted November 20, 2016 Share Posted November 20, 2016 ...how would that work? They don't happen back to back, and there's plenty of room to expand and clarify to fill a series. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mellow Posted November 20, 2016 Share Posted November 20, 2016 TBA proved that time jumps can happen with relatively little disruption to the story. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DukeLeto69 Posted November 20, 2016 Share Posted November 20, 2016 Well hopefully all of that would be covered in one series rather than a series for each one. Why on earth would you want that? There are literally 1000s of entries in the W40k timeline and virtually any of them could justify a series of their own! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DukeLeto69 Posted November 20, 2016 Share Posted November 20, 2016 TBA proved that time jumps can happen with relatively little disruption to the story. The time jump in TBA was approx 100 years. The first 11 books covered a period of approx one year I think? Even if every series published covered 100 years (which it wouldn't) then between the Horus Heresy and 40k we would have 100 series! Personally I like TDF's list and there are many other entries on the timeline worth fleshing out and I really hope they do! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarkChaplain Posted November 20, 2016 Share Posted November 20, 2016 And even the way it happened in The Beheading I felt was jarring. It needed a few chapters to show the in-between, and is the biggest flaw of the book. Timejumps can work if properly done, but not in this kind of abrupt way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Biscuittzz Posted November 20, 2016 Share Posted November 20, 2016 "Weakest writers" my backside. Abnett's tied for worst in the series. But hey, let's overhype the same authors over and over... That's why I said 'maybe' Abnett included as well. He has some good stuff along with weaker stuff. He does however have technical prose far superior to the others. I wouldn't say they're overhyped, their publications speak for themselves and sets them a tier above. I don't know but if you think Abnett is one of the weakest, where does that leave guys like Thorpe, Swallow and Kyme? As Abnett is far above them. Some of their writing is like what I did for my secondary school exams. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bluntblade Posted November 21, 2016 Share Posted November 21, 2016 I will never understand how Kyme managed to make Astartes vs dinosaurs so underwhelming. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Petitioner's City Posted November 21, 2016 Share Posted November 21, 2016 I will never understand how Kyme managed to make Astartes vs dinosaurs so underwhelming. Because dinosaurs are an oversaturated and rather cliche monster-type used in far too much media, like zombies, meaning they are, generally, dull. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarkChaplain Posted November 21, 2016 Share Posted November 21, 2016 I couldn't disagree more! Dinosaurs have been basically extinct in media, especially movies, since Jurassic Park 3. There's been very little done with them until very recently, and even then those cases are the exception, not the rule. Comparing them to media's love for Zombies is preposterous. They're not even on the same planet of saturation, even if you count dinosaur erotica novels (yes, they exist). As someone who has loved dinosaurs since very early childhood, there's a significant lack of them to enjoy. They used to be everywhere in the 90s, and then it seems like another meteor crushed down on them. I've been sick of zombies for 10 years at least, and yet they still keep coming. There haven't even been any notable video games tackling dinosaurs in recent history, probably not since Dino Crisis jumped the shark and went to space. At this point I'd kill for a survival horror experience with FarCry level vegetation set in a Jurassic Park... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kelborn Posted November 21, 2016 Share Posted November 21, 2016 That's why I'm using dinosaur / reptile fauna for my DIY chapter homeworlds. ^^ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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