The Beast Arises

[bluntblade]

Still can't decide whether Vulkan dying due to the betrayal of certain High Lords is gloriously 40k or just depressingly stupid. Is there any indication that they were cynically wasting a Primarch's life and only committing fully for the final battle?

[HeritorA]

Still can't decide whether Vulkan dying due to the betrayal of certain High Lords is gloriously 40k or just depressingly stupid. Is there any indication that they were cynically wasting a Primarch's life and only committing fully for the final battle?

Vulkan has done it himself. In TBA time he is an emo kid - who disappointed with everything and simply decided to put responsibilities on others. That's why he hasn't done anything with the High Lords. And simply hasn't took full command of the assault etc. etc. 

[DarkChaplain]

Vulkan had the High Lords cowed. They wanted rid of him but had no say in the matter. They could either comply or face consequences. Vulkan organized the whole thing on his own accord.

[HeritorA]

Vulkan had the High Lords cowed. They wanted rid of him but had no say in the matter. They could either comply or face consequences. Vulkan organized the whole thing on his own accord.

To put all responsibilities on the shoulders of Koorland. To create a better rhougthful Imperium! Right....

[Anthedon]

Just finished the last book. Overall I'd rate the series a solid "meh". Too many inconsistencies drag it way down (Death Watch, etc.).

 

The format I like though. 12 books that are planned out beforehand and you know vaguely what you are going to get. I'm looking at you HH.

[The_son_of_Dorn]

As post hh I find it a massive let down.

[DarkChaplain]

It is 1500 years post Heresy. What did you really expect? The Scouring is long over and the Imperium is complacent. The second Black Crusade follows shortly after.

[Roomsky]

Just started this series, I'm enjoying it a fair bit so far, even if several weaknesses are already apparent.

 

I'm through I am Slaughter and Predator, Prey, and I've found them to basically be the opposite of each other. I am Slaughter is much better written on a technical level, and the ork menace comes across as hugely intimidating, the build-up and descriptions of their assault were done beautifully. Unfortunately, the plot really plods along (sans Vangorich), and the short book should really have been even shorter.

 

Predator, Prey by contrast has prose I really struggled with. Something about Rob's writing just doesn't flow. What's more, there were several segments of the plot I felt we needed more of, like the death of Undine and Vangorich being awesome. Unlike I am Slaughter, however, I was never once bored while working through it, the plot moved so quickly through so many varied settings that I never found my self zoning out.

 

 

And while I'm no fan of Gav Thorpe, I've heard good things about The Emperor Expects, so I'm excited to see where things go next.

[HeritorA]

It is 1500 years post Heresy. What did you really expect? The Scouring is long over and the Imperium is complacent. The second Black Crusade follows shortly after.

Big apocalyptic engagements? Which were actually shown mostly of screen after books 4-5? Death of knowledge and hope? Religious zeal dominating everything? Poor workers conditions on some small Imperium mining world? 

Instead of absolutely unnessessary and poorly done Fists Exemplars/Iron Warriors secondary plot 

Just started this series, I'm enjoying it a fair bit so far, even if several weaknesses are already apparent.

 

I'm through I am Slaughter and Predator, Prey, and I've found them to basically be the opposite of each other. I am Slaughter is much better written on a technical level, and the ork menace comes across as hugely intimidating, the build-up and descriptions of their assault were done beautifully. Unfortunately, the plot really plods along (sans Vangorich), and the short book should really have been even shorter.

 

Predator, Prey by contrast has prose I really struggled with. Something about Rob's writing just doesn't flow. What's more, there were several segments of the plot I felt we needed more of, like the death of Undine and Vangorich being awesome. Unlike I am Slaughter, however, I was never once bored while working through it, the plot moved so quickly through so many varied settings that I never found my self zoning out.

 

 

And while I'm no fan of Gav Thorpe, I've heard good things about The Emperor Expects, so I'm excited to see where things go next.

The Emperor Expects probably one of the best Thorpe narratives since Angels of Darkness and Ravens Flight

[Roomsky]

Two more down:

 

The Emperor Expects was very good for a Thorpe novel. The characters were believable, and Kulik's whole retinue were quite likable and very distinct, two factors often found lacking in combination for BL characters. I admit I expected the attack on Port Sanctus to fail, so it was a pleasant surprise to see them successfully bring down the attack moon. I enjoyed Koorland's litle adventure as well, Greydove was very well fleshed out for how little screen time he got, and Koorland's stress at summoning the other chapters was a nice touch. The book's greatest strength, I found, was definitely its brevity. The pacing was so quick (arguably a little too quick) that nothing overstayed its welcome, and for that I am thankful. Unfortunately, prose is very important to me (which is why i can;t stand to read Lord of the Rings), and Gav's is still far too dry for my liking. The plot and characters were interesting, but the writing didn't meet the same standard, and I feel it holds the book back. On a side note, who is that supposed to be on the cover? Achayra?

 

The Last Wall is definitely my favorite in the series thus far. Continuing my point on prose, between Annandale, Sanders, and Thorpe, David easily comes out on top. And thankfully, it avoids Annandale's usual unfortunate caveats of being bolter-porn (Lord of Ultramar) or uninteresting (Pythos). The character work was solid as usual, if a little inconsistent, and the book's new cast were plenty enjoyable to read about. I especially liked the merchant ship commander, it was nice to see a believable portrait of someone forcing down their insecurities for the sake of their followers. I will say that I thought the Black Templars chapter master was being a little too reasonable, however, considering their reputation. The plot, while still rapid, had a little more room to breathe, and I have to applaud mister Annandale for providing the most disturbing manner of killing people I've ever read (you know the scene). I also enjoyed the arrival of the ork ambassador, though I'm inclined to believe it was probably more mockery than any genuine attempt to treat. A thoroughly enjoyable read.

[HeritorA]

Two more down:

 

The Emperor Expects was very good for a Thorpe novel. The characters were believable, and Kulik's whole retinue were quite likable and very distinct, two factors often found lacking in combination for BL characters. I admit I expected the attack on Port Sanctus to fail, so it was a pleasant surprise to see them successfully bring down the attack moon. I enjoyed Koorland's litle adventure as well, Greydove was very well fleshed out for how little screen time he got, and Koorland's stress at summoning the other chapters was a nice touch. The book's greatest strength, I found, was definitely its brevity. The pacing was so quick (arguably a little too quick) that nothing overstayed its welcome, and for that I am thankful. Unfortunately, prose is very important to me (which is why i can;t stand to read Lord of the Rings), and Gav's is still far too dry for my liking. The plot and characters were interesting, but the writing didn't meet the same standard, and I feel it holds the book back. On a side note, who is that supposed to be on the cover? Achayra?

 

The Last Wall is definitely my favorite in the series thus far. Continuing my point on prose, between Annandale, Sanders, and Thorpe, David easily comes out on top. And thankfully, it avoids Annandale's usual unfortunate caveats of being bolter-porn (Lord of Ultramar) or uninteresting (Pythos). The character work was solid as usual, if a little inconsistent, and the book's new cast were plenty enjoyable to read about. I especially liked the merchant ship commander, it was nice to see a believable portrait of someone forcing down their insecurities for the sake of their followers. I will say that I thought the Black Templars chapter master was being a little too reasonable, however, considering their reputation. The plot, while still rapid, had a little more room to breathe, and I have to applaud mister Annandale for providing the most disturbing manner of killing people I've ever read (you know the scene). I also enjoyed the arrival of the ork ambassador, though I'm inclined to believe it was probably more mockery than any genuine attempt to treat. A thoroughly enjoyable read.

Wow. someone has seen Lord of Ultramar and Pythos for what they are - bad books. Awesome. On one point I will not agree with you Roomsky my khornite brother :) 'Echoes of the Long War' from David was the most disappointing and bad book from all the TBA series.

[Roomsky]

Two more down:

The Emperor Expects was very good for a Thorpe novel. The characters were believable, and Kulik's whole retinue were quite likable and very distinct, two factors often found lacking in combination for BL characters. I admit I expected the attack on Port Sanctus to fail, so it was a pleasant surprise to see them successfully bring down the attack moon. I enjoyed Koorland's litle adventure as well, Greydove was very well fleshed out for how little screen time he got, and Koorland's stress at summoning the other chapters was a nice touch. The book's greatest strength, I found, was definitely its brevity. The pacing was so quick (arguably a little too quick) that nothing overstayed its welcome, and for that I am thankful. Unfortunately, prose is very important to me (which is why i can;t stand to read Lord of the Rings), and Gav's is still far too dry for my liking. The plot and characters were interesting, but the writing didn't meet the same standard, and I feel it holds the book back. On a side note, who is that supposed to be on the cover? Achayra?

The Last Wall is definitely my favorite in the series thus far. Continuing my point on prose, between Annandale, Sanders, and Thorpe, David easily comes out on top. And thankfully, it avoids Annandale's usual unfortunate caveats of being bolter-porn (Lord of Ultramar) or uninteresting (Pythos). The character work was solid as usual, if a little inconsistent, and the book's new cast were plenty enjoyable to read about. I especially liked the merchant ship commander, it was nice to see a believable portrait of someone forcing down their insecurities for the sake of their followers. I will say that I thought the Black Templars chapter master was being a little too reasonable, however, considering their reputation. The plot, while still rapid, had a little more room to breathe, and I have to applaud mister Annandale for providing the most disturbing manner of killing people I've ever read (you know the scene). I also enjoyed the arrival of the ork ambassador, though I'm inclined to believe it was probably more mockery than any genuine attempt to treat. A thoroughly enjoyable read.

Wow. someone has seen Lord of Ultramar and Pythos for what they are - bad books. Awesome. On one point I will not agree with you Roomsky my khornite brother 'Echoes of the Long War' from David was the most disappointing and bad book from all the TBA series.

Sorry, I meant Annandale, Guymer's sort of out of my pov for the moment.

I stick by the point, though. Despite the many weaknesses of Pythos and Lord of Ultramar, there was no janky prose that made me stop and question what was going on (Sanders), nor did they ever make me angry, a distinction only Mr. Mcneill and Mr. Thorpe share. I think Annnandale is great so long as he actually has something interesting to write about.

[Mellow]

Just in case for those that haven't read I'll put my comment in a spoiler so as not to ruin it but for those that have

 

 

setting Koorland up as being awesome and then having him get completely owned to the point of him looking rubbish at pointless made me go "say whaaaa?!"

 

Iron warrior story was pointless.

 

So was that book that started off with the focus on the imperial guard. Pointless.

 

So was attacking the same place three times with no real change in tactics. Pointless.

 

Having thousands of attack moons causing apocalyptic damage everywhere. NOT pointless.

 

Having the politicking. Awesome.

 

[Xisor]

Janky prose. I've had that conversation with others (Farrer, most plainly) about other authors too, as well as Sanders.

 

For me, they're some of the few authors that seriously manage poetry into their prose.

 

Everyone else is... safe. Even Dan and Aaron and Chris Wraight and folk - marginally but sufficiently more often concerned with turning in a ripping yarn and than... dabbling.

 

I'm happy to take sentences and paragraphs that are dense and might warrant focus to parse.

 

Heavens, I'm a slow enough reader as it is. Perhaps I just enjoy sometimes feeling at home with the slower pace! :)

 

---

 

Of course, that's all a massive value judgement on my part, and correspondingly subjective too. I'd love to be able to properly 'let people in' to what I enjoy so much about the likes of Farrer and Sanders. Share the love, all that.

 

But as folks quite often say: different strokes.

 

---

 

It's worth noting that I thought the penultimate book was indeed a bit of a damp squid. The choice of focus and pace was... I could see where the decisions are made and what the objective was. I just think the objective was bad and the decisions wrong. (E.g. they didn't work for me, and jarred via repetition with the previous books, rather than evoke tragedy/shock/horror.)

 

Which is a shame, as most often I love Sanders' stuff.

 

To that end, I usually enjoy *reading* David Annandale's work, but I can often take/leave a lot of what he's trying to do. (And I'm not as beholden to the cosmic horrors of his, cool as they are. For some reason they feel a bit... un-40k. It's a difficult line to walk, of course. And I'm glad it's walked with increasing frequency, at very least!)

[Phoebus]

Xisor,

 

I'm right there with you on Sanders's writing and style. I'm a fan. Yes, it's more nuanced. Yes, it requires more work and a slower pace. Ultimately, I think it's worth it.

[Roomsky]

Janky prose. I've had that conversation with others (Farrer, most plainly) about other authors too, as well as Sanders.

For me, they're some of the few authors that seriously manage poetry into their prose.

Everyone else is... safe. Even Dan and Aaron and Chris Wraight and folk - marginally but sufficiently more often concerned with turning in a ripping yarn and than... dabbling.

I'm happy to take sentences and paragraphs that are dense and might warrant focus to parse.

Heavens, I'm a slow enough reader as it is. Perhaps I just enjoy sometimes feeling at home with the slower pace!

---

Of course, that's all a massive value judgement on my part, and correspondingly subjective too. I'd love to be able to properly 'let people in' to what I enjoy so much about the likes of Farrer and Sanders. Share the love, all that.

But as folks quite often say: different strokes.

---

It's worth noting that I thought the penultimate book was indeed a bit of a damp squid. The choice of focus and pace was... I could see where the decisions are made and what the objective was. I just think the objective was bad and the decisions wrong. (E.g. they didn't work for me, and jarred via repetition with the previous books, rather than evoke tragedy/shock/horror.)

Which is a shame, as most often I love Sanders' stuff.

To that end, I usually enjoy *reading* David Annandale's work, but I can often take/leave a lot of what he's trying to do. (And I'm not as beholden to the cosmic horrors of his, cool as they are. For some reason they feel a bit... un-40k. It's a difficult line to walk, of course. And I'm glad it's walked with increasing frequency, at very least!)

Interesting! I think Farrer is one of BL's best, but I find Sanders (with some exceptions) a bit of a chore.

I will admit I usually have at least some appreciation for Sanders' work, I don't think my issues with him are from a lack of skill, but rather a style I don't appreciate as much as you and others. I generally value flow over all else when it comes to prose.

[HeritorA]

Just in case for those that haven't read I'll put my comment in a spoiler so as not to ruin it but for those that have

setting Koorland up as being awesome and then having him get completely owned to the point of him looking rubbish at pointless made me go "say whaaaa?!"

Iron warrior story was pointless.

So was that book that started off with the focus on the imperial guard. Pointless.

So was attacking the same place three times with no real change in tactics. Pointless.

Having thousands of attack moons causing apocalyptic damage everywhere. NOT pointless.

Having the politicking. Awesome.

Agree with each point - totally true. Did you read them all Mellow? Did you get to the ending with 'The Beheading'.

Two more down:

The Emperor Expects was very good for a Thorpe novel. The characters were believable, and Kulik's whole retinue were quite likable and very distinct, two factors often found lacking in combination for BL characters. I admit I expected the attack on Port Sanctus to fail, so it was a pleasant surprise to see them successfully bring down the attack moon. I enjoyed Koorland's litle adventure as well, Greydove was very well fleshed out for how little screen time he got, and Koorland's stress at summoning the other chapters was a nice touch. The book's greatest strength, I found, was definitely its brevity. The pacing was so quick (arguably a little too quick) that nothing overstayed its welcome, and for that I am thankful. Unfortunately, prose is very important to me (which is why i can;t stand to read Lord of the Rings), and Gav's is still far too dry for my liking. The plot and characters were interesting, but the writing didn't meet the same standard, and I feel it holds the book back. On a side note, who is that supposed to be on the cover? Achayra?

The Last Wall is definitely my favorite in the series thus far. Continuing my point on prose, between Annandale, Sanders, and Thorpe, David easily comes out on top. And thankfully, it avoids Annandale's usual unfortunate caveats of being bolter-porn (Lord of Ultramar) or uninteresting (Pythos). The character work was solid as usual, if a little inconsistent, and the book's new cast were plenty enjoyable to read about. I especially liked the merchant ship commander, it was nice to see a believable portrait of someone forcing down their insecurities for the sake of their followers. I will say that I thought the Black Templars chapter master was being a little too reasonable, however, considering their reputation. The plot, while still rapid, had a little more room to breathe, and I have to applaud mister Annandale for providing the most disturbing manner of killing people I've ever read (you know the scene). I also enjoyed the arrival of the ork ambassador, though I'm inclined to believe it was probably more mockery than any genuine attempt to treat. A thoroughly enjoyable read.

Wow. someone has seen Lord of Ultramar and Pythos for what they are - bad books. Awesome. On one point I will not agree with you Roomsky my khornite brother 'Echoes of the Long War' from David was the most disappointing and bad book from all the TBA series.

Sorry, I meant Annandale, Guymer's sort of out of my pov for the moment.

I stick by the point, though. Despite the many weaknesses of Pythos and Lord of Ultramar, there was no janky prose that made me stop and question what was going on (Sanders), nor did they ever make me angry, a distinction only Mr. Mcneill and Mr. Thorpe share. I think Annnandale is great so long as he actually has something interesting to write about.

That's why I'M TOTALLY SCARED ABOUT HIS NEXT HH BOOK 'RUINSTORM'

Xisor,

I'm right there with you on Sanders's writing and style. I'm a fan. Yes, it's more nuanced. Yes, it requires more work and a slower pace. Ultimately, I think it's worth it.

Totally true.

Roomsky - Sanders is hit and miss nowdays. He is the author who gave us awesomeness of 'Serpent beneath' and 'Legion of the Damned'. But Techpriest duology and 'Shadow of Ullanor' was disappointing.

Farrer on the other hand wrote only several pieces - but each of them is beyond amazing!

[DarkChaplain]

I'm not really enamored with Sanders either. I loved Archaon: Everchosen and a lot of his shorts, but reading Cybernetica right now and still being annoyed about Shadow of Ullanor, I'm getting less and less enthused about him.

Reading Cybernetica, I find myself losing focus a lot and just drifting off from yet another action scene (though admittedly this likely also has to do with me being sick at the moment), and his plot related decisions and focal points are just way off the mark for me.

 

I didn't like Skitarius, and haven't read Tech-Priest as a result. The Honoured felt like a mess of plot armor and bland action, which I consider the bad step brother of Annandale's The Unburdened. His style put me off of Legends of the Dark Millennium: Space Wolves because it felt jarring coming from the other authors before him - in contrast it was convoluted and needlessly complex and it didn't help that there too I felt like his first part in the series was repeating a bunch of cues from the previous.

 

I still think his Daemon of the Deep is probably my favorite story written for Age of Sigmar due to what he manages to convey in terms of depravity and it not featuring Stormcasts, but his 40k work gets me less excited with each longer story of his I read. On that note, I still haven't managed to read through Atlas Infernal because back when it came out and I bought it, I found it tricky to get invested for long enough to get through a chapter at a time at least. He barely used scene breaks, paragraphs went on and on and on with heavier than average prose. I liked what I read but I also found it tiring at the time.

[HeritorA]

I'm not really enamored with Sanders either. I loved Archaon: Everchosen and a lot of his shorts, but reading Cybernetica right now and still being annoyed about Shadow of Ullanor, I'm getting less and less enthused about him.

Reading Cybernetica, I find myself losing focus a lot and just drifting off from yet another action scene (though admittedly this likely also has to do with me being sick at the moment), and his plot related decisions and focal points are just way off the mark for me.

 

I didn't like Skitarius, and haven't read Tech-Priest as a result. The Honoured felt like a mess of plot armor and bland action, which I consider the bad step brother of Annandale's The Unburdened. His style put me off of Legends of the Dark Millennium: Space Wolves because it felt jarring coming from the other authors before him - in contrast it was convoluted and needlessly complex and it didn't help that there too I felt like his first part in the series was repeating a bunch of cues from the previous.

 

I still think his Daemon of the Deep is probably my favorite story written for Age of Sigmar due to what he manages to convey in terms of depravity and it not featuring Stormcasts, but his 40k work gets me less excited with each longer story of his I read. On that note, I still haven't managed to read through Atlas Infernal because back when it came out and I bought it, I found it tricky to get invested for long enough to get through a chapter at a time at least. He barely used scene breaks, paragraphs went on and on and on with heavier than average prose. I liked what I read but I also found it tiring at the time.

Almost the same - not in chronological order but list the same:

His best 7:

Serpent Beneath - the best from him ever.

The Long Games of Carcharias - second best.

A Deeper Darkness - third best

The Harrowing - fourth best.

Distant Echoes of Old Night - fifth best.

Legion of the Damned - six best.

Archaon first book - last of the best

 

Then some good stuff:

Atlas Infernal; Predator Prey, Redemption Corpse; The Iron Within; Bastions; Ironfire.

 

Everything else is bad. No sugarcoating. And from what I could see - he creates an amazing shorts and novellas. But in case of full novels he did only Legion of the Damned and Archaon first book (second was mech) in awesome range.

So his best talents are with the short stuff - where he can create a solid story.

[Xisor]

Weird - I massively enjoyed Skitarius & Tech-Priest, and enjoy the prose because it has bite to it. That's probably why I enjoyed Atlas Infernal so much too - in the first thirty pages more remarkable stuff and people appear than in most novels. The density of content is is immense.

 

(As I've said of Farrer, more content in a sentence than many manage in a chapter.)

 

---

 

A lot of the things I've liked less have been comprehensively in the last two/three years where BL was going hard at "more action, more tie in, less wandering". I'm hopeful with the deliberate shift this will see his briefs/requirements re-ordered and put more in line with what he actually wants to write.

 

---

 

I'd also add "Necessary Evil" to any lists going around: sheer mad joy.

 

---

 

I think, if anything, I'd have liked "The Shadow of Ullanor" to have been done from an orks perspective. Rob, get on with that re-write!

[DarkChaplain]

I remember really liking what Sanders did off the bat with Atlas Infernal. He has that density, I can agree with that entirely. But to me, it also feels pretty exhausting. One part of it is the more cosmetic lack of breathing room because he keeps going and going with his chapters, and the other may simply be that he can end up overdescribing scenes.

 

Cybernetica is among the books I liked least in the Horus Heresy series for many reasons, but I also think a lot of them have to do with the temporal shift in policy that peaked in 2015. It had too much showcasing of AdMech kits and barely any dialogue or developments that I felt were satisfying. If you have a big bad AI wanting to destroy the meatbags, the least you can do is use it instead of having it sit quietly and passively almost the entire time. Instead you get robots punching things.

 

Shadow of Ullanor also had a big deal of action, and the biggest problem with that was not really the quality of it, but the repetition, the deja vu, and that he didn't even try answering many questions that were thrown up over the course of the series. I believe that Sanders could have done a LOT better if he had gotten stronger editorial oversight and clearer memos of what points to cover, or indeed, had been able to coordinate things more with the other authors. Because as it stands, it feels very isolated from all the drama that was ramped up in the books leading up to what should have been the grand finale of the Beast, and even made factual mistakes that had to be covered up by Haley in The Beheading afterwards.

[Xisor]

You raise an intriguing point there - how would we have felt about Shadow of Ullanor if, more or less, it had been read earlier. Or out of sequence. Most of us will never know, but it's an intriguing experiment.

 

Whoever watched Star Wars for the first time in its proper order? (RO, 4, 5, 1, 2, 3, 6, 7? Presumably nobody. [Also, I jest, but that's a pretty good order, no?])

[DukeLeto69]

Different folks and strokes but as Xisor knows from thebolthole I absolutely hated Atlas Infernal. Seriously I HATED it. It ranks as one of my worst ever BL books. It didn't feel like 40k. I hated the smug Dr Who like Czevik (sp?) and how it was littered with Deus Ex Machina plot points. I appreciate he tried to do something different narratively but meh, hated it as a story and characters.

 

But...

 

I loved Redemption Corps. Thought Predator Prey was solid. And also wonder whether Shadow of Ullanor just fell flat because it followed Last Son of Dorn which was awesome. I actually blame editorial here because there is no way they should have allowed two authors to be working on two books in the same series with such similar plots.

 

Not read the Ad Mech books but was going to but reading above in two minds.

[Xisor]

I loved Redemption Corps. Thought Predator Prey was solid. And also wonder whether Shadow of Ullanor just fell flat because it followed Last Son of Dorn which was awesome. I actually blame editorial here because there is no way they should have allowed two authors to be working on two books in the same series with such similar plots.

Not read the Ad Mech books but was going to but reading above in two minds.

:)

 

I'd recommend the Ad Mechanicus books. For one: there's none of the hyperactive madness or 'pretension' of AI in them. Think Redemption Corps with fewer immediately relatable characters (I'd content Stroika is more interesting, and certainly more novel than your bloke from RC!), and a slightly aggravating number of scenes that are a bit glaringly product placement. (Mainly the electropriests scene.)

 

Anyway, that aside: AM books have a fairly linear but sortof affecting narrative, all things told. Somewhere between character driven like Legion of the Damned and apocalypse driven like Know No Fear. More focussed narratives than KNF too.

 

As said: well recommended. I really like his more austere/political/religious Mechanicus. (As opposed the more... wacky of Graham McNeill's. I liked Graham's too, but marginally prefer this.)

 

If you're hedging bets, check out the Omnissiah's Chosen too. Excellent shorts on there, if also strangely similar to one another too. A themed anthology, perhaps inadvertently.

 

---

 

The Beast Arises: definitely agree that editorial oversight/managerial meddling could account for the bad-fit of Shadow of Ullanor compared to its immediate predecessors.

[HeritorA]

I loved Redemption Corps. Thought Predator Prey was solid. And also wonder whether Shadow of Ullanor just fell flat because it followed Last Son of Dorn which was awesome. I actually blame editorial here because there is no way they should have allowed two authors to be working on two books in the same series with such similar plots.

Not read the Ad Mech books but was going to but reading above in two minds.

I'd recommend the Ad Mechanicus books. For one: there's none of the hyperactive madness or 'pretension' of AI in them. Think Redemption Corps with fewer immediately relatable characters (I'd content Stroika is more interesting, and certainly more novel than your bloke from RC!), and a slightly aggravating number of scenes that are a bit glaringly product placement. (Mainly the electropriests scene.)

Anyway, that aside: AM books have a fairly linear but sortof affecting narrative, all things told. Somewhere between character driven like Legion of the Damned and apocalypse driven like Know No Fear. More focussed narratives than KNF too.

As said: well recommended. I really like his more austere/political/religious Mechanicus. (As opposed the more... wacky of Graham McNeill's. I liked Graham's too, but marginally prefer this.)

If you're hedging bets, check out the Omnissiah's Chosen too. Excellent shorts on there, if also strangely similar to one another too. A themed anthology, perhaps inadvertently.

---

The Beast Arises: definitely agree that editorial oversight/managerial meddling could account for the bad-fit of Shadow of Ullanor compared to its immediate predecessors.

Ad Mechanicus was his worst book - total advertisement range for models, nothing interesting, groundbreaking or breathtaking where.

'he Beast Arises: definitely agree that editorial oversight/managerial meddling could account for the bad-fit of Shadow of Ullanor compared to its immediate predecessors. ' - I think that's exactly what happened