The Beast Arises

[DukeLeto69]

Xisor HeritorA ... Aaarrggghh two diametrically opposed views on the Ad Mech books. Thanks guys :-)

[Xisor]

Xisor HeritorA ... Aaarrggghh two diametrically opposed views on the Ad Mech books. Thanks guys :-)

Well, one of them you can trust to be the reliable, enlightened opinion of a well meaning forumite...

 

The other is mine! :D

[DarkChaplain]

I'm already resigned to the fact that I'll have to re-read Skitarius before I can even think of reading Tech-Priest. At this point I've little recollection of the actual plot points beyond the end and the rest is an overwhelming feeling of dissatisfaction and annoyance with the product placements.

[Morovir]

I must admit, I did find Tech-Priest a better book than Skitarius, with a more generalist look at the Mechanicus.

[Xisor]

Nb: this is relevant because it was shocking when TBA actually arrived on Mars.

 

The siege, with Thane et al, and assault of Olympus Mons and whatnot, it was all extraordinarily. .. catalogued. Here come the Onagers (£40), Vanguard (£20) and look, Rangers (£20).

 

So they snuck in the side, but what's that BUZZING? £25£25£25¥25£25£25£25

 

Incomprehensible static, it must be the Infil£25InAllGoodShopstraitors!

 

---

 

Whilst Skitarius & Techpriest were very focused that way, they were also a very long way from Mars. And representing only one forgeworld. And literally explicit tie-ins to the release.

 

So I can forgive them not being as vividly creative as the techno barbarians of Titanicus, or the delightful weirdness of the Title Nouns of Mars trilogy.

 

But what they did do was also vary far and wide. You got a pretty good spread of settings. In the first novel you got an extraordinarily unique perspective: an actual, religious-zealot Skitarius embodying the mind-boggling weirdness introduced by the new Codexes. This isn't just indoctrination and religious mania, it is life and death living communion with the vessels of your god. The voice of the Omnissiah literally talking into your head and giving you definitive answers and insight into your daily actions.

 

These formerly 'tech-guard' tropes suddenly, for me at least, took on a ludicrously vivid and *plausible* living life of their own in that novel.

 

---

 

Compare it with TBA and the closest we ever get to that sort of coolness was the Assassins on Mars, some of the insights from the two main tech-priests... but even them, its very much the territory of cod-Mechanicus, to me. Heavy on the imagery of 40k and a good dollop of creativity (I loved ol' tripod's trajectory through the series, though it was mostly a side-plot - a well done one at that).

 

Aside from all of that (which was great), you only got a certain (if also indistinct) impression of religiosity from the Templars. The disappearance of the Sisters and the gulf they had with the Imperium too factoided and not alive enough.

 

And, at that, there's the Space Marines. The height, I think, was in book two with the defence of the grounded Star Fortress on Space 1990s Iraq. There you got a lovely feel of "oh crap, this is the end but these guys struggle to conceive of giving up, let alone the horror of being the first to fail".

 

But in the Beast Arises, kudos *has* to go to Guy Hayley & David Annandale (though Sanders & GavT in books 2 & 3 get it for a more general view) for their work (The Beheading & The Last Wall) ingiving a glimpse of the sheer despair and impact (or lack of impact if you're of the 12) to the Terrans.

 

In that, I mean the various 'slice of life' scenes with the High Lords in TB, and the genuinely wonderful civilian arc as seen from the Arbitrator (and implied through the continued glimpse of the civilians on Terra, and of the actions of the other high lords through the novel) in The Last Wall.

 

In those pieces, I think, more than any other parts of the series, I think is where you have gold unseen in BL books for a very long time. The individual novels might wobble if taken aside from the series as a whole, but books 4 & 12 (with 2 & 3 a little behind) are the ones I think are most truly remarkable and successful in showing the strength and diversity of the series.

 

And, in the context of saying 'I also really liked Skitarius', I think that's why. The visualisation and rendition of the Imperium when *stuff like that is happening* is sheer gold.

 

Tech Priest does it well too - and this vague idea I'm harping on about isn't exactly the be all and end all of any novel (character should always win - but I think all four in TBA and the two Ad Mech novels have character in spades, just perhaps not so as gushingly addictive as, say, Eisenhorn or Aaron's Night Lords trilogy) I think it's certainly enough to be strong enough when coupled to otherwise very commendable character pieces.

 

(And that's where I think some of the middle/later books lose their way a little. Too much action set-piece, not enough characterful-scene set pieces, if I have to lay out a stall... But I'll need to reread the series to fully attest to anything like that. It's far from an iron clad opinion...

 

Or adamanticlad, as the Ad Mech books introduced!)

 

---

 

Suffice to say, I digressed a bit there.

[Commissar Ibram Gaunt]

I enjoyed the series but i found it a bit frustrating. Why not just virus bomb Ullanor and be done with it, did it have any purpose wasting so many resources to kill the orcs. Or was there some sort of virus bomb ban post heresy.

[HeritorA]

I enjoyed the series but i found it a bit frustrating. Why not just virus bomb Ullanor and be done with it, did it have any purpose wasting so many resources to kill the orcs. Or was there some sort of virus bomb ban post heresy.

Exactly. Even through they did tried - they haven't explained this.

Also what even more frustrating - are some stuff that sprang from the bushes:

'Absent-present Phalanx/ High Lords of Terra missing the points they made in previous novels/ Unexpected miracles from the blue/Stupidness of one Primarch etc. etc.

[DukeLeto69]

I enjoyed the series but i found it a bit frustrating. Why not just virus bomb Ullanor and be done with it, did it have any purpose wasting so many resources to kill the orcs. Or was there some sort of virus bomb ban post heresy.

True true. They could have turned this into an interesting plot point to show how amazingly bad ass these Orks were. Perhaps they could have tried to virus bomb Ullanor and found out the Orks had some planetary shield that rendered that kind of attack impossible and making ground war necessary!

 

And why not? The Orks had mastered technology powerful enough to transport moons across the galaxy!

[Apothecary Vaddon]

I enjoyed the series but i found it a bit frustrating. Why not just virus bomb Ullanor and be done with it, did it have any purpose wasting so many resources to kill the orcs. Or was there some sort of virus bomb ban post heresy.

Virus bombs don't do well when enemies are as fortified and dug into a planet (quite literally, in Ullanor's case in TBA) as the Orks were.

[DarkChaplain]

I made the virus bombs point for the SoU combat phase episode too. Even if it hadn't utterly annihilated every ork on the planet, it would have reduced the losses the Fists and co would have taken after planetfall. Every dead ork would have mattered. Nevermind that we know there are smaller virus bombs as per Predator, Prey, which could have been let loose inside the fortifications too. It would have meant weaker resistance on the surface either way.

 

But most importantly, it would have been in line with the Fists Exemplars representing the pragmatic side of Dorn. Koorland was the idealist, Thane should have made a point of being pragmatic and using whatever weapons he has to get the job done.

[Apothecary Vaddon]

Dunno if it would've made a noticeable difference, though. Most of the super heavy losses came when they came up and were outclassed by heavy armor, titans, and Custodes/Primarch level Orks, and I don't see any of those being significantly diminished by a virus bombing. That, and once you drop the bombs, there's a bit of a waiting period, and actually getting into position to fire the weapons, etc, etc. Lots of caveats to it.

[DukeLeto69]

Dunno if it would've made a noticeable difference, though. Most of the super heavy losses came when they came up and were outclassed by heavy armor, titans, and Custodes/Primarch level Orks, and I don't see any of those being significantly diminished by a virus bombing. That, and once you drop the bombs, there's a bit of a waiting period, and actually getting into position to fire the weapons, etc, etc. Lots of caveats to it.

Not quite sure what you are saying but assume you know the effect virus bombing actually has on a planet? Nothing NOTHING organic would survive, not even bacteria.

[Xisor]

 

Dunno if it would've made a noticeable difference, though. Most of the super heavy losses came when they came up and were outclassed by heavy armor, titans, and Custodes/Primarch level Orks, and I don't see any of those being significantly diminished by a virus bombing. That, and once you drop the bombs, there's a bit of a waiting period, and actually getting into position to fire the weapons, etc, etc. Lots of caveats to it.

Not quite sure what you are saying but assume you know the effect virus bombing actually has on a planet? Nothing NOTHING organic would survive, not even bacteria.

Well, thank goodness for that. It's what gave Horus such a decisive victory at Isstvan III. No time wasted mopping up survivors, jobs a good 'un.

 

;)

 

---

 

GavT was rather open about in on the Bolthole - said he thought a scene showing how ineffective the VB was in this instance would have been really good, it just hadn't occur to him. All poised... then 'nothing' happens. Well, not the something you want.

 

---

 

As I've said a few times - I find it difficult to be too hard on these books because the very idea of them is very much the sort of thing I want to encourage on BL. Oversights and repetive bolter porn, perhaps not, but the fast pace (release & prose) and excellent bits of drama, theme and spectacle? More please!

[DukeLeto69]

Xisor...didn't catch that Gav conversation but interesting.

 

I feel the same about the TBA series. Really keen BL do more. It was a flawed experiment but with lots of positives and also lots of learning to inform how to get it right next time. Key thing will be whether it was commercially successful for BL I guess?

[DarkChaplain]

Well, to be fair, Horus was virus bombing Astartes in full power armor. The virus eats through the seals and all that, but they are quite a bit more resistant to external factors than the shoddily-clad orks would ever be. Even meganobz don't walk around properly sealed and instead have bulging muscles all over. A single gap is all it needs for the virus to burn them out. Besides, the surviving loyalists were either already sheltered (and even those took massive losses), or were warned and able to barricade themselves somehow for the duration of the virus's effects.

So I don't think that Isstvan is comparable to this. The asteroid droppodding did less collateral damage at any rate.

 

I'd like BL to do another series like this for sure, but please with a clearer editorial direction and more oversight and cooperation between authors. That's my one sticking point that I cannot excuse where TBA is concerned. Somebody should have called the shots better and figured out that these books needed to be more consistent to work as a series. That, and the pacing issues with Ullanor for the third time, and forgotten characters.

[Felix Antipodes]

The question isn't why they didn't virus bomb the planet - it's why didn't they use vortex missiles (correct name?) seem in past novels and fluff, which were shown to destroy a planet entirely not just reduce it to a lifeless ball.

 

I think we all want BL to put out further series in TBA format. For this reason I'm also happy to overlook most of the teething problems re the plot -as long as they learn from those missteps going forward. Now get writing that Abyssal Crusade 12 parter I asked for!

[Roomsky]

2 more down.

 

Throneworld

 

This one really frustrated me. On one hand, basically everything on Terra was magnificent. From the raid on the attack moon to Udo and the High Lords' continued myopia to the exasperation of basically everyone involved in the net of incompetence they had found themselves in, it was all great. My favorite in the whole series so far, I think. But while tensions run high on Terra, shenanigans ensue on the far side of the galaxy as sworn enemies since the heresy decide they'll join forces to take down some pesky orks. Kalkator I can buy wanting to team up. A Black Templar dreadnaught, however, I cannot abide. That is far too reasonable a course of action for the rabid crusaders of the new Imperium. I can't help but imagine an alternate telling wherein the Fists Exemplar (you know, the ones more open to new ideas) decided to join forces. It could have even caused some interesting friction between them and their brother chapters as things progressed. This plot point infuriates me to no end and it drags down an otherwise good entry.

 

 

Echoes of the Long War

 

This is some weird, bizarro-Beast Arises book where series weaknesses become strengths and vice versa. Since the series has been pretty strong up until now, I wasn;t to enamored with this one. Sorry Zerberyn, you're boring (until the last 15 pages or so). Sorry Zerberyn's friends, I can't even remember who you are or what you did. Drakan's big scene seemed to be his hiding in someone else's apartment. The exploits of Yendl and friends seemed oddly dry compared to what they had been before (until the last 15 pages or so). My eyes glazed over a few times in this one, not a strong intro to Guymer for my handsome self.

 

However. HOWEVER. Guymer clearly understands the grim darkness of the far future in a way that the previous authors did not. Whether or not this is a plus in a story taking place in 32k is up to you. I think its lovely. Up until this point, I haven't really disliked the orks, the series' supposed antagonists. I thought they were kind of cool, and I wanted to see what they would produce next. Now though, holy crap, Guymer has propelled them into the nightmare they're supposed to be. Frankly, I'm sad he didn't go into greater detail about what was happening on Prax, and how that was apparently happening planetwide on several worlds. because that is the kind of oppressive darkness the enemies of man should be displaying more frequently, IMO. It was not the orks alone, however, as despite my lack of interest in Zerberyn he was a great vehicle to show the passive disregard for human life, and even that of their fellow marines, coming to a head in the slaughter of that squad of humans they took with them.

 

Also he wrote a surprisingly acceptable conclusion for Magneric, considering my dislike of him last book.

 

While I can't say I enjoyed Echoes of the Long War all that much as a book, I do respect it. It had the bleak tone I hadn't expected in the modern age of wider-audience 40k.

[HeritorA]

2 more down.

 

Throneworld

 

This one really frustrated me. On one hand, basically everything on Terra was magnificent. From the raid on the attack moon to Udo and the High Lords' continued myopia to the exasperation of basically everyone involved in the net of incompetence they had found themselves in, it was all great. My favorite in the whole series so far, I think. But while tensions run high on Terra, shenanigans ensue on the far side of the galaxy as sworn enemies since the heresy decide they'll join forces to take down some pesky orks. Kalkator I can buy wanting to team up. A Black Templar dreadnaught, however, I cannot abide. That is far too reasonable a course of action for the rabid crusaders of the new Imperium. I can't help but imagine an alternate telling wherein the Fists Exemplar (you know, the ones more open to new ideas) decided to join forces. It could have even caused some interesting friction between them and their brother chapters as things progressed. This plot point infuriates me to no end and it drags down an otherwise good entry.

 

 

Echoes of the Long War

 

This is some weird, bizarro-Beast Arises book where series weaknesses become strengths and vice versa. Since the series has been pretty strong up until now, I wasn;t to enamored with this one. Sorry Zerberyn, you're boring (until the last 15 pages or so). Sorry Zerberyn's friends, I can't even remember who you are or what you did. Drakan's big scene seemed to be his hiding in someone else's apartment. The exploits of Yendl and friends seemed oddly dry compared to what they had been before (until the last 15 pages or so). My eyes glazed over a few times in this one, not a strong intro to Guymer for my handsome self.

 

However. HOWEVER. Guymer clearly understands the grim darkness of the far future in a way that the previous authors did not. Whether or not this is a plus in a story taking place in 32k is up to you. I think its lovely. Up until this point, I haven't really disliked the orks, the series' supposed antagonists. I thought they were kind of cool, and I wanted to see what they would produce next. Now though, holy crap, Guymer has propelled them into the nightmare they're supposed to be. Frankly, I'm sad he didn't go into greater detail about what was happening on Prax, and how that was apparently happening planetwide on several worlds. because that is the kind of oppressive darkness the enemies of man should be displaying more frequently, IMO. It was not the orks alone, however, as despite my lack of interest in Zerberyn he was a great vehicle to show the passive disregard for human life, and even that of their fellow marines, coming to a head in the slaughter of that squad of humans they took with them.

 

Also he wrote a surprisingly acceptable conclusion for Magneric, considering my dislike of him last book.

 

While I can't say I enjoyed Echoes of the Long War all that much as a book, I do respect it. It had the bleak tone I hadn't expected in the modern age of wider-audience 40k.

Yes he do understand the grim darkness of the far future. But Echoes was really a bad novel.

It provided filler points, all the Zerberyn line are one big mistake (Roomsky you will see it eventually after you will finish all the books - all that absolutely unnessecary Zerberyn plotline - should have better been used in Beheading for Vangorich transition...), nothing eventful (comparing to previous book in your case) happens.

[Roomsky]

I read books 7 and 8 in quick succession, and man, what a contrast. It's how not to write a battle-centric book, and how to do so rather well, right beside each other.

 

The Hunt for Vulkan

 

Damnit, it seems I'm developing standards. The content of this book should have been interesting, but it just wasn't well written. Consider what happened here: Kubik and the mechanicum are confronted about their treason, a plotline which has been building for 6 books, and Koorland and co. go to find a primarch. Even better, the primarch occupying several of the most loathed books in the heresy, now in the hands of a new writer. But somehow, it all fails to be at all interesting. 

 

The imperium, in the midst of an ork invasion, is on the brink of civil war with Mars. In a bullet-point plot, it sounds rather interesting. Koorland has to bully Kubik into cooperation while Thane tries his damnedest to keep the situation under control. Unfortunately, this is all undermined by a few points. First, Mars' description here is rather lacking. While I thought Mechanicum was just okay, Graham did well in describing the sheer immensity and complexity of the Martian empire. Here, it seems oddly small, the descriptions lacking in the flourish needed to make clear the sheer scale of what was transpiring. The situation on Terra doesn't fare much better, with Kubik buckling because of a sudden sense of duty. Where was this conflict before? It seemed to come from nowhere, and certainly didn't feel earned.

 

On that note, this book is probably the worst edited in the series. Spelling mistakes abound in the early chapters, and why is Kubik back in the senatorum? I thought he was fleeing in his personal shuttle at the end of the last book?

 

The book goes further downhill as we head to Caldera with, again, uninteresting battles because of a notable lack of introspection. I don't know, maybe its just me, but I love POV narratives over omniscient narrator narratives. But to be enjoyable, they need to actually play off the strengths of seeing through a characters eyes. Telling me Thane looked up to see X event happening, without his thoughts on the matter or a unique perspective because of his limited viewpoint, is the same as simply telling me X event happened. I don;t care about the battle itself. I care about Thane. But everything felt so detached, it was full of sound and fury, but signified nothing. Vulkan himself wasn't much better, with again a potentially interesting POV being largely ignored. Come on, he's the last primarch! He's seen the imperium rot for 1500 years! Surely there must be more interesting things going on in his head than "I swore an oath to Caldera! Let's kill some orks."

 

Also, whether intentional or not, the description of the gravity attack on Vulkan being enough to destroy "a Leman Russ" was hilarious.

 

 

The Beast Must Die!

 

Double-damnit, you're hard to love Gav, but you're harder to hate. Maybe its because I read this partially concurrently with The Hunt for Vulkan, but this was a very enjoyable read, and everything its prequel should have been. What failed in Corax succeeds here, probably because of Vulkan's inherent benevolence, but we get to see inside a lot of character's heads, and the many insecurities they harbor about their near-doomed situation. And I think that's great, because we have characters again, rather than empty names shooting at orks. Vulkan especially is quite interesting, and while he hasn;t beaten a very high standard, Gav delivers the best portrayal of the Lord of the Salamanders thus far. Everything Vulkan, or any other character for that matter, should have been is here in force. The battles too are now quite enjoyable for the same reason, and the look we get into super-ork culture on Ullanor is quite interesting. More importantly, the book knows when to break from battle, and how to build one up. For the strike against Ullanor, this book has a lot of talkier sections, and is better for it.

 

It certainly wasn;t perfect, however. As much as I enjoyed seeing Bohemond put in his place, Vulkan's hammer challenge was rather unfair, as he didn't explain to anyone but Koorland what he actually wanted them to do with it. The final battle was also a little overlong, even if it didn't blend into empty noise like The Hunt for Vulkan did. Perhaps some of that time could have been devoted to the post-climax stuff, which was rather abrupt and somewhat unfulfilling.

[HeritorA]

I read books 7 and 8 in quick succession, and man, what a contrast. It's how not to write a battle-centric book, and how to do so rather well, right beside each other.

 

The Hunt for Vulkan

 

Damnit, it seems I'm developing standards. The content of this book should have been interesting, but it just wasn't well written. Consider what happened here: Kubik and the mechanicum are confronted about their treason, a plotline which has been building for 6 books, and Koorland and co. go to find a primarch. Even better, the primarch occupying several of the most loathed books in the heresy, now in the hands of a new writer. But somehow, it all fails to be at all interesting. 

 

The imperium, in the midst of an ork invasion, is on the brink of civil war with Mars. In a bullet-point plot, it sounds rather interesting. Koorland has to bully Kubik into cooperation while Thane tries his damnedest to keep the situation under control. Unfortunately, this is all undermined by a few points. First, Mars' description here is rather lacking. While I thought Mechanicum was just okay, Graham did well in describing the sheer immensity and complexity of the Martian empire. Here, it seems oddly small, the descriptions lacking in the flourish needed to make clear the sheer scale of what was transpiring. The situation on Terra doesn't fare much better, with Kubik buckling because of a sudden sense of duty. Where was this conflict before? It seemed to come from nowhere, and certainly didn't feel earned.

 

On that note, this book is probably the worst edited in the series. Spelling mistakes abound in the early chapters, and why is Kubik back in the senatorum? I thought he was fleeing in his personal shuttle at the end of the last book?

 

The book goes further downhill as we head to Caldera with, again, uninteresting battles because of a notable lack of introspection. I don't know, maybe its just me, but I love POV narratives over omniscient narrator narratives. But to be enjoyable, they need to actually play off the strengths of seeing through a characters eyes. Telling me Thane looked up to see X event happening, without his thoughts on the matter or a unique perspective because of his limited viewpoint, is the same as simply telling me X event happened. I don;t care about the battle itself. I care about Thane. But everything felt so detached, it was full of sound and fury, but signified nothing. Vulkan himself wasn't much better, with again a potentially interesting POV being largely ignored. Come on, he's the last primarch! He's seen the imperium rot for 1500 years! Surely there must be more interesting things going on in his head than "I swore an oath to Caldera! Let's kill some orks."

 

Also, whether intentional or not, the description of the gravity attack on Vulkan being enough to destroy "a Leman Russ" was hilarious.

 

 

The Beast Must Die!

 

Double-damnit, you're hard to love Gav, but you're harder to hate. Maybe its because I read this partially concurrently with The Hunt for Vulkan, but this was a very enjoyable read, and everything its prequel should have been. What failed in Corax succeeds here, probably because of Vulkan's inherent benevolence, but we get to see inside a lot of character's heads, and the many insecurities they harbor about their near-doomed situation. And I think that's great, because we have characters again, rather than empty names shooting at orks. Vulkan especially is quite interesting, and while he hasn;t beaten a very high standard, Gav delivers the best portrayal of the Lord of the Salamanders thus far. Everything Vulkan, or any other character for that matter, should have been is here in force. The battles too are now quite enjoyable for the same reason, and the look we get into super-ork culture on Ullanor is quite interesting. More importantly, the book knows when to break from battle, and how to build one up. For the strike against Ullanor, this book has a lot of talkier sections, and is better for it.

 

It certainly wasn;t perfect, however. As much as I enjoyed seeing Bohemond put in his place, Vulkan's hammer challenge was rather unfair, as he didn't explain to anyone but Koorland what he actually wanted them to do with it. The final battle was also a little overlong, even if it didn't blend into empty noise like The Hunt for Vulkan did. Perhaps some of that time could have been devoted to the post-climax stuff, which was rather abrupt and somewhat unfulfilling.

Totally agree.

This 'On that note, this book is probably the worst edited in the series. Spelling mistakes abound in the early chapters, and why is Kubik back in the senatorum? I thought he was fleeing in his personal shuttle at the end of the last book?

The book goes further downhill as we head to Caldera with, again, uninteresting battles because of a notable lack of introspection. I don't know, maybe its just me, but I love POV narratives over omniscient narrator narratives. But to be enjoyable, they need to actually play off the strengths of seeing through a characters eyes'

were exactly my feelings while I read it.

 

The beast must die through was much better. But it wasn't perfect as you have said Roomsky

 

And actually it's strange (especially after subpar Raven Guard HH stuff from Gav)  - but Gav Thorpe and Guy Haley made this serie for med - all 4 their books are the best from all 12.

[Roomsky]

Watchers in Death

 

Well, it was better than The Hunt for Vulkan. I was left asking why, after finishing this one, why Annandale did so well with The Last Wall, and so poorly with The Hunt for Vulkan and this. As best as I can tell, its because there only seems to be a superficial understanding of space marines going on here. The Last Wall, largely about humans, did well because he seems quite good at writing people, he runs with hopes and insecurities very well. When he needs to write about marines, however, we get uninteresting cutouts which like to talk about their quirks and their brotherhood without really demonstrating either. And really, I don't see why this is the case. For all of The Damnation of Pythos' problems, I thought it did very well in establishing the character of the Iron Hands, Raven Guard, and Salamanders, and it had a large human cast as well. Maybe a tight scheduling thing? 

 

Unlike Vulkan, this actually had some moments of interest. It was nice to have Wienand actually doing something again, and Vangorich's point about the futility trying to beat orks with brute force was astute. The combat, though still quite dull, at least had interesting goals such as the destruction of the attack moon. Unfortunately, it's all mired in oddly overblown descriptions (sometimes), and characters acting in certain ways because the plot says so. Wienand's call to action reminded me of Koorland's to Kubik in Vulkan, it seemed rushed and not at all convincing.

 

 

The Last Son of Dorn

 

Well now. Hats off to Guymer, when he's given something interesting to write about he knocks it out of the park. I was excited for this one, for all my problems with Echoes of the Long War, I wanted to see his next crack at it because of how well he understood the setting. That continues here, in a novel that is strong both plot-wise and character-wise. In contrast to Annadale's recent work here, Guymer makes every marine feel apart in the best of ways, simple ticks and habits inform the varied tapestry of legion culture better than matter-of-fact statements ever could. Thane, for the first time in a while, exhibits character beyond being Koorland's errand-boy, and his cold defiance of his chapter's slow obliteration brings a lot to the new chapter master.

 

I could write for quite a while about what I liked from this book, which was basically everything. Guymer knows how to write the Imperium, and every facet of the book so associated is dripping with atmosphere and intrigue.

 

His handling of the orks is fine, but doesn't really show the same quality, which is a shame considering how vile he made them in his last book. The Goff Prime-Ork's decision to leave instead of cleaning up the rest of the invaders seemed un-orkish, even by the standards of The Beast, and not very intelligent either. Maybe it saw the situation as an unnecessary risk? I don't know, it seemed to outmatch their battered force quite a bit, I doubt it would have taken much effort to finish them off. Its a minor complaint, however, and The Last Son of Dorn is one of the series' best, and makes me want to read more of Guymer's work. Here's hoping his Ferrus novel keeps this level of quality.

[HeritorA]

Watchers in Death

 

Well, it was better than The Hunt for Vulkan. I was left asking why, after finishing this one, why Annandale did so well with The Last Wall, and so poorly with The Hunt for Vulkan and this. As best as I can tell, its because there only seems to be a superficial understanding of space marines going on here. The Last Wall, largely about humans, did well because he seems quite good at writing people, he runs with hopes and insecurities very well. When he needs to write about marines, however, we get uninteresting cutouts which like to talk about their quirks and their brotherhood without really demonstrating either. And really, I don't see why this is the case. For all of The Damnation of Pythos' problems, I thought it did very well in establishing the character of the Iron Hands, Raven Guard, and Salamanders, and it had a large human cast as well. Maybe a tight scheduling thing? 

 

Unlike Vulkan, this actually had some moments of interest. It was nice to have Wienand actually doing something again, and Vangorich's point about the futility trying to beat orks with brute force was astute. The combat, though still quite dull, at least had interesting goals such as the destruction of the attack moon. Unfortunately, it's all mired in oddly overblown descriptions (sometimes), and characters acting in certain ways because the plot says so. Wienand's call to action reminded me of Koorland's to Kubik in Vulkan, it seemed rushed and not at all convincing.

 

 

The Last Son of Dorn

 

Well now. Hats off to Guymer, when he's given something interesting to write about he knocks it out of the park. I was excited for this one, for all my problems with Echoes of the Long War, I wanted to see his next crack at it because of how well he understood the setting. That continues here, in a novel that is strong both plot-wise and character-wise. In contrast to Annadale's recent work here, Guymer makes every marine feel apart in the best of ways, simple ticks and habits inform the varied tapestry of legion culture better than matter-of-fact statements ever could. Thane, for the first time in a while, exhibits character beyond being Koorland's errand-boy, and his cold defiance of his chapter's slow obliteration brings a lot to the new chapter master.

 

I could write for quite a while about what I liked from this book, which was basically everything. Guymer knows how to write the Imperium, and every facet of the book so associated is dripping with atmosphere and intrigue.

 

His handling of the orks is fine, but doesn't really show the same quality, which is a shame considering how vile he made them in his last book. The Goff Prime-Ork's decision to leave instead of cleaning up the rest of the invaders seemed un-orkish, even by the standards of The Beast, and not very intelligent either. Maybe it saw the situation as an unnecessary risk? I don't know, it seemed to outmatch their battered force quite a bit, I doubt it would have taken much effort to finish them off. Its a minor complaint, however, and The Last Son of Dorn is one of the series' best, and makes me want to read more of Guymer's work. Here's hoping his Ferrus novel keeps this level of quality.

Indeed - The Last son of Dorn is on of the best Guymer novels, but after 'The beast must die' it fall flat. And again we had absolutely pointless Zerberyn secondary story...

[Master Ciaphas]

I just finished The Beheading Monday night, and thus concluded the series. Overall, I am left mildly disappointed. Oddly, some of the best books of the series were written by Gav Thorpe, who is an author I am usually not a fan of at all. But his "The Emperor Expects" was IMHO the best of the series and I loved it.

 

Having finished the series, I completely agree that First Captain Zerberyn´s story was annoying filler, that could have been spent better on other things - like all the politicking going on on Holy Terra. The parts were no fighting was going, were without a doubt my favourite parts in all the books! And yes, at mentioned, some odd things were going on throughout - like Kubik fleeing as a wanted machine-man in one book, and being back on the Council in the next, with no explanation of why he is suddenly back in the good graces of the Imperium.

 

The series started out strong, fell significantly during the middle, only to climb a bit at the end. The Beheading was overall a good book, but the last 50 pages or so, which suddenly jump a hundred years or so, should have been almost a book by itself, and felt incredibly, incredibly rushed and detracted significantly from my enjoyment of the book in isolation and it will, alas, be a feeling of disappointment, that I will remember The Beast Arises with.

 

Regards,

Master Ciaphas

[veterannoob]

You've guys/gals given me much to think on. When I finally air the Guy Haley interview with Beheading (recorded in Dec.), hopefully next week's show, I think maybe a look at the series reflection as a whole as host/fans. So I'd appreciate your thoughts on the overall series here in this thread if you don't mind. If appropriate I can even read some out (so, like, no human/real world racial slurs and such).

[Roomsky]

You've guys/gals given me much to think on. When I finally air the Guy Haley interview with Beheading (recorded in Dec.), hopefully next week's show, I think maybe a look at the series reflection as a whole as host/fans. So I'd appreciate your thoughts on the overall series here in this thread if you don't mind. If appropriate I can even read some out (so, like, no human/real world racial slurs and such).

Working through The Beheading now, will try to finish that and post a series review soon.