Ragnar Blackmane by ADB out now ebook

[Vesper]

Fething SW killed a GREY KNIGHT CHAPTER MASTER! GREY FETHING KNIGHT CHAPTER MASTER WITH PSIONIC LEVEL OF ALPHA! Are you fething kidding me.

Nah, alpha and alpha plus psykers can't be made gentle tools by the Imperium. They just are too powerful and too dangerous (on a conscious level, being psykers, and on an inconscuous level being a very convenient gateway for the Abyss to pour into the Materium like crazy). Most psykers are pretty low level, and that's what Grey Knights are : low level psykers that are trained to merge their powers in order to do stuff.

Well, of course, there's Draigo, but his mother was probably a Space Wolf that made sweet love with the spiritual liege of all the Astartesdom in order to produce such a grand hero.

 

I liked the story, even though I was a sucker for more 13th Black Crusade stuff and was waiting for any word on Abaddon and the Black Legion. The story was well crafted and I liked how it flowed. I enjoyed the characters too, and I say that as someone who finds the Space Wolves ridiculous and childish on a fundamental level. My only regret is that I did not feel the situation on Cadia was that dire or that it was that much of a big deal. The characters did not appear to get how dire the situation was, maybe because their point of view is skewed because of limited intel or because they are psycho-indoctrinated to death like all post-Heresy space marines, but it still felt like a missed opportunity.

[Sete]

HeritorA, Wolves are on the spotlight now. Chill man or you will have a bad time for the next few months. Plenth of SW storis coming out, new rules, models.

Im not big on wolves. I read something about them once in a while, and I kinda consider them a bit more mary sues than the ultras. But going around with that agression, not the way to go bro. Chill ;)

Its all fiction. While I am passioned about something, its no worth getting the animosity of your fellow forum brothers :)

Yeah im white Knighting a bit but im a hypocrite :D

 

Vesper never told you this, but what a manly Avatar.

[Petitioner's City]

The audio book of Prospero is a joy too. Oh Prospero Burns is such a layered novel - I think in it, Blood Pact, Salvation's Reach and Pariah Abnett really wrote some of the most inventively structured, atmospheric and stimulating prose of his career. Would very much like him to come back :( (sob Penitent and Warmaster...)

 

ADB's 30k wolves I love too - especially the Wolves in the 'Howl of the Hearthworld' short. Are these guys gonna be in Master of Mankind?

[Kelborn]

Man, now I'm really excited to read Prospero Burns.

I will start after finishing Stormcaller. And after Prospero Burns, I'll have a look if I'll buy Blackmane.

Only one thing left to say: /ignore HeritorA - seriously... nobody needs posts like that

[Nineswords]

So seeing as no one has actually talked about the plot of this book after three pages, I guess I'll throw in my extremely short, non partial review.

 

Ever since I read the extract involving Blackmane and the the Dark Angel's sergeant Sorael, I've been looking forward to getting hold of the book. Admittedly, given my current budgets restricting my collector's editions to the Horus Heresy series, I decided that the £40 hardback was a little out of reach for me, so the e-book it was then. I think ADB has done an admiral job of making the whole Blackmane saga plausible and compelling, as I was afraid that it would be difficult to steer him away from being effectively a mary sue-esque character. Like many of his previous efforts, the self imposed restraint that ADB puts on himself in the pursuit of plausibility creates some really interesting character arcs and is sufficiently different to his own depiction of the Wolves in Howl of the Hearthworld.

 

Beginning on the beleaguered world of Cadia at the height of the Despoiler's push to rid the Imperium of one of its most important bastions as a symbolic victory of the Eye, Blackman's tale weaves flashbacks written in third person, but probably centred on Blackmane's own reflections as a host of characters namely from the Wolves themselves, as well as the Dark Angels and Flesh Tearer's. I particularly enjoyed Ragnar's lateral thinking involving a Flesh Tearer's Strike Cruiser and its resolution on Cretcia which decidedly gets pretty Jurassic Park by the end. 

 

I'd write more but I can't be bothered. A worthy entry for the Wolves if you enjoyed them in The Emperor's Gift and wanted something a little more restrained than the Space Vikings of Bill King's era.

 

Aaron: when's the Archmage Zorbulon trilogy happening?

[Carach]

Would very much like him to come back (sob Penitent and Warmaster...)

I've been waiting for Penitent for so long :'(

[HeritorA]

 

Carach - Sob. We could only dream