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Ahriman trilogy - limited edition hardbacks

Sandlemad

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Sandlemad Veteran

Sandlemad

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http://www.blacklibrary.com/Images/BL/product-pages/2017/25-01-Ahriman-LE-page_500.jpg

 

http://www.blacklibrary.com/Ahriman-ltd-box-set.html

 

Looks like John French's wonderful Ahriman trilogy is getting the same treatment as Eisenhorn and the Night Lords trilogy. Looks amazing but fifty smackeroos... It says it includes an additional story in each but it doesn't appear to include all of Ctesias's short stories from Ahriman: Exodus.

Sandlemad Veteran

Sandlemad

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Price aside, are they worth buying all in one go (be it paperback, hardback, ebook)?

 

Oh god yes. The plot can be difficult to follow at times - they're replete with all sorts of temporal madness and warp-related shenanigans - but they're some of the best things to come out about CSM.  The author wrote some short introductions to Ahriman's character for the GW community site here and here. If you like what you hear there, they should be right up your alley.

 

Amazon says that there should be a paperback omnibus of the three novels out in May, so if you're not into this limited edition or the ebooks it might be worth waiting for a few months.

Izlude Battle-Brother

Izlude

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Just got the ebook trilogy (haven't read yet) but if Night lords and Black legion are anything to go by I know I won't be disappointed. In terms of HH stuff, John has written some great stuff like The Crimson Fist, Warmaster (short) and PoD. I tend to shell out for LE for the HH stuff but this one is tempting if I didn't already get the ebook
Jareddm Veteran

Jareddm

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Just got the ebook trilogy (haven't read yet) but if Night lords and Black legion are anything to go by I know I won't be disappointed. In terms of HH stuff, John has written some great stuff like The Crimson Fist, Warmaster (short) and PoD. I tend to shell out for LE for the HH stuff but this one is tempting if I didn't already get the ebook

Personally, I wouldn't go in expecting ADB. What I mean by that is ADB's stories tend to be extremely character driven. While there are certainly well written and memorable characters in the Ahriman series, I would not consider them the focus. For me, the series is much more about the portrayal and unraveling of mysteries. The mysteries of Ahriman, of Tzeentch, of Prospero, and of the Thousand Sons. All manner of different layers and machinations across the three books. It's all extremely Tzeentchian.
Sandlemad Veteran

Sandlemad

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Just got the ebook trilogy (haven't read yet) but if Night lords and Black legion are anything to go by I know I won't be disappointed. In terms of HH stuff, John has written some great stuff like The Crimson Fist, Warmaster (short) and PoD. I tend to shell out for LE for the HH stuff but this one is tempting if I didn't already get the ebook

Personally, I wouldn't go in expecting ADB. What I mean by that is ADB's stories tend to be extremely character driven. While there are certainly well written and memorable characters in the Ahriman series, I would not consider them the focus. For me, the series is much more about the portrayal and unraveling of mysteries. The mysteries of Ahriman, of Tzeentch, of Prospero, and of the Thousand Sons. All manner of different layers and machinations across the three books. It's all extremely Tzeentchian.

 

 

I think there's something to that. For all that there are those good secondary characters - I love Ctesias and Ignis, and Astraeos' arc is fascinating - the most fleshed out character is Ahriman and the most fleshed out relationship is that between Ahriman and Magnus. He's even more central to these books than Abaddon is to Talon of Horus; the other characters aren't as important to the story as, say, Khayon is to ToH.

 

It's a different style. It's a bit like Doctor Who, almost everything comes back to a close study and exploration of the titular character. Hell, in Ahriman: Unchanged,

that's almost literally the case, what with the competing shards of Magnus and Ahriman's tulpa-style memory forms.

It's brilliant but brilliant in a different way to ADB's work, true.

Xisor Veteran

Xisor

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Jared's right - ADB and John French tackle huge themes that are of loosely equal interest to me, and handle them to the same height of quality...

 

Their styles are very different, it must be said.

 

John French has a prose that's much closer to Matt Farrer & Rob Sanders - it can be dry, and time (& words on page) can often be devoted to topics that are both challenging to get your head around, and arguably a bit disruptive to the easy-going flow too.

 

That can be a bit of a mood-killer for some people. I absolutely love it, myself, but it's definitely not as easy-going as ADB's.

 

Very satisfying though.

 

---

 

I'm glad I cancelled that old, unused gym membership last night. Totally meant I had a free £50 this month to spend, a £50 I didn't need for food and things...

 

Also, in totally unrelatrd other news, got some books being delivered soon...

Roomsky Veteran

Roomsky

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If the omnibus wasn't coming later this year, I'd be all over that. Exile is basically impossible to find (for a reasonable price) and I'd like to read them all.

 

So far, I've only read Sorcerer, which was good, not great. I know I'm not the first to have this complaint, but the absolute lack of levity in the book weighs it down a bit for me. It's so serious the whole time that it ended up being a little tonally flat. Technically well-written though, and I did enjoy it enough to want to read the rest.

Petitioner's City Veteran

Petitioner's City

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I've been rereading these for model inspirations...and as with first time, I love them. And they are beautifully written (especially Sorcerer), and I agree with what everyone above has said - these are dense, challenging, often beautiful books - although overall I think the series is too short, even with the short stories, and it is left ... marooned, despite ending on a momentous and stunning epilogue, that should be returned to in characterisations of Ahriman. 

 

But fifty quid!!!!!???? That's utterly depressing.

 

If the omnibus wasn't coming later this year, I'd be all over that. Exile is basically impossible to find (for a reasonable price) and I'd like to read them all.

 

So far, I've only read Sorcerer, which was good, not great. I know I'm not the first to have this complaint, but the absolute lack of levity in the book weighs it down a bit for me. It's so serious the whole time that it ended up being a little tonally flat. Technically well-written though, and I did enjoy it enough to want to read the rest.

 

I think French's style is fundamentally serious - you are right. His humour is, when it emerges, very dark - a dramatic irony at characters tricking others (as in Tallarn, Praetorian or here), or tied to monumental acts, like the destruction of the statues in Praetorian, that are blunt, serious, darkly edged jokes that are ultimately about threat. I guess sometimes it is fey humour - the shards of Magnus that, ultimately, bind their way through the trilogy. 

 

But there is certainly not the humour of John's close friend Aaron - John is all sublime terror and pain, really, at least in Ahriman - whereas Aaron's take on the XV has more self-reflective humour, such as in 'Wondermaker' or in Talon in Khayon's never far love of schadenfreude and smiling self-criticism.  

Roomsky Veteran

Roomsky

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Why, its one of my favorite stolen words, Kelborn!

 

Certainly I don;t mind it at all in regards to the Space Marines, especially Tzeentchian ones. I recognize that in addition to being post-human, they have so much to worry about that they don;t really have time for anything else. That being said, I thought Sorceror had a very interesting cast of supporting humans characters, and the fact that we didn't get a single joke, mocking or otherwise, out of any of them sort of took the wind out of their sails. The humans sometimes didn't seem all that human, shall we say.

veterannoob Veteran

veterannoob

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Great series. Plus the Exodus book w/the one advent audio drama. Since it was asked on another forum you can hear John French discuss Ahriman and this series in general on ep 152 Combat Phase http://traffic.libsyn.com/combatphase/Ep_152_CSM-_All_About_Ahriman_wJohn_French.mp3

 

HeritorA

HeritorA

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Great series. Plus the Exodus book w/the one advent audio drama. Since it was asked on another forum you can hear John French discuss Ahriman and this series in general on ep 152 Combat Phase http://traffic.libsyn.com/combatphase/Ep_152_CSM-_All_About_Ahriman_wJohn_French.mp3

Ahhhh yessss. That one was splendid.

 

 

I thought John French did the Wulfen very well

 

Warzone Fenris was almost laughable in comparison

Much better - but in case of Warzone Fenris, everything is much better, lol

 

His Archaon novel just killed his style. 2 pages of  the castles spikes were spikey, spikes, spikes.

A quick paragraph of something else then another 2 pages of how spikey, spike the spikes were. 

French is very, very dry.

?????? Ahem 'Archaon' duology was written by Rob Sanders, lol

Petitioner's City Veteran

Petitioner's City

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I thought John French did the Wulfen very well

 

Warzone Fenris was almost laughable in comparison

Yes a great deal of tragedy and pain in the Wulfen narrative, the most effective continuation of Prospero Burns' cold ice-burnt & terrifying warriors.

HeritorA

HeritorA

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I thought John French did the Wulfen very well

 

Warzone Fenris was almost laughable in comparison

Yes a great deal of tragedy and pain in the Wulfen narrative, the most effective continuation of Prospero Burns' cold ice-burnt & terrifying warriors.

 

It was childish, wowish (world of warcraftish) and absolutely illogical. Instead of truly good wolves images from Wraight or Abnett we got that ...

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