[HH] Dan Abnett's prose has that little something extra

[bluntblade]

The point about Abnett's use of words that makes you look twice is a good one (it's become one of the things I look for a lot in my broader scifi reading - William Gibson and Iain M. Banks serve it by the trough). I can think of a few instances in other authors' works where it's attempted but doesn't quite work.

[Ascanius]

I don't know if the idea originated with Abnett, but the passage in Know No Fear where Guilliman orders that squad leaders be designated by red helmets was really clever. I hadn't even thought about what a red helmet means to 40K Ultramarines earlier in the novel, when Sergeant Thiel's helmet is described as painted red as a mark of censure - but in the later scene it clicked for me as soon as Guilliman said they'd need a simple visual cue for leadership, even before he explained that Thiel's actions warranted a change in the meaning of a red helmet.

 

Speaking of Thiel, I really liked the way Abnett gave him a poetic epithet by so frequently referring to him as "Sergeant Thiel, marked for censure." I also admire the way the reason Thiel was marked for censure goes unexplained until the point at which it no longer seems to matter.

[mc warhammer]

was the red paint censure influenced by the night lords?

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

Abnett is my favorite BL author, hands down. So many times while reading his books over the year I've thought to myself that I wish I had an imagination like his, while I rarely do that with any other authors. His prose is excellent, but a few standouts of his writing for me:

 

• He seems to make the action and suspense of combat more immersive than anyone else.
• He can come up with the strangest character names and they always work. Not once have I ever thought a character name sounded contrived.
• The 40k world feels more real in his books. I can't explain the difference, but I think a lot of the little details about the surroundings really help.
• No one, and I mean NO ONE, does destruction on a massive scale like Abnett. For those of you that have read Know No Fear, you know what I mean.

[Taliesin]

 

 

I am Slaughter was by far the worst in TBA series.

Different folks and strokes and all but IMO IAS was nowhere near the worst in the TBA series (that "honour" goes to either Echoes of the Long Was, Hunt for Vulkan or Shadow of Ullanor).

 

Nor was it one of the best (that "honour" goes to either The Beast Must Die, The Last Son of Dorn or The Beheading).

 

It was a pretty middling book in the series but what it did do very well (like Horus Rising) was set up a new era that felt distinctly different to 40k that allowed other writers to build on. It was another example of how Abnett does great world building.

 

Agreed. Still 'IS' is one of his less 'good' books. Now with incoming 'Warmaster' at BL Weekender November 2017 and first few sentences of 'Penitent' and hopefully a concept of a new HH book (Beta-Garmont of Siege of Terra hopefully, after all he just got back from the 'High Lords of Terra' meeting in Nottingham) Abnett is back to us with the follow-up stuff for 2018-2020 years.

 

 

Do we know who else was present and thus might have been pencilled in for a HH novel?

[A D-B]

 

 

 

I am Slaughter was by far the worst in TBA series.

Different folks and strokes and all but IMO IAS was nowhere near the worst in the TBA series (that "honour" goes to either Echoes of the Long Was, Hunt for Vulkan or Shadow of Ullanor).

 

Nor was it one of the best (that "honour" goes to either The Beast Must Die, The Last Son of Dorn or The Beheading).

 

It was a pretty middling book in the series but what it did do very well (like Horus Rising) was set up a new era that felt distinctly different to 40k that allowed other writers to build on. It was another example of how Abnett does great world building.

 

Agreed. Still 'IS' is one of his less 'good' books. Now with incoming 'Warmaster' at BL Weekender November 2017 and first few sentences of 'Penitent' and hopefully a concept of a new HH book (Beta-Garmont of Siege of Terra hopefully, after all he just got back from the 'High Lords of Terra' meeting in Nottingham) Abnett is back to us with the follow-up stuff for 2018-2020 years.

 

 

Do we know who else was present and thus might have been pencilled in for a HH novel?

 

There was no meeting; the year's first (possibly only) High Lords meeting is likely to be in the summer.

[R_F_D]

The stuff you know.

[HeritorA]

When is the Black Library Weekender?  R_F_D    - this November 2017 (they dont have a specific November date yet)

 

The point about Abnett's use of words that makes you look twice is a good one (it's become one of the things I look for a lot in my broader scifi reading - William Gibson and Iain M. Banks serve it by the trough). I can think of a few instances in other authors' works where it's attempted but doesn't quite work.

Keeble after Helsreach, Armstrong and Banks that's how I usually imagine Dan's characters now.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I am Slaughter was by far the worst in TBA series.

Different folks and strokes and all but IMO IAS was nowhere near the worst in the TBA series (that "honour" goes to either Echoes of the Long Was, Hunt for Vulkan or Shadow of Ullanor).

Nor was it one of the best (that "honour" goes to either The Beast Must Die, The Last Son of Dorn or The Beheading).

It was a pretty middling book in the series but what it did do very well (like Horus Rising) was set up a new era that felt distinctly different to 40k that allowed other writers to build on. It was another example of how Abnett does great world building.

 

Agreed. Still 'IS' is one of his less 'good' books. Now with incoming 'Warmaster' at BL Weekender November 2017 and first few sentences of 'Penitent' and hopefully a concept of a new HH book (Beta-Garmont of Siege of Terra hopefully, after all he just got back from the 'High Lords of Terra' meeting in Nottingham) Abnett is back to us with the follow-up stuff for 2018-2020 years.

 

 

Do we know who else was present and thus might have been pencilled in for a HH novel?

 

There was no meeting; the year's first (possibly only) High Lords meeting is likely to be in the summer.

 

 Damn - so he simply went to sing 'Titanicus' stuff and meet about something W40K. Damn shame - and we had our hopes so high.

 

A D-B  thank you for the clarification.

[veterannoob]

Personally my favs are a blob of Abnett, Graham, ADB, Wraight, French and Haley with many new ones coming up fast.

[Marshal Rohr]

BL has twin distinct author groups. Dungeon Masters and Player Characters. Abnett, ADB, McNeill, French are Dungeon Masters. They walk you into a room, tell you how it looks, smells, and feels. They let you know the table is handmade oak built during the reign of the third Sun King and the protagonist still can't shake the habit of touching his breastplate to indicate sincerity. Then you've got the Player Character authors, who want to tell you about the adventure the protagonist is currently on, how he chops people in half, and how his party looks at him during combat.

 

It's world builders versus world dwellers, and overwhelmingly most people love the world builders.

[Xisor]

It's world builders versus world dwellers, and overwhelmingly most people love the world builders.

That's a great analogy and got me thinking: I think there's a slight... confirmation bias? Something like that, at work.

 

That is: I think, overwhelmingly, there are huge swathes of people who love/adore the Player Characters. Perhaps more ferociously than the World Builders. The problem is: there's not much to *say* about that sort of love. It's a pretty straightforward affair - "I liked that/I didn't like that" - so in forums and even in conversations, you don't hear much from that latter category.

 

Actually, I think that means there's three groups then.

 

The World Builders who enrich a setting, whose stories really get into the grit even when the plot is "nothing happening in a cave". With that, I think you'd be looking at maybe... Farrer (non-HH) or Sanders - the deep detail and turn of phrase that is rich beyond compare, but can be a little sterile or slow moving in terms of being a... "page turner".

 

The Player Characters can get you focussed on the characters, get you into the he heads and take you on one hell of a moving, personal journey where the details are slight but it was never about the details. In that respect, I think Jim Swallow's "Flight of the Eisenstein" is one of the purest and best examples. It's a riot of a ride. There's very little world building, and for someone who loves that stuff, I surprisingly didn't mind at all. The riot of the book was so excellent that it was no difficulty at all to fly through the highs and lows of the journey. There's not a huge amount revealed, or a great deal explored - but the actual sweep of the story is incredible. I think it's the most exemplary of such stories in the HH. (And it's not typical of Jim's work - I find his more traditional SF world building really enjoyable.)

 

And that brings to the "get yourself an author who can do both" - that easily appeal to both ends of the spectrum. I think *that* is where Dan, ADB, Chris Wraight etc sit.

 

Not that they're a perfect blend, but that they seem to naturally enough inhabit a lovely middle ground. Light and pacy enough to allow character to be followed, but with enough evocative detail, flavour and background depth to appeal to the lore aficionados page after page.

 

Now, whether that's exquisite craft or happy circumstance that means they want to tell stories that most want to read, who can truly say. But, as someone who massively favours the World Builder camp (personal preference), it's very easy for me to get sniffy and suggest that everyone else is just spinning out "crowd pleasers" (as if that's a bad thing).

 

In some respects, knowing the audience and being predisposed to *write to that audience* without compromising your own voice is very dependent on an author's starting position, combined with how much effort they're able to apply in adjusting to account for their starting position with respect to audience tastes.

 

---

 

With that in mind, you have a few dimensions of 'quality' or distinctiveness that really matter to the reader. Profiling it in anything more than "I liked that book" might, without comprehensive data analysis and subjective-opinion translators, might be a swift route to madness!

[HeritorA]

BL has twin distinct author groups. Dungeon Masters and Player Characters. Abnett, ADB, McNeill, French are Dungeon Masters. They walk you into a room, tell you how it looks, smells, and feels. They let you know the table is handmade oak built during the reign of the third Sun King and the protagonist still can't shake the habit of touching his breastplate to indicate sincerity. Then you've got the Player Character authors, who want to tell you about the adventure the protagonist is currently on, how he chops people in half, and how his party looks at him during combat.

 

It's world builders versus world dwellers, and overwhelmingly most people love the world builders.

Because building a world is much harder than building a character. But I do totally agree with your assessment. Which is truly a great one :)

[bluntblade]

I never thought there was that much of a binary split, except maybe with French, whose shorts focus overwhelmingly on character portraits.

 

Wraight's White Scars material does a certain of world-building so that the Scars have a niche to inhabit convincingly. With AD-B, it also seems quite inherent to fleshing out the Word Bearers and World Eaters, and obviously the Custodians later on.

[DukeLeto69]

Keeping focused on Dan Abnett...

 

The PERFECT example of how skilled/talented a writer he is (albeit with some weaknesses as already discussed) is Know No Fear.

 

THAT book was pretty much a HH SMB book. But just look at how wonderful it was compared to 95% of all the SMB books. It could so easily have been pure bolter porn and yet, it was sublime. An amazing sense of urgency flowed through the book due to the genius idea of writing in the present tense. It was jammed full of great characters, world building AND plot and didn't once let up.

 

Simply awesome!

[DukeLeto69]

For some reason I cannot edit (ggrrrrr) so to add to the above...

 

The other joy of KNF is that Dan did for the UM what he did in Prospero Burns for the SW. He made them really interesting and unique.

 

What amazes me more is how brilliant KNF is and then how disappointing the Unremembered Empire was (it was an ok read but suffered more from the Abnett weaknesses then any other book he has written).

[Plasmablasts]

Abnett reminds me of John Buchan as a writer: a facility for evoking scenes and characters both vividly and efficiently without impeding the progress of the adventure. They both also have a very "translucent" prose style: that is, their prose allows you to experience the story without you always being conscious of the prose itself. If Abnett introduces an odd turn of phrase, it's usually with the intent and effect of showing you that the world he's currently building doesn't fit our preconceptions.

[MrDarth151]

 

Abnett is my favorite BL author, hands down. So many times while reading his books over the year I've thought to myself that I wish I had an imagination like his, while I rarely do that with any other authors. His prose is excellent, but a few standouts of his writing for me:

 

• He seems to make the action and suspense of combat more immersive than anyone else.
• He can come up with the strangest character names and they always work. Not once have I ever thought a character name sounded contrived.
• The 40k world feels more real in his books. I can't explain the difference, but I think a lot of the little details about the surroundings really help.
• No one, and I mean NO ONE, does destruction on a massive scale like Abnett. For those of you that have read Know No Fear, you know what I mean.

 

 

On the subject of making the world feel more real, I personally believe it is because he is allowed to play with the setting more loosely than most authors. Less thematic constraints allow for greater range.

 

40k has a tendency to abandon realism in favour of whatever theme the author is going for at the moment, be they personal heroics or the aptly named grimdarkness. Abnett tends to write people in 40k as... well, people, instead of tools for enabling a given plot.

 

Of course, he is not the only one to do it, but he is the one to succeed most consistently.

[Plasmablasts]

I agree. Abnett's readiness to go "off piste" with the setting obviously runs the risk of upsetting people when it jars with their conception of the 30k/40k universe, but I find it often enhances the credibility of the setting by providing depth and diversity.

 

One trick that is particular to Abnett, I think, is to provide a character whose world view is, if not exactly the same, closer to our own than the typical "blessed is the mind too narrow for doubt" mindset of the 40k-verse. I find that helps bring me into the setting (although I appreciate others prefer the entirely immersive experience with no outsider proxy for the reader).

[HeritorA]

Abnett reminds me of John Buchan as a writer: a facility for evoking scenes and characters both vividly and efficiently without impeding the progress of the adventure. They both also have a very "translucent" prose style: that is, their prose allows you to experience the story without you always being conscious of the prose itself. If Abnett introduces an odd turn of phrase, it's usually with the intent and effect of showing you that the world he's currently building doesn't fit our preconceptions.

Wow, great depiction.

 

'One trick that is particular to Abnett, I think, is to provide a character whose world view is, if not exactly the same, closer to our own than the typical "blessed is the mind too narrow for doubt" mindset of the 40k-verse. I find that helps bring me into the setting (although I appreciate others prefer the entirely immersive experience with no outsider proxy for the reader).'  

- that's one great view. All his characters 'are rooted' in our time, cause to write someone belivable in the truest form, it should have some rootes in the reality.

[Indefragable]

 

Abnett reminds me of John Buchan as a writer: a facility for evoking scenes and characters both vividly and efficiently without impeding the progress of the adventure. They both also have a very "translucent" prose style: that is, their prose allows you to experience the story without you always being conscious of the prose itself. If Abnett introduces an odd turn of phrase, it's usually with the intent and effect of showing you that the world he's currently building doesn't fit our preconceptions.

Wow, great depiction.

 

'One trick that is particular to Abnett, I think, is to provide a character whose world view is, if not exactly the same, closer to our own than the typical "blessed is the mind too narrow for doubt" mindset of the 40k-verse. I find that helps bring me into the setting (although I appreciate others prefer the entirely immersive experience with no outsider proxy for the reader).'  

- that's one great view. All his characters 'are rooted' in our time, cause to write someone belivable in the truest form, it should have some rootes in the reality.

 

 

Piggybacking off this comment, I am listening to audiobook of Know No Fear and hot damn is it good. Abnett is very good at giving the reader/listening "anchors" throughout his work that help both bring you into the tale, but also bring you along. 

 

In Prospero Burns it was the use of Fenrisian words and terms ("make red snow" = epic) that bring you along with the characters.

 

In Know No Fear, it's the Marks: the Mark -2.54, Mark -1.24, etc... They "anchor" you, the reader/listener, in the story providing at once a 3rd-person omniscient view of all the moving pieces, but also a very real, believable in-universe context.

 

 

 

 

....and by the Emprah, when those Marks get to -0.01 and Guilliman says "Commander, start a new count on my mark. Mark." and starts going Mark 0.01, and the UM start fighting back.... :cuss :cuss is that good :cuss ! 

 

 

 

[HeritorA]

DukeLeto69 - about 'What amazes me more is how brilliant KNF is and then how disappointing the Unremembered Empire was (it was an ok read but suffered more from the Abnett weaknesses then any other book he has written).'

- from what it seems to me, Abnett took several characters and decided to do a Shakesperian drama with them. Addition of the motherly figure, empire buildding, Hamlet nuances and direct mentioning of Shakespear could do that. Plus he made the narrative like a comic one (cause he is truly famous for his comics work). Addition of all that - plus a narrative that is simply uninteresting made in one of his worst novels.

After that BL went and milked the Imperium Secundus cow to the death. Thanks all the Gods it's ending this year with the 'Ruinstorm'

[DukeLeto69]

DukeLeto69 - about 'What amazes me more is how brilliant KNF is and then how disappointing the Unremembered Empire was (it was an ok read but suffered more from the Abnett weaknesses then any other book he has written).'

- from what it seems to me, Abnett took several characters and decided to do a Shakesperian drama with them. Addition of the motherly figure, empire buildding, Hamlet nuances and direct mentioning of Shakespear could do that. Plus he made the narrative like a comic one (cause he is truly famous for his comics work). Addition of all that - plus a narrative that is simply uninteresting made in one of his worst novels.

After that BL went and milked the Imperium Secundus cow to the death. Thanks all the Gods it's ending this year with the 'Ruinstorm'

At the risk of taking this off topic...

 

Imperium Secundus had the potential to be a really interesting side story if it had not tried to shoehorn so many factions and Primarchs into it. It would have been enough to just explain why RG and the Ultras were not at the Siege of Terra. The ruin storm provides that reason! IMHO it really didn't need Vulkan and Curze running around. Similarly I could have done without Sanguinius having ANY involvement. But maybe that is just me?

[Xisor]

 

DukeLeto69 - about 'What amazes me more is how brilliant KNF is and then how disappointing the Unremembered Empire was (it was an ok read but suffered more from the Abnett weaknesses then any other book he has written).'- from what it seems to me, Abnett took several characters and decided to do a Shakesperian drama with them. Addition of the motherly figure, empire buildding, Hamlet nuances and direct mentioning of Shakespear could do that. Plus he made the narrative like a comic one (cause he is truly famous for his comics work). Addition of all that - plus a narrative that is simply uninteresting made in one of his worst novels.After that BL went and milked the Imperium Secundus cow to the death. Thanks all the Gods it's ending this year with the 'Ruinstorm'

At the risk of taking this off topic...

Imperium Secundus had the potential to be a really interesting side story if it had not tried to shoehorn so many factions and Primarchs into it. It would have been enough to just explain why RG and the Ultras were not at the Siege of Terra. The ruin storm provides that reason! IMHO it really didn't need Vulkan and Curze running around. Similarly I could have done without Sanguinius having ANY involvement. But maybe that is just me?

I think there's still great scope with the sweep of politics for IS, even at this late stage. (It'll be exciting to revisit and explore the necessary impact of "Deathfire" on the setting- e.g. the Salamanders evening a bad rep *from the good guys* because their "entire" Legion voluntarily went graverobbing and AWOL in the midst of the greatest war war Mankind had seen to date.)

 

Similarly, I happen to think it'd have been interesting if Curze and Vulkan (and Mortarion & Typhon) had been active players, rather than vague forces of comic book villainy.

 

Consider an Imperium Secundus wherein:

- Conrad is actually playing them for fools, encouraging themselves to besiege themselves, all the while playing parley, mischievously advocating seccession away from Horus, not even the Emperor!

- A world in which Vulkan is at odds with the other three.

- A world in which the competing philosophies of how to run an Empire are not easily resolved or overcome.

- A world in which Mortarion actually looks for a way to end the war *peacefully*, by trying to negotiate a non-aggression pact between IS & Horus ("It's between Horus and Terra, not Horus and humanity. Kor Phaeron's Word Bearers acted alone, Horus wanted you safe from the fighting...")

- A world in which Typhon is despairing of the dread conciliation of Mortarion, and keen to side more with Kor Phaeron's intent than Mortarion's anti-tyranny.

[Indefragable]

 

DukeLeto69 - about 'What amazes me more is how brilliant KNF is and then how disappointing the Unremembered Empire was (it was an ok read but suffered more from the Abnett weaknesses then any other book he has written).'

- from what it seems to me, Abnett took several characters and decided to do a Shakesperian drama with them. Addition of the motherly figure, empire buildding, Hamlet nuances and direct mentioning of Shakespear could do that. Plus he made the narrative like a comic one (cause he is truly famous for his comics work). Addition of all that - plus a narrative that is simply uninteresting made in one of his worst novels.

After that BL went and milked the Imperium Secundus cow to the death. Thanks all the Gods it's ending this year with the 'Ruinstorm'

At the risk of taking this off topic...

 

Imperium Secundus had the potential to be a really interesting side story if it had not tried to shoehorn so many factions and Primarchs into it. It would have been enough to just explain why RG and the Ultras were not at the Siege of Terra. The ruin storm provides that reason! IMHO it really didn't need Vulkan and Curze running around. Similarly I could have done without Sanguinius having ANY involvement. But maybe that is just me?

 

 

Imperium Secundus is an ok idea. But when it's made the foundation of 10 different novels and plot threads, it's not up to the task.

 

But that's not the worst part for me, personally.....

 

From Pharos and Angels of Caliban:

 

 

....I am almost finished with Angels of Caliban and this is yet another novel where Sanguinius does nothing but sit on a throne and "look distracted." I'm not even exaggerating. Almost every scene he is in he does cuss -ing :cuss and just sits around "wearing a heavy crown." At least Pharos had him in his underwear fighting/Jedi-talking with Curze. 

 

As if that's not bad enough, not a single Blood Angel is mentioned beyond Azkaellon who does not even speak. You can tell that all these writers wanted a chance to "touch" Sanguinius in some way, but it's worse than if he'd not appeared at all because he does jackhole nothing of importance whatsoever......and what's worse....the entire IX Legion is nowhere to be found. Sanguinius is guarded by first the UM and then the DA? Where's the rest of the at least 50,000+ sons of Sanguinius to at least act as runners or something. This makes no sense whatsoever and to be honest, is pretty insulting and in fact just makes the IX look like a bunch of scrubs. 

 

ADB would cackled with glee reading this because we fans "don't know the whole story yet," but unless the IX isn't in Imperium Secundus because they went off to singlehandledly smack around the XII or something, there's just no plausible reason for them not appearing whatsoever. 

 

 

[HeritorA]

 

DukeLeto69 - about 'What amazes me more is how brilliant KNF is and then how disappointing the Unremembered Empire was (it was an ok read but suffered more from the Abnett weaknesses then any other book he has written).'

- from what it seems to me, Abnett took several characters and decided to do a Shakesperian drama with them. Addition of the motherly figure, empire buildding, Hamlet nuances and direct mentioning of Shakespear could do that. Plus he made the narrative like a comic one (cause he is truly famous for his comics work). Addition of all that - plus a narrative that is simply uninteresting made in one of his worst novels.

After that BL went and milked the Imperium Secundus cow to the death. Thanks all the Gods it's ending this year with the 'Ruinstorm'

At the risk of taking this off topic...

 

Imperium Secundus had the potential to be a really interesting side story if it had not tried to shoehorn so many factions and Primarchs into it. It would have been enough to just explain why RG and the Ultras were not at the Siege of Terra. The ruin storm provides that reason! IMHO it really didn't need Vulkan and Curze running around. Similarly I could have done without Sanguinius having ANY involvement. But maybe that is just me?

 

Nope. You are not alone.

 

 

And yes you are totally right Xisor