Dark Imperium Spoilers/Plot Summary (Read Along)

[DarkChaplain]

The problem wasn't just the time frame, but that books were written out of order as well, or parallel, without authors getting to read their direct pre/sequels in multiple instances. There were too many inconsistent themes and developments, even full on continuity errors.

 

I think doing one a month is still the way to go. However, the entire series needs to be basically done ahead of time, or at least through the drastic draft stages, so that only polishing remains.

[Felix Antipodes]

While the issues with TBA series were glaring I still think it was a good first attempt, especially when you factor in its stop/start genesis. I'm sure BL learned a lot from producing it, including the need for tight editing and story planning. I hope the sales figures were good enough to encourage another attempt.

[DarkChaplain]

I agree with you there. I did enjoy the ride for the most part and the whole thing was a cool experiment that I'd like to see followed up on.

But then, they also experimented with radio drama subscriptions, the whole Librarius subscription thing, Legends of the Dark Millennium, Legends of the Age of Sigmar, Space Marine Legends (previously Lords of the Space Marines too)... You never know what actually sticks for any degree of time with Black Library.

[Plaguecaster]

I have to say after Dark Imperium I am really loving the new fluff setting especially after reading the chaos perspective in Shroud of Night as well, I was hesitant but like the AOS books they really sound interesting and I hope they keep releasing more in this new era of Grimdark especially with a Guard novel as they are usually always good

[Mellow]

Is Shroud of Night another post GS novel?

[Kelborn]

Yes, it is.

[HeritorA]

 

All I want is a novel every month. Like they did with TBA.

 

I hope the scouring arc will be like that.

 

If there is even going to be a scouring arc.

 

 

I dunno. That output to me made the quality suffer. There were story hooks that could easily have carried through a few books that didn't. IMO Authors in a series should take time to properly read each others work and digest it.

 

Quality suffer not because of the montly release. Books were planned in 2012 and first 5-6 were written in advance before the first book was released.

Problem of quality is totally dependant on the authors in the case of TBA serie

[Plaguecaster]

Yeah it's quite good as it shows how screwed the regions of the Imperium beyond the great rift is as massive parts of it are completly cut off from the guiding light of the Astronomican. It's also quite good as it shows another representation of the Primaris who are not fully trusted by their own allies and even with their perfect status they still fall to the Chosen of Chaos especially since a good deal of them play dirty :D Edited August 15, 2017 by Plaguecaster

[plastic_slug]

 

 

 

 

All I want is a novel every month. Like they did with TBA.

 

I hope the scouring arc will be like that.

 

If there is even going to be a scouring arc.

 

I dunno. That output to me made the quality suffer. There were story hooks that could easily have carried through a few books that didn't. IMO Authors in a series should take time to properly read each others work and digest it.

Quality suffer not because of the montly release. Books were planned in 2012 and first 5-6 were written in advance before the first book was released.

Problem of quality is totally dependant on the authors in the case of TBA serie

[plastic_slug]

Regardless, even if it what you say is true, it shows a damning lack of oversight of the project by Black Library then. It's an editors job to keep things on track, not a group of authors. I think it is very unfair to blame them, when a project like this really needed someone overseeing it better than what we got - a series with some good bits, but very uneven and unpolished.

[DarkChaplain]

I agree. I give Shadow of Ullanor a lot of :cuss, but that's not really the fault of Rob Sanders, but the editorial person who thought it'd be a good idea to have two books in succession tackle basically the same strategy with their Ullanor assault. There were even elements that didn't match the time period in there, and the numbers didn't add up yet again.

 

That's not the author's fault at the end of the day, because he didn't know that the other book would be so similar. Some research issues can be blamed on them, but in the end somebody had to nod it off and send it off to the printers.

[Apothecary Vaddon]

IMO that's not even editing. The series seemed to have lost its direction halfway through the planning process. 

Edited August 16, 2017 by Apothecary Vaddon

[plastic_slug]

IMO that's not even editing. The series seemed to have lost its direction halfway through the planning process. 

All the more reason there needed to be someone herding the cats/authors , and making sure a coherent story got told, instead of two people basically writing the same assault on Ullanor story over again. It seems like they gave up and just said 'ship it'.....

[HeritorA]

 

IMO that's not even editing. The series seemed to have lost its direction halfway through the planning process. 

 

'All the more reason there needed to be someone herding the cats/authors , and making sure a coherent story got told, instead of two people basically writing the same assault on Ullanor story over again. It seems like they gave up and just said 'ship it'.....'

 

Or half-way through writing process. Books after the 5th title were written during the TBA being released. As for the general strategy - I think BL simply does not know if the serie would be a success and simply do not order books before the first sales result arrived.  I think books after title 8 simply wrote stuff just for money without any soul to the books and story.

[Mellow]

Here's an idea. Write all the books in an arc before they get released and have the editors ... edit ... so it all makes sense and doesn't have any glaring problems with it.

 

Even letting a pot of "beta testers" in the public would be a good idea to see if they can find holes.

 

I'm not saying this approach would work for story arcs that have huge numbers of books. But smaller ones should be fine.

[HeritorA]

Here's an idea. Write all the books in an arc before they get released and have the editors ... edit ... so it all makes sense and doesn't have any glaring problems with it.

 

Even letting a pot of "beta testers" in the public would be a good idea to see if they can find holes.

 

I'm not saying this approach would work for story arcs that have huge numbers of books. But smaller ones should be fine.

That's ideal scenario - how it should work. But for that they need to know that serie would be a hit and not a miss.

For example - they 100% know and sure that 'Warmaster' would sale well. With TBA  outside of the first book written by Abnett - it was just an asumption.

[Kelborn]

Well, it would be cool if GW / BL would start a poll and give us a voice choosing the next "bigger" story arc, including Badab, Age of Apostasy, that one event when BTs and Sisters fought together on Terra, False Primarch and so on.

 

That way, they could see which would be the most wanted series, starting to work on it in secrecy. Afterwards, releasing the first three in a row, while working on the second ones, creating some kind of bigger chapters within the story itself. For example:

 

Badab War:

Part I

- The Claws of the Emperor

- The Shism of Badab

- Rise of the Tyrant

 

Part II

- Heralds of Retribution / Flashpoint

- First years of the Badab War

- Middle years of the Badab War

 

Part III

- Last years of the Badab War

- The Palace of Thorns

- The Outcome / Maelstrom

 

Would be something new and different compared to their previous releases.

[Mellow]

To be fair they should probably just write all the story arcs of all those you mentioned. Just do them roughly in time order so things make sense. Even across multiple story arcs.

[veterannoob]

With what northern UK weather would allow... Guy chats with me. Ep 208 @CombatPhasePodc is up: AoS GHB2 & Dark Imperium (the trilogy, what's next w/@GuyHaley) on iTunes & http://traffic.libsyn.com/combatphase/ep_208_-_GHB_2_Coming_Next_Dark_Imperium_wGuy_Haley.mp3 Enjoy!

[1ncarnadine]

Well, it would be cool if GW / BL would start a poll and give us a voice choosing the next "bigger" story arc, including Badab, Age of Apostasy, that one event when BTs and Sisters fought together on Terra, False Primarch and so on.

 

That way, they could see which would be the most wanted series, starting to work on it in secrecy. Afterwards, releasing the first three in a row, while working on the second ones, creating some kind of bigger chapters within the story itself. For example:

 

Badab War:

Part I

- The Claws of the Emperor

- The Shism of Badab

- Rise of the Tyrant

 

Part II

- Heralds of Retribution / Flashpoint

- First years of the Badab War

- Middle years of the Badab War

 

Part III

- Last years of the Badab War

- The Palace of Thorns

- The Outcome / Maelstrom

 

Would be something new and different compared to their previous releases.

 

This is my own personal little dream, but it would be super cool to see a Badab War series that told the story from the point of view of each one of the Chapters that take part, and have all of them cover various parts of the chronology. It could actually work, as some Chapters entered the war and left. Like the Primarchs series (17 Chapters involved, btw, so pretty close), with each book being very representative of that Chapter and how it sees its part of the war through its own lens. First book Astral Claws, last book Star Phantoms, obvs. 

[HeritorA]

With what northern UK weather would allow... Guy chats with me. Ep 208 @CombatPhasePodc is up: AoS GHB2 & Dark Imperium (the trilogy, what's next w/@GuyHaley) on iTunes & http://traffic.libsyn.com/combatphase/ep_208_-_GHB_2_Coming_Next_Dark_Imperium_wGuy_Haley.mp3 Enjoy!

Yeap - and tis splendid. But we tired as hell of Ultramarines and Ultramar. Fate of Konor does not help...

 

Kelborn

Fully approve your poll! Exactly as you mentioned for Badab war

[Mellow]

Trilogy of post GS novels? Am I reading this right?

[HeritorA]

Trilogy of post GS novels? Am I reading this right?

Trilogy of Post GS novels fully centered about the same Buirlliman and his sparing with Mortarion at Ultramar sector...

[Kelborn]

huh....I was hoping for something else. Something like exploring the new setting a bit more by following a Primaris chapter, which tries to implement themselves in this "new" Imperium or an already existing one, facing annihilation. Or....well...something else than RG vs. Mortarion Round 2, etc.

 

But I'll wait until we got more details. 

[HeritorA]

huh....I was hoping for something else. Something like exploring the new setting a bit more by following a Primaris chapter, which tries to implement themselves in this "new" Imperium or an already existing one, facing annihilation. Or....well...something else than RG vs. Mortarion Round 2, etc.

 

But I'll wait until we got more details. 

Hope is a road to disappointment