So now that the Horus Heresy is almost over....

[Bulwyf]

They did not wipe out every xeno species or hostile human civilization . I don't think it would be possible to cover the 200 plus years of the entire Great Crusade but could they put out a long running series picking out the highlights and notable moments? Absolutely.

[bluntblade]

It'd be unworkable to do many of those big moments because of the Lost Legions.

[Taliesin]

I don't think a Great Crusade series would do anything. Maybe if there were notable performances in a novella or something. But the whole crusade is essentially "meet species X, battle, species X is destroyed, compliance is reached. Move on. Or in the case of human populations, they are wiped out or liberated from xeno's.

 

It would be interesting to see if the Interex were completely wiped out or if they survived somewhere.

 

It doesn't have to be like that of course. There can be wins as well as losses in any war, and certainly in as massive a war as the Great Crusade.

I've always thought there's big gap here in the fiction. Isn't one of the most interesting periods in the entire timeline seeing how they humanity became that ascendant interstellar empire, what sort of species they meet, what sort of resistance they offer, how they're overcome ( or not). There can be important casualties on all sides. What's the Master of Mankind like in this period, and the Primarchs? This is fascinating stuff imo, to see those battles with other races races than the constant theme of Astartes vs Astartes that is the Heresy.

 

Great Crusade and The Scouring as well as the period of the Unification Wars, those are the three areas Black Library should delve into asap.

[Kelborn]

Scouring? Hell yeah!

Great Crusade? What would it give us besides some more details on certain Legions / characters against some unexplored enemies? Not that much I believe.

Unification War? I'm not sure if I'd need this. What would it feature? Thunder Warriors for sure but besides them?

 

I'll give my vote for exploring big events in between HH and 40K. As I already said, the Scouring would be a good era. I also mentioned Badab and there are quite a few other really good conflicts with a lot of potential. :)

[Phoebus]

I don't think a Great Crusade series would do anything. Maybe if there were notable performances in a novella or something. But the whole crusade is essentially "meet species X, battle, species X is destroyed, compliance is reached. Move on. Or in the case of human populations, they are wiped out or liberated from xeno's.

It would be interesting to see if the Interex were completely wiped out or if they survived somewhere.

At the end of the day, any story can be reduced to dull-sounding individual components. Speaking for myself, the blurbs of the various early campaigns in the Forge World books sound really interesting. I'd love to read about the proto-legions against the tyrants of Terra, or the Rangdan Xenocides, for example.

[Mellow]

I'd want a story about the "pre-great Crusade fleet muster".

 

You know. The one where all those hundreds of fleets were all in the sol system. If each expedition fleet was hundreds of ships and there were hundreds of fleets that could make for some fluff filled logistical/political character interactions.

[b1soul]

If Wraight is indeed not doing it as is said here ( and I suppose it's true) then it's going to be James Swallow.

James Swallow's writing is BLAND...please let it be Wraight

[Bulwyf]

 

If Wraight is indeed not doing it as is said here ( and I suppose it's true) then it's going to be James Swallow.

James Swallow's writing is BLAND...please let it be Wraight

 

 

Sadly, it won't be Chris Wraight. I already posted the twitter response when I directly asked him if he was writing future DG novels. His answer was a definite no.

 

I am dreading Swallow writing DG. Wraight did an excellent job with them.

[Marshal Loss]

I share your concerns. At least the silver lining is that Wraight will definitely handle them in some form at the siege, and we'll be getting Haley doing his Primarch novel, out sometime next year. It is about time the DG get some love.

[Tymell]

I don't know if I'd go so far as to say I'm dreading James Swallow doing the Death Guard novel, but I'd certainly prefer a number of others. It's a big event and has been a long time coming, and while I don't think James Swallow's stuff has been the worst, I'd be more excited to see Wraight or Haley handling it. But hey, I'll give it a go whoever does it, you never know.

[Ascanius]

 

I'd love to read about the proto-legions against the tyrants of Terra, or the Rangdan Xenocides, for example.

 

I'm guessing we'll never get a story about the Rangdan Xenocides now that Inferno has strongly implied one of the Lost Legions was involved, and that it may have been the precipitating event of their downfall.

[bluntblade]

They're full Legions at the time of Rangdan.

[R_F_D]

I'm of the opinion that Swallow is a good writer (just look at recent non BL success): Flight of the Einstein and Garro are good/very good IMO and Nemisis I thought was decent but I acknowledge that people don't think it contributed to the narrative (not my view but hey). That leaves Fear to Tread which I've only read once, way back when, and seems to be most people's contentious book for Swallow? Therefore I'd be perfectly happy for him to write DG although I take Tymell's point about other authors.

[bluntblade]

His actual writing is decent in Flight. Hopefully he takes on board the more inventive material we've had on the DG since then.

[The_son_of_Dorn]

Child,woman,man, astartee or son of a demigog. All can run a sword through you.

 

Even with tears in their eyes.

[Arkangilos]

I'm of the opinion that Swallow is a good writer (just look at recent non BL success): Flight of the Einstein and Garro are good/very good IMO and Nemisis I thought was decent but I acknowledge that people don't think it contributed to the narrative (not my view but hey). That leaves Fear to Tread which I've only read once, way back when, and seems to be most people's contentious book for Swallow? Therefore I'd be perfectly happy for him to write DG although I take Tymell's point about other authors.

I haven't liked any of his Blood Angel books, but his short stories (even for BA) are decent. For me it's not that he writes bad, its that I don't like the stories themselves. Or certain details like the legion structure or the BA. Like his writing is engaging, and I *enjoyed* reading them. The plots are what I didn't enjoy. Pretty much just the actual lore he provides.

Edited August 27, 2017 by Arkangilos

[HeritorA]

 

 

If Wraight is indeed not doing it as is said here ( and I suppose it's true) then it's going to be James Swallow.

James Swallow's writing is BLAND...please let it be Wraight

 

 

Sadly, it won't be Chris Wraight. I already posted the twitter response when I directly asked him if he was writing future DG novels. His answer was a definite no.

 

I am dreading Swallow writing DG. Wraight did an excellent job with them.

 

 

Even after all he wrote - I do believe Swallow could do justice to DG. His Exocytosis was amazing - so at least on Typhus part he will do good :)

 

I'm of the opinion that Swallow is a good writer (just look at recent non BL success): Flight of the Einstein and Garro are good/very good IMO and Nemisis I thought was decent but I acknowledge that people don't think it contributed to the narrative (not my view but hey). That leaves Fear to Tread which I've only read once, way back when, and seems to be most people's contentious book for Swallow? Therefore I'd be perfectly happy for him to write DG although I take Tymell's point about other authors.

 

Swallow is a good author. His Nomad and especially Exile are very good. But his HH stories sadly are mostly horrible, especially Fear to Thread.

Flight of the E. and some 'Garro' on the other hand were quite good.

[b1soul]

I concede that Flight of the Eisenstein was somewhat tolerable...I'll give him credit for that

 

I just really disliked his writing style in Fear to Tread, and I couldn't even force myself to finish the first book in his 40K BA series...it was that bad (to me). In contrast, ADB's NL series utterly crushes Swallow's BA series.

 

Once you've tasted that grade A filet mignon, you're not satisfied with McDonalds

 

I couldn't finish Nemesis either...I thought the way he handled the Imperial assassin team was really juvenile, not much better than how a decent fan-fiction writer would have handled it...just not impressed at all.

 

Similarly, Wraight's portrayal of an Imperial assassin in Wrath of Iron absolutely surpasses Swallow's A-team caricatures

[Indefragable]

I concede that Flight of the Eisenstein was somewhat tolerable...I'll give him credit for that

 

I just really disliked his writing style in Fear to Tread, and I couldn't even force myself to finish the first book in his 40K BA series...it was that bad (to me). In contrast, ADB's NL series utterly crushes Swallow's BA series.

 

Once you've tasted that grade A filet mignon, you're not satisfied with McDonalds

 

I couldn't finish Nemesis either...I thought the way he handled the Imperial assassin team was really juvenile, not much better than how a decent fan-fiction writer would have handled it...just not impressed at all.

 

Similarly, Wraight's portrayal of an Imperial assassin in Wrath of Iron absolutely surpasses Swallow's A-team caricatures

I have found that Swallow has solid story construction and is technically proficient in so many ways. My personal issue with his 40k writing is that it is generally not 40k-ish. They are self-contained stories that just feel different from the rest of the setting It's like using Citadel paints on a non-GW model and calling it GW because of the layers of paint. Just my humble opinion, of course, and to be fair, I have not read any of his stuff in a while.

 

He is the opposite side of the coin from Gav Thorpe, who (in my humblest of opinions) knows the 40k universe inside-out, but seems to make just....strange....choices in his narratives. Or he doesn't know how to fill them out without some mailed-in elements.

 

I can't help but wonder if they directly collaborated it may actually turn out pretty awesome.

Edited August 29, 2017 by Indefragable

[HeritorA]

Similarly, Wraight's portrayal of an Imperial assassin in Wrath of Iron absolutely surpasses Swallow's A-team caricatures

- amazing and truthful comparison.

 

Indefragable

'I can't help but wonder if they directly collaborated it may actually turn out pretty awesome.' - the main point is 'if'.

We will know only on a release day or during BL Weekender

[Zuvassin]

I think this is probably an unpopular opinion, but I personally really liked The Outcast Dead and have been hoping there'd be some sort of sequel, be it set during the HH, Scouring, or other timeframe.

 

Alternatively, I wish there could have been more books along that line. The pessimistic ending to Damnation of Pythos makes it another one I would have loved to have seen more of.

 

As for Sanguinius, my (unlikely) hope is that his relative absence so far isn't just the result of "saving" the BA coverage for the Siege, but that his narrative is being roughly modeled on Achilles on the Iliad, who spends the first part of it brooding on his ships until the death of Patroclus sends him into the rage and sorrow-fueled battles to hunt down his friend's killer.

 

Sanguinius' narrative doesn't exactly match that, and I don't think it's been set up that way, but given the mythic elements of the HH narrative, I think it'd be a cool way to develop Sanguinius in particular and maybe his Legion in general - proud and noble, but susceptible to emotional imbalances (esp the choleric and melancholic humors, so to speak).

[Ascanius]

I think this is probably an unpopular opinion, but I personally really liked The Outcast Dead and have been hoping there'd be some sort of sequel, be it set during the HH, Scouring, or other timeframe.

 

Alternatively, I wish there could have been more books along that line. The pessimistic ending to Damnation of Pythos makes it another one I would have loved to have seen more of.

 

I agree with you on both counts, myself!

[Indefragable]

Zuvassin: interesting theory about Sanguinius.

[b1soul]

I think this is probably an unpopular opinion, but I personally really liked The Outcast Dead and have been hoping there'd be some sort of sequel, be it set during the HH, Scouring, or other timeframe.

 

I actually really liked the concept of Outcast Dead...and I'm a sucker for anything Thunder Warrior related

 

Before that novel, I thought Thunder Warriors would merely be inferior proto-Astartes...like Spartan-I's compared to Spartan-IIs (Halo reference).

 

That would have been quite a boring direction to take. 

 

I now like the idea that Thunder Warriors were superior berserkers but inferior soldiers...and ultimately what the Emperor wanted was an army of human-like soldiers who could inspire humanity, not a horde of ogre-like butchers. 

[R_F_D]

 

I thought Honoured and Unburdened + Sons of Forge were separate to the HH and not to be included in the numbered series . I think Laurie posted something to the effect here somewhere.

 

It's possible, but would be an unusual decision given how everything else is being collected. Not to mention frustrating for completionists like me

 

 

 

I think The Honoured & The Unburdened are unlikely to get a numbered bundle-up at this point. They got trade paperback releases after the hardbacks even.

 

Sons of the Forge though? That'll be collected for sure. There'd be no point in not doing it when you have to do a Salamanders collection already. SotF would perfectly round up the collection whereas just Promethean Sun and Scorched Earth would leave too much room for something else. Sons of the Forge also ties into themes from Kyme's trilogy and the rest of the Heresy, so it makes no sense leaving it out like that.

 

One answer from the horse's (or salamander's?) mouth on Sons of the Forge https://twitter.com/NickKyme/status/903902504773197824

I'm still certain Laurie posted on B&C somewhere about the rationale for similar future works but I am yet to track it down.

Edited September 2, 2017 by R_F_D