Inquisition War (spoiler warning)

[Kierdale]

I’m opening this thread to discuss Ian Watson’s Inquisition War trilogy:

Draco/Inquisitor

Harlequin

Chaos Child

 

I put a spoiler warning in the title as I’d like to be able to discuss the books openly without having to bother with spoiler code in every post.

 

So, what did you think of the trilogy?

What would you change if you could do a rewrite?

 

I love the first book, and elements of the second and third, but once I’ve got my thoughts together I’ll make a bigger post.

 

StD should be arriving soon... :D

[Slave to Darkness]

Dammit, was just making a thread lol. 

 

Although I love all three books I do think that the tone and feel of Harlequin and Chaos Child changed a bit from Inquisitor/Draco. The first book had the whole mysterious Ordo Hydra thing going on that kinda went nowhere, the other books kinda drifted into generic 40k writing with Space Marines being bad asses and Eldar Phoenix Lords running around. I put the shift in tone down to the change from Rogue Trader to 2nd ed personally, less 2000 AD Heavy Metal weirdness in SPAAAAAAACE made me a sad panda. 

 

Anyhoo enough rambling and back to your question. It sucked that Jaq took a bullet to the face, not every day the main character gets killed off. Like Reldn said on the other thread it would have been nice if they continued it but as Jaq was the main geezer it would have cheapened the story if they bought him back from the dead as well as Meh'Lindi. That would have been worse than the Eldar fixing Guilliman or Sanguinius returning. 

 

If I was to change any of it I would have pushed the Hydra/Illuminati thing more, a lot of the plot seemed to be Jaq trying to revive his bit of skirt. I would also slip in a bit more bander between Grimm and the others, loved that bit where Lex was telling Meh'Lindi you can take out a Dreadnought by stuffing rags down the exhaust so the pilot gets boiled alive inside and Grimm tells her to wrap her thighs around Tarik Ziz's exhausts and squeeze tight. a few bits I did find interesting was the unveiling of the Shroud of the Emperor, and people going bat:cuss crazy over something they might not have actually seen, and Jaq's meeting with the Emperor (not so special now are you Guilliman ).

Edited November 11, 2017 by Slave to Darkness

[Brother Lunkhead]

A fun but imperfect trilogy. I still liked it a lot in spite of it's many flaws. Ian Watson's style is very unique in that you (meaning me) can almost feel the Rogue Trader era that he was writing in. I know that in other posts I've joked about Watson being stoned (and I promise not to bring it up again) while writing his 40k stuff. It's just that there is almost a tactile feel to his writing that makes it surreal. I've never read anything like it. It's quite mesmerizing.

 

The main disappointment in 'Inquisition War' ultimately is that there is none. A huge plot point that fizzles away... very disappointing. Jaq's ultimate degeneration and loss of a major plot line looks to me as if Watson lost interest in the project and was finishing it out of contractual obligation. Nevertheless, I still found it's other plot lines and of coarse the characters themselves interesting enough to keep me going. It's worth reading if only for one scene (SPOILER ALERT), and that is Jaq's audience with the Emperor himself. The idea of the Emperor having over the eons divided into separate personalities is masterful. Watson really pulled that off in spectacular fashion.

[Slave to Darkness]

Oh yeah one thing that bugs me now is the inclusion of named characters, they did'nt need to include Jain Zar and Eldrad, could have gotten away with a Banshee Exarch and Farseer. I put that down to GW saying 'we got these special characters, stick em in your story so people can see how awesomesauce they are', I may be wrong but it felt like the first book was exploring the side of the Imperium we never see on the tabletop then they stick in the same characters that seem to be in every story written since then. 

 

All my negative comments aside, I actually LOVE these books. :wub:

[Slave to Darkness]

A fun but imperfect trilogy. I still liked it a lot in spite of it's many flaws. Ian Watson's style is very unique in that you (meaning me) can almost feel the Rogue Trader era that he was writing in. I know that in other posts I've joked about Watson being stoned (and I promise not to bring it up again) while writing his 40k stuff. It's just that there is almost a tactile feel to his writing that makes it surreal. I've never read anything like it. It's quite mesmerizing.

 

The main disappointment in 'Inquisition War' ultimately is that there is none. A huge plot point that fizzles away... very disappointing. Jaq's ultimate degeneration and loss of a major plot line looks to me as if Watson lost interest in the project and was finishing it out of contractual obligation. Nevertheless, I still found it's other plot lines and of coarse the characters themselves interesting enough to keep me going. It's worth reading if only for one scene (SPOILER ALERT), and that is Jaq's audience with the Emperor himself. The idea of the Emperor having over the eons divided into separate personalities is masterful. Watson really pulled that off in spectacular fashion.

 

Regarding the Emperors separate personalities, back in 1st ed he was the product of all of earths shamans souls coming together (unsure on current fluff, got bored of the heresy series years ago). Its nice to see that reflected in his writing, various 'aspects' of the Emperor doubting 'himself' etc, much better than 'Guilliman heres my sword, now off you go and be a Badass'.

 

As for Watson being stoned when he wrote it, your probably right lol, I was when I first read it. 

Edited November 12, 2017 by Slave to Darkness

[NemoVonUtopia]

I read them all a while ago and really disliked them. However, thinking back on it, I enjoyed them seperatly but it bugged me that nothing was resolved. Each book seemed to introduce new interesting ideas that were forgotten.

 

If I could change them it would be to replace the whole resurrection arc with resolving the hydra plot.

[Kierdale]

If I could change them it would be to replace the whole resurrection arc with resolving the hydra plot.

For me that is the real crux.

I love the idea of the Hydra and wish it had been kept as the focus of the trilogy, being the point of the Inquisitor War. I don’t mind Jaq’s heretic dabbling and his obsession with getting Me’Lindi back, so long as that plot was interwoven with the main Hydra plot.

 

I’m reread using the trilogy now :)