Wolfsbane HH49

[Manchu warlord]

Mr. Roomsky, so, Perturabo features in Wolfsbane ?

[Apothecary Vaddon]

Ah no, he doesn't. 

 

 

 

Having finished it, I must say I enjoyed Wolfsbane a lot. Written well, I loved Cawl's sequences (kinda want more of him, a lot more), and sets the backdrop for their appearance in Weregeld nicely.

 

Yeah, I was pleasantly surprised by the Cawl stuff after reading some of the reactions here. It definitely felt grafted on and had minimal relevance to the novel but in itself it was decent. Made him something like a fleshed-out character at the start of a long life.

 

 

I feel like Cawl is Haley's guy, and I'm 100% fine with him throwing him into whatever novel Haley ends up writing. Gimme gimme gimme.

[Roomsky]

Mr. Roomsky, so, Perturabo features in Wolfsbane ?

 

Sometimes you worry me, Manchu.

[DarkChaplain]

Sometimes?

 

I just finally got around to reading Wolf King, so I think I'm set for Wolfsbane this month. Though frankly, as excited as I am for Haley's second Heresy novel, this month is already packed with stuff outside of BL (I'm still waiting for Amazon to deliver my Legend of the Galactic Heroes 6 preorder, 3 weeks later, currently working through Sylvain Neuvel's Only Human in audio and Sapkowski's Season of Storms is around the corner), so I'll likely be late to the party again.

 

Anyway, seeing how Loken features, how much does the book talk about what happened in Vengeful Spirit? Anything in particular that is worth brushing up on beforehand? Anything regarding Tormageddon, for that matter?

[bluntblade]

Roomsky, that's an excellent review. Though now you've really hurt my keenness to read this book

[Roomsky]

Roomsky, that's an excellent review. Though now you've really hurt my keenness to read this book

 

Thanks bluntblade, most appreciated. I will reiterate that much of my issue with the book stems from Haley himself, and I don't think these issues with his writing are anything new, I thought Perturabo had much the same problem, and only earned less ire because it was half the length. If you;re a fan of his writing style (or lack thereof) I'd imagine you'll like it better.

 

His 16th still suck, though.

[bluntblade]

Now you've mentioned the style issue, I've realised what kept The Iron Within from the level of Templar and Little Horus.

[Marshal Loss]

 

His 16th still suck, though.

 

Haven't read your spoilers, but sigh. Not again

[SkimaskMohawk]

 

 

His 16th still suck, though.

Haven't read your spoilers, but sigh. Not again

I'm still overly bitter about what he did to the VIIIth :(

[bluntblade]

What did Haley do to the XVI before?

[Roomsky]

What did Haley do to the XVI before?

 

He wrote them in Twisted, which I thought was fine, and was one of the reasons this disappointed me.

 

I'd imagine the sentiment comes from Horus` legion being basically shafted since the opening trilogy by basically everyone, rather than any specific author.

[Fang_Guard23]

Sometimes?

 

I just finally got around to reading Wolf King, so I think I'm set for Wolfsbane this month. Though frankly, as excited as I am for Haley's second Heresy novel, this month is already packed with stuff outside of BL (I'm still waiting for Amazon to deliver my Legend of the Galactic Heroes 6 preorder, 3 weeks later, currently working through Sylvain Neuvel's Only Human in audio and Sapkowski's Season of Storms is around the corner), so I'll likely be late to the party again.

 

Anyway, seeing how Loken features, how much does the book talk about what happened in Vengeful Spirit? Anything in particular that is worth brushing up on beforehand? Anything regarding Tormageddon, for that matter?

not really, it stands on its own feet. You're going to love how Vengeful Spirit ties into the book

[TheRealMcCagh]

Am I correct in thinking at some point we were led to believe Cawl worked with the Emperor on his gene tech? Maybe not face to face, but at least was part of the project? If so, then how is it (very minor Wolfsbane spoiler)

 

he is basically a nobody tech adept at the time of the Heresy? He says he and his buddy had their intelligence cores installed only a few decades prior to the book. A few decades prior would mean the GC was already about 150 years in by the time Cawl was doing Mechanicum things. Did the Emperor continue working on gene tech after having the Astartes around for over a century? Wouldn't he be doing his Webway stuff by then? Is it an intentional discrepancy or I'm I just losing sight of the forestthrough the trees?

[karden00]

I’ve not read it, so I’m not the best person to comment, but the way I’ve always seen these things...

You can’t expect THAT much from BL. I do mean that with as much respect as possible, please don’t get me wrong. But they are basically in a process where they have decided to retroactively add things into an existing story. Which is actually totally fair. The entire HH is about adding to and fleshing out a story that was previously written in only the broadest strokes. Now, in the closing act of the HH, a character who is still relatively new is being shoehorned into a setting we are already rather familiar with. Sure, The Imperium is a big place with Lots of room to add stuff, but it shouldn’t be any surprise that a character like Cawl might come as kind of clumsy when it comes to placing him within the narrative. It is a placement that was unnecessary until we first met cawl and learned he had been around since the Heresy, so yeah, it’s going to feel shoehorned and may not be entirely consistent with everything else.

[Lord_Caerolion]

It's less that he's been shoe-horned in without much tact, but rather that the fluff we'd been given in 40k indicated that he was a somewhat major player in the development of the gene-tech of the Astartes, explaining how he could do what he does with the Primaris, but now what we're shown is that at the time he was essentially a minor intern on the other side of the galaxy.

 

Unless they do a follow-up book where that was all an elaborate cover-story for the senior Magos operating in an area that Horus was invading, it just doesn't add up.

[Scribe]

It's less that he's been shoe-horned in without much tact, but rather that the fluff we'd been given in 40k indicated that he was a somewhat major player in the development of the gene-tech of the Astartes, explaining how he could do what he does with the Primaris, but now what we're shown is that at the time he was essentially a minor intern on the other side of the galaxy.

 

Unless they do a follow-up book where that was all an elaborate cover-story for the senior Magos operating in an area that Horus was invading, it just doesn't add up.

 

Maybe thats the point? Maybe he's talked himself up over 10K years, and he was just a little pleb at the time, cleaning up genetic overspill.

 

I'd find that a much better addition to the HH story at that point. :p

[TheRealMcCagh]

Dark Imperium is supposed to get a trilogy right? So hopefully we can get some more info. I just thought it was odd that he has only been in like two novels, both by the same author, and we've gotten two (seemingly) irreconcilable histories. On one hand, it could end up like the Joker in the Dark Knight talking about his scars, where it is intentionally conflicting. Giving us some insight into his character. On the other, it could be just one of those weird incongruencies like Sanguinius being black haired for a novel. Haley doesn't seem to be the guy to play it fast and loose with the details, so I'll wait and see how it unfolds

[Lord_Caerolion]

I've always loved that people get so worked up about characters having different hair colour, given that even now, in only the year 2018, we have mastered that most complicated of technologies known as hair dye.

 

"My lord Magos, we have uncovered what appears to be an STC for an unbelievably powerful sort of medication. From what we have deciphered, it appears to be a formula for 'head and shoulders'. Truly the ancients were powerful if they could regrow heads and shoulders through a mere tonic".

[DarkChaplain]

Cawl really only has to come out on top during the Scouring era. Guilliman wasn't gone in a blink. Thessala happens about a century post-Heresy. All Cawl needs to do is raise up to a high enough rank and get to experiment with the gene-tech enough for Guilliman to see the potential. I mean, did you notice how quick Fabricator General Zagrius Kane went from Mechanicus' okay-ish guy to massive weapon-machine-dude in more recent material? Once you're in, things spiral out of control quickly.

 

On top of that, Cawl has been said even in Dark Imperium to be an odd entity whose mind has been wiped at least twice and much about him is shrouded in mystery. I'm surprised we're getting clear, pre-wipe views of him at all in the Heresy.

[Sothalor]

Plot twist: the Cawl in HH is indeed just a two-bit nobody who dies ignominiously in some forgotten engagement, only to have his name taken and used as a cover to conceal Guilliman and Arkhan Land's Astartes improvement project.

 

And no, before anybody asks, I am in no way claiming this is official, I'm just making stuff up here.

[Marcus Arias]

Finished reading the book this weekend, I really enjoyed it!  Guy Haley's writing is brilliant, he quickly becoming one of my favourite authors. I love the way the book builds on the great work set out by Dan Abnett, describing the Vkla Fenryka and the post Molech Sons of Horus.

 

I know the inclusion of Cawl is a bit of a divider, but I think its a great way of joining the Heresy and 40k narratives. I think of it like two Tyranid splinter fleets, one reaching forward, the other back both inter-twining in places but both different in the main.

 

But then again that's just my thoughts..

[bluntblade]

Arkan Land, joking aside, should absolutely not be Cawl.

[nagashnee]

If Arkan Land has 10k years to play around with, the results would be allot better and more impressive then marines+1.

[Blood Angel Scout]

Could cawl's claim to be part of the original astartes development programme be a result of accumulated knowledge from other magos, similar to the gestalt entity from McNeil's Priest of Mars 40k novel? Especially as he's just ended up with one brain that holds two centuries of knowledge

[mc warhammer]

 

 

"My lord Magos, we have uncovered what appears to be an STC for an unbelievably powerful sort of medication. From what we have deciphered, it appears to be a formula for 'head and shoulders'. Truly the ancients were powerful if they could regrow heads and shoulders through a mere tonic".

 

truly, the imperium has lost much knowledge by the 41st millennium