The Lords of Silence

[Marshal Rohr]

Didn’t ADB self-censor that part, too? IIRC, he said he pulled it out himself, no one said ‘Aaron do this or be damned’.

[b1soul]

I would be totally fine if GW did away entirely with Blood Thirsters, Great Unclean Ones, Keepers of Secrets, Lords of Change or simply have the above be rare Greater Daemon forms or even unique forms.

[Sandlemad]

I would be totally fine if GW did away entirely with Blood Thirsters, Great Unclean Ones, Keepers of Secrets, Lords of Change or simply have the above be rare Greater Daemon forms or even unique forms.

 

It's that in-universe/out-universe thing. When it comes to daemons and their naming conventions I think a lot of the better BL authors already are almost doing this, not being "beholden to the tabletop range of Chaos" as Petitioner's City put it. Right here in Lords of Silence, the nurglings are all referred to affectionately as 'Little Lords'. Hardly any of the daemons in John French's Ahriman trilogy are explicitly called out by their 'model names', even when it's clearly a court of Lords of Change.

 

Granted that's largely for how these daemons are referred to, in an effort to bring back some of the awe and character of them rather than just rely on the associations given by the tabletop model to coast by, rather than to an actual variety of daemons in existence. Even so, Guy Haley was able to make a fun court of distinct Great Unclean Ones in Dark Imperium. All recognisably greater daemons but varying in power and some varying a fair bit from the models. Not bad for a book that in places was basically a primaris preview vehicle.

 

Otherwise, I think ADB's been pretty good about keeping his daemons 'ambiguous' or otherwise not explicitly tied to the classes defined by the models. The Ragged Knight is the obvious one but there's others in Talon of Horus and Black Legion, tons in Master of Mankind, and quite a few of the daemons in Emperor's Gift.

[Roomsky]

Well, that was excellent.

 

Was it better than Soul Hunter? Probably. It's set post Gathering Storm though, so my nerd rage keeps me from a true admission. I'm both annoyed and impressed so much quality content gets put out for that period, considering I think the whole meta-narrative is a big garbage fire. 

 

As for the book itself, man, best DG hands down, and absolutely some of the best traitor legion work ever. Seeing so many facets of Nurgle, and having them all feel true to the god they follow, is a true mark of the man's skill and appreciation of the setting. Special shout out to Vorx, for showing how a mellow, pendulous, slow character can keep everything in hand. I also loved how much numerology played into the characterization of the legion, even now they try to rationalize the warp as their father did, even while literally spewing random corruption.

 

While not perfect, some of the time jumps seemed oddly placed and some of the action pieces dipped back into "really good 40k" rather than "peak 40k" (Am I that petty? Yes.) it's still an excellent read.

 

TL:DR - Hella Rad Dude

[Marshal Rohr]

Its definitely a struggle. If the Emperor's Legion had been released a year or two before 8th Edition, I would've had less trouble swallowing it because I loved Wraight's work so much. 

[Phoebus]

I will pay Lords of Silence the same compliment I did The Carrion Throne: it isn’t just a very good Warhammer 40K novel; it is a very good novel, period.

 

When people say things like “this is really good tie-in fiction,” or “fans of [insert faction] will love this,” I read that as a back-handed compliment. Does this mean the novel in question doesn’t rate as highly as independent fiction? Does it mean it’s more worried about checking off elements important to a faction than it is about telling a good story? Meaning no disrespect to Black Library, but so much of their advertising sounds like that — and turns me off from titles they want me to buy.

 

With that in mind... Lords is a novel that Death Guard aficionados will love, sure, but — more importantly — most sci-fi aficionados should enjoy it, as well. As others have mentioned, it has a terrific protagonist, good pacing, and Wraight delivers environments that are absolutely engrossing. Solace, the Plague Planet, Typhus’s sanctum aboard Terminus Est... these locations are written as well as Vorx himself, and provide some of the best perspectives into this universe.

 

If Lords suffers from anything (besides minor quibbles about the often contrived ways battles are sometimes described, even by the best of the Black Library’s authors), it’s the same as with Carrion Throne: the “twist” isn’t developed much at all during the meat of the story, so its big reveal delivers less impact than you’d hope for. That said, we’re talking about a more or less secondary plot element, so “suffer” is perhaps too strong a word.

 

Bottom line, as with most of Chris Wraight’s work, I recommend Lords of Silence without reservation.

Edited October 14, 2018 by Phoebus

[Scribe]

Agreed, I actually re-read it, and thats something I rarely do these days. 

[Prot]

I find (for myself at least) that really good characters make me like a book more than anything else. I'll even forgo poor story mechanics for a handful of really intriguing characters.

 

So the book is about character for me. It seems to take a while to wind up, but for once there is a pile of chaos characters (deathguard specifically) that I really want to read more about.

 

I Don't think the following paragraph is a spoiler, however:

 

The main Plaguelord dude... he was really a sleeper. For a while I thought he was a goofball, and perhaps he had outlived his shelf life, but he won me over by the end of the book!

 

Someone in another part of the forum reminded me about the Helbrute... he was really cool and I wanted more of him!

 

All I know is maybe I'm over reacting because I come from an era of playing Deathguard when they were pretty basic sculpts and the army was left largely to your imagination and I think back then the "Plaguemarine" fiction was so horrible. It was basically zombies with bolters. Now here we are with (in my opinion) the first real fleshing out of the post heresy Legion and it's pretty fascinating.

 

The only thing I'll say is the 'mood' set up for the book seemed to take very long. I'm reading Emperor's Legion and it's extremely similar in pace and design. However the last third of the book is breakneck paced and worth a re-read alone.

 

They MUST do more of this.

Edited December 3, 2018 by Prot

[Byrd]

An awesome book.

 

Just finished this, and I don't have anything clever to add to those who have already praised it in this thread, other than I agree with them.

 

One of the best 40k novels I've read and a great companion piece to Dark Imperium. I hope if Guy Haley is writing a Dark Imperium trilogy, that CHris Wraight also gets to write a DG trilogy.

 

Chris Wraight has probably just elevated himself into my Top Tier of authors, with Abnett and ADB, and Guy Haley very close behind.

[Knockagh]

I’m only getting round to reading this and yes it’s a great read.

As a farmer I’m particularly glad to read about an agri world! I can’t really think of too many BL books were we get any details on agri worlds. CW turns farming into a 40k nightmare of chemical fertilisation and soil stripping of horrific scale. Well described industrial empire feeding farm sized planets. I know young lads that would cry with joy to drive a harvester across planet sized fields!

[Prot]

Pete... I don't think you want to be a farmer on that land. lol

 

Then again I bet there's some good strains coming out of all that nurgling goodness. 

 

I can't wait for another one of these to come out. I don't think there has been a true "Chaos" novel set in this timeline that has been as well received as this.

[Bulwyf]

Update: I asked Chris Wraight on twitter if there will be a sequel and he confirmed there will be one he just doesn't know when because he has a few projects ahead of it.

 

https://twitter.com/wraightc/status/1564267285501689857?s=20&t=CE_rWmPMk2f71iV48_-c9g

[Nagashsnee]

Sold! 

[Ubiquitous1984]

6 hours ago, Bulwyf said:

Update: I asked Chris Wraight on twitter if there will be a sequel and he confirmed there will be one he just doesn't know when because he has a few projects ahead of it.

 

https://twitter.com/wraightc/status/1564267285501689857?s=20&t=CE_rWmPMk2f71iV48_-c9g

I’ve said it on here before, but I love how open and engaging CW is with the fanbase.  Comes across as a real gent.  

[Mechanicus Tech-Support]

sigh makes me miss the days when ADB was on here even more

[Fire Golem]

10 hours ago, Ubiquitous1984 said:

I’ve said it on here before, but I love how open and engaging CW is with the fanbase.  Comes across as a real gent.  

I met him once (funnily enough it's earlier in this thread I think, he signed this book for me) and he was lovely. Spoke to him for a good 10 minutes from what I remember and I'm not a big talker to strangers.

[theSpirea]

Thank you for letting us know. I loved the book, even got the SE. As long as I know it's coming, I don't mind waiting.

[bluntblade]

I've listened to the audiobook a couple of times now, and yep, I love it. The characters are fun without losing sight of how horrible their existence is to everyone else, and besides some brief confusion over the chronology, this was a grand time.

While they weren't the meat of the story, I really dug the description of Abaddon's flotilla - I don't think we get enough views of Abaddon, even indirectly, from those who serve under him - and Agrippina. I've never had such an absolute sense of a Forge World's monstrous scale before.

[Lord Nord in Gravis Armour]

It definitely seemed to me that Wraight always had further plans for those characters. He built several of them up over the course of the story and then very surprisingly for a novel focused on a Chaos warband, left nearly all of them alive at the end. It would have been trivial to up the body count as the Death Guard fought that climactic battle. But the main cast wound up almost literally "Unbroken" and ready to move on to the next act.

[bluntblade]

6 hours ago, Lord Nord said:

It definitely seemed to me that Wraight always had further plans for those characters. He built several of them up over the course of the story and then very surprisingly for a novel focused on a Chaos warband, left nearly all of them alive at the end. It would have been trivial to up the body count as the Death Guard fought that climactic battle. But the main cast wound up almost literally "Unbroken" and ready to move on to the next act.

The little mention of Vorx being away from the action of Warhawk suggests to me that he's also marking out further space in which to play with them. I suppose that means that Vorx is, in his own way, unsullied by what went on at the Lion's Gate. He was neither driven into retreat in that fight, nor caught up in Mortarion's banishment.

 

I will say, though, that with the way the VA delivered the phrase "Tallyman," I couldn't help but imagine a Barbaran rendition of Harry Belafonte's classic song. It's even jolly enough for Vorx.

Edited September 10, 2022 by bluntblade

[Moonreaper666]

The last novel to feature a Chaos victory over the Imperium

 

Need more!!!