Rate what you Read, or the fight against Necromancy

[Nagashsnee]

15 hours ago, Roomsky said:

 

Hard disagree, especially if you enjoyed it (you re-read the train book, don't skip something you liked!) McNeill's Siege books are in many ways what I wanted the Siege to be for everyone - a chance to wrap up their dangling plotlines against the backdrop of humanity's greatest cataclysm. For anyone who enjoyed McNeill's Thousand Sons work, this is the climax and definitely shouldn't be ignored. 

 

Plus, ADB is the king of unreliable narrator in Black Library, his books' statements shouldn't be taken as over-writing what came before just because they released later. What many take as spitting on Fury of Magnus I take as the Emperor lying to Vulkan so he'll go through with ernestly trying to kill his brother.

 

Now if they'd just get around to releasing McNeill's third Siege book...

 

2 hours ago, Lord_Caerolion said:

Yeah, in regards to Fury of Magnus, the fandom has a constant habit of taking statements in novels as 100% gospel truth unless it outright states they lied, and sometimes not even then. 
 

edit: I mean, the whole “the Dark Angels are traitors” meme started because people took the word of a Fallen as 100% truth. 

Ok ok fury of magnus will be read. Only reason i decided to skip is the mess they have made of Magnus and Ahrimans between Mcneil and Frenchs books. And yes i know Mcneil took a break then came back and somehow did not know what French had done, and no one told him, and the editors dint say anything... But it put me off the whole Magnus and shards story.  And then to pull the whole 'heres two versions of events have fun'. Like the last thing Magnus story needed was more muddled facts for me. And the last thing Mcneil and Magnus relationship needed is ANOTHER time authors go over each other.  I have no problem with unreliable narrators but unrealiable authors putting out work that HAS to be unrealiable because they (and BL ) did not do the reading is not cool.

 

Like i said i have generally good memories of the book itself, but that is more Magnus and friends going thru the Palace and talking to Malcador as scenes. Not the actual story as a overall story. I have always believed (0 proof this is pure speculation on my part) that Mcneil and BL KNEW the mess that happened with the Crimson king, and just decided to publish anyway as the HH title would secure sales.  

[byrd9999]

The best thing about The Fury of Magnus for me (speaking as someone who adores the T Sons) is that it basically negates any reason to ever read The Crimson King again.

 

I pretend that TCK never happened, and TFOM is the true follow-up to Thousand Sons.

[Roomsky]

OOOOOOH you meant the Ahriman stuff. I've heard so many people dismiss Fury because of Echoes I totally forgot that the entire back half of Magnus' Heresy story got beaten to the punch by French. Even so, I think the character work in Fury is strong enough to make it worthwhile anyway, much moreso than Crimson King. 

 

But also, fair. I enjoy all of McNeill's TSons work but I sort of just mentally censor the bits that contradict the Ahriman books.

[DarkChaplain]

I still feel like I missed something regarding Magnus and the Shai-Tan of Morningstar. I expected something big from that Primarchs novel / audio short angle for Magnus during the Siege, but... eh

[Krelious]

Hell's Last 7.5/10

 

Id say its just in the okay territory and it kinda just shoves the plot along from the last book, very slow takes about 1/2 the book for any sort of action to get going, typical fare of Cadians are tough and will stand their ground and fight in any situation. The Ending is literally resolved in two pages and honestly doesnt make any sense as well defenders expect rescue but then cant get reinforcements because of terrain, but shouldnt they have that mapped out on the planet they control? Honestly all the tension surrounding the ending battle makes no sense and then is poorly resolved so they can get onto the next book where Minka Lesk will be dealing with Necrons maybe? 7.5 because the book is largely competent in its writing and engaging enough to hold your attention but nothing wows me about this book. Might skip the next one if its more of the same.

 

One good thing about the book is a certain character in this book dies and the benefit of that is that I dont have to read his name because it always bothered me. 

[wecanhaveallthree]

I reread LUTHER: FIRST OF THE FALLEN last night. 100/10, no notes.

 

...okay, maybe one or two.

 

Perhaps Thorpe's style just works for me where it doesn't for seemingly many others, but First of the Fallen is exactly what I wanted out of every single Primarch novel: their humble beginnings. It's no mistake that my favourite Primarch series novels Hammer of Olympia and particularly Bearer of the Word - also by Thorpe - follow a similar style and formula. Maybe I'm just a sucker. WHATEVER.

 

Luther is bugnuts crazy. Kinda. He's seeing visions of past and future, he's being tormented by evil spirits, by the Watchers, by his once-brothers - and being dragged in and out of stasis isn't helping any. And that is FANTASTIC framing for what is, essentially, a tidy little anthology of 'what was Caliban like before the Imperium'. We see a world of danger and mystery, of 'mid tech' as we understand it - crude power armour and bolt weapons - and themes that would, of course, echo the Age of Strife and the Unification Wars. Caliban wouldn't be out of place in a Dark Coil story: it hates the people who live on it, but it feeds from them, too. It pits them against each other, it sends the Beasts against them, it sows discord and disunity. Luther - through these stories of his growth, and his reflections - tries to impart lessons on the increasingly fanatical and disconnected Dark Angels who come seeking answers from him. And as he found in his fast, he sees his own rushing to judgment, his own fear and paranoia, his own doubts and fears reflected in the Chapter and how it is twisted over time. Isn't that perfectly ironic: the traitor trying to speak truth, to warn others away from his path, but his words failing to reach them - or those words having wholly unintended, negative consequences when they do? 

 

I love the introspection, the insight and the ego of the man. He's become miserably well aware of just how pathetic and petty he was, how close he came to damnation, and how stepping off the Eightfold Path isn't free or easy. He and the Dark Angels are suffering for his choices just as much, if not possibly more than if he'd high-fived Erebus and backflipped right into damnation... but that's not who he is, how he was raised or what his goals (however misguided) were. Luther refusing to take that last step, to use the most forbidden sorcery, to wield the athame, to betray his brothers completely is a wonderful indictment of those who say one may use Chaos against itself, or that they will be safe only taking a little power from the Dark Gods.

 

Caliban is a beautiful setting and exploring it with young, idealistic (at least in his mind!) Luther is a treat, to be sure. I like how Luther is - again, perhaps only in his self-delusion, his self-justification - a lonely patriot, leading a rebellion that could never be with methods that could never have worked. His reach exceeds his grasp, over and over again, this man who in any other story would have been (and was) the Grand Master, the knight champion extraordinary, a hero and leader like no other... but he made the choice to save the feral Lion in the woods, to take a chance on a strange man, and now here we all are.

 

He could never have done any differently, though. That's who he was.

 

And who he once again may be.

 

Great book. Short, sharp - plenty of detail where it was needed, a loving attention to the world and its minutiae - everything I wanted and came out with a real interest in seeing more of the character in the future.

 

 

[LordCypher]

I recently got back to reading 40k after a year-long hiatus (no thanks to BL...) and decided to pick up Elemental Council. Heard some promising things about it and looked like a more appealing read than what BL has published recently. Not a Tau reader, so was not interested in standalone Tau character stories and my only substantial prior exposure to Tau came from Dark Coil and War of Secrets. 

 

The prose was fine. Adequate. Didn't need to consult a thesaurus for once, so that was good. Pace was decent. Didn't subconsciously tune out (especially in the first half). The story itself? Ah... where to begin? The first half was amazing. As someone not that familiar with Tau, it did a great job at making me engaged in their faction, ideas, their way of life and thinking. The interactions between different caste members helped to understand exactly in what ways they're different and similar. I was shocked at how invested I was in the story and central mystery of the first half. And the main antagonist? Amazing showing. Artamax is everything I wanted to see of such a character and then more. There was one scene specifically when

 

Spoiler

A water caste diplomat happily commingles with local humans and even offers a resting place and some food to people who are most likely hostile to him. And you could almost feel that maybe Tau have a point. Thankfully, the pure hatred from the Space Marine Artamax soon after snapped me out of such delusion lol, but I do think that it was a testament to the author that you can very well imagine a peaceful coexistence - at least for a few seconds - in 40k. 

 

Now... what went wrong? Well, there's a certain chapter in italics somewhere in the middle, and when I read the first few lines, I immediately felt the potential built up in the first half of the story would be squandered. And unfortunately, it really did go downhill from that moment onwards. What is in that nefarious chapter?

 

Spoiler

The main Ethereal just... coming back from the dead? After being dispatched by a Callidus assasin? Because... reasons? and after that it was plot armour and deus ex machina one after another. In one of the scenes the Earth caste Tau Ke has so many levels of plot armour I thought she'd singlehandedhly finish off Arthamax herself. And Sixes? Oh boy... after being described as near death a number of times and suffering pretty serious injuries at many point of the story (especially when the operating base is destroyed) she's dispatching heavily armed human opponents left, right and centre with 0 issues. And at the end of the story, you don't even remember that she was supposed to be near death this whole time. And the Kroot who should have been crushed to death by any stretch of imagination... is alive and unscathed?! 

 

The reason the Etehreal's resurrection is so grating is because it makes little sense and cheapens the story. He just comes back from the dead and... fixes everything?! What could have been an amazing storyline of a catastrophic Tau failure, which would be subsequently heavily covered up, with a multitude of heavy moral ramifications, turns into a generic, tidy ending. At the end of the story, the Ethereal even remarks that the Callidus assassin trick won't work on Tau again, all is well and nothing bad happened. Of course, he's a Tau Ethereal, so you would expect this to come from his mouth, but the story itself doesn't seem to treat his utterings with any sort of scepticism. The ending did not feel either earned or fitting to the story. To the point where I'm wondering if there was some editorial meddling involved. The author clearly gets the Tau, but the second part of the story really left a sour taste in my mouth. 

 

Finally, the way Artamax's story ends was such a downer. After being depicted as this ruthless and clever antagonist the whole time, in his last scenes, he devolved into a monologuing Saturday morning cartoon villain. 

 

I think I'm too harsh on this novel precisely because I could see such a high potential for it in the first half. If this were a generic bolter porn story, I would have been much less miffed about it. First half for me is 9/10 but the second part and ending with 5/10 really brings it down. I would still give it a 7.5/10 because of some great scenes and Tau lore sprinkled throughout, like

 

Spoiler

one of the local human leaders (who seems to be much more amiable to Tau than most) says:

 

Quote

You steal my people’s families at night for re-education. Return them as drooling dogs, little better than servitors, or not at all. 

 

or the Tau discussing what punishment awaits the human population and mentioning how

 

Quote

..the world’s civilians will be separated from their familial units and broken into work groups. They will undergo indoctrination. Heritage proctors will monitor them for individualist behaviour. They will remediate nonconformity with psychotherapy and re-education.

’

 

With the other Tau noting:

 

Quote

‘They’ll be treated like us?’ Ke asked, almost relieved. ‘That doesn’t sound so bad.’

 

Or how even thinking about harming an Ethereal is nigh impossible for other Tau castes. But at the same time, you do get the optimistic and bright outlook the Tau represented very well too.  

 

Special praise is attributed for the very clever inclusion of Fehervari's infamous and beloved death world in a couple of places. And not just some offhand remarks, but names of entities as well, which recontextualize some of the characters if you're acquainted with Fehervari's work. 

 

I'd still recommend this even to non-Tau fans, as it is clearly above your run-of-the-mill bolter porn, but cautioning to temper your expectations and just enjoying the ride. 

[LordCypher]

On 4/25/2025 at 8:59 AM, wecanhaveallthree said:

I reread LUTHER: FIRST OF THE FALLEN last night. 100/10, no notes.

 

...okay, maybe one or two.

 

Perhaps Thorpe's style just works for me where it doesn't for seemingly many others, but First of the Fallen is exactly what I wanted out of every single Primarch novel: their humble beginnings. It's no mistake that my favourite Primarch series novels Hammer of Olympia and particularly Bearer of the Word - also by Thorpe - follow a similar style and formula. Maybe I'm just a sucker. WHATEVER.

 

Luther is bugnuts crazy. Kinda. He's seeing visions of past and future, he's being tormented by evil spirits, by the Watchers, by his once-brothers - and being dragged in and out of stasis isn't helping any. And that is FANTASTIC framing for what is, essentially, a tidy little anthology of 'what was Caliban like before the Imperium'. We see a world of danger and mystery, of 'mid tech' as we understand it - crude power armour and bolt weapons - and themes that would, of course, echo the Age of Strife and the Unification Wars. Caliban wouldn't be out of place in a Dark Coil story: it hates the people who live on it, but it feeds from them, too. It pits them against each other, it sends the Beasts against them, it sows discord and disunity. Luther - through these stories of his growth, and his reflections - tries to impart lessons on the increasingly fanatical and disconnected Dark Angels who come seeking answers from him. And as he found in his fast, he sees his own rushing to judgment, his own fear and paranoia, his own doubts and fears reflected in the Chapter and how it is twisted over time. Isn't that perfectly ironic: the traitor trying to speak truth, to warn others away from his path, but his words failing to reach them - or those words having wholly unintended, negative consequences when they do? 

 

I love the introspection, the insight and the ego of the man. He's become miserably well aware of just how pathetic and petty he was, how close he came to damnation, and how stepping off the Eightfold Path isn't free or easy. He and the Dark Angels are suffering for his choices just as much, if not possibly more than if he'd high-fived Erebus and backflipped right into damnation... but that's not who he is, how he was raised or what his goals (however misguided) were. Luther refusing to take that last step, to use the most forbidden sorcery, to wield the athame, to betray his brothers completely is a wonderful indictment of those who say one may use Chaos against itself, or that they will be safe only taking a little power from the Dark Gods.

 

Caliban is a beautiful setting and exploring it with young, idealistic (at least in his mind!) Luther is a treat, to be sure. I like how Luther is - again, perhaps only in his self-delusion, his self-justification - a lonely patriot, leading a rebellion that could never be with methods that could never have worked. His reach exceeds his grasp, over and over again, this man who in any other story would have been (and was) the Grand Master, the knight champion extraordinary, a hero and leader like no other... but he made the choice to save the feral Lion in the woods, to take a chance on a strange man, and now here we all are.

 

He could never have done any differently, though. That's who he was.

 

And who he once again may be.

 

Great book. Short, sharp - plenty of detail where it was needed, a loving attention to the world and its minutiae - everything I wanted and came out with a real interest in seeing more of the character in the future.

 

 

 

It truly is amazing. First of the Fallen, Cypher: Lord of the Fallen (yes, I'm a DA fan) and the whole Dark Coil anthology are the only pieces of 40k narrative that I have read/listened to from start to finish more than once. Highly recommend the audiobook of First of the Fallen. The narrator does a phenomenal job of bringing Luther's confusion, madness and glimpses of greatness to life. There's just something about the way First of the Fallen is written that you get new insights every time you engage with various stories Luther tells throughout his captivity. He gives somewhat cryptic interpretations which are open to being moulded by the reader into whatever they wish to glean from them. This is the type of story that stays with you for years. 

[Osteoclast]

Lord of Excess by Rich McCorcmick 3/5

 

I guess it’s more sword porn than bolter porn, but same principle. Pretty sure one character got chopped in two and then reappeared a couple scenes later. The bit that I was most interested in, Chaos trying to remold a world that they’ve taken, is subjected to an eight year time skip and pretty much ignored. The protagonist, Xantine, is not merely an unlikable person, but is actively annoying as a protagonist. 

The back two-thirds of the book can be summed up as a series of “Argh! Curse your sudden yet inevitable betrayal!”

 

A few chief annoyances in spoilers:

Spoiler

Space Marine dueling a knight sized daemon. Just no.
 

Did they fall from such a height that they surely are dead? Nope. At least three times.

 

’Nid fleets move at the speed of plot.

 

i don’t understand the Istvaan V scene at all.

 

If you have a character sharing a body with a daemon, and actively show them losing more and more control to said daemon, you cannot turn around and go “Ah hah! Look at all these plot contrivances I did and kept secret from everyone including the daemon!”