Rate what you Read, or the fight against Necromancy

[Krelious]

Unremembered Empire 8/10

 

Better than I expected as I am not a fan of Dan Abnett's novels (I think hes okay but really over rated) at this point the only Heresy novel of his I have not read is Prospero Burns.  This book is well paced and well written while leaving cliches to a minimum. Feels like a middle of the road book where it kind of abruptly ends  and I know the sequels in terms of Vulcan's and Curze's storylines are not very good books, I refuse to ever read anything by Gav Thorpe ever again.  The hardcover version has the derpiest artwork of Curze which is also a plus.

 

I will be following up with Pharos and Ruinstorm 

[Rob P]

Shows how subjective this series is. Horus Heresy has some of (imo) Abnett's best (Horus Rising , No Know Fear, Prospero Burns, Saturnine) and i'd put Unremembered Empire low/mid. Reasons: expectations re primarch meetup not met; Pharos meh, "my beautiful boy" (iron warrior dude), convergence of strands (waypoint novel), and, of it's time,it was peak frustration about the HH series stagnating.

 

I'll have to reread as some of those things might not be as relevant now the series is done.

 

It's interesting as someone who didn't like Abnett that this is an 8/10. Clearly what he did or didn't do here must avoid the Abnett stuff you dislike and must lack the Abnett stuff I like. Haha

[DukeLeto69]

43 minutes ago, Rob P said:

Shows how subjective this series is. Horus Heresy has some of (imo) Abnett's best (Horus Rising , No Know Fear, Prospero Burns, Saturnine) and i'd put Unremembered Empire low/mid. Reasons: expectations re primarch meetup not met; Pharos meh, "my beautiful boy" (iron warrior dude), convergence of strands (waypoint novel), and, of it's time,it was peak frustration about the HH series stagnating.

 

I'll have to reread as some of those things might not be as relevant now the series is done.

 

It's interesting as someone who didn't like Abnett that this is an 8/10. Clearly what he did or didn't do here must avoid the Abnett stuff you dislike and must lack the Abnett stuff I like. Haha

Yep, and I say this as a big fan of Abnett’s work for BL in general as my joint fav BL author with Fehervari, it really is subjective!
 

IMO TUE is Abnett’s weakest HH entry. Partly the not meeting expectations set (ie seeing Imperium Secundus properly set up) but mainly for me, this feels like Abnett’s superhero comic book work broke through the wall and for a while he forgot which IP he was writing for. Large chunks of this book you could just swap the names of the primarchs for [insert superhero name]. And as someone who has never liked DC or Marvel type stuff, this book really was yeeeuucchhhhh!

 

For me a real test of how good I think a book is will be “will I / did I ever read it again?” I gave re-read the GG books and related Sabbat books as well as the Inquisitor books multiple times. They mostly stand up to revisiting and remain enjoyable.

 

I know I will never re TUE again. Although as I type that I do realise I have never revisited ANY HH novel by any author…. Hmmm?

Edited May 19 by DukeLeto69

[DarkChaplain]

I'd go as far as to call The Unremembered Empire down as one of the absolute worst books in the entire series, because it so thoroughly mismanaged what it had to to and what it had to offer. There are really good parts in there - the typical Abnett brainstorming - but also some of the worst stuff in the series, not least of all the Primarchs brawl with hulk smash Vulkan. It's off on so many levels, especially the power balance. Don't even get me started on Damon Prytanis and the Perpetual plotline....

 

And it completely flipped the Lion around. All the setup made before, with him being very much in doubt about Guilliman, wanting to put down the upstart Imperium Secundus, it all went poof immediately. He got talked into joining up on the quick, with the third required brother not even being around, and basically uncomfirmed to still be alive in the first place. The Lion got sweet talked just the same way he was by Perturabo back before Isstvan V - something he was still kicking himself over, for feth's sake!

 

And then it ends with the very thing that was promised on both cover and blurb. Sanguinius arrives, things get decided in a rush, and the book ends. Curze gets conveniently teleported away from the immediate action. So many things just got shelved for other authors to salvage - particularly Haley and Thorpe, both of which did a great job with what they had, despite flaws.

 

TUE represents in many ways the things Abnett has been worst at when writing the Heresy. He has to pick up characters and plotlines from other authors' works, but somehow fumbles most of them. He nails his own (Guilliman's bits with Euten, for instance), but squanders the rest as he either tries to press his own stamp on them, or just doesn't really know what to do with them in the first place.

 

Just take Vulkan in particular: NOTHING would have changed if he had not been alive here. Had he been found as a dead body, put in a casket, and kept secret just the same as the live Vulkan was. He already got evaporated during atmospheric re-entry. There's no reason for him to be kinda braindead but alive/regenerated, as opposed to be physically regenerated but comatose/dead. But that way, he wouldn't have been able to take his revenge on Konrad for the torture in Vulkan Lives. But did he even need that? Especially since he was mindlessly raging, without actually experiencing an arc to grow through? I say no. It was wasted spectacle with no actual narrative benefit.

 

Curze going on a rampage? Sure, I'll take it. But not the way it was done. Perpetuals trying to get to Vulkan to stab him with Fulgurite? Would've probably been more interesting to have them infiltrating Macragge on lockdown during Curze's shadow crusade, while the Lion hunts for him. Instead we had action setpieces and xeno tech, while Curze takes on both Jonson and Roboute directly. This whole thing could've been played almost like a horror novel during Curze's escape, but was instead a superhero comic arc.

 

Curze did not live up to his fear tactics.

The Lion did not live up to his apex predator hunting or duelist skills.

Guilliman did not live up to his macro level strategy and logistics skills.

Vulkan did not live up to anything at all.

Sanguinius did not inspire anything, he was just a last-minute cameo to justify the cover art.

 

Rewriting the whole "Curze escapes and terrorizes Macragge" into a slow-burn thriller aspect that stretches throughout more of the book - particularly by involving something Abnett is good at: The civilian angle, including John Grammaticus trying to reach Vulkan to do his job - would've elevated the book a great deal, while allowing for all Primarchs involved to play to their strengths. You could have still had a direct encounter to cap it off, but in a clever way instead of the blunt hammer time.

 

But then, I seem to recall TUE also being one of the shortest full novels in the series. Which makes no sense for how much it was supposed to pull together at the time.

[darkhorse0607]

I am always really torn on TUE, although if I was forced to I would probably rate it higher than most on here.

 

On one hand, I completely agree with the majority of criticisms leveled at the book and objectively, I think that it fails at the core reason to have the book in the first place, being to establish Imperium Secundus. It gets so side-tracked with everything else (and I'll try to give Abnett the benefit of the doubt that he was told some of those things, i.e. Vulkan, had to be there) that if you remove all of the side questing and only left Imperium Secundus stuff, you'd be left with what, 50 pages? Maybe?

 

Strongly dislike the Vulkan/Curze fight at the end. Strongly dislike the Perpetual stuff in general (but that's always the case so I won't hold it against this book in particular).

 

I've gone through the book three times, and I still haven't seen how Curze got his armor. In the opening section he's described as being in rags, which meshes with the fact that he was a prisoner, but then when he drops on Macragge he has his full suit? There might be a throwaway line that I missed but I don't think so. I know it's not a big thing, but characters being changed off screen, particularly in Abnett's books, with what armor they have always bugs me (it happens in Saturnine as well, so again, I can't level the complaint about this at TUE in particular)

 

As a big Ultramarines fan in general, it always bothers me that other than in Know No Fear, you never see Marius Gage again, and no one even mentions him even though TUE would be the perfect place for that, even just having Guilliman say "I hate this Augustus guy, I wish Gage wasn't flying around somewhere so my actual First Master could be here."

 

With all of that, I believe you could go a step farther and say this isn't even a successful novel about the Heresy, in the same way that people level the complaint against Descent of Angels. Realistically, if you remove the context of the Heresy, and the Perpetuals/Primarch smash fights, and replace it with "everyone got lost in a major warp storm, ended up at Macragge, the end" then this is a peacetime novel. Especially if you remove Angels of Caliban, Pharos, and the associated short stories that are actually about Imperium Secundus and just view this book on its own.

 

BUT

 

That's honestly why I like the book so much. I am a sucker for books about Astartes off of the battlefield. It's one of the reasons why I like books like Dante so much. I'll take it all. Jealous/snarky Guilliman during the Dark Angels landing/parade? Take it. Ultramarines essentially acting as first responders to a natural disaster (or Vulkan falling from space), take that too. Guilliman and Euten, Lion and Space Wolves, internal legion politicking? Feed it right into my veins. I'll even take Guilliman farming on Sotha like he's on Thanos' retirement plan.

 

I'm not trying to leap to Abnett's defense here, I've spent plenty of time saying how much I dislike the direction he took things for the Heresy and the fact that I think the editors need to rein him in more, and like I said, I think TUE objectively fails at the premise of the novel. But I'm desperate enough for non-battlefield Space Marine stories that I'll take it anyway

[Rob P]

Finished Cadian Blood. After the initial restarts, it managed to get my attention (basically from chapter 3/4 onwards). It's essentially a routine guard novel. I liked some of the stuff with the characterisation of the captain, inquisitor and commissar and the plot was ok. It would make a good entry novel.

 

I felt some of the bits in it were jarring or difficult to pass through e.g. the prologue was pure exposition; most of the named characters weren't massively distinct and it felt like I was just having to keep a bunch of names in my head (tbf, same with nearly every BL novel! - I wish they just did short dramatis personae for every novel; I don't care if it's slightly spoilery, i'd rather know which characters need to be tabbed and which don't (for example The Wolftime had a massive dramatis personae and about 10 possibly 15 characters were important to the plot). 

 

I wanted a little more from the plot; maybe some twist or bleak moment that didn't really come. Just going back to the jarring bits, the involvement of the space marines was largely irrelevant and the plot around the villain just petered out - they didn't go anywhere! The pacing felt a little weird too; it felt like a series of vignettes stitched together.

 

That being said, I did enjoy the writing. It was an easy read once I got into it; I put my difficulty reading into it down to having read character novels back to back to back and therefore I was already familiar with some of the involved parties, whilst here it was day one. I also liked the tropes of 40k that were imbedded into it and that it was entirely self contained. The ship battle stuff was pretty cool, as was the psyker stuff.

 

Worth a read as an intro book alongside the likes of 15 Hours or Imperial Glory. Slightly more enjoyable than the last 3 I read that I gave 6/10 so 7/10 I guess.

 

[DukeLeto69]

21 hours ago, DarkChaplain said:

I'd go as far as to call The Unremembered Empire down as one of the absolute worst books in the entire series, because it so thoroughly mismanaged what it had to to and what it had to offer. There are really good parts in there - the typical Abnett brainstorming - but also some of the worst stuff in the series, not least of all the Primarchs brawl with hulk smash Vulkan. It's off on so many levels, especially the power balance. Don't even get me started on Damon Prytanis and the Perpetual plotline....

 

And it completely flipped the Lion around. All the setup made before, with him being very much in doubt about Guilliman, wanting to put down the upstart Imperium Secundus, it all went poof immediately. He got talked into joining up on the quick, with the third required brother not even being around, and basically uncomfirmed to still be alive in the first place. The Lion got sweet talked just the same way he was by Perturabo back before Isstvan V - something he was still kicking himself over, for feth's sake!

 

And then it ends with the very thing that was promised on both cover and blurb. Sanguinius arrives, things get decided in a rush, and the book ends. Curze gets conveniently teleported away from the immediate action. So many things just got shelved for other authors to salvage - particularly Haley and Thorpe, both of which did a great job with what they had, despite flaws.

 

TUE represents in many ways the things Abnett has been worst at when writing the Heresy. He has to pick up characters and plotlines from other authors' works, but somehow fumbles most of them. He nails his own (Guilliman's bits with Euten, for instance), but squanders the rest as he either tries to press his own stamp on them, or just doesn't really know what to do with them in the first place.

 

Just take Vulkan in particular: NOTHING would have changed if he had not been alive here. Had he been found as a dead body, put in a casket, and kept secret just the same as the live Vulkan was. He already got evaporated during atmospheric re-entry. There's no reason for him to be kinda braindead but alive/regenerated, as opposed to be physically regenerated but comatose/dead. But that way, he wouldn't have been able to take his revenge on Konrad for the torture in Vulkan Lives. But did he even need that? Especially since he was mindlessly raging, without actually experiencing an arc to grow through? I say no. It was wasted spectacle with no actual narrative benefit.

 

Curze going on a rampage? Sure, I'll take it. But not the way it was done. Perpetuals trying to get to Vulkan to stab him with Fulgurite? Would've probably been more interesting to have them infiltrating Macragge on lockdown during Curze's shadow crusade, while the Lion hunts for him. Instead we had action setpieces and xeno tech, while Curze takes on both Jonson and Roboute directly. This whole thing could've been played almost like a horror novel during Curze's escape, but was instead a superhero comic arc.

 

Curze did not live up to his fear tactics.

The Lion did not live up to his apex predator hunting or duelist skills.

Guilliman did not live up to his macro level strategy and logistics skills.

Vulkan did not live up to anything at all.

Sanguinius did not inspire anything, he was just a last-minute cameo to justify the cover art.

 

Rewriting the whole "Curze escapes and terrorizes Macragge" into a slow-burn thriller aspect that stretches throughout more of the book - particularly by involving something Abnett is good at: The civilian angle, including John Grammaticus trying to reach Vulkan to do his job - would've elevated the book a great deal, while allowing for all Primarchs involved to play to their strengths. You could have still had a direct encounter to cap it off, but in a clever way instead of the blunt hammer time.

 

But then, I seem to recall TUE also being one of the shortest full novels in the series. Which makes no sense for how much it was supposed to pull together at the time.

TBH I always assumed TUE was a contract filler by Abnett. I think he had lost his BL mojo and I believe this book coincided with all the BL/Studio changes. 

[Scribe]

TUE was complete nonsense. 

[grailkeeper]

We're almost 70 pages in and I still don't know which book involves fighting necromancy. It's probably set in the old world anyway.

[darkhorse0607]

35 minutes ago, grailkeeper said:

We're almost 70 pages in and I still don't know which book involves fighting necromancy. It's probably set in the old world anyway.

 

It's one of the ones they printed once and never made available again

[wecanhaveallthree]

Or one of the ones that never got printed - the NEVERBORN, as it were.

 

Spoiler

I quite enjoyed Umbra Sumus, which was a better Spear of the Emperor imo.

 

Edited May 21 by wecanhaveallthree
I AM THE EDIT BESIDE YOU! LOOK OUT! SUMUS IS HERE!

[DukeLeto69]

17 hours ago, Scribe said:

TUE was complete nonsense. 

Succinct but yes it was.

 

Had potential as an idea. Personally I was keen to see where all the Imperium Secundus stuff would go but they badly fumbled it starting with TUE. So ended up as more useless bloat.

[1ncarnadine]

I've long thought that Imperium Secundus is a really fascinating concept that would work great as a story told in the Heresy black book format. Cloaked in historical revisionism and unreliable historical narrators trying to retroactively justify all of what happened out there, and way, way less of the view from the ground and the perpetual/primarch story lines. It could be really fascinating, and there should be a ton of conflicts between traitor Forge Worlds, lingering elements of the Shadow Crusade and Thramas Crusade, daemonic incursions, inter-Imperium disputes, blackshields, piratical fiefdoms, etc. And many of the inter-Imperium disputes could easily be called "wars in the interest of the security of the noble cause of Imperium Secundus and the greater Imperium iteslf, against an upstart, blackguard pirate kingdom..." again, retroactively, even if you can read in between the lines and realize that some loyalists didn't want to go along with the whole idea and had to be "forcefully reincorporated." It's the sort of thing that lends itself to further drama in the Scouring, too.

 

But yeah, TUE kind of stinks. I'm in agreement that I've read it once over a decade ago and I'm not going back.

 

Oh hey, I've also broken my Siege of Terra reading block and read a lot lately. I'm going to go ahead and do a rapid-fire round-up rate-what-I've-read since roughly Christmas.

 

Flesh and Steel- Heck yeah, this was fantastic. The looks into the AdMech conclave was really fascinating, and the explanations of their forms and their holy meanings was something I'd love to see more of. The main character is (for better or worse) deeply relatable to me. I've been sitting on this and other Warhammer Crime for ages now and could never find the time to get to it, and this was a great starting point. 9/10

 

Grim Repast- More crime series, more evil perpetuated by the elite ruling class. Solid, but echoing a lot from Flesh and Steel and Bloodlines (though I read that after this). Just a little warp cult stuff, nothing too big. I actually kind of wish it hadn't even went there, tbh. We could have evil Slaanesh and Khorne leaning cultists without an explicit "blood for the bl-" winky wink. 8/10

 

Bloodlines- Still great, still not quite as good as F&S. I loved the secret serpent cult reveal. All three of these make me really hope they do a second wave of Crime books, but especially Bloodlines and Flesh and Steel. Hopefully Haley and Wraight get at least one more shot on these, though it seems like they've pumped the brakes on Crime & Horror for the most part. 8.5/10

 

Ghazghkull: Prophet of the WAAAGH- The best explanation of Ork metaphysics, probably? If Makari is trustworthy, so, maybe not. I think this one suffers a little for wanting the reader to know a little about the wars for Armageddon, but as a long-time fan it all tracked really well. Loved this one. 9/10

 

Mortarion: The Pale King- I have not been a fan of the Primarchs series books using the black book exemplary battles as a writing prompt, and imo the best of this series have been the books that avoid doing that, like Fulgrim, Lorgar, & Perturabo. But Annandale added several layers to the conflict with the Order on Galaspar that made it more than just a re-telling of the section from the black book, ultimately bringing Mortarion's vision for himself and his purpose into clear view and providing an example of yet another time that he rejected any kind of direction from the Emperor as a father figure. Solid, 7.5/10.

These next 4 I listened to as audios over commuting:
 

Elemental Council- Oh dang, this was good. There are so many layers at play, with a xenos faction that's often presented as asian-coded attempting the imperialist subjugation of a world that itself is layered in Chinese/SEA culture and is a member of a much older empire. And the Imperium is operating an insurgency via a Raptors captain? Artamax steals the show as the antagonist here and deservedly so. This novel demonstrates the relative naivety of the T'au as a race incredibly well, and their lack of questioning regarding their Ethereal caste and the Greater Good does highlight why, as a species, they haven't resonated with the warp much... yet. Something that stuck with me after this one is that the catastrophe Artamax nearly enacts is kind of inevitable the larger the T'au Empire gets? It's only a matter of time, but at the same time it's easy to feel relief that he was thwarted.

 

Bellisarius Cawl: The Great Work- Very functional story, fun Cawl stuff, and doing the work of "cleaning up" the fall of Sotha and the OG Scythes of the Emperor. 7/10

Wrath of Iron- I had never read this one, but I've always heard good things. It's very good, though feels a little dated and heavy on the action now. I'm hoping to get to Guymer's Iron Hands at some point after this, too, but I haven't yet so I can't compare/contrast his with this. The Kaesoron cameo is fun. The Iron Hands are dicks. IMO the best parts of the book were ultimately the interactions with Lord Commander Nehata and how he struggled with how to deal with the Iron Hands. Ultimately the ends justify the means here when it comes to the Iron Xth, but you have to wonder how often that is not the case. 7.5/10

 

Krieg- Oof, dark. I really appreciate how grounded this one was. There are no warp entities, xenos, cults, or anything else on the planet Krieg. Just uncompromising humanity, retreading why, once again, we can't have nice things. The darkest part of this book to me was the Cadian trooper ultimately settling into admiration and respect for the Krieg soldiery, even though they had been disturbed at various points by the behavior of the Krieg troops. 7/10

Not many low scores here, but to be fair, most of these books were rated fairly well by most folks around here so I wasn't exactly taking a chance on much. It's a big chunk out of my BL backlog, but also probably time for a well deserved break to read some non-BL fiction and non-fiction.

Edited May 21 by 1ncarnadine

[Roomsky]

1 hour ago, 1ncarnadine said:

Mortarion: The Pale King-  Solid, 7.5/10.

 

I'm so glad other people are giving this a shot even after Annandale's two prior entries being piss. There's more to Mortarion than "I hate psykers and my dad" but even Wraight got too caught up on those elements. Annandale of all people really captures his "hardass for the people" elements, and makes it a pretty decent read to boot. It's one of my favourites in the series just because it does something the Heresy novels totally failed at.

[1ncarnadine]

He's interesting because he gives a damn about humanity as a concept, but the instant they move to a kind of "out group" territory he's happy to slaughter them with zero remorse. In reality, he's significantly more concerned with the act of toppling a perceived oppressor than he is with liberating humanity, and it constantly shows in his decision making. As with Lorgar and his mask of humility, it's a kind of excuse to disguise what he really wants to do. When he liberates people, it's almost a happy accident as a consequence of toppling a tyrant.

 

But if it is a lie that he cares about humanity, it's one that he does believe in himself. Mortarion is one of the most self-delusional Primarchs, if not the most.

[wecanhaveallthree]

Quote

he's significantly more concerned with the act of toppling a perceived oppressor than he is with liberating humanity

 

Something I'm hoping to see explored more with Mortarion - it was sort of touched on in the Plague Wars, but I'd like to see it develop further - is how Mortarion is a rebel at heart. It's kind of wild, and I don't think I really 'got it' even back when he very specifically chose the Khan to pitch to in Scars, but Mortarion's other 'hat' (and what Nurgle suborns) aside from being a big tough bloke is freedom. Not the indignation of Angron or the carelessness of the Khan, but a deliberate breaking of laws and tyrants. And not 'freedom' in the sense that he feels particularly constrained or he has a particular interest in liberating people because he cares about people that much, but in that law in general seems to offend him - even the law of 'nature', given his sorcerous inclinations.

 

Him literally being yanked into the doghouse was fantastic.

[Krelious]

On 5/21/2025 at 3:31 PM, Roomsky said:

 

I'm so glad other people are giving this a shot even after Annandale's two prior entries being piss. There's more to Mortarion than "I hate psykers and my dad" but even Wraight got too caught up on those elements. Annandale of all people really captures his "hardass for the people" elements, and makes it a pretty decent read to boot. It's one of my favourites in the series just because it does something the Heresy novels totally failed at.

I think the thing about Mortarion is that hes bitter for his own sake where he first just hates Psykers not because theres any evidence they are bad but because he had a bad experience on his home planet with his alien tyrant dad. The thing is that its not about the psykers which is why hes a hypocrite and flip flops on this issue when its convienient for him joining the traitor's side and then saying its okay for him to get involved in warp stuff because daddy hurt my feelings and Horus got me in too deep. Mortarion would rather blow up the entire universe rather than ever admit he was wrong or try to show some emotional maturity and depth beyond being a petulant child. I mean what's his ritual with his sons, he forces them to drink a cup of poison to prove how tough they are when they are in fact genetically modified super soldiers. Essentially I think the reason why Mortarion is such an awful person is that he has this gift of endurance given to him by the Emperor but he thinks its purpose is for him to spread as much misery as possible even in good times because his childhood was so rough he cant accept that anything can ever be good even when presented with it. He just wants to drag everything down to his level as he just exists in a never ending spiral of decay obsessing over his own bitterness that it just feeds off itself.  To him its not enough to be strong enough you have to constantly prove yourself tough enough or resilient because internally I dont think Mortarion has any value or self worth and then he projects that onto everyone else. Within that context you can see why he hates the Emperor as Mortarion is forever a slave to his homeworld and his failure to defeat his foster father, he perpetually lives in that moment as fundamentally it leaves him a child without any ability to grow or have a sense of catharsis because Daddy did the job for him of beating up his other dad. 

 

When you think about it someone like Mortarion having control over a legion and weapons of unimaginable power is truly a scary thing because he really makes all his decisions from a place of emotion and trauma where everything is Barbarus and its really that Barbarus and his failure there hurt him so bad that any kind of victory even serving the Imperium doesnt fill the void for him or make him feel better. The only thing he has is constantly drinking and breathing poison to have any sort of validation and maybe even trick his own mind that he can go back to that moment and win. 

 

 

[Rob P]

Red Tithe 5/10

 

It's ok, but not really my thing. Far too much action, a little too basic a story, and the Carcharodons didn't feel brutal enough.

 

What I did like: the Night Lords were suitably pathetic. Pretty much presents them as my head canon. They're all sickos for the sake of it almost to performative parody and it makes them come across as a dull legion, but in a good way. I liked the interludes which provided tension as it kept me guessing how the interludes would conclude.

 

A minor distraction was the progenitor of the Carcharodons but lots of hints dropped. As far as I can tell they're Raven Guard originally but maybe have some Night Lords and World Eater geneseed  (and gear) through necessity.

 

Also the narrator on the audiobook is not great in the sense that the main characters just don't lean into the setting. The main Carcharodon sounds a bit like Bruce from finding Nemo and the Night Lords dude needed an overconfident tone that wasn't there

Edited May 24 by Rob P

[Fedor]

Finally got around to finishing off the EatD trilogy.

 

Not going to go into a big review as they've already been discussed to death, but I ended up really enjoying about 80% of what Abnett did, and he hit most of the major moments solidly. Is it needlessly sprawling? God Yes, but it fits in with the totality of the Heresy as a great big maximalist mess full of great nuggets.

[wecanhaveallthree]

Quote

I think the thing about Mortarion is that hes bitter for his own sake ...

 

To perhaps compact it a bit more, like how many of the Traitors are virtues taken to extremes (and how those virtues can be corrupted), Mortarion is how the bitterness and stubbornness of resistance - the mindset required to survive under that kind of regime or in that kind of world - doesn't translate well beyond it. 'Trauma' is a great way of putting it because it contrasts so well to how other Primarchs could have gone. Guilliman is a fantastic example (and since he's contrasted with Mortarion in that trilogy, we'll use him). Guilliman is, bluntly, a tyrant. He's an effective tyrant, an efficient tyrant, but he is a ruler - I always thought that self-gratification in Know No Fear where the Ultramarines are like 'well of course our dad couldn't be Warmaster, he's way beyond that' had a very strong core of truth to it. Guilliman's passionate about war, he wrote a whole book about war, but war is a consequence, a means, a diplomatic tactic (thanks, Clausewitz!). Guilliman is ready and prepared for what comes after the war.

 

But he could've gone the other way. When rebels killed King Konor, Guilliman absolutely could have - righteously, efficiently, practically - started worldwide pogroms and burned it out, root and stem. He clearly wanted to. It was in his mind to crush it with main force because he could and he wanted to. Instead, he focuses on the rebel leaders, he redistributes their land, he reorganises the social structure so that the qualifications for rebellion would be harder to meet. Everyone is far better off for it. But his trauma, and my god is he still wearing that trauma by the Heresy, because his simple need to make sure his mom is safe enables him to step through the Pharos, is real: he's just channeled it, managed it.

 

Mortarion had no catharsis. He had no salve for his trauma. He wakes up one day and the war is over, won by another. So Mortarion's war, his resistance, his 'bunker mentality' (lmao at literally dropping bunkers from orbit on Istvaan III) never has any counterpoint. The war never ended. Again to come back to Scars, I think we overlook that Mortarion - whether he's right or wrong - is saying 'if we pick our moment, we can kill all the gods and kings and end the fighting'. He doesn't want to rule: he wants to kill the rulers. Maybe he might have come into further responsibility afterwards, maybe he would have been able to move on, but right then and there, we see who he is: a man still fighting the old war, right down to the 'cups' - still breathing the fumes of his homeworld, still looking through the murk and the gloom for the Tyrant. Any Tyrant.

 

E: That there's no scene of Mortarion shirtless firing a honking big machine gun screaming THEY DREW FIRST BLOOD, NOT ME is obviously an oversight.

Edited May 24 by wecanhaveallthree
WHEN YOU'RE PUSHED, EDITING'S AS EASY AS BREATHING

[darkhorse0607]

2 hours ago, Rob P said:

Also the narrator on the audiobook is not great in the sense that the main characters just don't lean into the setting. The main Carcharodon sounds a bit like Bruce from finding Nemo and the Night Lords dude needed an overconfident tone that wasn't there

Interestingly enough, I originally read the paperback and found it much more enjoyable than the audio version which I still haven't finished. The narrator isn't my least favorite, but it drives me up the wall when he won't take a breath in between paragraphs in a chapter where it changes characters/locations, so I felt like I was constantly having to figure out where it was.

 

They also switched to the same narrator for Scars from Keeble (I think? Could've been Banks or someone else) and I get why, but I don't find that one as easy to get through with the new narrator.

 

Enjoyed Sharr having to take on a role he didn't feel like he was ready for until he gets a talking to, the interludes were nice, but I really feel like it he laid things out well for the Arbites and Night Lords but something felt missing for the Carcharadons, maybe some more supporting paragraphs like actually laying out why the kid is so important before 1/3 of the way through the book. I dunno, something just felt off

 

Need to re-read Outer Dark before Void Exile, it's been a minute for that one

 

*edit, it was John Banks, he still narrates Path of Heaven

Edited May 24 by darkhorse0607

[Rob P]

Ah, I forget to mention that pov changes a lot without page breaks which probably leads to the problem with not taking a breath.

 

Weirdly until about 1/3 in the Space Sharks are hardly in it for their book. With just a smidge more development it could have been a Night Lords book instead.

 

I still didn't quite get why they let the arbites women live early on. It didn't go anywhere. Felt like a Chekhov's gun that didn't go off. Yes, she had a role later but that came about later and didn't seem to associate with her intentional survival. Although, it did lead to the super dark epilogue

[neOh (AV)]

What Price Victory: Of Cost That's Paid

 

Thorn Wishes Talon – Dan Abnett

Following a lead from a "trusted source", Gideon Ravenor’s team is dispatched to root out cultists preparing for a ritual – and they're directly tied to it. Some gunfights, some cryptic prophecies, and familiar faces – it’s essentially a prologue to Ravenor’s second novel.

 

Forever Loyal – Mitchel Scanlon

A greedy, arrogant notary launches an expedition to find a lost city, but foolishness rarely ends well. Notably, Scanlon grimly answers the question: "What do the C’tan do when they’re not devouring stars?"

 

Elucidium – Simon Spurrier

A peculiar cardinal arrives on a storm-wracked world and immediately sets out to ‘correct’ the local cult – with unvoluntary aid from within. Or not? Or yes? What's happening?! Possibly one of the best Inquisition and Genestealer cults stories I’ve ever read. It’s got everything: two-faced radicals, an intriguing cult premise, a vivid setting, and above all – doubt, deception, and layers of mystery on top of each other that don’t fully unravel until the very end. Unsurprisingly so – Spurrier was a pioneer in his time, and many of his ideas (including some from there) would later inspire Fehervari and Dembski-Bowden. In a way, Elucidium embodies the anthology’s title – what price victory? And how far will the Ordo go to achieve it?

 

Calculus Logi – Darius Hinks

This story echoes Scanlon’s a bit, but instead of jungles it’s a desert with a monster, and instead of a notary we’ve got a hard-bitten Mechanicus. About desperation, survival, and the reminder that betraying someone may well earn you betrayal in return.

 

Crimson Night – James Swallow

Doom Eagles launch an investigation! On the planet they’ve just been stationed to, something is draining human blood – and the Flesh Tearers, about to depart, aren’t in the mood to share answers. While the mystery isn’t particularly intricate, it’s an engaging piece lore-wise – the ending raises some interesting questions about both Chapters and the "vampire’s" purpose. The protagonist, a Doom Eagles sergeant, reappears in other Swallow stories too.

 

Hunter/Prey – Andy Hoare

This is the least to comment on, just a snapshot of a Black Legion raid on cadians, interrupted by the appearance of the Space Wolves 13th Company. A good breather after Elucidium but nothing more.

 

The Beguiling – Sandy Mitchell

As much as I wish I saw less of commissar Cain in my life, he keeps popping up in anthologies with the same familiar formula. Monster of the day: villainous ladies, Jurgen’s driving skills, and Cain’s usual flirtiness. The punchline: a self-execution joke. The takeaway: this will happen again.

[wecanhaveallthree]

Quote

Simon Spurrier

 

We all pay tribute to Xenology. There are a few authors who only wrote a little for Warhammer - Spurrier, obviously - but good god do I wish Braden Campbell had stuck around longer. Mistress Baeda's Gift and Last of Kiru's Line are two of my favourite shorts in the setting, only possibly outdone by Goto's Trial of the Mantis Warriors (and Little Horus, but we're talking about the done-and-gone, here). 

[neOh (AV)]

9 hours ago, wecanhaveallthree said:

 

We all pay tribute to Xenology. There are a few authors who only wrote a little for Warhammer - Spurrier, obviously - but good god do I wish Braden Campbell had stuck around longer. Mistress Baeda's Gift and Last of Kiru's Line are two of my favourite shorts in the setting, only possibly outdone by Goto's Trial of the Mantis Warriors (and Little Horus, but we're talking about the done-and-gone, here). 

Si is a true master. Beyond his own work, I think without his ideas, we wouldn’t have many of the other brilliant writers we know today. And yeah, it’s a shame there were no more Braden's stories. Like many others... When going through the old anthologies, I keep finding authors with excellent stories who, sadly, never returned to 40k again.