Rate what you Read, or the fight against Necromancy

[StrangerOrders]

Titandeath-Guy Haley

 

So I have no idea what I think of this one.

 

How's that for a start?

 

There are parts of this book that enthralled me, parts that intrigued me, parts that made me roll my eyes and parts that almost made me slam my face into my desk.

 

So i guess I can't say it didnt evoke a spectrum of reactions from me?

 

On the whole, I think I liked the book. The worldbuilding on the Titans was pretty good across the board and it develops how they operate and behave very well I think. The battles were very well written and had a real sense of tension. It did a good job of communicating the sheer scale and dimensions of titan warfare.

 

But on the whole, the parts between battles were somewhere between grating and off-putting. Such lines like that whole thing about 'how dare men name a birthing chamber' felt so out of place that it kinda left me perplexed, moreso because 'convalescence' is positively tactful compared to what you would expect the (fairly asexual) Mechanicum to name a place. I feel like the opportunities of how they could have explored an all-female titan legio was utterly wasted in the weird need for it to be framed around 'we wont serve men' and 'automatically lesbians', which struck me as weirdly fetishistic and almost a parody rather than positive representation or a cool chance at diversity. That I am not fond of writers exoticizing other orientations, especially feeling the need to automatically type them as polyamorous, contributes to this. 

 

The Vulpa and 'Toxic Masculinity Incarnate' (I forget his actual name already) were the worst part of the book easily, it felt like reading World Eaters without the pathos or tragedy. The only highlight there was the delightfully wacky Protos, Guy's talent for writing fun Mechanicum characters is well known however. Almost made me believe a Princeps would be enough of a dolt to call a peer (much less one he was trying to have a child with) a 'good girl'.

 

Fortunately, the book is mostly and aggressively bolterporn, good bolter porn as I said earlier with good titan world building.

 

It would likely have been better with literally any other Titan Legion but the Vulpa and if the Solaris had been dealt with at least a touch of subtlety and respect.

 

???/10 (7 if you just read the war scenes, 9 as a means of torture if you just read the Vulpe scenes, 2 as a means of getting any LGBTQ family or friends into the setting, 10 as a means of ticking off said friends and family) Die-Hards Only

Edited April 6, 2020 by StrangerOrders

[Roomsky]

Nice review.

 

Haley's fallen squarely into the "worth one read for content, then never again" camp for me in general, but you hit on the right specifics.

 

I maintain that BL's usual efforts to keep this big gay soap opera in space as asexual as possible should probably have informed Haley's writing of the all-woman legio. It comes across as fetishistic rather than inclusive when it's the only example across 54 books.

 

I do somewhat disagree with your take on Harrtek and his legio, I found them believable examples of people shaped by their military culture who don't realize why they're horrible people; and his attempts to avoid resorting to Chaos show a sort of twisted honour. Though that may just be because the Heresy is full of characters kicking puppies and laughing about it at every opportunity.

[Fedor]

The pace of Haley's output might have had an effect on his consistency, especially with short notice books like this. It definitely had a disjointed feel to me, though an enjoyable battle book.

 

I'd like to see him dial back the advancing the 40k plot books a bit and see what he produces with something a bit more individual. His upcoming crime book has me more interested than the Blood Angels books.

[SpAcEGhOsT095]

I wouldn't mind Haley writing some more Ork stories. He's about the only one at BL that has.

[StrangerOrders]

The pace of Haley's output might have had an effect on his consistency, especially with short notice books like this. It definitely had a disjointed feel to me, though an enjoyable battle book.

 

I'd like to see him dial back the advancing the 40k plot books a bit and see what he produces with something a bit more individual. His upcoming crime book has me more interested than the Blood Angels books.

I think that Haley is pretty good by and large as well, he is especially good at taking some of the harder-to-swallow GW decisions and making them more enjoyable. He is also one of the more responsible writers I think in that he actively tries to tie up loose ends and not throw in things that both complicate everything else (which most authors both do and dont make any effort to clean up).

 

This is actually the first time he wrote something I actively questioned funnily enough (that I've read).

 

On the face of it? I dont even mind what he's going for, but he tried to do too many things at once here and I think he didn't really think through each one of them all that well as a result. 

 

Also, and it needs to be said, sometimes writers go representation but get so overeager they end up in parody that is closer to offense than complement or inclusion. I think the Solaris would have worked much better in the hands of someone like Brooks, who is much more deft on the subject. 

 

Not sure I agree with Roomsky on the Vulpa though, its the little things like that whole 'good girl' line that just give them a terribly sour taste to me. That line would get someone rightly slapped in our own flawed world, it seems really out of place in a setting we've been outright told is far ahead of us on this front (as well as the front gold acquisition and large-scale paint application).

 

I don't mean for my review of it to sound harsh, because I think its coming from a good intention, but its... not something I would show to anyone I know of any of the groups meant to be given a bone here.

[DarkChaplain]

The pace of Haley's output might have had an effect on his consistency, especially with short notice books like this. It definitely had a disjointed feel to me, though an enjoyable battle book.

 

I'd like to see him dial back the advancing the 40k plot books a bit and see what he produces with something a bit more individual. His upcoming crime book has me more interested than the Blood Angels books.

 

I'd like Haley to carve out his own niche again instead of being the BL workhorse he is right now. I generally enjoy his works a great deal, but then, I adored most of his original novels outside of BL even more, and those have taken a real backseat to his BL commissions. Heck, I'd like to see him return to his Baneblade crew books, or anything of his own that doesn't focus on special characters from the tabletop. We haven't even seen him do anything with the Blood Drinkers and Novamarines in years, have we?

 

Guy can produce some absolutely great stuff if he's let off the leash. The problem is that his consistency and speed make him an easy author to commission from, rather than wait for him to make pitches, or approve them when instead he could be writing this or that campaign tie-in. Similar could be said about Josh Reynolds for AoS stuff, although he pitches like crazy (seriously, his list on Twitter recently almost had me crying over all the books we missed out on for one reason or another (mostly because GW was gonna kill WHFB and with it the Warhammer Heroes label, yuck)) and decided to take a bit of a step back for a while there.

 

Frankly, it's also something I told Peter Fehervari once or twice: I'd buy the living daylight out of his original, non-40k works, especially if they were as intricate and exciting as the Dark Coil. Problem is, authors have to pay their bills, too. BL commissions don't seem to pay badly and can be done and dealt with more easily than your personal mona lisa pitch might be, especially since marketing the commissioned work is probably easy as pie ("this is a book about Dante, Blood Angels fans buy it automatically!"). A lot of Josh's pitches were rejected due to poor marketability, even if the idea itself was amazing.

We can be glad that BL is open to pitches again at all, though, and that Horror and Crime both offer great opportunities for off the grid novels and shorts.

[Xisor]

I'm sympathetic to Titandeath, perhaps more because of the slightly wobbly feel than in spite of it.

 

Like the discrepancy between the two Legios, being quite on the nose presentations of masculinity and femininity in aggressively prosecuting war. But even that wobbliness and rough edged presentation felt at peace - like he was taking pains to emphasise that "yes, this is awkward because it's been almost Victorianly prudish until now" - I felt it was more like, I dunno, faltering first steps?

 

Someone trying to walk after months in a coma?

 

I'm happier seeing that sort of not-quite-perfect stuff tried and fall short, than never tried.

 

And, given that it felt like it was emphasising "YES, THIS IS UNUSUAL AND THE NARRATIVE OF THIS SERIES IS NOT WELL TRODDEN FOR THIS PARTICULAR EFFORT TO FEEL NATURAL!", I was actually quite pleased with the results.

 

Imagine if it hadn't been slightly rushed and awkwardly turned round.

 

Given the situation, I enjoyed it.

 

Imperfect, and with surprisingly big/obvious rough edges to it, but it felt a better, more thoughtful and engaging delivery of "complicated ideas done less well than they deserve" than other books in the latter day Heresy.

 

The Buried Dagger, for example, being right next to it in the series. It had an almost unique opportunity to draw together threads that had been evoked and hardly explored.

 

To my mind, the novel closest to Titandeath of the rest of the Heresy is... Battle for the Abyss.

 

It's a sort of flipside.

 

The first story that "didn't need to exist", and a story that was sort of bullied into existence.

 

A story populated by various main characters, but with supporting cast and their not-entirely-relevant plot threads stealing the show. (And certainly it feels like: stealing the authors enthusiasm.)

 

Memorable, novel war and void-war scenes out the wazoo, but where they end up being sort of resented in folk's memory rather than esteemed. Too much visuals, not enough character? JF somehow managed to get away with in the Solar War (and Dan also in Know No Fear), but perhaps they were more explicitly leaning into the disaster spectacle where Guy and Ben Counter held back a little too much, and gave too much over to exploring a few central characters... A sort of unhappy medium amount of compromise!

 

A story where the memorable and enduring characters are essentially independent of the plot underpinning the novel's existence.

 

It's one of those where Guy's endearingly mercenary and absurdly industrious work ethic just rules me up a tiny bit... Like I'd want to sit him down and shake him or buy him a pint or something daft: and he'd rightly think I'm a utter fool for it.

 

But the story of the two legions, even with most of the novel basicly being the same, could have been expanded in places, and trimmed or polished or tightened up in other places... And been wonderful.

 

No great or particular change, per se, just that maybe with more time, or more complimentary deadlines and external pressures that aren't just "meet this deadline".

 

(Collaboration always seems to bring out good stuff in folk - McNeill's best stuff seems to be borne of his very close collaborations where he's trying to excitedly meet and work with other people's stuff: Mechanicum vs Titanicus, ATS/PB, Nouns of Mars vs a bit of everything (but it felt like more in the vein of Mechanicum and Titanicus). And in contrast, when left "unchallenged" to his own devices - say with Angel Exterminatis where freedom for him to tread new ground is very great indeed - it's not that he flounders, but just... Doesn't do as neat/satisfying a thing. Well, not for my tastes.)

 

Anyway, that's also a problem that's plausible across all of the Adeptus Titanicus tie-in novels: Imperator, Warlord, Titandeath - they all seem a touch... Meandering?

 

I'm not unhappy with it, myself - I like the opportunity to see where an author's mind goes on a topic with a loose brief, but it's a risky business.

 

And sometimes that pays off really well.

 

But at other times, and I think this is one of them, the wheels *slightly* come off.

 

It might even have the problem of "Unremembered Empire", where a book has to tie up a lot of loose "fact" ends, but where the author doesn't necessarily feel that excited about the material details at hand.

 

But it's been a wee while since I read it. And I agree with that feeling, I liked it, but every time I try to say something nice about it, I start caveating it with strange criticisms.

 

(And the reverse. When I try to be critical, I get enthusiastic about other bits, like the simple but all too real idiocy Princeps chucking in with bloodletting daemon cults because it'll "stick a finger up to the elites/liberals/progressives back on Terra!".)

[Roomsky]

Wrath of Iron – Chris Wraight

 

So I actually didn’t finish the first time I tried this. Maybe I was in a bad mood, maybe I assumed it would be another Battle of the Fang (which I didn’t finish either and found very poor for Wraight). But, after reading Valdor and finding the payoff more than worth the slow beginning, I gave it another shot. And, of course, I love the Iron Hands, so I wanted it to be good.

 

And it is good. Not great, Wraight hasn’t come into his best quite yet, but it is good. The start is indeed slow, the book doesn’t work too hard to make you care for the cast, nor does it provide an especially novel premise. An Imperial world is in rebellion, the Iron Hands have come to kill squishy people, whom they also hate. But stick with it and you get a great look into how the legion operates, as well as the accompanying titans and Imperial Army. There’s some wonderful legion philosophy on display, and the antagonist is compelling once they actually bother to show up. It’s not really a book about characters, but rather concepts. Characters embody their faction’s greatest weakness, and their arcs are demonstrations on how the Imperium consumes itself.

 

I personally don’t rate it as highly as Guymer’s work with the chapter, but it’s probably a better read if you dislike his brand of insanity / his vision of the legion at large. If Helsreach manages to transcend the bonds of the Space Marine Battles series, Wrath of Iron is at the peak of those limitations. It’s got themes, it’s a good look at the setting, but it doesn’t quite go above and beyond, IMO.

 

To Taste

7/10

[bluntblade]

You surprise me there. I loved Battle of the Fang and find it to be quintessential (if early) Wraight. Compared to that book's sprawl, Wrath of Iron is more like a lean, vicious action movie with a bit more going on than you'd expect.

[Scribe]

I love the book to bits, but 7/10 seems fair to me for what it is.

[The Neverborn]

Must-Buy - The Flight of the Eisenstein 

 

If you didn't know if you liked Rock and Roll I'd play you some Elvis Presley, if you weren't shore if you liked Boxing, I'd show you Ghatti vs Ward round 9. If you didn't like either of these I'd say don't bother the whole genre. To me the absolute exemplar of the series. It's by no means perfect but the descriptions of the ineffable are as good as they've gotten. The characters all act in accordance to their own motivations and the protagonist never seems to go into "plot armour", well at least in this book.

 

To taste - The last Church 

 

This is close to a must buy, but I think it might touch too close to the bone for some in its secular themes. It does make quite a lot of assumption that one knows the status-quo of the current 40k narrative. There's also not really a story, just a Warlord a Priest and a Building, taking place of what comes across as a matter of hours. Short read, but it has been said that perfection is gained, not when nothing can be added, but when nothing can be removed.    

 

 

Diehards only - Descent of Angels and to a lesser Fallen Angels.

 

Honestly I had to look up which one came 1st as they're that forgettable. If you're a Dark Angel player, and I am, it's just about tolerable for the back story of Caliban, but it takes a long long time to get going, is slowly paced, and requires a lot of a attention to what's been said and reading between the lines. Which is not ideal in a book with such a slow pace.

 

 

Unreadable - Nemesis 

 

The 1st book in the series which just slips into the "just plain bad" category of the series. Reads like it was built to justify the concept of putting the different assassin clans together, and if I remember correctly I think it was released about the same time as either a stand alone game, or possibly an updated model/rule release - so i can well believe that was the goal. Has a "foggy" overarching threat which you will stop caring about long before it's confronted.  

[byrd9999]

 

To taste - The last Church 

 

This is close to a must buy, but I think it might touch too close to the bone for some in its secular themes. It does make quite a lot of assumption that one knows the status-quo of the current 40k narrative. There's also not really a story, just a Warlord a Priest and a Building, taking place of what comes across as a matter of hours. Short read, but it has been said that perfection is gained, not when nothing can be added, but when nothing can be removed.    

 

 

This probably isn't the best thread for this discussion, but it's one of the problems I have with Warhammer fiction in general.

 

The Imperium, certainly in 30k, is a world of near-Godlike beings and tactical genii, but they frequently make ridiculous decisions in battle and come across as quite dense at times.

 

In effect, the superhuman characters are only as superhuman as the author writing them. So, we get the Emperor, a magical perpetual being, who can fight dragons and bury them on Mars, can craft Primarchs using Warp energy, can reconquer the stars in the name of the Imperium of Man, but his religious motivations and justifications come across like a 6th Form philosophy student who has read his first Richard Dawkins.

 

Obviously, it's asking too much to expect a BL author to indisputably solve the problems of religion, but maybe this is why some things are best left vague and unexplained.

 

Either that, or the Emperor really wasn't an infallible being and did act like a 30,000 year old teenager....

[bluntblade]

I feel it's a little ungenerous to some of the BL stable to consider McNeill the standard for quality, personally. I'm not overly comfortable with how often I knock him, but I think he's a bit hamfisted when it comes to depicting superhuman intellects. Edited May 1, 2020 by bluntblade

[The Neverborn]

 

 

To taste - The last Church 

 

This is close to a must buy, but I think it might touch too close to the bone for some in its secular themes. It does make quite a lot of assumption that one knows the status-quo of the current 40k narrative. There's also not really a story, just a Warlord a Priest and a Building, taking place of what comes across as a matter of hours. Short read, but it has been said that perfection is gained, not when nothing can be added, but when nothing can be removed.    

 

 

This probably isn't the best thread for this discussion, but it's one of the problems I have with Warhammer fiction in general.

 

The Imperium, certainly in 30k, is a world of near-Godlike beings and tactical genii, but they frequently make ridiculous decisions in battle and come across as quite dense at times.

 

In effect, the superhuman characters are only as superhuman as the author writing them. So, we get the Emperor, a magical perpetual being, who can fight dragons and bury them on Mars, can craft Primarchs using Warp energy, can reconquer the stars in the name of the Imperium of Man, but his religious motivations and justifications come across like a 6th Form philosophy student who has read his first Richard Dawkins.

 

Obviously, it's asking too much to expect a BL author to indisputably solve the problems of religion, but maybe this is why some things are best left vague and unexplained.

 

Either that, or the Emperor really wasn't an infallible being and did act like a 30,000 year old teenager....

 

 

I've not read or heard of Richard Dawkings, i'll make a note to add that to my every growing "to read list". But It's worth understanding that with very few exceptions (things like the Socratic Method) most people aren't aware of Philosophy unless they have a keen interest in it. 

 

The Emperor is not infallible and it's interesting that you think he is, or is meant to be. The Emperor's infallibility in 40k is a lie along with almost everything that is "known about him", a lie told to the Imperial Citizens and an indoctrination of the Astrartes to keep everyone in rank and file. A lie that starts in 30k. (Last church is heavily implied to take place before the "birth" of the Primarchs).

 

At a best case he's the best solution to a unsolvable problem, he's tactically gifted but not completely above his contemporaries, as I recall some of the Techno-barbarians on old Terra held him off. He's a great orator but not capable of any feat of persuasion, if he was he wouldn't need to use force in the first place, or kidnap Angron. He's scientifically gifted, but his works were surpassed some 10,000 years later. He has great foresight but ignored Horus's betrayal even when warned about it Magnus, demonstrating his all too human tendency to get lost in details and not seeing the big picture. - In reality a cold despot, willing to slay his own soldiers when they've out lived the immediate use.

 

The Priest in the last church has a Revelation, no pun intended about this real truth of the Man called "The Emperor" and it is so Dark that he chooses to end his own life, rather than live in that world, all the lies of the man a laid bare as a clock begins to chime.

 

This is why it's a great candidate for "To taste" as you need all the background to read between the lines and pick on the real meanings. 

Edited April 30, 2020 by Battle Brother Abderus

[bluntblade]

There's fallible, but then there's also rehashing Baby's First Atheist Critique. Edited May 1, 2020 by bluntblade

[Lord_Caerolion]

It basically read like the cliffnotes of "God Delusion". The FW book Malevolence went into awesome detail about how religion was often used as a starting point for malign influence by Warp entities, etc. This was just "if you think X proves God exists you're stupid and wrong. Same goes for Y and Z. In short, God doesn't exist and you're a moron for believing otherwise".

[bluntblade]

Master of Mankind as well.

[The Neverborn]

Seems to be *a lot* of hatred of the Last Church.

 

Surprised that it's such a controversial choice.  

[mc warhammer]

Yeah, Last Church gets a lot of flak. I was pretty indifferent to it. More people liked Flight of the Eisentein but I hated it so much I almost quit BL books. Peeps be different

[The Neverborn]

I don't agree that it can or should be simplified to an atheist talking about there being no God in our world, in hindsight i regret mentioning the secular theme. 

 

I think if you're looking an allegory then yes you'd probably find it. But that doesn't seem like the intention of the book, perhaps it's the Emperor's intention however. But that's all a lie, the imperial truth is demonstrably false, there are Gods in the 40k universe. But the cannon remains that The Emperor denied that Gods existed, though he almost certainly knew this to be false. 

[cheywood]

Ravenor: This was a reread of one of the first BL books I read, years ago. I don’t think I need to sing its praises much except to say it still stands as one of the seminal works of the setting.

 

Armageddon Saint: I’m not usually a big fan of Thorpe but this was astoundingly good. Maybe I’m just a sucker for a first person narrative but I found this to play strongly to Thorpe’s strengths and exceed what I usually expect from him. Kage’s inner thoughts feel especially compelling here, and Nazrek stands out as a memorable character.

 

Pharos: Conversely I didn’t find this to be up to Haley’s usual standard. It felt a little disjointed, I wasn’t particularly taken with his Night-Lords and I felt the Pharos, while interesting, wasn’t well explained in function. Still competently written, if a bit dry, I think part of my dissatisfaction is with the Imperium Secundus arc in general.

 

Angels of Caliban: I’m not a fan of Thorpe’s DA writing so some of the appeal was lost on me and I found the book rather boring as a result. I didn’t really connect with the characters until the last quarter of the book. I found the ending ridiculous if not entirely unamusing.

 

The House of Night and Chain: great ending, proof that Annandale belongs writing horror more than Mil-Sci-fi. I found it a little repetitive in the middle but it still produced a sense of creeping dread and walked a line between psychological and real horror. I would love to see more of Malveil.

 

Also read two novellas:

 

Seventh Serpent feels somewhat derivative of past Alpha Legion works but entertaining nonetheless. I find the crew of the Sisypheum (not sure that’s spelled right) a bit on the wrong side of special but they’re good fun. Low Lives was nicely paced and characterful. It seems to set up a novel (and Flowers has one coming out supposedly), which I hope involves a little bit more moving and shaking in the underhive at large.

Edited May 1, 2020 by cheywood

[Gongsun Zan]

Khârn, Eater of Worlds - by Anthony Reynolds 

 

The World Eaters are my favorite traitor legion, which makes me somewhat reluctant to read too many books about them in the fear that one bad novel sours my interest in them entirely (I'm looking at you, Buried Dagger). 

 

Thankfully, this book avoids the one dimensional approach some authors take with the World Eaters (I'm looking at you, First Wall), and portrays a reasonably thoughtful snapshot of the XII Legion post-Terra, as they let their obsession with an indifferent Angron Khârn destroy the legion instead of letting him remain dead on Nuceria Terra. I say snapshot, because while we get glimpses of complexity in the motivations of the cast, the book doesn't give enough breathing space to its characters to really develop or stand out. 

 

That said, while I applaud the decision to focus on a single turning point in the Legion's history (i.e the decision to attack Skalathrax rather than the Battle of Skalathrax itself), it makes it hard to recommend this book as a standalone novel - you would probably get more mileage out of this if you've also read Angron and Betrayer. 

 

6.5 - To Taste 

Edited May 5, 2020 by Gongsun Zan

[Biscuittzz]

Finally up to date in the Siege series so I thought I'd post a short review on LaTD and TFW. In contrast to what I've seen everywhere, I actually quite liked LaTD. 

 

Siege of Terra: The Lost and The Damned - Guy Haley

 

This is probably the "Siegey" siege book that we need in this series. There's so many subplots and mystique and handwavyum across the HH as a whole that I think we're quick to misjudge a book that isn't of that ilk. I think we've gotten so used to incredible plot developments, Emps/Primarchs origin reveals, secrets of chaos/ perpetuals etc. that we forget that this is a siege and we need a good oul punch up - which imo this book provides. I think it does a good job of showcasing the blunt horror and headbutting nature of attrition warfare without getting too crazy.

 

I think the Katsuhiro plot is done well and shows the grimness of conscription and what the average human is going through. My only misgiving is that while the human viewpoint is well needed, only really doing it justice when you get to the final act of a 60 odd book series is a bit strange. On the other hand, the AL conspirators we see again from PoD can go die in a ditch - it brings nothing to the book, the entire sub plot revolves around destroying bastion 16 which is noted several chapters before as practically falling silent and not firing anymore and by the time they destroy it the third line is already gone? Nonsensical and seems it was on the editing board to shoe horn them in somewhere.

 

The marines are done ok, if a tad on the bland side. Raldoron's fight is very cool. Not a fan at all of Abaddon's 'chosen one' narrative. We've seen already that it only really starts to become a thing in ADBs series so having it constantly mentioned is just wasting book space imo. 

 

The book seems like filler to a point - which it is, but I think we needed something like this in the series just to show the scale of the ground war. If that was the goal then it's written very well.

 

To Taste

7/10

 

 

The Siege of Terra: The First Wall - Gav Thorpe

 

Firstly, the elephant in the room - the Zenobi arc. It's not that it's a bad plot or written bad, quite the opposite actually as I think Thorpe's human writing is miles ahead of his space marine, it's just that we've seen it already literally one book before in LaTD. I feel he was writing this at the same time Haley was writing his human plotline and it was too late for him to remove it. So the twist was introduced, if you can call it a twist as it was telegraphed so much, and we got the long drawn out resultant piece. The twist was written so 'hidden in plain sight' that you would think that as a reader knowing what's going to happen straight away is part of the twist. From his previous works including Deliverance Lost , I'm of the other inclination that Thorpe actually thinks he's pulling a fast one on the reader. Either way it consumes so much of the book.

 

Amon and Keeler's arc is quite good although a bit convoluted - daemons can't manifest due to the power of the emperor but thought/faith allows it? Few hoops are jumped through in that Layak part. 

 

So onto what should be the main course - the Lions Gate Spaceport - but feels like it's secondary to Zenobi's arc. The spaceport itself was incredibly hard for me to visual, granted in the afterword he states that it's not to be taken as an exact geographically correct fact, but his writing made it almost impossible at times to imagine the surrounds. Didn't know if they were inside or outside at times, whether the room was big or small etc. Can the Imperial Fist's fight in anyway other than a shieldwall? Who knows. How did Sigismund become first captain? He's practically the reason why it fell and didn't hold as long as Dorn wanted. In a universe where tectonic plates are shifted by ordinance and moons are used as projectiles, Sigismund's claim to fame as a swordsman pales in comparison. I can't see anything other than slaying/banishing a primarch salvaging his arc. Will he kill Khârn? Who cares, he gets resurrected anyway.

 

And Khârn? Salmoning over a shield wall? Shoot me into the sun out of a cannon. The best part of the marine viewpoints is the small part we get of the Iron Warriors and their humanity - seeing how Forrix eventually sees Perturabo betraying the legion just like Perturabo views Horus' betrayal. Very well done.

 

Thorpe isn't a bad writer, far from it, but he's nowhere near the top echelon and it really shows here. All the material in this book had the potential to be a great part of the Siege series but like the vast majority of his work turns out to be decidedly average. I feel someone else should have gotten this and Thorpe should have done LaTD. I'm always left with the impression that if the material was given to one of the better authors we would get an amazing book, yet the ceiling we got was only ever going to be average.

 

To Taste ( Diehards Only - skipping this won't really change much, read if you have to read them all sequentially)

 

5/10

[Fedor]

Khârn was always supposed to be really far into his Khornate madness and gifts by the siege. It just seems though from where we saw him last, there was one or two short stories worth of development left before we can get to superhuman even for Marine leaps and the like. Gave should have featured him more before the fighting.

[SkimaskMohawk]

But if you read Eater of Worlds, Khârn (and the legion) is a lot more in control and...not dumb like how he is in First Wall.