Rate what you Read, or the fight against Necromancy

[Lord Nord in Gravis Armour]

The story does work fine without obscure shorts though

 

And no one said or suggested otherwise but you show that straw man who's boss!

[Noserenda]

 

The story does work fine without obscure shorts though

 

And no one said or suggested otherwise but you show that straw man who's boss!

 

You might want to take a break from throwing rocks at yourself to read up what a straw man argument is bless ;) 

[byrd9999]

Cadia Stands, by Justin D Hill

 

 

A very quick 300 pages here. This isn't a story about world-building, or in-depth analysis, or even the bigger picture of what is happening at Cadia. Some characters don't even get physical descriptions!

 

But this is a very enjoyable boots-on-the-ground type reportage of what the battle was like for those who were there, and Justin Hill's prose is among the best BL has to offer. The confusion, the disjointedness, the lack of bigger picture, is part of the experience of what it was like for Cadian troops and command. There isn't always closure. You don't always know what happened to X, Y or Z. It all gets lost in the jumble.

 

The brief arcs and character development that are presented: Minka Lesk's vision and faith in the emperor, and General Gruber's heroic and inspiring command and last stand, are nice touches amid the frenetic piecemeal stories.

 

 

7/10

[DukeLeto69]

byrd9999 you make some great points. I struggled with Cadia Stands when it came out and was somewhat critical of it at the time. Since that book I have genuinely loved every novel by Justin D Hill (who is also a thoroughly decent chap who engages actively with fans). He gets better and better IMHO.

 

I got the “Dunkirk vibe” and enjoyed that as a plot device to drive the story. I just found it episodic and didn’t like the multiple switch of POV and unresolved plot points.

 

However, I may need to re-evaluate as I think your point on the chaos of war is a compelling counter argument for my initial views.

[byrd9999]

edit: posted in wrong thread.

Edited February 24, 2022 by byrd9999

[byrd9999]

Alpharius: Head of the Hydra, by Mike Brooks.

 

 

An excellent entry in the HH Primarchs series, one of the best. I love a good Primarch origin story, and this shows what the series should be used for.

 

This book introduces some great twists on Alpharius and the Alpha Legion, and I like the idea that not even the Emperor knew of Omegon's existence, that it could be a Warp-borne ploy. Of course this is all with the caveat that there are lies mixed in with any truth, but who cares, it's a great story and adds a lot to the 30k Alpha Legion narrative.

 

edit: just want to add what a fantastic job Mike Brooks did of linking this to Chris Wraight's First Legion story. There isn't enough of this kind of clever synergy in Black Library fiction, which is bit of a shock considering how much nerds love recalling facts.

 

10/10

Edited February 25, 2022 by byrd9999

[Tiger9gamer]

The Solar War:

Pretty good book, I like the talks about space battles enough. I only didn't like the focus on the rememberancer prisoner. It was just uninteresting, and I wanted to hear more about space battles. Also wish the Phalanx was actually decribed in battle and not just deus ex demoned away from the battle.

[Slave to Darkness]

Battle for the Abyss

 

Just avoid, wouldnt even force it on my worse enemy.

 

1/10

 

 

Space Marine - Ian Watson

 

For those who have not read it (its older than most gamers Ive met) it follows three rival gangers from Necromunda who all get inducted into the Imperial Fists chapter and their journey from recruits to full marines. Even though its a first edition novel most of the lore is still cannon apart from grenades being coin sized and what happened to Dorn (his body is there minus his hands). Worth reading even if its just to see how much things have changed and yet stayed the same in 30 years. 

 

On of the best 40k books I have ever read. 

 

9/10

Edited February 26, 2022 by Slave to Darkness

[Petitioner's City]

Space Marine - Ian Watson

 

For those who have not read it (its older than most gamers Ive met) it follows three rival gangers from Necromunda who all get inducted into the Imperial Fists chapter and their journey from recruits to full marines. Even though its a first edition novel most of the lore is still cannon apart from grenades being coin sized and what happened to Dorn (his body is there minus his hands). Worth reading even if its just to see how much things have changed and yet stayed the same in 30 years.

 

On of the best 40k books I have ever read.

 

9/10

StD, I'd disagree on "most of the lore is still cannon [sic]", but I'd also say whether a book is in *continuity* with a given edition's fluff or not does not matter one jot - a book is a book, and its value derives from itself! There's no point joining dots, really, just enjoy it for what it is, which I'd agree is very good!

 

Canonicity or continuity is a curse - it's frustrating that people will chose to read or not read something based on the idea that product has some envisioned place in continuity. Thus, even for a 30-year-old novel (produced before second edition erased much of rogue trader completely), you feel you have to qualify your review with "it still kinda mostly is canon", which absolutely is a white lie, just so people might read something you have enjoyed - it's just so sad that fan culture today has these blinkers! Just enjoy something from the past, people - a canon isn't everything

[Slave to Darkness]

I didnt point out the cannon issue to get people to read it, just pointing out a lot of stuff is still kinda cannon, hence my comment about things changing and staying the same. Not trynna get people to read something I enjoy, if they choose to then cool, if not then Im not gonna loose sleep over it. But out of interest, what would you say has changed canonically? It has been a while since I read it (someone stole my book) so memory is a bit iffy.

 

Totally agree with you on the graphic novel, as far as I am aware there was only 3 pages that were finished?  I have uploaded them to my gallery ages ago incase people have not seen them, Lex did not look like how I imagined him to look, I thought he would be slimmer, guess being rich means you can eat lol

[theSpirea]

Black Library Celebration 2022 short stories. It feels like it was missed by many. Not sure why BL offered it after the Celebration. They usually start publishing it prior to the Celebration/Christmas, etc to hype the upcoming event.

 

There are actually only two 40K stories, the rest is AoS (Strachan's and French's stories were pretty good).

 

The Only Good Ork by Sandy Mitchell - I haven't read the Cain's novels yet, only a few short stories and this isn't any different. It's exactly what to expect from Cain's stories (at least from my limited exposure through shorts only so far) and I'm hoping BL starts reprinting the series soon. 7/10

 

Fool's Ruin by Mike Brooks - Probably the worst story published by BL I've read so far. I don't know if it's 100% author's fault or the character (Huron) was portrayed like that in the previous books (haven't read those) but it was painful to read. The dialogue here is worse than we can find in fanfiction. Here's an examples

Huron spread his arms to welcome them. His enemies couldn’t see his gesture, but some things you just had to do for yourself.

And I thought Huron calls himself now Huron Blackheart but in the short he uses Lufgt. I was considering getting the upcoming novel, well, not anymore.

[Felix Antipodes]

I found Mitchell’s The Only Good Ork, even allowing for it being a short, to pretty much be a by the numbers effort and not up to previous standards in the series.  Was waiting for the payout on the Ork ally plot line but it just petered out without any resolve.  6/10 for me.

 

Fool’s Ruin was a strange little vignette; no doubt a taster for the upcoming novel.  I’ve quite liked Brooks’ work in the past but this was below his usual standard imho.  The dialogue for Huron was so hammy that an audio version could only be properly voiced by the late Vincent Price.   I expect the good Captain to escape Huron’s trap in time to appear in the upcoming novel.  5/10 (and I think I’m being generous here).

 

I got the feeling from both stories of them being rushed.  Same with the Guy Haley AoS short as well.  Might explain why they were offered up after the Celebration event and not before as in the past?

[Pacific81]

I didnt point out the cannon issue to get people to read it, just pointing out a lot of stuff is still kinda cannon, hence my comment about things changing and staying the same. Not trynna get people to read something I enjoy, if they choose to then cool, if not then Im not gonna loose sleep over it. But out of interest, what would you say has changed canonically? It has been a while since I read it (someone stole my book) so memory is a bit iffy.

 

There were some people who really had a stick up their arse for some years (I would say late 90s, early 00s) around the Ian Watson books. There was quite a long period when they were not published or on sale (only fairly recently being republished). I think some of this came from the top; you had Squats (which feature in both the Inquisitor trilogy and Space Marine) being completely removed from the background and it got to the point where even discussion of them on the GW forums was banned, with reports from people that they weren't being allowed to use the armies in store and at official events as proxies. Most remarkably, Grimm the Squat from Inquisitor was actually replaced in the text of one of the re-publishings (I think when the Inquisitor War trilogy was published) with a human character. I have never heard of such a thing, before or since, and I don't know if it was Ian himself who did it or BL on his behalf. So that is just to set the context here. 

 

And I think then when you have an 'official' stance that was so mocking and disdainful (look up the letter to readers that was published in WD) not just on Squats, but on anything that wasn't 'new release' or canon, some of the that rubs off on the fan base and I think as a result there was a period when the books themselves were viewed with disdain. I had heard (and this sounds like it might be complete BS, but I will repeat it!) that Watson's daughter was at one of the main stores, had gone in to look as she recognised miniatures in the window as something her dad used to write about. Upon revealing who her dad was, she was asked to leave the store (it was raining at the time). Thinking back to that time, I think it says a lot about the atmosphere that I can even entertain that story as being true, but I do. 

 

Nowadays I think enough time has passed, GW is a very different company embracing its history and imaginative past, and the anti-squat fatwah and anti-Ian Watson crowd seems to have dispersed. And people can mostly recognise the Ian Watson books for what they are, which are great pieces of writing, and a window into the development of the 40k universe. 

[Sothalor]

Cadia Stands, by Justin D Hill

 

 

A very quick 300 pages here. This isn't a story about world-building, or in-depth analysis, or even the bigger picture of what is happening at Cadia. Some characters don't even get physical descriptions!

 

But this is a very enjoyable boots-on-the-ground type reportage of what the battle was like for those who were there, and Justin Hill's prose is among the best BL has to offer. The confusion, the disjointedness, the lack of bigger picture, is part of the experience of what it was like for Cadian troops and command. There isn't always closure. You don't always know what happened to X, Y or Z. It all gets lost in the jumble.

 

The brief arcs and character development that are presented: Minka Lesk's vision and faith in the emperor, and General Gruber's heroic and inspiring command and last stand, are nice touches amid the frenetic piecemeal stories.

 

 

7/10

 

One of my favorite things about Cadia Stands are the high-level, strategic overview segments. They remind me of works like Antony Beevor's WW2 books - almost a sort of documentary/catalogue summary. It works well as a form of quickly and efficiently painting a broad-strokes big picture on a grander scale than the typical BL narrative "zoom" focus level.

 

Part of what makes it work is the relative novelty of it. I don't think an entire novel written in this fashion would work, but for what Cadia Stands is doing it fits quite well. 

[DarkChaplain]

The Tallarn novella and short novel also feature interstitials that provide the macro view of the war. In Ironclad, they were my favorite part of the book (though I didn't like the actual plot much to be honest), and in Executioner, they provided amazing support to the ground-level plotline.

The various different sources "cited" in the Ciaphas Cain novels, too, greatly enhance the experience by way of giving a different point of view, and often leaning into the biases of the fictional authors, or misconceptions by later observers.

 

I wish more BL novels had that sort of top-down or history book approach to their wars and battles. They shouldn't go full FW fluff in their novels, but use that sort of shift in perspective to help readers appreciate the scale of engagements, timespans and universe as a whole more.

 

Hearing that Cadia Stands has stuff like this going for it actually just bumped it far up my reading pile!

[sitnam]

After finishing Alpharius Head of the Hydra I was itching for more Alpha Legion reading and luckily I was able to get a copy of Andy Clark's Shroud of Night. Alpharius was great and I don't have much to say that hasn't already been said but Shroud of Night seems to be an "Unsung" work in the Alpha Legion's canon. I really enjoyed it but it did take slogging through a few chapters early on to get invested. As soon as Kassar and the "Unsung" make it to the surface of Tsadrekha it's nonstop action and action done well imo. I've heard it called bolter porn but I didn't feel that at all.

 

Is it just me or does anyone else see the story of Shroud of Night being a 40K version of the harrowing of hell?

 

Has there been any word on a potential sequel? I know the book has been out for quite a while and I don't see a lot of talk about it but with the success of Alpharius maybe others will stumble across Shroud of Night and drum up some hype for another "Unsung" outing.

 

The beacon at the heart of the story seems like it should be a pretty big deal in current 40K happenings and I would think that that would necessitate a sequel or at least a mention in another novel.

 

If you are looking for a quick, action packed, space marine battle type story that is for the most part a stand alone you could do a lot worse imo.

 

7/10

I actually really liked Shroud of Night and I can't stand Alpha Legion. I think what I really liked about it was that it shows the Alpha Legion when they don't have all the cards. I found the mustache twirling, one step ahead villainy of the Alpha Legion in the Shattered Legions book unbearable. I'm also a butthurt Iron Hand that wanted to see my legion get a few good stories in the Heresy, so I'm very biased.

 

Shroud of Night though, the Unsung are isolated, under supplied, outmanned, and surrounded by enemies. Their guile and cunning is the only thing that gets them through the battle. I thought the Sisters had a fair showing in the book, and Khârn is an absolute monster.

 

Also, as I will continue to say, Clark does a good job making massive battles feel MASSIVE

.

 

I give with a solid 4/5 personally. I will say though, the boom is absolutely bolter porn. That's not a bad thing though, sometimes you want to just sit through some good action. Not every novel needs to be Dune or the Departed. Sometimes you just want Terminator and Predator

Edited March 3, 2022 by sitnam

[JustinDHill]

 

Cadia Stands, by Justin D Hill

 

 

A very quick 300 pages here. This isn't a story about world-building, or in-depth analysis, or even the bigger picture of what is happening at Cadia. Some characters don't even get physical descriptions!

 

But this is a very enjoyable boots-on-the-ground type reportage of what the battle was like for those who were there, and Justin Hill's prose is among the best BL has to offer. The confusion, the disjointedness, the lack of bigger picture, is part of the experience of what it was like for Cadian troops and command. There isn't always closure. You don't always know what happened to X, Y or Z. It all gets lost in the jumble.

 

The brief arcs and character development that are presented: Minka Lesk's vision and faith in the emperor, and General Gruber's heroic and inspiring command and last stand, are nice touches amid the frenetic piecemeal stories.

 

 

7/10

 

One of my favorite things about Cadia Stands are the high-level, strategic overview segments. They remind me of works like Antony Beevor's WW2 books - almost a sort of documentary/catalogue summary. It works well as a form of quickly and efficiently painting a broad-strokes big picture on a grander scale than the typical BL narrative "zoom" focus level.

 

Part of what makes it work is the relative novelty of it. I don't think an entire novel written in this fashion would work, but for what Cadia Stands is doing it fits quite well. 

 

Just stumbled on this going through the ADB thread! ;-) and I'm delighted to see your observation....

 

There's something of a story behind how CS came to be written.... needless to say the end of Cadia was all something of a shock. I felt a huge responsibility in blowing up Cadia, and couldn't just retell the campaign books... and wanted to try something different. 

 

I was impressed with how well historians were writing about warfare - in many ways, writing more compelling accounts than novelisations. I had just read a history of Waterloo by a female historian (tried to find the name of the author, but no luck... ;-( )  but was very impressed with how she took a huge event and picked moments from across the battlefield - in something of a Ken Burns style. Some characters never reappeared. Or did so, only to die or not be heard from again, and yet the fragmentary nature managed to represent the whole. And I thought I'd try that approach. 

 

I'm pretty sure I had bought Beevor's Stalingrad to read at the same time. And, of course, with current events in mind, at that time the Siege of Aleppo was happening, which all went into the imaginative background and the setting of Kasr Myrak. 

[sitnam]

I still vividly the masses sentinel charge in that story breaking through traitor lines. Those “vignette” moments were my favorite parts

[Sothalor]

 

Just stumbled on this going through the ADB thread! ;-) and I'm delighted to see your observation....

 

 

There's something of a story behind how CS came to be written.... needless to say the end of Cadia was all something of a shock. I felt a huge responsibility in blowing up Cadia, and couldn't just retell the campaign books... and wanted to try something different. 

 

I was impressed with how well historians were writing about warfare - in many ways, writing more compelling accounts than novelisations. I had just read a history of Waterloo by a female historian (tried to find the name of the author, but no luck... ;-( )  but was very impressed with how she took a huge event and picked moments from across the battlefield - in something of a Ken Burns style. Some characters never reappeared. Or did so, only to die or not be heard from again, and yet the fragmentary nature managed to represent the whole. And I thought I'd try that approach. 

 

I'm pretty sure I had bought Beevor's Stalingrad to read at the same time. And, of course, with current events in mind, at that time the Siege of Aleppo was happening, which all went into the imaginative background and the setting of Kasr Myrak. 

 

 

Cheers! Thanks for sharing a little about your writing process; I'm always happy when authors give us a peak behind the scenes and 'talk shop', as it were.

 

I think one of the striking things the well-written historical accounts of military campaigns and battles do is how they can go shift the focus from broad, almost abstract events to narrow, humanly intimate ones and back. You can have one passage covering the movement of regiments and divisions across a countryside, and the next passage describing what a group of people had for breakfast. It has this effect of periodically grounding events in common human experience.

 

Your Cadian novels do this quite well too, so kudos.

[Noserenda]

As i have slowed in my reading for a few reasons (Magnificent, beercan shaped reasons ;) )  i figured i would switch to doing the Beast arises books as i finish them. 

So! Throne world! 

Its got a poor opening, the Eldar section is both kinda pointless and wildly ridiculous with Harlequins dancing around in front of whole companies of guard untouched, soloing Imperial assassins and tearing through Custodes like they were still literally topless with the net effect of papering over the cracks in the Inquisition. Though i doubt Eldrad told all the now dead Eldar that.

That said once it gets going the novel is actually quite good, the Space marines are excellent, the Orks feel a bit Orky and battles are decided without faintly ridiculous plot devices. The Section with the Terminators was particularly well done and evocative (though i am already a massive Terminator fan boy :D ) but the marine politics were quite good too, though im hoping more Dornian chapters crop up as the series progresses! 

The Iron Warriors/Black Templars side plot was good and engaging too, though it feels a bit off to have them ally, they do kinda establish that both commanders do know each other personally which i guess helps? I do like the Warsmiths observations whn the BTs go full God emperor at the end though.

Imperial politics are a bit more sidelined but chugging away in interesting ways at least.

So yeah, overall a very solid entry, typical of Guy Haley really.

[Roomsky]

As i have slowed in my reading for a few reasons (Magnificent, beercan shaped reasons )  i figured i would switch to doing the Beast arises books as i finish them. 

 

So! Throne world! 

 

Its got a poor opening, the Eldar section is both kinda pointless and wildly ridiculous with Harlequins dancing around in front of whole companies of guard untouched, soloing Imperial assassins and tearing through Custodes like they were still literally topless with the net effect of papering over the cracks in the Inquisition. Though i doubt Eldrad told all the now dead Eldar that.

 

That said once it gets going the novel is actually quite good, the Space marines are excellent, the Orks feel a bit Orky and battles are decided without faintly ridiculous plot devices. The Section with the Terminators was particularly well done and evocative (though i am already a massive Terminator fan boy ) but the marine politics were quite good too, though im hoping more Dornian chapters crop up as the series progresses! 

 

The Iron Warriors/Black Templars side plot was good and engaging too, though it feels a bit off to have them ally, they do kinda establish that both commanders do know each other personally which i guess helps? I do like the Warsmiths observations whn the BTs go full God emperor at the end though.

 

Imperial politics are a bit more sidelined but chugging away in interesting ways at least.

 

So yeah, overall a very solid entry, typical of Guy Haley really.

 

It's a shame how much that series sinks in the second half. There's a gem here and there coming up for sure, and the last book is pretty good, but prepare for the dark times. 

 

I maintain six 400 page books or maybe cutting the twelve to ten for the 200 pagers would have done this series many favours.

[DarkChaplain]

I concur. The second half really showed what a mess the series coordination turned into. It's still nuts on what short notice they changed some of the elements in the third quarter especially - heck, this was the advertised cover artwork before they made plot adjustments

 

The whole Deathwatch thing was apparently added due to the studio wanting a tie-in to the Codex, and I've read before that Men of Iron were in the cards for the final stretch. Even if we ignore that Abnett is said to have written the first book years before the series was even announced, and it had been on ice until much closer to that announcement, there are very clear shifts in philosophy in series planning, and the rapid schedule and parallel writing of successive books really made things awkward. When characters fall through the cracks for a few novels, with other characters in-between acting as if they had never existed in the first place, you messed up your editorial oversight something fierce.

 

....which is why I'm so glad we got Haley helming Dawn of Fire. One guy at the top who really cares to have the books be as internally and externally consistent as the IP and previously published material allows. There may still be minor errors, but I have a whole lot more faith in Dawn of Fire sticking the landing than TBA eventually did - although Guy's The Beheading did stick it, it just needed to be, well, another book on top to wrap up all the leftover baggage the series had accrued...

 

And yeah, I'm still salty over Shadow of Ullanor basically being The Last Son of Dorn just with little to no emotional impact, product placement (including models that weren't even around until a few millennia later), a miraculous new batch of resources that were supposedly used up in the previous book... and then it just works somehow anyway, second try's the charm.

Had they ended The Last Son of Dorn with a similar result while retaining its strengths, that'd have been two books to wrap up the Beheading and fallout from the whole ordeal without making Haley squeeze it all into a very restrictive word count. And the story would be tighter and more satisfying for it.

Edited March 6, 2022 by DarkChaplain

[byrd9999]

Pariah, by Dan Abnett.

 

 

Thanks to everyone who suggested I read this before Magos (which I plan to read soon), because there is a lot of mystery and many twists, so it was good to enjoy them without spoilers or reveals.

 

And what a fantastic book this turned out to be. It had a slow start showing Bequin's life in the Maze Undue, and I was lost for a while because I was starting from the p-o-v that Bequin was in a coma after Hereticus. The plot twists and turns, in totally organic ways, and there were several chapters where I gasped at the end.

 

Everything is really coming together, from the Eisenhorn and Ravenor trilogies and the short stories. I can't wait to read Magos and then Penitent (scheduled for May 12 in paperback).

 

 

10/10

[DarkChaplain]

When you get to The Magos, consider reading the Penitent limited edition short, which has been released in the Infero! Presents: The Inquisition anthology a few months back. Might as well add that most recent short story to the lineup, even though it isn't included in The Magos' casebook section.

[Sothalor]

Yeah, Lepidopterophobia introduces one of the macguffin pieces of Penitent's plot. It's not strictly necessary, as Penitent does provide enough exposition for the reader to understand, but it is a creepily atmospheric piece that draws on character pasts and plays nicely with the fourth wall and genre mediums.

 

But, as I said, you don't lose anything from Beta Bequin's narrative POV if you don't. The story is actually a third-person perspective centering on Medea.

 

If you do read it, it chronologically fits in between Pariah and Penitent.