Rate what you Read, or the fight against Necromancy

[Tolmeus]

Sigismund - The Eternal Crusader
By John French

The plot (spoiler-free):

To go forward and never stop is the credo of Sigismund, the Templar Lord and First Captain of the Imperial Fists. His name was famous in his lifetime and destined for eternity after his death. The black knight who never lost a duel, his determination set in stone like his father's will. But while Rogal Dorn foresees an end to the Great Crusade, his favourite son maintains that there will never be peace, only war. Solomon Voss therefore wants to ask Sigismund himself about the reasons for this grim prediction.

This book acts as a portrait of Sigismund: His enrolment in the Legion, the first combat mission, his acceptance into the Order of the Knights Templar and his rise to become champion of the VII legion. During this journey into the past, Sigismund reveals his thought processes. What does it mean to be a Space Marine fighting in the Great Crusade? What are the means to secure the unity of humanity? Which end is justified?

The Templar answers each question as he reflects on the events that have shaped him. He reveals his inner turmoil, but also his growing fulfilment as he searches for his purpose. His encounters play an equally important role in defining what he wants to stand for or fight against. John French shows his talent for dialogue here, although Sigismund is not a man of many words.

The Conclusion:
The third installment of the 'Character series' of the 'Horus Heresy' was by far the best till now. French delivers a nearly total vita of the First captain. The way his defining moments are presented as arguments for discussion works surprisingly well and fits logically into the conversation between Remembrancer and Astrates. And although the discussion obviously functions as the red thread for the novel, it still seems like an authentic conversation. Of course, fights or duels cannot be left out when writing about this character. I also find those appropriately written and was delighted with the detailed depiction.

With this volume, the John French presents a realistic and far more in-depth portrait of Sigismund than I could have imagined.

10/10
(Again, definetly a must-read for Imperial Fists fans. And why 10/10? Because as a character book, it does its job to portrait Sigismund perfectly!)

[Paceyjg]

Mortis - 7/10 

[Krelious]

Does anyone have  a non-spoiler review of The End and the Death? I am avoiding that thread to not see anything.

 

Recent reads 

 

Wolftime: 5/10 it was all over the place, it had potential but it needed to have a central plot or antagonist and it seemed like the main plot is the Wolves are stubborn until a random primaris does something reckless and then the Wolves accept him. Theres a whole stupid meta narrative going on in books 3-4 where transhumans are rejecting enhanced transhumans because they arent traditional which seems really hilarious and hypocritical. I would skip this book as it seems very inconsequential and likely if any of the characters come back they will likely have a call back to remind the reader of what happened. I generally do not like Gav Thorpe books and this is my last one I ever read.

 

Throne of Light: 8.5/10 A roight and propa sequel to the first two Dawn of Fire novels that brings back old characters we care about while having very interesting plot revelations. When you follow it up from Wolftime its a breath of fresh air to actually see competent writing on a page. I am thinking there is some foreshadowing in these books that Guilliman is going to come into conflict with the Custodes.

 

Angron: 9/10 really solid book as we get good development on the world eaters as well as some unexpected closure to a point raised in Echoes of Eternity. I hope we see a return of the Conquerer without Angron attached to it as I really liked the World Eaters crew.

 

Flight of the Eisenstein: 9/10, I had not read Garro's story yet and I intend to get through it for the sake of the recent siege novella. I regret not reading this book many years ago. Just an absolute classic on par with the rest of the opening Heresy novels. I think Garro is an inspiring character and the author in my opinion gets his jab in why secret societies are bad to people who are naïve of their intent. I see this book as highly spiritual  in nature. 

 

Sanguineous the Great Angel: 6/10 I just did not enjoy this book very much, I know what its getting at and it fell really flat like words coming off a page to me. It wasnt long enough to have any significant impact and I feel like the real Sanguineous primarch novel is already in Echoes. I think it needed to have 50-100 more pages. I'm really disappointed as I thought Wraight did a much better job with the Khan novel.

He reads Gav Thorpe books.

Edited April 21, 2023 by Krelious

[Scribe]

2 hours ago, Krelious said:

Does anyone have  a non-spoiler review of The End and the Death? I am avoiding that thread to not see anything.

 

I dont know if you want mine but TOTAL non-spoilers?

 

Little to nothing is done, its a waste of an entry. Unlike most books, I've actually soured on it further with continued thought and discussion here, I think I gave it a 6, but frankly thats generous.

[Roomsky]

3 hours ago, Krelious said:

Does anyone have  a non-spoiler review of The End and the Death? I am avoiding that thread to not see anything.

 

 

It's Abnett at his most Abnett, he's really pushing what he can do with his prose. This means he occasionally goes right up his own butt.

 

I enjoyed the first half quite a bit, good pacing, and it hits the beats the story needs. Nothing happens in the second half, it's just the cast faffing about.

[Jareddm]

 

2 hours ago, Roomsky said:

 

It's Abnett at his most Abnett, he's really pushing what he can do with his prose. This means he occasionally goes right up his own butt.

 

I enjoyed the first half quite a bit, good pacing, and it hits the beats the story needs. Nothing happens in the second half, it's just the cast faffing about.

Took the words out of my mouth. Abnett at his most Abnett. I give it a solid 7/10.

[Krelious]

17 hours ago, Jareddm said:

 

Took the words out of my mouth. Abnett at his most Abnett. I give it a solid 7/10.

I suppose thats why I see a lot of people on ebay reselling the book compared to  EoE. I did not care for Saturnine very much. I think in general a 40k novel should be an 8/10 or its not really worth reading if its 400+ pages. I have generally not been a big fan of Abnett, what really bugged me about Saturnine is that the whole book really hinged on the attack on the wall and it just came across as not only boring but childish in that the primarchs are supposed to be demi-god warlords who are geniuses at their craft and it comes across like oh im attacking this wall for reasons and oh its a trap I lost my forces and now I lost this duel to Dorn and now im leaving because I was fooled. I feel like GW should just clone ADB, Robert Rath, and Nate Crowley and just let them write all their novels. I cant really state enough that I think ADB is in his own tier as a writer that when I read his novels I have this special feeling in my gut that this is an ADB novel and its similar to this feeling I get when its a sunny autumn day.

 

In general the only main line Siege books I have liked were Lost and the Damned, Warhawk, and Echoes, with John French's  two books being completely unreadable due to being boring.

 

What I think is people read their The End and the Death CE  found that it wasnt that good repacked it and tried to resell it as a new book.

[DarkChaplain]

11 minutes ago, Krelious said:

I think in general a 40k novel should be an 8/10 or its not really worth reading if its 400+ pages

 

...this makes me sad to read. It's pretty much the same attitude most people have with video games, and it's led to a ton of games and IPs being canned despite featuring some of the best ideas or writing in the industry, just because they're flawed in one way or another.

It's basically a death sentence for authors to be creative and take risks with their works, and looking at the video game industry, where this has become kind of a rule, we've long seen what happens when what should be art gets designed by committee, has to hit specific checkboxes and play to expectations so they don't scare away their core audience.

 

Because that's the point: Going by meta-scores across the intended audience, it's extremely easy to dip below "8/10". A single divisive decision can hugely sway people's opinions on the work, even if it's only a thing for a chapter or even just five lines. Erda's existence in the Siege alone was enough for people to tear Saturnine apart. Fehervari has succeeded in gaining cult status, but I recall the old days on WarSeer where Fire Caste was criticised harshly by people who weren't willing to commit to what Peter was going for, thought it was too complex or didn't have enough Tau in it. We are actually super damn lucky that Fehervari's career with BL didn't end right then and there, due to being polarizing.

 

At the end of the day I frankly don't give a :cuss: if a novel is high up on an arbitrary scoreboard. I just want it to be compelling and consistent (both internally and externally, as much as is possible). A lot of novels folks here seem to dislike bring something compelling to the table - but they end up making mistakes, don't get folks on board with specific decisions, prose or, in some cases, simply have the wrong name on the cover. Sadly, the last point actually leads to very easy dismissals on part of the audience, and a much harsher judgment is preprogrammed (and I'm not excluding myself here, I will never be able to read another Phil Kelly novel without that sort of bias).

 

To venture outside of BL for a moment, because it's relevant to my current reading pile: I'm once again reading a Philip K. Dick novel at the moment (Time Out of Joint), and out of the dozen or so novels of his and around 30 short stories, I might not even rate half of them as 7/10s. But almost every single one has brought something cool and nifty to the table, that's either boggled my mind through sheer creativity or craziness, that I would not consider a single one of them wasted. Quite the contrary, it's only made me double down and set a long-term goal of reading his entire output of 44 novels. They're often incredibly flawed, have holes, are disjointed or whatever else you'd expect from an author who was very frequently high on a variety of drugs and hallucinating parts of his plotlines, and often written within days. They're often not great, but they're generally memorable and compelling.

 

And whether something is compelling is generally hugely personal. I'd have read a lot fewer cool books or games or series if I'd only picked by what's popular enough to hit an 8/10 or better. Especially when it comes to Anime, where hitting an 8/10 is actually an achievement in and of itself, with how harsh scoring is (especially coupled with the 3-episode rule). I'd never even have seen the giant migration of flying panties (a truly majestic ending scene of nature healing itself), had I not given series a chance that didn't hit mainstream appeal. Heck, one of my favorites from back in Spring 2020, which hit all the right notes with me in tone, pacing and delivery, Sing "Yesterday" for Me, still sits at a 6.88 ಠ_ಠ It didn't click for most people, while it left me feeling a range of things I hadn't in a while.

 

Long story short: Scores alone rarely measure a work's worth sufficiently, and there's a lot of value to be found even in works that don't hit critical mass of popularity.

[darkhorse0607]

On 4/21/2023 at 7:36 PM, Roomsky said:

 

It's Abnett at his most Abnett, he's really pushing what he can do with his prose. This means he occasionally goes right up his own butt.

 

I enjoyed the first half quite a bit, good pacing, and it hits the beats the story needs. Nothing happens in the second half, it's just the cast faffing about.

 

That's not encouraging to hear. I'm doing the Audible version so I can listen while I paint, and I have about 6 hours of the 18 left, and I am finding it just a slog to be honest. So much so that I've bounced to two other books, and now three with Lion Son of the Forrest because I just can't anymore with End and the Death.

 

Just seems every time it starts to build momentum and something actually starts to happen, he stops to wax poetic about things for a while, or there's yet ANOTHER internal monologue, or something else. It's like sitting in traffic "OH WE ARE MOVING FINALLY OK" ... "Oh wait. Nevermind. Stopped again." I don't need it to be non-stop action and bolter porn but between that and Abnett swallowing a thesaurus, it is a little much for my taste. Haven't looked in the spoiler thread yet so I don't know how far off my reactions are to everyone but that's where I am sitting right now

 

The bright side is that because of End and the Death not being up my alley, I'm almost through Knights of Macragge, and while the first and second halves of the book are wildly different, I am actually really enjoying it. Will be posting the full thoughts probably next weekend when I finish. Unless I get distracted by another book

[DukeLeto69]

Even the level of subjectivity is starting to become subjective these days!

[Roomsky]

Roomsky's Warhawk Re-Read, or Their Indictment of the Siege of Terra series.

 

I make a habit of doing a re-read of the new Heresy books once the MMPB is released, as the delay is a good buffer for the initial hype to wear off. For something like Saturnine, it was as good as the first time, maybe better. For most, Warhawk included, it's... not.

 

Now I still think this is a good book. Maybe down to a 7 from my initial 8. Wraight's writing is still great, and his characters well-drawn. But after reading Echoes and TEatD part 1, it has some problems that, to be fair, are probably more the Siege of Terra's fault than Wraight's. It saddens me to say, but the choice to make the Siege as interconnected as it is hurt this book more than any of its peers.

 

So: the White Scars. Jangsai is a good new addition now that so much of the initial cast is dead, and I enjoyed his role throughout. Jaghatai is what you'd expect, as is Ilya. But as I complained about the first time I reviewed this: White Scars Book 3 is the worst of the bunch, and the fact that ADB Heresy book 4 comes right after this, and is fantastic, is just salt in the wound. Now, ADB has gotten flack for Echoes being so disconnected from the Siege, not like good ol' Chris Wraight. But please, consider the following:

• Loken and Keeler's stuff is interesting. However, Loken and Keeler's page time in TEaTD Part 1 is basically filler. These scenes could have been in that book, and both would be better.
• Oll and co's stuff is dull and adds nothing. However, Oll and co have a bunch of wasted page time between arriving at the palace in TEaTD and meeting Vulkan. So again, these scenes could have been in that book, and both would be better.
• Wraight's characterization of Sigismund feels incongruous, and his characterization of Khârn is nonexistent. If ADB had gotten this material, having written BOTH before, it probably would have had more time to breathe, if it was given as much time as Kargos and Amit were. These scenes could have been in Echoes, and both would be better.
• Sigisumund and Khârn's presence also gives us Archeta and Skarr-Hei, who are generally uninteresting and who's stories go nowhere.
• Erebus can stay. HOWEVER, if his scenes with Erda were in TEaTD instead of, say, Rann and Zephon's poorly-written filler chapters, it would have been a worthy trade-off, non?

And what could this gained page time have been used for? I don't know, how about Shiban Khan? Restorer being a short story means Shiban, who's been slowly wandering back to Wraight's pen since Saturnine, does nothing in this book. I should not be saying that French wrote the standout Shiban tale during the Siege, but here we are. We could have had an actual capper to Wraight's heresy writings, instead of the Vth fighting for relevance in their own entry. At least for any issues one might have with Echoes, it's because it was ADB writing and ADB book, which is frankly what I'd like when reading an ADB book. Warhawk reads like Wraight talents are used more to make it approach some kind of coherency instead of telling the best story he can. It's a Wraight book struggling to escape a Siege banner.

 

And look, this is obviously unfair because we have hindsight. If TEaTD dropped in one, jam-packed volume (like it should have,) I would be kinder, because I'd see the necessity of Wraight taking on some of the Siege through-line. But that didn't happen, and now we have Warhawk being a mess for nothing, because the editors couldn't make Abnett write a book of normal length.

 

To me, Echoes is everything the non-Abnett entries should have been. Frankly, so are McNeill's novellas. This Siege of Terra banner has only kneecapped this series because all the contributors have to carry a narrative burden that has, ultimately, not made it any more cohesive. What do we have to show for the authors sharing a narrative? Where's Katsuhiro? Why is Keeler showing up in books where she has nothing to do? Erda is barely here! Perturabo reads like a different character in each author's hands! Several key players vanish between entries anyway! (hey, Abaddon.) 

 

I'll happily die on this hill. The Heresy should have just continued as it had been, with each author wrapping up their own little through-lines until there's nothing left but Horus and the Emperor. Let Wraight do the big White Scars/Deathguard showdown book. Let French write about Perturabo kicking ass. Let Thorpe write about Corswain and friends. Let Abnett take on Keeler and Ollanius duty. You know the most memorable scene in Lost and the Damned, where Skraivok gets kicked off a wall? Shock of shocks, it's because he's Haley's character.

 

Ugh. Had to get this one off my chest.

 

TL:DR - the Siege didn't benefit from being so interconnected, so it shouldn't have been. ADB did nothing wrong.

 

Anyway good book 

[SkimaskMohawk]

It's also why, IMO, solar war is so good. Because it's almost all French's characters, doing things French built up.

[Roomsky]

2 hours ago, SkimaskMohawk said:

It's also why, IMO, solar war is so good. Because it's almost all French's characters, doing things French built up.

 

I've mentioned it before, but Solar War really feels like Heresy book 55 more than Siege book 1, to me. Stylistically, it's about the same as Slaves to Darkness, and it's giving French a chance to put a little capper on his story threads as much as it is setting the stage for things to come. I think it's the only Siege book that doesn't create or contribute to "new ideas," which is also just... nice. It's definitely a workhorse book in many regards - it's not exactly some big finale to French's Heresy works - but it does manage to have a poignant ending all the same. It's weird looking back how much it threaded the needle by comparison to several of the later books.

 

Should also note that a lot of reviews bitch about Mersadie, who is, of course, the thread most divorced from French's previous work (personally I liked her plotline, though.)

[darkhorse0607]

Knights of Macragge

by Nick Kyme (narrated by Richard Reed)

 

*Minor plot spoilers but I am going to try to keep it pretty light with the exception of the spoiler marked bit, mainly because there is a massive shift in the books tone around the half-way point which is going to drive my rating*

 

I grabbed this post-10th Ed trailer as I was caught up in the excitement of a CGI trailer and finally getting around to starting my 40k Ultramarines. I hadn't read a Kyme novel since I got back into the hobby around 2016, and that was Damnos. Damnos and Knights of Macragge are linked, but I wouldn't say it's necessary to read one before the other, it just helps to understand why some of the references are made and why characters are dealing with the issues (i.e. PTSD) that they are.

 

Plot: Post rift, Sicarius' Second Company gets stuck in the warp along with their new Primaris detachment. The book's first half mainly focuses on an armsman, a Primaris with a superiority complex, and a few others that don't get much screen time. Sicarius doesn't feature a lot until the second half. The ship is low on rations, power, and fuel, so you get a few sections on resource management and dealing with morale.  The first half almost reads like a horror/survival novel which I quite enjoyed with some chapters being fairly spooky, at least with Reeds' narration. There is a decent amount of time spent between the Firstborn (I still hate that name) and the Primaris rift, and how each element of the company (i.e. Primaris Sergeants, Primaris LTs, Firstborn Veterans, Sicarius, and how the normal humans can see the differences between the character of the two types of marines)

The second half of the book goes completely off the rails and reads like a combination of a Star Trek episode where they're stuck in a prior time period and your normal bolter porn. As a warning, the next bit in spoilers is going to discuss the second half more in-depth so if you care about that, don't read it

 

Spoiler

The emerge from the warp close to a lightly populated planet. Make planetfall (I mean they crash) with a small group and branch out. Supposedly their armor is without power, which doesn't actually mean anything because they fight just fine. Also they don't have ammo (I guess?) for bolters or heavy weapons (until the plot demands it) so melee weapons it is. They encounter what is essentially a medieval population who are under attack by savage orcs, that feel they're ripped right out of AoS or Fantasy, complete with dancing Shaman. Everyone knows something feels off with the locals, which leads to the parts of the book where Kyme really couldn't help himself I guess.

 

Apart from killing hundreds of Orks with no heavy weapons, no ranged weapons, no powered armor, or support with taking minimal casualties, they in A MASSIVE SURPRISE PLOT TWIST THAT I SAY WITH ALL THE SARCASM THAT I CAN, are betrayed by the local Baron in a move that you saw coming as soon as the character was introduced. Through a series of events, they discover that the local population was an Imperial colony whose memories are being altered/blocked by Necrons. Keep in mind that this happens, maybe in the last fifth of the book. If it sounds rushed that's because it is. They take care of the Cryptek (who's been posing as the Baron's advisor) who's trying to wake up his dynasty with the same power source the Ultramarines want with almost no issues, the Cryptek conveniently also takes out the Baron, wraps things up and the Ultramarines leave to go rejoin the Crusade.

 

Narration: Richard Reed kills it, just like he did in The Infinite and the Divine, and is quickly becoming one of my favorite BL narrators.

 

Overall: I am torn. I really, really enjoyed the first half of the book. It feels suitably dark for the situation, there are reoccurring characters and themes if you've read the Damnos stuff and if you view it as a series then Sicarius actually has character development across the books. The problem is the second half. I could deal with some of those plot choices, but it just really goes off the deep end for me and while it didn't ruin it, I definitely wasn't as engaged as I was during the first half.

 

6/10. Although if I could rate the two halves individually, 8/10 for the first half, 3/10 for the second

[Tolmeus]

13 hours ago, Roomsky said:

I've mentioned it before, but Solar War really feels like Heresy book 55 more than Siege book 1, to me.

 

I am currently re-reading the Siege to finally get to 8.1 and have to say that this assesment is pretty neat. In terms of semantics, the Siege really starts first with 'The Lost and Damned' and as the final book of the Horus Heresy 'Solar War' would be great as French does a masterstroke giving all those characters depth however short their appearance may be.

Edited May 10, 2023 by Tolmeus

[1ncarnadine]

23 hours ago, Roomsky said:

I'll happily die on this hill. The Heresy should have just continued as it had been, with each author wrapping up their own little through-lines until there's nothing left but Horus and the Emperor. Let Wraight do the big White Scars/Deathguard showdown book. Let French write about Perturabo kicking ass. Let Thorpe write about Corswain and friends. Let Abnett take on Keeler and Ollanius duty. You know the most memorable scene in Lost and the Damned, where Skraivok gets kicked off a wall? Shock of shocks, it's because he's Haley's character.

 

 

Ugh. Had to get this one off my chest.

 

TL:DR - the Siege didn't benefit from being so interconnected, so it shouldn't have been. ADB did nothing wrong.

I would also have love to have seen what this book could have been if it didn't also have to deal with the absolute mess that The Buried Dagger left of the Death Guard/Mortarion plot threads. Wraight has to devote extra page time on the XIVth Legion side to things that he never should have had to.

[SkimaskMohawk]

Horus Rising 

 

Queue up the "I'm in danger" Simpsons meme, because I have a feeling that people might not like what I'm about to say.

 

I really....kinda disliked it.

 

For context, I haven't read it in a very long time; when I was young and getting into the heresy I loved it, and reread it constantly while waiting for the next book. But that was a long time ago, so I only vaguely remembered the beats of this book (a lot of the original trilogy seemingly blurred together in my mind); Loken taking the throne, jubals possession, the fiasco on murder, and the interex were pretty much it. I remembered Loken, sanguinius, and especially Horus being likeable and charismatic. When I got to certain scenes, I remember really liking them 16 years ago. 

 

But rereading the details can be really hard. It's filled with a lot of reallllllly flat characters, cardboard cutouts, charicatures, and stilted dialogue. The remembrancers and iterators are great; Sinderman, mersadie and Keeler never miss (though Ignace isn't quite as consistent); Loken is likeable and has an arc and his stiffness is a character trait; Horus and sanguinius are truly likeable and relatable characters (especially as we see more and more of the pressure on Horus as the story progresses). We have this expansive cast of names in the dramatis; most of them are  just names, and most of them, with no point at all being in the story as distinct people. 

 

It's easy to say "oh it was 2006, books were worse back then and the standards have improved", and it's kinda true; the standards are way higher now. But Horus is so good, and so is that intro part with lokens story, and so are so many of the gaunts ghosts novels that came before it; good writing existed. So yea, some of the narration is really cringy, and would have fit better if Loken was the narrator for the entire novel. Maybe he is and I'm just dumb. All I know, is when I finished and went straight back to Manflayer, the difference was shocking.

 

Compared to modern novels I'd give it a 4.5. To its time, maybe an 8?

 

Edit: lol i totally forgot the reason why I reread the book in the first place: abnett setting down foreshadowing on certain, psychic, character development.

 

Spoiler

Abnett has a lot of foreshadowing in the book, a lot. It's all super obvious if you know the gist of the heresy and 40k lore; none of it is veiled, or is only appreciable after the series is complete.

 

There isn't even a hint that Loken is a pysker. There's no premonitions, there's no mysterious intuition, there's no elevated combat abilities. The infamous Lucius duel is really, really telegraphed. Loken couldn't have made it more obvious if he said "I'm not going to use my sword", because he basically did. 

 

Edited May 11, 2023 by SkimaskMohawk

[SkimaskMohawk]

After I finished Horus Rising I was a little thrown off by the drop in quality from back in the day to now, and I talked a lot of  about Abnett butchering sol talgron in EatD, so I went back to read the Word Bearers series. 

 

Dark Apostle

 

To get it right out of the way, this book is, imo, better. Characters that are named are actual characters. People don't act with sheer incompetence (looking at you Eidolon, Qruze, and others). Conversations aren't weirdly stilted. There's actual atmosphere in this book, and it's unrelenting; it starts as bleak when we're told the non-administratum inhabitants go blind by 40 on the planet, and then descends into crushingly horrific and brutal as Varnus' slavery progresses. 

 

Because let's be clear, the Chaos marines are EVIL. They aren't relatable or darkly charming like ADBs Night Lords, who need to remind their slaves that they're still actually slaves. No, these guys are the epitome of grim-dark villain brutality; there's no question at all about whether life might be better or worse under the imperium or the forces of chaos. This book is guaranteed, 100%, to be moonreapers favorite, and will give him everything he wants. Truthfully, some scenes to stray into gratuity with the descriptions of people dying, the level of detail being unnecessary for the relative lack of importance.

 

Something else I forgot about was the scale of events. The word bearers and imperium go to war in this book. A double sized host of 2000 marines and all their vehicular and daemonic support, against two regiments of Elysians and a huge mechanicus force including an imperator and ordinatus majoris. The numbers of the imperium are really well presented as an inexorable force, in a way that I found more impactful than a lot of more modern 40k and heresy books.

 

So yea, I really enjoyed the book. I do think the levels of violence can be a mark against it at times, and the atmosphere and misery of Varnus' slavery (and kinda the outcomes in general) can be a real shock if you're unprepared for it. It helps that the omnibus has a forward where the author tells you he's writing the bad guys, and the bad guys are going to win (at least for the most part). A lot of modern 40k has chaos winning with some sort of moral victory for the good guys, and it's absolutely not the case here.

 

I'd call it an honest 9/10 if you're looking for one of the most unapologetically 40k books out there, but also a 5/10 if you feel the tone is a bridge too far.

 

[tgcleric]

Re-read the SoT after having listened.

 

Solar War: 6

Lost and the Damned: 7 - enjoy a lot of this. 

The First Wall: 5 

Saturnine: 10 - rising up to maybe my favorite abnett HH book

Mortis: 4 - maybe French's worst book. An absolute slog

Warhawk: 8 - love Wraight. A lot of this is great. But honestly feel it's maybe the worst of his HH books. 

Echoes of Eternity: 10 - this is the stuff

The End and the Death Vol 1 - hard cause it's incomplete. But probably a 8. Maybe a 9. Incredible first half to a nearly impossible task.

 

SoS: 5 - eh. A lesser outcast dead or nemesis. And neither of those are tops. Ending pretty solid. 

Fury of Magnus: 7 pretty solid read. 

Garro: 4 - only better than mortis cause it's 10 shorter 

[EverythingIsGreat]

Ahriman: Eternal

 

Not quite, but the character thinks he's getting there (heh!). Objectively, he's getting quite a VIP rep with major figures, including the Harlequinade and Necron dynasts. The first want to stop him apparently because they have nothing better to do (their farseer handlers haven't seen the cosmic farce Ahriman is starring in? maybe they like the forever-bungled reality show of his quest for redemption so much they want a bit part in it). The second want to send him a personal, hand-delivered death notice because he's a dirty bum and a thief, and has no manners.

 

But seriously:

 

This is a good book, worthwhile addition to the Ahriman series. Obviously it is more enjoyable if the reader has an interest in the character and what he represents. If you do, there's very little to complain about. Perhaps my biggest complaint is that this feels like a waypost: a lot of interesting stuff happens, but it is all to be concluded in the next (?) installment(s).

 

French's characterization of Ahriman is proceeding nicely. In this stage, the character is progressing along the classic profile of the addicted gambler. There is remorse, and the undertaking of more and more elaborate betting schemes, because, fine, I lost all the other bets, but I learned my lesson, and the next bet is going to set everything right. Honest, just you wait. 

 

I suppose eventually Ahriman will arrive at his M42 persona, where only the gambling action matters (in truth he's only ever been betting against the Lord of Change), and the excuses have thinned to the point of non-existence. By M42 it seems he knows that, even though he doesn't want to. Perhaps there are levels of self-deception that match his truly remarkable (and still developing) power, which is exposed in this novel to great effect.

 

However, there are intriguing subplots centered on the other TS characters, especially Ctesias and the Rubric Man (Helio Isidorus, another interesting name). And there is also the Chaos-tainted Navigator who worships the Emperor as God :). And a soul-blank secrets peddler and Eye-of-Terror habitue (because this is so perfectly normal) who in a more complicated plotline would scream "Inquisition agent". And others. A notable omission is Magnus, a big plus imo. Personally I've had enough of the whole "They done me wrong" angry-drunk-to-self-pitying-drunk depictions of his. More proof that in-universe, being in the Warp stunts one's maturity.

 

There is also additional stuff about the properties of the Webway as well as original tidbits about the various aliens involved. Also some glimpses of how GW may or may not handle the concept of Time as a risk-free retcon device. French makes a decent effort in that whole Time thing, but it still seems in the early stages. Yet some of the ideas he expresses on the subject are very, very interesting.

 

Again, a worthwhile experience if you're into stuff like that, and probably a good read for everybody else anyway.

[Valkia the Bloody]

I recently finished the new Gaunt's Ghosts novella Vincula Insurgency.

I really liked it.

I have been a fan of Dan Abnett's writing for 25 years now, and this book gave me something I realized I had been missing.

Abnett does it again.
Without effort he transports us back to a time early in the Gaunt‘s Ghosts series. The Ghosts are doing mind- numbing occupancy work and have to deal with insurgents. The novella starts out slow. The daily drudge is made plain. But slowly, the threat and tension built up and the end is as exciting as ever.
I especially liked the character work- the new characters introduced for this story, as well as the Ghosts. So we also learn some more background details of some of the regulars as well as about the myth and legends of Tanith.
Great work.

 

Then I started on The Reverie.

I have been very impressed with some of Peter Fehervari's previous work, and this book appears to be no different.

I like the different style compared to other BL book, I like the language and all the character mystery that is built up.

This book drew me in immediately, and *poof!* suddenly I had read 15% of the book on my Kindle in a single sitting.

Very interested how this continues.

(I also have Fire Caste on my "To Read" list, so depending on how The Reverie goes, it might be next)

[Paceyjg]

Manflayer - 6.5/10

 

 

Edited May 24, 2023 by Paceyjg

[SkimaskMohawk]

3 hours ago, Paceyjg said:

Manflayer - 6.5/10

 

 

 

That's pretty bold to give it that score and leave it at that lol.

[cheywood]

Wrath of Iron -

 

I recently decided to reread some of Chris Wraight’s earlier works, to see how his writing’s changed over the years. I started with Blood of Asaheim and Stormcaller, two of his most underrated (imo of course) titles. I enjoyed them both, and will post a review of the trilogy once I’ve reread The Helwinter Gate. However, I felt they were a little more polished than expected, and perhaps didn’t illustrate the degree to which Wraight’s writing had changed. So I decided to go back to one of his first 40k novels, since I don’t have the energy to get back into WFB at the moment.
 

In a lot of ways Wrath of Iron is a rougher novel than what Wraight was publishing even 5 or 6 years ago, let alone what’s he’s put out recently. The prose is less flowing, the combat more prevalent, the character development less nuanced and the overall focus more on the mechanics of warfare than the Imperium as a whole. At the same time it has moments of beautiful writing, some really compelling storylines, and a focus that captures the philosophical core of the setting as well as any book I’ve read. 
 

The premise is a pretty standard one - the Imperium, led by the Iron Hands, needs to capture a hive city cluster that’s at the heart of a recent revolt against the Imperium. The revolt has covered a few systems or so and is now being put down effectively, ending with Shardenus Prime. The Iron Hands are ostensibly the stars here, and Wraight does a very good job capturing their mindset and general body dysmorphia (or whatever clinical term is most applicable), but he doesn’t really make them especially interesting or spend a lot of time delving into the mechanics of the clan. You get a few pov characters, a couple more relatively undeveloped side characters and that’s it. They feel like compellingly painted robots, which is accurate but not exactly exciting. 
 

That’s why it’s a good thing Wraight spent a lot of time examining the siege (it’s more of a prolonged assault in some ways) from the perspective of the various humans involved. You get to see Imperial Guard generals and drop troops, death cult agents and Imperial collaborators inside the hive, giving you a good view of the various aspects of the war and bringing a far more personal aspect to the story. There’s moments of friendship and foolish selfishness, justifiable rage at the engine of sacrifice that the Imperium has become, and a lot of bleak misery surrounding it all. The world the book takes place on is smothered in toxins and ash, and the vibe of the book fits the setting. This is the Imperium at its most brutal, its most uncaring and perhaps its most honest. Wraight never explicitly condemns or celebrates that reality (how could anyone truly celebrate it?), only presents it to us.

Fundamentally, the book is a story of the sacrifices the Imperium demands of its servants without care for their well being, which is perhaps the defining reality of the setting for all the trillions of imaginary humans who inhabit it. It’s about the question of whether it’s even worth it to exist in a world so clearly damned. There are more entertaining and better written books in the canon, but I struggle to think of a book that better captures how it feels to be an ordinary human in the Imperium of Man. 

 

9.0 - Worth reading, especially if you recently finished a 40k novel and somehow thought ‘this is far too lighthearted for me’.

Edited May 25, 2023 by cheywood

[SkimaskMohawk]

Finished up the other two books in the word bearers trilogy.

 

Dark Disciple 

 

Out of the three books in the trilogy, and his one feels the most similar to the more modern Chaos marine books. There's a smaller group of marines to focus on and "get to know", the sheer malevolence is dialed down, and people start getting some one liners in.

 

This isnt due to a shift in style; rather it's due to a shift in circumstances. Marduk isn't beholden to jarulek any more, but is still butting up against Kol Badar's role in the Host; the word bearers aren't conducting a planetary invasion and holy defilement, but doing a quick smash and grab; they're still evil and brutal, but have the dark eldar stealing the spotlight. 

 

I remember this one being my favorite when I got into the word bearers novels, though to be fair, Dark Creed hadn't been released yet. Some scenes just really stood out in my mind like the GSC freaking out and getting culled, the whole bit with Solon getting "saved" by the marines, marduks escape from the dark eldar, and the revelation of the kid being infected. The one liners.

 

Maybe it's because this book is the most directly comparable to other CSM novels, but I now feel like it's my least favorite of them all. Solon's portion just felt more of a chore to read, instead of being darkly compelling like Varnus' from the first; there's no mass warfare or grand strategy; I wasn't rooting for the CSM to lose because they were so despicable. 

 

I'd give it a solid 8/10, maybe a 7.5 if you really don't care about BFG maneuvers.

 

Dark Creed

 

If we lost anything from the middle book in terms of atmosphere and evilness, it comes right back in Dark Creed. We got dark apostle in fighting, unpredictable chaos magic plans, mass warfare, mortals getting corrupted, and kinda most importantly the word bearers finally lose. Through the first book there's this rising tension as you're shown all the evil stuff that happens to people under the CSM and how hard it is to claw victories away from them; every win for the imperium is framed against stuff still getting worse and it culminates in a horrific defeat. We know what's up in Dark Creed, and we see the same series of events unfold with the imperials on the back foot and losing slowly but surely; we know they're going to get skunked by the word bearers again, it's only a matter of time. But then the word bearers get absolutely crushed by the necrons and the interdiction fleet; there was a genuine sense of relief and satisfaction for me.

 

The thing with the battles in this book especially, is that it really brought me back to 5th edition 40k. Things were generally equivalent to their game counter parts; there's a part where the marines are counter attacking with speeders and the CSM vox is jammed and I thought "didn't Storms have a vox jam rule? Maybe ones close or something" only for one to show up right away. Call it nostalgia, but the battles really clicked because stuff worked the way it should*.

 

The white consuls were very competent and capable. You never got the sense that they were embarrassed or came off badly; they really gave it to heir all.

 

What else? I guess Reynolds does this smart thing by never showing the imperials as being too deep in the grim-dark, to better position the word bearers as super-evil. Boros is a paradise, though it is remarked as being very rare, and contrasts sharply with sicarus.

 

My one big complaint, the one marked with the * is Burias. Burias is a character in his own right, but he's also a plot device; he's the solution to every problem and his super-healing drains the tension of every encounter involving him. I really don't mind any of the warp-based plans throughout the series, but I wish there were fewer "they don't know we got an invincible, super fast, super strong guy who's going to outflank/assassinate them" plans. At least his reward is suitably terrible on the end.

 

Uh 9/10, no caveats.

 

The very last thing is to comment on my boy, the warmonger. Throughout the series he's described as the first apostle of the host, with kol badar being his captain, which isnt the smoothest transition (or maybe I have to reread the story that ends in him getting phosphexed again). It takes some massaging, and maybe some in-universe retconning to build up his legend. His wargear though is very defined; skull helmet, terminator armour, dark crozius with a specific shape. And abnett used none of that in End and the Death, and I was embarrassed at the fight scene description compared to this trilogy when I went to see how Sor Talgron held up after the reread.