Rate what you Read, or the fight against Necromancy

[Ubiquitous1984]

17 hours ago, EverythingIsGreat said:

 

It is fun to wonder what the HH Series for example would be like if it was written by a single author.

 

We'd probably only be up to Nemesis by now! 

[Nagashsnee]

On 6/29/2023 at 2:58 PM, DarkChaplain said:

 

Which is to say: This is hardly something we can ascribe to Leviathan. It's a general issue with apathy.

 

I trimmed the quote to save space but i am referring to your whole post.  Which i agree with to a point.

 

Apathy does exist, BL practices are making it worse, but its nowhere near as bad as you say, people are still killing eachother over the books, reddit and other such places are still having daily discussions of books, and even when talking about older books like say Titandeath for the HH get over 30 replies pretty fast. 

 

Apathy playas a far more major part when the book seems weak/uncertain quality.  Or even worse a generic cash grab. And for me these are ALL things leviathan seemed to be.  Its direct tie in fiction, with what seemed to be a most generic story with the hope being the excitement over the box edition will carry it. It also has the cursed legacy of its box tie in predecessors to content with. 

 

But apathy can be combated with excitement, with something new and fresh, with examples of quality.  Instead its Ultramarine box tie in fiction number 3?-4? The newest in a line of mediocrity and failure.  My local circle stayed away from it because we expect it to be bad and wont waste the time/money. But if they had just dont SOMETHING exciting, something to make someone say hey this look cool, rather then just plonking the same old sh...stuff on the same old plate it could draw people.  

 

And again i get what your saying with the problems getting psychical books, but from my experience on this and other forums quality BL book will make waves, people will talk about them, word of mouth will get out.  Leviathan went into the water without making even a ripple.   Heck Shadowsun at least crashed in and once again briefly made everyone remember why they dont like that Kelly lads tau. 

 

Now they could have EASILY said that while the box art is ultramarines, the story the box is based on is say Storm Lords/Sons of Medusa/Charnel Guard/Brand new chapter.  Instead of having to explain why the ultramarine first company is deployed without its first captain on the wrong side of the rift and so far from home, they could have dusted off the fourth tyrannic lore by looking at a sector of the dark imperium and showing up how the situation actually is there Draw some marine players in with information on little know chapter.  Push the idea that this is MORE then a box tie in, its one of sadly very lacking stories set in the dark imperium and its defenders and a great look at the new nids. 

 

Instead they put apathy on a couch and spoon fed it. So to me it is 100% down to leviathan failing to impress either before or after. 

 

 

[theSpirea]

As you pointed out "and even when talking about older books like say Titandeath for the HH get over 30 replies pretty fast." The Horus Heresy topic will always attract attention. I mean, check this BL section on this forum. If it's related to HH, it gets tens of pages of posts. The new Siege of Terra novel announcement discussion/speculation is longer than all Horror/Crime titles combined together.

 

If it's not about HH/Primarchs (there are a few exceptions), people are not that interested. Whether physical copies are available or not, BL readership is still tiny. Try to find any forum/board talking about AoS novels. It's almost impossible. Sure, the books aren't the best but they are far from worse. Some of them are better than your average modern fantasy (titles that get around a hundred thousand ratings on Goodreads/Amazon and many of them I struggle to finish because the writing is so bad. Thorpe's prose next to it reads like Shakespeare).

Edited July 1, 2023 by theSpirea

[Dumah]

20 hours ago, Ubiquitous1984 said:

 

We'd probably only be up to Nemesis by now! 

 

More likely there would be far less bloat in favor of a focus on the main story. As someone who gave up around Vengeful Spirit due to fatigue and impatience, I would have been all for that.

[EverythingIsGreat]

8 hours ago, theSpirea said:

As you pointed out "and even when talking about older books like say Titandeath for the HH get over 30 replies pretty fast." The Horus Heresy topic will always attract attention. I mean, check this BL section on this forum. If it's related to HH, it gets tens of pages of posts. The new Siege of Terra novel announcement discussion/speculation is longer than all Horror/Crime titles combined together.

 

 

This is true, but it would be unfair to compare the level of interest about a single novel with that  of a series. A property like the HH Series receives almost constant promotion with frequent installments, the HH "creep" into unrelated stories referencing it (even if it is only an official blurb like "...not since the Horus Heresy blah blah ...), and of course all the non-literary tie-ins. That is without taking into account the  what-happens-next hook that any serial may have on a reader. A single novel in Warhammer Horror or Crime is like the neglected stepchild in comparison. To generate similar amount of excitement among readers it probably has to be exceptional, or better.

Edited July 1, 2023 by EverythingIsGreat
mistype

[StrangerOrders]

Haven't posted in a while but I have to say that this 'oh, Ultramarines how boring' narrative is pure bs.

 

It is partially born out of the memetic plague that is part and parcel of 40k, ask most people why they find UMs boring and you get some derivative of their being 'plain'. Usually something they picked up from a video made from a sketchy loremaster or reddit.

 

The second is that the UM are often boring because BL more or less forces them to be. GW makes tie-in novels bog standard, generally unimaginative and dull affairs meant for an honestly depressing idea of what an 'entry-level' book should be.

 

If you look at UM books that are not tie-ins like Know No Fear or Knights of Macragge, the UM are honestly a fascinating faction in any incarnation. 

 

The problem is that GW is hellbent on purging any trace of their identity to make the most baseline marine possible in tie-ins with maybe some vague wave at 'the codex'. 

 

I am honestly positive that it would be just as bad with any other chapter being adopted for a big tie-in. Because the problem is not the UM, its how GW mandates these things. Generally based off of the seeming impression that their entry-level readers have the attention span of toddlers and are easily confused. 

 

Sorry if came across ranty, but I do feel focusing on the UM is the wrong approach here. Because the Marines in Leviathan and Indomitus are really UM in name only.

[darkhorse0607]

35 minutes ago, StrangerOrders said:

 

Sorry if came across ranty, but I do feel focusing on the UM is the wrong approach here. Because the Marines in Leviathan and Indomitus are really UM in name only.

 

 

It sure would be nice if someone else got the same treatment though.

 

There are a lot of decent UM novels to explore, but unfortunately, there are also a lot of bad ones and that seems to take the center argument when talking about the Chapter and their novels.

 

Knights of Macragge is good (for the most part), and I honestly am hoping for another Sicarius book. The Ventris novels are nothing groundbreaking but are still a decent time and I maintain that Courage and Honour is still one of the best Tau books I've read, and that's found in an UM book because McNeill took the time to not only flesh out the Ultramarines, but also the Tau which made it more compelling.

 

The authors that put in the effort to make them non-generic marines tend to make them look genuinely interesting. The downside is that they're also the easy choice if you want generic marines (for both the author and Black Library's mandates).

 

Going back to Leviathan, how much more interesting would it have been if the first half was focused on the Tyranids and that battle (also genericish here, books like Devastation of Baal still did the hungry animal aspect while still giving them more character with things like the Lictor's story), and then Castamon goes on to bring in the new generation of Tyrannic War Veterans? It makes the Chapter more interesting, it ties back into the box because you can say the LT in that is Castamon post-battle, and gives the whole thing more flavor.

 

Obviously, we don't know what lanes Hinks was forced down from BL, but I sure do wish they (both parties) or any subsequent parties would try to give the Chapter more identity if they're going to continue to be the poster children so we don't continually have the "UItramarines are boring" conversation every time they get a book

 

Or give it to another chapter, but in a lot of these instances I don't think they'd fair any better

[EverythingIsGreat]

Altar of Maws by Peter Fehervari

 

This is billed as a "short", but it is a hefty one, both in page count and in the action taking place. It is not clear when in the Dark Coil's fractured timeline the story unfolds. All I can say with some certainty is that it is after Fire Caste but before Vanguard.

 

Spoiler

As readers conditioned by The Dark Coil have probably come to expect, the sense of wrongness and of impending distasteful unavoidable, and sickly fascinating doom pervades, starting at page 1.

We are at one of The Dark Coil's important worlds (Phaedra/Fi'draah during its never-ending war of T'au vs. Imperium). Back at the Dolorosa Coil, sailing through the miasma of the soiled planet's jungle rivers. We are following one of the ghost ships plying the waters, a floating "palace" of developing corruption (the "Polyphemus"... look it up). We are also following a T'au flotilla carrying POWs to base, it is on a collision course with the corrupted ship.

This is mostly a T'au story with a T'au POV. By now, the T'au veterans of the war have realized that there may be something very deliberately wrong with the way the conflict is handled by both sides. And at least some of them also realize that there is something fundamentally wrong and insidious with the planet itself, although they do not seem to understand the cause (Chaos). In this sense they are less enlightened than their human cargo. Especially a medic who has an interesting approach to the madness-inducing happenings, which may signify he is [a something or other]. Still, even some of the T'au (including a regular and not unsympathetic character) are now hearing voices, as it were, and they are also starting to take things personally, so there's hints of interesting development there. In the previously-human side, the bad ship Polyphemous goes on a pretty straightforward mission of attempting to arouse an enormously malignant Chaotic entity through sacrifice.

Practically all the action happens in a mysterious, fetid lake that may or may not be there, and which is the hiding/binding place for said entity. Plenty of both pleasant and unpleasant death happens (the latter more than once per person in some cases). Most of the few survivors of the nastiness find themselves on an equally mysterious island in the lake, which is some sort of barrier/safe ground against the bad stuff. The rest find themselves back in the jungle river after destroying Polyphemous' wheelhouse (its "eye"?)

 

And, here we are, but where?

 

This is a horror story, of course. One that is very well told and captures a certain atmosphere and vibe, but also one that reads like a fragment. I believe fans of TDC will still lap this one up. For newcomers it may or may not work according to their mood and appetite. And their willingness to get lost in the telling of an unfolding doom whose only visible resolution lies in the stubborn resistance of some characters to accept what seems to be their fate.

[Pacific81]

Did anyone else notice the 'For Ian Watson' in The End and the Death (was right at the end of my ebook copy).

 

I wonder if Dan knows him, or if it had some other relevance. It's thirty years now since Space Marine was published!

[cheywood]

8 hours ago, Pacific81 said:

Did anyone else notice the 'For Ian Watson' in The End and the Death (was right at the end of my ebook copy).

 

I wonder if Dan knows him, or if it had some other relevance. It's thirty years now since Space Marine was published!

 

They definitely know each other. Here’s an article about a convention they attended together in Spain: https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.lne.es/verano/2015/07/30/arte-dar-vida-miniaturas-19759309.amp.html

I’d like to imagine that they’re good friends. After all, they’re both Oxford English majors who write science fiction and enjoy experimenting with language and story structure much more than your typical SF writer. They also both seem to be delightful characters in the interviews I’ve read. Insightful, funny, and wide ranging in their thoughts, unlike a lot of writers who come across as though their personalities are confined to the work they produce. 

[Pacific81]

Thanks for that Cheywood! Very interesting.

After reading that I went down an internet rabbit hole and ended up finding this, another interview with Watson

Interview with Ian Watson from 2020

 

My favourite tit-bits from it (he sounds like a character!) are about Stanley Kubrick seeing the cover of the original Boxtree Inquisitor novel by Chris Baker (Fangorn), who was put in touch with the artist via Watson and went on to become conceptual artist for Kubrick's AI.

Also, GW forgetting to remove the more racy parts of Space Marine, and what he thought about the replacement of Grimm the Squat in the Warped Stars re-publishing (feels like where reality and fantasy combine, and the publishers become Imperium-like!) and it's a shame we never got to see Inquisitor 4!

 

Made me want to find my extremely dog-eared copy of Space Marine, I'm sure it will survive one more read..

[bluntblade]

Blood of Asaheim is decent but fairly slight for Wraight. Helsreach lived up to its grimly impressive reputation.

[darkhorse0607]

Cadian Blood (audio)

Author: ADB

Narrator: Michael Geary

 

As I continue my neverending wait for Black Legion 3 and the Chapter's Due audiobook I decided to take a detour from my regular Space Marine centric novels and look at some Guard stuff, I'll be doing Caphias Cain next (probably) but decided to start with Cadian Blood.

 

Narration: This was my first book with Michael Geary and he did a fantastic job. I really enjoyed his voice which sounded suitably Guard, while having the range to the other voices for the enemy of the book which I'll talk in the spoiler section. Some of the voice acting was downright creepy which was good. Overall, I really enjoyed his narration and hope we see more

 

Story: This will be a brief overview, a more in-depth one will be in the spoiler section for folks who want to go into the book without knowing. The book is relatively straightforward. The Cadian 88th Mechanized Infantry is tasked to move from Cadia to Kathur, a Shrineworld, as part of the advance portion of the full reclamation force. There has been a plague outbreak/rebellion that has spread across the entire planet so the Guard (and others) are sent to take it back. I think the biggest thing you have to remember with this, as it's mentioned extensively, is that this is set during the 13th Black Crusade. But not the current 13th Black Crusade, the book was written in 2009 so it mentions Abbadon's ongoing campaign to take Cadia, but the events don't match up with the retcon that GW did in 2017(?), so if you're a stickler for congruity just know that going in. This is still when GW was very much in the "Cadians have violet eyes" phase. I think the book does a good job painting the picture of a regiment folded into an existing hierarchy with a non-Cadian commander, how they view other regiments, how they like to function (basically separated from non-Cadians), etc. You also get a look at how attachments (Enginseers, Kasrkin) work when attached to a regiment which was a nice touch.

 

Spoiler summary to follow which will cover pretty much all of the major plot points, so again, read only if you want things spoiled.

Spoiler

Like mentioned, the Cadians are sent to Kathur, part of the Scarus sector which has been blighted by plagues and Chaos attacks. The "reclamation" is not going well, with the opening section of the book being about the 88th going to reinforce another Guard regiment that has been tasked with taking a Monastery. At this point, it's presumed that the only enemies on the planet are the poxwalkers and the rebel PDF, but Vox isn't working planet-wide beyond a few meters so it's hard to tell. The Cadians arrive to the monastery and find the other regiment being wiped out. Battle ensues, and the Cadians retreat, but as they do so a Plague Marine makes its appearance. ADB does a good job here balancing the Guard being an actual military force that can handle marines but only with weighted fire or heavy weapons and it feels balanced. Throughout this time, their sanctioned Psyker is hearing a voice calling for help.

They notify the overall Commander who has sat behind a desk for his career and doesn't mesh well with the Cadians and through a short series of events a Commissar is assigned to the Regiment, which the Cadians aren't a fan of. Not because it's a Commissar, but because it's a non-Cadian. The Commissar goes back and forth between being the stereotypical Commissar and being a decent guy. At the same time, an Inquisitor shows up who's been investigating the Plagues and wants the Regiment to be assigned to him to go look for something.

Shortly after, some Raven Guard arrive and the rest of the Reclamation Fleet is put about a month away from arrival, which causes the General to want to take more ground even though that wasn't the initial plan, and what the Reclamation Fleet was briefed before they entered the warp. The Cadians argue against it but the plan proceeds anyway. The sanctioned psyker and librarian talk, because the librarian can also hear the voice calling for help, but also hears the answer from the void that "they" are coming. 

*Admin note, I was slightly worried that with the arrival of marines, it would turn into a marine centric "they show up and save the day" story, but that doesn't happen, again, it was balanced well

The operation begins with three prongs pushing out into the city, and around the same time, the main Death Guard fleet led by Typhus arrives in system. The Death Guard absolutely demolishes the Imperial ships in orbit and there are some decent scenes centered around the Commander of a ship attacking the Terminus Est with his nova cannon. During this, the ground forces are also getting demolished and are being pushed back across the board, with the main landing zone being taken over by Chaos forces. Most of the named Cadians, the General, and others are killed during this time. From the initial 1000 Cadians, around 100 or so (ish) are left at this point.  As the Cadians circle the wagons in a cemetery, Thade, who is the main character and is a Warden Captain, gives the ok to start destroying structures that could be used as cover by the enemy which goes against reclamation protocols. The commissar tries to intervene (aka threaten by pulling his pistol on the captain) and the Cadians then pull their weapons on the commissar. Commissar backs down, but says he will handle (execute) them after the operation. The Inquisitor doesn't care. The Inquisitor finally opens up as to his purpose. Shortly after the Siege of Terra, the Imperials shot down a Death Guard battleship which crash landed on the planet somewhere, whatever was on board has woken up which started the plague. At the same time, the Raven Guard are making planetfall as their ship is destroyed. They go to fight the Death Guard as they also make planetfall and the Guard/Inquisitor go to find the ship rather than dying in a last stand like the Cadians were planning on.

The Raven Guard get wiped out but slow down Typhus, the Cadians find the ship (it's explained more than this don't worry) and fight/kill the possessed Death Guard that started it, who is essentially full Nurgle at this point. The surviving 40 Cadians start to regroup. The comissar also survived and the Karskin sergeant goes to talk to him, and kills the commissar to protect the Regiment.

Death Guard pull back and leave, the Cadians hunker down and the reclamation fleet arrives a few weeks later. Ultimately the Cadians (what's left of them) return home as battle wages on Cadia

 

Ultimately I really enjoyed this and would recommend it. It is clearly one of ADB's earlier novels but is still pretty strong unless you're expecting Night Lords trilogy or First Heretic levels of characterization.

8/10

[Urauloth]

On 7/25/2023 at 3:11 PM, bluntblade said:

Helsreach lived up to its grimly impressive reputation.

I finally read this recently, having bounced off the first chapter on my first attempt last year. Ended up very impressed by it, especially the titan segments. Very interesting character work too, which is of course something ADB is famous for. Audio version is very well narrated.

There's still a few well-regarded books I've never gotten around to reading, and after catching up on Storm of Iron and Helsreach and liking both of them, I should start tracking them down.

 

e: Speaking of Ultramarines, I revisited Know No Fear since I got the audiobook, and I think it holds up extremely well. It's one of Abnett's most impressively descriptive books, a high point in the Heresy series, and remains (along with The First Heretic) one of the definitive works concerning the Word Bearers as far as I'm concerned. It's an interesting look at Guilliman and Ultramar, which has stayed consistent with a lot of significant later depictions (in Haley's Indomitus-era novels, for example).
Oll, who was more of a mystery when the book was new, doesn't fare as well on re-reading. I feel like I've seen too much of this guy at this point. I'm not a huge fan of perpetuals in general, though, so I was bound to feel this way.
This is all looking at the novel as it relates to others, though: On its own, it's terrific, and one of the best things to come out of Black Library's vaults.

Edited August 28, 2023 by Urauloth

[DarkChaplain]

I remember the Know No Fear audiobook very fondly. Gareth Armstrong was on point balancing the cold, clinical feel of large parts of the disaster unfolding, and the heated moments of betrayal.

 

The irony regarding Oll is that Know No Fear is his only acutal novel appearance until the Siege. He was relegated to shorts (in Mark of Calth), an audio drama short (half a CD's worth) and now the Siege, where he only appeared halfway through.

 

In some incredible way, Oll has managed to be both even more absent from the series than Horus Lupercal himself, while also feeling like he's overstaying his welcome. It's certainly an achievement.

[EverythingIsGreat]

18 hours ago, DarkChaplain said:

In some incredible way, Oll has managed to be both even more absent from the series than Horus Lupercal himself, while also feeling like he's overstaying his welcome. It's certainly an achievement.

 

Which reminds me, anyone know what's the Emperor thinking/up to.

[Urauloth]

In my bid to clear my pile of shame book backlog, I'm going through the Legacies of Betrayal audiobook, which has quite a lot of shorts in it from quite a few authors, and several narrators to boot. I was planning to wait and post my opinions on them when I was done, but I'm so impressed by a couple of them that I want to comment while my thoughts on them are still fresh.

 

Chris Wraight - Brotherhood of the Storm:
This isn't the only audio adaptation of this, but it's the one I like best. This is divisive, I'm aware, but I love Windson Liong's Shiban. He captures so much of the character's vital energy and dynamism and his swings between poetic contemplation and wild abandon.
The story itself is a glorious character study of both Shiban himself and his legion in general, and a perfect companion piece to Wraight's other work with the White Scars throughout the Heresy. Shiban is fascinating here, and as this takes place immediately prior to the legion's involvement in Horus's war, we get to see a snapshot of how he was during the Great Crusade.

The contrast between the speed-obsessed cavalry formations of the Chogorian legionaries and their more reserved Terran counterparts who favour heavy weapons is interesting enough, and so is the difference in their attitudes to their primarch and their priorities in war, but the insight into Shiban's character are the real meat of this novella for me.
Unlike so many Astartes who have an innate loathing of all xenoforms, Shiban respects the strength of the orks he fights, and the fact that they never quit; he even remarks that it will be a shame when the Great Crusade finally exterminates them (haha) because they're good opponents. He revels in battle and bloodshed, but says of a defeated ork leader that he doesn't like to see him die the way he does, because "it was an ignoble end for one who fought so hard".
There's a lot packed into this small novella, with it introducing Ilya to the legion and showing us some of Yuesugi's history on Chogoris and setting up the Scars to enter the Heresy in... well, Scars. It makes economic use of its wordcount though. It's up to Wraight's usual high standard, in other words.

 

John French - Serpent:
This is kind of too short to be much of anything, at least on its own. It feels like a piece cut out of a larger work, or something with a companion piece I haven't read yet. I'm curious to know where and when this was published before it was put in this anthology.

 

Guy Haley - Hunter's Moon:
I'm pretty sure this is my new favourite Warhammer short. I'm always a fan of so-called "domestic" Warhammer fiction as well as stories about backwater planets, and this combines both those elements with a civilian viewpoint which has been fairly uncommon in the Heresy. It also employs the device of common folk from a world on the lower end of the technological spectrum trying to parse cutting-edge tech and interstellar concepts, which is something I'll read any amount of.
The sudden intrusion of a crashed Astartes gunship into the lives of a crew of fishermen isn't the only thing going on here - there's an impressive amount of worldbuilding on display for such a short story. The fact that the boat's captain is attending a recently established Imperial education facility allows for some great dialogue between the crew, both about their world and about the nature of their unexpected find; a ship of the "sky giants" which harbours a revelation whose scope is too vast for them to truly understand, but which puts them all in mortal danger.
If anyone in the "domestic 40k" camp hasn't read this one - I'm sure you have, I'm late to the party with a lot of things, hence my backlog clearing efforts - go seek it out at once.
Special mention also has to go to Johnathan Keeble's narration. He makes effective use of his (authentic sounding) West Country accent here to voice the locals, and he really nails it.

[Jareddm]

6 hours ago, Urauloth said:

I'm curious to know where and when this was published before it was put in this anthology.

It was published in the 2013 Horus Heresy Weekender program pamphlet. So not even one of the Black Library Celebration collections, just something to squeeze in between the convention map and the event schedule.

Edited August 30, 2023 by Jareddm

[bluntblade]

Finally got to Aurelian, Brooks' Alpharius and Wraight's Sanguinius.

 

I don't think I have anything new to say about Aurelian, but I feel like it gives a good look at Lorgar's burgeoning pride and informs Slaves to Darkness in particular. 

 

Alpharius is really interesting - I still wonder just how much of it I believe, which feels intentional. And equally, if it is all fibs, then it feels like you're still learning about the Twins in terms of what story they'd tell about themselves.

 

I wondered just where the latter was going for a little bit, but it ultimately became one of the most startling and subtle tragedies I've come across in the whole setting.

Spoiler

There's something so, so 40K about a key part of Sanguinius' humanity being blotted out of posterity because he's required to be the perfect martyr. And an early (the first?) Sanguinala to crown the epilogue. Chef's kiss.

Also, I genuinely laughed very loudly when I realised that a certain cameo was being built up to.

Edited August 31, 2023 by bluntblade

[Krelious]

Read the Shadow of the Eighth novel, I'll say that I took my time to finish it and I got the gist of the plot, starts off well and the middle is good but towards the end I just really didnt know much of what was going on and then the book kinda just ends or just magically resolves itself because it seems like they were in big danger and then suddenly the enemies were all dead? To me this book felt like it was incomplete.  Id rate it a 7.5, its not bad but its also not excellent. Generally my standards for GW novels is that if its not Gav Thorpe and its not Battle for the Abyss then give it a shot. 

 

Ive just started Fall of Cadia and I can say that Rath seems to be a much more invested author.  

[Urauloth]

I read Shadow recently too, it starts out well and there's a lot of interesting detail in there but man, it just ends out of nowhere. It feels like half a book.

Looking forward to Fall of Cadia - I haven't read anything by Rath before, but I've heard he's good.

[cheywood]

The Iron Kingdom 

 

We’re right around the halfway point of DoF, and man what a bastion of mediocrity it is. None of the books have been great or atrocious, a few have been readable and a few have been less readable, but above all the series has lacked a sense of cohesive identity, or even a basic through line to make the novels feel connected. The Iron Kingdom epitomizes this.
 

It’s not a bad book, Kyme’s prose is more readable than ever (excepting the rather excellent Volpone Glory) and I quite like the concepts at play, but by the end it falls into action cliches and poorly connected plotlines. Besides those minor sins it does nothing to add to the story of Dawn of Fire, or give a reason for its own existence. It’s just another bit of filling to define the post-rift setting and show how isolated worlds respond to the Crusade’s arrival. That’s a fine subject for a story, but is it of such primary importance that it deserves to be part of a series that tells the widescreen story of the biggest moments in the first phase of the Indomitus Crusade? I say it very much isn’t. Disappointed that GW still hasn’t learned how to structure a multi-author novel series after all this time. 
 

5.0/10 - to taste

Edited October 19, 2023 by cheywood

[Krelious]

The Tour of Duty reading list

 

Shadow of the Eighth, 7.5/10 

Started off strong then kind of meandered and I found it hard to get through, then it just kinda ended. Wasnt anything special.  Felt like a bridging story. 

 

The Fall of Cadia 8.8/10

I think Rath was given a difficult book to write and he did a great job at what id essentially describe as the 40k siege of Terra totally encapsulated in one novel. It suffers from the same problem as Siege of Terra where there are so many plot threads that its hard to get with the characters and enjoy them to the point I was confusing Hellsker with the other woman pilot, and then once I felt like I was attached  to and got the characters the novel ended.  Felt sad for the fortress child as she was intriguing, felt Sad for Abbadon. I wish there was more Chaos perspective in this novel outside that  daemon prince who took up too much screen time. Trazyn is a welcome guest character as always.  This book felt like it needed to be 150 pages shorter or 300 pages longer. Its possible I just needed to read this book faster to have proper retention.

That being said id consider it a mandatory read as it has its moments even if everyone knows how it ends. 

 

Creed Ashes of Cadia 9.2/10

Jude Reid has a very dynamic and descriptive writing style that really lends to the imagination of building whats happening in the book in your head. Being a Surgeon she is often loves to put to put her knowledge of human anatomy into narrative focus which is great fun and a bit different. This book was a fun read and an absolute must read follow up to The Fall of Cadia. It was a terrible day for rain when the

Spoiler

dog was shot. 

characters were spot on, felt real, well paced and structured. I hope to see more from Reid as she is rather unique and delightful in her style.

 

Cadian Blood 10/10

Absolute masterwork and I regret not reading it sooner.  Im blown away not only at how good of an author ADB is but his absolute passion for 40k that this is his first novel and possibly his best work, he just gets Warhammer 40k on a level no one else does.  With four ADB books left to read I feel good about my decision to delay reading them all because then I wouldnt have anything to look forward to. I'd throw this out there and never regret it, ADB is one of the best english authors of all time,  his work deserves to be studied in schools as he somehow managed to put his soul onto paper.  I think it was a nice touch to have this book follow up from Ashes of Cadia due to the Emperor's Tarot being referenced as well as Nurgle being the primary chaos enemy.  This was a fun blast from the past in the sense I got a feeling that the 40k of 2009 is a bit different from the 40k of 2023 as well I think the authors of today are definitely managed by some sensibilities of political correctness. I mean ADB wrote a guard novel without any women in it as well as having a singled out a

Spoiler

darker skinned non-Cadian commissar being executed for his actions

If im going to be honest I really liked Cadian Blood because it felt like a breath of fresh air to have a military setting where only men are involved and they get to do guy stuff and bro it up, it felt real. I dont think Space Marines count for that because they are more of a warrior monk faction who are a bit wacky from being trans-human, you cant really relate to them in the same way as they are inhuman angels in their own regard.  I just hope everyone takes this analysis with a bit of humour in that its pretty stressed that the Cadians do not like having commissars or foreigners in their unit and then the obtuse commissar signs his own death warrant when he tried to shoot/threaten the Warden-Captain into compliance while all his men turned on the commissar. Probably my favourite moment in the novel. The final battle was also quite spectacular. I think ADB really pioneered or helped along the gross language used to describe plague marines as beyond Flight of the Eisenstein I dont think there is any other previous novelization of them.

 

After reading four Cadian books in a row I absolutely feel inspired by them and they genuinely feel like a real people in my mind. I think I have read a grand total of 0 guard novels before this as I was focused on Space Marines, CSM or Necrons, as I had found the baseline humans from Horus Heresy to be largely boring. I think the purple eyed Cadians are a great lot. 

 

Cadia Stands!

 

Oh wait I forgot,

 

Genefather 9.7/10

 

I finished this novel in two days because it was so good. Probably one of the most mandatory reads in 40k and just I love the way the book was structured and flows that the only minor bit I felt disinterested in was the section with the knight pilots albeit the description of resisting chaos corruption and the link between the machine and pilot's souls were beautiful. This book had wonderful descriptive language in order to help build a complex imaginary landscape. I think one bit as I recall I particularly liked was at the start of chapter 9 there is a bit about how different psyker/religious factions in the 40k faction built their own theological structures and visual art style to help them navigate the madness of the warp without becoming chaos corrupted. I just thought that bit was really cool.  Cawl is a very kind and dynamic character dealing with difficult politics which is counterpoised by Bile being like a narcissstic parent only caring about his golden child pursuing his own ends by any means, he feels like Cawl but without any moral guidance, he is an echo of the imperium without any dressing up. Bile is a man with a mission and he gets what he wants while being scrappy about it. He feels a lot like the Heath Ledger Joker mixed with Charles Darwin and Nietzsche and whatever mad scientist archetype. I think with any chaos lead like Abbadon, Bile is completely deluded about his own intentions while feeding his own ego with the idea hes doing incredibly immoral things in order to save humanity. Cawl in contrast engages in dubious behaviors or occupies spaces of ambiguous interpretations so he can get :cuss: done while avoiding theological hamstringing. I think the key lesson that should be learned from this book as well as the short story in the limited edition is that Cawl gains the attention of Bile and suffers poetic justice because Cawl thinks he can engage in moral relativism, steal, murder and lie while dressing it up a bit while Bile doesnt even bother dressing anything up and is at least in some respects an honest murderer, manipulator, and scumbag because hes responsible to his own ideology. I think Bile represents a wake up call that Cawl has missed and is still deluding himself as Bile says they are equals and hopes to work together while Cawl dismisses him and then doubles down saying "The difference is I'm right". I feel Cawl is in very dangerous territory with his next mission, the thing is that if Cawl fails some really bad :cuss: could happen which would spell the doom of the Imperium at the very least. Bile on the other hand is very safe with his New Men that they could probably eek out a living even if chaos consumed the entire galaxy or Necrons go crazy. Bile says that he wants his New Men to have their own Primarch or leader figure, to live on without him but hes lying to himself because he very clearly wants to live forever even if he thinks its not possible at the time being.

 

I have not read all of Haley's works and found him rather hit or miss in the past but I hope this book marks a significant and longstanding improvement in his work. 

[byrd9999]

Awesome reviews, Krelious, thank you so much for taking the time to think and type all of that!

[Ubiquitous1984]

8 hours ago, byrd9999 said:

Awesome reviews, Krelious, thank you so much for taking the time to think and type all of that!

Indeed, I don’t know if people realise how appreciated these reviews are.  Even the short reviews can be helpful when deciding whether or not to buy a book or not, and a score is always welcome!