Rate what you Read, or the fight against Necromancy

[The Scorpion]

4 hours ago, Fedor said:

Honoured was indeed entirely phoned-in by comparison, but the sgt. character with the indestructible terminator armour was hilarious. Not the vibe that Sanders was probably going for, but still.

The Honoured ends by name-dropping Pelion the Lesser, the protagonist of The Deeper Darkness; the author's short story for Mark of Calth, which is much better in my opinion. Strange that two novels set in the same Calth setting are of such different quality.

[The Scorpion]

On 4/7/2024 at 6:44 AM, Firedrake Cordova said:

 

 

Whilst it falls within the "horror" line, it reads more like a particularly dark entry in the "crime" series than a true horror novel

This is what I feel about The Oubliette by J C Stearns

This is a story of crime and punishment, of Faustian bargains, of fear, but not quite of horror. There is an unsettling ambience of to the themes of corruption, or the consequences of failure, to the transformation that the main character undergoes, but at no point this became truly scary.
It is however, a great story with a quasi-Victorian theme, set in a distant green and rainy land with deep overtones of an arrogant civilization standing in the forgotten ruins of one that is older, richer, darker, and more mythical. 
The narration managed to keep me interested all the way trough, switching between a variety of topics ranging from noble politics to the motivations of the characters and lore nuggets on one of the more enigmatic 40k factions.
I'd think of this as a good Crime Novella that follows the POV of the perpetrator, rather than a Horror novel, but it is absolutely worth the read.

Is it a Must Read though? That I wouldn't be sure. If what you like is action then no, this is small scale, distant. The setting is a world of green continents, of vineyards and rolling oceans, largely untouched by the wars of the galaxy. Of course, this is a galaxy of horrors, and even this distant world has horrors of its own.

It'd say it is To Taste, but I would recommend it to Crime fans who feel like changing the atmosphere away from the gritty hives of places such as Varaguanta.

Edited April 11 by The Scorpion

[Torbenos]

 

Bloodlines by Chris Wraight 

 

Bloodlines served as our introduction to the Warhammer Crime when it first launched, and it was the first novel I read in that collection. It also numbers as one of the few Black Library novels which I have re-read, which likely tells you that my impression is a positive one. I have long been a fan of "domestic 40K" as coined by Dan Abnett, where the dark vastness of the Warhammer 40.000 world functions as a setting for smaller stories.

 

The story of Bloodlines is contained, the stakes are small compared to the fate of worlds and the Imperium. But instead the stakes and the motivations are real. I find the streets of Varaguanta more compelling than most battlefields, and the characters in them strike me as more real. 

 

The story follow Probator Agusto Zidarov, a hard-boiled detective who's gotten older, out-of-shape, disillusioned with well, the world but still maintains some desire to do the right thing. At least when he can. It's the story of a "middle-class" imperial citizens, something not too often seen. Agusto is put on a missing person's case that turns out more difficult than he'd have anticipated while also dealing with a strained family life.

 

This is a story where people who have been off-world are compared to near-xenos, where genestealers are conspiracy theories and people are just trying to make it through the day. There isn't even a war going on, not here, not now. 

 

It's in my top five of Black Library reads. If you like "domestic 40K" you ought to read it.

[aa.logan]

Da Gobbo Rides Again.

 

Who says BL can’t do multi-authour series well? This and the preceding two novellas are evidence that it’s possible. 
 

Recommended heartily and unreservedly.  As dark as anything else in 40k but also the most Optimistic thing they’ve published.

 

10/10.

Edited Friday at 07:23 PM by aa.logan
Too much transformers: autocorrect changed optimistic to Optimus

[Jareddm]

Rhuairidh is a secret GW treasure and is going to knock people's socks off when he gets a higher profile novel some day.

[Noserenda]

7 minutes ago, Jareddm said:

Rhuairidh is a secret GW treasure and is going to knock people's socks off when he gets a higher profile novel some day.

Hes always been a treasure on WHTV and White Dwarf so far :D His Tale of 4 gamers efforts especially should go down in legend lol

[darkhorse0607]

Dunno how many people have seen this but there's a YouTube channel called Mira Manga, she does a BL book club with Arbitor Ian who does lore video. As part of this she does author interviews and her most recent one (upload date is a day ago) is with Chris Wraight discussing Valdor Birth of the Imperium

 

It doesn't have groundbreaking information but given that we have so little interaction with the authors, especially those like Wraight who aren't on social media anymore I figured I'd share it

 

 

[theSpirea]

Mira and Track of Words are blessing and GW should be sending them at least free ebooks of every release.

[Never_born]

25 minutes ago, theSpirea said:

Mira and Track of Words are blessing and GW should be sending them at least free ebooks of every release.

Never going to happen! Would be nice, though…

 

I need to check out these videos though, sounds like Mira is doing an amazing job!