Rate what you Read, or the fight against Necromancy

[byrd9999]

@byrd9999

 

Did you read Brotherhood of the Storm before reading Scars? The former is arguably the best novella in the HH series IMO, especially when read in order with Scars and PoH

 

 

No, I haven't read Brotherhood of the Storm yet, but thanks for the heads-up. I'm very interested in the White Scares' Heresy arc now. It's collected in Legacies of Betrayal (book 31), so I've only got the 600-page McNeill monster Vengeful Spirit and the poorly-received Damnation of Pythos to go...

 

I have the Khan primarch book on my shelf, but I'm going to wait until I've read Path of Heaven first.

 

Incidentally, the only story from the HH that I have read out of order is Last Son of Prospero because I met Chris Wraight at a book signing (lovely chap, incredibly nice) and asked him about Rebirth and he said I should read Last Son of Prospero too. I kinda wished I'd waited because it's a bit of a spoiler, but it is an awesome story.

[DarkChaplain]

For what it's worth, Damnation of Pythos is actually pretty good. It simply isn't what people wanted at that stage in the series, as it is fairly self-contained (despite setting up some things even post-Heresy) and dealt with the Shattered Legions / Iron Hands, something some folks felt they'd had enough of already (when really, they hadn't been featured much outside of B-plots in Angel Exterminatus and some shorts...)

 

Also, I'd actually recommend you read Jaghatai Khan: Warhawk of Chogoris now, after Scars (although before it / Brotherhood of the Storm would've been best); it doesn't quite add as much as you'd think after the fact, and serves mostly as a late lead-in to their arc, rounding it off. It's a weird one, in my opinion.

Edited October 27, 2019 by DarkChaplain

[MegaVolt87]

I recently read Vulkan Lives- am I the only one that didn't mind this? I know Nick Kyme catches a lot of flack, I though this was decent to read. Konrad's murder dungeon  was like a saw film, I think if it went way more dark + horrific this would be an amazing book IMO. 

[DarkChaplain]

I didn't particularly mind it either, frankly. There were some aspects I thought a bit overdone, but that's about it.

[Fedor]

I enjoyed most of it too. It had some good dropsite massacre scenes i don't think i've ever seen mentioned,or the brief parts with ferrus that ended up memed to death, but actually were quite interesting imo. I'd say Promethean Sun and Feat of Iron are the only HH Kyme stories that deserve the amount of dismissal they get from back to front. There are flaws and things you can pick apart about the other stuff, especially some of Deathfire, but usually i find a good amount to enjoy as well.

[DarkChaplain]

Even Promethean Sun I think was great for half of it, specifically the Vulkan-and-his-dad parts. The action was fairly forgettable throughout the novella, but seeing Vulkan discuss his space-heritage with his adoptive father, and deciding "no more" regarding the Dark Eldar raids? That was nice.

[Xisor]

Even Promethean Sun I think was great for half of it, specifically the Vulkan-and-his-dad parts.

 

Nocturne has such a strong resemblance to Kansas. I wonder if N'bel's partner was called Martha?

Edited November 1, 2019 by Xisor

[Roomsky]

To chime in on from the more negative side of things in Vulkan Lives...

The prose is terrible (Mount Deathfire in all its fiery glory), the characters are either interchangeable, or hollowed-out versions of existing characters (Grammaticus). I prefer to refer to this book as The Character Assassination of Konrad Curze by the Coward Nick Kyme, because that's essentially what he spends the whole book doing. Draw on the rich material sketched by Spurrier and ADB? No. Make something original and interesting? No. Turn Curze into a less subtle version of what people think The Joker is? Absolutely. 

 

The book makes no sense, either. You can't convince me Horus would willfully allow Konrad to drop Vulkan in a big maze instead of having him executed. Wasting so much materiel and resources so a crazy person can try (and fail) to prove a point is maddening. There is no sensible version of the Heresy where Horus doesn't have Vulkan chopped into tiny pieces and ejected piecemeal out the airlock over various suns. 

 

Kyme has the cajones to write a primarch's perspective from the first person, where we learn Vulkan is no different from any other Salamander, except perhaps for the fact he's a walking orb of confusion, because everyone in the immediate area becomes an idiot so he can appear "wise." Oh yes Vulkan, those starving people should feed each other, something anyone of average intellect would have figured out within a few minutes. So wise. SOOOO WIIIISEEEEE. He does however have the special primarch power of beating a power-armoured Curze insensate while naked, wasted, and hallucinating. Oh, and then he makes his disabled teleport hammer work anyway because he's just SO WISE.

 

Why, it's almost as bad as Promethean Sun.

 

Anyway,

 

The Path of Heaven - Chris Wraight

 

Good, great even, but not quite the best of the best. I'll admit it may be personal preference, but all the navigator stuff didn't really land for me. It certainly leads to a strong conclusion, but I really didn't find it at all interesting, especially when the book feels a bit crowded. It does a great job with all of the main cast, it was one of the first where you really got to feel just how worn-down the loyalists were at this point, and does some admirable damage control for the Emperor's Children. But Shiban, Torghun, Yesugai, Szu, Arvida Jaghatai, Mortarion, Cario, and Eidolon are all so captivating I would rather just have more with them than more vagaries about the Webway project. This becomes more apparent during the conclusion, a certain death scene would have been far more of a tear-jerker if he'd been a bit more active throughout.

 

I also wasn't a fan of the final battle against the Keeper of Secrets. The book builds 3 great antagonists: Mortarion is satisfyingly thwarted, Eidolon gets to wreak havoc and cement himself as an actual threat, and Cario gets a bit of poetic triumph before the end, good finishes for 3 interesting foes. And then Jaghatai fights a Keeper of Secrets despite it having no personality and no real role in the story other than something for Jaghatai to punch. Could have had a naval climax against Eidolon instead and had a much less tedious finale.

 

Still, the book is good. All the major marines and primarchs land, all are interesting, all have nuance, and you're left wanting more of all of them. The writing, as always from Wraight, is excellent. The rivalry with Mortarion is handled superbly, and reaches an excellent conclusion without them ever coming face to face (something the series needed waaaay more of). The Scars continue to be one of the most textured legions, and the tension between Torghun and Shiban has several great twists on the usual cliche. 

 

Definitely a Must Read, and one of the series' better entries. Perhaps it tried to do a little too much? Hard to say when so much of it is done flawlessly.

 

ANR: 8/10

[StrangerOrders]

To chime in on from the more negative side of things in Vulkan Lives...

The prose is terrible (Mount Deathfire in all its fiery glory), the characters are either interchangeable, or hollowed-out versions of existing characters (Grammaticus). I prefer to refer to this book as The Character Assassination of Konrad Curze by the Coward Nick Kyme, because that's essentially what he spends the whole book doing. Draw on the rich material sketched by Spurrier and ADB? No. Make something original and interesting? No. Turn Curze into a less subtle version of what people think The Joker is? Absolutely. 

 

The book makes no sense, either. You can't convince me Horus would willfully allow Konrad to drop Vulkan in a big maze instead of having him executed. Wasting so much materiel and resources so a crazy person can try (and fail) to prove a point is maddening. There is no sensible version of the Heresy where Horus doesn't have Vulkan chopped into tiny pieces and ejected piecemeal out the airlock over various suns. 

 

Kyme has the cajones to write a primarch's perspective from the first person, where we learn Vulkan is no different from any other Salamander, except perhaps for the fact he's a walking orb of confusion, because everyone in the immediate area becomes an idiot so he can appear "wise." Oh yes Vulkan, those starving people should feed each other, something anyone of average intellect would have figured out within a few minutes. So wise. SOOOO WIIIISEEEEE. He does however have the special primarch power of beating a power-armoured Curze insensate while naked, wasted, and hallucinating. Oh, and then he makes his disabled teleport hammer work anyway because he's just SO WISE.

 

Why, it's almost as bad as Promethean Sun.

 

I laughed so hard at this description. 

 

I don't mind writing First Person for a Primarch if you are really going to have fun with it.

 

But I have rarely found Vulkan to be any degree of fun. Interestingly, I have never even found him human or likeable. Kyme (and it is always Kyme) has tried so hard to beat it into our collective heads that Vulcan is the most 'human' and moral Primarch that it has sort of taught me the opposite.

 

As written, I find Vulcan to be a clearly inhuman construct trying to ape human emotion while seemingly lacking any negative emotions beyond those generated by external pressures. His kindness is also a bit hard to differentiate from grating condescension at times.

[SkimaskMohawk]

The best Vulcan depiction imo is Mercy of the Dragon (which is still by kyme). You get to see him be merciful and inspiring, without really having to hear him talk at all.

[Fedor]

I can definitely see the criticism of Curze in Vulkan Lives (the usual counter i see to critique of it and his depiction in Unremembered Empire being we're now seeing him at his most depraved and genuinely unravelling) but Grammaticus was not a character that had any real depth to hollow out or quirks to smooth out in the first place imo. In Legion he was just a slightly tongue in cheek spymaster that allowed us an unusual view at the Alpha Legion, with the sole bit of depth being his weariness at immortality and doubt at working for the Cabal against humanity. That was fine and still there in VL and the rest of his appearances.

 

Incidentally i remember on warseer after Vulkan Lives came out and was getting discussed, making a brief joke post saying something along the lines of i was getting a bit worried the Heresy team were genuinely going for full on absurdist comedy now and were setting up having an immortal James Bond joke character that Abnett had just recently created kill a now suddenly immortal Vulkan for good in only the very next book with a magic sword (yeah it was a trident or whatever i know) .

 

Next day i got a pm from Kyme going into detail about how i had failed to grasp the themes and mythological angle of what he and Abnett were doing, going over some of what would happen in Unremembered Empire and even some things that showed up in his later salamanders HH books. At the time i thought it was just a troll as it was an account with only one or two posts and i had never noticed him interact with the fans on any of the boards, but everything said turned out accurately. Made me feel bad as a lot of the criticism of him was savage at that time and i had actually enjoyed most of the book.

[Roomsky]

Different strokes, of course.

 

Grammaticus in Legion seemed to me like someone you could meet, full of conceit and regret veiled with smarm. Grammaticus in Vulkan Lives was a guy who said "fug" a lot.

 

Of course this happens with most authors who aren't Wraight, ADB, Abnett, etc when they follow up from Wraight, ADB, Abnett, etc (See Horus Rising through Galaxy in Flames) but I don't think that makes the point any less valid.

 

And I mean no personal offence to Kyme or Abnett when I say that if the readership at large fails to notice what you were going for it's on you, not the readership.

[b1soul]

Nah man, you just don't comprehend greatness lol

[bluntblade]

There is a certain element of "Fulgrim/Horus/Eidolon/Dorn/Abaddon must make a Lesser Author check. If he rolls below 3, he loses 1 dimension and 40 IQ points."

[aa.logan]

I misposted. Edited November 3, 2019 by aa.logan

[Roomsky]

The Master of Mankind - Aaron Dembski-Bowden

 

I believe this is the first time I've given this book a proper review on here.

 

Master of Mankind is a divisive book, and I'd be lying if I said I couldn't see why. On one hand, in a technical sense this may be the best thing Aaron has ever written, and maybe the best in all of BL. The quality of writing itself is just wonderful. Every passage is poetic without being overwrought, and no bit of exposition feels like it was thrown haphazardly into the script. For the most part, the economy of writing is superb as well, every character introduction happens organically while moving the plot forward. The book deftly shows without telling at every opportunity.

 

There's a lot holding it back from being a personal favourite, though. I'm going to nitpick this thing because it deserves it, the writing is good enough that a lot that I would give a pass in a lesser author's book just stands out all the more here.

 

For being the other half of the Emperor's main fighting force, the Sisters of Silence are quite bland here. Neither Krole nor Kaera really get any attention, and for a book about who the Emperor is to different people, we don't really get anything of substance out of the Sisters, which is a shame.

 

The book is full of stunning, intriguing, and evocative scenes, but it is noticeably punctuated by entire sequences that are nothing but plot devices. Land is charming, Zephon is the best-written Blood Angel in the entire series, and you wait with bated breath for more Ra as he brings with him the big E, but this all only accentuates how little I care about some Titan princeps. The worst offenders, though, are Diocletian and Drach'nyen. Atop being the books least likable character (which is saying something after Kane shoots a refugee dead for essentially no reason), there is nothing compelling about Dio. Yes, I understand he exists to show what a Custodian does and does not value, and how loyalty and duty above all are what make them so effective and incorruptible. But all that means he essentially has no personal goals, there is literally nothing to latch onto. I can't root for his victory or get satisfaction out of his defeat because he has no agency, he is a static character who on top of that is made as unlikable as possible. This is an enormous problem because all the actual war and resource-gathering scenes are about him.

 

Drach'nyen has no personality and barely comes across as a threat until it possesses the Archimandrite. The daemonic army in general have this problem, being a horde without identity throwing numbers without strategy at gold-plated horde without identity. But in a world where a great baddy can be intimidating or interesting, the Echo of the First Murder is neither. It's just a spiky boi who puts the final nail in a coffin that is hard to quantify, and harder to get engaged in because all you get to follow into battle are a daemon with no personality and a golden banana with a personality so caustic it could melt concrete.

 

Ultimately, the issue with the book is that it has good themes and good characters but very little impetus to latch on to. I like Land and Zephon and Jaya and Ra, but none of them have a noticeable impact on the actual War in the Webway for 90%of the book, they stand almost independently of the "plot," and thus I'm left not really caring about how the war goes. The Emperor, arguably the thematic heart of the book, is also handled brilliantly but doesn't do anything tangible for the war effort until the last few pages. All the best parts of the book dance around the big war without really engaging with it, so the war itself is about as uninteresting as it can possibly be. This is a problem when war-scenes keep popping without anything or anyone to latch on to.

 

So, a flawed gem. After all that it's probably a surprise I still give this book a strong 7.5/10, maybe even an 8, but honestly I can't really articulate just how good so much of it is. Writing quality is very important to me and this book knocks it out of the park in that field. Almost all of the main characters are handled very well, and once they actually enter the plot in the last 10%, it's absolutely captivating. Diocletian and Drach'nyen being our eyes onto the warfront was just a remarkably poor move that renders their scenes very well-worded fluff.

 

Oh, and the Emperor actually tells Ra, straight up, that different people interpret him differently. Yes, the book should have included a scene from a primarch's perspective, but that point is quite literally spelled out for the reader. More than that, just because Aaron writes a book doesn't mean it's more or less canon than it's peers. Why so many people took this as some expose and not as another equally canonical set of perspectives on the Emperor to be viewed alongside his previous appearances is beyond me.

 

But hey, go read it and make up your own mind.

[b1soul]

Yes, MoM is fantastically written.

 

Very bland Custodes though...I agree (though perhaps intentionally bland)

[ZaelART]

Chris Wraight's Carrion Throne Audiobook.... Damn.

 

Absolutely loved it.

 

I rate it... A solid <Redacted> out of 10.

Edited November 16, 2019 by ZaelART

[byrd9999]

Graham McNeill - Vengeful Spirit

 

I know McNeill has his fans, but I'm not one of them. My heart sank when i picked up the book and realised it was going to be a whopping 620 pages of McNeill's stilted and cliched prose. Way too many characters, some of whom get a trite "backstory", with very little to actually distinguish them. There seem to be the "good guys", who are totally bland, and the "bad guys" who constantly snipe and snap at each other like cartoon GI Joe villains.

 

Horus lost all his charisma, diplomacy and tactical nous, and then mysteriously reappeared as a "god" (with McNeill totally wimping out on describing the only important action in the entire book). Abaddon was a grunting and petulant teenager. The House Devine plotline was one-dimensional, unnecessary and cringeworthy. The big battle scenes could be reduced from 100 pages to a single paragraph. The Space Wolf hisses and bares his canines, of course. Loken is Loken because he is described a few times as being "straight up and down".

 

Sometimes more is less, and while I think there is a good novella hidden somewhere in the 620 pages, as it stands The Vengeful Spirit is probably ranked 28th out of 29 in the Heresy so far, beating only Battle for the Abyss (with which this book shares several parallels).

 

Bluntblade, I loved your previous post in this thread. McNeill definitely rolled a natural 1 :)

 

2/10

[StrangerOrders]

Graham McNeill - Vengeful Spirit

 

I know McNeill has his fans, but I'm not one of them. My heart sank when i picked up the book and realised it was going to be a whopping 620 pages of McNeill's stilted and cliched prose. Way too many characters, some of whom get a trite "backstory", with very little to actually distinguish them. There seem to be the "good guys", who are totally bland, and the "bad guys" who constantly snipe and snap at each other like cartoon GI Joe villains.

 

Horus lost all his charisma, diplomacy and tactical nous, and then mysteriously reappeared as a "god" (with McNeill totally wimping out on describing the only important action in the entire book). Abaddon was a grunting and petulant teenager. The House Devine plotline was one-dimensional, unnecessary and cringeworthy. The big battle scenes could be reduced from 100 pages to a single paragraph. The Space Wolf hisses and bares his canines, of course. Loken is Loken because he is described a few times as being "straight up and down".

 

Sometimes more is less, and while I think there is a good novella hidden somewhere in the 620 pages, as it stands The Vengeful Spirit is probably ranked 28th out of 29 in the Heresy so far, beating only Battle for the Abyss (with which this book shares several parallels).

 

Bluntblade, I loved your previous post in this thread. McNeill definitely rolled a natural 1

 

2/10

McNeil is a good writer I think. 

 

That does not excuse the fact that you should never let him near a Legion with 'wolf' in its name. 

 

His Space Wolves are the reason alot of fans ardently believe that the Sixth are legitimately dumb, rather than nuanced and sometimes cruel like other writers mostly go with. A Thousand Sons was an exceptional read but Wyrdmake comes across as an internet troll with a skullcap and Scarsensen honestly comes across as being as bright as a shattered lightbulb. It is honestly hard to reconcile them with their portrayals in Prospero Burns their ideology might be the same but their personalities and demeanor come across as actually being human (well, Astartes) and you get the idea that their is more to their thinking than screaming 'nerd' at the top of their lungs. 

 

I am not even going to mention Dark Gods because that is functionally where the Luna Wolf narrative was burned at the stake. Every nuance and multi-faceted character comes across as a cartoon, I once heard Abaddon's character-shift be attributed to rectally-implanted Butcher's Nails and it is fairly believable. He continued this in Spirit and it is hard for me not to say that a fair bit of the blame for the Horus Heresy avoiding the Luna Wolves like a plot tumour can't be laid on his playing a hand in making them into a ball of poor-discipline and 'Cthonian Savagery' memes. Which annoys me to no end when you consider their cool 'early republic legions' vibe in Rising. 

 

Which is more than you can say about the Dark Mechanicus, whose motivation he basically boiled down to 'because evil and Kelbor has an inferiority complex'.

 

He also has a weird thing where he seems to be bad at writing a two-sided conflict. *Looks at his Prospero being more destroyed by TS captains while the Space Wolves and Custodians get stomped*.

 

But I stand by what i said initially, he is an exceptional world builder. If there was ever someone to write a sourcebook on a planet, or a GRRM style 'History Book' in 30k, it should be him by a mile. He has really cool ideas and honestly has a fantastic head for the lore, obscure theories and consistency. He just has trouble executing on them, I think. And even that is YMMV.

 

Heck, I would love to see him write an insetting history of the Unification Wars as told by some random historian.

Edited November 17, 2019 by StrangerOrders

[Knockagh]

I also reread (listened to) double eagle when it came out on audio recently. I never finished it. I got really bored with it, which I didn’t find the first time round. It was well enough read by the narrator, I just found the constant Battle of Britain cliches overused and unoriginal. It was far too much acombat orientated book for my tastes today. Left me rather bored. Edited November 21, 2019 by Knockagh

[byrd9999]

My family and I just finished listening to The Beast Inside audio drama, written by Darius Hinks.

 

It was enjoyable, and probably the least confusing BL audio drama I have heard so far. I find that most BL audio dramas do a poor job of setting the scene or conveying actual drama so that I have to listen and re-listen to parts several times to figure out what was happening (looking at you Key to Infinity by John French, with Ahriman sounding like some aged duffer).

 

The Beast Inside was clear and concise, atmospheric, well acted, and a good length. Grekh was a real highlight, especially how Draik warms to him over time. The only downside was the relative lack of Ambull in it. With the picture of the Ambull on the front, and the mention in the blurb, I thought it would feature for more than a few seconds at the end.

 

Would have been 9/10 with more Ambull action, but otherwise a solid and enjoyable 7.5/10.

[byrd9999]

The Wicked and the Damned, by Josh Reynolds, Phil Kelly and David Annandale

 

This was a highly enjoyable and very readable collection of three horror stories, with an interlinked introduction, segues and epilogue. Josh Reynolds' story was very funny, moreso than "horror". This was the first Phil Kelly and David Annandale that I've read and I enjoyed both. Kelly's story was probably the most "horror", the best one to read along at night under a lamp. Annandale's story was tense and I liked the desperation of the main character. The way the character deals with faith, and the decisions he makes throughout the story, were great plot points.

 

I was expecting a bit more from the epilogue. I didn't see the "twist" coming, but it would have been nice if they had done a little bit more with it.

 

8/10.

[Roomsky]

Ferrus Manus: The Gorgon of Medusa - David Guymer

 

We’ve all got that one author. The author others give such a hard time but you feel has that spark of genius everyone else seems blind to. For me, this author is David Guymer.

Guymer’s writing is wonderful, it’s incredibly dense but rarely overwrought, and his characters can leave a big impression off of very little screen time. His works are dripping with atmosphere and organic world-building, whatever the faction may be. This book is no exception.

 

I know why a lot of people dislike this book. I don’t consider those points invalid, and if you dislike it because it’s a Primarchs book without much Primarch in it, or that the title legion is frequently overshadowed by the Emperor’s Children, or that Ferrus himself makes so very many mistakes throughout instead of being the awesome showing we never got in the mainline novels, I’m not here to take the piss out of your points.

 

But personally, I couldn’t give less of a :cuss about any of that, and I love the Iron Hands.

 

Ferrus Manus: The Gorgon of Medusa takes the legion apart with such efficiency that I’m surprised Guymer didn’t graduate as a brain surgeon. The book is a deconstruction of the Iron Tenth, and while it may be an odd choice considering there’s not much positive work out there to deconstruct, it doesn’t hurt this piece as its own work. The Iron Hands are a legion obsessed with their own strength, and their inability to handle defeat is on full display here. They repeatedly fail to parse how miserable their pride makes everyone around them, and while they may accept defeat gracefully in the moment, it sends them on impulsive searches for drastic solutions once they’ve had a bit of time to reflect. Despite a reported lack of screen time, this book shows me why Ferrus was a contender for Warmaster, as well as all I need from his personality very effectively. He is brutal and efficient, the Gardinaal were never going to win that war, Ferrus’ outburst at the end or no.

 

The Emperor was in a hurry to reunite the galaxy, and Ferrus would have ensured his ambitious timetable was kept, no cost is too great. And yes, Ferrus’ success is based on having overwhelming resources. The Iron Hands don’t just happen to possess those things, it is a characteristic of their forces.They are brutal and take a sledgehammer to even the most delicate tomato, but that can still be an effective crusade head, just look at Urlock Gaur. They're evil conquerors, which you may have noticed, is perfectly in line with any version of the Imperium of Man.

 

I could go on but I don’t like to make enormous reviews in this thread. The supporting cast is great, Akurduana is very adept but has numerous flaws that make him extremely likeable, and the Gardinaal are the most interesting civilization brought to compliance put to page by far. I also rescind my comments from my first reading about the book being too grimdark for 30k, once you read Guymer’s 40k Iron Hands, these guys are positively benevolent.

 

The re-read gave me a much more positive perspective on the book, definitely up there with Fulgrim and Jaghatai Khan for me.

 

To Taste, judging on the wider community response.

ANR: 8/10

 

Speaking of Primarchs being incompetent…

 

 

Leman Russ: The Great Wolf - Chris Wraight

 

I don’t get how Gorgon of Medusa can get so much :cuss and The Great Wolf can get so much love. The Wolves’ decision to charge into an ongoing void engagement without consulting their allies and actively refusing attempts to communicate might be the greatest showing of ineptitude from a legion all series, and blows any incompetence in Gorgon of Medusa right out of the water. Say what you will about Ferrus, the friendly fire from him was all calculated. The Space Wolves accidentally blew up ten squads of Dark Angels, then got annoyed when the First Legion wished to respond in kind.

 

I did enjoy this quite a bit though, but as DarkChaplain has said in the past, it’s exhausting. There is far too much fighting in this book, to the point where Chris Wraight’s wordplay literally became more enjoyable than the events it was describing. It’s fight scene after fight scene after fight scene with nary a break in between, at least until The Lion teleports into the Tyrant’s throne room. And to be honest, the book from then on is a 10/10 and absolutely justifies slogging through the rest, but a slog it is.

 

Well written bolter porn with an extremely punchy finale. Worth the read but know what you're getting into

 

To Taste

ANR: 6.5/10

 

 

Double Eagle - Dan Abnett

 

This was better than I expected, considering how Guns of Tanith is one of my least favourite Ghosts novels. Abnett’s inability to write air combat seems to have been dealt with, and all the set pieces here are well-written and very tense. It’s nice to have a break from the usual brand of fightan in BL, and is an angle I’m surprised they don’t use more. If Star Wars writing has anything over Black Library (and that’s a big if), it’s probably that it makes great use of fighter pilot stories, and Double Eagle proves 40k needs more of them.

 

Jagdea is the real winner for me, having thankfully recovered from whatever brain disease made her a near-suicidal incompetent in Guns of Tanith. The whole cast though is fairly strong, even the tropiest characters have just enough going on to keep them interesting.

 

I will say the White Bat, while decent imagery, is a pretty squandered antagonist. As usual with the Sabbat books, the Chaos side of things is woefully underdeveloped, though at least here it’s presented as an actual threat. While the pacing is good and the scenes portraying the frantic life of a pilot are all well done, there are a few too many non-sequiter engagements to keep the flow from being truly excellent. I will also admit I listened to this rather than read it, and most narrations improve pacing and writing issues, so it may not be the most accurate of impressions.

 

Anyway, 7/10

To Taste

[aa.logan]

The Wicked and the Damned, by Josh Reynolds, Phil Kelly and David Annandale

 

This was a highly enjoyable and very readable collection of three horror stories, with an interlinked introduction, segues and epilogue. Josh Reynolds' story was very funny, moreso than "horror". This was the first Phil Kelly and David Annandale that I've read and I enjoyed both. Kelly's story was probably the most "horror", the best one to read along at night under a lamp. Annandale's story was tense and I liked the desperation of the main character. The way the character deals with faith, and the decisions he makes throughout the story, were great plot points.

 

I was expecting a bit more from the epilogue. I didn't see the "twist" coming, but it would have been nice if they had done a little bit more with it.

 

8/10.

I’ve been meaning to write up my thoughts on this book for absolutely ages, so I might as well now...

 

It’s a really good anthology and one that I’d happily recommend to anyone wavering about reading anything on the Horror imprint; these stories are all absolutely 40k stories, and would also fit in any non-horror anthology unobtrusively.

 

I’d say that Josh’s contribution is the strongest of the three, certainly it is the story that remains the most vivid in my mind in the many months since I read it. At the time,I wouldn’t have considered it funny per se, but the above review has got me reconsidering it’s bleakly humorous and absurd aspects. Obviously it owes a debt to WW1, being set in a seemingly perpetual trench war but maybe it also leans on the satires that followed it like the Good Soldier Svejk? Either way, it’s really good, an exploration of how grinding conflict alone can wear down a man’s psyche before one even considers the horrors unique to the 41st millennium.

 

Annandale’s contribution is a nicely atmospheric story that is probably as close as this collection gets to ‘standard’ 40k- there’s an awful lot of nice character work, exploring faith and conflicting motivations in the Imperium but there is also

a giant Chaos spawn ripping open a space station

.

 

Phil Kelly’s tale works in so many ways, but for me, let’s itself down in a pretty significant one. Again focusing on members of the Astra Militarum, I guess this story is an exploration of guilt as much as anything else, it’s a pretty gruesome tale of a bunch of Gaunt’s Ghosts spoiler ahoy

Cuus and Meryns

. My only fault with this is the fact that the story is populated by far too many notable regiments- Mordians, Savlars and Catachans at least, if my memory serves me correctly. This makes the story feel a little too Star Wars-y for my liking; the military forces of the Imperium are so huge and diverse, having such famous ones bump into each other like this diminishes the story for me by taking me out of universe and unsuspending my disbelief; a minor flaw on the surface but one that really hampered my enjoyment of an otherwise excellent story.

 

Score: a high number out of ten

Recommendation: Read the book sooner rather than later.