The Siege of Terra: The Lost and the Damned

[Lucerne]

The thing is that terra was supposed to be the Big One. There is no room for screw ups or “forgettable” given the subject matter...but that’s what we got.

[b1soul]

At least Raldoron brutally humiliated

Skraivok and essentially threw him off a cliff...there is that

[Izlude]

I am to looking forward to a proper Perturabo and Dorn face off (as in seige stuff as they will probably not trade fists with each other...who knows!). It sounds like the next book, The Wall, will be that from what I have gathered.

[bluntblade]

I still want a whole load of scenes with them facing off via siege ops.

[Marshal Rohr]

Bought the Audio and Kindle versions today, and already on Chapter 4. Trying to collect info and details aside from the main narrative as I go along.

[Grey Angel]

Bought the Audio and Kindle versions today, and already on Chapter 4. Trying to collect info and details aside from the main narrative as I go along.

Just a warning chapter 16 is missing from the audiobook, and chapter 17 is repeated

[DarkChaplain]

Just refunded my audiobook on Audible. They doubled up on chapter 17 and it is missing chapter 16. Let's hope they fix this more quickly than The Devastation of Baal, which took them about a month or more.

 

Edit: Sniped by a minute, wowzer! Glad it wasn't just me, then.

Edited October 12, 2019 by DarkChaplain

[Marshal Rohr]

Glad I got the Kindle whispersync version then :D That would’ve been confusing as hell.

 

Update: I really wish they’d stop doing foreign accents.

Edited October 12, 2019 by Marshal Rohr

[Ubiquitous1984]

Glad I got the Kindle whispersync version then That would’ve been confusing as hell.

 

Update: I really wish they’d stop doing foreign accents.

What foreign accents?

[Marshal Rohr]

The narrator does a very.... stereotypical Asian accent for Katsuhiro that is uncomfortable to listen to.

[StrangerOrders]

The narrator does a very.... stereotypical Asian accent for Katsuhiro that is uncomfortable to listen to.

Stereotypical asian is not quite right, I've never heard that accent used for anything other than specifically Japanese. It just doesnt make a lick of sense to use it 40k and have it be that thick.

 

They are all speaking gothic, so accents that thick among themselves dont really make sense. I mean, a more reasonable accent would be sort of a regional habit of speaking which should actually be very easy to do with Japanese, just look at the loan words and puzzle out the grammatical oddities. Heck, most english speaking countries have regions where the english sounds closer to eldritch incantations to an elder god than 'proper' english.

 

What strikes me as kind of funny is that you never see what is actually a Japanese mannerism carry over, namely speaking from so deep in your throat that your voice sounds needlessly deep. 

 

On a less critical note, I actually liked learning a bit more about Terra in the books. A disappointment with Forgeworld has been that I have next to no idea what is up with whatever became East Asia or Latin America, closest you get is that mention of Mag-Lev clans.

 

Its interesting that the term 'Dragon Nations' was used rather than 'Dragon Empire' as it was used once or twice prior. Makes me wonder if the 'Dragon Empire' was more than Japan and the Emp broke it down or if the Japanese Isles have devolved back into regional warring states under a nominal ruler in 30k again. The later would actually kinda make sense since they are all likely mesas (I recall the Pacific still being around but being so tiny that its not getting that far. 

[Marshal Rohr]

It sounds like he’s blowing his cheeks out when he speaks, which people usually do to caricature an obese speaker with jowls. This shows up for Nurgle Demons. Also the demon voices throw me right out of the story. I’m think I’m just vanilla and like my audiobooks to be read instead of acted. I’m a weirdo though, so it’s personal taste. Edited October 12, 2019 by Marshal Rohr

[StrangerOrders]

It sounds like he’s blowing his cheeks out when he speaks, which people usually do to caricature an obese speaker with jowls. This shows up for Nurgle Demons. Also the demon voices throw me right out of the story. I’m think I’m just vanilla and like my audiobooks to be read instead of acted. I’m a weirdo though, so it’s personal taste.

I think its ultimately unfair to expect a single Reader to be able to do every accent perfectly, but what irks me is Keeble's inconsistency. He has good if limited voices for the most part but he seems to never keep them on the same characters.

 

For some reason he made all of the Daemons sound identical to hear, which is weird as heck. I associate alot of things with Fulgrim, including inconsistency between writers, but a weird and deep voice is not one at all. 

 

Katsuhiro I don't enjoy as a written character. I know its 40k but I do not enjoy having entire PoV dedicated to a helpless guy getting repeatedly kicked in the gut by life. That works as a one-shot for a chapter at most but it makes miserable reading for entire book.

[mc warhammer]

The narrator does a very.... stereotypical Asian accent for Katsuhiro that is uncomfortable to listen to.

man, is BL still pulling this? it’s bad enough that they feel the need to describe the khan’s speech as “accented” and that whole mcneil thing in 10k sons

[StrangerOrders]

 

The narrator does a very.... stereotypical Asian accent for Katsuhiro that is uncomfortable to listen to.

man, is BL still pulling this? it’s bad enough that they feel the need to describe the khan’s speech as “accented” and that whole mcneil thing in 10k sons

 

Personally don't mind the Khan having an accent, Chogorian being unnaturally weird is almost a plot device. 

 

It would be like complaining about Russ's goofy-butt accent, its really dumb to complain when Fenrisian being weird is also a plot device.

 

Its weird because you are dealing with a Terran, having a regional accent is fine. Anyone who tells you they dont have an accent is lying to you. But him having a weirdly heavy accent when no one else really does is super odd. A slight accent would have been fine, applying them to everyone is fine (although what a Baltic accent sounds like is outside my own experience) but having him have a very stereotypical Japanese (I'm sorry but they dont stick that one on Chinese characters in media) 'accent' is weird. 

 

The weirdest accent in the book is anything warp-y though, they all use the same voice and are talking to each other. I promise you that you will get a headache trying to track the conversation. Angron and Fulgrim sounding alike is unnatural.

 

Edit: The accent choices are sometimes weird with BL though, who the heck decided Night Lords were Russian?

Edited October 13, 2019 by StrangerOrders

[b1soul]

The guy is Terran who speaks Gothic his whole life. A faint accent would have made more sense.

[StrangerOrders]

The guy is Terran who speaks Gothic his whole life. A faint accent would have made more sense.

Pretty much my point, if you want to make a point of him being Japanese for the sake of performance then it makes sense being very thin and being about mannerisms more than anything else, like an actual regional accent tends to be rather than an accent associated with learning a language.

 

That is different from Russ and Jaghatai who are from very different planets. Its actually kind of weird that more Primarchs don't have them (which is weird since Horus is specifically said to be very good at faking one) and that Kurze is randomly russian. 

 

Granted you could make the argument that both the Warhawk and the Wolf King come from languages that are notoriously next to impossible to learn and are the sort of people to lay it on thick just to troll you. 

 

But hey, you take what you can. I do appreciate some world building as to what is up with East Asia in 30k, that and latin america have more or less been the big voids of lore on Unification War Terra. 

 

I am still very much stuck on the idea of the choice of terms for 'Dragon Nations' because the home islands are already super regionalistic so it would be pretty clever of BL to have outright made them feuding states. Also could have sworn that Vulkan's first captain was mentioned to be from there but not 100% sure (he is definitely Terran at least). 

 

On something that I 100% like about the book is Sanguinius.

 

For once he isnt a miserable buzz-kill that does nothing but sulk, he is actually almost chipper now that he is largely at peace. I really liked him flying around using precog to troll Horus to kill time while musing as to how exactly his flight works and why it doesnt make sense (he even snarks that he once tried to imagine himself with a 2m Keel Bone). 

[Marshal Rohr]

It’s not about whether or not the characters have accents. It’s about how the detract from listening to the story. I would not bat an eye if the narrator read the whole story in his native accent, but I’m not joking that it will make me count the seconds until he stops when he does another accent that is not his own. I wasn’t trying to derail the topic, I was just saying it pulls me out of the audio and I have started reading the chapters with the humans because it’s so distracting and switching back to audio for the others.

[Kelborn]

Who's the narrator/ actor? Edited October 13, 2019 by Kelborn

[DarkChaplain]

Jonathan Keeble, the usual suspect. And yeah, he's pretty dreadful with accents, which is one of the reasons I've grown increasingly annoyed at BL making him the main narrator for the Heresy. His women are often very grating as well.

[Kelborn]

I'm still mixing up them up, Keeble is also the narrator in Realmslayer and Helsreach, right?

 

I'm basically more a fan of multiple actors per audio though Banks did great in Plague Garden.

[aa.logan]

The vocal portrayal of White Scars and Salamanders in the Heresy stories I’ve listened to has put me right off the idea of listening to the books wholly focused on them. For all that I enjoy audiobooks and Chris Wraight’s prose, the prospect of 12-odd hours of that awful caricatured Fu-Manchu voice would be enough to put me off both for life.

 

I understand why they use different real-world accents; The American perpetual in Legion and the broadly Yorkshire Fists in the Hollow Mountain are notable highlights that I can recall and can add a lot of depth and distinction to the stories. The adoption of ‘foreign’ non-white broad-stroke accents by a white English voice actor to portray the least ‘European’ legions just leaves a funny taste.

 

I’m glad, therefore, that I read this book, since I really quite enjoyed the grimness of Katsuhiro’s chapters.

[Angel_of_Blood]

The accents on their own make up for a large reason of why I just cannot listen to audiobooks. I don't keep track of them well anyway, don't like that if your mind wanders for a moment you could miss something. But I really, really do hate the accents. Think it was Sword of Truth I listened to ages ago? Garro sounded like a heavily constipated old man, and Varren sounded like he was an annoying Londoner. 

[StrangerOrders]

The vocal portrayal of White Scars and Salamanders in the Heresy stories I’ve listened to has put me right off the idea of listening to the books wholly focused on them. For all that I enjoy audiobooks and Chris Wraight’s prose, the prospect of 12-odd hours of that awful caricatured Fu-Manchu voice would be enough to put me off both for life.

 

I understand why they use different real-world accents; The American perpetual in Legion and the broadly Yorkshire Fists in the Hollow Mountain are notable highlights that I can recall and can add a lot of depth and distinction to the stories. The adoption of ‘foreign’ non-white broad-stroke accents by a white English voice actor to portray the least ‘European’ legions just leaves a funny taste.

 

I’m glad, therefore, that I read this book, since I really quite enjoyed the grimness of Katsuhiro’s chapters.

I half agree for the reasons I've said above.

 

Chogorian being difficult is like Fenrisian being difficult. It would be hypocritical in the extreme to fault one and not comment on the goofy over-the-top accent they like to stick on wolves. I accept it because both Legions are partially treated poorly because they struggle with Gothic and the lexicon doesnt translate well. It is also repeatedly used as a plot element in both cases so it would be hilarious if that didnt carry over at all. 

 

The Salamander one I struggle with due to the fact that no one ever talks about Nocturne having a strong accent. I also struggle with it because Salamanders are the domain of Kyme and his writing is always a struggle for me for alot of reasons. 

 

I am a bit forgiving because there are alot of Terran marines from the three Afriks and none of them are ever portrayed as really having any sort of accent. Nor do most Terran Astartes and supporting casts regardless of background. 

 

What really irks me with Terran accents is that they usually arent portrayed in the way that actual regional accents work. The focus should be more on mannerisms and word-choice which are much more realistic to different regions within the same language (anyone who speaks Spanish should be familiar with this particular brand of hell, there is literally a case of 'I am going to take the bus' in one country meaning 'I am going to assault a minor' in another) instead of the difficulty with sound combinations and tonal shifts that are more common to learning a new language. 

 

On the subject of the novel, it was interesting to take a look at the PoV of a Beastman. I also sort of wonder if the blatant selective-memory and hypocrisy is supposed to deliberate with the Alpha Legion agent. Both are very fun regardless.

 

I am actually quite surprised so far, it is not exceptional but it isnt as bad as folks were suggesting it was.

Edited October 13, 2019 by StrangerOrders

[Marshal Rohr]

Halbrecht in the Solar War is from Nord Afrik and has a... German? Accent? Maybe?