Kal Jericho by Reynolds

[Taliesin]

Anyone intend to pick thjis up. It's been released as a vinyl covered limited edition for EUR 55.00, which is steep.

I am still considering getting it though would have preferred a regular hardback released and will probably pass, for this kind of money.

 

Review:

 

https://www.trackofwords.com/2019/08/11/kal-jerico-sinners-bounty-josh-reynolds/

 

That's certainly encouraging. Haven't found any other reviews online.

 

[Knockagh]

I’ve ordered it, but it hasn’t shipped yet. I haven’t had the ‘item shipped’ email. Although with BL that means little. It’s supposed to ship from the 17th I think.

[theSpirea]

I was thinking about getting it but I'm not that much into Necromunda and I don't think this edition is worth its asking price.

[Knockagh]

The limited edition looks pretty rubbish in the photos l agree. I like Josh and necromunda so took a punt on it. Pretty sure I will regret it. Sometimes I think BL design department are having a day off and they left a student in control.

[Knockagh]

This arrived today. Worse than I thought. The vinyl dust jacket makes it feel like a school text book (at least that’s what they were like in my day!) or a library copy. The paper is pulp paper like a soft back edition. Which puts in in a lower spec than regular hardbacks.

It’s literally terrible quality and presentation. There is an internal picture of Kal, which is fairly weird and I’m not sure how to describe it, looks like he is sitting in a rainbow or glass refraction prism. Not a masterpiece anyway. Waste of money folks, avoid, avoid, avoid. So tacky it looks awful on the shelves anywhere near another book.

 

On the games Workshop site it states one of the key features is a vinyl slipcase. It doesn’t have any kind of slipcase vinyl or otherwise. It has a dust jacket. A slipcase is a rigid box that your book slides into. The folio society put all their books in slipcases. Abysmal.

 

Hopefully the stories good.

Edited August 17, 2019 by Knockagh

[theSpirea]

Was this printed in the UK like the Apocalypse LE? Because that was a rather low paper/print quality. Makes me worried they are planning to print all stuff in the UK.

[Knockagh]

It’s printed and bound in China. If it had been £25 like the Apocalypse book it would have been ok but this at £40 is a total ripoff.

[Knockagh]

I’ve sent an email off to BL asking them if this is the quality they will be producing all future limited editions to. Will await the corporate waffle...

[Red_Shift]

I enjoy reading the kal books but I was hesitant about a limited edition and sadly it looks like I was right to be. For the price they really need to be first rate quality to justify purchase. Sorry to hear this one disappointed.

[Chaeron]

I've now got my copy - looking forward to reading it!

[aa.logan]

I’m not a total fanboy, delusional and blind in my devotion to BL, honest...

 

BUT...

 

I finally picked up my copy today, and the format of the LE perhaps suits the setting of Necromunda and the character of Jericho better than the usual high-quality faux-leather bound versions; it’s formatted beautifully and feels suitably gritty for the underhive. I’d rather have paid less, obviously, but perhaps they were aiming for an appropriate in-universe feel. Or maybe I’m being far too charitable.

 

I’ll read it once I’m through with Rites of Passage, anyway.

[DarkChaplain]

That's kind of the impression I had from the limited edition. It was deliberately corny in style, tacky and dare I say even a little cyberpunk-esque? It shouldn't have been an elegantly bound tome at any rate, but even something like the Fabius Bile limited edition, with its macabre skin-wrapping, would've been out of place. This feels very much like it suits Kal Jericho, though.

[Knockagh]

Cheap and tacky may well suit Kal but there is no excuse to put a premium price on something cheaply produced. atrocious paper quality alongside advertising a slipcase when it doesn’t have one is appalling.

It should have been £25.

[theSpirea]

Is it the same print/edition as Apocalypse?

[Knockagh]

I didn’t buy apocalypse but it has paperback quality paper.

[theSpirea]

Apocalypse was printed in the UK and the paper quality is close to the one used for paperbacks. At least that edition was 31 EUR

[aa.logan]

I’ve had a busy month, so I’ve only just gotten round to finishing this. I’ve reflected on different aspects.

 

First up, the physical book. As I said earlier in this thread, I think the formatting of the ‘standard’ BL limited edition wouldn’t really have worked for Necromunda, so of course they had to do something different. I still think it works really well. Maybe they should have said plastic dust jacket rather than slipcase, but other than that, I honestly can’t fault the presentation. Dust jackets normally do my head in and I remove them while reading, but I actually enjoyed the feel of this one so kept it on. The paper may not be the usual sheer cream used in any of the other limited edition, but it is still of a really good quality- nice and thick, non-absorbent and pleasant to turn. The pages are nicely laid out, again, in a different format to the BL standard, and are pleasant to read. As an object in it’s own right, I’m happy I bought it. As I am really enjoying the new wave of Necromunda fiction, I want to do all I can to encourage more to be published, so I’m opting my purchase of this conveys that message to BL.

 

Right, next comes the trivial matter of the story. I’m sadly ignorant of the Kal Jericho comic strips, and have mentioned in another thread that I struggled with the first of the novels. I will go back to complete the omnibus, but am not in a massive rush to do so. I figured that I could jump ahead and read Sinner’s Bounty without suffering too much from missing prior plot lines, and I think I was right. Earlier events are alluded to if not explicitly described in some cases, and there are plenty of nods and shout-outs to other stories I have read (including Ian Watson’s Inquisition trilogy!). The book also manages to feature most, if not all, named characters to have ForgeWorld models; at first this feels a little like BL at it’s advertorial worst, but Reynolds handles the large cast well, giving them plausible reasons to feature and enough spotlight each to make their inclusion worthwhile. The Redemptionists and Cawdors make for a decent set of antagonists with some decent exploration, as far as I know the most detailed in the resurrected setting, but perhaps not quite as much as I’ve come to expect from this author. Generally it’s paced well, although th ending is perhaps a little abrupt, the epilogue leaves things as nicely poised as you’d expect from a pulpy long-running series.

 

As some of you perhaps can expect from such a painfully wet, bleeding-heart liberal such as myself some aspects of this book have troubled me. I appreciate that Necromunda is basically the Wild-West in spaaace, but the Ratskins are a really problematic group. I think there is a general consensus on here that the Imperium, for all it’s other many faults, isn’t racist- race or ethnicity aren’t, as far as I’m aware, really covered in any other BL books. But on Necromunda the Ratskins (whilst not explicitly a distinct ethnicity) are dismissed as ‘savages’ and persecuted by the uphivers. Whilst bad things happening to people is a perfectly legitimate subject for fiction, for this to be the only instance where it is explored n the setting is a little jarring. Them being ‘Red Injuns’ is a little too on-the-nose and lets the book down somewhat.

 

Whilst one of the strengths of the setting is that so much of 40k is the broad strokes of earth cultures transposed to the far future, it can also be a weakness, and this is especially evident when applied to non-European cultures. From the incredibly awful pun that is their name to the shallow parody of Native American traditions that seem to be the extent of Ratskin culture, they really should have been properly fleshed out in the reboot. Guy Hayley’s Emp’rah’s Eye shows that these tropes can be handled more sensitively and used to tell better stories. What Reynolds does isn’t offensively bad, just sadly underdeveloped.

[Knockagh]

This last month or so is my crazy busy working time so reading time has been reduced to almost nothing for the last month. I know I was not a happy child over the limited edition of this book but being in love with the necromunda setting I decided to use an audible credit and give it a go.

This was a superb listen. Wonderfully read and the story was a real necromunda classic. A detailed walk (or charge) through the underhive bringing out the colourful characters that make the setting so unique.

Terminal Overkill is still my favourite contribution to the setting since it was rereleased. It has a more sinister edge and brings out the tragic poverty and cruelty of the hives something that has been missing from necromunda fiction so far. But this is Kal Jerico and it has its own distinct flavour that Josh has kept and refreshed brilliantly. Not an easy task taking an old and loved character and adding to his story but JR did a great job here. I would love to hear more of the celebrity bounty hunter who has the cameras follow him round to be streamed up to the folks in the spire.

Hopefully this isn’t JR last trip to Necromunda.

Limited Ed’s still on the shelf unread and I still think it looks rubbish.

[Xisor]

I always find Josh walks a wonderful thin line between schlock, comic foolishness and earnestly serious, heartfelt story telling. (Not every novel is as well judged in balance of serious:silly [his Khemri G&F novel felt a bit too skewed in favour of silly, especially in comparison to his other WHF books that were notable to me for getting at the heartstrings].)

 

In this, I thought he nailed the lot. A really decent book. (And for my part, I really liked the LE.)

 

V. glad to hear it hit the right spot for you, Knockagh!

[b1soul]

Schlock as in trash?

[Xisor]

Schlock as in trash?

Schlocky as in "inferior" (because of the [often slapstick] humour in comparison to "serious" things - how many gags and chuckles are there in, say, Void Stalker or The Carrion Throne?)

 

Josh does have form for putting in "daft" sequences, because he loves them and wouldn't stop if you paid him to. (Screamer in Knights of the Blazing Sun, Gyrocopter/gryphon in Road of Skulls, Scabs/Bats in this.)

 

The -y (I meant schlocky, not schlock) & side of the Atlantic might be important. A trashy novel is a different beast to a rubbish novel.

Edited April 19, 2020 by Xisor

[cheywood]

Josh has a very irreverent style. I agree it verges on intentionally schlocky at times. It works quite well from what I’ve read, but I think that’s partially because of the characters and factions he writes about. Necromunda is perfect for it, The Siege of Terra not so much.

 

As to the book itself, I quite liked it. It was my introduction to Necromunda and did a great job exploring the underhive while also providing a fast-paced, engaging and highly satisfying story. Kal’s voice is very convincing and the numerous other POV characters feel distinct and unique to Necromunda. Reynolds keeps introducing plot lines right until the end and sets things up nicely for any future adventures. The sense of suspense does suffer a little from featuring a known character, but that’s far from unique to this book.

[DukeLeto69]

Sorry to necro...

 

Just finished this and it was good. Not great but good. In parts it was excellent but was a little too heavy on action and at times felt like the Necromunda equivalent of bolter porn.

 

However, it really shined in the quieter more character driven moments. There are some great Easter eggs and the ending was superb.

 

Maybe cut perhaps 100 pages of the action and this would have been excellent. As it was, for my taste, it was very good and entertaining enough.

 

Just read this back and it sounds overly harsh. This was thoroughly entertaining and a great read. It was just a little too heavy on the action scenes for me.

Edited October 18, 2020 by DukeLeto69