Warhammer Crime

[Pariah32]

I've listened to the first 15 minutes before going back to Bloodlines, and I dearly wish for Baggit and Codde to be a long-running audio series. I had more than a few good laughs with that much, and there's something about an Ogryn saying stuff like "I'm just trying to comprehend the transcendent nature of silence. Shh, have a listen" that just does it for me.

Lots of potential right there, and the acting is on point.

 Sold. I'm buying it!

[aa.logan]

DREDGE RUNNERS IS FANTASTIC AUDIO AND IF YOU ARE IN THE UK AND AN AUDIBLE SUBSCRIBER YOU REALLY OUGHT TO BUY IN IN THEIR CURRENT HALF PRICE SALE. NOT TO DO SO WOULD BE A, YOU’LL LIKE THIS, ‘CRIME’!

 

Ahem.

 

It’s as good as everyone says; funny, suspenseful and morally ambiguous. They’re a pair not unlike Cuddy and Detritus, but not in a derivative way.

 

Alec Worley has written some great audios for BL, I’m ranking this as being as good as, if not better tha, Watcher in the Rain, and I absolutely adored that. This one has so much potential. I want more audios. I want short stories. I want novels. I’m sorely tempted to kitbash a Clodde with the new Ogryn kit.

 

It’s not perfect, the adverts framing it were great, but some of the voice performances were a little to similar for me to distinguish easily and there is the potential for the pairing to become a tad formulaic, but I’ve every confidence based of the previous work of the author that they’re going to be great.

Edited August 21, 2020 by aa.logan

[Roomsky]

Bloodlines - Chris Wraight

 

Brilliant is probably all that needs to be said. But more I shall say, anyway.

 

I’m no avid crime reader, and even then there’s not a tonne here that’s truly mind-blowing in that regard. But the execution, gods, the execution. Flawless. It’s everything you want out of a neo-noir without being comically tropey. It’s everything you want out of a Bladerunner story without blatant plagiarism. It’s everything you want out of domestic 40k, and there’s no “but” about that because frankly, not enough is written in this way.

 

The cast is great and memorable. The plot is twisty and the book never drags, it is the perfect length. There’s great seeds planted for future stories, and there’s a creeping doom felt around the protagonist, and the Imperium at large; it’s extremely setting appropriate. The lack of information held by the protagonists is perfectly executed, and it’s something I want so much more of out of 40k. And, of course, it’s Wraight’s skill with the craft that brings it to another level.

 

On that note, this is everything I want out of 40k. It’s grit and misery and undiluted atmosphere. More more more please.

 

Must Read

10/10

[DukeLeto69]

Don’t want to repeat what I said on the specific Bloodlines thread but will just say @roomsky is correct. This is a 10/10 for me.

 

Excellent book. Just what the IP needs to expand and enrich the setting. Really brings 40k to life and more of this type of book will provide both an interesting counter point and a justification for all the battlefield heroics and horrors.

 

It’s also a great crime story that unravels a piece at a time gathering together the evidence.

Edited August 26, 2020 by DukeLeto69

[Knockagh]

Delighted to see so much positivity for this book. It’s just what so many of the fans have been hoping for and it turned out perfect.

[bluntblade]

Guess I need to nab it on Kindle.

[Sothalor]

I'm not a big reader of "crime" genre fiction, so I'd be interested to read just how similar this is to archetypal offerings in its beats and trappings.

 

It struck me as very trope-y on initial read. Not in a bad way, mind. It was epically atmospheric.

 

I'm stuck with an image of Humphry Bogart meets Blade Runner/Altered Carbon with a dash of Shadowpunk.

 

And man, does Chris Wraight cement himself as a top-tier author again and again.

[Scribe]

Bloodlines - Chris Wraight

 

Brilliant is probably all that needs to be said. But more I shall say, anyway.

 

I’m no avid crime reader, and even then there’s not a tonne here that’s truly mind-blowing in that regard. But the execution, gods, the execution. Flawless. It’s everything you want out of a neo-noir without being comically tropey. It’s everything you want out of a Bladerunner story without blatant plagiarism. It’s everything you want out of domestic 40k, and there’s no “but” about that because frankly, not enough is written in this way.

 

The cast is great and memorable. The plot is twisty and the book never drags, it is the perfect length. There’s great seeds planted for future stories, and there’s a creeping doom felt around the protagonist, and the Imperium at large; it’s extremely setting appropriate. The lack of information held by the protagonists is perfectly executed, and it’s something I want so much more of out of 40k. And, of course, it’s Wraight’s skill with the craft that brings it to another level.

 

On that note, this is everything I want out of 40k. It’s grit and misery and undiluted atmosphere. More more more please.

 

Must Read

10/10

 

Can I simply get away with ditto?

 

This book hit me, from start to finish (especially the finish oddly!) super hard.

 

Every character. Every scene. This is absolutely what I want out of not just the Crime imprint, but...40K.

 

Probably just burn out on my part in regards to Primarchs! BIG SHIPS! NEW CRUSADES! HORUS! but seriously how good is this?

 

Unquestionable, its a 10/10 for me right now, and nothing else I have read out of Black Library approaches it.

Edited August 28, 2020 by Scribe

[DukeLeto69]

Loving LOVING the reaction to Bloodlines so far. Check out the Goodreads reviews as well!

 

I have wanted “domestic 40k” for so long.

 

Let’s hope these books sell a load of copies so BL keep commissioning them!

 

On Twitter Chris said “hopefully, sales allowing, there’ll be some more in the future :)“

 

BTW for anyone interested - Chris also told me Alecto is in Segmentum Tempestus.

[DukeLeto69]

I'm not a big reader of "crime" genre fiction, so I'd be interested to read just how similar this is to archetypal offerings in its beats and trappings.

 

It struck me as very trope-y on initial read. Not in a bad way, mind. It was epically atmospheric.

 

I'm stuck with an image of Humphry Bogart meets Blade Runner/Altered Carbon with a dash of Shadowpunk.

 

And man, does Chris Wraight cement himself as a top-tier author again and again.

I think it is deliberately tropey. I suspect if the Crime line takes off then the authors will feel braver and try a bit more subversion.

[DarkChaplain]

Agreed. Right now, it's pretty smart to "play the hits" that people easily associate with Crime / Noir stories, while making them properly 40k in flavor. Targets a nice overlap of fans looking for that domestic vibe and potential newcomers who are intrigued by scifi crime stories.

[Sothalor]

Frankly, I've had enough of deconstruction and subversions for a while. I am a-okay to see some tropes and conventions played straight, especially when paired with writing as good as Wraight's

[Red_Shift]

Anyone else reading the short story anthology? I'm about to start the last story and so far they have all been enjoyable. Most seem to be setting up a potential follow on novel and have a probator as the protagonist. I was kind of hoping to have a black market merchant or similar as the main focus for one to give the other side of the coin but I've still enjoyed what's there.

[DukeLeto69]

Anyone else reading the short story anthology? I'm about to start the last story and so far they have all been enjoyable. Most seem to be setting up a potential follow on novel and have a probator as the protagonist. I was kind of hoping to have a black market merchant or similar as the main focus for one to give the other side of the coin but I've still enjoyed what's there.

Next on my reading pile.

 

Interesting the focus is on law enforcement side! I too would like to see stories from the crime syndicate / villains side.

[DarkChaplain]

My copy is supposed to arrive today, but Amazon's been rather slow. Curious about Haley's story, since it'll tie into his upcoming novel.

[Beren]

I've got part way through it, but to be honest have found all the protagonists painfully similar.

[Red_Shift]

I've got part way through it, but to be honest have found all the protagonists painfully similar.

All very similar. All male. I'm starting to think they don't employ probators who don't have substance misuse issues! It feels like an attempt to set up later novels rather than short stories that wrap themselves up in a more permanent way, like the protagonist ending up dead.

 

I was hoping it would give varied perspectives on the city, the players (be they crime cartels, trade federations, nobles, police, ordinary citizens) so you can get a better idea of the motivations behind different groups. Unfortunately all I've got so far is that crime is everywhere and the police are outnumbered. They are good stories individually but as an anthology to launch a series it seems a bit weak overall.

[DukeLeto69]

Oh that is disappointing. I hoped for the same. Show different POVs from different “factions” and types of people to do some serious world building setting up Varangantua in readiness for a wide variety of crime related stories.

 

Good to know each story is good but seems like a missed opportunity.

[Taliesin]

Haley's Flesh and Steel looks interesting though, that premise, and its up for order in 3 weeks.

[Beren]

Oh yeah, as a Mechaniucs/Mechanicum fan I'm definitely taking a look at that.

[byrd9999]

Guy Haley's short story in No Good Men features a main character called Noctis, so I imagine it's related to his forthcoming novel (a Noctis and Lux novel).

[Taliesin]

I bought No Good Men and Bloodlines today. Bloodlines was in my cart already based on the excerpt on Amazon but then I read part of the story " Aberrant"  from the anthology as well and thought that was very well set up and just intriguing by Wraight, so had to have that to see how it ends in the second half.

[ruralguardhipcat]

I'm about half way through the Anthology and enjoying it a great deal so far. Impurities by Graham McNeill a particular favourite. The main character has an interesting back story, a unique 'voice in his head' and attitude to abhumans. Hope to read more about Jovian Colbrand.

[aa.logan]

I really enjoyed No Good Men; I’d paced my reading of it so maybe that precluded me from seeing the protagonists as too samey. I’ve been suffering the last two weeks with a knee injury, so seeing two characters describing their difficulties running or even walking was the only thing that stood out as repetitive when reading.

 

On reflection, and being charitable, the maverick investigator with issues is such a staple on the genre, it’s hardly surprising that the debut anthology leans so heavily on it. Some characters, notably Kyme’s protagonist from the excellent closer, seem like homages and acknowledgments akin to Sharpe/Gaunt and Flashman/Cain; he was all the best bits of Robert B. Parker’s Spenser. After all, the Horror line has featured a disproportionate amount of Planetary Governors and other authority figures, so it kind of makes sense for this imprint to do the same.

 

As the anthology develops, we do see more strata of the society and as a whole it emphasises the self-destructive nature of the Imperium and everyday life; privations of war are alluded to and clearly felt, wether genuinely or as a pretext for them by those in control, which has always been implicit in the setting if not explicitly explored. The entirety of life on Alecto is geared towards supporting the war effort, and this motivates, ultimately, everything that happens in the book. Inequalities are explored and while there is a lack of some of the more mundane world-building of Wraight and Hayley’s latter works, it still feels very *real* as a setting.

 

The two newer authors really shine, but I think my favourite story might be McNeill’s.

[Felix Antipodes]

Just about to start Wraight's novel with the anthology next in line. I'm a bit worried by some of the above comments that BL haven't taken the backgrounding deep enough when they created the Varangantua setting.

I was hoping they would take a similar approach to the Dawn of Fire series and create a 'bible' for the authors. Basic stuff covering the planet, its topography and government levels so that they aren't creating the wheel in every story.