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  On 8/27/2020 at 4:26 PM, Scribe said:

I must not click...

DO NOT DO IT SCRIBE - BUY AND READ THIS BOOK!

 

Seriously though - this is a detective story and part of the joy is the investigation revealing things as you go along. You really will spoil it for yourself.

Edited by DukeLeto69

As I have been thinking more about the novel lately, and considering whether I am entirely sold on the alternate theories to the spoiler, it really just hit me how good a job Chris Wraight did on writing themes.  The theme of family is so well done here.  Every main character is struggling with family, but in different ways and with different scope.  I can't think of a BL novel that did quite the same job.  Gaunt's Ghosts explores family, but in an adoptive sense.  I suppose you could say that Space Marines/SoBs have their families, but nobody has done the straight up domestic variety my kid is going off to a dangerous job and I don't like it.  

  On 8/27/2020 at 8:54 PM, DukeLeto69 said:

 

  On 8/27/2020 at 4:26 PM, Scribe said:

I must not click...

DO NOT DO IT SCRIBE - BUY AND READ THIS BOOK!

 

Seriously though - this is a detective story and part of the joy is the investigation revealing things as you go along. You really will spoil it for yourself.

5th trip in to the store did the trick. I start it tonight. :D

I have resisted! No spoilers so far, and the book is great. Didnt get to put too much time in, but its amazing the difference in tone, approach, and just...style Wraight has to some of the rest I've been reading between moves.

 

I really hope this becomes a regular thing.

I have now read the spoilers and can see it going any number if ways.

 

I'm way less interested in that, than seeing just normal human life in the setting, and having it written so well.

 

I have zero complaints about this. So we'll done.

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Obviously way more is touched on in the book, but I'm just so impressed with his work.

Discussion on Aberrant short story in the new anthology and its relation to spoiler--

 

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Related to the Aberrant spoiler.

 

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Edited by Beren
Read this in a day yesterday. Great read. For me not clearly a 40k book; I felt like it could have been any dystopian sci fi setting. Makes me wish they would do inspector models for necromunda; I love making models inspired by characters in books like this.
  On 9/1/2020 at 12:08 PM, Red_Shift said:

Read this in a day yesterday. Great read. For me not clearly a 40k book; I felt like it could have been any dystopian sci fi setting. Makes me wish they would do inspector models for necromunda; I love making models inspired by characters in books like this.

Good call

I rather enjoyed the non-40k feeling personally. It definitely felt like it's own thing, first and foremost telling a story without regard to fitting in a quota of firefights or Roaring Bolters or Growling Chainswords (I am not claiming there IS a quota of such, merely stating that many 40k novels tend to focus on active war zones).

 

That detachment from the standard 40k trappings also helps to really emphasize some of the nuances in the setting. Stuff like how the Imperium operates on such a vast scale individual planets really have no conception of what it's doing, what is happening beyond their borders, etc.

 

Things like genestealers being considered fictional boogeyman, or nobody knowing that the galaxy was torn in half - just that shipping has fallen off, highlight just how small and necessarily ignorant any given local society is.

I think the non specific 40k ness really applies to roughly the first half. Thereafter we do get more references to aquillas, and so forth. I think it is a fine line and for me the 2nd half was spot on (first half did feel a little bit Blade Runner esque).

 

Be interesting how much of a 40k feel the other Crime stories have. The Guy Haley novel heavily features the Mechanicus so I suspect it will feel more 40k (as in references to known factions).

 

A further thought on THAT spoiler...

 

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Edited by DukeLeto69

I definitely think that the book feels quite like Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep (as in, the book Blade Runner adapted). Thematically, you could point out a bunch of parallels too, I'd argue.

Makes me wonder if Wraight tried to deliberately pay homage to Dick, watched Blade Runner somewhat recently, or it's a real coincidence.

Well yes it evokes DADOES rather than Blade Runner although to quite an extent BR and BR2049 are their own thing too. Philip K Dick is a giant that stands astride this sci fi crime hybrid genre.

 

Really looking forward to the anthology now.

Just finished Bloodlines earlier this morning and I have to say it was a thoroughly engrossing and enjoyable read. The easy comparison would be Eisenhorn (without the wealth, power, or knowledge) but there's more to the novel than that. It is a fully realized exploration of what it means to actually be a citizen of the Imperium - to live a grueling, claustrophobic and cruel existence that seamlessly melds with aspects of life that we would recognize from our own lives, marital infidelity, alcoholism, delicious street food, arguing with your daughter about her future. Bloodlines is fantastic, it underscores just how different human beings living under Imperial rule would be from us, but also illustrates how little changes.

 

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Yes I’ve been kind of hoping the scar theory threads here aren’t true. I would just prefer something more unique and mysterious as the cause for it rather than a more generic 40k outcome.

 

I’ve ordered the short story anthology so I will look forward to picking up the next story

Agreed (even though I have partaken in such spoiler discussions) it would work to continue the focus on “smaller” issues.

 

If it does turn out to be true then I hope any kind of reveal is played out very slowly over an extended number of novels.

 

A bit like the Peter James “Roy Grace” novels and the search for what happened to his wife (highly recommended BTW - I see a similar tone in Bloodlines, perhaps more so than American Crime Noir?)

  On 9/1/2020 at 12:08 PM, Red_Shift said:

Read this in a day yesterday. Great read. For me not clearly a 40k book; I felt like it could have been any dystopian sci fi setting. Makes me wish they would do inspector models for necromunda; I love making models inspired by characters in books like this.

Well actually we do!

 

Enforcers.jpg

 

IMG-20200902-131343.jpg

 

Scrutinators are the pronators of Necromunda, and we have Scrutinator-Primus Servalen upcoming:

 

8e81d829.jpg

 

Hopefully one day we'll see other Scrutinators and Haunts and other specialist ranks.

Edited by Petitioner's City

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