Flesh and Steel

[aa.logan]

I’m two chapters in.

 

It’s a direct continuation from the short in ‘No Good Men’, and like that is presented as the probator’s journal and is written in the first person.

 

Noctis is every inch the noir detective, and I’m loving it- wisecracking loose cannon, presumably hiding a damaged interior. His personal history is a nice angle, but I’m a total sucker for the archetype.

 

Varagantua again feels real; one minute I’m mentally in a twentieth century American city, then a detail drops and in reminded that no, this is a 40k book- and I like that a lot.

 

The probator’s crest is described in, I think, a little more detail here, for those using it to make inferences in Bloodlines- an orboros, around a five- pointed halo, around a skull...

[aa.logan]

Don’t know if this is new, but in the Ad Mech enclave, Astynomia are the probator equivalents; whilst Collegiate Extremis, The branch that Lux belongs to, are described by Noctis’ superior as doing “for the forgeworlds what the Arbites do for us. They have a lot of power”

 

Rather than new posts, more nuggets-

 

Alecto has 26 hour days; some in their late twenties using their calendar is around 30 Terran years old.

 

Verispex are the CSI equivalent, entirely unconnected to the AdMech.

 

‘Nine devils’ and ‘by the sainted balls of the nine primarchs’ are used as expletives, as well as a range of standard English ones.

 

The basilicum he visits has five aisles, ties in with the five-pointed halo?

 

Guilliman, Sanguinius and Dorn are referred to as ‘the three principle primarchs’

Edited October 3, 2020 by aa.logan

[DarkChaplain]

I *think* the 26 hour day might have been referenced in Dredge Runners - but it might have been Bloodlines, too.

Either way, I think this was mentioned before, but I'm glad they're making it a consistent thing to talk about.

The galaxy shouldn't default to 24 hour systems. That only works on very specific conditions, and it's bothered me for a while that this has just been taken for granted in most 40k novels. Deviating from that and actually changing the biorhythm of humans on those worlds can lead to really interesting civilizations in fiction. It's not just different seasons on some worlds (like with Hubris in Eisenhorn: Xenos), but simple daily schedules that affect life in interesting ways.

 

And hurray for more Nine Devils references.

 

I'm planning on starting the book tonight, when I've actually slept more (sodding neighbors with buzzsaw and vacuum cleaner on their freakin' balcony before noon on a sodding *national holiday*, doing things they're not even allowed to as tenants. I stayed up too late last night to do well with that :cuss today), but I still gotta read the short from No Good Men.

I know Guy has said you don't have to read the short, but it's the direct prequel and I'd rather get it out of the way chronologically.

[aa.logan]

Unless something massive happens in the remaining part of the book, I’d say the prequel is inessential reading, but reading it first makes way more sense; it’s a nicely written story, and sets out an important plot point, but nothing that the first chunk doesn’t cover- reading it after would feel like a waste of time.

 

I’ll be gentler with this spoiler than my last one...

 

Cawl’s actions have prompted a schism in the Adeptus Mechanicus, some branches of the cult regarding him as a heretek, others embracing him. Lux is from an evangelist branch, which supports the sharing of knowledge

 

Unrelatedly-

 

We also get another gay male character, one who expresses sexual desire of all things. I know some folk didn’t like the sapphic princeps in Titandeath, but I did- some may equally object to the somewhat decadent and camp nature of this character, but I’m a fan. It’s these small things things that can genuinely make a difference.

 

Another non-amasec alcoholic drink- slivitz. Derived from fruit, expensive and leads to nasty hangovers, apparently.

[Beren]

I haven't looked at the spoilers above (reading through the book now), but I'm incredibly happy that the Varagantua Mechanicus enclave originates from Zhao-Arkhad.

[aa.logan]

I haven't looked at the spoilers above (reading through the book now), but I'm incredibly happy that the Varagantua Mechanicus enclave originates from Zhao-Arkhad.

I’m assuming you’ll dig the middle section very much, while Brutal Kunnin’ gave more depth to the AdMech than I’d expect from shoota-porn, this is a nice deep dive, no?

[theSpirea]

Another non-amasec alcoholic drink- slivitz. Derived from fruit, expensive and leads to nasty hangovers, apparently.

 

Slivovitz? Even the description fits.

 

After reading Bloodlines I already had a feeling lots of names had roots in Eastern Europe/Russia.

[aa.logan]

There is also Ambrosian, a warming drink from Kappa Veldt derived from insect secreted sugars,drank out of Mordian crystal and Erdberry wine, which isn’t really described. Paragonian gleece doesn’t get described either.

 

There’s more to this book than just a lexicanum entry with murders though, it’s really very good.

 

Noctis, like Zidarov, is a bit of a walking archetype, but is an engaging and likeable character, and one whose social standing almost puts him in the same place as the reader in terms of the perspectives we approach the story from. And his partial outsider status is nicely mirrored in that of Lux.

 

The book is essentially a buddy-cop police procedural, and while it may have been improved by the inclusion of more perspectives than Noctis more often, and a slightly better paced ending, it is still an excellent book.

[Beren]

 

I haven't looked at the spoilers above (reading through the book now), but I'm incredibly happy that the Varagantua Mechanicus enclave originates from Zhao-Arkhad.

I’m assuming you’ll dig the middle section very much, while Brutal Kunnin’ gave more depth to the AdMech than I’d expect from shoota-porn, this is a nice deep dive, no?

 

 

Aye, this was very much more to my liking. Little touches like the variety and descriptions of augmentation and the explicit mention of how everybody has a different title, plus bots of worldbuilding like them preferring not to be called Martians or the matter of outside converts.

 

Tangentially, the Lords Dragon date back to the Lathe Worlds supplement for the Dark Heresy rpg. The Collegiate Extremis has been mentioned before but I think the Astynomia are new.

 

Another neat thing is that one of the locations briefly visited is a semi-direct tie in to another one of the shorts in the No Good Men story, the events of which are indirectly referenced.

[aa.logan]

Do you mean

McNeill’s entry in the anthology

? Because if not, that’s another link...

[Beren]

Yep,

the 'recent events' at Menem-Ba's place mentioned as they ask the Probator to hand in his weapons.

[aa.logan]

When you add the

the unconventional nature of the husband/servitor

they’re tying together really nicely...

[StrangerOrders]

Absolutely loving this one so far.

 

Anyone else chuckled when they reveal that most people understand things like lions, tigers and wolves due to heraldry but have no idea what a house cat is so they think the protagonist is keeping a 'dwarf tiger' at home? I absolutely love little pieces of worldbuilding like that.

[DukeLeto69]

Must not read spoilers

 

Muuussst noooot reeeeead spoilers

 

MMMMUUUUUUUSSSTTTT NNNNOOOOOTTTTT RRRREEEAAADD SPOILERS!

 

This is worse than a Topaz addiction!

[Red_Shift]

Just finished it. Very enjoyable but then Haley's books always are. Great world building and we finally get a glimpse into the other, criminal, side of the coin. I particularly enjoyed reading more about servitors and their levels of independence. A bit horrific! I thought Noctis was surprisingly well rounded for a warhammer character and I enjoyed his interactions with his cousin.

 

Edit damn autocorrect

Edited October 5, 2020 by Red_Shift

[StrangerOrders]

Flesh and Steel

 

Finished this one recently on Audiobook and I have to say that it was a fantastic read.

 

Haley is a weirdly rewarding author to read, I cant help but feel like he is improving before our very eyes and in a visible way with each book. Looking back at his earlier works the growth in nuance and character depth are purely astounding to me.

 

This is the second Warhammer Crime book I have read, the first being Bloodlines and I have to say that I take exception to the series name. Sure its about crimes and space-police but I feel like the name undersells the breathtaking amount of worldbuilding and detail they give to the setting, just by showing life at various levels of a standard demi-Hive.

 

More focused on this book, I liked Noctis, loved Lux and thought the cousin (whose name I regrettably cant write here because I audiobook'd this one he has a name I couldnt pull from the Final Fantasy wiki) was a delightful take on a wealthy Imperial. Don't get me wrong, they are fairly dubious people even if the trio have fairly okay hearts which by 40k standards probably means they should be enshrined somewhere. I'd like to take a moment to elaborate on the three since whether you like them or not kind of determines the book for you, there is an extensive cast but these guys take most of the screentime.

 

Noctis: Alright, as others have said he can come off as a bit of an archetype at first, but he shines for me because at the same time he is a wonderfully executed example AND I think a fairly atypical take at once. What it comes down to for me is that Noctis is both extremely self-aware and almost completely responsible for his problems, problems that the plot utterly refuse to solve for him. I like that he is a functional alcoholic who doesnt kick his dependency easily or just has it as window-dressing, its a legitimate problem for both him and those around him which he only starts having an inkling towards solving by the end. We have seen the whole 'fallen noble' or 'rebel against his class' angles beaten to death and I think had this been an earlier book Haley would have had me cringing hard enough to snap my spine (much like alot of western media and edgy shows) but instead Haley strikes a wonderful balance. You see all the decadence of the wealthy Hive-kin to be sure, the book is relentless about their flaws and the corruption they breed but at the same time it doesnt shy away from them being people and having a fair chunk of them being capable of love and horror as a normal person with normal follies and not throwing weird torture parties where they eat live babies or some other 'wealth is evil' commentary.

 

More to the point, it allows Noctis to be his own character in that his estrangement from his family comes from a place of mutual responsibility, he was  a screwup and for all that he hates his family and his class, he is also self-aware that on a deep level he is projecting his own self-loathing onto them and begrudgingly admits that his life would be easier if they were as horrible as he almost wishes they were. My favorite scenes were those of him and his father because of the tension between them and the fact Noctis can't get away from the fact that his father both has legitimate reason to be ashamed of him (and not just dystopian commentary ones) but also that he can't escape the fact that his father does genuinely love him. His father is still an awful man for the record, and the book does go out of its way to address the issues with long-lived family without developing some really silly perceptions of human nature, but Noctis does recognize his own blame.

 

Thats what I keep coming back to and intrigues me about Noctis, he is both painfully aware of who he is, hates himself for it and, in a move that I could see being outright uncomfortable for introspective people, doesn't automatically have an easy fix for the holes he digs himself into.

 

Lux on the other hand is a really fun character because she is a very atypical heroine in my view, since female leads tend to either be so innocent that its a wonder they don't pray for storks on their wedding night or so utterly knowledgeable and tough that you wonder if they grew up in some sort of time-dilation sphere. Lux is profoundly refreshing to me because she feels like a genuine person to me, being inconsistent in personality depending on her social situation and showing different traits depending on her environment which she arguably does better than Noctis. I like that Lux is awkward and somewhat naïve when dealing with the main situations of the Hive but becomes much more cynical, professional and seasoned when dealing with the sort of thing that she was actually raised, trained and used to be doing. 

 

She is also a Mechanicus character, which means that Haley automatically becomes more enthused and creative when dealing with her. I have always been of the opinion that Haley is arguably the strongest writer BL has by a country mile when writing Martians (which the book logically points out is a fairly demeaning slur when addressing a galactic organization) and this book shows it. Seeing through Lux's eyes shows us what a complex and weird organization the cult is and I can't get enough of it, especially when seeing the inside of their local forge and you can almost see him cracking his knuckles and snorting something illegal because the imagination he lets loose describing different Adepts is absolutely nuts. Necks made out of stretched spinal columns, billows for mouths, Zordon heads, you name it. All accompanied by Haley's dogged belief that while eccentric, the Mechanicus are exceedingly capable. Lux fits an interesting role here because she is both professionally and due to a spoiler, something of an outsider to the standard Mechanicus hierarchy, the perfect tour guide to escort us and Noctis through their weirdness. But make no mistake, the book makes her very much a believer in the Machine God and the questions she asks herself and the things that please and worry her give us alot of insight into the usually obtuse thinking of the faith, little things like her acceptance of Servitors but violent contempt for the very idea of allowing a botched lobotomy in the process because to the faith that is perverse and evil. Which is an interesting PoV for us since we (and Haley) know that even a well-executed one is obviously wrong. 

 

Yet she does have an interesting innocence when dealing with the Hive, since she is very much not used to that environment and that lets us play a very interesting juggling game with her and Noctis as they juggle the roles of 'naïve new comer' and 'world weary hardass' as they swap between the two social spheres of the book. I am almost tempted to say that they should put that cloned spider man meme each time one is shocked by the corruption in the other system and nonchalant about their own. These moments are well-used though to build a rapport between them and to humanize the typically most cartoonish type of character in the setting into a well-rounded individual.

 

Their mutual attraction, while cute and well-established I think, is doomed though since Im fairly sure Noctis's cat would kill her in her sleep. 

 

Cousin (Pravinus?): Will swap this out for his name as soon as I figure out the spelling, I swear, but I do want to address the most prevalent of our secondary characters.

 

40k has an interesting history with diversity, usually towards what I would label 'enthusiastic but with a child's understanding that of the subject' which I tend to rate as better than making no effort.

 

Haley is perhaps the most committed to this, since McNeill's efforts strike me as a clumsy sabotage campaign, and I think he has really come a long way towards doing this well.

 

Pravinus, Praevinus? Is an extremely well-rounded secondary character I think, and strong enough that I'd kind of like a novel around him.

 

Much like Noctis and Lux, I loved him in how odd a chimera of a stereotype and a total subversion of said stereotype. Yes he is a decadent noble and he plays that to the absolute hilt while at the same time being a prime example of how that kind of person doesnt necessarily fit into a neat box.

 

Is he vain? Exceedingly. Is he prone to sleeping around? Likely and to exceptional success given what we are shown. Corrupt? Probably. Impeccably dressed and with only the tallest of wigs? No doubts.

 

But he is also by far the most well-executed example of filial piety I have seen in a while, far outstripping most Space Marine characters. Its hammered home in every scene he is in but Pravinus genuinely cares about his family and unlike other characters in this book which show that trait, is willing to put himself outside of his comfort zone and even risk himself to do so. He is a hedonist but you see that the moment something is serious he tosses his plans out the proverbial window and will go to the proverbial gutter dressed to the nines to drag his wastral of a relative out of his latest bout of idiocy. Heck, he seems to have a more solid grasp on looking out for your own than the guys that call anyone in the same height-area 'brother' (despite the Legions being cousins when you think about it). But I might be falling into liking a character that resonates, folks do tend to like characters that are similar to themselves and I do like that 40k managed to show someone who genuinely understands familial love and protectiveness without being evil, tyrannical or creepy for once.

 

My only qualm with him is a particular seen where Haley regrettably gives in to the 'shut the confident fop up to show how powerful someone else is' syndrome, which really irked me as everything I had seen until that point made me think that Pravinus would at the very least be unfazed by the idiot (I didnt like said character at all incidentally and have alot of other issues with that chapter). 

 

But I dont want that to detract from how much I liked his play on the spire noble archetype though.

 

My only question is how on earth is fashion seasons a thing in the Imperium? I sort of figured that having a nicer coat than the local inquisitor was heresy.

 

I could say alot more about this book but I think discussing these three has hit all of the broadstrokes for me.

 

8.5-9/10 Must Read.

Edited October 7, 2020 by StrangerOrders

[DukeLeto69]

@strangerorders that has got to be the longest book review I have ever seen in B&C. Really good read. I looking forward to this book even more now. Thanks for the thoughtful character breakdown.

[Beren]

To add to that, there's this scene where Noctis

meets Probus Magnificans Selvelt, is horrified by his appearance and suspicious by being accompanied by him, with Lux only later stating that she's worked with him before and considers him an 'honourable man', sort of humanising whose appearance caused Noctis to have a very wary reaction to.

 

 

My favourite scene was probably the scene with the transpod without seats but with clamps and sockets, the device having to improvise to grab Noctis' feet with metal tendrils because it wasn't designed to work with a non-augmented human.

 

It's hard to explain it exactly, but Haley seems to have a knack for making his Mechanicus characters seem both very human and very alien at the same time.

Edited October 7, 2020 by Beren

[Urauloth]

Just got this, looking forward to it. The high points of Haley's work, for me, have been his world-building more than his battle scenes, and I like his forays into Mechanicus territory so far. This sounds like it's set to play some of his greatest hits, so to speak.

 

Also yes, the 26hr day was explicitly mentioned in Bloodlines.

[Lord_Caerolion]

I'm trying to think of what else in 40k has been stated to have different times, but the only things I can think of are a few tidally locked planets, and the Lorgar Primarch novella, in which Colchis has incredibly long days (7.1 Terran days), so timekeeping isn't based around the position of the sun, but instead each day is broken into 7 "sub-days" of approximately 24 hours (Dawnaway, Mornday, Long Noon, Post-noon, Duskeve, Coldfall, and High Night), each of which is broken into 3 smaller periods, 2 for being awake, 1 for sleep (wake-rise, wake-main, and rest-eve). Going into months and so on is apparently too complex to relate. We need more things that do this.

[Petitioner's City]

Just listened to the first chapter - it's a very deliberate allusion (or much less likely a serendipitous lift) of the central mystery of The Bridge (Broen/Bron) - the body split between two jurisdictions (Sweden and Denmark in the original series). Rather nice to see adaptations of major recent staples of the genre :)

[DarkChaplain]

Getting pretty annoyed that the print still isn't officially out via Amazon, but the audiobook is great. Noctis' snark is wonderfully refreshing, and in a different way from other somewhat comedic characters like, say, Cain. He's petty, vindictive, immature - and he knows it.

 

I'm only on chapter eleven, but it's already filled to the brim with excellent worldbuilding, genuinely entertaining dialogue, monologues and critique of the Imperium on a societal level, not to forget characters that I'd love to read more about later on. It's all very colorful and well presented. Compared to Bloodlines, I also so far find this to be... less depressing, in a sense. While both Symeon and Zidarov emanate a level of self-pity, both are down in their own version of the dumps, and both are dysfunctional to some extent, the way they deal with it and how they interact with their situation is about as drastically different as their original status in life. They're both Probators, but one reached the position by working up, the other by stepping down. It's really quite a marvelous showcase of just how distinct you can make two characters despite so many parallels between them.

[Taliesin]

Read the first chapter. On the one hand I am very intrigued by the setting, the involvement of the Mechanicum, its quite fascinating.

On the other I wish Haley wasnt so ...wordy..he's already making me skip over certain sentences because a lot of the dialogue isnt that good.

It would be better if he were more succinct in style, IMO.

[Knockagh]

Loving this. Noctis is a great character, there are not many times I’ve been reading 40k and thought to myself, I like this guy I would enjoy a few hours in his company. Seems a sound man.

The family reunion was a great scene. His relationship with Lux is well written, good to see two people becoming friends and winding each other up like normal people. Calling mech folk Martians and their domain cogtown gives me a cheeky smile...

[ruralguardhipcat]

Just finished this. Brilliant read. Did a great job of rounding out the Mechanicus as a group, and showing their differences and that they aren't all 'Martians'. Interesting insight into domestic Mechanicus life.