Twelve Tales of Christmas

[Chaeron]

Did anyone pick up the Twelve Tales of Christmas? Haven't done so yet, but used to love these packs at this time of year - so any initial thoughts welcome!

[Malkydel]

I grabbed it. So far, so good.

 

Last Night at the Resplendent was short but sweet, dripping in that typical Cain wit. Had some genuine laughs there.

 

Serpent's Dance was also pretty good. Great characterisation, very nice set-pieces, ticks along like a well-oiled machine with some surprises under the hood.

[Chaeron]

I grabbed it. So far, so good.

 

Last Night at the Resplendent was short but sweet, dripping in that typical Cain wit. Had some genuine laughs there.

 

Serpent's Dance was also pretty good. Great characterisation, very nice set-pieces, ticks along like a well-oiled machine with some surprises under the hood.

 

Great to hear Malkydel - much appreciated! 

[byrd9999]

Is anyone reading these? Any comments?

 

How was John French's Thousand Sons story?

[aa.logan]

The two I’ve read- Shaper of Scars and Serpent’s Dance have both been good, with the first being the best of the two.

 

It packs a lot into a short space, and the inevitable(?) full-length follow up promises to be very good indeed.

 

The second plays with the archetypal scenario we see Inquisitors in, a formal ball, but as it is set in the very early days of the institution, the familiarity the reader feels in juxtaposed with the uncertainty the proto-Inquistor feels in navigating it.

 

Both recommended.

[Chaeron]

Is anyone reading these? Any comments?

 

How was John French's Thousand Sons story?

Nearly up to date! Will aim to give a run down soonish - but I’ve really enjoyed so far.

[nagashnee]

The 1k sons story was fantastic, self contained, a nice view on life in the eye and the Ahriman future tease the fans of the books would want.

 

The Perturabo story on the other hand is flat out the worse piece of BL i have read since indomitus. Boring, poorly written and atrociously paced .

Edited December 20, 2020 by nagashnee

[theSpirea]

I've read only the first four so far.

 

Last Night at the Resplendent - I haven't read any Cain novels, just a short story here and there so can't really compare it to the previous work. I have enjoyed it a lot and if the whole series is similar, I have to get into to it soon.

 

The Serpent's Dance - very meh, couldn't care about a single character. If Swallow does a better job at portraying a character...

 

Da Big Mouf - I find Ware's stories would fit BL publications 10 years ago. All her Sororitas shorts read like a boring action game scripts so I was pleasantly surprised with this one. I hope this isn't the last time we heard of Grimdak.

 

Buyer Beware - redacted, can't talk about it here...

Edited December 20, 2020 by theSpirea

[DarkChaplain]

Best time to get into Cain is now, with all three omnibuses still available in print and the audiobooks at book 3!

[DarkChaplain]

Started reading the Perturabo story, about a quarter through. I'm having a really hard time with it. It simply hasn't clicked yet. Feels clumsy, especially the exposition about the climax of the Battle of Phall.

 

Maybe it gets better, but as somebody who finds Perturabo one of the most compelling Primarchs for their martyr complex, this is putting on the wrong coat of paint so far, telling us he's proud of his "at all costs" meat grinder approach, while making the point that he's not really about logic but "Perturabo logic" when fighting wars. To me, he seems too proud of the things that should make him resentful. Like he's actively choosing that way to fight rather than (pretending) he's being forced into that way by others, while stoking his ego by way of how they should be thankful for him doing it.

 

So yeah, I guess I'll finish it later, but those first 25% are kind of a turnoff.

[nagashnee]

It gets better, but honestly thats not saying much. Also very poor grasp of warhammer spaceship warfare. Edited December 22, 2020 by nagashnee

[Taliesin]

Another very nice story from Robert Rath on the Assassinorum, hope he really has a book coming out next year on this, he's now done 3 shorts on it.

 

Also enjoyed his Age of Sigmar short, Mortal Delights.

 

Lightning Hall ( 40 pages I see) and Serpent's Dance will be 2 others I am getting from this release. Maybe also Coin for Carrion Thieves.

[DarkChaplain]

So.... I guess this means no Christmas e-Premiere this year either, huh?

[DarkChaplain]

Finished Embers of Extinction and my frustration only grew. I simply do have to wonder if Easton even read Hammer of Olympia (which features the rebellion on Olympia, which he references) or Angel Exterminatus (which he also references in the end, yet fails to pick up anything from in terms of Perturabo's character).

 

The prose - and I'm not even somebody to really comment on that much in the first place - often feels Codex/wiki-level dry, a lot of tell, don't show. I can dig a lot of telling, especially when interspersed with evocative scenes of showing, but this here? It doesn't work. Especially when there are timeline problems (like making Forgebreaker out to be a way for Horus to get Perturabo to join him, when he doesn't even get it til after participating in the Dropsite Massacre and taking those toys from the Lion after Isstvan III happened), or the writing goes on and on about how coldly logical and efficient Pert is, as if that was the only character trait he actually had next to his anger management issues. It wouldn't have been so bad focusing on that, though, if the void battle at the end at least had SOME tension, some stakes at all. It didn't. It's just there to have Perturabo showing off and gloat about Imperial Fists. He's never tested, never actually questioned or confronted, only ever showing off or presenting himself as the bestest dude, in a superficial way.

The explanation as to the Legion's name is decent enough, if clumsily presented, but even then it relies on Perturabo being at least partially out of character. If anything, it's kind of "most logical of them all! Perturabo is the strongest!"-level drivel, while misunderstanding who the character has been built to be.

 

If you told me this was a story from 2012/13 when The Crimson Fist released, I might have believed you and been fine with it. But Perturabo has been written much better than this on numerous occasions since then - including by McNeill, with the direct follow-up to this story.

[Chaeron]

A slightly belated follow-up, as I’d read the last few tales into the start of January, but I have to say that this was a great collection. I am conscious of my potentially biased fandom towards these sorts of festive offerings, and I certainly wasn’t disappointed. I’ve revisited the odd favourite short from previous Advents, as it has been a little while since I’ve gone for the eBook/short option - and on this basis, will again.

 

Last Night at the Resplendent was a typical piece of Cain fun, and Live Wire and the Lightning Hall were similarly great reads for being different to what I’d read recently and stood out amongst the collection on that basis. Revisiting the Thousand Sons arc was also nice, and just made me want to re-read the rest of the series... I think for the other pieces it’ll be interesting to see if they tie into other works with those characters - all enjoyable, and different to the usual Heresy-centric or traditional narratives I tend to gravitate towards as a reader.

 

I imagine these will be released in anthologies in due course - hopefully others will have a similarly positive response!