Mortis

[MarineRaider]

Is there a release date for the e-book? I travel a lot and cannot have anything but a iPad for the most part. Thanks

 

I did do a search and looked at the bL website and dedicated Siege one, it's like they do not want you to know anything they have coming up!

Edited April 15, 2021 by MarineRaider

[DarkChaplain]

Preorder goes up on Saturday, releases / downloadable on the 24th.

[lightinfa]

Mixed feelings on this one; I probably enjoyed this one the least of the series so far, just because I find Titan combat tedious...

 

The one Titan thing I found interesting, the deployment of the Psi-titans, was severely underbaked as several people have already pointed out.  We only ever see one Titan and they don't appear to make systemic impression in the Mortis advance - we really needed Dies Irae vs Ordo Sinister.  That being said, I hold out hope that we may see more of them, Rogal Dorn was holding their lion seal at the end of the book.

 

I also agree that the lack of Mortis (or any traitor POVs) was a missed opportunity.  While they wouldn't have been recognizably human, I think the opportunity to explore whatever they had become almost makes it more interesting.

 

That being said, I did enjoy most of the non-Titan portions of the book.  I actually enjoy and am invested in the perpetual storyline; I think partly because I came to this series very late they seem less like a foreign imposition into a pre-existing story.  To me, they serve a very useful role of providing context and critical perspective to the emperor and his project.  Outside of them, we have very few characters capable of appreciating and acting on the truly cosmic/metaphysical stakes of this conflict, so I think they helpfully bring that aspect into relief.  I'm also a complete sucker for the mythological references and all the other "deep time" stuff; I absolute love the idea of the Emperor leading the assault that destroys the Tower of Babel.

 

The Shiban Khan storyline was well written for what it was, but in a series where space is at a premium, and in a book with zero Traitor characters, it seems like a mistake to have given him so much space.  I would've been much happier just giving all that space to the Keeler/Sindemann storyline, since we didn't actually get much progress on that storyline within this volume.

 

I loved the Dark Angels portion, the Imperator Somnium assault was epic, and I'm excited to see how the Fallen element of this plays out.  However, to echo previous posts, I am completely mystified why the Astronomicon was allowed to fall in the first place.  If Dorn's whole strategy is to buy time for Guillman/Lion to arrive, then keeping the Astronomicon lit has to be the top priority.  And if it was taken, why wasn't Dorn aware, given that we know there's a direct comms link to the palace?  

 

The Iron Warriors' departure makes sense to me in the abstract, but I'm a little divided on the execution.  First of all, I completely agree that once Perturabo realizes this fight won't allow him to prove himself against Dorn straight up, it serves no purpose.  That being said, daemonic forces had already been crucial to the Traitor strategy several times already, so I'm not sure why those weren't already disqualifying for Perturabo.  On the other hand, you could read the Saturnine gambit as the last opportunity to win the war "straight up," and once that failed Perturabo knew there was no conventional way to win the siege.  However, regardless of when or why Perturabo leaves, I feel like it needed a lot more space to truly represent its importance.  Can we get some reactions from Horus or other Traitor forces still present?  Can we see some Imperial forces noting their departure and modifying their strategy accordingly?  Can we see how some on the ground Iron Warriors feel about the decision?  And we can we see the process of them fighting their way out of the Traitor siege camp?  This, to me, was the book's biggest missed opportunity.

 

Anyway, I'm very excited for the final stretch of this series.  As French points out in the Afterword, this is a transition novel, and now we can dig into the meat of the endgame, with my 3 favorite BL authors bringing it home.  I'm especially curious to see how the retaking of Lions Gate Spaceport is handled and justified given the desperation of the loyalist position, but I imagine it'll have a lot to do with the withdrawal of the Iron Warriors.

[Preliminary Bombardment]

Mixed feelings on this one; I probably enjoyed this one the least of the series so far, just because I find Titan combat tedious...

 

The one Titan thing I found interesting, the deployment of the Psi-titans, was severely underbaked as several people have already pointed out. We only ever see one Titan and they don't appear to make systemic impression in the Mortis advance - we really needed Dies Irae vs Ordo Sinister. That being said, I hold out hope that we may see more of them, Rogal Dorn was holding their lion seal at the end of the book.

 

I also agree that the lack of Mortis (or any traitor POVs) was a missed opportunity. While they wouldn't have been recognizably human, I think the opportunity to explore whatever they had become almost makes it more interesting.

 

That being said, I did enjoy most of the non-Titan portions of the book. I actually enjoy and am invested in the perpetual storyline; I think partly because I came to this series very late they seem less like a foreign imposition into a pre-existing story. To me, they serve a very useful role of providing context and critical perspective to the emperor and his project. Outside of them, we have very few characters capable of appreciating and acting on the truly cosmic/metaphysical stakes of this conflict, so I think they helpfully bring that aspect into relief. I'm also a complete sucker for the mythological references and all the other "deep time" stuff; I absolute love the idea of the Emperor leading the assault that destroys the Tower of Babel.

 

The Shiban Khan storyline was well written for what it was, but in a series where space is at a premium, and in a book with zero Traitor characters, it seems like a mistake to have given him so much space. I would've been much happier just giving all that space to the Keeler/Sindemann storyline, since we didn't actually get much progress on that storyline within this volume.

 

I loved the Dark Angels portion, the Imperator Somnium assault was epic, and I'm excited to see how the Fallen element of this plays out. However, to echo previous posts, I am completely mystified why the Astronomicon was allowed to fall in the first place. If Dorn's whole strategy is to buy time for Guillman/Lion to arrive, then keeping the Astronomicon lit has to be the top priority. And if it was taken, why wasn't Dorn aware, given that we know there's a direct comms link to the palace?

 

The Iron Warriors' departure makes sense to me in the abstract, but I'm a little divided on the execution. First of all, I completely agree that once Perturabo realizes this fight won't allow him to prove himself against Dorn straight up, it serves no purpose. That being said, daemonic forces had already been crucial to the Traitor strategy several times already, so I'm not sure why those weren't already disqualifying for Perturabo. On the other hand, you could read the Saturnine gambit as the last opportunity to win the war "straight up," and once that failed Perturabo knew there was no conventional way to win the siege. However, regardless of when or why Perturabo leaves, I feel like it needed a lot more space to truly represent its importance. Can we get some reactions from Horus or other Traitor forces still present? Can we see some Imperial forces noting their departure and modifying their strategy accordingly? Can we see how some on the ground Iron Warriors feel about the decision? And we can we see the process of them fighting their way out of the Traitor siege camp? This, to me, was the book's biggest missed opportunity.

 

Anyway, I'm very excited for the final stretch of this series. As French points out in the Afterword, this is a transition novel, and now we can dig into the meat of the endgame, with my 3 favorite BL authors bringing it home. I'm especially curious to see how the retaking of Lions Gate Spaceport is handled and justified given the desperation of the loyalist position, but I imagine it'll have a lot to do with the withdrawal of the Iron Warriors.

Yes totally agree on the Iron Warrior withdraw point needing to be expanded upon. When you think about it, who does Horus have left on the ground who will actually follow orders? The world eaters and emperor's children are likely running around doing whatever they feel like. The Thousand Sons are few in number, so really on The Death Guard and the Son's of Horus who are acting like legions. His forces are still impressive but coordination is going to be harder without Perturabo.

[lightinfa]

 

Mixed feelings on this one; I probably enjoyed this one the least of the series so far, just because I find Titan combat tedious...

 

The one Titan thing I found interesting, the deployment of the Psi-titans, was severely underbaked as several people have already pointed out. We only ever see one Titan and they don't appear to make systemic impression in the Mortis advance - we really needed Dies Irae vs Ordo Sinister. That being said, I hold out hope that we may see more of them, Rogal Dorn was holding their lion seal at the end of the book.

 

I also agree that the lack of Mortis (or any traitor POVs) was a missed opportunity. While they wouldn't have been recognizably human, I think the opportunity to explore whatever they had become almost makes it more interesting.

 

That being said, I did enjoy most of the non-Titan portions of the book. I actually enjoy and am invested in the perpetual storyline; I think partly because I came to this series very late they seem less like a foreign imposition into a pre-existing story. To me, they serve a very useful role of providing context and critical perspective to the emperor and his project. Outside of them, we have very few characters capable of appreciating and acting on the truly cosmic/metaphysical stakes of this conflict, so I think they helpfully bring that aspect into relief. I'm also a complete sucker for the mythological references and all the other "deep time" stuff; I absolute love the idea of the Emperor leading the assault that destroys the Tower of Babel.

 

The Shiban Khan storyline was well written for what it was, but in a series where space is at a premium, and in a book with zero Traitor characters, it seems like a mistake to have given him so much space. I would've been much happier just giving all that space to the Keeler/Sindemann storyline, since we didn't actually get much progress on that storyline within this volume.

 

I loved the Dark Angels portion, the Imperator Somnium assault was epic, and I'm excited to see how the Fallen element of this plays out. However, to echo previous posts, I am completely mystified why the Astronomicon was allowed to fall in the first place. If Dorn's whole strategy is to buy time for Guillman/Lion to arrive, then keeping the Astronomicon lit has to be the top priority. And if it was taken, why wasn't Dorn aware, given that we know there's a direct comms link to the palace?

 

The Iron Warriors' departure makes sense to me in the abstract, but I'm a little divided on the execution. First of all, I completely agree that once Perturabo realizes this fight won't allow him to prove himself against Dorn straight up, it serves no purpose. That being said, daemonic forces had already been crucial to the Traitor strategy several times already, so I'm not sure why those weren't already disqualifying for Perturabo. On the other hand, you could read the Saturnine gambit as the last opportunity to win the war "straight up," and once that failed Perturabo knew there was no conventional way to win the siege. However, regardless of when or why Perturabo leaves, I feel like it needed a lot more space to truly represent its importance. Can we get some reactions from Horus or other Traitor forces still present? Can we see some Imperial forces noting their departure and modifying their strategy accordingly? Can we see how some on the ground Iron Warriors feel about the decision? And we can we see the process of them fighting their way out of the Traitor siege camp? This, to me, was the book's biggest missed opportunity.

 

Anyway, I'm very excited for the final stretch of this series. As French points out in the Afterword, this is a transition novel, and now we can dig into the meat of the endgame, with my 3 favorite BL authors bringing it home. I'm especially curious to see how the retaking of Lions Gate Spaceport is handled and justified given the desperation of the loyalist position, but I imagine it'll have a lot to do with the withdrawal of the Iron Warriors.

Yes totally agree on the Iron Warrior withdraw point needing to be expanded upon. When you think about it, who does Horus have left on the ground who will actually follow orders? The world eaters and emperor's children are likely running around doing whatever they feel like. The Thousand Sons are few in number, so really on The Death Guard and the Son's of Horus who are acting like legions. His forces are still impressive but coordination is going to be harder without Perturabo.

 

 

That's absolutely right.  I wonder (and I haven't read the Black Legion novels so those may immediately disqualify this thought) if this somehow leads to Abaddon taking on a more central command role.  It wouldn't make a ton of sense why Horus would increase his responsibility after Abaddon got the Mournival and the SoH elite wiped out, but at least this would serve a larger narrative purpose, and I'm not sure who else he could turn to.

 

This also makes me wonder who our Traitor POVs are going to be down the stretch.  The Iron Warriors were nice to have around partly because they could be relatively relatable and recognizably human POVs.  I'm sure Abaddon, even if he doesn't take on a larger command role, will take center stage again (although it was inexcusable to not have him report back to Horus in this book), and maybe we get some new SoH characters just because we are running out of other people to follow.

[Bobss]

 

 

Mixed feelings on this one; I probably enjoyed this one the least of the series so far, just because I find Titan combat tedious...

 

The one Titan thing I found interesting, the deployment of the Psi-titans, was severely underbaked as several people have already pointed out. We only ever see one Titan and they don't appear to make systemic impression in the Mortis advance - we really needed Dies Irae vs Ordo Sinister. That being said, I hold out hope that we may see more of them, Rogal Dorn was holding their lion seal at the end of the book.

 

I also agree that the lack of Mortis (or any traitor POVs) was a missed opportunity. While they wouldn't have been recognizably human, I think the opportunity to explore whatever they had become almost makes it more interesting.

 

That being said, I did enjoy most of the non-Titan portions of the book. I actually enjoy and am invested in the perpetual storyline; I think partly because I came to this series very late they seem less like a foreign imposition into a pre-existing story. To me, they serve a very useful role of providing context and critical perspective to the emperor and his project. Outside of them, we have very few characters capable of appreciating and acting on the truly cosmic/metaphysical stakes of this conflict, so I think they helpfully bring that aspect into relief. I'm also a complete sucker for the mythological references and all the other "deep time" stuff; I absolute love the idea of the Emperor leading the assault that destroys the Tower of Babel.

 

The Shiban Khan storyline was well written for what it was, but in a series where space is at a premium, and in a book with zero Traitor characters, it seems like a mistake to have given him so much space. I would've been much happier just giving all that space to the Keeler/Sindemann storyline, since we didn't actually get much progress on that storyline within this volume.

 

I loved the Dark Angels portion, the Imperator Somnium assault was epic, and I'm excited to see how the Fallen element of this plays out. However, to echo previous posts, I am completely mystified why the Astronomicon was allowed to fall in the first place. If Dorn's whole strategy is to buy time for Guillman/Lion to arrive, then keeping the Astronomicon lit has to be the top priority. And if it was taken, why wasn't Dorn aware, given that we know there's a direct comms link to the palace?

 

The Iron Warriors' departure makes sense to me in the abstract, but I'm a little divided on the execution. First of all, I completely agree that once Perturabo realizes this fight won't allow him to prove himself against Dorn straight up, it serves no purpose. That being said, daemonic forces had already been crucial to the Traitor strategy several times already, so I'm not sure why those weren't already disqualifying for Perturabo. On the other hand, you could read the Saturnine gambit as the last opportunity to win the war "straight up," and once that failed Perturabo knew there was no conventional way to win the siege. However, regardless of when or why Perturabo leaves, I feel like it needed a lot more space to truly represent its importance. Can we get some reactions from Horus or other Traitor forces still present? Can we see some Imperial forces noting their departure and modifying their strategy accordingly? Can we see how some on the ground Iron Warriors feel about the decision? And we can we see the process of them fighting their way out of the Traitor siege camp? This, to me, was the book's biggest missed opportunity.

 

Anyway, I'm very excited for the final stretch of this series. As French points out in the Afterword, this is a transition novel, and now we can dig into the meat of the endgame, with my 3 favorite BL authors bringing it home. I'm especially curious to see how the retaking of Lions Gate Spaceport is handled and justified given the desperation of the loyalist position, but I imagine it'll have a lot to do with the withdrawal of the Iron Warriors.

Yes totally agree on the Iron Warrior withdraw point needing to be expanded upon. When you think about it, who does Horus have left on the ground who will actually follow orders? The world eaters and emperor's children are likely running around doing whatever they feel like. The Thousand Sons are few in number, so really on The Death Guard and the Son's of Horus who are acting like legions. His forces are still impressive but coordination is going to be harder without Perturabo.

 

 

That's absolutely right.  I wonder (and I haven't read the Black Legion novels so those may immediately disqualify this thought) if this somehow leads to Abaddon taking on a more central command role.  It wouldn't make a ton of sense why Horus would increase his responsibility after Abaddon got the Mournival and the SoH elite wiped out, but at least this would serve a larger narrative purpose, and I'm not sure who else he could turn to.

 

This also makes me wonder who our Traitor POVs are going to be down the stretch.  The Iron Warriors were nice to have around partly because they could be relatively relatable and recognizably human POVs.  I'm sure Abaddon, even if he doesn't take on a larger command role, will take center stage again (although it was inexcusable to not have him report back to Horus in this book), and maybe we get some new SoH characters just because we are running out of other people to follow.

 

 

I would prefer Abaddon to remain on the sidelines until he leads a counterattack to retrieve Horus' body after the Vengebowl has gone down or whatever. He's done enough already - on Luna, the space port and underneath the Saturnine Wall. I would use him as a POV in the final book, though Argonis would be a better fit as Horus' babysitter IMO

 

I can see ADB rolling Khârn's roid-rage back a little to be a player in his entry, culminating in the Sigismund beatdown, possibly, but this is grasping at straws. I kinda expect to see Zephon, Land, Diocletian and Lotara though. There's also whatever '''''Actaea''''' is doing

 

I expect Wraight to go balls deep with his Scars characters. The Khan, Morty, Typhon (would be interesting), Shiban, Naranbaatar, Illya Ravallion, maybe even some Death Guard guys but I doubt we'll get Graham McNeill levels of cameos for someone like Vorx

 

The final book will be interesting. Is the Emperor entombed at the end of the book? Halfway into the book? Two-thirds? Is the traitor's rout covered in detail or not?

[DarkChaplain]

Honestly, the lack of SoH characters at this junction is one of the things that sour me hard on Saturnine. With pretty much every interesting, developed character dead or banished, there's really very little meat to the Sons of Horus left, halfway through the Siege.

 

Not only is the Mournival, excepting Abaddon, dead, but also Tybalt Marr, who was getting a lot of time to shine and become a big PoV character. Just that he never was in the Siege, he got dropped like an ugly baby.

Lev Goshen is buried alive, Kibre got killed when he by all rights needs to be alive and not extremely possessed for the Black Legion series to make any sense.

Maloghurst is a goner already, and I still don't think Argonis is a particularly interesting character (though a lot of that comes down to how French handled Tallarn past Executioner). Grael Noctua was rolled into Tormageddon.

And I just can't see them drawing on, say, characters from Josh Reynolds' Fabius works, like Skalagrim.

 

Frankly, this is probably my biggest problem with the Siege as a whole: It either lacks character, or it kills its most interesting characters off so quickly, that they have no room to breathe or interact.

The same can be observed on the loyalist side too, of course, especially in Saturnine.

 

And to then fail to provide PoVs for established traitor formations that have been around SINCE BOOK ONE..... It's flabberghasting.

 

Looking at Mortis releasing on Saturday and letting me read the thing for myself, I've never been less excited for a Siege novel.

Haley's Titandeath was great fun to me because of its characters, who made me care for the Titan combat - and I honestly don't even care much for mecha in my anime. It's something I'd more likely avoid than put on my watchlist.

Considering that I came away from shorts like Ordo Sinister and The Ember Wolves feeling pretty unengaged, I can't see Mortis going over well when one side of the battle isn't even properly represented. The Siege is haemorrhaging established characters.

 

No matter how I look at it, the Heresy managed to pull me in with its characters, not the bolters or Titans. The big climactic battles are best when they supplement the narrative and character drama, not the other way around. Say what you will about divisive books like The Damnation of Pythos, but I had characters to care about there who hadn't just been introduced in a Black Book I won't ever own a copy of and have to wiki instead, if even that.

 

It honestly doesn't look like Mortis does anything to fix that situation. If anything, it just drives it further home.

[mc warhammer]

i'd probably feel the same way if the HH (or tbf the parts i'd read) hadn't dropped the ball with the SoH roster. by the time of saturnine they were a bunch of named characters i had little attachment to, so i was fine with the game of thrones style dispatching.

 

but i also enjoy character arcs that get cut short of expectations in that cormac mccarthy/ grr martin way

Edited April 20, 2021 by mc warhammer

[Knockagh]

I’m expecting the SoH to play the lead role from the traitors going forward. The next book better would be better dealing with the collapse of the warmasters armies and certainly give that more attention than mortis does. Yes there have been significant losses for the Sons but it should be that way. The siege series should see characters dropping like flies and new characters emerge and I think they have done a good job with that so far.

Mortis annoyed me, in an 8 book series with a story like this you can’t afford wasted space. This felt like that to some extent. Pages and pages wasted on nothing, good plots given little coverage. But for me the series, ignoring Mortis, has been fabulous and I’ve enjoyed it infinitely more than the majority of the heresy books. A lot of that probably has to do with the inclusion of plenty of characters from outside the space marine bubble.Given D.Cs thoughts on perpetuals I’m looking forward to his thoughts on them in Mortis. I’ve enjoyed them up to now but really really disliked them in Mortis.

[Bobss]

Honestly, the lack of SoH characters at this junction is one of the things that sour me hard on Saturnine. With pretty much every interesting, developed character dead or banished, there's really very little meat to the Sons of Horus left, halfway through the Siege.

 

Not only is the Mournival, excepting Abaddon, dead, but also Tybalt Marr, who was getting a lot of time to shine and become a big PoV character. Just that he never was in the Siege, he got dropped like an ugly baby.

Lev Goshen is buried alive, Kibre got killed when he by all rights needs to be alive and not extremely possessed for the Black Legion series to make any sense.

Maloghurst is a goner already, and I still don't think Argonis is a particularly interesting character (though a lot of that comes down to how French handled Tallarn past Executioner). Grael Noctua was rolled into Tormageddon.

And I just can't see them drawing on, say, characters from Josh Reynolds' Fabius works, like Skalagrim.

 

Frankly, this is probably my biggest problem with the Siege as a whole: It either lacks character, or it kills its most interesting characters off so quickly, that they have no room to breathe or interact.

The same can be observed on the loyalist side too, of course, especially in Saturnine.

 

And to then fail to provide PoVs for established traitor formations that have been around SINCE BOOK ONE..... It's flabberghasting.

 

Looking at Mortis releasing on Saturday and letting me read the thing for myself, I've never been less excited for a Siege novel.

Haley's Titandeath was great fun to me because of its characters, who made me care for the Titan combat - and I honestly don't even care much for mecha in my anime. It's something I'd more likely avoid than put on my watchlist.

Considering that I came away from shorts like Ordo Sinister and The Ember Wolves feeling pretty unengaged, I can't see Mortis going over well when one side of the battle isn't even properly represented. The Siege is haemorrhaging established characters.

 

No matter how I look at it, the Heresy managed to pull me in with its characters, not the bolters or Titans. The big climactic battles are best when they supplement the narrative and character drama, not the other way around. Say what you will about divisive books like The Damnation of Pythos, but I had characters to care about there who hadn't just been introduced in a Black Book I won't ever own a copy of and have to wiki instead, if even that.

 

It honestly doesn't look like Mortis does anything to fix that situation. If anything, it just drives it further home.

 

Superb post

 

I thought Saturnine was amazing in some respects and pretty shabby in others. The Cadwalder-Nibboran bromance at the Eternity Wall Space Port might've been spot on, but Abnett executing reems and reems of characters who deserved better certainly wasn't

 

Call me a fool, but I still have hope Wraight-ADB-Abnett can knock it out of the park if they're given the chance, but I'm worried they're going to be bogged down with Sindermann and Keeler having coffee together or whatever it is they do

[Roomsky]

This is all an excellent demonstration that the series has become so many things to so many people, we were never going to get a Siege that appealed to everyone.

[DukeLeto69]

While by the very nature of a siege this series was always going to be action heavy, but it is such a fulcrum moment for the lore that we definitely need the quiet moments to explain the foundations of what came next.

 

So for me “Sindermann and Keeler having coffee together” is kind of a good thing (depending on execution).

Edited April 21, 2021 by DukeLeto69

[Scribe]

All I ask, is that (as much as they can at this point) they actively stop trying to subvert expectation, and hit the major plot points.

 

The series is to far gone already with random threads and arcs, so just actively don't make it worse.

[mc warhammer]

that's totally fair to expect, especially since adb basically promised that online before the siege books dropped.

 

i'm just trying to think of what hits need to be played and which have been subverted?

 

* lunar bases fall and solar battleflleet scattered

* civil war on mars

* emperor's army holding against horus hoping for reinforcement from space borne loyal legions

* 3 primarchs defend the palace (4 is the subversion but like alphaius' death it's done in a way that doesn't affect the overall tale)

* angron, mortarion, fulgrim, magnus all present

* fulgrim and the EC go off for a picnic

* spaceports fall

* traitor titans break through the palace walls

* white scars retake lions gate

* loyalists fail to retake eternity wall

* sanguinnius holds ultimate gate, breaking a bloodthirster's back

* rogal sends his sky fortress to retrieve jaghatai to the palace but it's destroyed

* warmaster decides against porting down to terra when he receives news that loyalist legions are hours away, drops vengeful spirit shields instead

* emp + sang + rogal + loyalist forces teleport to the VS

* sang fights his way to throne room, horus tries to turn him, sang refuses, horus kills him

* emp finds horus and sang's body

* maybe a guard/custode/imperial fist rush horus and is obliterated in front of emp's eyes (the william king account i read left this out completely)

* emp obliterates horus

* traitor legions pack it up and go home

 

is that more or less it? maybe i'm being optimistic, but it seems like that's mostly going to happen/has happened?

Edited April 22, 2021 by mc warhammer

[DukeLeto69]

“traitor legions pack it up and go home“ made me LOL. You are Lord of understatement!

[DarkChaplain]

So...uh.... did they actually delay the Mortis audiobook and strike it from the BL website for now?

[rookie40K]

So...uh.... did they actually delay the Mortis audiobook and strike it from the BL website for now?

I was wondering the same as I was excited to wake this morning to purchase. Not only am I disappointed, but worried it may not reach audio for awhile.

[DarkChaplain]

It'd help if they at least acknowledged this via, say, WarCom, but there hasn't even been an article about today's releases. The only thing they posted has been about the Print on Demand HH Hardback backlog.

 

Thankfully this is the book I'm least excited for so far, so I'll just listen to Cain and stuff outside of the Black Library range, but it's extremely inconvenient.

[Lucerne]

Is it safe to say the Siege and Heresy have pretty much imploded?

[StrangerOrders]

Mortis

 

So... I got the LE about two weeks after the order went out.

 

I just now finished reading it.

 

That is probably the most damning thing I believe I can say in a review probably. 

 

This book was largely not bad and there were things I quite liked, but on the whole I genuinely struggled to stay interested enough to read through it. Unengaging and genuinely puzzling at parts are the words I would use to describe this one and frankly also serves to describe my opinion on the Siege as a whole up to this point.

 

Heck, even being motivated enough to write this review is proving a bit difficult since I genuinely do not think this book did enough interesting things to really warrant too much discussion.

 

For example, I usually like to tackle reviews by PoVs where I say what I like and dislike about each PoV and... well this book is the most random smattering of characters I have very little interest in so far in the Heresy. I absolutely hated the First Wall and it suddenly seems like a good thing that it engaged me enough to hate it, I will remember Perturabo re-enacting godzilla with his little hololith model of the Palace.

 

Here? Erm... Idk, Titans are cool? At least for the first little bit?

 

The most coherent and interesting part of this book is frankly the Ignatum, who go from being the most depressingly overhyped but unseen legio to being an extremely hyped and well fleshed out Legio that gets a treatment throughout the main conflict that is a fairly good encapsulation of how not to write battles against Chaos that I have ever seen. (From the man that wrote Slaves this is beyond befuddling). Anyhow, the Ignatum as a character is very cool and their relationship with their god machines is given true and proper gravitus, something that does not at all apply to the Mortis frankly, the titular Legio whose character can be boiled down to 'Chaos Sockpuppets' (in fairness, Dark Gods sort of suggests that they had already suffered a horrific amputation of personality long before Nurgle got to them) and which the Stormlords also singularly lack. 

 

The trouble is of course that our Ignatum protagonist, whose name I have already forgotten less than a day after a finishing, does not at all get time to have a personality of his own and instead serves as a vehicle to see his Legio. Something of a running flaw in the Siege's relentless need to introduce characters whose fates have not been ordained by lore written decades previous.  

 

On the positive, the titan battles are written very well and I enjoyed the hell out of the first ten pages of the conflict. By the fiftieth one I was beginning to suspect that I had died at some point during the reading and that my failing brain was just looping through those first few pages over and over. Scale and gravitas are cool and all but the battle as a whole felt more like nothing was happening and I cannot tell you for the life of me why it HAD to be one big battle.

 

Except I probably can and its the same problem that plagues the Siege.

 

The need for an endless stream of tangents and PoVs that serve next to no purpose in the grand scheme of things and which I for one could not have cared less about.

 

This section I will break down by PoV.

 

Spoiler time:

-The Armiger: Who is she and why do I care? Her entire character is that she and her caricature of a reverse-bastard brother are competing to see who want to make me blind from over-rolling my eyes more. Not sure if this was meant to be some sort of messaging or why Vyronii's one showing after a VERY cool Forgeworld entry was these two generically awful morons but christ at least this part made engaged me from just how poorly written it was.

 

-Bestia Est Pilot: Again, not sure why Solaria is here but since I hated Titandeath their inclusion was both unwelcome and unnecessary. Also sad to see that their perpetual need to be caricatures remains intact. The Great Mother was actually far more likable though, even if I do not grasp why Dorn was dumb enough to commit so many engines to that idiotic battle that he literally only had scraps and a single (large) Legio left when the predictable happened (not faulting him for not predicting Necromantic Titans, no one could have seen something that hilariously broken a thing coming).

 

-Oll: Well, at least now its not only Abnett who is responsible for repeating shoving this guy back into our faces. Perpetuals have never been my favorites but the whole cyclical thing BL is obsessed with lately finally hit 'off the deep end' tier for me when he confirmed that he was the FIRST HORUS!!!! (Shocked Chipmunk Gif). Apparently originality is a foreign concept insetting now.

 

-The Proto Comissar: Still can't tell you what the purpose of her was and depressed to see Andromeda (my favorite character from one of my favorite BL books) coming back only to serve as the vehicle for enabling one of the most hairbrained uses of space cancer I have seen in Sci-Fi. Clearly trusting the guy who seems to have based his career on inspiration from Prometheus is going be the salvation of the loyalists.

 

-Shiban: This one hurts me since I love Shiban. golly gee was he even doing in this book? His whole vision quest seemed pointless to me and I sort of wish he had just not crashed in Saturnine and had just been allowed to do something interesting somewhere else.

 

-Corswain: This part was actually fairly cool but dear god is the 'counter-counter-counter traitor' angle of DA getting old at this point. Seeing the fate of the Somnium was also depressing if at least pretty intensely written.

 

-Katsuhiro: I still enjoy watching this poor little man run for his life, after the Siege is over I think I will try just to read his PoVs start to finish for some humor at watching the unreasonable amount of hatred reality has for this hapless Salaryman-turned-Conscript.

 

-Archamus: Alright, nothing bad to say here. I still like Archamus even if his career path never made a lick of sense to me.

 

I am honestly sad at how much I loathed this book and I can't say I am happy with this review. It does not feel insightful and I wish I had more positive things to say. 

 

But then again, thats also an apt description of Mortis to me.

 

3/10, Kill it with a Vortex Missle and then forget about it.

 

Edit: Alright, 6/10 on the strength of the Ignatum start.

Edited May 1, 2021 by StrangerOrders

[Scribe]

Strangers, that spoiler there....we talking mythological....or...?

 

Do a search for 'wait what gif' and well...any and all of them are my face right now.

[DukeLeto69]

@StrangerOrders remember you are amongst friends here so don’t feel the need to hold back Edited April 25, 2021 by DukeLeto69

[b1soul]

I actually really liked all the bits in Mortis about Oll, Grammaticus, Leetu, the Emperor/Horus, Shiban, and Corswain.

 

Unfortunately, I am not at all a fan of Titan legions, crews, and battles...I just find them rather boring in the way some B&C fraters find Astartes and Primarchs really boring.

 

Prose is at John's typical level, which is very good. Just not a fan of Titan (or tank) battles. Frankly, I'd rather read about Katsuhiro than big lumbering machine-men blowing each other up.

[Osteoclast]

Regarding Katsuhiro:

Am I the only one who gets the sense that he is being set up as the founder and leader of the Temple of the Saviour Emperor?

[Scribe]

OK well...I'm not sure the Oll piece adds....anything of value to the story. When I say 'no more subverting expectation' that includes 'adding things that are utterly irrelevant only to have them retcon what the story was about so they ARE relevant later.'