Black Library Siege of Terra - Garro: Knight of Grey

[grailkeeper]

If you'd told me a HH author's original work would become a New York Times best seller and asked me to guess which one, I'd never have guessed James Swallow. 

[Scribe]

No worries then.

[MegaVolt87]

Garro and Loken should have a run at their respective sire's to add some more flavour to the primarchs themselves. Of course, they both should be dying there, its the HH where 90% of the named guys are dead or missing presumed dead. 

[SkimaskMohawk]

18 hours ago, Trysanna said:

Funnily enough, I don't need flaws and sins against a character 'fixed', I just need a good story with interesting character, preferably some I can relate to, but please continue to misunderstand everything I had to say about Angron, I promise it's not annoying

Some people find consistent characterization/character arcs a necessity for a "good story" in a series. It's hard for them to think that the character is interesting when they're constantly thinking "but why are they acting this way?".

I personally felt like that on reading Perturabos portrayal in Lost and the Damned, coming off Solar War and Slaves to Darkness. If Scribe went from reading Daemonology and Path of Heaven to Buried Dagger, I'm sure the "but why" question popped up a lot, and I'm also sure that Warhawk helped transition the two takes on Mortarion and make the character interesting again.

 

Edited July 14, 2022 by SkimaskMohawk

[Subtleknife]

Is there a release date?

[Noserenda]

1 hour ago, grailkeeper said:

If you'd told me a HH author's original work would become a New York Times best seller and asked me to guess which one, I'd never have guessed James Swallow. 

There was a bunch of them for a while, i suspect because of the series rather than any particular author. Then Black library brought sales in house or somesuch and eliminated most of their sales from counting towards the NYT Bestseller list meaning noone got them anymore :( 

[caladancid]

4 hours ago, Morovir said:

And so the war between Wraight and Swallow for the fate of the Death Guard continues...

In all seriousness though, it'll be interesting to read the afterword for this one, and see when in was written in relation to Warhawk.

I was just re-reading Warhawk and thinking this exact thing, and then this book gets released and I am very confused and have no hopes whatsoever for it.

[Taliesin]

14 hours ago, Subtleknife said:

Is there a release date?

No.

[jaxom]

In an ideal world, all the connecting narratives would be developed at once and produced in a logical manner. However, I think the closest comparison I can come to would be something like the new Obi-Wan or the Marvel's live-action media. Some projects are slotted between others, in narrative chronology, but for production reasons or simply that the idea for the story wasn't developed until later they don't come out until later. There's always going to have be a suspension of disbelief, headcannon, or writing-magic (the hardest to achieve) to make up for why characters or a setting don't seem impacted what should have happened earlier.

None of the above is meant to excuse what might have been poor planning or what might be poor writing, but perhaps to temper future expectations if more of these "out-of-order: novellas pop up (and it seemed from the article that they would).

[BLACK BLΠFLY]

Garro we knew thee well… 

[byrd9999]

This is set between Mortis and Warhawk.

 

Jim Swallow confirmed on his blog.

[Felix Antipodes]

4 hours ago, byrd9999 said:

This is set between Mortis and Warhawk.

 

Jim Swallow confirmed on his blog.

Did he say why it's effectively late?

[Calibanite Knight Angel]

I think I've been following the Heresy too long, but I don't think stories like this, where a character we know survives faces off against a character we don't know the fate of, excite me as much as they used to. I also wonder if "Primarch vs Character X" is a little overdone at this point. But  to each their own, I hope it's an exciting read! Although I'm not thrilled about the whole "limited edition" thing at this point. I'm also not sure if I'd maybe have preferred an ending to Garro's story with a little more plot than "must fight big  scary Primarch dude", but hey, hopefully I'm wrong and it's a great book! Though TBH I  think  it would've been coolest had Garro's plot been wrapped up in an actual novel rather than a tie in novella, which are generally seen as a little more optional.

Edited July 15, 2022 by Calibanite Knight Angel

[quasistellar]

8 hours ago, Calibanite Knight Angel said:

I think I've been following the Heresy too long, but I don't think stories like this, where a character we know survives faces off against a character we don't know the fate of, excite me as much as they used to. I also wonder if "Primarch vs Character X" is a little overdone at this point. But  to each their own, I hope it's an exciting read! Although I'm not thrilled about the whole "limited edition" thing at this point. I'm also not sure if I'd maybe have preferred an ending to Garro's story with a little more plot than "must fight big  scary Primarch dude", but hey, hopefully I'm wrong and it's a great book! Though TBH I  think  it would've been coolest had Garro's plot been wrapped up in an actual novel rather than a tie in novella, which are generally seen as a little more optional.

Yeah, the fact that he faces off vs Morty is pretty discouraging, but I'm still gonna get the book.

Who knows. . . maybe he realizes discretion is the better part of valor and lives to fight another day in a battle he can actually win.

I'm keeping my expectations low for now to avoid being disappointed.

[jaxom]

I've been thinking about it, and I think a large part of why I'm not that excited about it has to due with Mortation and Garro in contrast to Horus and Loken, and Angron and Mago. Loken was Horus's man, through and through. While he wasn't a facial Son of Horus, there was nothing otherwise to make him stand out from the other Cthonians. So when Horus falls and Loken stays loyal, there's real pathos. Along different lines, Mago was fighting for the soul of his legion against Angron's influence; again, pathos. Meanwhile, Garro just kind of goes along with it as Mortarion erases as much of the Dusk Raider culture as he can and replaces it with Barbarus. Garro even recognizes that he and Temeter are the odd men out among legion command and that they'd be replaced with Barbarans once they died. There isn't even the closeness between them that we see between some of the other primarchs and their Terran commanders. So when Mortarion goes traitor, when I read Flight of the Eisenstein, to me it seemed more like Garro was intellectually angry at Mortarion and really only emotionally angry because he knew the memory of the Dusk Raiders would go down with the traitorous Death Guard. That possible confrontation of a wanting show what the loyal 14th could do ended prematurely by having Malcador recruits Garro rather than Garro paint his armor grey, his arm red, and start taking heads.

[Lord Marshal]

Pre-order next week for the LE, hardback, ebook and audiobook.

 

Edited January 8, 2023 by Lord Marshal

[Axineton]

Looks nice this limited edition book.

 

Doubt I’ll have the dexterity to get it in the checkout and actually in my hands with the scalpers on the prowl though. 

[m_r_parker]

That looks very thin...

[Ubiquitous1984]

With news of the book being available to pre-order, we might as well have a discussion thread.  That said, is this is least anticipated SoT book we have had?  It sure feels like it to me.  I’m going in with low expectations.  I can’t even remember what Garro has been up to in the Siege tbh.

 

edit - title amended!

Edited January 9, 2023 by Ubiquitous1984

[skylerboodie]

Oath of Moment? I assume you mean Knight of Grey!

 

Yes, low expectations given the assumed setting two books ago, plus author.

[Carach]

Garro's sword is a super-weapon that cuts through anything, remember.. 

 

Timeline-wise it's a bit of a problematic novella. But if post-Warhawk I think the only thing one can really pull off is if Morty comes back directly through the hole in the webway and Garro is in the webway? For.. reasons?

 

Yea I don't think that's how this is gonna be, so it's probably pre-Warhawk and we just never hear from others of Garro's fate for *reasons*

 

edit: missed a whole page of chat somehow (so ofc the ridiculous non-theory theory isn't true) 

 

 

 

 

Edited January 8, 2023 by Carach

[cheywood]

I just don’t see the need for this novella. Abnett clearly managed to stuff everything else into the concluding quartet or however many novels we’re presuming it is now. It’s not like Garro is such a unique and widely beloved character that people are clamoring for this. What’s next, Ben Counter coming in hot with a fourth Abyss-class? But who knows, maybe it will greatly surpass my expectations.

[DarkChaplain]

Oh, I definitely wanted a proper send-off for Garro.

 

But I wanted it when it mattered. I didn't want a book out of time and sync with the rest of the series. And I certainly didn't want Swallow touching Mortarion/Typhus again after the drivel that was The Buried Dagger.

[grailkeeper]

How much do we know about the Gray Knights in thr HH. For me it was one of those story lines that started off very promisingly, then rapidly went off the rails, so I stopped paying attention.

[Reskin]

I liked Garro in those audio dramas, but I havent followed him for a long time. But then I play Grey Knights...