The End and the Death: Volume I discussion thread

[grailkeeper]

  On 2/20/2023 at 2:54 PM, lightinfa said:

 

This is an astute observation - at least this volume isn't as intellectually deep or ambitious as Saturnine, but I still found it to be tremendously powerful in the realm of feeling and emotion.

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The end was filled with quotes from Keats, Shelly, Blake and other such poets.

Makes me wonder why people 28 thousand years from now are so obssessed with poets from the last 200 years or so. Not much love for the poetry of, say, the 25th century.

 

[Lord_Caerolion]

  On 2/20/2023 at 3:08 PM, Mjasghar said:

Since teleporting requires use of the warp has there been any case of sisters being teleported? 
I think I remember individuals being teleported but maybe a large number together might affect the warp tech. 

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I always assumed it’s possible, in that Teleportation is essentially just a short-scale Warp translation, and the Sisters of Silence can travel on voidships just fine. 

[DukeLeto69]

Not read yet (waaay behind with SoT anyway) but I am a sucker for spoilers!

 

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I too always thought teleportation in HH/40k setting used the Warp and thus nulls cannot do it?

 

Need to comment on The Dark King thing. The whole duality thing means this contrasts with The Yellow King (yellow being bright). Yep I am still clinging to TYK turning out to be The Emperor! Lolz

  On 2/20/2023 at 8:38 PM, Lord_Caerolion said:

I always assumed it’s possible, in that Teleportation is essentially just a short-scale Warp translation, and the Sisters of Silence can travel on voidships just fine. 

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Within a Geller Field though right?

[Noserenda]

Yeah being a Pariah is absolutely no defence when physics become optional :D 

Really gotta agree about the language too, like it feels like Abnett had a thesaurus alongside his forgeworld catalogue! 

 

[Lord_Caerolion]

  On 2/20/2023 at 8:50 PM, DukeLeto69 said:

 

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I too always thought teleportation in HH/40k setting used the Warp and thus nulls cannot do it?

 

Need to comment on The Dark King thing. The whole duality thing means this contrasts with The Yellow King (yellow being bright). Yep I am still clinging to TYK turning out to be The Emperor! Lolz
 

 

 

Within a Geller Field though right?

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Given that even temporary exposure to raw warp energy annihilates what it hits, I’d always assumed that teleporters also have a Geller Field that it encases you in. 

[Noserenda]

I think its more like a geller tunnel through the warp that one gets yeeted down :D 

[Lord_Caerolion]

As for 

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Why Guilliman needs the Astronomican in order to locate Terra, even though he’s in-system, the feeling I’m getting is that the Warp saturation is reaching such a point that it’s similar to the Eye of Terror. The repeated motif is that “time is run out”, and it’s pretty much literal, Terra is detached from the physical. 
Incoming fleets wouldn’t be able to rely on orbital charts, who knows how temporally-detached Terra has become. Plus, it’s not like Guilliman can just look out a window for it. 
 

Physical locations are useless, thus metaphysical location must be used. As such, Guilliman requires the Astronomican in order to pinpoint his destination. 

 

[Ayatollah_of_Rock_n_Rolla]

  On 2/20/2023 at 9:29 PM, Noserenda said:

 

Really gotta agree about the language too, like it feels like Abnett had a thesaurus alongside his forgeworld catalogue! 

 

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Shame he didn't use it to give us all those 400 names of that one Custodes.

[Lord_Caerolion]

Very much liking this so far, even if the chapters feel very rapid-fire. 
 

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This spin on Sanguinius’ choice to go to his death definitely puts a new slant on it, in that he knows his visions show him dying by Horus’ hands, so if he lets the Emperor attack the Vengeful Spirit while he leads the defense of the Palace, he increases the risk of the visions coming true, and doom the Emperors assault in the process. 
If he joins them, he has the chance of proving the vision wrong and them winning, and at worst means that he just dies getting the Emperor closer to his goal. 

 

[Bobss]

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The Malcador THE HERO scene is exemplary imo. It's a scene that could've been hammed up and injected with tropes, cliches and all-around cringe, but it's surprisingly personal and memorable

[Cartaphilus66]

Hello all...newbie here....very much looking forward to The End and The Death: Volume I....followed these novels since the beginning....all the tragedies and triumphs leading to this 2 volume finale....Dan Abnett fabulous author....Saturnine truly awesome read...very much looking forward to these last two.

[Noserenda]

Finished it up now, i enjoyed the book but i definitely think style over substance would be an accurate description, i doubt they could stretch to a third book without it being essentially an extended epilogue even as padded as this first part essentially is in places, its good filler, but its still definitely filler. 

Id also say as people brought it up earlier, that whilst a lot of vaguely modern poetry and the like does come up, they do also have a lot of m3-m29 stuff mentioned or seen, its just quoted less i think?

Also, Astartesian is the Wet leopard growl of this book, its fine as some derogatory term the Custodes use, but then everyone starts using it and it grates.

But yeah, overall a great book, atmospheric as all hell but a bit flabby (Like all good things :P ) 

[Corinthus]

The Inmaterium blessed me with a copy of the ebook and I'm really liking it so far.

 

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Really liked the "bro" moment between Grammaticus and Pech. Good memories of Legion.

 

[Ubiquitous1984]

Damn some of you guys read FAST.  I’ve just finished it and need to get my thoughts together about how much I enjoyed it. 

 

I’m just relieved that everyone else was struggling to understand some of the words Abnett was using!  I thought it was just me being thick. 

 

God help Jonathan Keeble narrating that book.  The amount of technobable and archaic/non-English words used must be a nightmare for any narrator working to a tight schedule.  And at 18+ hours it must have been a proper slog to get through!

[DarkChaplain]

For recording purposes, it was probably a very good thing that chapters are so short. You can prepare much more easily, I'd wager, and go over the next section quickly, pinpoint tricky phrases and get a swift feeling of accomplishment and progress whenever you're through a short section like that. Now imagine you'd have to chunk through C.L. Werner-level chapters (usually 13 chapters at best in an entire 400 page novel) and stumble somewhere right in the middle, over and over, due to the author's vocabulary choices. At least with TEATD, you can see those bumps coming!

[Brother Lunkhead]

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This thread is closed.

 

In anticipation of the impending publication of this tome, a clean break is due as the vast majority of this thread is prepub speculation.

 

@Tolmeus has started a new thread to discuss the book proper. If anyone wants any of their appropriate posts moved from here to the new thread, I'll be happy to oblige.

Just PM me with your requests, questions or concerns you might have.

 

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Edited February 22, 2023 by Brother Lunkhead