Black Library fiction The End and the Death - Volume III

[Lord Marshal]

Won't come as a surprise to some. Article mostly discusses Part II, but does confirm it's a three-parter. 

 

Edited August 2, 2023 by Lord Marshal

[grailkeeper]

Book 1 : The End

 

Book 2 : And

 

Book 3 : The Death.

[Brother Captain Arkley]

Jesus 3 parts :(...

[Nagashsnee]

Parts 9 and 10 of the 8 part series.  We will see if there is an 11th, not like they ever lied about how many book the siege will be before right?...

 

 

'I’m dying for people to get out there and read the whole thing as one piece' 

 

Should have just released them all at the same time then surely? I would have dying or not. 

 

After reading part 1 i can already say the bloat is real and this is very much 1-2 books MADE into 3. 

 

Edit; In the spirit of fairness i will say if i was the one getting the royalty checks i would have fought for a 5 book ending .

Edited August 2, 2023 by Nagashsnee

[Matcap86]

Well this is disappointing but not unexpected. Sigh twice more into the breach to get the collection, but damn if I'll ever get into another GW limited series again.

[Brother Captain Arkley]

13 minutes ago, Nagashsnee said:

 

 

After reading part 1 i can already say the bloat is real and this is very much 1-2 books MADE into 3. 

 

 

I am glad I was not the only one to feel that way. I was genuinely looking forward to the end but damn that first book is a pure slog.

[Fire Golem]

I liked the first one, but it was longer than it needed to be. 3 parts is ridiculous, frankly. I’ve already given up on the limited editions after not getting the last one, luckily. 

[Nagashsnee]

22 minutes ago, Brother Captain Arkley said:

I am glad I was not the only one to feel that way. I was genuinely looking forward to the end but damn that first book is a pure slog.

 

Opinions do differ but you are very much not alone, check out the thread on the book in the BL section! Both the original locked one and current one. 

[Dornfist]

Are you for real?!?!? REALLY?!?!? One thing that bugs me above all other things from this article is that it is confirmed we will only get Sanguinuis vs. Horus duel in Volume II EVEN THOUGH THE EMPEROR IS ALREADY ON THE VS AND IS MAKING HIS WAY TO THE BRIDGE. I foresee so much bloat I'm going to cry. And now, we will have to wait another half year or more for Volume III which will be an extended epilogue probably.

 

In an older TEATD thread, I promised I would take a picture of my hardback copy of Volume I which specifically stated the story will be concluded in Volume II and talk about what a lie that was. I'm traveling at the minute, but when I get back home I will do it.

 

To be clear, in my view Dan Abbnett is not to blame here: it is BL and their poor planning because I bet he is tying up so many loose threads from older HH novels in this monster. 8 Siege of Terra novels? Nope. The clocks stop and we are condemned to 100 years in a desert like Rogal Dorn...Pain...

[Fire Golem]

I’m a big Abnett fan generally but I’m happy to ascribe some of the blame to him. He did write it. For all the loose ends there might be, part 1 wasn’t exactly economical in tying them up. 

[grailkeeper]

I wonder if this well tone down the purple prose. Given that he describes it as a continuation I doubt it. The use of lexiphane words spoiled my immersion. Its hard to keep in the flow of the thing if you are reading a description and have to look up what smaragdine means ( or lexiphane).

[Dornfist]

45 minutes ago, fire golem said:

I’m a big Abnett fan generally but I’m happy to ascribe some of the blame to him. He did write it. For all the loose ends there might be, part 1 wasn’t exactly economical in tying them up. 

I like his thread on the Perpetuals but what else is he going to cram in for the next two books aside

Spoiler

from some more Basilio Fo? Loken for example, is already on the VS and I think he will have a rematch with Abaddon who is going back. What else is there to talk about aside Valdor fighting demons and someone helping Dorn out of the desert?

It frustrates me to no end that we are STILL not close to the final confrontation and immediate aftermath. We have all been deceived...

Edited August 2, 2023 by Dornfist

[Nephaston]

Just watch; once they figure out how to viably make them there's going to be an A3-sized mega tome that bundles all three together for a small fortune.

[Dornfist]

3 minutes ago, grailkeeper said:

I wonder if this well tone down the purple prose. Given that he describes it as a continuation I doubt it. The use of lexiphane words spoiled my immersion. Its hard to keep in the flow of the thing if you are reading a description and have to look up what smaragdine means ( or lexiphane).

Lol I ain't a fan of all those fancy words too. Get ready for more I guess...

[Matcap86]

Just now, Dornfist said:

I like his thread on the Perpetuals but what else is he going to cram in for the next two books aside from some more Basilio Fo? Loken for example, is already on the VS and I think he will have a rematch with Abaddon who is going back. What else is there to talk about aside Valdor fighting demons and someone helping Dorn out of the desert? It frustrates me to no end that we are STILL not close to the final confrontation and immediate aftermath. We have all been deceived...

 

Might wanna use some spoiler tags here and there bud. Not everyone has read it, as the paperback is just coming out. 

[lansalt]

11 minutes ago, fire golem said:

I’m a big Abnett fan generally but I’m happy to ascribe some of the blame to him. He did write it. For all the loose ends there might be, part 1 wasn’t exactly economical in tying them up. 

Indeed, but stuff like the Fafnir Rann/Zephon scenes really seemed like product placement mandated by GW, at least to me.

[Carach]

58 minutes ago, Nagashsnee said:

 

 

After reading part 1 i can already say the bloat is real

 

 

On the contrary, despite the length of the first, it didn't feel bloaty to me vs some entire novels in the series previously that were entirely unnecessary.

 

 

[SkimaskMohawk]

Quote

It had to be published in sections simply because we simply mechanically can’t print books that big!

 

This is really funny. 

 

It's a 6(w) x 9.20(h) x 1.6(d) sized book with....592 pages. My hardback copy of dance of dragons hits 1000 pages. My copy of "The Lost" omnibus of gaunts ghosts passes 1000 pages. My mass market paperback copy of crippled god hits 1200.

 

They definitely can't make a mega book, but if each volume is ~600 pages, they certainly could fit it into two books instead of three. And that's just based off black library's proven capabilities.

 

I remember when I was young and my much anticipated book 12 of wheel got split into 3 volumes due to size; those three books ended up being just shy of 2900 pages, with the first two hitting 1800. 

 

It got split into three parts because it makes the most money for the author and the publisher.

[Splog]

Was book 1 longer than the telling needed to be? Yes

 

Was book 1 too long? I don’t think so, I think Abnett pulled it off. Yes, it’s the extended director’s cut, but it’s a good director’s cut, not dross, not a slog, not some other things that could be levelled at the Horus Heresy series.

 

My main issue is it means there are TWO more stressful slogs to get through to try and get limited editions.

[Chapter Master Valrak]

Anyone Abnett Siege of Terra book? Win.

[Dried]

If I didn't want to buy the Limited Edition I would be happy...

[Vazzy]

Knew this was coming, but not upset by it outside of the stress of trying to cop a limited edition again. 
 

The first volume is one of my favorite Warhammer books of all time so I won’t complain about more Abnett

[SkimaskMohawk]

To a lot of you:

 

Yes, there's been terrible filler in the heresy series. There's no doubt or argument about that.

 

But that really doesn't justify a lot of the bloat in end of the death. The rann and zephon passages are awful, and they're used to break away from the more interesting parts like the vengeful spirit assault, or loken and friends, or ol' and friends. Its absolutely a slog, and I personally dread what other nonsense filler made it past the editors (I'm sure it's a lot; they couldn't even catch striking character and location inconsistencies that abnett shoveled in).

Edited August 2, 2023 by SkimaskMohawk

[skylerboodie]

41 minutes ago, grailkeeper said:

I wonder if this well tone down the purple prose. Given that he describes it as a continuation I doubt it. The use of lexiphane words spoiled my immersion. Its hard to keep in the flow of the thing if you are reading a description and have to look up what smaragdine means ( or lexiphane).

 

This was just for Malcador's scenes and makes sense as that is the way he would think, with his vast knowledge and being so erudite. It wasn't like this throughout the rest of the book.

[grailkeeper]

12 minutes ago, skylerboodie said:

 

This was just for Malcador's scenes and makes sense as that is the way he would think, with his vast knowledge and being so erudite. It wasn't like this throughout the rest of the book.

It was at its most prominent in Malcador''s scenes, but was absolutely in other parts of the book.  The word I quoted smaragdine occurs with a minor character called Acastia, she then goes on to face a colubrine shape which has tentacles tipped with bone harpagons. 

Edited August 2, 2023 by grailkeeper