Black Library fiction The End and the Death - Volume III

[Ultramarine1999]

On 10/30/2023 at 11:16 PM, Chapter Master Valrak said:

I cannot believe it was Dorn that slayed Horus and saved the Imperium, truly he is the greatest Primarch! 

Lets be real here, we all know Dorn smothered the emperor with a pillow. 

[Cactus]

1 hour ago, m_r_parker said:

I got notification just now that my copy has been dispatched, due to arrive on Monday.

The weird thing was that this was a notification from UPS. Normally it's Royal Mail (I'm UK based), but have GW changed their delivery partners?

I had the same message. Royal Mail are short staffed and can't keep up even with GW's disrupted schedule so I wouldn't be surprised if GW paid for UPS just to get the damned things out of the warehouse.

 

Crackpot theory: the dense pile of SoT books has grown so massive the resulting spacetime disturbances are what has affected GW's warehouse and shipping.

[Just123456]

On 11/1/2023 at 2:42 PM, Scribe said:

 

They couldnt have known Abnett would go back over what others had done, and go wildly off the rails and not follow the plan.

 

 

Based on early spoilers, it would seem to be the case for Book 2 (of the final 8th Book) as well, but we will see if its 2/3rds filler like the last one.

I think volume one for the End And The Death was great, but had a little excessive padding. 

The Perpetuals can sometimes get hate, but most people enjoy the Perpetuals to varying degrees (but a lot of people just have a casual enjoyment of them), but there are a lot of people who don't like the Perpetuals being famous historical figures, which I understand. 

 

And if someone like the Emperor can exist, why would he be the only one of his kind? Like, there are immortals in other parts of fiction like the Highlanders who so many people enjoy. 

 

Do the Perpetuals sometimes get extreme hate because they don't fit into 40k? Maybe they don't fit into the average mortal characters like Guardsmen, but 40k is a universe of reality warping gods and Daemons who can grant mortals multiple kinds of true immortality. And there are other characters.  I understand most of the other immortal characters were granted their true immortality by the Chaos Gods and other forces. But not all of them even if we leave out the Perpetuals. 

 

The Perpetuals might not be as relatable as mortal characters, but that is not a super good reason to dislike them, because the Eldar are millennia old super Space Elves who, with their millennia of living and not visibly ageing, should think very differently from mortal humans. I know the Eldar are at least as vulnerable to the seven deadly sins as humans, but the Perpetuals are even more prone to the seven deadly sins if anything. Pride? A big ego almost inevitable when you are immortal. Sloth? Perpetuals have all the time in the universe, so they can be lazy. Gluttony and lust? Pride and boredom will especially heighten that. Wrath? That can entangle with pride. Greed? Their pride and boredom will especially make them desire things. The same with anger. 

 

The only deadly sin the Perpetuals might not experience to the same extent mortals do is envy, but they can envy rich people having rich things. 

 

Its perfectly acceptable to dislike the Perpetuals, but saying that they are above mortal vices is not something I concur with. And arguing they don't fit into any part of 40k is not necessarily true. 

 

But I think the Siege of Terra novels have mostly been very good. 

Edited November 4, 2023 by Just123456

[Just123456]

I am hoping to get the second volume for 'The End And The Death' soon. 

[Subtleknife]

15 hours ago, m_r_parker said:

I got notification just now that my copy has been dispatched, due to arrive on Monday.

The weird thing was that this was a notification from UPS. Normally it's Royal Mail (I'm UK based), but have GW changed their delivery partners?

Mine is being delivered by royal mail but won't be here until Wednesday. I'm literally 40 mins away from Warhammer World, I swear the books gone past me to be delivered back

[DemonGSides]

Digital editions are out, got my amazon kindle copy this morning.

[Scribe]

13 hours ago, Just123456 said:

Do the Perpetuals sometimes get extreme hate because they don't fit into 40k?

 

No, they get hate because they were injected into a story that didnt need them, left to do little to nothing of note but act as plot mcguffins a few times, and have then been made central to again, a story that never needed them in the first place, and indeed did not have them originally.

[Just123456]

1 hour ago, Scribe said:

 

No, they get hate because they were injected into a story that didnt need them, left to do little to nothing of note but act as plot mcguffins a few times, and have then been made central to again, a story that never needed them in the first place, and indeed did not have them originally.

If you want to get technical, we also don't need other plot lines of the Horus Heresy and Siege of Terra. Do we need other minor characters? 

 

And its a fictional setting. We don't technically need any of it, but we enjoy the fictional setting because its cool, awesome. 

[dalmer]

Folks clamor for advancement of the narrative, or details on the lore.  So folks take a huge brave step and deliver.  It won't be to everyone's liking, but it sure as (expletive) beats a paragraph or two in some old gaming supplements.

 

As to the fluff or plot mcguffins or changes or filler... some folks like the nuances and little backstories.  Throughout the years it's been restated that so much detail has been lost, misremembered, told from a different perspective, etc.    Here's a whole series of detail that hopefully clears some of it up, or gives new perspectives or considerations, etc.

 

Although it's not everyone's cup o' tea, I for one appreciate the series and themes it presents.  Ditto for all the Heresy books.  Truly epic saga, for sure.  And I'm glad they bit the bullet and did it.  I'm sure that it wasn't a walk in the park and in no way, shape or form could hit on all cylinders... but again it beats the (expletive) out of a couple of paragraphs here or there in gaming supplements over the years.

[Scribe]

8 minutes ago, Just123456 said:

If you want to get technical, we also don't need other plot lines of the Horus Heresy and Siege of Terra. Do we need other minor characters? 

 

And its a fictional setting. We don't technically need any of it, but we enjoy the fictional setting because its cool, awesome. 

 

If you are questioning if I would have gladly deleted well over half the HH series,  the answer is yes.

[Mechanicus Tech-Support]

shocked scribe shocked I say

[Marshal Rohr]

A lot of the plots in these three books have Tommy Wiseau’s The Room level of loose threading. 

[Just123456]

5 hours ago, Scribe said:

 

If you are questioning if I would have gladly deleted well over half the HH series,  the answer is yes.

40k is a fictional setting which we technically don't need, but we love to read it for entertainment because 40k is cool and awesome. 

[Scribe]

12 minutes ago, Just123456 said:

40k is a fictional setting which we technically don't need, but we love to read it for entertainment because 40k is cool and awesome. 

 

Right.

[Alternis]

On 11/3/2023 at 7:52 PM, m_r_parker said:

I got notification just now that my copy has been dispatched, due to arrive on Monday.

The weird thing was that this was a notification from UPS. Normally it's Royal Mail (I'm UK based), but have GW changed their delivery partners?

Yes they’ve stopped using Royal Mail.

 

annoyingly UPS have a longer delivery time and orders never arrive on date of release, it’s now dispatched AFTER release date.

 

Meaning if you want stuff on release date now you have to go in store to grab it rather then Pre-order, it makes 0% sense

[Robbienw]

They've stopped using Royal Mail entirely?!

[LSM]

22 minutes ago, Alternis said:

Yes they’ve stopped using Royal Mail.

 

annoyingly UPS have a longer delivery time and orders never arrive on date of release, it’s now dispatched AFTER release date.

 

Meaning if you want stuff on release date now you have to go in store to grab it rather then Pre-order, it makes 0% sense

 

I pre-ordered the recent Skittershank's Clawpack (sans Warhammer Underworlds cards) release, which was due (in Canada) on this past Saturday (Nov 4th).

 

I got the e-mail from UPS that it was moving on Thursday, and received it on Friday.

 

Maybe it was because it was a pseudo re-release, or maybe it was because it had been delayed in Canada, and so distribution didn't care about it going out early. But it might be a change back in policy, or capability. Or random chance.

[Alternis]

13 hours ago, LSM said:

 

I pre-ordered the recent Skittershank's Clawpack (sans Warhammer Underworlds cards) release, which was due (in Canada) on this past Saturday (Nov 4th).

 

I got the e-mail from UPS that it was moving on Thursday, and received it on Friday.

 

Maybe it was because it was a pseudo re-release, or maybe it was because it had been delayed in Canada, and so distribution didn't care about it going out early. But it might be a change back in policy, or capability. Or random chance.

Next time I do an order on a preorder (I haven’t done it on this new site) 

 

But since they switched from Royal Mail to UPS, delivery times went from Tracked 24 to Tracked 48.

And I always read in the fine print when ordering that they were saying orders would be dispatched after release date. 
 

I understand why they switched because Royal Mail was having mass strikes, lack of drivers and staff and it was causing chaos getting people’s items to them (I remember when I preordered Lion El when he first released, I didn’t get him till almost 3 weeks after release date due to Royal Mail issues) so naturally any reasonable business would switch to a new delivery company, but UPS is just longer wait times, and way more strict regarding weekend deliveries, I remember I missed collecting my Tyranids 10th preorders because driver turned up in the morning when I was still at work despite being informed it would be delivered late afternoon when I was home, spoke to support and they said they will contact the driver to re-deliver, he refused, so I had to travel all the way to Essex to grab my stuff. 
 

Nightmare dealing with UPS sometimes.

[OttoVonAwesome]

UPS is the worst parcel service ever. Never had a good experience with them in North America, Packages with boot prints on them, made up service charges and brokerage fees, "missed deliveries" where they never knocked just left a notice at my door and told me I had to pick up my package across town at thier offices when I was home the entire day on multiple occasions. If I can ship anything Canada Post I will cuase I never have any of these problems and if I miss the driver I can pick up the package just down the street or have it redelivered not 3 cities away between the hours of 10am and 1pm by appointment with a confirmation code and 70 dollars in brokerage fees for a 20 dollar item.

[Aarik]

I'm about a third of the way through the Volume II audio book, and (without giving any spoilers) it seems like Abnett has gone with showing a wider scope of a narrower time span in the book so far.  There are a number of storylines that give insight into what this portion of the Siege was like for common soldiers and secondary named Astartes -- in particular, how metaphysically weird everything has gotten.  I can definitely see how people might feel that this pads out the books because they don't do much to advance the overall plot, but I'm happy that we're getting this level of detail and insight into what's happening beyond just the primarchs/Malcador/the Emperor, etc.  We likely won't ever get any more novels about the Siege beyond this series (at least not for a few decades), so I'd rather we get this information than not. 

[Scribe]

Lord knows, we didn't get the wide view from the 60 Heresy books.

 

No, we better blow out the SoT, the singular foundational event of 40K IP...

[DemonGSides]

1 hour ago, Aarik said:

I'm about a third of the way through the Volume II audio book, and (without giving any spoilers) it seems like Abnett has gone with showing a wider scope of a narrower time span in the book so far.  There are a number of storylines that give insight into what this portion of the Siege was like for common soldiers and secondary named Astartes -- in particular, how metaphysically weird everything has gotten.  I can definitely see how people might feel that this pads out the books because they don't do much to advance the overall plot, but I'm happy that we're getting this level of detail and insight into what's happening beyond just the primarchs/Malcador/the Emperor, etc.  We likely won't ever get any more novels about the Siege beyond this series (at least not for a few decades), so I'd rather we get this information than not. 

 

Yeah plus I think it's pretty well written.  Abnett has a penchant for using grandiloquent vocabulary, which can get annoying, but since I'm reading it on a kindle I can just hover the word and get the definition immediately.
 

[aznviking]

On 11/7/2023 at 11:23 AM, OttoVonAwesome said:

UPS is the worst parcel service ever. Never had a good experience with them in North America, Packages with boot prints on them, made up service charges and brokerage fees, "missed deliveries" where they never knocked just left a notice at my door and told me I had to pick up my package across town at thier offices when I was home the entire day on multiple occasions. If I can ship anything Canada Post I will cuase I never have any of these problems and if I miss the driver I can pick up the package just down the street or have it redelivered not 3 cities away between the hours of 10am and 1pm by appointment with a confirmation code and 70 dollars in brokerage fees for a 20 dollar item.

 

It's funny how much the service differs from country to country. I work in shipping and have noticed that customers in some countries prefer UPS while other countries despise them and prefer FedEX or DHL. 

[Handsome Fred]

So any interesting spoiler from the book?

[TrawlingCleaner]

=][= We've veered off pretty heavily folks, this thread is meant to be discussion on Book 3 of the series (currently yet to be released) and have strayed into discussion of Book 2. If you wish to go into more depth about Book 1, 2 and 3 this would be the best place for it:

We'll leave discussion of Book 2, orders, spoilers, reviews etc there =][=