The End and the Death Part I, II, III, ...

[DukeLeto69]

With the benefit of hindsight I do feel strongly that tEatD could have made a cracking 2 volume book and an amazing (still big) 1 volume book. It did not need 3 volumes. It was totally profligate and bloated.

 

A lot of what Abnett wrote could have been pulled into a separate novella or anthology. Actually am anthology would have allowed ALL the authors to focus on making a tighter focused novel by cutting out some of the side plots etc that they were trying so hard to wrap up.

[Dornfist]

12 hours ago, Krelious said:

I'm of the opinion that Abnett is either a massive troll or he's full on delusional because from reading the afterward in Vol 3 he directly says that making TEATD that long was solely his idea because thats what he felt was necessary which comes off as :cuss:ing insane. I mean I sat down and chunked through those books rather quickly in August but now I just dont really remember much at all. To me I think the siege novels should have been TLATD, Warhawk, Echoes, and TEATD, the novellas and maybe bits of Saturnine should have been in a short story compilation released midway. 

Both of French's books were so boring I skipped them around 150 pages in. I didnt read the first novella, whatever its called. 

 

To me I feel like its a joke that it took like 5 years to finish the siege, I mean can you imagine any other series where one :cuss:ing battle takes 5 years of writing to finish and the final book in the series is 3 volumes and 2k+ pages long. I mean surely I feel like the people at GW and Black Library were just mocking the fans at that point. I'd like to imagine in another universe where things didnt go full on retarded the horus heresy and siege should have been finished by 2016.

 

 

Someone on this thread or elsewhere said TEATD is like LOTR in terms of pacing. Re-reading that trilogy now after a decade, I can confirm this is the case lol. But at least LOTR had a more expansive thing going on instead of one long siege.

 

And yeah, planning was all over the place. I get the Siege needed its time to shine. But by golly, lots of segments could have been cut out while keeping the main beats (the reason most readers are reading the books honestly) and you would still have a solid story.

8 hours ago, DukeLeto69 said:

With the benefit of hindsight I do feel strongly that tEatD could have made a cracking 2 volume book and an amazing (still big) 1 volume book. It did not need 3 volumes. It was totally profligate and bloated.

 

A lot of what Abnett wrote could have been pulled into a separate novella or anthology. Actually am anthology would have allowed ALL the authors to focus on making a tighter focused novel by cutting out some of the side plots etc that they were trying so hard to wrap up.

Yes! This is why Vol. III is my favorite one! It is what the previous two volumes (or one) SHOULD have been: tight concise, and focused on the main beats/players.

 

Oh for sure, some threads did come together and had payoffs at the end. But honestly? The whole Fo thing for example should not have been in the final print CONSIDERING where that lead to.

Edited October 24 by Dornfist

[Xenith]

On 10/24/2024 at 6:52 AM, Krelious said:

To me I feel like its a joke that it took like 5 years to finish the siege, I mean can you imagine any other series where one :cuss:ing battle takes 5 years of writing to finish and the final book in the series is 3 volumes and 2k+ pages long.

 

Seems like 2 fingers up at GRR Marten to me...Abnett writing 1500-2000 pages within what, 2 years to conclude a 60 book series? Pretty epic. 

[Wormwoods]

10 minutes ago, Xenith said:

Seems like 2 fingers up at GRR Marten to me...Abnett writing 1500-2000 pages within what, 2 years to conclude a 60 book series? Pretty epic. 

Shame he used so many of those words to write about Perpetuals. 

[DukeLeto69]

7 minutes ago, Wormwoods said:

Shame he used so many of those words to write about Perpetuals. 

It’s the perpetual problem when writing about perpetuals that you perpetually have to write words about perpetuals!

[Nagashsnee]

1 hour ago, Xenith said:

 

Seems like 2 fingers up at GRR Marten to me...Abnett writing 1500-2000 pages within what, 2 years to conclude a 60 book series? Pretty epic. 

 

While quantity  can be nice, it should never be mistaken or taken for a sign of quality.  GRRM level of success blows the entirety of BL publishing history out of the water. If the winds of winter ever drops it will likely on its own outsell the entire siege of Terra series.  

 

From a business perspective BL would ritually sacrifice Abnett alive if it meant GRRM sale levels for their next book series.  Probably throw half a dozen other BL authors in just to be on the safe side. 

 

Just Kyme in a robe chanting 'onto the anvil of profits, into the fire of sales' while the head of marketing hands him the knife. 

 

 

Edited October 25 by Nagashsnee

[darkhorse0607]

4 hours ago, DukeLeto69 said:

It’s the perpetual problem when writing about perpetuals that you perpetually have to write words about perpetuals!

 

Now you're writing like Abnett too