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

[DarkChaplain]

Maybe Abnett will even remember about Lorgar's existence for some twist re: Dark King. Lorgar needs something to mope about in his seclusion, it'd be kind of lame to have him go into his exile just because Horus slapped him in Slaves to Darkness.

 

Wishful thinking, I know. Instead, Samus will be raving about being back for a couple of chapters, Oll will say Okay a few more times and Sanguinius will retread the same character development he's been through since Ruinstorm again.

[darkhorse0607]

4 hours ago, DarkChaplain said:

Maybe Abnett will even remember about Lorgar's existence for some twist re: Dark King. Lorgar needs something to mope about in his seclusion, it'd be kind of lame to have him go into his exile just because Horus slapped him in Slaves to Darkness.

 

Wishful thinking, I know. Instead, Samus will be raving about being back for a couple of chapters, Oll will say Okay a few more times and Sanguinius will retread the same character development he's been through since Ruinstorm again.

 

You wish Samus was back for a couple of chapters.

 

He'll be in and banished within a few pages. Poor Samus, started out so cool, now he's just a punching bag

[Arguleon Veq]

Someone should construct a drinking game based on the predictions (and more) as people read the book, imbibe and then report back!

[wecanhaveallthree]

I don't want to sound grouchy, but all these books with all these words and we can't find time for Arik Taranis?

 

I surely can't imagine that's a character that'd survive to the Scouring or beyond, and he's reasonably important - and appropriately thematic - to current events, surely? You'd think the guy who was effectively the Emperor's Unity-era Warmaster (in all but name) who was betrayed by said Emperor and has been lurking in the Palace slums, biding his time, would have something to do at this junction. I mean, maybe McNeill's got him earmarked for a novella, I guess.

[Bestkeptsecret]

https://a.co/d/hLwYfyj

[System Sound]

5 hours ago, Bestkeptsecret said:

https://a.co/d/hLwYfyj

512 Pages. Blimey

[SkimaskMohawk]

Wait, it's 80 pages or so smaller than the last one? I'd assumed it'd the same, if not bigger, to justify getting split three times. But we're at 1100 for two books and that's nowhere near past a printable size; dance of dragons is 1000 for comparisons sake, and was notoriously split from feast of crows.

 

Same sorta thing with the last three wheel of time books. 

[Roomsky]

Combine that with how much page space is wasted because of tiny chapters and we're definitely just getting jerked around for more money.

[cheywood]

1 hour ago, SkimaskMohawk said:

Wait, it's 80 pages or so smaller than the last one? I'd assumed it'd the same, if not bigger, to justify getting split three times. But we're at 1100 for two books and that's nowhere near past a printable size; dance of dragons is 1000 for comparisons sake, and was notoriously split from feast of crows.

 

Same sorta thing with the last three wheel of time books. 

To be fair to BL’s decision making process here, whoever is printing their LEs does an absolutely atrocious job with larger books. Even at 500 pages the quality of the hinges is abysmal. I don’t think they could do 1000 pages without changing printers to someone more reliable. I don’t think they could even do 750. Not to say BL’s exempt from blame, they should be making the LE’s to a higher standard to begin with. 

[SkimaskMohawk]

24 minutes ago, cheywood said:

To be fair to BL’s decision making process here, whoever is printing their LEs does an absolutely atrocious job with larger books. Even at 500 pages the quality of the hinges is abysmal. I don’t think they could do 1000 pages without changing printers to someone more reliable. I don’t think they could even do 750. Not to say BL’s exempt from blame, they should be making the LE’s to a higher standard to begin with. 

 

I mean ya, their printing service is bad. Obviously going with the lowest bidder has some ramifications or something, like not being able to have quality products and limiting the size of their books below industry standards.

[Urauloth]

On 9/19/2023 at 6:24 PM, darkhorse0607 said:

He'll be in and banished within a few pages. Poor Samus, started out so cool, now he's just a punching bag

Daemon.txt

[Jagus Kumkani]

I found the argonauts story arch wasn't really needed. Personally, I've never cared for John and Oll in the previous stories during the HH. They went all that way for nothing to happen. I'd be pretty upset for another 500+ pages of the same stuff we read from Vol. I, so fingers crossed we get something of substance with the remaining volumes. 

[TrevorLoLz]

The Argonauts is entirely an Abnett contrivance. I’m sure they’ll be critically pivotal to the ending in a way that only Abnett can make them. 

[Nagashsnee]

2 minutes ago, TrevorLoLz said:

The Argonauts is entirely an Abnett contrivance. I’m sure they’ll be critically pivotal to the ending in a way that only Abnett can make them. 

If one of them jumps out during the final duel with a steel chair i will take back every single bad thing i have ever said about the perpetuals and formally apologize to Abnett in person if i ever get the chance at a event. 

[Lord_Caerolion]

My only real request to Abnett is that he doesn’t try anything special with the Argonauts at the end. My guess is that it’ll end with the Emperor defeating Horus but still being physically ok, before Oll arrives and shivs him as “the Emperor surviving the Heresy would be just as bad for the galaxy as Horus winning” or something like that. 

[wecanhaveallthree]

Quote

 before Oll arrives and shivs him as “the Emperor surviving the Heresy would be just as bad for the galaxy as Horus winning” or something like that. 

 

Seems legit. How will people know the Emperor is a bad guy and the Imperium bad hombres if Oll doesn't turn to the camera and say 'Warhammer is for everyone'?

 

I actually can 100% envision a scenario where the Emperor is forced to 'ascend' to defeat Horus (or draw on too much power or something) as the Pantheon expected/wanted, but Oll turns up to shiv him and prevent said ascension/empowering of the Dark King. The idea of the Emperor being a living prison for the Dark King is wonderfully grimdark, and would dovetail very neatly into the very, very sinister discussions around divinity that came up in Godblight and the Ynnari books. It would make an enormous amount of sense, actually: the Throne as a 'soul engine' is constantly depleting the energies required for 'ascension', literally bleeding the Emperor of divinity like a leech.

 

It's gotta be something wacky. I refuse to believe Outcast Dead to be wrong about anything.

[Osteoclast]

On 9/16/2023 at 8:02 AM, cheywood said:

The listing for Part 3 is up on Simon and Schuster (heads up for mild spoilers in the description): 

 

  Reveal hidden contents

The Great Angel, Sanguinius, lies slain at his brother’s hand.
Terra burns as reality itself unravels and the greatest bastion of civilisation teeters on the brink of annihilation.
Desperate defenders gather, banding against the rabid traitor hordes. The Hollow Mountain, host to the pilgrims of Euphrati Keeler, is one of the last redoubts, held by the Dark Angels while the unclean host of Typhus lays siege. Malcador the Sigillite sits ablaze on the Golden Throne, trying to buy his master more time. But time is running out…
Guilliman races across the stars to reinforce the Throneworld. Will he return to ashes, where a Warmaster of Chaos has ascended to godhood, or will the Emperor have triumphed? And at what cost?
It all comes down to one final, climactic confrontation: the Emperor versus Horus. The father against the son.

 

Given Abnett and his “ITS A TWEEEEEEST!” fetish, I’m really hoping it isn’t at the hand of his brother Dorn rather than Horus. I half-expect him to do that given the whole Khorne temptation scene and tying it into his not discussing killing Alpharius on Pluto.

[grailkeeper]

I wonder how much time Dan abnerr spends reading. He definitely spends loads of time writing. His output in 2000ad alone is massive and he has loads more writing gigs outside the black library. I'd say it leaves him little time to do much else. But he clearly reads voraciously. His vocabulary is vast. Just look at his ability to come up with pun names for comics. Add to that the need to read other authors work for the shared univereses he works in - like Horus Heresy.

 

Edited September 27, 2023 by grailkeeper

[cheywood]

4 hours ago, grailkeeper said:

I wonder how much time Dan abnerr spends reading. He definitely spends loads of time writing. His output in 2000ad alone is massive and he has loads more writing gigs outside the black library. I'd say it leaves him little time to do much else. But he clearly reads voraciously. His vocabulary is vast. Just look at his ability to come up with pun names for comics. Add to that the need to read other authors work for the shared univereses he works in - like Horus Heresy.

 

This blog post from Nik Vincent-Abnett gives some insight into how Dan spends his time: https://www.nvincentabnett.com/2020/12/on-how-to-succeed-in-creative-arts.html?m=1

 

[wecanhaveallthree]

Quote

So, if I had a piece of advice for those of you who want to pursue a career in the arts, I’d have to suggest that you put in the hours, work with relentless intent, and have the confidence to share that work.

 

Absolutely sage advice.

 

Of course that applies to just about anything, but I think it crops up particularly often in the arts since it's less perhaps obvious than, say, 'I get da muscles when I go da gym' (speaking as a notorious gym rat). Improvement feels slower, more variable, and depends a lot on subjective interpretation. Something that might be technically awesome, work you feel is really great, might get slapped down by the audience in general while stuff you consider tripe gets all the attention. You can't really quantify 'art' - it's a 'I knows it when I sees it' kind of thing.

 

But even so, that grindstone is equally - incredibly - important. The best advice you can ever give to any aspiring writer is 'keep writing'. Write, write, write. Read, read, read. As the apprentices and journeymen of old did, so too must one hone their craft through the sweat of their brow (or the cheeto dust of their keyboard). 

[Moonreaper666]

Do Hardcovers come out earlier than Ebooks?

 

If so I am willing to buy the Hardcover of III

[Lord_Caerolion]

Officially? No, they have the same release date. Pre-order deliveries, however, are up to the vaguaries of the postal system, so sometimes people do get theirs early. 

[Lothan]

Book 2 has a free extract on the officiel BL site : https://www.blacklibrary.com/prod-home/new/ebook-the-end-and-the-death-volume-ii-eng-2023.html

Just a short chapter, but an unexpected one to be sure !

[Ubiquitous1984]

54 minutes ago, Lothan said:

Book 2 has a free extract on the officiel BL site : https://www.blacklibrary.com/prod-home/new/ebook-the-end-and-the-death-volume-ii-eng-2023.html

Just a short chapter, but an unexpected one to be sure !

Thank you!  I wonder if this means the ebook is now out in the wild?  Usually doesn't take long…

[grailkeeper]

The Eldar are doing the Dance of the End and the Death.