Da Big Dakka - Mike Brooks

[Roomsky]

Starting a thread for it since it's still a new release

 

Da Big Dakka - Mike Brooks (Audiobook)

 

Brooks' third ork book, and his second Ufthak Blackhawk book, is here. Released to much fandom excitement and much fandom ire because it was basically the only pushed release for this year's Black Library celebration. I don't think either is super fair to it; like most works by Brooks it's a very solid "good." The orky bits in particular are more refined than ever.

 

This time, we have Dark Eldar as our foil POVs. While they're still perfectly entertaining, I think it's a bit of a step down from Brutal Kunnin'. That book, to me, read like half of an actual Mechanicus novel that also had Ork chapters. I know that didn't work for many people, but I thought it created a uniquely entertaining read that showed exactly why Orks are such a fun faction. These Dark Eldar, by contrast, read like Dark Eldar in an Ork novel; it's all much more obviously tongue in cheek and they don't seem to have much reverence for their own culture, which is odd because of their supremacist views. The book is more evenly humorous because of this approach, but I think it takes away some of the charm and dilutes any really funny bits.

 

The orky stuff, as mentioned, is the best from Brooks so far, even with the plot failing to meaningfully endanger Ufthak at any point. Brooks' writing isn't the most refined in the stable, but he has a unique talent for making fight scenes engaging. Better authors than Brooks have still managed to deliver complete snoozefests because their fight scenes ended up being poetically rendered filler. Brooks' style of giving us a play-by-play of everyone's decisions as the fight progresses means keeps every moment of this book's very frequent battles enjoyable. This is especially fun for Ork POVs, who doesn't love some good Ork logic? Ufthak describing humans as essentially Orks who are bad at being Orks was a personal favourite. I will say I noticed how often he lent into the "it was believed that X, but of course Y was true" style of exposition a bit too often, I hope he reins that in a bit next time.

 

As expected, Snaggi is back as well. Despite my problems with the Dark Eldar here, I still found this book was back to the balance of opposing POVs that I thought made Brutal Kunnin' so much better than Warboss, so by extension I preferred this book's Snaggi content. At times, he reads like the only POV with legitimate stakes.

 

Also, big shoutout to Harry Myers' narration. He's got a great range to his performance and I quite liked his Dark Eldar, despite his "unrefined" accent. That man can go deep and menacing when he wants to.

 

Overall, super fun book that never had me bored. Probably what you want out of a running Ork series, eh?

 

7.5/10

 

To Taste because it's Brooks. The man's becoming to me what Guy Haley seems to be to other people: workhorse author with a strong respect for continuity, who also never fails to deliver something worse than "good." Now somebody crack the whip on a sequel to his Alpha Legion work.

[ninja6fett]

I really enjoyed it. Brooks' Ork stuff is really breezy and I think that's the exact tone he is going for. Even the Dark Eldar have a little absurdity with how everything goes. I was on the right wavelength for what this book was trying to do. I like that this depiction of orks can exist right alongside Beast Arises. Give me more Uftak books.

[aa.logan]

I read 40k novels to escape from the callous and violent modern world.

 

This book, like all of Mike Brooks’ other works was very clearly written in the English language which hampered my ability to loose myself in the text, as I could not help but reminded of the pressures and changes of modern life.

 

The book also included references to online memes (what colour is the warp rift- black and gold or green and white?) and chocolate flavoured powder to be mixed with milk (the return of Nizkwik the grot). These sorts of references being shoe-horned into a completely fictional setting without a long-standing history of reference to real-world themes is further indication of BL letting author’s own agendas derail story telling.

 

Finally, since the book featured no human speaking characters and was written from the point of view of unknowable aliens from vastly different cultures, I felt that there was absolutely no reason for modern gender ideology to be rammed down my throat. Yes, orkoid creatures are spawned fungally, and the drukhari frequently transcend physical form and have always gone in for extensive body modification, but there are only two genders and they cannot be changed, Xenos or not. Mentioning this is in a book is an affront to me and clearly diversity for diversity’s sake.

Edited May 8 by aa.logan

[Roomsky]

2 hours ago, aa.logan said:

-snip-

 

[aa.logan]

Once again , all I find myself doing is echoing the review of @Roomsky. 
 

This is a very enjoyable and in places excellent book, but one that doesn’t quite hit the heights of its predecessor. Brutal Kunnin was genuinely groundbreaking and Da Big Dakka perhaps suffers from ‘just’ being more of the same; first time round Uftak’s descriptions of “humie stompas” and the like really stood out, but here scrawny and spiky technology maybe doesn’t lend itself as well to his comparisons.

 

I really enjoy the way Brooks writes, and this book whips along at his usual pace, the three viewpoint characters switch frequently and on the occasions where we see the same events from different perspectives it doesn’t feel like unnecessary repetition. Snaggi makes a decent fist of nearly upstaging Blackhawk but perhaps fittingly falls short- charismatic as the would-be Grotboss is, he can’t compete with the increasingly erudite Ork, who I perhaps root for more than any other character in a BL book. The drukhari are suitably duplicitous, and we have one exchange where they are suitably cruel- this bodes well for the upcoming book on them by the author as he evidently has a good grasp of the faction.

 

Much as I’m trying to wind down my LE buying , I went for the fancy version of this; had I missed out I’d not have been too upset and happy enough with the ebook- Brooks’ introduction is good but didn’t really add anything, and Packin’ Heat was published as an eshort ages ago.