Vraks

[Mr Farson]

G'day

 

Has anyone whom picked up the new vraks novel finding it a bit of a slog? 

 

It feels very dream like with not a lot of detail present and changes scene rapidly.

[grailkeeper]

I really like his first Krieg book, wasn't mad about the second. Haven't read this one. The one l review I saw was negative but it was also negative about the book I liked so who knows.

[The Scorpion]

On 6/26/2024 at 4:03 PM, grailkeeper said:

I really like his first Krieg book, wasn't mad about the second. Haven't read this one. The one l review I saw was negative but it was also negative about the book I liked so who knows.

I haven't finished it yet, but I think the first Krieg book is better.

 

This one has some good moments, such as a Vraksian militia POV at one point, but I believe the lore of Vraks is ironically what holds it back.

 

Lyons takes time to tell a story for most major events of the war, told trough Tyborc, Fodor, etc... but perhaps not all the pivotal events of the war are always thematic.

 

Still, not a bad book. So far I don't feel that it has felt like a slog, even if it sorta could've gotten away with it, being a book about a slog of a siege where it looks that no progress is being made.

[cheywood]

A fifth of the way through and I’m enjoying it quite a bit. It’s written in a very fast paced, matter of fact style. It seems Lyons is covering the major beats of the siege in a rather understated way and threading character development through them. I think people will have very different opinions on this book depending on how attached they are to the Imperial Armour books. I’m getting a lot of mileage out of that personally. 

Edited Friday at 08:30 PM by cheywood

[The Scorpion]

Ok, finished Vraks. Turns out it I had to let the book come into its own

 

Could it have used less telling and more showing why things are the way they are? Absolutely. But I don't think the book was bad.

 

Still think the "Krieg" book is superior, especially for the whole theme of sacrifice and whatnot

 

I feel like Siege of Vraks would've worked better as an anthology, "Siege of Cthonia" style. Lyons put a lot of attention to detail. Many got stories worth telling: from the Colonel that died in the Green Hell to the dude on Lord Zhufor's trophy rack.

 

These stories would've worked better self-encapsulated against the larger backdrop of the siege, I believe.

 

A story for Tyborc.

A story for Fyodor

A story for Keled

A story for the Hero of Hangman's hill

Another story for Tyborc, later in the siege

A story for Comissar Maugh

And so on...

 

Thenaxus, Hector Rex, and Thor Malkin could be the secondary characters that belong to the "wider" siege, and tie the short stories together by appearing in multiple tales.

Edited Saturday at 04:15 AM by The Scorpion