Dawn of Fire: Hand of Abaddon

[Roomsky]

Behold, the discussion thread.

 

Hand of Abaddon - Nick Kyme

 

In the grim darkness of the far future, everyone has a scar on the side of their face.

 

This was okay. I'm a champion of Kyme of late, but while his prose has improved it's still not especially good. What makes things like Old Earth, Volpone Glory, and (IMO) The Iron Kingdom fun reads is that Kyme has an editor's understanding of story structure, and what's exciting for the reader. I thought this book lacked that to some degree and suffers as a result; it seems more like Kyme the Editor needed to get all the series' ducks in a row for Haley's finale, rather than telling his own tale. This means it loses a bit of why I like Dawn of Fire as well, as it doesn't fit into the series' typical "independent story that pushes a few running threads." It's Dawn of Fire 8 first and its own thing second.

 

As for each sub-plot:

 

Rostov and the Votann

The Votann are basically just Kharadron in space. I'm fine with this, as the Kharadron are one of the best elements of AOS.

 

Rostov has been a bit of a meh character for me from the start, and Kyme certainly isn't the author to make me fall in love with him. Beyond his obsession with the Hand he has no real personality to speak of, and he's impressively uncharismatic. His chapters did give us more Katla Helvintr though, which I think redeems them somewhat - love the character despite her books being weak.

 

Kesh

Kesh is one of my favourite characters in this series, and while this book is no exception, nothing new is done with her organically. She's anxious about the miracles happening around her, right up until the very end, and then Rostov says "believe in the Emperor" and she just turns into a living saint. I don't feel like her journey throughout was building to anything but a nervous meltdown; it didn't feel earned at all. That said, her sections were all enjoyable for their exceedingly human edge.

 

Yheng and the Hand

Feh. Yheng finds a new master and Tenebrus keeps getting himself injured by being an idiot. For the guy who's been the series' main antagonist until now, this was pretty unsatisfying. He does 90% of Yheng's betrayal for her and then dies. Yheng herself just goes with the flow the whole book and then becomes a daemon prince. The Iron Magos and Augury were both far more interesting, but are only now being introduced as potentially major players.

 

Areios

Brother Genericus' Mildly Thrilling Adventures, issue 870

 

Herek

Poor Herek doesn't get much pagetime but I quite enjoyed his journey. Herek is Kyme's character so I thought his were the most compelling chapters. They generally have striking imagery, and Herek's deteriorating health mixed with his genuine remorse at all the brothers he's losing on his journey is genuinely compelling. Glad he's likely to return.

 

The plot

Reforging the anathame is a fun idea, but it's basically just leeching the goodwill I have for better books. No one's development feels particularly satisfying, and ultimately this reads like homework for Haley's inevitable finale. Still, it all moves at a good clip and didn't bore me.

 

A very generous 5/10, so it gets apassing grade. Clearly To Taste, because a bunch of people seem to enjoy it for finally reading like the next entry in a proper series. As mentioned, that's the main reason I found it disappointing.

[grailkeeper]

This is the first book with Votann. What are they like? I haven't read the AoS ones so I'm not familiar with the sky dwarves.

[Roomsky]

This book isn't super interested in being a proper introduction to them - which is fine, it's not the book's main goal, and if you didn't know about the Votann they read like any new xenos/abhuman strain you'd find in a typical Black Library book.

 

Greed and pride are their defining traits. Like the Kharadron, a captain will receive a ship and crew and be expected to bring in a certain amount of spoil to remain in good standing. Risky investments will see you reach fame or ruin depending on the result. Profit is the name of the game. As you'd expect from dwarfs, they like to repeat cultural truisms, and take business contracts very seriously. They also have the rune-magic common to dwarf races.

 

The only thing that made much of an impression on me is a bit where Rostov comes to their "rescue," and the Votann captain berates him afterwards for ruining her planned tactics during the fight, and that they weren't really in any danger. The book doesn't confirm if this means Votann tend to use outside the box tactics, or if the captain was just BS-ing Rostov for extra payment, which I thought was fun.

 

Unrelated, I seem to be one of the few who enjoys DoF covers, but the art of Tenebrus on here is pretty lame. Whenever he was described in detail, with his over-long limbs, too-wide mouth, and fish-like hairlessness, I never pictured what appears to be Orlok in a nice coat.

Edited September 28 by Roomsky

[Nagashsnee]

 

This was okay. I'm a champion of Kyme of late, but while his prose has improved it's still not especially good. What makes things like Old Earth, Volpone Glory, and (IMO) The Iron Kingdom fun reads is that Kyme has an editor's understanding of story structure, and what's exciting for the reader.

This has to be one of the most delicious backhanded compliment/insults I have seen on b&c and I applaud it wholeheartedly. 

 

'Sure he is bad at writing but at least he can handle basic story structure' is such a fantastic overview of Black Libraries general level and the total leeway Warhammer fiction gets away with especially its early to mid years. The fact that he is a senior or maybe even chief editor makes it all the more hilarious. 

 

 

 

 

[Ubiquitous1984]

I've just finished it and although I enjoyed it, I found it all a bit confusing.  There are so many characters, many of whom were introduced in books I read 2 or 3 years ago when the series first started.  I found it difficult to follow who-is-who, why he/she is there, who is this villain, was that person someone from a previous book or was it a new character?

 

To be honest this is a problem I have with a lot of BL books, trying to figure out what the heck is going on.  

 

This is also a drawback of listening rather than reading.  I almost exclusively listen to BL books as it's a lot more convenient for me, but it does make it even harder to follow.

 

Anyway for all the crap that Kyme gets online, I think this is the six or seventh book of his I have read now, and I have enjoyed them all.  But I'm a simple person with simple tastes, so what do I know.

 

PS - if anyone can explain to me how the excellent book 7 had any baring on this book, I'd love to know.  I remember that I enjoyed that book a lot, but again I can barely remember what happened in it now nor whether any of those characters/the ship made it into book 8.

 

PPS - why is this series called Dawn of Fire?  I remember the ship was in book 1, and was mentioned in passing in this book.  But what baring does it have on the series?  Unless the ship/RG suddenly enter the series at the 11th hours it is going to be a strange series title choice compared to the far more straight-forward 'Horus Heresy' and 'The Beast Arises'.

[grailkeeper]

 

 

PPS - why is this series called Dawn of Fire? 

 

 

Because I hope it Dawns  on them that Nick Kyme should be Fired. 

 

 

Too mean?

[Nagashsnee]

 

PS - if anyone can explain to me how the excellent book 7 had any baring on this book, I'd love to know.  I remember that I enjoyed that book a lot, but again I can barely remember what happened in it now nor whether any of those characters/the ship made it into book 8.

 

 

I mean up to and including this book, most of the series entries are very very loosely connected.  Book 7 no more or less then say Wolftime.  Its very much the case of stand alone books that IF CHOSEN to be read together connect in a loose way, 

[Urauloth]

I like this one. It's a very solid DoF book, ties into the rest of the series nicely, and it's a huge improvement for Kyme. Iron Kingdom was a step up for his writing, but I'm really surprised what a good book he's put together here. It's not without a few problems (I know he is an editor, but did he have an editor? Someone should have done something about the word repetition, for a start) but it's fun and I'd happily read more like it.

[Chapter Master Valrak]

 

 

 

Because I hope it Dawns  on them that Nick Kyme should be Fired. 

 

 

Too mean?

 

[Nagashsnee]

Is no one reading dawn of fire? I rely on you lot and reddit to decide if some books are worth getting. And this book has barely made a ripple since it dropped. I know the end and the death moves people to passion but i kinda expected this thread to be a little more lively being new and theoretically part of the current BL ongoing series. 

[SvenIronhand]

Dawn of Fire has kind of fizzled out. It's been disparaged at worst in my circles or been 'solid, but meh' otherwise.

[Lord_Ikka]

It was...ok. The whole Dawn of Fire series in my view has been just meh- instead of a tightly-woven interconnected set of stories it is more of a bunch of stories set during a vaguely-defined time period that sometimes feature the same characters but doesn't really seem to have a steady, focused narrative. This one was at least somewhat unique in that it gave a pretty good look at a powerful coven of Chaos-sorcerers/Warp users of various backgrounds. Here there are both mortals and a couple of Astartes of different legions somewhat working together (or at least working alongside each other for a time) to further the Warmaster's plans, which hasn't really been shown before. Normally if you see mortals working alongside the Legions they are viewed as lesser beings, but here they are sort of looked at as comrades. So that was fun for me.

[LemartestheLost]

Kyme did a decent job of bringing all of these seemingly random arcs together, although some things like Greyfax being in the story are still stuck in my craw. If the goal was to get folks reinvested for DoF 9, I think he accomplished that to some extent. I actually care about Kesh and Herek now. 

 

So, the first time the Votann appear in the novels. I liked them okay. Mr. Kyme has given them a chance to be great in the future though.

Spoiler

The Kin have a Blackstone Fortress now. I need to know what the actual Votann/STC core ends up telling them what to do with it. Or their interpretation of the Votann's will at least. Civil Wars between Leagues for the Fortress or other factions trying to interfere (Abby has another world to crack or Eldar trickery) would be fantastic premises for other LoV novels, I think. My disappointment will be immeasurable if the Kin save the day for the Imperials with the BF deus ex machina style in DoF 9, however.

 

Overall, a solid series entry from the author. He gets a lot of flak, but I've genuinely enjoyed two of the last three novels I've read by him. Iron Kingdom was a slog in some places, but Volpone Glory was quite good imo, as is this work. He does the plot work the last 3-4 books have been missing, as well as giving the Leagues of Votann a fair showing and the potential for big, fun plot points should GW/BL choose to capitalize. Along with improved prose as Roomsky stated earlier in the thread, Kyme gets his laurels from me for Hand of Abaddon.

 

Rating: 8/10 To Taste