The Silent King Short Review

[Scribe]

7 hours ago, Orange Knight said:

 

That's a good novel, a bit overrated I feel.

 

Fair enough. I think the Dawn of War/Dark Imperium stuff could be deleted with zero loss to the fabric of the setting.

 

Different strokes and all that.

[cheywood]

I miss the days when everything was on the margins. Yeah there’s lots of good stuff that centers ‘important’ characters, but 40k is at its best when it’s a small, relatively insignificant cast set against the opaque majesty of a vast and cruelly indifferent universe. Sea of Souls is inarguably the best DoF novel partially because it takes that approach.

[Roomsky]

9 hours ago, Orange Knight said:

 

That's a good novel, a bit overrated I feel.

 

It depends what you're here for. Spear of the Emperor confirms that yes, 40k is still 40k, the Imperium is still horrible and at odds with itself, the galaxy is too big for any one figure to save it, and said one figures are not the centre of every story worth telling. It's the "you don't need to abandon the setting because of 8th edition" book.

 

Your books are a fine list for someone who enjoys all the hype new additions and wants to follow something resembling a metanarrative.

[darkhorse0607]

1 hour ago, cheywood said:

I miss the days when everything was on the margins. Yeah there’s lots of good stuff that centers ‘important’ characters, but 40k is at its best when it’s a small, relatively insignificant cast set against the opaque majesty of a vast and cruelly indifferent universe. Sea of Souls is inarguably the best DoF novel partially because it takes that approach.

 

100%

 

After Void Exile I've been circling back around to some other stuff (The Successors anthology, I re-read Rynns World, about halfway through Traitors Gorge) and I forgot how nice these kinds of stories are to mix things up, and reminds me how much I want the Space Marine battle series to come back

 

None of it was ground-breaking, very few had moments that had layers of meaning to it or anything like that, they weren't part of this huge overarching story line in the vein of the Heresy or Dawn of Fire, they were just allowed to be random stories of relatively insignificant (to use chewywoods word) characters just trying to survive. 

 

I doubt series like DoF that promise the next coming of the biggest thing are going away (and I'm not saying they necessarily should), but I do think it's telling that still to this day, some of the most popular characters that have stood the test of time (Kantor, Grimaldus, Dante/Mephiston, Azrael/the merry band of Dark Angels, Lysander, etc) didn't become fan favorites because they were these huge instrumental characters in a galaxy changing event, they got there by being in these random, terrible but often small consequence events and just had to survive. They became important because of those stories, not made important because they were a Primarch, or were part of the next galaxy altering event. 

 

 

 

 

[Orange Knight]

8 hours ago, Scribe said:

 

Fair enough. I think the Dawn of War/Dark Imperium stuff could be deleted with zero loss to the fabric of the setting.

 

Different strokes and all that.

 

I'm sorry you hate the main plots of 40k, but they can't be "deleted" because the figures in these novels are represented as pivotal pieces in the actual 40k game. The lore sells the models and the models sell the lore, as we all know.

 

And I do personally enjoy Spear of the Emperor, it's a very well written novel, but it isn't the pinnacle of 40k fiction and similar stories have been a staple of the setting for a long time. An equally effective reminder that 40k is still 40k would be the novel "The Dark City"

 

Returning to the Silent Kind novel - it's absolutely worth reading. I agree it has little to do with the rest of the Dawn of Fire series, but it's far more interesting and well connected to the strories that come after, which in-effect illustrates the failure of the Dawn of Fire project. I really don't know why things ended up this way, and why entire novels were just wasted on side plots which have little consequence. 

Edited Friday at 11:16 PM by Orange Knight

[Scribe]

2 hours ago, Orange Knight said:

I'm sorry you hate the main plots of 40k, but they can't be "deleted" because the figures in these novels are represented as pivotal pieces in the actual 40k game. The lore sells the models and the models sell the lore, as we all know.

 

Nah, Cawl could catch a bullet. Zero loss to the setting.

 

I mean seriously he's the most egregious walking plot device that they even had to shoehorn into the HH as a walking talking McGuffin. 

 

If not forthe misguided choice to try and justify the rescaling of the main miniature line he has zero relevance and the 'metaplot' does nothing but shrink the setting and take what could be a setting on par with the great IPs in an open ended ongoing multimedia tour de force, and reduces it to a handful of models having battles of the week and doing nothing.

 

Because they are not going to kill an 8th edition or newer model.

 

Horrible. Save us ADB.

Edited Saturday at 01:26 AM by Scribe
Le Rant.

[Orange Knight]

@Scribe

 

So which of the novels that I listed have you actually read?

[Scribe]

1 hour ago, Orange Knight said:

@Scribe

 

So which of the novels that I listed have you actually read?

 

Vaults of Terra - Some of the best work in the whole Black Library catalog, and how many of the characters are the 'big players' with their own bespoke kit? 0

Watchers of the Throne - I really didnt like this, of Wraights work this may be his weakest stuff.

Dawn of Fire - the Avenging Son - Yep, and I'm pretty sure this was the book where I said 'I'm not buying Haley anymore.'

Bits of Godblight - Some of the worst tonal shift ever inflicted on the IP.

 

I mean maybe the issue here is you think his work is good, and I clearly see it as corporate driven metaplot to the detriment of the setting?

[Orange Knight]

Warhammer 40k, and 30k, and everything in between is a corporate driven product, and has been this way for about 25 years or more.

 

But in relation to the IP, Games Workshop, and by extension Black Library, simply respond to what the customer has shown they care about. 40k as it exists today is the result of the success of Warhammer 30k. People care about central stories, big recognisable characters, events that matter, etc. All these traits were cemented in the success of the various Horus Heresy novels.

 

 

But I suggest you pick up the Cawl books. The history of the characters and the story around him is very interesting.

[Scribe]

4 minutes ago, Orange Knight said:

People care about central stories, big recognisable characters, events that matter, etc.

 

This is true, some people care about these things. Metaplots almost always make their way into an IP.

 

On the other hand, Vaults of Terra is not this. ADB's Night Lord works are not this. Many many many of the great books are absolutely not centered on 3 or 4 big ticket Models, pushing a tiny slice of the narrative as 'the story'.

 

Spear of the Emperor, is not this.

[cheywood]

15 minutes ago, Orange Knight said:

Warhammer 40k, and 30k, and everything in between is a corporate driven product, and has been this way for about 25 years or more.

 

But in relation to the IP, Games Workshop, and by extension Black Library, simply respond to what the customer has shown they care about. 40k as it exists today is the result of the success of Warhammer 30k. People care about central stories, big recognisable characters, events that matter, etc. All these traits were cemented in the success of the various Horus Heresy novels.

 

 

But I suggest you pick up the Cawl books. The history of the characters and the story around him is very interesting.

I don’t think anyone’s questioning BL’s pursuit of novels that get people’s attention and capture the casual fanbase more. That’s obviously a good business model. But I’ve been reading the novels for 15 years give or take and I don’t care about any of that. Give me beautiful stories that capture the horrific universe I love reading about. Metaplots, progression, new lore? That’s nothing for me next to meaningful stories, interesting themes, and beautiful prose. Different strokes for different folks.

[DarkChaplain]

....I'm so tired of the griping about 8th and the setting being progressed by about a decade (in this case) or two, all while establishing a new status quo for at least 4-5 years because the studio can't into following up on campaign supplements. Just look at how little has actually happened since Arks of Omen, or the Pariah Nexus, since they were introduced as the next thing. We're supposedly in the middle of a big tyranid invasion, but how many books have we gotten about that aside from the 10th edition box tie-in?

 

Those novels set somewhere on the fringes? The're still there. They still happen. Heck, it's been HOW long for Dawn of Fire to wrap up with The Silent King? There's been a lot of books not related to ongoing meta storylines in the meantime, too. Sure, a bunch of them are intended to focus on special characters from the Tabletop (though often they are handled through the eyes of blank slates invented for that particular novel instead).

 

You got an entire new Astra Militarum series going at a decent pace, Renegades, one-offs like Dominion Genesis, Elemental Council, Oaths of Damnation, Broken Crusade, The High Khâl's Oath or sequels to ongoing series and trilogies.  Even stuff like Daemonbreaker is basically an original novel because the miniature launched with the book, rather than the book adapting a tabletop thing.

 

That stuff is still here.

What isn't here are authors who left because GW/BL didn't treat them well, paid too little, or got disinterested in BL commissions. What is missing is Warhammer Horror and Warhammer Crime, which painted exactly those horrific universe stories.

 

And personally, I'll take one Ghazghkull Thraka: Prophet of the Waaagh! or Fall of Cadia or The Infinite and the Divine over twenty Spears of the Emperor...

 

Besides, Vaults of Terra is very much a companion trilogy TO the shift to 8th edition, with the plot being driven by Rulebook & Codex cliffnotes and set in the backdrop of the 13th Black Crusade and the Fall of Cadia, same as its sister hopefully-soon-to-be trilogy. It's very much concerned with the meta plot.

[cheywood]

17 minutes ago, DarkChaplain said:

....I'm so tired of the griping about 8th and the setting being progressed by about a decade (in this case) or two, all while establishing a new status quo for at least 4-5 years because the studio can't into following up on campaign supplements. Just look at how little has actually happened since Arks of Omen, or the Pariah Nexus, since they were introduced as the next thing. We're supposedly in the middle of a big tyranid invasion, but how many books have we gotten about that aside from the 10th edition box tie-in?

 

Those novels set somewhere on the fringes? The're still there. They still happen. Heck, it's been HOW long for Dawn of Fire to wrap up with The Silent King? There's been a lot of books not related to ongoing meta storylines in the meantime, too. Sure, a bunch of them are intended to focus on special characters from the Tabletop (though often they are handled through the eyes of blank slates invented for that particular novel instead).

 

You got an entire new Astra Militarum series going at a decent pace, Renegades, one-offs like Dominion Genesis, Elemental Council, Oaths of Damnation, Broken Crusade, The High Khâl's Oath or sequels to ongoing series and trilogies.  Even stuff like Daemonbreaker is basically an original novel because the miniature launched with the book, rather than the book adapting a tabletop thing.

 

That stuff is still here.

What isn't here are authors who left because GW/BL didn't treat them well, paid too little, or got disinterested in BL commissions. What is missing is Warhammer Horror and Warhammer Crime, which painted exactly those horrific universe stories.

 

And personally, I'll take one Ghazghkull Thraka: Prophet of the Waaagh! or Fall of Cadia or The Infinite and the Divine over twenty Spears of the Emperor...

 

Besides, Vaults of Terra is very much a companion trilogy TO the shift to 8th edition, with the plot being driven by Rulebook & Codex cliffnotes and set in the backdrop of the 13th Black Crusade and the Fall of Cadia, same as its sister hopefully-soon-to-be trilogy. It's very much concerned with the meta plot.

I hope you don’t think I’m saying BL isn’t publishing good stories anymore, meta plot or no meta plot. They definitely are, even if this year is more than a little barren. I’m just talking about what I value in a story, and waxing nostalgic for the days when the universe was a little more mysterious. 

Edited Saturday at 05:55 PM by cheywood

[Scribe]

37 minutes ago, DarkChaplain said:

It's very much concerned with the meta plot.

 

100% disagree.

 

The trilogy is an extrapolation of a single entry in one of the AdMech Codex books. No major (model) players are involved, and what little of the metaplot does seep in, is spoken of in broken bits of information.

 

The metaplot, is Primaris -> Rob -> Cawl -> Rift -> Fall of Cadia, obviously not in that order.

 

That is not what the Vaults is about at all.

[darkhorse0607]

At this point I feel like we need a "State of Black Library: Royal Rumble" thread

[DukeLeto69]

On 7/24/2025 at 10:14 PM, Scribe said:

 

Spear of the Emperor is all you really need.

That was a pretty dull “ADB paints by his usual numbers” disappointment to me. As I read it I just felt I had read it all before in previous ADB books. I had high hopes having loved his previous books.

[DukeLeto69]

13 hours ago, Scribe said:

 

100% disagree.

 

The trilogy is an extrapolation of a single entry in one of the AdMech Codex books. No major (model) players are involved, and what little of the metaplot does seep in, is spoken of in broken bits of information.

 

The metaplot, is Primaris -> Rob -> Cawl -> Rift -> Fall of Cadia, obviously not in that order.

 

That is not what the Vaults is about at all.

I disagree now…

 

VoT is very much within the centre of things going down in the metaplot but Wraight takes a narrative route whereby we the audience know more about what is happening than the characters we are following because those characters are not major players in any way. Something I prefer.
 

While I have not particularly enjoyed the DoF series (not read all yet), some of my favourite 40k “scenes” were in Avenging Son when following a nobody character trying to get a message through the byzantine Terran bureaucracy (although as I type that I am now questioning whether that was in VoT or WotT series? Hmmm!) However, for me those linkages on Terra were brilliant.

 

I enjoy the occasional “let’s see what the big cheeses are up to” novel, but really, for the most part, the joy of those stories was drained by the HH and SoT. I prefer to read about the little guy, trying to survive against the odds. That’s why I miss WH Crime a lot! Those books, and books focused on the Inquisition, are far more interesting than “super soldiers fight more battles” stuff. However, I am clearly in a minority as if those type of novels sold better GW would do more of them, but people clearly want space marines blowing :cuss: up!

[Nagashsnee]

On 7/27/2025 at 10:22 AM, DukeLeto69 said:

That was a pretty dull “ADB paints by his usual numbers” disappointment to me. As I read it I just felt I had read it all before in previous ADB books. I had high hopes having loved his previous books.

 

Spears of the Emperor has a second layer that helps explain its popularity. 

 

It is along with maybe the Lords of Silence, the only book to explore the Dark Imperium as its own setting. GW took this great LEAP with 8th and re created the divison of the Roman Empire and the fall of the western half with the dark empire. A absolute GOLDMINE of a sandbox for stories, campaigns and just about anything else. Finally you have a place where anything can happen and no one can say 'well the imperium would just send xyz''.

 

Half the galaxy thrown to the wolves, and like the Roman Empire a stable, centralised and (for 40k) well run state finds itself without all the tools it needs to survive, it cant communicate with itself, it can re enforce itself, its trade networks are broken beyond repair, and the fire, the fire that kept away the wolves has gone out and the night is full of balefull eyes.

 

So of course they did next to nothing with it, no source books, no real campaign books, mostly ignored in the novels as they take place with indomitus (or like the BA books deal with it in regards to the meta narative. And along came Spears of the Emperor, and it gave a segment of the community what it WANTED.  A real look at life in the dark imperium, not tied down to special characters, or super special mega fleets sent from indomitus.  Just a table, with a space marine, a magos, a general, a admiral, a priest and a clerk all hoping the others know what to do.

 

Spears of the Emperor is special cause it acted as novel, sourcebook and index astartes (for 2 chapters more or less). Every chapter is full with information that is fun and makes sense. Skitarii on a thunderhawk? Yeap, Marines threw the codex teachings on fleet composition out the window? Yeap can see it. Planets going to the other side because they are suddenly alone, and hungry and scared, tand the spiky man has actual answers and actual solutions (horrible but what you going to do) and the priests cant even explain why the Astronomican went out. 

 

Spears of the emperor is what 8th SHOULD have been, a wounded, confused Imperium holding on to anything it can to make it to the next year, month, week, day, hour.  And by giving us this window it makes many plan their own slices of the Dark Imperium, where their version of the Separs, and the forge moon, and last few ships and men of the Imperium are raging against the dying of the light.

 

No primarchs, no Cawl, no indomitus, no dawn of fire, no silent kings,etc. Just a fascinating look into what for me (and others) is the true gem the post rift setting, and one that has been left to rot in favour of G man leading a crusade to reclaim the stars (yawn).  I would buy a dozen more books like this before a scouring book.