The Scouring (Series)

[grailkeeper]

Really enjoying this so far. It's really excellent. The quotes at the start of chapters give it a real feel of history. Reading this gives the same feeling of potential that Horus Risong did when it came out. If every book in the series was of this quality then it will be BL's high point. Its unlikely, but if that happened I could see a scouring board game being bigger than 30k and maybe even 40k.

 

I'm a third of the way in and this could be book of the year

 

[wecanhaveallthree]

Quote

same vibe as Rising

 

Yep, that was exactly my feeling when I saw the first leaks and when I read the book, that sense of 'this is gonna be big' and the sense that there is a real intention to make it big without sacrificing any of the actual quality of the novel. It is making a very clear effort to set up various characters and plot beats to follow in the future, not just as a linear series but in the branching fashion of the early Heresy. It's not just Wraight at his personal best in what's become his 'home ground' - politicking on Terra! - but editorial doing a damn fine job of curating and nurturing opportunities for the future.

 

And really, that's what I want out of the Scouring. A return to the early Heresy style, a looser reading order, that hype and excitement of 'where are we going next'. Ashes sets the stage for everything to come. 

[grailkeeper]

One thing that adds to this is I don't have a clue what is going to happen next. That's pretty rare! Neither do the characters. It really feels like anything can happen. Normally it's pretty obvious that they'll over come the adversity they face. Not so here.

 

At the start of the heresy it felt like anything could happen. But most authors largely took the direct and most obvious paths. There were few surprises. We were told at the outset that marines from every legion turned. Outside of the scars how many did you see. 

 

Wright does a good job of making it clear that, despite it being clear to us what the end result will be, it is not clear to the characters.  I hope we'll see a lot of different things being tried and many being abandoned before we get to the familiar word of 40k.

[wecanhaveallthree]

The negative side of this 'clearing the board' is the blunt revisionism of the book, and there is a lot of it. TEATD felt like a thrilling conclusion to a very different Siege; Ashes is a return to the broad strokes of the early Heresy, as though everything that happened after the first dozen or so was actually an off-ramp and we never saw the actual Heresy Ashes is continuing on from. Motivations, objectives, ideas, philosophies are all laid out stark and cleanly in this book where previously they were, in the kindest light, jumbled. It feels like 'anything can happen' because there has been a very deliberate setting straight of paths. Ashes is a foundational text in every sense of the word. Right from the first chapters it says very clearly 'this is the way things are now'. For better or worse, what came before is being left behind.

 

Again, in many ways, I think that's what a lot of people wanted - and the only way the series could happen. The Heresy is over. The Siege is over. We are not going to try and make sense of those seventy books and their tiny details. That's not where the setting is now, it's not what the setting is now. It's as fresh a start as you can get, all considered.

 

I think that's what makes me so unhappy about it. It's a great book, tight, well-written, hits all the proper marks. But it's not the same Heresy. It's a... legacy series. Everything is different. Not wrong, not exactly, but not the same. It's 'there have always been female Custodes' writ large. There is no slump, no slide, no long fall. There's none of the history of the Imperium, none of the grit that lead to the Dark Millenium, It's just over. Everything's over. And that's just how it is now.

 

My favourite passage is the

 

Spoiler

great replacement of Terran citizens

 

Nothing could be a starker, darker fulfilment of Unity, the final culmination of what we saw in Outcast Dead.

[Alpharius902]

Finished this a couple of nights ago, really enjoyed it

 

Spoiler

My favorite part was definitely Theokon's state of being in the end. He's lost everything. He already knew the Word Bearers had drunk the Kool-Aid, but once Perturabo shows up and starts spouting off about how he can "use the Chaos to control the Chaos," he's just broken. He knows what he should do... but loyalty outweighs it, so he's stuck. He hates it, he knows it's awful, but he can't change anything, so why not go with the flow?

 

Another thing of note was Hassan's ascension to the post of Grand Master of Assassins (I like the idea of recruiting someone "outside" the organization to lead them; we know it doesn't last, but it's interesting). Guilliman being so paranoid that he doesn't tell anyone else about how messed up the Emperor is was also a terrific concept - he's such a control freak that he doesn't trust anyone else to have the reins to handle it (aside from the Sisters because he's forced to), which makes him play his cards close to his chest, which in turn keeps everyone in the dark and suspicious. Which is amazing. I love seeing this side of the loyalists at their most broken.

 

Timeline-wise, this thing takes place from directly after the Siege through a few months post-Heresy, so still in 014.M31. Next "in-universe" year should see the formal creation of the Inquisition on the anniversary of the Emperor's ascenscion if they hold to old lore (we've got Xanthus, Sindermann up so far, with Garmon/Promeus mentioned, need to figure out which of the Moriana's will be joining - my money's on the Actea-Moriana), so that'll be intriguing to cover in the next couple of books.

 

Possible stories I'd like to see going forward:

• The next novel is almost guaranteed to be Russ and the Wolves leading the Martian Reclamation effort. Really want to get his perspective on the state of everything
• Short story detailing the codification process for someone to be selected as part of the Unspoken Sanction as they start realizing this sacrifice will be permanent
• Something detailing exactly how Abaddon managed to get out of the way of Guilliman's fleet

 

[Nagashsnee]

While my general thoughts will be in the books thread one thing really stood out to me.

 

Spoiler

Thru out the book multiple characters keep referring to the leader of the Mechanicus as Fabricator Locum. Instead of Fabricator General. In the character list it's fabricator general locum.  Kane has been refered to as fabricator General since at least master of Mankind.  He was Fabricator Locum of the mechanicum which is its own position in a different and now enemy organisation under Kelbor Hall. 

 

It's such a gigantic mistake to make and I can't believe it made it to print. They made a entire audio drama (binary succession) dealing with the paradox of two fabricator generals, and it's resolution. They are two separate positions and titles.

 

President and vice president, you cant be both. And even if you could using the lesser tittle would be a insult.  I don't understand how this happened, how it wasn't picked up on, how editing don't step in. 

 

Zagreus Kane is the Fabricator General of the Adeptus Mechanicus.  I know the scouring like the HH before it will be ultra focussed on marines, but come on! Pretend to care!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Tolmeus]

32 minutes ago, Nagashsnee said:

While my general thoughts will be in the books thread one thing really stood out to me.

 

I don't want to open unnecessary therads when there are already exisiting ones, but as a matter of fact, we currently don't have a specific thread for Ashes of the Imperium.
Should that be a matter, please feel free to open one. I have the feeling this thread is more of a common ground regarding the series as a whole, but that is only my opinion.

[The Scorpion]

23 hours ago, grailkeeper said:

Really enjoying this so far. It's really excellent. The quotes at the start of chapters give it a real feel of history. Reading this gives the same feeling of potential that Horus Risong did when it came out. If every book in the series was of this quality then it will be BL's high point. Its unlikely, but if that happened I could see a scouring board game being bigger than 30k and maybe even 40k.

 

I'm a third of the way in and this could be book of the year

 

A scouring boardgame might just expand from the Age of Darkness. Those battle of Luna scenes sounded like one of those campaign supplements that FW liked to drop for HH boardgame like Siege of Cthonia.

[The Scorpion]

1 hour ago, Tolmeus said:

 

I don't want to open unnecessary therads when there are already exisiting ones, but as a matter of fact, we currently don't have a specific thread for Ashes of the Imperium.
Should that be a matter, please feel free to open one. I have the feeling this thread is more of a common ground regarding the series as a whole, but that is only my opinion.

I agree, but rn the venn diagram for AotI and the Scouring is a full circle, so the patrons can be forgiven this time around