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I just finished this book and I have a few thoughts.

it is a book I liked, so let's get the negatives out of the way: this book, much like the one about Lelith Hesperax by the same author suffers painfully from "telling" stuff as a blunt statement instead of letting things be "shown". It is a problem most glaring at the beginning, but never quite ends up disappearing. I imagine Mike was concerned with (and rightfully so) fulfilling a checklist of other things that the novel needed to have and so let this escape his attention. Either the editor failed to see it, or it was left on purpose to let the book be an easy introduction to the Eldar, since it is a bit more than just about Corsairs.

Now, if the prose is serviceable but not spectacular, what makes the book good?
It is hard to explain, but I guess the book sets out to do exactly what it is supposed to do, and then hastily throws some tasty spice along the way.

The plot is simple at the beginning yet gains a surprising depth about 1/3rd into the novel without becoming complicated: it is more about dilemmas and meaning, and personal principle.

The characters punch above their weight imho.
We have a Corsair baron, dancing between pragmatism and principle, between bravado and insecurity, between indulging in schadenfreude and moving on from past wrongs.
We have a recent Craftworld exile, torn between personal desires and greater duty, trying to find himself without losing himself.
We have their rivals, their friends and companions, not always as nuanced but with clear goals and motivations.
Some minor characters get amazing characterization, such as the Farseer responsible for exiling the main characters. The book is about Corsairs, but it acknowledges that things are not as simple as "Craftworld councils are senile, they'd rather sit on their ass and play it safe than do something while Aeldari slowly go extinct".
I like that with the Eldar characters, Brooks takes the time to go into their psyche, since they are supposed to feel more profundly and more richly than a human does. Every now and then, some of their thoughts are overly romantic, idealistic, morbid, self-indulgent, or slighly perverse, and that is great.

Speaking of characters, Brooks pulled his best card for the antagonists: Orks.
Greenskins are often generic antagonists but say what you want about Brooks the man sure knows how to write Orks, and the Ork POV was one of my faves.
Every POV was a great reminder that while Orks have hopes and dreams and fears, the things they value or consider important is so much different to that of the other races in 40k. In this case, we follow a Mek and his struggle in dealing with a Freeboter Kaptin that is not as patient, as generous with scrap piles, or as tolerant with explosions (specifically with how local they are) as a Mek might want a Boss to be.

All in all. I liked this one. My main concern, which was Eldar characters feeling too human, was mostly avoided. Many characters, including random ones, had a pleasantly surprising depth, and da ladz are always fun to watch. Barely any human stuff in it too. By and large this book takes place in the galaxy outside of the Imperium, which helps the setting feel wide.

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There was a slew of posts that started delving into political discussion. Rather than edit out the political portions (a few had non-political comments), I hid them all since I don't have time for more right now. Later this weekend (late Sunday) or early next week, I may go in and edit out the political portions from those posts that have non-political content.

12 hours ago, Nagashsnee said:

I have no idea whats being going on (both here and other BL threads), but i just ordered the book to find out.

 

If you are familiar with the author, then your guess about what happened will be pretty close.

16 minutes ago, phandaal said:

 

If you are familiar with the author, then your guess about what happened will be pretty close.

 

Criticism of his extremely long run on sentences?:whistling:

7 hours ago, phandaal said:

 

If you are familiar with the author, then your guess about what happened will be pretty close.

I am kinda hoping that isn't the case.  And instead it's down to the book itself. 

 

Do we finally get our first male Banshee? Will find out in a couple of days and post a review.

10 hours ago, Nagashsnee said:

I am kinda hoping that isn't the case.  And instead it's down to the book itself. 

 

Do we finally get our first male Banshee? Will find out in a couple of days and post a review.

 

Alas, it really do be like that.

 

Cannot recall a male banshee, but Mike does use his typical prose and means of identifying characters, he includes characters with certain qualities, and he invents a new title of nobility for the Eldar. It is a Mike Brooks joint, as they say.

 

In other words, what you guess is probably close to the real situation. People who appreciate his style will appreciate this one too, and people who do not, will not.

 

Edited by phandaal

As someone who only casually engages with Mike Brooks’ personal presence online (and has no problem with anything I’ve seen) I quite like this so far. Like all of his books the prose is sometimes good, sometimes a little purple/breathless, but the character interplay and development is excellent. 

Edited by cheywood

Being out of the loop, I went to check his social media feed to see some of his controversial takes, but found nothing objectionable. Quite the opposite, really.

On the flipside, I noticed he'd deleted his Twitter/X account, and the name is now being used by some really vile person as a "parody" account that pre-Elon would've been banned five times over. Extremely disgusting stuff, and that it's been run like that for over half a year already speaks volumes about the account holder's sad life.

 

So yeah. I don't get it. I enjoy the books of his that I have read, so I probably should read Voidscarred at some point, too.

1 hour ago, The Praetorian of Inwit said:

 

I would just prefer there to be no politics at all. At least not ours. Put 40ks own crazy politics in sure. But as a hobby, I want warhammer to be an escape from our real world politics, not a reflection of it. That's just my pov. 

I think this is understandable since the 40k hobby tends to attract people from the furtest edges of the political spectrum (HorusGalaxy and Sigmarxism come to mind).

 

Patrolling political derailments is low key kinda important in this hobby, so I sorta get where Tyler is coming from.

3 hours ago, cheywood said:

As someone who only casually engages with Mike Brooks’ personal presence online (and has no problem with anything I’ve seen) I quite like this so far. Like all of his books the prose is sometimes good, sometimes a little purple/breathless, but the character interplay and development is excellent. 

Brooks has its flaws, but he makes up for it in other areas. I believe his stuff suffers from existing in the confines of the Black Library Industrial Complex. Writing a book takes time, and judging by the time "Queen of Blades" came out, I can imagine he began writing it not too long after "Da Big Dakka" was out or even before it hit the shelves. Similarly, work on this book must have begun shortly after the Lelith one.

 

Stuff from Big Dakka bleeds into Lelith, whose plot points bleed into Voidscarred. I think GeeDubs has this man writing stuff 24/7 and that's why his books feel like a weird mix of a very though out plot and unpolished details all around it.

Edited by The Scorpion
2 hours ago, The Praetorian of Inwit said:

I'm not saying he's a bad writer, I think he's actually quite good. And he isn't ham fisted at putting personal politics into his work. There are other authors/artists etc that are far worse. 

 

I actually do think he is hamfisted, in the way that he uses the speech and writing patterns of a specific group defined mostly by their politics, and he includes characters with explicit preferences that add nothing to the story.

 

Now he has even started inventing new titles for the Eldar, which I think is silly and honestly a little dumb.

 

Normally I would not say any of this (I am too hoi polloi for most threads in this here subforum), but I think it is important to show that this board's membership does not line up all on any given side of things like this. Some of us do actually dislike what Mike Brooks includes in his stories beyond just his use or misuse of prose, and that is as valid as the opinions of people who enjoy it or are neutral about it.

 

This is why certain discussions here have to tiptoe and dance around some topics to stay respectful to everyone. And it is also why, when a thread about Mike Brooks gets nuked, the answer to "how come" is always what you think it is. :laugh:

 

Edited by phandaal

This was also done quite well in the Rogue Trader CRPG. I was really impressed by how not-preachy the game is overall with its various choices and options.  The Genestealer cultists have some legitimate grievances, but they are also seeking the devouring of mankind, so, airlock it is.

No-one has to like a book but reading all the complaints posted about it here over the past few days, some come across as quite absurd. Reminds me of of seeing some of the many nonsensical things some were spouting on other sites with quite a few of the other Warhammer 'controversies' a while ago that were just thinly disguised versions of what their real issues were about. 


Looking into the story and reviews of the book more it sounds like it's been well received, will definitely have to get it when it eventually shows up in paperback. Hopefully leads to Mike Brooks writing more too as even though i'm not a huge fan of Eldar, it's great to see them get something new and different by another author than the usual few. It really has been fantastic how more alien-focused novels have been showing up over the past few years. 

Edited by TheVoidDragon

I have not read any of Mike Brooks’ work, so I don’t know how much he falls into what I’m about to write, but I don’t think many people care if there are, say, gay characters in a story. Some people are gay, it is what it is, who cares. Homosexuality is a cultural universal that has been around for thousands of years, and has nothing to do with a character’s plot role, traits, etc.

 

What is annoying is when you can guess character traits or future plot by their identity and relative rank in the stack of intersectionality. I’ll use an example of the Scream TV show that I watched years ago. I immediately guessed to my wife that the white male cop was really the killer. Not because of any clues in the show itself, but because he has by far the least “diverse” character in the show, so he must be evil (and ultimately incompetent). This happens constantly in modern fiction, and it’s jarring and tiresome.

 

Anyway, having not read this guy’s work, and not really intending to, I’ll just leave it at that.

A bunch of posts have been hidden, most because they were off-topic (i.e., not about the Voidscarred novel). Some of those posts included valid material, but it will take time to review them and edit out the OT content. Some of the posts contained valid B&C subject matter, but not content about the Voidscarred novel, and it will take time to split those off from this discussion into their own discussion(s) in the appropriate location(s). Some of those posts contained off-topic content that is not relevant to the site's mission statement. Where those posts contained other valid material, that content will be removed. Where those posts contained only the off-topic content, they will remain hidden. In some cases, disciplinary action may be invoked.

 

In the meantime, we'll take a time out so that everyone can refresh themselves on what this discussion topic is really about. Hint: the Voidscarred novel

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