The Scouring Ashes of the Imperium Chris Wraith

[Nagashsnee]

Firstly let me say i am making this thread because i truly believe the scouring should have a general thread to talk about it as a whole, but the books should have their own individual threads so they can be talked about as a book. For a series it may be, but each book can and should be judged on its own merits and flaws. It will also stop the general chat from bloating beyong being usefull. 

 

So general thoughts. This is a well written book, of course it is its Chris Wraith. It is a excellent start to the scouring and honestly left me wanting more if its all on this level.  However it deals with ALLOT of threads, too many for one book to deal with, and while i realise this book had to function as a springboard board for what BL hopes will be HH2 money printing bugaloo, it is already suffering under the HH burden.

 

Non spoiler 8/10, a great start with causes for concern.

 

Why do i think the above? Well. I am going to do 2 spoilers tags, tag one is general thought, tag 2 is specific things.

Spoiler

Ok lets do this. The good, the book knows what it needs to do, it knows what the HH left in the air, it knows what the people want. 

• The traitors retreat, covered.
• The loaylist arrival. covered.
• The aftermath on terra, covered. 
• Our set of characters coming to grips with the new dawn, covered.
• The Primarchs dealing with eachother and their actions, covered.

 

Now when i say covered, i mean the book deals with it, not that each of the above is done in depth or to any crazy degree. But it gives enough of each so that nothing feels forgotten. However the books priorities are PLAIN to see and this is where the problems start.

 

This book is a good author dealing with a mandate, it is clear to me that BL had some clear railroads on what to deal with and this is not on its own a bad thing. In fact the HH needed much more of this then it got. The issue is that many many things are never explained or ingored as the book has to deal with a metric TON of topics. Topics it should not have to deal with.

 

• The traitors retreat should have been dealt with in the siege, it is part of the siege, the arrival of the loaylist fleet and the traitors flight MARKS the ending of the HH and the siege of terra, it is the dawn of the new era. The scouring has not actually started yet, in fact the debate of this book is IF it should start now.  The triple book finale should have actually ended the HH, it should have ended the siege, it should have actually dont its job and left a clean board.  Instead we are having another Istvaan, the flight from terra is getting pieces done here and there, instead of being dealt with when it should have. 
• The Ultramarine hyping in this book is frankly on another level. Now i made peace with the retcon of the relief of terra going from the Wolves/DA a long time ago. Ok we are going to put the Ultras in there because of changes to the overall narative and because they are Ultramarines so of course they will save the day. But this book makes it 100% clear that it was SOLELY the ultramarines who relieved terra, and the wolves and angels arriving after the solar system and terra were well under loaylist control, and in the clean up phase....why?  Like why have them be THAT late, ok Ultramarines need to be the best at all times, but cant you have the Wolves and Angels arrive while the ultras are pushing into Sol? Cant you have them be enganged with the traitor rearguard and have the other 2 show up and make the traitors realise it went from loss to run or be run down?. The book goes out of it way to point out that the arrival of the two extra legions (as battle worn as they are) is utterly pointless. It makes no difference and in fact is a net downside as they are just going to muddle the matters of power on terra and would have done more good out in the broader war.  As a older fan, seeing the small but steady changes to the lore with the sole objective of !!!ULTRAMARINES BUY YOURS NOW!!! cross from 40k to 30k has been sad. And this book makes it clear i am going to get sadder.  I understand they are the main character for GW, but there are ways and WAYS of doing this. I lived thru the matt ward spiritual liege era, and i can see it poking its head out here. It just keeps hitting you over the head with it over and over and over. And sometimes in ways that dont actually makes sense (see spoiler 2).
• The book is a series of set ups for future books, to a slightly (i said slightly) detrimental degree, things are constantly being set up for future realeases and while this book is good, there is no real conclusion to anything.  To name a few, Throne isnt working right, the emperor is not healing, Blood Angels are terrified of the rage, Dorn is going to launch his crusade, Mars is to be invaded, the Iron warriors are launching their war against the WB plans, Chaos has taken a blow, psyckers have no powers, Inwit is dark, Terran politics x4, etc etc. This book is walking us down a gallery showing us trailers for the future books, but at times at the cost of being a book itself if that makes sense. 

 

Specific things, all of these are my opinion and so 100% correct and above reproach (thats a joke just in case). 

Spoiler

Ok hey everyone Mech Player here, 30k, 40k, BFG, Legiones imperialis. BL and Chris Wraith got the titles of the Fabricator General wrong and my rage is untethered and knows no bounds (thats a Always sunny in Phili joke). So in the character list he is down as Fabricator General Locum, and then in the book people only ever talk about the Fabricator Locum even when its CLEAR they are talking about Zagreus Kane Fabricator GENERAL FULL STOP of the adeptus mechanicus. Fun fact he use to be the fabricator locum for the MECHANICUM unber Kelbor Hal. Double fun fact in Master of Mankind iirc they even name drop Kanes fabricator Locum.  These are two very seperate and very different titles. Two different characters, you cant just suddenly decide HEY what if everyone calls the Master of the Adeptus Mechanicus by the wrong title, sometimes to his face, a man who previous books have made CLEAR is a petty petty drama queen.  I dont know how this got past Wraith, i know the editors were probably too foccussed on planning the scouring salamande trilogy (Hey Kyme!). And its never adresssed ( unless i missed it, in which case you must point it out and laugh at me, it would be just and fair and i would be happy cause it would be better then its being a mistake.  No one ever says something like 'since the death of the Fabricator Locum in the siege Kane has used both titles', mostly because even if they did they would still use his SENIOR title of Fabricator General. 

 

To be honest the whole Mechanicus/Mars thing is a real real issue with the book. Time after time the book shows how due to the death of Horus the warp has gone deathly still, deamons are gone and need INSANE levels of power to manifest, and all the deamonic hybrids died... which raises the question why on Terra are they not rushing Mars asap.  Oh politics....yeah no. You see the problem with complex political structures is that they are well....complex. NOTHING in this galaxy would stop elements of the Mechanicus invading mars, NOTHING. These are the people who betrayed the EMPEROR in the webway war, who broke Vangorich by TELEPORTING ULLANOR, the people who would crowd the palace balconies just to see home and cry out its name. They tried to shank the Mechanicum ambassador for wanting to make any comprimise with terra.  Now Kane is neck deep in the throne room, ok he can see that he is needed. But my fellow readers, time after time after time, the Mechanicus has show its willing to kill, murder and fight to get back to mars, ANYONE, ANYTHING, ANYTIME.  The fleets coming in system would have HUGE mechanicus elements, elements that would quickly realise that a planet full of enemies who spend 7 years putting the warp and deamons into everything suddenly and UNEXPECTEDLY losing all their warp and deamons are wide open. Loaylist landings would be happening faster then even the Ultramarines could stop it.  And its never adressed.   The Mechanicus becomes backround figures to the Primarchs arguing over strategy.  Worse then that many of them are suprised???? That Kane would not support the 'lets not go to mars just yet' plan....sigh. Worse then that its Dorn, who has dealt with Kane and his MARS MANIA for years at this point.  

 

But you say, the book cant deal with all that, AND all the other stuff...i know, that my point, its yadda yaddaing too much, its trying to cover to much, its running past things that should not be run passed. 

 

• Why was Luna ignored? Like When they achived terran orbital supremacy why did they not also clear lunar orbit? Wait how are they in terran orbital supremacy with enemy ships in lunar orbit??? How does that work?  If the Ultramarines could clear terra and scour the sol system before the Lion and Russ even got there why was Luna left alone? Like on arrival before he even knew of the ships and the sisters Lunar orbit would be a prime objct? Like you cant have both. Sure they throw out some weak excuses but they are weak. Simpel fact is anyone on Luna could launch ordance on terra at will, and no blockade would ever be enough to secure terra from a traitor occupied Luna. Primarchs who are super human super strategists WOULD KNOW THIS. 
• We have no actual idea of losses on either side. Broad vague statements that are meaningless.  In space especially its weird that we have to refrence 40k to figure out which gloriannas may be functioning at this point. Did the Red Tear survive? Did all the traitor glorianas break out of the system?  Numbers can be left vague sure but like...did the Emperors other ship make it?  Instead we have the classic 'losses were super heavy' but there will always be enough of everything to make the story work, and nothing that might stop the studio from being able to pull a glorianna in 40k out of no where. But like in the HH this is the only period where we get to see these ships function and fight and die, and we always somehow just skip it (praise be to ADB for actually killing one, and funnily enough Chris Wraith for Killing one). The Phalanx was again awesome off screen and we see it heavily damaged and being repaired to be less then it was....sigh.
• The ultramarines have the largest fleet....why? G man was at the head of the largest relief force sure, but the vast majority of forces would be non legion. Mechanicus, Army, System Forces, etc.  Once at Terra on a Purely Legion basis it should not be much bigger then the Lions and Russes fleets.  Even forces under Ultramarine expeditionary fleets are ultimatly there as combined forces. The novel talks allot about the Lex and the Imperium, but kinda forgets this when it wants. G man was at the head of a gathering of a SEGMENTUMS forces.  The lord Admiral of the Navy and the Mechanicus would likely have fleets far far bigger then any legion in the Sol System. But the book kinda blurs the line between legion forces, forces legion might be able to call upon, and forces that arrived under said legions. 
• The ultramarines have planned for food and water to be brought to sol in advance without knowing that Horus would blow up and every traitor army would rout and deamons flee.  The convoy forces alone would starve their fleet, nature of late Heresy warp and battlelines would make it impossible to plan, they dint even know when THEY would break thru and arrive, and then you add in warp travel....but honestly i dont mind this. This is Ultramarine lore i can get behind, not logical in the way all warhammer is, they planned, and shipped enough to get thru, fine ok.  Honestly with the casulties on terra not that much would be needed anyhow.  G man cracked out the exels and made it happen, and i can proudly say go G man. Would i still like to know the loss rate of relief fleets % wise....yes haha. But i would watch the WW2 altantic crossing documentary on it too. 

 

Look i know i am sound doom and gloom and i dont mean to be, its a GOOD BOOK, it was FUN TO READ. Many of its issues are NOT ITS FAULT. But....but.

This book as cemented the problem with GW making 40k Horus Heresy light. 

 

This is a book about G man getting to terra, finding it in shambles, having to re organise it with macragagian (sp?) methods and personal, having to deal with the other imperial powers and their interests, having to deal with accusation that he is setting it all up to take power, having to re organise the imperium and get it ready for a crusade of re conquest against chaos while other imperial forces seek their own interests while also steering the Astartes into a new era while the golden throne is near failure and the technology of the past is being forgotten. This is the story of launching the Indomitus crusade and 8th edition of 40k. 

 

Wait sorry got my notes mixed up, i forgot to add while his brothers are also present and some of the mortals names are different, also Custodes are emo now. There we go. This is the story of the scouring. 

 

Since 8th edition 40k has been becoming more and more like 30k, while in the HH books the authors were adding more and more 40k. And that is its own topic, but this book really brought out the watering down of both eras to the fore for me. 

Edit: I stopped myself from going on. But i wanted to add, this book makes me want to to talk about warhammer, it makes me think about warhammer, it makes me reach for other books to make me check iirc. And THAT to me is HIGH praise for any book. I have issues with it, but unlike say the End and the Death, there is nothing i would cut from this book, if anything i would add, more pages, explore the issues better, longer, make the good BETTER. Because it IS  a good book. And i dont want that in question. 

Edited 52 minutes ago by Nagashsnee