Hive by Dan Abnett

[Matcap86]

Just now, Cactus said:

Hopefully this goes smoothly and generates lots of money so GW will make print on demand the standard.

 

The article says that the PoD premium edition won't include the author signature and numbering that were previously advertised. Those books were due to go sale in three days so I assume the signing has been done. Will those copies be pulped? That seems like a lot of wasted effort and resources.

 

Think so, saw some murmerings shops needed to destroy them and show proof. Though nothing solid.

[Firedrake Cordova]

17 hours ago, Matcap86 said:

Think so, saw some murmerings shops needed to destroy them and show proof.

Whilst I understand why this might be the case, this seems like such a waste.  I can't help but think maybe saying, "if you go to your local store, you might be able to get a signed copy, but if they don't have one, then you can always get a print-on-demand one" would have let them use the signed ones, and maybe get some people through some store doors.

[Vassakov]

The existing copies will be a tax-write off at this stage. Bit grim, but I can also see the logic in just going to POD.

 

There may also have been legitimate concerns over staff safety given the furore and the scenes that we've seen in other markets (I'm thinking specifically of Pokémon).

 

I think similar happened with Era of Ruin, where they just shifted to POD. My suspicion is that the demand for some of these - particularly anything by Abnett, ADB or Heresy-adjacent - is now so extreme that POD is the best pipeline, though I have seen comments that the removal of signatures and number makes the product less desirable. Which, I suppose if the exclusivity and limited nature of the product is the draw fair enough, but you then can't really be too shocked about scalpers. 

 

 

[alfred_the_great]

So - a tl;dr review of Hive: shall I order a MTO or not?

 

I’ve liked all of abnett’s work I’ve read so far, as well as warhammer crime. 

[Mmmmm Napalm]

3 hours ago, alfred_the_great said:

So - a tl;dr review of Hive: shall I order a MTO or not?

 

I’ve liked all of abnett’s work I’ve read so far, as well as warhammer crime. 

I got to the last third and haven't picked it up again since cause I got distracted by other reading material and just wasn't super enthused.

 

I had been hoping for a book that fleshed out the culture and local political/religious/economic/social structures of this world/Hive City and it hasn't done that as much as I would have liked. The enforcer trilogy's Hydraphur, Pariahs Queen Mab and other misc. worlds from some of abnetts prev books, and of course the worlds of Dark Heresy all feel more unique and interesting to me.

 

Sacramentus feels like a generic megacity with more organizations with acronyms or shortened terms (HiveDef, LandLas, ORPO) than your usual 40k polity, and like ten words of a local language that sounds a little like Huttese. Said words are sprinkled into every second or third sentence throughout the book. EDIT: actually, I think the Belter dialect from The Expanse is probably the best comparison 

 

Someone in the previous page of this thread said they considered abnetts work to be generic sci Fi with a 40k skin. I replied that I didn't quite agree (though his material can feel slightly disconnected), and while I still don't think that applies to all of abnetts work (or at least not his classics like eisenhorn), I unfortunately must concede it's more true of Hive than some of his other works, in my opinion.

 

I think what might be missing from Hive is some of the *archaism* that he was so good at implementing in Eisenhorn and such, but feels less present here, at least not outside the upper nobilitys rituals and ceremonies. 

 

Part of the premise is that prior to the events of the book, there was a civil conflict between the two hive cities on the planet. I think that might have been a more interesting story to me on its own.

Edited Thursday at 05:48 PM by Mmmmm Napalm

[Cactus]

8 hours ago, Mmmmm Napalm said:

...a civil conflict between the two hive cities on the planet. I think that might have been a more interesting story to me on its own.

Dan already wrote that book and it's one of my favourites - Necropolis.

Edited Friday at 12:04 AM by Cactus

[Mmmmm Napalm]

1 hour ago, Cactus said:

Dan already wrote that book and it's one of favourites - Necropolis.

Yeah I vaguely recall a friend mentioning that. Funny enough despite being so well loved, Gaunts Ghosts is one of the few things by abnett I haven't read, aside from the first book.

[Laurence]

1 hour ago, Mmmmm Napalm said:

Yeah I vaguely recall a friend mentioning that. Funny enough despite being so well loved, Gaunts Ghosts is one of the few things by abnett I haven't read, aside from the first book.

Even if you don't read any of the others, Necropolis is worth it, especially if you want a decent depiction of a hive world civilisation.

[Antarius]

On 5/27/2026 at 7:48 PM, Cactus said:

Hopefully this goes smoothly and generates lots of money so GW will make print on demand the standard.

 

The article says that the PoD premium edition won't include the author signature and numbering that were previously advertised. Those books were due to go sale in three days so I assume the signing has been done. Will those copies be pulped? That seems like a lot of wasted effort and resources.

Yeah, it's honestly kind of weird that they don't just sell the signed copies and do the in-store thing as planned and then offer the pod as an extra option for people who can't/won't go to the stores and pick up a copy. One would think simply having a pod version along with the signed copies would do a lot to combat scalping.

I mean, there will always be people who complain, but this seems like such a wasteful solution to a nearly non-existant problem that's also bound to please only a very small group (people who will be angry that they can't get a signed copy, but who will somehow be fine as long as nobody else can get a signed copy either).

[Inquisitor_Lensoven]

On 5/18/2026 at 7:17 AM, sitnam said:

 

Abnetts treatment of Pariahs/Blanks is really bizarre and at odds with what we know about them from other sources. When I listened to the Ravenor trilogy it just felt wrong.

Wasn’t abnett the first to write about blanks? I’d say his stuff is the default 

 

18 hours ago, Cactus said:

Dan already wrote that book and it's one of my favourites - Necropolis.

Not really.

i forget the other hive’s name but it was infiltrated by and taken over by chaos iirc. 
it was a book about the fight for the planet, but it just happened and had off world assistance early enough it hadn’t escalated beyond the scale of a single infested hive.

[sitnam]

1 hour ago, Inquisitor_Lensoven said:

Wasn’t abnett the first to write about blanks? I’d say his stuff is the default 

Codex Assasins from 2nd edition.  Codex Necron 3rd edition was after Xenos but within a similar timeframe

[Laurence]

20 hours ago, Inquisitor_Lensoven said:

Wasn’t abnett the first to write about blanks? I’d say his stuff is the default 

His stuff from the Ravenor and Bequin series doesn't quite line up with his Eisenhorn, basically.  And even there, the 'everyone is instinctively unnerved by pariahs and does not like them' only pops up at the very start and never resurfaces.

[Antarius]

22 minutes ago, Laurence said:

His stuff from the Ravenor and Bequin series doesn't quite line up with his Eisenhorn, basically.  And even there, the 'everyone is instinctively unnerved by pariahs and does not like them' only pops up at the very start and never resurfaces.

Yeah I remember being a little disappointed at that and that it seemed like it was a big part of how Bequin basically went from "interesting freakish character" to "generic totally awesome babe", as I recall her development in the Eisenhorn books. I never read the books centered on her though, so it's possible she's portrayed as a more interesting character in those.

[Mmmmm Napalm]

46 minutes ago, Antarius said:

Yeah I remember being a little disappointed at that and that it seemed like it was a big part of how Bequin basically went from "interesting freakish character" to "generic totally awesome babe"

Yeah im inclined to agree. Uninteresting as it was, I didn't find it as annoying as what happened to the female characters in ravenor imo; the femme fatale angle for Patience and the acrobat lady being described as voluptuous every other sentence made me roll my eyes a lot lol.

[phandaal]

1 hour ago, Antarius said:

I never read the books centered on her though, so it's possible she's portrayed as a more interesting character in those.

 

"Interesting" is up to the person who reads it, but she is portrayed with the same characterization she has in the other books. Just with more backstory and focus on her, obviously. Also, he tries to match his writing style to her mannerisms, same as he does for Eisenhorn and Ravenor.

[Mmmmm Napalm]

59 minutes ago, phandaal said:

 

"Interesting" is up to the person who reads it, but she is portrayed with the same characterization she has in the other books. Just with more backstory and focus on her, obviously. Also, he tries to match his writing style to her mannerisms, same as he does for Eisenhorn and Ravenor.

I think Abnetts styles in Eisenhorn and Bequin are my favorite. That and Horus Rising.

[Antarius]

6 hours ago, Mmmmm Napalm said:

Yeah im inclined to agree. Uninteresting as it was, I didn't find it as annoying as what happened to the female characters in ravenor imo; the femme fatale angle for Patience and the acrobat lady being described as voluptuous every other sentence made me roll my eyes a lot lol.

I haven’t read the Ravenor books. I think I would agree that Eisenhorn and Horus Rising are his best works, even though I’ve also enjoyed Gaunt’s Ghosts quite a lot they do get a bit formulaic.

[Laurence]

20 hours ago, Mmmmm Napalm said:

I think Abnetts styles in Eisenhorn and Bequin are my favorite. That and Horus Rising.

His first person is definitely better, it forces him to do away with 'meanwhile, at the villain's lair...' type chapters that ruin the mystery.