Hive by Dan Abnett

[Inquisitor_Lensoven]

6 hours ago, Laurence said:

 

Both books have the same title, just differing covers.  Were it a true duology, I'd expect some distinction beyond altered cover art.

One has a 1 on the spine and the other has a 2 on the spine…

 

6 hours ago, DukeLeto69 said:

Well we actually know for a fact that several years back Abnett had the idea for the Bequin books and had to get GWs permission before he could proceed. I think initially GW were relatively relaxed as it was just a story in a BL series (and we know BL is nowhere near the core business) but as time went on the ramifications dawned and GW have now embraced it as a direction for the lore. Change IS coming and plenty of seeds have been getting planted in other authors work and lore snippets in game material. 

What ramifications other than anything they may have asked him to write?

 

the king in yellow never had any inherit effect on the overall universe.

 

it could have just ended up being a random cult leader who likes yellow robes.  GW had a direction they wanted to move the universe towards and chose to give the task of moving the universe in that direction to possibly their most successful and popular author.

 

if it’s in other books and lore snippets that seems to support my claim that it’s GW pushing the lore in a direction and telling authors (including Dan) that it’s on them to explain how it’s going to happen in their books.

 

the rift was GW’s choice. Guilliman returning was GW’s choice. Dante becoming regent was GW’s choice.

 

all of this being GW’s choice is why there’s no follow up on story lines that we want in a reasonable timeframe (like what is Dante doing as regent? Why haven’t we seen anything more from the lion? Especially in terms of meeting his brother? Etc.)

[Scribe]

55 minutes ago, Inquisitor_Lensoven said:

Based on what?

 

The fact it was a bloated self indulgent fever dream that clearly had no editorial oversight and is a testament to one man's hubris?

[Karhedron]

Aside from "this meeting could have been an email", I enjoyed TEAD. It was a great trilogy that hit all the notes I wanted. It was a bit bloated but there were a lot of threads to tie up.

Edited March 15 by Karhedron

[Ripper.McGuirl]

24 minutes ago, Scribe said:

 

The fact it was a bloated self indulgent fever dream that clearly had no editorial oversight and is a testament to one man's hubris?

I mean there are, in fact, editors involved. As well as meetings, collaborations,  approvals, timelines, colleagues, and previous works to tie into.

Regardless of how any of us feel about any given book, none of the authors are taking GW by surprise with a finished and printed book. It’s not like the first time anyone else reads End and the Death is when he ships piles of bound, finished, and shelf-ready tomes to GW headquarters.

Edited March 15 by Ripper.McGuirl

[Scribe]

28 minutes ago, Karhedron said:

Aside from "this meeting could have been an email", I enjoyed TEAD. It was a great trilogy that hit all the notes I wanted. It was a bit bloated but there were a lot of threads to tie up.

 

Which, he did not do.

 

28 minutes ago, Ripper.McGuirl said:

I mean there are, in fact, editors involved. As well as meetings, collaborations,  approvals, timelines, colleagues, and previous works to tie into.

Regardless of how any of us feel about any given book, none of the authors are taking GW by surprise with a finished and printed book. It’s not like the first time anyone else reads End and the Death is when he ships piles of bound, finished, and shelf-ready tomes to GW headquarters.

 

LOL.

 

Yet 1 planned book, became 3 bloated door stoppers.

 

Right, 'planned, collaborative, timelines'.

 

LOL.

[Cleon]

I recognise some of the arguements around the BL authors from ones I've had - personally I've avoided Abnett's books after reading a few because I've never felt he's playing in the same setting as I am - in his hands it's often felt more like a generic version of a Clarke/Asimov sci fi future than the more dogmatic, dark and messy setting I've loved since 2nd ed. 

Edited March 15 by Cleon
bah lost a space in rewording

[Wolf Guard Dan]

An Eisenhorn tv series would be a home run. It is my favorite 40K series. Excellent universe building. It would be an easy introduction to Warhammer for the general populace. I do understand the delay due to fluff ramifications. It’s going to (re?)introduce at least one giant character (back?) to the 40k universe.

 

Cavill would be tremendous as Eisenhorn. A character like that needs a talented actor. I would be surprised if it was a tv series about Cain. I don’t think an adaption of a military officer would be as interesting to people without knowledge of 40K.    

Amazon might be reluctant to develop a Warhammer series if it wasn’t for the star power of Cavill and the success of Abnett’s other work adapted to the big screen. Hasn’t Cavill said he loves Eisenhorn? 

[DukeLeto69]

2 hours ago, Inquisitor_Lensoven said:

One has a 1 on the spine and the other has a 2 on the spine…

 

What ramifications other than anything they may have asked him to write?

 

the king in yellow never had any inherit effect on the overall universe.

 

it could have just ended up being a random cult leader who likes yellow robes.  GW had a direction they wanted to move the universe towards and chose to give the task of moving the universe in that direction to possibly their most successful and popular author.

 

if it’s in other books and lore snippets that seems to support my claim that it’s GW pushing the lore in a direction and telling authors (including Dan) that it’s on them to explain how it’s going to happen in their books.

 

the rift was GW’s choice. Guilliman returning was GW’s choice. Dante becoming regent was GW’s choice.

 

all of this being GW’s choice is why there’s no follow up on story lines that we want in a reasonable timeframe (like what is Dante doing as regent? Why haven’t we seen anything more from the lion? Especially in terms of meeting his brother? Etc.)

Well as we have not yet got to read Pandaemonium then it is impossible to either prove or disprove your hypothesis. 
 

The ONLY things we know as facts are:

 

1. Abnett had an idea for the Bequin trilogy that was big enough in terms of lore ramifications that he needed permission from GW to do it (and he was surprised they said yes).

2. The release of Pandaemonium has been delayed to get all the lore aligned.

3. We have only had 2 out of 3 books in the trilogy so we cannot possibly know the impact of The Yellow King (or indeed be certain of his identity knowing that Abnett loves a bait and switch).

 

Beyond that it is all speculation.

[DukeLeto69]

4 minutes ago, Wolf Guard Dan said:

An Eisenhorn tv series would be a home run. It is my favorite 40K series. Excellent universe building. It would be an easy introduction to Warhammer for the general populace. I do understand the delay due to fluff ramifications. It’s going to (re?)introduce at least one giant character (back?) to the 40k universe.

 

Cavill would be tremendous as Eisenhorn. A character like that needs a talented actor. I would be surprised if it was a tv series about Cain. I don’t think an adaption of a military officer would be as interesting to people without knowledge of 40K.    

Amazon might be reluctant to develop a Warhammer series if it wasn’t for the star power of Cavill and the success of Abnett’s other work adapted to the big screen. Hasn’t Cavill said he loves Eisenhorn? 

I’d be shocked if it wasn’t Eisenhorn as the first Amazon project. It was already under development by Frank Spotnitz (who has a development deal with Amazon) before the new big GW/Amazon deal was announced. Some of the delay will also have been down to sorting out contractual issues to wrap that Spotnitz deal into the larger Amazon deal and Cavill and the company he is working with (can’t remember their name right now).

[Inquisitor_Lensoven]

3 hours ago, Scribe said:

 

The fact it was a bloated self indulgent fever dream that clearly had no editorial oversight and is a testament to one man's hubris?

Lmao ok

 

2 hours ago, Scribe said:

 

Which, he did not do.

 

 

LOL.

 

Yet 1 planned book, became 3 bloated door stoppers.

 

Right, 'planned, collaborative, timelines'.

 

LOL.

Did BL ever state TEAD was meant to be a single book?

 

the entire Horus heresy was mostly bloat. How many books is the whole series? 30? 40 books? That whole series should have been no more than 2 books.

[Scribe]

1 hour ago, Inquisitor_Lensoven said:

Did BL ever state TEAD was meant to be a single book?

 

8 Book Series.

 

(Just ignore the multiple volumes, the shorts/novella, and anthology.)

 

 

1 hour ago, Inquisitor_Lensoven said:

That whole series should have been no more than 2 books.

 

zzzzz...

[Inquisitor_Lensoven]

25 minutes ago, Scribe said:

 

8 Book Series.

 

(Just ignore the multiple volumes, the shorts/novella, and anthology.)

 

 

 

zzzzz...

lol just saw I typed 2, meant 20 lol. Probably could have been done in 15-18

[Scribe]

1 hour ago, Inquisitor_Lensoven said:

lol just saw I typed 2, meant 20 lol. Probably could have been done in 15-18

 

That's probably fair.

 

ADBs, Wraights, a few McNeill, an Abnett or 2, done.

[Tastyfish]

2 hours ago, Inquisitor_Lensoven said:

lol just saw I typed 2, meant 20 lol. Probably could have been done in 15-18

Isn't that literally what the new reprints are? Here's the core set that tells you most of the Horus Heresy story, obviously there are other tales to be told but they are really within the 'setting' rather than the 'series'.

[Inquisitor_Lensoven]

2 hours ago, Tastyfish said:

Isn't that literally what the new reprints are? Here's the core set that tells you most of the Horus Heresy story, obviously there are other tales to be told but they are really within the 'setting' rather than the 'series'.

No clue I stopped paying attention to that series a long time ago. Probably around the time the 10th or 11th book dropped 

[Mmmmm Napalm]

On 3/14/2026 at 7:56 PM, irlLordy said:

Interesting that this book has the actual Arbites patrolling the streets, they've gone back and forth a few times on whether the Arbites are like regular planetary law enforcement or just interested in "high level crimes".

 

On 3/14/2026 at 9:38 PM, Ripper.McGuirl said:

It’s true but there are places where it’s expected of them to be there. In the Enforcer trilogy they get up to all kinds of things: street level enforcement, space station garrison, void interdiction, court duty, even distant astromocon relay guard duty.

A new planetary governor could trigger an automatic Arbites presence, for instance. If that’s the setup, there’s a million reasons they could be around.

 

As with everything in 40k there's always room for variations, exceptions, et cetera. In the Enforcer trilogy, Hydraphur was a big Naval depot. While not stated outright, one can easily imagine the Hydraphur authorities, Navy and Arbites making an agreement in which the Arbites undertake all law enforcement duties on Hydraphur, in exchange for being able to easily piggy-back on Navy vessels when they need to get personnel elsewhere in the sector. It'd also effectively let them use Hydraphur as a training ground to keep their personnel sharp. With respect to Hive, like RipperMcGuirl said part of the premise is the replacement of the planetary governor so perhaps the arbites have made their presence a little more prominent while the planetary government is in a transition period.

 

As an aside, way back in Xenos Abnett refers to Chastener Fischig as Arbites, despite him coming across as planetary law enforcement in about every respect. That was fairly early on in Black Library so I expect there will be no such confusion regarding the Arbites in Hive. Amusingly, in the Cain novel Death or Glory (?) there's an instance in which Cain refers to planetary law enforcement as "Arbites", and there's a little footnote from Inquisitor Vail explaining that he's using the term in a colloquial sense as a catch-all term for any law enforcement.

Edited March 17 by Mmmmm Napalm

[dalmer]

The Adeptus Arbites is the Imperium's police force, and like modern day police forces there's all kinds of ranks and assignments.  Patrol, investigations, special operations, command staff, liaisons to other entities (i.e., local task force officer deputized to work with the feds), etc.

 

I think that authors have a lot of room to include them in their various roles.  The excellent Warhammer Crime books showed a bit of this, for example.

 

As to authors having characters refer to folks as "arbites," that's like folks today saying, "oh he/she is a cop," and generalizing it even though the person they're talking about hasn't done patrol level work for years... sometimes it's just easier when talking.

[irlLordy]

Yeah, we'll see how Abnett handles it. Hydraphur is probably important enough to warrant an expanded Arbites presence ... random hive worlds? Maybe not so much. Arbites presence on planets in the lore ranges from precinct fortresses to a single Arbites, so I guess theres scope for anything really.

[DukeLeto69]

Right or wrong I have always seen the Adeptus Arbites as analogous to the FBI, ie pan-Imperial and of a higher rank that planetary police.

 

edit to expand…

 

On Necromunda law enforcement is responsibility of the Palatine Enforcers (sp?).

 

In the WHCrime books Varangantula (sp?) also has a local law enforcement organisation.

 

Neither of these are Adeptus Arbites. 

 

Edited March 17 by DukeLeto69

[Mmmmm Napalm]

23 hours ago, DukeLeto69 said:

Right or wrong I have always seen the Adeptus Arbites as analogous to the FBI, ie pan-Imperial and of a higher rank that planetary police.

 

Yeah you're correct.

 

Honestly their functions are broad enough that there are numerous real world comparisons one could make. FBI, US Marshals, Interpol certainly apply with respect to their handling inter-planetary, inter-system criminal cases and such.

 

With respect to what is one of, if not their most significant function, ensuring the collection of the imperial tithe, I can't really think of a real world organizational analogue.

Edited March 17 by Mmmmm Napalm

[RolandTHTG]

20 hours ago, Mmmmm Napalm said:

Yeah you're correct.

 

Honestly their functions are broad enough that there are numerous real world comparisons one could make. FBI, US Marshals, Interpol certainly apply with respect to their handling inter-planetary, inter-system criminal cases and such.

 

With respect to what is one of, if not their most significant function, ensuring the collection of the imperial tithe, I can't really think of a real world organizational analogue.

The IRS has a Criminal Investigation agency, with full police powers. Most famously, they were the ones to actually arrest and convict Al Capone of Tax Evasion.

More recently, the FIFA corruption case started with an IRS-CI "failure to file personal income" case that expanded into the bribery and money laundering scandal. 

 

Both actually provide good examples of how an investigation of imperial tithe collections then expands into a full blown corruption/smuggling/etc case, and why the imperium might have decided to just unify the investigators under one organization. 

[Vassakov]

My gut reaction to "what does [organisation] actually do in the Imperium" is generally "whatever this particular plot needs them to do." 

 

Trying to get too bogged down in the minutiae of exactly where one jurisdiction ends and another begins is a fairly fruitless task and that's a deliberate part of the worldbuilding - both for their own flexibility, but also because the Imperium is a Kafkaesque nightmare of bureaucracy and fiefdoms, who are broadly self-governing and therefore do different things... which is then justified by whatever the operative plot is for any given story. 

[Mmmmm Napalm]

1 hour ago, RolandTHTG said:

The IRS has a Criminal Investigation agency, with full police powers. Most famously, they were the ones to actually arrest and convict Al Capone of Tax Evasion.

More recently, the FIFA corruption case started with an IRS-CI "failure to file personal income" case that expanded into the bribery and money laundering scandal. 

 

Both actually provide good examples of how an investigation of imperial tithe collections then expands into a full blown corruption/smuggling/etc case, and why the imperium might have decided to just unify the investigators under one organization. 

I can't believe I forgot about the IRS lmao, good point.

[Inquisitor_Lensoven]

3 hours ago, Vassakov said:

My gut reaction to "what does [organisation] actually do in the Imperium" is generally "whatever this particular plot needs them to do." 

 

Trying to get too bogged down in the minutiae of exactly where one jurisdiction ends and another begins is a fairly fruitless task and that's a deliberate part of the worldbuilding - both for their own flexibility, but also because the Imperium is a Kafkaesque nightmare of bureaucracy and fiefdoms, who are broadly self-governing and therefore do different things... which is then justified by whatever the operative plot is for any given story. 

Secret service is a cadidate as well being treasury department that also deals with protecting government officials