Hive - Dan Abnett

[cheywood]

Only about a 10th of the way through, but I am absolutely loving it. Could easily see it being my favorite BL novel of all time. It’s sprawling and filled with world building yes, but it also feels like a clear through line is being established narratively. It’s definitely more complex than the vast majority of 40k fiction, but anyone who’s read Game of Thrones (or any overstuffed fantasy/sf series) could pretty easily follow this. It’s nothing like Pariah or The End and the Death where you’re left trying to parse sentences or figure out what in the world is happening to the main characters. The prose is accessible and measured, with some unique but perfectly intelligible dialogue styles to represent the difference between various cultures. It feels like if Necropolis or Titanicus grew up from something fixated on war to something fixated on culture and people. Didn’t think we’d ever really get something like this from BL.

[Sothalor]

People be like "its Warhammer Crime in disguise"...

 

Spoiler

It's actually Warhammer Horror in disguise.

 

And hot damn if it isn't the most magnificent rope-a-dope bait and switch.

 

I'll make the argument right now that all the worldbuilding and vocabulary do an incredible job of immersive misdirection to suck you into its world so it can hit you with the full force of something that loses a lot of impact by being an outside "Warhammer 40000 hobbyist."

 

[Taliesin]

Why is it more horror than crime?

Edited 9 hours ago by Taliesin