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 May 26 by Taliesin

[Termalatur_Timmy]

I finished the book and am left a bit disappointed. As everyone already mentioned, the descriptions of the hive and its social and physical strata were really well done. In my opinion the vocabulary is 95% of the time understandable from context, and really adds to the feeling of the hive being alive and having its own culture that outsiders might have trouble navigating. I really think it added a lot to the atmosphere. Some current day social issues represented in the books took me a bit out of it, but I'll admit I'm sensitive to that stuff. Where I think the book really suffered is the overarching story. I feel like I played an AAA game where world building, art direction, voice acting, music, technical functionality all were 10/10, but they forgot to put actually engaging game-play in.

 

Spoiler

As far as I can remember, none of the characters were faced with any tough choices. None of them really had to compromise on their morals. They all did what you would expect a good person to do in a relatively clear cut situation. None of them introduced any kind of drama, all of it was there purely to show off how people in different strata lived viewed and interacted with each other.

 

The story twist itself made me groan out loud. I had a hunch I was in for Genestealers relatively early, but held out hope for a political drama. Dan had a good set up where the Domne/Governor had to balance the ludicrous tithe demands imposed by the Arbites, her popularity in the hive, and her obligation as planetary governor to aid the smaller, second hive after a brutal civil war that left little room for solidarity. All that got cut criminally short by the whole 'Genestealers have been here for long enough to call the nids, and all of this was doomed from page 1' thing.

 

Not noticing an invasion does work well with the 'there is only the hive and the outside' theme, and a literal hive within the hive is a neat idea. Maybe readers who haven't read enough 40k to expect genestealer cults behind every corner will feel less robbed.

 

 

[Fedor]

It's a great 40k book about the insignificance and insular ignorance of the typical Imperial Hive World inhabitants. Then they meet a monster.

[Taliesin]

Received my copy, hated the "slipcase" as I thought I might. Very poor material. Didnt get the books out , for a start. And then the slipcase was just flimsy, I ripped it apart and put it in the trash. In terms of book size I am not quite sure why this could not have been 1 big book. I dont mind 2 books but they did charge a lot more, which was surely why they split it. 

Edited 16 hours ago by Taliesin