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Shroud posted:Shuriken weapons actually use AOL trial CDs as ammunition. MOL, actually.  Merika was the name of the Unification Wars era North American superstate.
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May 19, 2014 03:02
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Titanicus by Abnett is half price as an ebook on the BL website for today only. Another good thing BL have done recently along with well priced omnibus ebook editions. Pigs can loving fly.
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May 19, 2014 16:57
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Now, that is excellent. I hope the "Author's Choice" becomes a permanent rotating 50% off sale.
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May 19, 2014 18:32
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Noctis Horrendae posted:MOL, actually. Wow. Forums cancer? How retro.
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May 19, 2014 18:37
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Shroud posted:Shuriken weapons actually use AOL trial CDs as ammunition. Space Marines valiantly fighting the never ending hordes of AOL discs, long live the Imperium. Almost finished the Ravenor series, not as big a fan as I was of Eisenhorn but it's still leagues more interesting than the Ultramarines Omnibus was.
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May 19, 2014 19:55
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Yeah, I think Ravenor suffers from a lack of focus when compared to Eisenhorn, or Pariah for that matter. Switching from third person most of the time to first person for Ravenor, and especially including the POV of some of the antagonists, does give a more complete picture of events but Eisenhorn is so much more personal that Ravenor ends up feeling cold by comparison.
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May 19, 2014 20:05
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Part of what made Eisenhorn so good was watching Gregor Eisenhorn fall from puritan to radical, and that fall was the guiding force behind the story. Ravenor had no such arc and so it fell flat in comparison.
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May 19, 2014 20:29
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Also, Eisenhorn actually spends time getting backup and working with his peers, so when all of his friends abandon him it actually feels like a betrayal that matters. When Ravenor has to go rogue it doesn't seem different from how he's already been working.
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May 19, 2014 20:34
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Ravenhorn made for enjoyable reading and you can definitely see where Abnett's prose had improved since Eisenhorn, but I would rather have read a second Eisenhorn trilogy, yeah. If only the Bequin trilogy wasn't taking forever to continue coming out 
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May 19, 2014 21:12
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How is the Bequin looking so far? I've been hoping for the best but expecting the worst.. Totally agree that Eisenhorn's fall is more interesting, as are his relationships with Glaw and Cherubael. It also helps that he is pretty much space Batman and not some meat in a hoverchair. Ravenor has been decent though, Abnett tends to deliver. Might do the Ciaphas Cain books next
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May 19, 2014 21:36
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Does the writing in Eisenhorn get better over time/books? I started the first book and it felt so generically dystopian sci-fi I couldn't finish. It didn't seem to have any color or excitement, and Warhammer is at its worst when it tries to be a super serious Judge Dredd knockoff. Meanwhile, the latest Ciaphas Cain audiobook was pretty enjoyable. Only deepens my feeling that Mitchell should leave off the Tyranids and Orks for a while and go more into Cain's encounters with the Eldar and Tau.
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May 19, 2014 21:44
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TryAgainBragg posted:How is the Bequin looking so far? I've been hoping for the best but expecting the worst.. I come out of the wood work to say it was seriously disappointing and i recommend waiting till the second book is out to read it. I had to stop reading a few times and check the cover to mKe sure i had the right boom before getting through it. Reviews in this thread were mixed when it came out but generally people seem to like it, there was discussion at release and maybe month or two ago My biggest issue is that it didnt have ravenor or eisenhorn, or really anyone i care about until like 3/4ths of the way through, and even than it wasnt good. the book is very very underwhelming and you will hate it like i did if you go in expecting to see anything resembling Eisenhorn or Ravenor.
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May 19, 2014 21:48
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Vengarr posted:Does the writing in Eisenhorn get better over time/books? I started the first book and it felt so generically dystopian sci-fi I couldn't finish. It didn't seem to have any color or excitement, and Warhammer is at its worst when it tries to be a super serious Judge Dredd knockoff. Please finish Eisenhorn its p fukin great bro
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May 19, 2014 21:49
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Eisenhorn's such a radical puritan at the start I can see how that's the vibe you got, I do enjoy the series though as a great look at "Chaos" and the slippery slope of being involved in it in any way. His shifting viewpoint on the warp is also interesting, and it has some great action set-pieces like his Ghosts series.
TryAgainBragg fucked around with this message at 21:52 on May 19, 2014 |
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May 19, 2014 21:50
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Waroduce posted:My biggest issue is that it didnt have ravenor or eisenhorn, Hah the only reason I was excited for it was more Eisenhorn after his fallout, guess I wait.
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May 19, 2014 21:51
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TryAgainBragg posted:How is the Bequin looking so far? I've been hoping for the best but expecting the worst..
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May 19, 2014 21:58
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vigorous sodomy posted:Wow. Forums cancer? How retro. Right? You don't even get redirected to that video thing anymore.
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May 19, 2014 22:00
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To me, Pariah felt like we were back at the beginning all over again. It's all first person reflections from Bequin's point of view, more world building than anything else. The main conflict doesn't really ramp up until the final third or so of the novel. That said, I've gotta disagree with Waroduce here. I was able to ignore my expectations and get into the novel on its own terms. I did come to appreciate Bequin's perspective and I did care what happened to her. If you can do that (and I know that not everyone can) it's a quite enjoyable book. But yeah, don't expect a huge Thorn vs Talon thing. That isn't in there, though it's set up to maybe be there in books two and three. Unless Abnett pulls a fast one, which he's been known to do...
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May 19, 2014 22:38
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Pariah felt like a prologue to Ravenor vs. Eisenhorn, not the first book of it. That was my major problem. It felt like a short story intro writ large; the meat (i.e. Ravenor and Eisenhorn) didn't start soon enough and wasn't given anywhere NEAR enough time when it did.
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May 19, 2014 22:45
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Don't treat it as a book about them, but rather the story of a character that ends up caught between them as they both try to resolve a situation in their own terms, and it's good.
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May 20, 2014 01:36
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Weird thing about Pariah for me, and I'm ready to accept that this all could be coincidence, is that it seemed to be set in North London. The description of the training centre's location and appearance matched my old school in Highgate faaar too well, coupled with various place names and geographic echoes too. I'm sure it's just my own perception that's clouding it, but it made for a funny coincidence.
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May 20, 2014 13:18
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Camrath posted:Weird thing about Pariah for me, and I'm ready to accept that this all could be coincidence, is that it seemed to be set in North London. The description of the training centre's location and appearance matched my old school in Highgate faaar too well, coupled with various place names and geographic echoes too. Could have been intentional from Abnett. Remember the planet is named after a Shakespearean character.
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May 20, 2014 13:39
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The two 'new' main characters in Pariah are both pretty interesting. I mean if you read it expecting it to be a book about Ravenor and Eisenhorn punching each other or something it's disappointing but like has been said Bequin is a fine character. It's nice to have a book that's about more than just either 'an inquisitor, possibly powerful' or 'a space marine, possibly powerful', and the actual story being told is interesting so I'm not honestly sure what you can complain about beyond some occasionally questionable prose and the cover being mildly misleading.
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May 20, 2014 16:40
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I'm reading through the Eisenhorn trilogy (my first BL books) and really enjoying them. Currently on book two. A minor lore point - most of the servitors in Eisenhorn so far seem to be robots with human brains. And now there's this Adeptus Mechanicus guy who is also basically a robot with just a human brain left. I don't think I've seen any other 40K lore that suggests there's that level of technology around in the Imperium. Did Abnett invent this himself? I thought even Dreadnoughts were just big fat exoskeletons.
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May 20, 2014 17:12
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That's pretty much how it's always been. The levels of cybernetic replacement just vary from author to author and some go so far as to have replaced parts of the brain with machinery too.
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May 20, 2014 17:15
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Arquinsiel posted:That's pretty much how it's always been. The levels of cybernetic replacement just vary from author to author and some go so far as to have replaced parts of the brain with machinery too. Cool. I just kind of always thought servitors were clumsy brainwashed cyborgs.
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May 20, 2014 17:17
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Servitors are just a catch all term for basically 40k's mindless drone servants. In one of the 40k books i seem to recall it was mentioned that the upper class mostly has mechanical servitors and they are seen as somewhat of a status symbol, while for most others basically use the mechanically augmented and lobotomized humans.
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May 20, 2014 17:30
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There's a Magos in one of the Forge World books that lost all his organics from some sort of weapon and he's still going strong.
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May 20, 2014 17:43
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There's also strong hints that some of the Iron Hands (oldest/highest ranked) eventually become fully robotic as well.
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May 20, 2014 21:49
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I'm only about halfway through the Night Lords series but it seems like their Dark Mechanicus techpriest Deltrian is a full conversion borg.
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May 20, 2014 22:09
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The techpriestess in Know No Fear explicitly mentions that she's a full conversion borg as well. Seems to be purely down to personal preference on the part of a given techpriest.
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May 20, 2014 23:41
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The Mechanicum, for the most part, pretty much holds the belief that the flesh is weak and the ultimate way to show reverence to the Omnissiah is to scrap their biologic parts out for sweet metal ones. One of the Ad Mech in [i]Priests of Mars[i] is pretty much a brain in a jar on top of a metal body.
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May 20, 2014 23:57
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True robots are banned in the Imperium as a result of wars against "the Men of Iron" during the AoS. They get around this by using cyberized corpses (aka Servitors and derivatives) - they're unintelligent and use brains as part of their processing components, so they're considered safe. While mostly mechanical servitors are technically better, they still need organic parts or they could end up being deemed heretical. As for the mechanicum, they're technically human even if they gradually swap all their fleshy bits with machinery, and since you need to be a fairly powerful magus to have the expertise and wealth to afford a full conversion, it's not like anyone will object. Note that completely replacing all brain functions with machinery is very rare.
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May 20, 2014 23:59
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Which is funny, because Rogue Trader included rules for Imperial Robots who you programmed in advance like you were playing Robo Rally 40k. Those were fun, especially when someone's programming went off the rails and the robot wandered into a volcano or something. Good times.
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May 21, 2014 00:03
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PantsOptional posted:I'm only about halfway through the Night Lords series but it seems like their Dark Mechanicus techpriest Deltrian is a full conversion borg. I love that series, I think its one of the best the black library has to offer. You should get into Eisenhorn, Helsreach, or Gaunts Ghosts if u havent
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May 21, 2014 01:46
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jng2058 posted:Which is funny, because Rogue Trader included rules for Imperial Robots who you programmed in advance like you were playing Robo Rally 40k. Those were fun, especially when someone's programming went off the rails and the robot wandered into a volcano or something. Good times. The Legio Cybernetica and its battle robots have actually made a comeback as part of the Heresy era. They're not that dumb and pre-programmed, but they show up regularly in the Horus Heresy books and are part of the AdMech's Heresy era forces on the tabletop.
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May 21, 2014 03:22
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Waroduce posted:I love that series, I think its one of the best the black library has to offer. You should get into Eisenhorn, Helsreach, or Gaunts Ghosts if u havent Did Eisenhorn and Ravenor already, started in on Night Lords now with all the interstitial stories as well. Want to get into Ciaphas Cain at some point as well. My introduction to 40K fiction was Soul Drinkers so I kind of ran away for a very long time. I think I also read Nightbringer in college but I have literally no memory of it except "Exterminatus is coming but this dude has to dick around getting the C'Tan something sometihng."
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May 21, 2014 05:39
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Which 40k books are mystery-flavored? I'm tired of bolter porn and want to read some mystery poo poo. Feel free to mention stuff that I have probably already read.
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May 21, 2014 06:41
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All three Eisenhorn books start with mysteries. Pariah, after a fashion, and the first Ravenor book maybe. Some of the various short stories floating around, like Abnett's stories about Magos Biologis Valentin Drusher would count. For the Emperor, one of the Cain novels has some mystery to it as well.
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May 21, 2014 07:39
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The Shira Calpurnia books by Matthew Farrer are sort of mystery-esque, I suppose. They're about the Arbites and 40k policework, at least. Crossfire, Legacy, Blind, I think.
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May 21, 2014 07:50
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