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Nephilm posted:I swallow my words, then. Not to rub it in, but this is at the top of every other page, too:  To be clear, my point isn't that the book sucks. Taken in a vacuum it's up to Abnett's standards in every way, except I thought it was a bit light on the action. But genre-wise it was a nice change for the Black Library. And I really love the idea of the bad guy's ultimate plot, to find and use the Emperor's name. I think it was recently in The Emperor's Gift that ADB brings that up. They must collaborate pretty closely on everything at this point. My point is that it was a fairly big disappointment to finally get this book and have Ravenor and Eisenhorn take minor, bordering on cameo in Ravenor's case, roles. The thing is, after the next book is here I'll have forgotten all about this complaint since it's clearly been set up that poo poo is going down, immediately, between the two of them. Like Waroduce said, it was just jarring to see how long Abnett spends introducing and setting things up considering it's only a three book series. Wesley Walker fucked around with this message at 03:02 on Oct 28, 2012 |
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Oct 28, 2012 02:52
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Wesley Walker posted:To be clear, my point isn't that the book sucks. Taken in a vacuum it's up to Abnett's standards in every way, except I thought it was a bit light on the action. But genre-wise it was a nice change for the Black Library. And I really love the idea of the bad guy's ultimate plot, to find and use the Emperor's name. I think it was recently in The Emperor's Gift that ADB brings that up. They must collaborate pretty closely on everything at this point. As a stand alone book, I didn't think it was all that great. However, as the first part in a series, clearly just setting up the later two books, it works much better. It was really just an introduction, showcasing the new villains and old heroes.
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Oct 28, 2012 22:57
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Pariah owned, it's incredible how far ahead Abnett and ADB are of the other BL authors. I stll have my usual complaints regarding BL word limits etc.
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Oct 29, 2012 12:42
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Some questions about future reads. Do I need to read the Grey Knight books from Ben Counter to know what's going on in Emperor's Gift? I generally prefer to read things in order, but if EG is a one-off and maybe takes place before the Counter books, may read it before hand. Relentless by Richard Williams. Should I bother? Looks like it has the least number of reviews out of all the WH40K books I browse off Amazon and though the reviews do have me interested, and is liked by the six who bothered scoring it, it's only slightly ahead of Battle for the Abyss with 40 ratings. Almost done with Blood Reaver. Best part: Ruven got told
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Oct 29, 2012 18:34
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Lead Psychiatry posted:Do I need to read the Grey Knight books from Ben Counter to know what's going on in Emperor's Gift? I generally prefer to read things in order, but if EG is a one-off and maybe takes place before the Counter books, may read it before hand.[/spoiler] Nope you don't have to read them, although they are set after EG, between the release of these dates the Grey Knight's fluff was completely redone, and now EG is the only "true" book.
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Oct 29, 2012 19:46
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ed balls balls man posted:Pariah owned, it's incredible how far ahead Abnett and ADB are of the other BL authors. I stll have my usual complaints regarding BL word limits etc. I just started reading Dead Men Walking, and hoo boy, the prose just isn't there. Abnett is pulp, but it's extremely entertaining and readable pulp.
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Oct 29, 2012 20:30
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Mechafunkzilla posted:I've actually never read Space Marine or the Inquisition War books, but if anyone wants to do a write-up I'll gladly add it to the OP. I hear they're...strange. They didn't seem strange to me back when I was into 40k, but I understand the modern fluff has changed a lot. So there's references to things like the Jokaero and the Squats, who I understand are both gone. Draco especially has a real Rogue-Tradery feel to it. I also get the impression that the IW books were meant to establish an overall story arc for the universe, but that's long been abandoned by GW. Watson is an established sci-fi author and a pretty imaginative writer. The books are much, much darker than I'm told most of the modern fluff is - but they fit perfectly with the fluff of the time, and he really nails the various cultural influences that fed into 40K. So he knows enough about obscure Church history to really do the Christian aspects of the Imperium justice; he's familiar enough with comedia dell'arte to make a Harlequin dance convincing, he knows enough about 17th-century witch-mania to make his Inquistors work, he has a good command of Latin, etc. Occasionally you can sense him grinning in the background, as he's clearly enjoying throwing any sense of restraint out the window and piling bleakness upon bleakness, so you should keep a small sense of irony in mind when you read the books. That he manages to pull off the over-the-top, relentless grimdarkery is down to the fact that he's a far better writer than many of the hacks who do cash-in genre work like this. As for the books themselves: Space Marine is good and pretty much stands on its own feet as a book, even if you aren't a huge 40k nerd. As for the IW triology: Draco and Harlequin are both very good. Chaos Child is less good: it feels meandering, the ending seems extremly abrupt and tacked-on, and you get the sense it was only written because his contract said it had to be. Definitely get the first two, and if you really like them yuo might want to give CC a try. He also wrote a couple of short stories for Deathwing, which is an analogy that I think is out of print atm. Both are worth reading. Zephro fucked around with this message at 15:31 on Oct 30, 2012 |
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Oct 30, 2012 13:11
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Some entertaining reviews of Space Marine and The Inquisition War. Watson, you so craaazy... 
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Oct 30, 2012 15:15
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Darth Walrus posted:Some entertaining reviews of Space Marine and The Inquisition War. quote:Space Marine is also more than a little gay edit: Heh, interesting, he kinda slates all the books. That wasn't my reaction at all. Oh well. Zephro fucked around with this message at 15:39 on Oct 30, 2012 |
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Oct 30, 2012 15:33
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Zephro posted:They should definitely be included: they were GW's first ventures into spinoff books, and AFAIK Ian Watson remains the most high-profile writer who's ever written for GW. Charles Stross actually wrote some short stories for them when he was starting out
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Oct 30, 2012 16:19
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Fried Chicken posted:Charles Stross actually wrote some short stories for them when he was starting out Kim Newman, noted talking head and film critic and mate of Mark Kermode wrote a bunch of Fantasy under the name Jack Yeovil. They're pretty good gothic horror type stories!
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Oct 30, 2012 16:46
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Mowglis Haircut posted:Kim Newman, noted talking head and film critic and mate of Mark Kermode wrote a bunch of Fantasy under the name Jack Yeovil. They're pretty good gothic horror type stories! I've got the Genevieve omnibus and it's a pretty drat good read.
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Oct 30, 2012 22:19
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Just finished Pariah and drat was that fun. My favorite part is when the last Glaw hears Beta talk about children and thinks she must clearly mean the Emperor's Children. Amateur blunder there. And on a certain warblind... That really is Alpharius isn't it? It'd be nothing if Teke didn't freak out the way he did. I doubt he's following Eisenhorn in any capacity though, which makes me wonder who the other special agent is.
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Oct 31, 2012 10:56
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Zephro posted:he really nails the various cultural influences that fed into 40K. So he knows enough about obscure Church history to really do the Christian aspects of the Imperium justice; he's familiar enough with comedia dell'arte to make a Harlequin dance convincing, he knows enough about 17th-century witch-mania to make his Inquistors work, he has a good command of Latin, etc.
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Oct 31, 2012 13:21
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Argas posted:And on a certain warblind... That really is Alpharius isn't it? It'd be nothing if Teke didn't freak out the way he did. I doubt he's following Eisenhorn in any capacity though, which makes me wonder who the other special agent is. I doubt it. It's A thing all Alpha Legion do.It's probably some stock random Alpha Legion marine. They all always say they are Alpharius. Also the second agent is Cherubael.
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Oct 31, 2012 14:20
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Fried Chicken posted:Charles Stross actually wrote some short stories for them when he was starting out Zephro fucked around with this message at 18:03 on Oct 31, 2012 |
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Oct 31, 2012 17:50
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MisterFuzzles posted:I doubt it. It's A thing all Alpha Legion do.It's probably some stock random Alpha Legion marine. They all always say they are Alpharius. Also the second agent is Cherubael. Well, I meant that if this 'Alpharius' isn't the other special agent, then it means that it's Cherubael and someone else. Though it just being an Alpha Legion marine does make a lot more sense. Looks like Eisenhorn is really off the deep end when he's using both a traitor marine and his old daemonhost pal.
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Oct 31, 2012 18:39
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Could someone remind me why exactly there is an understanding between Eisenhorn and Cherubael? I mean, what exactly is stopping cherubael from just running off and do deamon-y things?
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Oct 31, 2012 19:39
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Mikojan posted:Could someone remind me why exactly there is an understanding between Eisenhorn and Cherubael? Because Eisenhorn bound the deamon in the body of his just-died cremate, during the battle with the Titan iirc, in book 2 of the trilogy. A bound demon has to obey the master.
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Oct 31, 2012 19:56
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Mikojan posted:Could someone remind me why exactly there is an understanding between Eisenhorn and Cherubael? The bindings and wards used to bind it into the host and it's own enjoyment knowing it's made Gregor into exactly what he hates. At least as of Eisenhorn, I haven't got hold of Pariah yet.
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Oct 31, 2012 19:57
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Argas posted:Well, I meant that if this 'Alpharius' isn't the other special agent, then it means that it's Cherubael and someone else. Though it just being an Alpha Legion marine does make a lot more sense. Looks like Eisenhorn is really off the deep end when he's using both a traitor marine and his old daemonhost pal. Here's something I keep in mind when I'm reading anything 40k: The only good ending is a relatively painless death where your soul doesn't get eaten. So yeah, I think Eisenhorn's lost it.
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Oct 31, 2012 20:26
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Eisenhorn trilogy spoilers: After the events of the second book Cherubael just hated Eisenhorn's guts for binding him again, which remains the same throughout the third, though at the end of that, after having done a proper binding with sufficient precautions and restrictions in place, Cherubael seems resigned to its situation. In the short story where they feature after that, it's clear they've reached a kind of mutual agreement of sorts. The daemon is of course still very much bound to Eisenhorn's will, but as someone else stated Cherubael probably derives great pleasure from what the Inquisitor has become, and doesn't mind too much the leash he's been put on (which Eisenhorn seems to be giving more and more slack).
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Oct 31, 2012 21:01
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E: ^^^ There's also a line in Hereticus that references the fact that Eisenhorn basically sacrificed a chunk of Cherubael's power to gain more control.VanSandman posted:Here's something I keep in mind when I'm reading anything 40k: The only good ending is a relatively painless death where your soul doesn't get eaten. So yeah, I think Eisenhorn's lost it. I posted it at some point in the old thread, but in one of Gaunt books in The Lost (by Abnett obviously), there's a reference to Ravenor and Eisenhorn from Ravenor's writing, and how Eisenhorn has a notoriously gruesome end. It's going to be very interesting to see how things turn out there. Wesley Walker fucked around with this message at 21:03 on Oct 31, 2012 |
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Oct 31, 2012 21:01
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Wesley Walker posted:E: ^^^ There's also a line in Hereticus that references the fact that Eisenhorn basically sacrificed a chunk of Cherubael's power to gain more control. You may be thinking of when Dalin or someone says 'he [Ravenor] died badly, didn't he?', so not Eisenhorn. Even trickier! I like where it's going, but I am more annoyed at BL's smaller word count now.
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Oct 31, 2012 21:05
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Mowglis Haircut posted:You may be thinking of when Dalin or someone says 'he [Ravenor] died badly, didn't he?', so not Eisenhorn. Even trickier! I like where it's going, but I am more annoyed at BL's smaller word count now. I haven't read Salvation's Reach yet, so maybe there's something else in there, but it's like I said in The Lost. It would take me forever to find again since it's one paragraph in a giant omnibus.
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Oct 31, 2012 21:07
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I was kind of sad to see Harlon Nayl with Eisenhorn instead of Ravenor.
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Oct 31, 2012 22:41
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Wesley Walker posted:I haven't read Salvation's Reach yet, so maybe there's something else in there, but it's like I said in The Lost.
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Nov 1, 2012 03:26
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Polpoto posted:I was kind of sad to see Harlon Nayl with Eisenhorn instead of Ravenor. I saw one of Abnetts videoblogs where he noted that he was thinking about doing the trilogy as Nayl but settled on Bequin. I'd love to see a Nayl omnibus. He's left several years between Ravenor and Pariah where Nayl has been freelancing so it's definately a posibillity.
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Nov 1, 2012 03:30
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Arquinsiel posted:I remember it as refering to Ravenor too. My copy of The Lost seems to be... well, I can't find it. But luckily search bailed me out. Here's what I was referring to: quote:
I wrote that in May 2010, poo poo.
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Nov 1, 2012 03:50
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I see how we could get two things from half-rembering that alright. I do remember the specific "he came to a bad end, didn't he?" line from somewhere but I'm fine with admitting that I can't remember where and being too lazy to go look it up. Caesar used lots of commas too. Commas are vital for making your writing last for millennia or something.
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Nov 1, 2012 07:11
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Wesley Walker posted:My copy of The Lost seems to be... well, I can't find it. But luckily search bailed me out. Here's what I was referring to: I wrote that in May 2010, poo poo. [/quote] Ah I remember I totally different quote, so I guess they both died badly! A happy ending to this trology then...
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Nov 1, 2012 09:36
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Mowglis Haircut posted:Ah I remember I totally different quote, so I guess they both died badly! A happy ending to this trology then... It's going to be the 40kest ending ever. Luckily since it's Abnett it'll only be two pages long.
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Nov 1, 2012 14:11
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I finished Pariah last night and enjoyed it a lot. I was happy when Medea and Nayl showed up but when I figured out that they were on Team Eisenhorn I was a bit sad. Eisenhorn has obviously gone off the deep end and it would suck to see those two taken down with him. Their loyalty is obviously going to be tested. When Kara was taking Beta to her holding room she was point blank about how far Eisenhorn had fallen. And right after refuting the thought of Eisenhorn consorting with his best buddy shows up and melts the wall. That pretty much validates Kara and Patience being grumpy.
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Nov 1, 2012 19:21
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Trast posted:I finished Pariah last night and enjoyed it a lot. They're just jealous of Eisenhorn's cheerful confidant Cherubael.
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Nov 2, 2012 07:08
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Just finished Storm of Iron. Good fun. I think I just learned a lot about siege warfare. I found myself following the other Black Library book reviews in that Space Marine review link. The first Ciaphas Cain omnibus will be my next buy!
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Nov 2, 2012 13:18
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Schneider Heim posted:Just finished Storm of Iron. Good fun. I think I just learned a lot about siege warfare. Word of warning about Ciahphas Cain books, they very formulatic and usually take the piss out of the whole grim dark angle of the setting.
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Nov 2, 2012 19:04
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Has the Black Library said anything about a fourth Gaunt's Ghosts omnibus being published soon? I'd like to move on to the stuff after The Lost but I'd rather not buy a bunch of single books over the omnibus.
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Nov 2, 2012 21:52
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Trast posted:Has the Black Library said anything about a fourth Gaunt's Ghosts omnibus being published soon? I'd like to move on to the stuff after The Lost but I'd rather not buy a bunch of single books over the omnibus. Salvation's Reach has only just come out in paperback, so expect a wait. Year? Two?
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Nov 2, 2012 23:01
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Mowglis Haircut posted:Salvation's Reach has only just come out in paperback, so expect a wait. Year? Two? Well nuts, my count was off. I thought Salvation was the fifth book since Only in Death.
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Nov 3, 2012 01:41
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Um, isn't there only 2 books in the lost so far? Blood Pact and Salvation's reach? There has to be at least 1 more, if not 2 before the omnibus.
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Nov 3, 2012 10:24
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