|
Shroud posted:More bytes = more money, according to BL (in fairness, they're not the only greedy ones). bunnyofdoom posted:You know, I've always heard never touch any C.S. Goto, but have never actually heard why, except for "Multilaser". Even then I don't know why Multilaser is bad, cause people say it likes it's an inside joke, and I guess I'm not on the inside.
|
#
?
May 24, 2013 19:13
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 8, 2024 17:55 |
|
|
I run guard in chimeras. I know multilasers are real. It's just whenever I've asked in the past, all I've gotten is people saying "Multilaser" as if it's an injoke.
|
|
#
?
May 24, 2013 19:16
|
|
|
He said it a lot in a book about Eldar. At the time he was writing it, 40k had moved away from generic weapons, and Eldar now used "scatterlasers". IIRC they never used multilasers at all.
|
|
#
?
May 24, 2013 19:17
|
|
|
If I remember right, there was something about a transforming Land Raider which deployed Terminators armed with multilasers.
|
|
#
?
May 24, 2013 20:47
|
|
|
He had terminators equipped with multilasers that had all the people who cared about the fluff raging about it. He also wrote about a terminator performing backflips (yes, still in his armor). Also, lots of torture-porn with the Eldar.
|
|
#
?
May 25, 2013 19:32
|
|
|
Ow. My brain.
|
|
#
?
May 25, 2013 20:37
|
|
|
His abuse and ignorance of the game universe aside, the worst part of C.S. Goto is the writing itself. As an example: "Gargoyles fell from the sky, where lascannon fire had ruined them or deformed into molten lumps were the squad’s multi-meltas had cooked them." Look at that sentence. It's a disaster. And let's not even get into his awful dialogue, which half the time reads like it's from a rejected Golden Era comic book.
|
|
#
?
May 25, 2013 21:22
|
|
|
Still, he's no Henry Zou.
|
|
#
?
May 25, 2013 22:37
|
|
|
I'd like to see a Terminator armored marine backflip and see the smug look on his face after. That would blow my mind.
|
|
#
?
May 25, 2013 23:35
|
|
|
Azran posted:If I remember right, there was something about a transforming Land Raider which deployed Terminators armed with multilasers. I need to read that  Anyway, I've been on a Fantasy spree lately. I've been incapable of getting my paws on the Sword of... duology, so I followed the next recommended books on the OP. Honourkeeper is a suprisingly good tragedy by Nick Kyme, it plays the typical elfs vs dwarf bickering without being overly focused on it. Really liked that pretty much everybody dies horribly and none of the survivors emerge unscathed of this conflict. It just crushes the usual cliches of these type of stories Good read. Just finished the 2nd book of the Malus Darkblade series, notice that Dan Abnett is coauthor of these alongisde Mike Lee, so it makes them good by default. Very entertaining books, with a somewhat cliche plot, but the characters are interesting, especially because we don't get much (not crap) fantasy books focused in the evil races. Also, huge amounts of backstabbing and treachery. Spite, you're the best character 
|
|
#
?
May 26, 2013 00:32
|
|
|
Rapey Joe Stalin posted:Still, he's no Henry Zou. Is this the guy who was busted on plagiarizing some soldier's memoirs from Iraq? Or was it someone else.
|
|
#
?
May 26, 2013 00:48
|
|
|
Congo Jack posted:I need to read that A note about Malus Darkblade -- they're written entirely by Mike Lee, just based on a short comic book series by Dan Abnett. It's still a pretty good series.
|
|
#
?
May 26, 2013 01:03
|
|
|
Lead Psychiatry posted:Is this the guy who was busted on plagiarizing some soldier's memoirs from Iraq? Or was it someone else. Yeah, it was Zou. I remember reading some of the examples and it was pretty damned obvious.
|
|
#
?
May 26, 2013 01:09
|
|
|
I just finished Eisenhorn and holy poo poo using Fischig as a daemonhost is just cruel.. What is the general consensus regarding Pariah? Is it good?
|
|
#
?
May 28, 2013 18:54
|
|
|
sunburnedcrow posted:I just finished Eisenhorn and holy poo poo using Fischig as a daemonhost is just cruel.. What is the general consensus regarding Pariah? Is it good? Yup. It's good. It feels mostly like a set up for the rest of the books. But I really really enjoyed it.
|
|
#
?
May 28, 2013 19:29
|
|
|
sunburnedcrow posted:I just finished Eisenhorn and holy poo poo using Fischig as a daemonhost is just cruel.. What is the general consensus regarding Pariah? Is it good? If you've just finished the Eisenhorn trilogy, go to the Ravenor one next - keep Pariah until after.
|
|
#
?
May 28, 2013 19:31
|
|
|
berzerkmonkey posted:It's good, but it is a departure from the way the Eisenhorn and Ravenor trilogies are written. Also, it is a little slow in the beginning, so be prepared for that. Sure, I will get started on Ravenor, since I ordered both at the same time.
|
|
#
?
May 28, 2013 19:37
|
|
|
Just got a copy of that novella Corax: Soulforge. Spoilers ahoy. -Two stories here. The Shadowmasters is a short on the inside of the dust jacket. It explains that a couple of marines in every generation from Deliverance have a watered down version of Corax's invisibility trick. Some think it's a "quirk" from the gene-seed, and only Corax can see who has inherited his trick. Would explain why they're not around in 40k. - The main story itself has the Raven Guard following a small band of Word Bearers to see why they're hiding on a mechanicus planet. - Corax doesn't know that the Alpha trolls tampered with the genetic stuff in DL, and starts to doubt himself. - The mechanicus is actually pretty neat in this story, there's half demon- half machine tanks with tails and two floating cities blasting each other apart as loyalists are thrown into a fight with the dark mechanium. - Guilliman is mentioned, with Corax remembering how he fielded theoreticals without including non-combatants. Corax mentions that this worked in his favour in three military exercises. By the 4th, Roboute changed that and couldn't be beaten once. - the Raptors( those fun guys with mutations all over the place) in the RG are pretty normal. Seriously, was kinda expecting something interesting to be done with them, ah well. - I think this is the point from where we will see Corax slowly form into the one who says "Nevermore." At the end, he catches up to the Word Bearers commander. The guy becomes a CHAAAAOS champion and proceeds to kick the poo poo out of Corax, points out to him that the Primarchs weren't made naturally, and spells out that the Emp had help from Chaos. Corax begins to doubt himself again. - Not sure if its been mentioned in other stories but there's now several Word Bearer warbands who have escaped from Calth and burst through the Ruinstorm mentioned in Betrayer. Guessing they've went solo from the legion?
|
|
#
?
May 31, 2013 16:54
|
|
|
Has anyone read the Mark of Calth yet? I saw that the "enhanced" edition is available on iBooks, but I about poo poo my pants at the price tag. Also, it would still be nice if someone could give me a decent explanation as to why anything happens the way it does in Angel Exterminatus.
|
|
#
?
Jun 1, 2013 04:04
|
|
|
For anyone thinking of buying Daenyathos, watch out. That $11.99 you think you're paying for an actual novel? You're paying for ~ 100+ pages, actually. gently caress BL and their lovely ebook pricing.
|
|
#
?
Jun 1, 2013 08:40
|
|
|
Shroud posted:For anyone thinking of buying Daenyathos, watch out. That $11.99 you think you're paying for an actual novel? You're paying for ~ 100+ pages, actually. gently caress BL and their lovely ebook pricing. Vastly overpriced, but it's about the only thing published about the Age of Apostasy, M36 or so.
|
|
#
?
Jun 1, 2013 09:19
|
|
|
I've had a pet theory that the reason the Imperium of Man is anti-science and mired in willfull ignorance is the because of the Emperor's death and the influence of the Chaos Gods. The Emperor was always the wellspring of human innovation and progress, always motivating humans to become more enlightened, perhaps through psychic influence. When he died, humanity became vulnerable to the rotting influence of the Chaos Gods (perhaps Nurgle and Khorne in particular). What do the books say? Somehow, they ought to give even a passing reason why the entire Imperium has been like this for 10,000 years. This idea certainly fits with the Mechanicum's concept of the Omnissiah.
Baron Bifford fucked around with this message at 09:57 on Jun 1, 2013 |
|
#
?
Jun 1, 2013 09:53
|
|
|
Baron Bifford posted:I've had a pet theory that the reason the Imperium of Man is anti-science and mired in willfull ignorance is the because of the Emperor's death and the influence of the Chaos Gods. The Emperor was always the wellspring of human innovation and progress, always motivating humans to become more enlightened, perhaps through psychic influence. When he died, humanity became vulnerable to the rotting influence of the Chaos Gods (perhaps Nurgle and Khorne in particular). What do the books say? Somehow, they ought to give even a passing reason why the entire Imperium has been like this for 10,000 years. This idea certainly fits with the Mechanicum's concept of the Omnissiah. ... that's explicitly the whole point of 40k. You either subordinate yourself to the oppressive religious military-industrial complex or you have an actual chance of having your soul eaten. In the grim darkness of the far future there is only etc etc
|
|
#
?
Jun 1, 2013 13:24
|
|
|
Specifically, the Mechanicum opposes science and 'new' technology because it believes that the only true source of knowledge is from the past, namely the Golden Age of Technology. I feel like that's more a consequence of the Ad Mech arising from the ruins of a much more advanced civilization than anything else though.
|
|
#
?
Jun 1, 2013 13:59
|
|
|
berzerkmonkey posted:It's good, but it is a departure from the way the Eisenhorn and Ravenor trilogies are written. Also, it is a little slow in the beginning, so be prepared for that. I've just finished Pariah and it really is very good indeed: it's perhaps the nearest I've seen to a 'serious' piece of literature set in the 40K universe (The fact alone that Part 1 of the book is entitled "Queen Mab" tells you that Mr Abnett is getting distinctly serious with his literary pretensions.) Where do I begin... The novel takes the form of a memoir, with the much older and wiser protagonist looking back on the shattering series of events that took place during her youthful apprenticeship in what she believed at the time to be a training school of the Inquisition. That the book is structured in this way is in itself important: Beta, the protagonist, is looking back on her life with hindsight and gentle regret and this painful business of re-living the irreversible and unchangeable past forms the sustained and dominant tone of the novel. Every sentence of the book is shot through with the knowledge that what's done is done forever and infused with Beta's own insightful, melancholy, rather lonely personality. In this way and several other ways, Pariah strangely reminds me of Dickens' "Great Expectations": the novel's structure as a memoir, the single, consistent tone of regretful hindsight and the overwhelming sense of past mistakes that can never now be changed or rectified. As you read the novel, you'll also see that Beta has 'great expectations' of her own, which end up shattered in a similarly disorienting way to those of poor little Pip in Dickens' work. The style throughout is far superior to the bulk of 40K fiction: Abnett is really getting good at this now. Compare this 'typical' piece of 40K writing: quote:"On the way down Ragnar managed to overtake a few of the fleeing Chaos lovers and put shells into them. They fell, hampering their brethren more. Seeing the bottom of the stairs coming, he braced himself and hit the ground rolling, still firing, his superhuman reflexes and quickness of eye enabling him to hit with more than half the shots. At the end of the roll, he dropped the traitor’s pistol and unsheathed his chainsword once more, leaping into the fray like an unleashed god of war. ...to this extract from Pariah, where Beta is prowling the attic of her school, searching for a possible intruder (and perhaps also for lost memories...): quote:"We had come up as children, when the attics were a place of escape and recreation. The ceiling of the fourth hall had fallen in after heavy rains, and after that we were forbidden. I remembered it, though, every turn and nook. I saw places where we had scratched our names on beams or slates or brick. Many names. The names of pupils who had been forgotten long before I ever came into the Maze Undue. Here, still, was a doll, a little pale thing with a china face, that some pupil had set upon a cross-tie years ago and had never come back for. We had found it during our explorations, thick with dust, but had not dared to touch or move it. It belonged here. As I saw it that night, with more adult eyes, I felt it had not been so much set down and forgotten, as deliberately placed, as if this cross-tie was its new station in life, a seat from which it should watch and guard." The extract from Grey Hunter is workmanlike enough as a piece of description but nothing more than that: it's a classic example of what's often dubbed 'Bolter porn'. In the 2nd extract however, the deceptively short and simple sentences build upon each other to create something rather more complex: the description of Beta in the attic is overlaid by the nostalgic tone of regret for the lost past that infuses the whole novel, while at the same time, the events that happen immediately afterwards are subtly foreshadowed. (A few pages after this paragraph, Beta is embroiled in a spectacular battle with Patience Kys.) Equally skilful is how the appearances of Eisenhorn and Ravenor are handled. For most of the book, Abnett deliberately keeps them firmly in the background, allowing them to be only intermittently glimpsed through Beta's uncomprehending eyes (Beta's is the only viewpoint in the novel.) This allows the new characters of Pariah to present themselves and become familiar, without being overshadowed by the well-established figures of the previous trilogies. Abnett has also become extremely adept in getting the sheer weirdness of the 40K universe across to his readers. Many BL writers portray the 40K universe largely by alternating gleeful descriptions of bolt pistol and power sword-wielding carnage with clunky exposition, making much use of well-established concepts such as 'Battle barges', 'Thunderhawks', 'Planetary governors', "Chaos invasions' and so on. By contrast, Abnett creates an eerie and often incomprehensible world, where these sort of familiar concepts crop up rarely and much is left unexplained. The unusual (unusual for BL novels, anyway) references to our own era work well here: the neat little scene where a disguised Beta is invited to inspect some extremely ancient toy rockets, with markings clearly indicating that they originate from the old Soviet Union could easily have been a jarring, 'fourth wall breaking' moment, where the author turns to the reader and gives them a big, conspiratorial wink. With Abnett, however, the scene meshes well with the novel's over-arching tone of irreplaceable loss, cemented with the final sentences: quote:‘And the markings on the side of the rocket ships,’ I asked. ‘The letters in red? What does C.C.C.P. mean?’ Anyway, I'll stop there: this has turned into a very long post. (The fact that I've cared enough to spend an hour writing it should tell you that this was a book that's made a strong impression on me  )
|
|
#
?
Jun 1, 2013 15:50
|
|
|
mllaneza posted:Vastly overpriced, but it's about the only thing published about the Age of Apostasy, M36 or so. The part that dealt with the Apostasy was 30 pages. Not sure that really counts, since there isn't any new information there either. I wish there was more of a silver lining.
|
|
#
?
Jun 1, 2013 16:18
|
|
|
Umiapik posted:*Stuff about Pariah* Well, gently caress! Things aren't going to end well for Eisenhorn isn't it? 
|
|
#
?
Jun 1, 2013 17:51
|
|
|
sunburnedcrow posted:Well, gently caress! Things aren't going to end well for Eisenhorn isn't it? It's 40k. When has it ever ended well for anyone? (Except Ciaphas Cain)
|
|
#
?
Jun 1, 2013 18:16
|
|
|
sunburnedcrow posted:Well, gently caress! Things aren't going to end well for Eisenhorn isn't it? Nothing ever, ever ends well for inquisitors. It's an occupational hazard.
|
|
#
?
Jun 1, 2013 18:26
|
|
|
sunburnedcrow posted:Well, gently caress! Things aren't going to end well for Eisenhorn isn't it? He's like the good kid who starts to hang out with the wrong crowd  i.e. daemons and the Alpha Legion
|
|
#
?
Jun 1, 2013 19:44
|
|
|
Umiapik posted:Pariah stuff Holy crap what a post. And a good post at that. I fully agree with your views - it's this constant sense of forboding that just fills it all. Can't wait for the others. Abnett is best author. I saw today what I thought was a new series about Macharius written by William King? Anyone know if it's any good? Not as good as Abnett. He sent me a Christmas card once because of Twitter. Still got that bad boy.
|
|
#
?
Jun 1, 2013 20:03
|
|
|
Abnett and ADB are really leagues ahead of all the other BL authors, I hope they find some more like them.
|
|
#
?
Jun 1, 2013 20:12
|
|
|
Peter Fehervari seems promising.
|
|
#
?
Jun 1, 2013 20:18
|
|
|
Can-O-Raid posted:Specifically, the Mechanicum opposes science and 'new' technology because it believes that the only true source of knowledge is from the past, namely the Golden Age of Technology. I feel like that's more a consequence of the Ad Mech arising from the ruins of a much more advanced civilization than anything else though.
|
|
#
?
Jun 1, 2013 20:43
|
|
|
That's basically the core theme of 40k, as someone posted above. The reason why technological advancement is clamped down on super hard by basically the entire Imperium is because it has pretty consistently led to awful chaos things happening. So advancement is ruthlessly suppressed by Mechanicum and the Inquisition and the clergy and everyone because nobody wants some guy trying to invent a better lasgun or a knife or whatever getting corrupted by the chaos gods and say starting a cult and taking over a world and turning into a big pain in the rear end. Also the Emperor was not a nice guy who wanted everyone to be peaceful and open minded, he was willing and able to do anything up to and including mass genocide and human sacrifice and god knows what else to insure the survival of the human race at any cost.
|
|
#
?
Jun 1, 2013 20:56
|
|
|
hopterque posted:That's basically the core theme of 40k, as someone posted above. I keep going back to Horus's fever dream, with someone (I forget who) saying the Chaos gods were showing him truths cloaked in falsehoods in order to make him turn. Horus got shown what I assumed was the future he would create and so Chaos actively sought the Emperor ascending the throne to cause the slow decay and entropy of the Imperium. But I wonder that, if the Emperor isn't even really human, were they telling Horus the truth? Was it all a ploy by the Emperor to use the combined psychic force of humanity to ascend himself as the ultimate master of the warp?
|
|
#
?
Jun 1, 2013 21:50
|
|
|
hopterque posted:That's basically the core theme of 40k, as someone posted above. I also think that the end of the Dark Age of Technology and the crash of human civilization is associated with  . Turns out we can blame the Eldar, but Imperial policy is firmly against research not conducted by the Mechanicus. Even they tend to focus more on recovering lost wonders than is blazing new theoretical ground.The Emperor's "plan" now is to gather in all the souls of those who died in his name and then go Ragnarok on the Chaos gods with 10,000 years worth of humanity's heroes at his (mental) side.
|
|
#
?
Jun 1, 2013 22:44
|
|
|
hopterque posted:Abnett and ADB are really leagues ahead of all the other BL authors, I hope they find some more like them. I like Abnett and while his prose is great, I find he has difficulty ending a story. Baron Bifford posted:No, you don't understand. It doesn't make sense that every Imperial world for the past 10,000 has not developed a scientific tradition, all because the religious authorities forbid it. No religious doctrine alone can achieve that (just look at humans today). I'm saying that the Chaos Gods are exerting a psychic influence on all humans, including the most zealous worshippers of the Emperor. Nurgle may be encouraging their stagnation. Khorne may be encouraging their brutality. Tzeentch may be corrupting those who do dare to innovate. In the past, the Emperor would counteract this influence with his own presence, encouraging humans to be more peaceful, empathetic and open-minded. But now he's dead and the Chaos Gods are corrupting his people in ever so subtle ways. None of the fiction really makes sense considering the stories aren't all standardised.  That said scientific advancement does happen. In the Imperium, it's mostly with the Ad Mech but there are other groups that focus on research. You just need to weaponise it, give it to the nearest pragmatic chapter of marines and let them sort it out for you and in a couple of hundred years, you'll finally get the official seal of approval and blessing needed for further testing!
|
|
#
?
Jun 1, 2013 23:15
|
|
|
Kegslayer posted:That said scientific advancement does happen. In the Imperium, it's mostly with the Ad Mech but there are other groups that focus on research. You just need to weaponise it, give it to the nearest pragmatic chapter of marines and let them sort it out for you and in a couple of hundred years, you'll finally get the official seal of approval and blessing needed for further testing! And then maybe in a couple of hundred years a factory line will open up on a Forge world to roll out your new idea. Of course if you are willing to go marching through a death world to find a long lost STC fragment then you can speed up the process somewhat and have all the fame.
|
|
#
?
Jun 2, 2013 00:21
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 8, 2024 17:55 |
|
|
Does anyone know why Matthew Farrer hasn't written anything more? He did the Enforcer books about Shira Calpurnia and I really like them a lot. He reminds me of a warhammer 40k george rr martin, not in creepyness but in the ability to craft an elaborate world that seems to work. I really like the setting with very real rivalries between police, church, nobles, and navy. I'm only on the second now but the whole rogue trader succession thing is great.
|
|
#
?
Jun 2, 2013 00:38
|
|
