|
lenoon posted:Cool, I didn't know the various white dwarfs were that different back in the day. Are they all identical now? They are up here at least. We still got the US whitedwarf, but with a little extra. But it no longer exists, so I assume so.
|
#
?
Jul 27, 2013 00:07
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 12, 2024 00:01 |
|
|
lenoon posted:Cool, I didn't know the various white dwarfs were that different back in the day. Are they all identical now?
|
|
#
?
Jul 27, 2013 01:04
|
|
|
The blurb for Vulkan Lives confirms that yep, the Night Haunter's got him. Sucks to be Vulkan I guess. Also sucks to be us since someone other than ADB is writing the Night Lords, but whatever that goes without saying.
|
|
#
?
Jul 27, 2013 09:18
|
|
|
VanSandman posted:The blurb for Vulkan Lives confirms that yep, the Night Haunter's got him. Sucks to be Vulkan I guess. Also sucks to be us since someone other than ADB is writing the Night Lords, but whatever that goes without saying. Huh? Here's the blurb that I've seen: "In the wake of the Dropsite Massacre at Isstvan V, the survivors of the Salamanders Legion searched long and hard for their fallen primarch, but to no avail. Little did they know that while Vulkan might have wished himself dead, he lives still. As the war continues without him, all eyes turn to Ultramar and Guilliman's new empire there, and Vulkan's sons are drawn into an insidious plot to end the Heresy by the most underhand means imaginable." e: Here's the cover, pretty cool. 
hopterque fucked around with this message at 10:21 on Jul 27, 2013 |
|
#
?
Jul 27, 2013 10:05
|
|
|
hopterque posted:Huh? I just checked out the new one from the Black Library, where they are accepting preorders, so I think mine might be newer.
|
|
#
?
Jul 27, 2013 17:25
|
|
|
VanSandman posted:I just checked out the new one from the Black Library, where they are accepting preorders, so I think mine might be newer. Ah, yeah looks like they updated it in the last few days, interesting.
|
|
#
?
Jul 27, 2013 22:58
|
|
|
VanSandman posted:The blurb for Vulkan Lives confirms that yep, the Night Haunter's got him. Sucks to be Vulkan I guess. Also sucks to be us since someone other than ADB is writing the Night Lords, but whatever that goes without saying. I think Nick Kyme is the editor for ADB's work ? Hopefully he will just get ADB to write the Night Haunter bits for him 
|
|
#
?
Jul 28, 2013 09:10
|
|
|
If thats the case then I hope for the sake of the power of the Primarchs is that the only reason he gets captured is that he gets blindsided by random artillery strikes and is taken captive covered 100% in third degree burns and the enemy still take heavy casualties. And the only reason they can keep him captive is because Perturbo's dungeon keeps him forever confounded.
|
|
#
?
Jul 28, 2013 10:32
|
|
|
EyeRChris posted:If thats the case then I hope for the sake of the power of the Primarchs is that the only reason he gets captured is that he gets blindsided by random artillery strikes and is taken captive covered 100% in third degree burns and the enemy still take heavy casualties. And the only reason they can keep him captive is because Perturbo's dungeon keeps him forever confounded. Also the Night Haunter won't stop being just the worst.
|
|
#
?
Jul 28, 2013 12:07
|
|
|
Finished Flight of the Eisenstein, it was kind of a boring book, but some parts were interesting. One thing i don't get is why did Garro get assigned to the Eisenstein in the first place? If Mortarion wanted him out of the picture, why not kill him like the others?
|
|
#
?
Jul 30, 2013 06:15
|
|
|
VanSandman posted:The blurb for Vulkan Lives confirms that yep, the Night Haunter's got him. Sucks to be Vulkan I guess. Also sucks to be us since someone other than ADB is writing the Night Lords, but whatever that goes without saying. There goes the fan theory that Vulkan is the "giant man clad in baroque power armour" in Trazyn the Infinite's collection. Now we're back to square one of guessing, and Trayzn's description doesn't even mention if the guy is alive or not. Next theory: The Galaxy's Greatest Heist: Trazyn broke into the Imperial Palace and stole the Emperor, swapping him with a worthless replica. William Bear fucked around with this message at 08:12 on Jul 30, 2013 |
|
#
?
Jul 30, 2013 06:53
|
|
|
UberJumper posted:Finished Flight of the Eisenstein, it was kind of a boring book, but some parts were interesting. One thing i don't get is He still wanted him to be turned, if possible. That's why he got Grulgor on board, too.
|
|
#
?
Jul 30, 2013 07:37
|
|
|
UberJumper posted:Finished Flight of the Eisenstein, it was kind of a boring book, but some parts were interesting. One thing i don't get is I think deep down he knew Garro would not turn from the emperor but he tried anyway because he was one of his most favoured sons,
|
|
#
?
Jul 30, 2013 11:06
|
|
|
UberJumper posted:Finished Flight of the Eisenstein, it was kind of a boring book, but some parts were interesting. One thing i don't get is He was assigned to the ground command. Then he lost his leg, and wasn't combat ready, so he got dumped on the frigate with someone who was eager to kill him and under orders to do so
|
|
#
?
Jul 30, 2013 14:39
|
|
|
Just wanted to chime in - finally gave Warhammer 40K books a chance and have a couple of thoughts: I'm almost finished with the Ravenor Omnibus and while I liked the Eisenhorn Omnibus, the stories in Ravenor has been a lot better at making the characters feel real, where they in Eisenhorn, felt a little dull or lacking at times. I've also read the first two omnibus versions of Gaunt's Ghosts and really enjoyed them - it seems hard to get the paperback version of 'The Lost' though. My usual bookstore reports them as sold out and so does The Black Library.. (don't much like ebooks).
|
|
#
?
Aug 1, 2013 13:24
|
|
|
Was re-reading Fear to Tread, and there was a throwaway comment that I didn't catch before. Some Blood Angels are talking about the Librarians and the Edict of Nikea, and asks rhetorically if they should lock up their Librarians in cells like the Imperial Fists. I'm pretty sure the Edict said that the Librarium had to be dissolved, and all its members returned to regular duties. Is there a reason mentioned previously why the Fists went to such extremes?
|
|
#
?
Aug 1, 2013 18:05
|
|
|
Shroud posted:Was re-reading Fear to Tread, and there was a throwaway comment that I didn't catch before. Some Blood Angels are talking about the Librarians and the Edict of Nikea, and asks rhetorically if they should lock up their Librarians in cells like the Imperial Fists. Considering the Fists are often written as masochists, I'd say the Fist's librarians asked for it.
|
|
#
?
Aug 1, 2013 20:22
|
|
|
Shroud posted:I'm pretty sure the Edict said that the Librarium had to be dissolved, and all its members returned to regular duties. Is there a reason mentioned previously why the Fists went to such extremes? I interpreted it as Dorn going to almost absurd extremes for everything he does, especially in "better safe than sorry"-type scenarios. VanSandman posted:Considering the Fists are often written as masochists, I'd say the Fist's librarians asked for it. This seems about right, but also compatible with what I'd interpreted.
|
|
#
?
Aug 1, 2013 23:02
|
|
|
Mechafunkzilla posted:I can confirm that it's a Salamanders book by Nick Kyme and therefore not worth reading I can second this. I read all of Kyme's Salamander books, as I had periphery knowledge on the Salamanders and liked what I heard about them. I was even ready to build a Salamander army for tabletop. Then I read the books and starting building Blood Angels.
|
|
#
?
Aug 2, 2013 05:36
|
|
|
Someone up the page mentioned that Nick Kyme is ADB's editor. If true, my question is how do you get exposed to that much fiction by the best or at least tied-for-best 40k author, by a long shot, and not improve or at least become self-aware of how putrid your own prose is. I can't even come out of a critique session of a graduate writing workshop without feeling like mud under someone's boot, and the spread of talent there is (usually) a lot tighter than in the Black Library.
|
|
#
?
Aug 2, 2013 07:03
|
|
|
JerryLee posted:Someone up the page mentioned that Nick Kyme is ADB's editor. If true, my question is how do you get exposed to that much fiction by the best or at least tied-for-best 40k author, by a long shot, and not improve or at least become self-aware of how putrid your own prose is. I can't even come out of a critique session of a graduate writing workshop without feeling like mud under someone's boot, and the spread of talent there is (usually) a lot tighter than in the Black Library. Glib answer is the Dunning-Krueger effect. The real answer is that writing is hard. Writing is one of those skills that everyone thinks they can do well, that very few people can, and that the people who can do it well constantly have to prove to everyone precisely because everyone thinks they can do it. Simply seeing that someone else does it better is a far cry from being able to improve your writing. It takes a lot of work, day in and day out, just to do writing well. To give you a perspective, an author I follow on twitter today mentioned that so far this year they had written 135,000 words just in drafts. That is a huge amount for what is basically just practice and training. Add in things like good characterization, plotting, metaphor, etc and it is a huge undertaking just to stay good, much less get better. It isn't something you can plateau at either. Even guys like Stephen King are constantly working at improving. He just got interviewed in an article on opening lines and what goes into crafting them. So Nick Kyme see that other people do it better than him. Professional pride, I expect he wants to do better. But there is the question of how much time he can devote to it, and how much he will improve while he works at it. Fried Chicken fucked around with this message at 07:28 on Aug 2, 2013 |
|
#
?
Aug 2, 2013 07:16
|
|
|
I just finished Blood Pact a week ago. I know I'm missing one or two Ghosts novels after it, but overall what I've read has been great. I went from "Ok, why is he suddenly adding things beyond lasporn?" to "Oh poo poo this is amazing.". Only In Death intrigued me with the supernatural thing and the first time I found myself thinking they might actually all die. Blood Pact's use of (wait for it) Blood Pact POV was awesome, very cool to get inside the head of a relatively sane group of 40k Chaos soldiers. I do find it odd that Zweil went from being a stubborn and mildly eccentric priest in one book to being a slightly nicer version of Hank Hill Sr. Also Crobec and now Dorden, gently caress you very much Dan Abnett
|
|
#
?
Aug 2, 2013 08:12
|
|
|
Fried Chicken posted:Glib answer is the Dunning-Krueger effect. One of the solutions I've found to 'how to write well, and soon' is to stick to shorter stories. When you're forced to stick to a shorter word count, you have to work harder on each word and phrase. Does this apply to Kyme? Are his short stories any good?
|
|
#
?
Aug 2, 2013 14:44
|
|
|
Sneak preview for Vulkan Lives: it's so bad I'm shocked it made it through even GW's QA processes. It shamelessly cribs from better authors and actively ruins the lore itself and not just the series even though almost nothing actually happens most of the time. The whole thing could have been a digital short and nothing would have been lost. Or even better, it was never written at all or at least given to a better author.
OXBALLS DOT COM fucked around with this message at 15:08 on Aug 2, 2013 |
|
#
?
Aug 2, 2013 15:03
|
|
|
VanSandman posted:One of the solutions I've found to 'how to write well, and soon' is to stick to shorter stories. When you're forced to stick to a shorter word count, you have to work harder on each word and phrase. Does this apply to Kyme? Are his short stories any good? Not really. In one Space Marine short story anthology, he writes a story about his Salamanders running into the Night Lords, from the Salamanders' perspective. In the same anthology, ADB writes it from the Night Lords' perspective. The contrast is like going from being thrown into a pile of feces to being thrown into a nice, clear, temperate swimming pool.
|
|
#
?
Aug 2, 2013 16:35
|
|
|
JerryLee posted:Someone up the page mentioned that Nick Kyme is ADB's editor. If true, my question is how do you get exposed to that much fiction by the best or at least tied-for-best 40k author, by a long shot, and not improve or at least become self-aware of how putrid your own prose is. I can't even come out of a critique session of a graduate writing workshop without feeling like mud under someone's boot, and the spread of talent there is (usually) a lot tighter than in the Black Library. Well editing is different from writing, and within writing fiction is a totally different beast. Kyme started out as a staff-writer for White Dwarf, not as a fiction writer. He probably got the BL gig in part because of seniority. And honestly ADB probably could use a better editor sometimes. But also Nick Kyme probably needs to eat. Ultimately, as a writer you write whatever you can sell for money first.
|
|
#
?
Aug 2, 2013 16:47
|
|
|
The Rat posted:Not really. In one Space Marine short story anthology, he writes a story about his Salamanders running into the Night Lords, from the Salamanders' perspective. In the same anthology, ADB writes it from the Night Lords' perspective. The contrast is like going from being thrown into a pile of feces to being thrown into a nice, clear, temperate swimming pool. Man, I remember reading that. Read the Salamander's story first, and was like "What is this poo poo" then go to the Night Lords one, and my brain hurt from the contrast.
|
|
#
?
Aug 2, 2013 17:15
|
|
|
Just finished reading Deathwatch by Steve Parker. I personally enjoyed it and I think its definitely worth a read for all the juicy Deathwatch lore, (and some info about more obscure chapters) its not ADB levels of quality but its better then most of the trash BL pushes out.
|
|
#
?
Aug 2, 2013 20:20
|
|
|
I got, and finished, "Vulkan Lives". It was... Okay. Not too bad, not too good. It had three different stories in it. The first was Vuklan being prisoner, the next was a group of Isstvan V survivors fighting Word Bearers, and then last story was flashbacks to Isstvan 5. Everyone's favorite perpetual, John Grammaticus, shows up and does a whole lot of nothing, but talks about how he needs to do something, something that isn't told until the last page of the book. The only thing that the book did that affects the overall story line, sort of, was that survivors of Isstvan are having a crisis of faith, hinting that some legionaries have begun to think of the Emperor as a God. The only other thing to affect the storyline of the Horus Heresy is a pretty big spoiler, so don't read this if you plan to read the book. Vulkan's trait he inherited from his father is the Big E's immortality. Vulcan is a perpetual. Can't be killed. Kurze burns him, drowns him, freezes him, fries him, stabs him, crushes him, etc, and he just gets right back up. At the end of the book, Grammaticus is sent out to kill Vulkan, using a spear wielded by the Emperor himself, which I suppose can kill immortals... For some reason. Either way, they tell him to do this so Vulkan cannot fulfill his destiny and become a Gate Keeper. This is all on the last pages of the book, so nothing is really explained. Anyway, let's talk about the real reason we buy enhanced edition eBooks. The pictures! There are only four of them, as always. One is of the main Salamander character, then there is one of a Word Bearer finding a dead marine, then there is one of Grammaticus doing nothing but standing there, and the last is of Curze, kneeling, with a sword. Not even one of Vulkan in a book that has his name as the title. What bothered me most of the pictures was not the lack of Vulkan, or lack of anything interesting, it was the fact that the dead Space Marine picture showed him with his chest blown open, and his rib cage exposed. I thought Marines had a fused rib cage that was like a solid wall of bone. So that bugged
|
|
#
?
Aug 4, 2013 23:52
|
|
|
I don't understand why the terrible writers (because AFAIK it only happens on the books by terrible writers) keep inserting how some marines suddenly start deifying the Emperor, when in the 41st millennium a major difference between the Astartes and the rest of the Imperium is that they view the Emperor as a man. Exceptions exist, such as the Black Templars, but they're few. In particular, why of all people would you have the GK precursors or Salamanders express such a view, when neither group in m41 considers the Emperor a God? I could understand it with maybe an Imperial Fists story but... wait, are there even any ImpFist-centric stories in the HH?
|
|
#
?
Aug 5, 2013 00:58
|
|
|
Impaired Casing posted:The only other thing to affect the storyline of the Horus Heresy is a pretty big spoiler, so don't read this if you plan to read the book. Vulkan's trait he inherited from his father is the Big E's immortality. Vulcan is a perpetual. Can't be killed. Kurze burns him, drowns him, freezes him, fries him, stabs him, crushes him, etc, and he just gets right back up. At the end of the book, Grammaticus is sent out to kill Vulkan, using a spear wielded by the Emperor himself, which I suppose can kill immortals... For some reason. Either way, they tell him to do this so Vulkan cannot fulfill his destiny and become a Gate Keeper. This is all on the last pages of the book, so nothing is really explained. Hmm, that seems to confirm the old theory that if the Emperor was allowed off life support he would resurrect back to normal.
|
|
#
?
Aug 5, 2013 01:22
|
|
|
Nephilm posted:I don't understand why the terrible writers (because AFAIK it only happens on the books by terrible writers) keep inserting how some marines suddenly start deifying the Emperor, when in the 41st millennium a major difference between the Astartes and the rest of the Imperium is that they view the Emperor as a man. Exceptions exist, such as the Black Templars, but they're few. There was a pretty decent short story about Dorn and Sigismund in one of the anthologies. But yeah overall one thing the Horus Heresy isn't very good at is distinguishing 30k from 40k. Honestly, even using the term heresy at that time seems pretty strange since it's a very religious term and also because the names for wars usually aren't contemporary to the wars themselves. I also don't like continuity decisions like deciding that the two lost primarchs were already dead at the time of the heresy instead of their identities being lost in the ensuing millenia, allowing players to claim that their made-up chapter is first founding.
|
|
#
?
Aug 5, 2013 01:31
|
|
|
Impaired Casing posted:The only other thing to affect the storyline of the Horus Heresy is a pretty big spoiler, so don't read this if you plan to read the book. Vulkan's trait he inherited from his father is the Big E's immortality. Vulcan is a perpetual. Can't be killed. Kurze burns him, drowns him, freezes him, fries him, stabs him, crushes him, etc, and he just gets right back up. At the end of the book, Grammaticus is sent out to kill Vulkan, using a spear wielded by the Emperor himself, which I suppose can kill immortals... For some reason. Either way, they tell him to do this so Vulkan cannot fulfill his destiny and become a Gate Keeper. This is all on the last pages of the book, so nothing is really explained. Yeah, and this revelation is handled SO poorly. As in, it's done by having Kurze just straight-up say it unambiguously that he can't kill him. It's the lamest magic power crap with zero ambiguity or mystery and it really, really hurts the whole setting. So does his head just sort of grow back like that guy from the Men in Black movie? Seriously, Kyme has decided that Vulkan is the bestest primarch - he says he's not only the physically strongest of the primarchs but also he's immortal. And writes first person from his viewpoint. This is like idiot Mary Sue levels of bad, compared to how every other BL author handles the primarchs - always at least a little mysterious, always seen through the eyes of the fawning people around them, and never given too much time lest their impact be diminished through overexposure. Even John Grammaticus being seemingly unkillable has been implied to be due to the intervention of his mysterious cabal sponsors and not some inherent magic ability he has like Wolverine or something. I'm also annoyed by how much Kyme cribs ideas and characters from other authors but then ruins them. The whole book is basically a grab-bag rehash of elements from other HH books all stuck together in an extremely clumsy way that actively diminishes all the stuff he steals from. OXBALLS DOT COM fucked around with this message at 01:43 on Aug 5, 2013 |
|
#
?
Aug 5, 2013 01:36
|
|
|
I've never read a Nick Kyme book, and found Vulkan Lives, like I said, okay. I didn't hate it, but I agree that the first person narrative of Vulkan really demystifies the whole primarch thing. For being the strongest one of them all, so it is claimed, he is really, really frail. You can chalk it up that Curze is a primarch so they are on equal footing, but I thought they were more God like, not just Space Marines with a bit more. I might as well have been reading a book about John Smith the space marine rather than Vulkan.Arbite posted:Hmm, that seems to confirm the old theory that if the Emperor was allowed off life support he would resurrect back to normal. Two things. The first is that an immortal can be killed by certain things, like this spear that is in the book can kill Vulkan. So I guess it is immortal with an *, where the fine print reads that it is only immortality of a sort. Secondly, the Big E acts as a drain plug against chaos, right? So even if he were to regenerate if you take him off the throne, all of chaos would flood into Terra making it pointless to resurrect him.
|
|
#
?
Aug 5, 2013 01:46
|
|
|
So the Salamanders are going to join the other legions ruined by terrible writing? Descent of the Angels is one of the most  books i have read in the HH series. I know it is universally detested but i just had to read it. It really isn't the same level of battle of abyss stupidity/awfulness and the writing screams of someone uncomfortable with 40k writing. But I am only half way through it, and it just feels so bizarrely out of place.
|
|
#
?
Aug 5, 2013 02:06
|
|
|
UberJumper posted:So the Salamanders are going to join the other legions ruined by terrible writing? Sorry to break it to you, but in they already are ruined by terrible writing. Of Nick Kyme.
|
|
#
?
Aug 5, 2013 02:24
|
|
|
bunnyofdoom posted:Sorry to break it to you, but in they already are ruined by terrible writing. Of Nick Kyme.  Has anyone read William Kings Macharian Crusade? If so how is it?
|
|
#
?
Aug 5, 2013 02:43
|
|
|
UberJumper posted:
Not great not super terrible. Overall pretty generic and nobody has much of a character. You really get no flavor of what the Crusade is all about or the particular area they're at, and Macharius himself is pretty boring beyond being perfect, though partly this can be excused because it's framed as being a collection of accounts after the fact during the process of his beatification. Though this doesn't excuse the parts where it's generally uninteresting. Some decent generic sci-fi concepts here and there but not particularly well executed. But the writing is competent versus Nick Kyme, who is usually somewhere between boring and actively bad to the point where I can't finish most of his books. Not exactly William King's best work though either.
|
|
#
?
Aug 5, 2013 02:57
|
|
|
The first book in the recent Mechanicum duology was pretty good. Lots of flavor, not too much plot - it looks like the unreleased sequel will be the other way round. Plus you have characters who are optimists!
|
|
#
?
Aug 5, 2013 03:31
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 12, 2024 00:01 |
|
|
UberJumper posted:
Let me put it this way, it is 1/3rd of a series about conquering 1000 star systems. And it focuses entirely on capturing one city on one planet. Not capturing the whole star system. Not capturing the whole planet. Capturing one city. And it isn't even a higher level view of one city's battle, like Helsreach. It is a general, his inquisitor, the inquisitor's assistant, and a few enlisted guys running around sabotaging a chaos ritual so the army can move in. No sense of grandeur, or of scale, or mystery, or grace. You don't care about the characters, none of them are particularly memorable. It doesn't set up for a 3 act rise and fall, like White's The Once and Future King, or foreshadow how much this hinges on the lord commander like Plutarch's Parallel Lives even though Macharius is a obvious riff on King Arthur and Alexander the Great. It doesn't introduce the later rivalries that will destroy the crusade, in fact it is entirely focused on the lord commander, the inquisitor, and a few grunts. It is entirely forgettable I'm not sure if the second one is out yet, but it is unlikely to fix it much. Fried Chicken fucked around with this message at 03:39 on Aug 5, 2013 |
|
#
?
Aug 5, 2013 03:35
|
|