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bunnyofdoom posted:Half serious, but why don't any of us try out for their submission contests. I'm sure we could write some decent short stories at least. 1d4chan claims they are pretty much rigged in favor of people who are already known writers or friends of the editors, making them more publicity stunts than anything. Which doesn't surprise me in the least.
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Aug 21, 2013 17:07
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DrTrouble posted:I just picked up betrayer and mark of calth and look forward to wasting my free time this weekend catching up in the series! I've not really gotten past the Horus heresy series, any recommendations for 40k? Chris Wraight is my favourite space marine author that isn't Dan Abnett or ADB so you should check out Wrath of Iron or Battle of the Fang.
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Aug 21, 2013 18:05
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Improbable Lobster posted:Chris Wraight is my favourite space marine author that isn't Dan Abnett or ADB so you should check out Wrath of Iron or Battle of the Fang. Anyone know if the White Scars serial he's doing is any good?
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Aug 21, 2013 18:18
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bunnyofdoom posted:Half serious, but why don't any of us try out for their submission contests. I'm sure we could write some decent short stories at least. What I've heard as well it's pretty much what VanSandman said, those are pretty much just giant cases of Considering BL's push for more digital content I'm amazed they don't actually open up for more submissions and let those be digital only authors instead of turning their current writers stable into some kind of Chinese sweatshop of writing. Cooked Auto fucked around with this message at 18:43 on Aug 21, 2013 |
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Aug 21, 2013 18:29
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bunnyofdoom posted:Half serious, but why don't any of us try out for their submission contests. I'm sure we could write some decent short stories at least. That's what got us Andy Zhou, you monster.
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Aug 21, 2013 18:30
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Shroud posted:That's what got us Andy Zhou, you monster. Which I'm pretty sure would've have been prevented if they had some proper editors. Heck I'm still amazed he had the balls of doing it in the first place.
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Aug 21, 2013 18:36
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bunnyofdoom posted:Half serious, but why don't any of us try out for their submission contests. I'm sure we could write some decent short stories at least. I'm working on it. I've put down enough BL books in the first chapter or two because they're unreadably bad that I think I can do better than at least some of those idiots.
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Aug 21, 2013 18:45
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mllaneza posted:I'm working on it. I've put down enough BL books in the first chapter or two because they're unreadably bad that I think I can do better than at least some of those idiots. Since I am an utter whore for good 40k stuff I'll read/critique anything anybody sends me. PMs work best, or Skype my username.
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Aug 21, 2013 19:00
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ElPedro posted:A little question (don't think these books have been mentioned in the thread) - but I've just stumbled upon Gilead's Blood and Gilead's Curse. Anybody read them and know if they're worth it? Seems they're more or less co-written by Dan Abnett and his wife.
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Aug 21, 2013 20:32
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Cooked Auto posted:Which I'm pretty sure would've have been prevented if they had some proper editors. Heck I'm still amazed he had the balls of doing it in the first place.
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Aug 21, 2013 20:50
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Shroud posted:That's what got us Andy Zhou, you monster. Cooked Auto posted:Which I'm pretty sure would've have been prevented if they had some proper editors. Heck I'm still amazed he had the balls of doing it in the first place. berzerkmonkey posted:In all fairness, you'd have to had an editor that actually read the book he plagiarized from. And Zhou probably figured that he was writing for nerds who only read 40K stuff (and he was probably 98% correct), so he wasn't going to get caught. What's the story here?
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Aug 21, 2013 20:57
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Nephilm posted:What's the story here? Just read the first review Tl:dr He stole some guys Iraq War Memoires.
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Aug 21, 2013 21:03
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bunnyofdoom posted:Tl:dr He stole some guys Iraq War Memoires. If anything that's a great source of inspiration and to take ideas from. I mean for a story I wrote (a background story for a character that sorta spiralled out of control) I cribbed freely from both stuff like Generation Kill and Bad Company 1 and 2 as well as other sources. Don't think I've ever taken something word for word (or scene by scene perhaps) though when written, that just seems like one of those unwritten rules that you should just never ever break at all.
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Aug 21, 2013 22:20
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Henry Zhou hasn't had anything published since Blood Gorgon (either Black Library or anything else as far as can see) so I wonder whether the whole plagiarism thing has something to do with that.
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Aug 21, 2013 22:39
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I just finished The First Heretic, my first Aaron Dembski-Bowden book. What they say about his skill at characterization is true, he's a master who can make even Lorgar sympathetic, and flesh out minor characters with a few sentences. I love the way he stressed the warrior-monk role of the Adeptus Custodes by having one be in a vow of silence, which a reasonable person would think might make them a poor bodyguard. About the end involving those Custodes, though: I always heard that a Custodes is to an Astartes as an Astartes is to an Imperial Guardsman. It might have just been the daemons in the Word Beares making them so tough, but there is no way, using that analogy, that 3 Space Marines would be defeated by 11 guardsmen. Unless they were in a Baneblade. Any other books by talented authors exploring the Custodes? I liked the contrast between the individualism of them and Astartes collectivism.
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Aug 22, 2013 04:30
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They were indeed that strong (you see more of it in later books), and the opponents had just crawled out of the wreckage of their shot-down ship. Speaking of, The First Heretic is paired with the Aurelian novella, both which lead into Know No Fear by Abnett, which is directly followed on by Betrayer for more delicious ADB characterization and probably the best HH book to date. Oh and Tales of Heresy contains a short story by Abnett called Blood Games, you should check that out. The only other notable content in it is After Desh'ea for some World Eaters, and I suppose the Last Church, though it comes off as highschool freshman angstheist level of discussion. Nephilm fucked around with this message at 04:44 on Aug 22, 2013 |
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Aug 22, 2013 04:40
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William Bear posted:I just finished The First Heretic, my first Aaron Dembski-Bowden book. What they say about his skill at characterization is true, he's a master who can make even Lorgar sympathetic, and flesh out minor characters with a few sentences. I love the way he stressed the warrior-monk role of the Adeptus Custodes by having one be in a vow of silence, which a reasonable person would think might make them a poor bodyguard. There's a story in Tales of Heresy about a Custodes main character. It's written by Dan Abnett and quite good. Reading TFH as well, I never thought Custodes were that better than Astartes. They're physically similar, but they were made for a different role (bodyguards, not soldiers). Their level of training makes them around First Captain-level for me.
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Aug 22, 2013 04:42
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Schneider Heim posted:Reading TFH as well, I never thought Custodes were that better than Astartes. They're physically similar, but they were made for a different role (bodyguards, not soldiers). Their level of training makes them around First Captain-level for me. No, they're definitely a step above. Taking aside specialized training and superior equipment, Talos is a very skilled captain yet Aquillon consistently and effortlessly defeats him in seconds in every single one of their duels. They're enhanced in ways beyond the "mass produced" Astartes, and it shows.
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Aug 22, 2013 04:50
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So they're... mini-Primarchs?
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Aug 22, 2013 05:07
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Nephilm posted:No, they're definitely a step above. Taking aside specialized training and superior equipment, Talos is a very skilled captain yet Aquillon consistently and effortlessly defeats him in seconds in every single one of their duels. They're enhanced in ways beyond the "mass produced" Astartes, and it shows. Correct. The Emperor is to the Custodes as the Primarchs are to the Astartes. They're simply built from more potent genetic stock. Then they train the gently caress out of them. They should be able to handle anything short of a demon prince or a primarch one on one. Back to book recommendations. Andy Hoare's rogue trader series is quite solid. It also has one of the few uses of the White Scars chapter in it. The first three cover the Damocles Gulf Crusade against the Tau, the next few should deal with the Hive Fleet attacking Ultramar.
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Aug 22, 2013 05:08
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Well, I don't know if they're made from the Emperor in the same way as Astartes are from their Primarch. All of the strange organs primarchs have and the fact that they're 9 foot tall giants came from engineering in genelabs. The Emperor didn't have that benefit when he was made. I've always preferred to think of him as a physically normal human being who is just the strongest loving psyker in the universe. His appearance as seen by others could be a projection. So, where do the custodes get their geneseed from? I do not know.
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Aug 22, 2013 05:34
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Astartes are a byproduct of the Primarch Project, but yes, Custodes aren't made from the Emperor, and Big E himself (probably) wasn't made in a lab.
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Aug 22, 2013 05:40
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Nephilm posted:Event Horizon is the best WH40k film. It's been a while since the last time I saw it, but I'm certain there's a Chaos star in one of the scenes. It might be on the door or podium to the warp core.
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Aug 22, 2013 08:19
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Nephilm posted:Astartes are a byproduct of the Primarch Project, but yes, Custodes aren't made from the Emperor, and Big E himself (probably) wasn't made in a lab. I understand that the Emperor was the product of all the great shamans/psykers of ancient Terra recognizing that they were mortal, and no more of their kind were being born, and humanity needed people like to them for guidance and protection, so they collectively forced their wills together and poof, out came big E at the cost of the shaman's mortal lives. An amalgamation of the minds of the most potent psykers of ancient Terra, he is immortal, and had all of their abilities and then some. He used his powers and vision of uniting mankind under one rule throughout the cosmos, and would have succeeded if it weren't for those meddling heretics. So no, he wasn't made in a lab.
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Aug 22, 2013 08:24
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That's ancient fluff, though. A bit more of his nature is being revealed in the HH through the introduction of Grammaticus and other human immortals. Probably stuff to keep in the lookout for ADB's Master of Mankind.
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Aug 22, 2013 09:31
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Yeah even if we never get the 'why' of the perpetuals we might just get a 'why' the The Emperor.
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Aug 22, 2013 12:27
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Arquinsiel posted:Gilead's Blood is a fun little set of short stories. There have been comparisons made to Corum but it's not all that obvious even having read both. Apparently Gilead's Curse is one of the stories mentioned as "cursed" that the PoV character will never tell ever. Thanks! That sounds worth the purchase.
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Aug 22, 2013 12:32
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VanSandman posted:Anyone know if the White Scars serial he's doing is any good? So far they are relatively readable but uninteresting, and very scattered - each serialized chunk has at minimum 2-3 different POV charcters and switches every chapter. It's possible to make that work but it's sort of annoying and hyperactive considering how short each segment is in the first place. Dunno, I've always felt Chris Wraight's books are uneven in quality, and tend to be too derivative of other BL authors. One glaring flaw so far is that they're pretty much indistinguishable as Heresy books - he makes the mistake a lot of writers do and doesn't do anything to distinguish the eras, throwing around words like "heresy" in ways that don't make any sense in terms of the setting. I also don't really like the direction he's headed plot-wise but whatever. Arguably not worth the money so far, though, considering the crazy pricing scheme BL is running.
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Aug 22, 2013 12:49
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Nephilm posted:That's ancient fluff, though. A bit more of his nature is being revealed in the HH through the introduction of Grammaticus and other human immortals. Probably stuff to keep in the lookout for ADB's Master of Mankind. I actually like that explanation. It gives him a bit of gravitas as not just a freak psyker but something better in general... Even if he is loving terrible at being a dad and managing people.
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Aug 22, 2013 13:55
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I still like the old, "He's been around forever" fluff, too. I think it does a good job of explaining why he's such a bad father: Because he wasn't a father. He was an amalgamation of ancient personalities concerned with the continuation of humanity at any cost. He didn't create 20 sons. He created 20 super weapons. To him, the were just tools to be used, and in his detached attitude led to the conflict between them.
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Aug 22, 2013 14:34
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Protons posted:I understand that the Emperor was the product of all the great shamans/psykers of ancient Terra recognizing that they were mortal, and no more of their kind were being born, and humanity needed people like to them for guidance and protection, so they collectively forced their wills together and poof, out came big E at the cost of the shaman's mortal lives. This goes back to like the Rogue Trader era, but the explanation was more that one of the abilities of the ancient shamans who guided humanity in the prehistoric age was that they could reincarnate themselves after death, so they could provide a continuity of care and protection. This might even have applied to all people in general, or else anyone with sufficient psychic ability or force of will. But growing turbulence in the warp due to the burgeoning chaos gods made it so they couldn't do this anymore, so they gathered together right around the beginning of known history and instead formed the Emperor to guide humanity's development. It's also possible, on an unrelated speculation, that the primarchs are actually imbued with portions of the emperor's power and possibly also aspects of his personality, which may help explain the emperor's general hands-off approach to them, why they can't be re-created, why the emperor seems dumber and less powerful after their creation, and also why their loss to chaos is such a huge blow. OXBALLS DOT COM fucked around with this message at 15:29 on Aug 22, 2013 |
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Aug 22, 2013 15:24
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Cream_Filling posted:It's also possible, on an unrelated speculation, that the primarchs are actually imbued with portions of the emperor's power and possibly also aspects of his personality, which may help explain the emperor's general hands-off approach to them, why they can't be re-created, why the emperor seems dumber and less powerful after their creation, and also why their loss to chaos is such a huge blow. The Horus Heresy has established that each of the Primarchs represented an aspect of the Emperor's personality: Horus Lupercal represented his ambition. Roboute Guilliman represented his strategic genius and statesmanship. Dorn represented his determination. Vulkan represented his compassion for humanity. Angron represented his wrath. Lorgar Aurelian represented his ability to inspire. Magnus represented his psychic powers. Leman Russ represented his ruthlessness. Alpharius and Omegon represented his mysteriousness Corvus Corax represented his cleverness and tactical insight. Perturabo represented his scientific and technological brilliance. Mortarion represented his resilience. Fulgrim represented his drive for perfection. Konrad Curze represented his terrifying nature. Ferrus Manus represented his desire to make himself stronger. Jaghatai Khan represented his directness. Sanguinius represented all of him.
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Aug 22, 2013 16:03
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One of the recent HH books (Angel Exterminatus?) literally has the Emperor telling on of his sons, "Everything they put into me, I then put into each of you.", and when questioned further he clams up. I personally subscribe to the idea that the shaman thing is complete BS and that the Emperor is a very powerful psyker (The Cabal was not terribly impressed with him) perpetual who always has had some ridiculous ambition and has been using his ancient knowledge and forgotten technologies to beef himself up. He may have also made a deal with the Chaos powers at some point in his life and then actually tried to back out of the deal, which would make everything Argel Tal was told in The First Heretic absolutely true. Not that I think he was a bad guy. I think he had good intentions all the way through. But Dan Abnett is painting a picture of a man that was quite full of his own self-importance even during the ancient eras of mankind. EDIT: The short story Anthame also seems to hint that he wasn't always uber-untouchable as well. The story talks about a garden variety sorcerer who encounters a "golden knight" during the middle ages and the sorcerer actually manages to land a blow on the knight (which is deflected by the knight's armor). For a paltry human chaos-user to actually land a blow on the Emperor is pretty telling that he was at some point only just a man. Anonymous Zebra fucked around with this message at 16:31 on Aug 22, 2013 |
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Aug 22, 2013 16:26
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The cabal is also dumb as poo poo. "Not very impressed" with the psyker who is as (or maybe more) powerful than a Chaos God? And a Ctan? The cabal's master plan of "help horus y'all" certainly seems well thought out since it completely fails to do what it set out to do.
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Aug 22, 2013 16:39
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The Cabal is such a bunch of dumb garbage bullshit. It's probably the worst idea Abnett's ever introduced.
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Aug 22, 2013 16:46
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Yeah, the idea that there is and even greater all-seeing, all-knowing force above even chaos or the Emperor is just pushing it. You can't have the most ultimate, powerful force in the universe, then introduce another most ultimate, powerful force in the universe, and then ano... Eventually, nothing has an significance if it's just going to get trumped.
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Aug 22, 2013 17:45
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TheStampede posted:Yeah, the idea that there is and even greater all-seeing, all-knowing force above even chaos or the Emperor is just pushing it. You can't have the most ultimate, powerful force in the universe, then introduce another most ultimate, powerful force in the universe, and then ano... And yet here we are ina merry go-round where the biggest threat is chaos, no wait tyranids, no wait necrons no wait chaos again.
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Aug 22, 2013 17:49
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I like the idea behind the Cabal, and think it makes sense that a variety of species would collaborate against Chaos who they've been dealing with for who knows how many millennia. Also could be because my only exposure to the WH40K universe is through the novels and it just fit in neatly for me without toying with fluff you guys have enjoyed. What I don't like is how Abnett wrote them as some kind of intergalactic Illuminati who somehow were able to spend so much time deciding which primarch would be best to approach and putting the pieces into play, but not having the smarts to figure out a whole species isn't just going to up and die for another's benefit. And then offer no kind of aid in any way. It ended up being really shallow and stupid and this after there were a few philosophical musings earlier in Legion.
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Aug 22, 2013 18:12
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TheStampede posted:Yeah, the idea that there is and even greater all-seeing, all-knowing force above even chaos or the Emperor is just pushing it. You can't have the most ultimate, powerful force in the universe, then introduce another most ultimate, powerful force in the universe, and then ano... They're not really that important, they just think they are. You can't out-scheme Chaos, but you can out-fight them. That's why the Cabal won't accomplish anything. We know how the Heresy ends, and it ends the way Chaos wants it to.
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Aug 22, 2013 18:18
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I'd argue that it didn't end the way Chaos wanted it to, but we won't find out for sure until the HH books reach the climax and we see how Lorgar, Erebus, The Cabal, etc. actually respond to Horus dying. I think it's arguable that Horus dying was not part of the plan. EDIT: And I agree that my perceptions of this setting are probably didn't from people who have been with it a long time. I've only recently started reading the 40k books and the HH books are my first introductions to these past events. Anonymous Zebra fucked around with this message at 18:31 on Aug 22, 2013 |
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Aug 22, 2013 18:26
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