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maev posted:I just finished reading Abnett's Prospero Burns, and while Prospero doesn't actually burn much in the book, I'm a huge fan of how they turned what I considered to be corny wolverine marines into a darker and much more interesting Legion of executioners. Abnett is probably my favorite HH author, mainly because he approaches story telling from different angles, and I tend to think the HH comes across better when its an outsider looking in (Legion, Prospero Burns, Know no Fear). I'm gonna be wicked pedantic here, but apostrophes aren't for plurals. It's Word Bearers and Ultramarines, not Word Bearer is and Ultramarine is. As for actual content, it depends on who's writing and what serves the story better. I think someone asked Dan Abnett once how hard it is to kill a Space Marine, and he said something along the lines of "however hard it has to be for the story to work". I'm reading the first Gaunt's Ghosts book right now and Gaunt just straight up stabs a Chaos Marine in the gut and wastes him with a chainsword, while in other stories a chainsword would just bounce right off because a mortal man isn't strong enough to force it through a Marine's armor. Marines get killed by masses of lasfire while other times the shots ping off because that serves the story better. I think a 400/0 k/d or whatever in that short story is awful silly though. And while Word Bearers might not be my pet legion (that would be Ultramarines  ) I think Argel Tal's pretty cool. Erebus is a massive douche but hey, somebody's gotta twirl that moustache somewhere.Then again you're looking for subtlety in a universe where a primarch named Corax of the Raven Guard's last words are "nevermore" and the primarch of the Iron Hands is named Ferrus Mannus and he literally has iron hands so I don't know what to tell you.
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Jul 14, 2014 05:22
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) with characters called literally 'Foedrel Fell'. I won't even go into the '400 word bearer's killed to zero ultramarine's' calth short story.
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SRM posted:As for actual content, it depends on who's writing and what serves the story better. I think someone asked Dan Abnett once how hard it is to kill a Space Marine, and he said something along the lines of "however hard it has to be for the story to work". I'm reading the first Gaunt's Ghosts book right now and Gaunt just straight up stabs a Chaos Marine in the gut and wastes him with a chainsword, while in other stories a chainsword would just bounce right off because a mortal man isn't strong enough to force it through a Marine's armor. Marines get killed by masses of lasfire while other times the shots ping off because that serves the story better. I think a 400/0 k/d or whatever in that short story is awful silly though. The problem with that much ease of killing Word Bearers is that they're being killed by other marines so it should be a much more even kill ratio.
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Jul 14, 2014 05:29
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Speaking of legions poorly represented in the Heresy, have the Imperial Fists gotten a book yet? I think we're down to the Imperial Fists, Night Lords, and debatably the Death Guard (depending on whether you count Flight of the Eisenstein) as legions without a book focused on them yet.
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Jul 14, 2014 14:26
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So, Ive just started His Last Command, and I cant say its captured me like the other Gaunts Ghosts book to this point have. I guess it may just be getting dumped with all these new characters since There are no Ghosts anymore!1!1!111 and idk maybe I just stopped in a bad place. Are alllll the Ghost novels good, or should I skip any? Titanicus is fuckin sweet tho
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Jul 14, 2014 15:16
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Waroduce posted:So, Ive just started His Last Command, and I cant say its captured me like the other Gaunts Ghosts book to this point have. I guess it may just be getting dumped with all these new characters since There are no Ghosts anymore!1!1!111 and idk maybe I just stopped in a bad place. Are alllll the Ghost novels good, or should I skip any? Ghosts come back I haven't had a problem with any of the Ghost novels since the first couple. Abnett uses the series to experiment with new settings and styles, so you get some inconsistencies, but he avoids stagnation by using that method. I particularly enjoyed the story arc after His Last Command, but I'm not sure what other think of it.
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Jul 14, 2014 15:48
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Arquinsiel posted:IIRC they have an entire column of IG tanks and infantry firing on five marines in that story, so it's more that Gaunt manages to get his sword through heavily dented and/or melted armour. Actually, no. It's at the mountain of Artillery on Fortis Binary where they cut the stones.
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Jul 14, 2014 15:52
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bunnyofdoom posted:Actually, no. It's at the mountain of Artillery on Fortis Binary where they cut the stones.
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Jul 14, 2014 16:36
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I'm reading the first Gaunt's Ghosts book, and in the part early on where Gaunt is just a kid in the Schola Progenium, he quotes a book by Inquisitor Ravenor. That's some early world building going on, god dang.
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Jul 14, 2014 16:49
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Ravenor gets name dropped in a few different books given his scholarly writings, not just Abnetts. Traitor General will probably remain my favorite of the Ghosts books, killer setting and a lean crew with lots a good action set pieces. His Last Command wasn't my favorite either but it's no reason to stop, Blood Pact and Salvations Reach are both worth the read. I'm really banking on Warmaster being closer in tone to Vervunhive and Sabbat Martyr though.
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Jul 14, 2014 23:50
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I'm probably one of the few that really like Straight Silver and the WW1 style trench fighting in it. gently caress Cuu though  Edit: Wasn't The Warmaster originally supposed to be released last year? And now it's not coming until 2015 what the hell. Laughing Zealot fucked around with this message at 00:04 on Jul 15, 2014 |
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Jul 15, 2014 00:01
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SRM posted:I'm reading the first Gaunt's Ghosts book, and in the part early on where Gaunt is just a kid in the Schola Progenium, he quotes a book by Inquisitor Ravenor. That's some early world building going on, god dang. Gaunt even says something like "He died badly, didn't he?" and gets a response along the lines of "it was how he lived that was important", which has always made me really curious about how Eisenhorn v Ravenor will turn out.
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Jul 15, 2014 00:11
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I would be extremely surprised if either Eisenhorn or Ravenor die in the series. First of all, keeping them alive gives the option of more books/stories; and second, it's kind of nice not knowing what the circumstances of Ravenor's death are. The implications of "he died badly, didn't he" are far worse than actually knowing.
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Jul 15, 2014 00:25
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Plus I imagine most people "die badly" in 40k either way
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Jul 15, 2014 00:33
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Not unless you are Ciaphas Cain
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Jul 15, 2014 02:54
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Verunhive was absolutely awesome.
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Jul 15, 2014 03:58
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TryAgainBragg posted:Plus I imagine most people "die badly" in 40k either way By the numbers, most people probably die of accidents or old age, just like the real world. But Guardsmen, Space Marines, and Inquisitors? The odds of them dying in bed of old age surrounded by loved ones is basically nil
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Jul 15, 2014 04:51
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TryAgainBragg posted:Plus I imagine most people "die badly" in 40k either way Keep in mind that Ravenor is in a profession where "you might get eaten by demons/xenos/cultists" is in the job description, so whatever happened to him must be pretty loving awful.
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Jul 15, 2014 05:01
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PantsOptional posted:"you will get eaten by demons/xenos/cultists, it's just a matter of time" Corrected that for you.
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Jul 15, 2014 05:13
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Fried Chicken posted:By the numbers, most people probably die of accidents or old age, just like the real world. But Guardsmen, Space Marines, and Inquisitors? The odds of them dying in bed of old age surrounded by loved ones is basically nil
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Jul 15, 2014 06:37
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boredsatellite posted:Not unless you are Ciaphas Cain Who I like to think died in bed. With Amberley. 
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Jul 15, 2014 10:55
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SRM posted:Yeah, but the real world has fewer Genestealers and daemonic incursions in it. And when there is a violent crime, your own military doesn't come in and eradicate the whole city "just in case."
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Jul 15, 2014 11:43
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bunnyofdoom posted:Who I like to think died in bed. With Amberley. And a bottle of amasec nearby and Jurgen 5 doors down,ready with his melta and porno-slates
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Jul 15, 2014 15:32
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PantsOptional posted:Keep in mind that Ravenor is in a profession where "you might get eaten by demons/xenos/cultists" is in the job description, so whatever happened to him must be pretty loving awful. I thought the quote was kind ambiguous if it was about Ravanor or Eisenhorn.
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Jul 15, 2014 16:10
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Azubah posted:I thought the quote was kind ambiguous if it was about Ravanor or Eisenhorn. They're in the same profession, so no real difference there as far as occupational hazards.
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Jul 15, 2014 16:44
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TryAgainBragg posted:And a bottle of amasec nearby and Jurgen 5 doors down,ready with his melta and porno-slates On occasion, Jurgen ruins things for Cain by meltaing through the wall when Cain is intimate with a lady. "Sorry sir, heard a lot of shouting. I'll excuse meself now."
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Jul 15, 2014 18:13
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Jesus Christ. I just went to BL's page to see what was coming up, and I see that they're charging fifteen loving dollars for Ebooks. And these aren't new books - they're some of the original HH novels. Add to that their seemingly insane pricing structure (or lack thereof):quote:Master of Sanctity - $14 (book) / $11.99 (Ebook) Seriously? What the gently caress? There isn't even any consistency within their series! Are they formatting their Ebooks on a supercomputer where they have to pay for processing time? Because that is the only legitimate justification for this bizarre pricing. The only other thought that springs to mind is that they are trying to curb piracy by charging so much for their Ebooks that people just return to paper. 
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Jul 15, 2014 19:15
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maev posted:
hey man the Thousand Sons and Alpha Legion are also kind of middle-eastern-y and they're not evil oh wait PupsOfWar fucked around with this message at 19:47 on Jul 15, 2014 |
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Jul 15, 2014 19:19
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berzerkmonkey posted:Seriously? What the gently caress? There isn't even any consistency within their series! Are they formatting their Ebooks on a supercomputer where they have to pay for processing time? Because that is the only legitimate justification for this bizarre pricing. The only other thought that springs to mind is that they are trying to curb piracy by charging so much for their Ebooks that people just return to paper. I'd just say it's the tech guys at GW being techpriests and not having a clue how the digital stuff really works. Or it's all an Alpha Legion plot.
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Jul 15, 2014 20:13
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PupsOfWar posted:hey man the Thousand Sons and Alpha Legion are also kind of middle-eastern-y and they're not evil oh wait At least the Tallarns aren't evil?
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Jul 15, 2014 22:15
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maev posted:I just finished reading Abnett's Prospero Burns, and while Prospero doesn't actually burn much in the book, I'm a huge fan of how they turned what I considered to be corny wolverine marines into a darker and much more interesting Legion of executioners. Abnett is probably my favorite HH author, mainly because he approaches story telling from different angles, and I tend to think the HH comes across better when its an outsider looking in (Legion, Prospero Burns, Know no Fear). The Word Bearers issue kind of gets discussed in successive books. The legion, despite being one of the most numerous, is also loving useless because Lorgar is a terrible Primarch who has little to no interest in his work and in the crusade. After Lorgar's transformation in the First Heretic, he sends the weakest of his legion to Calth to pretty much as cannon fodder to delay the Ultramarines and to purge the chapter of weakness. As for Erebus himself, there's so much potential but he has a lot of lovely writers. He's pretty much the entire architect of the Heresy and works tirelessly to serve the gods but it's implied that despite everything he's done, he's still just a pawn of the gods and he's always going to be sidelined by Chaos for Lorgar and the other Primarchs. Lorgar especially will always be the favourite child and will be given everything that Erebus has worked for.
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Jul 15, 2014 22:19
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Cythereal posted:At least the Tallarns aren't evil? Just shittily written. God, Desert Warriors is a terrible book.
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Jul 16, 2014 00:51
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Kegslayer posted:The Word Bearers issue kind of gets discussed in successive books. The legion, despite being one of the most numerous, is also loving useless because Lorgar is a terrible Primarch who has little to no interest in his work and in the crusade. I'd have to check, but were Word Bearer's ever said to be "swarthy"? I know Cyerene is what would be Middle Eastern, but I'm pretty sure the Word Bearers are some pale rear end whiteboys. It is how they are shown on all the painted models (Lorgar, Erebus, Kor Phareon) and its the only way their gold tattoos would show up.
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Jul 16, 2014 04:49
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Kegslayer posted:As for Erebus himself, there's so much potential but he has a lot of lovely writers. He's pretty much the entire architect of the Heresy and works tirelessly to serve the gods but it's implied that despite everything he's done, he's still just a pawn of the gods and he's always going to be sidelined by Chaos for Lorgar and the other Primarchs. Lorgar especially will always be the favourite child and will be given everything that Erebus has worked for. That's some serious grim dark Chaos goodness right there.
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Jul 16, 2014 05:03
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bunnyofdoom posted:Just shittily written. God, Desert Warriors is a terrible book. Frankly that entire series of IG books were kinda bad with the exception of Cadian Blood.
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Jul 16, 2014 05:22
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Cooked Auto posted:Frankly that entire series of IG books were kinda bad with the exception of Cadian Blood.
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Jul 16, 2014 06:46
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Has any one read Commissar? Seen it at the book store and wondering if its worth the read.
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Jul 16, 2014 07:42
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Fried Chicken posted:I'd have to check, but were Word Bearer's ever said to be "swarthy"? I know Cyerene is what would be Middle Eastern, but I'm pretty sure the Word Bearers are some pale rear end whiteboys. It is how they are shown on all the painted models (Lorgar, Erebus, Kor Phareon) and its the only way their gold tattoos would show up. Yeah I thought everyone on their home planet was super white but the holy city planet that the Ultramarines destroyed had people with more of a ~~duskier complexion~~.
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Jul 16, 2014 13:23
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Fried Chicken posted:I'd have to check, but were Word Bearer's ever said to be "swarthy"? I know Cyerene is what would be Middle Eastern, but I'm pretty sure the Word Bearers are some pale rear end whiteboys. It is how they are shown on all the painted models (Lorgar, Erebus, Kor Phareon) and its the only way their gold tattoos would show up. I was going to post this last night - I think it's vaguely implied that the Word Bearers are Middle Eastern in appearance, but never explicitly stated. And the comment about the Thousand Sons is baloney - they have an Egyptian theme, and that's about it. I think the only chapter where skin color is described is the Salamanders - and that's a side effect of their geneseed and their homeworld, not a racial trait. Hell, even the White Scars aren't explicitly stated as having Asian features, just pseudo-Mongolian names and mannerisms.
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Jul 16, 2014 13:30
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berzerkmonkey posted:Hell, even the White Scars aren't explicitly stated as having Asian features, just pseudo-Mongolian names and mannerisms. In the Scars book it's said that for some awkward reason the majority of recruits from Terra sent to the White Scars were drawn from asian populations, then the author takes the chance to make fun of them.
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Jul 16, 2014 13:42
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Ok - that's the one HH book I haven't got to yet.
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Jul 16, 2014 14:23
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