|
Apparently he did a bunch of co-writing for some of the IA books, based on some tweets I saw years ago. Can't mention specifics though but he's been hired by them in the past. Thankfully it seems GW has swept that creation under the rug by this point.
|
#
?
Jun 27, 2023 01:36
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 25, 2024 19:46 |
|
|
S.J. posted:I do and it still makes me wanna throw up in my mouth. He also created the stupid loving thunderwolf cavalry iirc That was Phil Kelly Ward WAS the guy who did the initial codex for the Necron rewrite which I think turned out well in the end but had one hell of a rocky start.
|
|
#
?
Jun 27, 2023 01:44
|
|
|
AnEdgelord posted:That was Phil Kelly Looking back, 5th and 6th were transitory editions and had as about as much dumb poo poo in it as good poo poo
|
|
#
?
Jun 27, 2023 02:10
|
|
|
Cooked Auto posted:Hamilcar: Champion of the Gods only vaguely mentioned it, and only in relation to that he might've slept with a female Stormcast whom is his superior. Genuinely this is one of the better examples because Hamilcar remembering his old life is a consequence of what's been done to him, rather than WHY he's on this quest. And for the record, the other Stormcast was his wife (Complete with a few minutes of description of them getting it on) back before they were reforged.
|
|
#
?
Jun 27, 2023 02:48
|
|
|
Cooked Auto posted:I just finished a Nick Kyme short story in the Fear the Alien anthology I got last week that made me realise I have yet to read an interesting story involving marines and space hulks. Bit of a cheat, but the Ciaphas Cain book "Emperor's Finest" is a decent (in that simple, fun palate cleanser way that those books are) space hulk story. The mortal perspective helps avoid the GW problem of reading about someone mashing their toys together making pew pew noises.
|
|
#
?
Jun 27, 2023 08:49
|
|
|
Cooked Auto posted:There was also a very sudden Night Lords cameo that served no purpose other than to lead to one character dying and giving the main character something to hate. Which I also assumed tied in to the Salamander books for all I know. This story is actually paired up with an ADB short story about his Night Lord characters on the same hulk. It's much better than Kyme's story.
|
|
#
?
Jun 27, 2023 10:22
|
|
|
Calax posted:And for the record, the other Stormcast was his wife (Complete with a few minutes of description of them getting it on) back before they were reforged. Oh yeah, that was probably it. Been a while since I read it so I only remember details of it. Dog_Meat posted:Bit of a cheat, but the Ciaphas Cain book "Emperor's Finest" is a decent (in that simple, fun palate cleanser way that those books are) space hulk story. The mortal perspective helps avoid the GW problem of reading about someone mashing their toys together making pew pew noises. That one I remember being okay yeah. But then I feel Mitchell could probably make a lot of things interesting if you threw in Cain into the mix. a lovely king posted:This story is actually paired up with an ADB short story about his Night Lord characters on the same hulk. It's much better than Kyme's story. Oh, because it felt like a really weird cameo to suddenly have a bunch of nameless Night Lords show up, kill one marine and then get merc'd until one of them escapes and blocks of a passage. Felt like such a random inclusion in a story mainly focused about killing an Eldar farseer in statis.
|
|
#
?
Jun 27, 2023 14:33
|
|
|
I love ADB, but why are armor joints always snarling, why is rain always scything, why is everything bright red ‘arterial’ and why do 2 space marines always have to slam into each other back-to-back while fighting
|
|
#
?
Jun 27, 2023 21:09
|
|
|
Why is everything always "on the wrong side of hilarious".
|
|
#
?
Jun 27, 2023 21:16
|
|
|
Pron on VHS posted:I love ADB, but why are armor joints always snarling, why is rain always scything, why is everything bright red ‘arterial’ and why do 2 space marines always have to slam into each other back-to-back while fighting For the same reason that everything in Barbarella throbs, pulsates, and/or engorges: because the audience knows exactly what they’re getting into and the author is trying to meet their expectations.
|
|
#
?
Jun 27, 2023 21:27
|
|
|
frankly if I'm fighting with another space marine and we don't slam back to back I'd be offended.
|
|
#
?
Jun 27, 2023 21:35
|
|
|
I used to say I'd never use an e-reader app, but after five months of being made to go back to work at the office and binge-reading BL on lunch breaks, I had enough Kindle points to get Requiem Infernal for free.  I'm astonished at how much Peter Fehervari is exactly my poo poo. It seems cliche to describe a style as "brooding", but it applies here in a way that's actually...sympathetic, might be the word for it? With a common thread between characters' anxieties and misgivings causing things to develop in a way that works extremely well with the logic of how things in 40k, such as Chaos, Space Marine mental conditioning, and Imperial indoctrination work, and it's just so satisfying. I'm going mostly by the chronological order listed here, but I'm sorta wondering: Would anyone who's read them all recommend switching them up in any particular way?
|
|
#
?
Jun 27, 2023 22:06
|
|
|
Preechr posted:For the same reason that everything in Barbarella throbs, pulsates, and/or engorges: because the audience knows exactly what they’re getting into and the author is trying to meet their expectations. I thought you were talking about Nurgle stuff there for a minute.
|
|
#
?
Jun 27, 2023 22:22
|
|
|
That movie was deep within Slaanesh territory, for sure.
|
|
#
?
Jun 27, 2023 22:27
|
|
|
I liked Hinks' Leviathan. If you've read any of the other books about planets doomed to tyranid invasion you won't find a lot new in it, but it's fast reading and exciting which was good enough for me. There's sacrifice and last stands and lots of people being tricked by and underestimating space bugs. I think it helps that the main marine characters are pretty interesting, you have a devoted scientists so aloof he finds it hard to relate to even other ultramarines, and his best friend who's a contemplative mystic and taciturn death seeker counting down all the days he avoids his demise. Just not your usual ultramarine OCs. In terms of a small scene that really stuck out to me: I think I've seen the tyranids using psychic visions to fool people before, but using their psychic power to reactivate the fried neurons of cogitating servitors to give them sentience back and convincing them that not only are they really hungry, so are you and we could be less hungry together if you'd just pass me along all the secret vulnerabilities of the facility you're crunching numbers in thank you best friend very much, is a fun new twist on the tyranids infiltration skillset. Sharkopath fucked around with this message at 00:01 on Jun 28, 2023 |
|
#
?
Jun 27, 2023 23:32
|
|
|
It's neat when tyranids get to be characters. Or perhaps all a character, singular.
|
|
#
?
Jun 28, 2023 00:26
|
|
|
What's the best books for tyranids not just being "many bugs"? It's nearly two decades since Warriors of Ultramar (which I liked, but I was a fuckin kid), and besides The Devastation of Baal, which I read a couple of months ago, I don't know if I've actually read a lot of nid stuff besides short stories. I think Haley did a good job in depicting an alien will in Baal, and he really got across that it's just so loving much of it. There's vague echoes of something recognizable there, but it's also completely different and absolutely titanic in scale. I love reading about the little fuckers though.
|
|
#
?
Jun 28, 2023 00:35
|
|
|
More tyranid characterization is good because it paves the way for them to get absolutely bamboozled when the legion of the damned shows up or the personification of the emperor shows up to suplex a Norn Queen or whatever and that's just honestly delicious to read. Like some of the best pieces of 40k (or fantasy) fiction is when chaos demons go "Nope Nope Nope, we are out"
|
|
#
?
Jun 28, 2023 02:34
|
|
|
The Nids can be really, really smart, they just only care about one thing. Well, maybe they're doing something with all those genestealer cultists they are shipping back behind their burn line to the Tiamet worlds, but that's next century's problem.
|
|
#
?
Jun 28, 2023 02:52
|
|
|
Fair warning for people thinking about dropping an audible credit on Leviathan, don't. The story is fine but the narrator they got is horrendously bad. Everyone is either a squeaky voiced boy (including some marines) or is the same 12 year old boy putting on a deep voice, all of it read in the same droning modulated up or down to achieve one of those two voices.
|
|
#
?
Jun 28, 2023 04:47
|
|
|
AnEdgelord posted:Fair warning for people thinking about dropping an audible credit on Leviathan, don't. The story is fine but the narrator they got is horrendously bad. Everyone is either a squeaky voiced boy (including some marines) or is the same 12 year old boy putting on a deep voice, all of it read in the same droning modulated up or down to achieve one of those two voices. Lol Side note you all have finally convinced me to shuffle onto the Dark Coil even though I'm not typically a horror fan. I liked Fire Caste though so here goes.
|
|
#
?
Jun 28, 2023 05:44
|
|
|
Mazed posted:I used to say I'd never use an e-reader app, but after five months of being made to go back to work at the office and binge-reading BL on lunch breaks, I had enough Kindle points to get Requiem Infernal for free. I read them in that order, roughly and it's as good a way as any. They benefit a lot from rereads once you've read the rest of his writing, everything connects and can be linked to other stories.
|
|
#
?
Jun 28, 2023 07:11
|
|
|
Finished Vaults of Terra. Pretty good, worth the read. Wraight is unsurpassed at world-building: not as lyrical as Abnett or Fehervari, but he has a much tighter and coherent vision - he basically brings John Blanche paintings to life. I found myself looking forward to the scene-setting at the start of each chapter more than anything else. On the other hand, I think he's weak at character writing; his PoV characters seem to kinda just drift along with the plot, with very little inner life. The closest I came to caring for anything that happened to them was the blatant Khazad-Revus ship and that was a pretty cheap trick. I think Vorx was the only Wraight main character that stuck with me, so perhaps I need to get over my dislike of loyalist SMs and try some of his White Scars stuff. He does seem to have more inspiration when he's not dealing with baseline humans, e.g. his Dark Eldar scenes are very good, and Gorgias stole the scene too.
|
|
#
?
Jun 28, 2023 12:13
|
|
|
Black Griffon posted:I love reading about the little fuckers though. Not exactly the same but the Fall of Malvolion is seriously good reading if you haven't read it already. Not so much for making nids smart, but making them absolutely terrifying. But it's a short story though and not a novel. https://www.warhammer-community.com/2023/06/28/realmslayer-gotreks-first-adventure-in-the-mortal-realms-comes-to-print-at-last/ You want some new books? Of course you do! Even if this one isn't new perhaps. But we're finally getting a printed version of Realmslayer by David Guymer.  Sadly not featuring BRIAN BLESSED as Gotrek, but still great to see it come out in printed format.
|
|
#
?
Jun 28, 2023 12:18
|
|
|
Cooked Auto posted:Not exactly the same but the Fall of Malvolion is seriously good reading if you haven't read it already. Not so much for making nids smart, but making them absolutely terrifying. But it's a short story though and not a novel. Checking it out, thanks Edit: well okay my long and arduous search is over 
Black Griffon fucked around with this message at 14:54 on Jun 28, 2023 |
|
#
?
Jun 28, 2023 12:41
|
|
|
Ah yeah, that's where I read it as well when I decided to reread it recently. Although for that part you should read the William King story in it, since it takes place on a Tyranid hive ship and features the hive mind doing some mindfuckery on the Space Wolves going through it.
|
|
#
?
Jun 28, 2023 14:35
|
|
|
Cooked Auto posted:Ah yeah, that's where I read it as well when I decided to reread it recently. Yeah I have very vague memories of that, been considering a reread myself. It's been 15 years or something, after all.
|
|
#
?
Jun 28, 2023 14:55
|
|
|
On the second twice dead king book, and my boy Oltyx just decapitated Menthep and shipped off his best friend and flayed subjects and I am not mad, but very disappointed
|
|
#
?
Jun 28, 2023 15:41
|
|
|
Bohemian Nights posted:On the second twice dead king book, and my boy Oltyx just decapitated Menthep and shipped off his best friend and flayed subjects and I am not mad, but very disappointed Learning lessons is hard when you're the memories of a teenager incarnate in an eternal metal skeleton with godlike powers and you just got everything you ever wanted but have no idea what to do now and your culture is one of absolute devotion to unfailing deity-kings.
|
|
#
?
Jun 28, 2023 15:48
|
|
|
Black Griffon posted:Yeah I have very vague memories of that, been considering a reread myself. It's been 15 years or something, after all. Was probably something similar for me, now that I think about it. Did make me go through my other anthologies and pick up one I didn't have. The latter having been a nice surprise, if not a bit uneven.
|
|
#
?
Jun 28, 2023 16:08
|
|
|
AnEdgelord posted:Fair warning for people thinking about dropping an audible credit on Leviathan, don't. The story is fine but the narrator they got is horrendously bad. Everyone is either a squeaky voiced boy (including some marines) or is the same 12 year old boy putting on a deep voice, all of it read in the same droning modulated up or down to achieve one of those two voices. Listening now. Eh, I've heard worse.
|
|
#
?
Jun 28, 2023 16:54
|
|
|
Bohemian Nights posted:On the second twice dead king book, and my boy Oltyx just decapitated Menthep and shipped off his best friend and flayed subjects and I am not mad, but very disappointed Keep reading!
|
|
#
?
Jun 28, 2023 20:12
|
|
|
I liked Leviathan, especially the first half, because it has a fair bit of the Ultramarines interacting with a fairly normal civilian government. (Which they hate) Including people who have never heard of tyranids and psykers and don’t really believe in them.
|
|
#
?
Jun 28, 2023 23:02
|
|
|
Man, I remember reading "Battle of the Fang" ages ago and thinking it so-so at best*. Chris Wraight's come a long way since then. *It does not help that literally the only sympathetic Space Wolf is ol' granddad Bjorn. NihilCredo posted:Finished Vaults of Terra. Pretty good, worth the read. This sums up a lot of my thoughts too. To put a charitable spin on it, the Vaults of Terra characters feel chosen for what they represent, as opposed to dynamic personalities who set the tone for their own books, as opposed to the other way around; along the lines of say, Fabius Bile or Ciaphas Cain. They're serviceable, all the same. Inquisitor Crowl himself, per interviews, was conceived as a metaphor the Imperium itself, what with all the cynicism and tarnished grandeur. My god, though, the scene-setting. Wraight could write a book that's nothing but describing places and it would be solid gold. If you've not touched the Watchers of the Throne duology yet, it's another good choice, and reads nicely alongside VoT. It does some fun stuff with three interwoven POVs, specifically those of two respective high-up Terran politicians who have a good mix of being kind of lovely while still trying to do their best, a very prim and proper Custode, and a Sister of Silence who's parts are remarkably cathartic. I don't know that any one of them even begins to live up to the astonishingly high bar that was Vorx, though. On the spoilered bit: That got me, too. Is it cheap because it works, or does it work because it's cheap? Either way, I couldn't help but smile at how they chose to go out.
|
|
#
?
Jun 28, 2023 23:46
|
|
|
Y'all need to read Lords of Silence before making any firm opinions on how good Chris Wraight is at writing characters. Dude brought the Death Guard to life in a way nothing else has.
|
|
#
?
Jun 29, 2023 07:52
|
|
|
I want more Ratling adventures in 40k.
|
|
#
?
Jun 29, 2023 09:55
|
|
|
This, but grots.
|
|
#
?
Jun 29, 2023 10:27
|
|
|
orphean posted:Y'all need to read Lords of Silence before making any firm opinions on how good Chris Wraight is at writing characters. Dude brought the Death Guard to life in a way nothing else has. its really really great and i want more adventures with our gross friends and their gross ship and their gross pets
|
|
#
?
Jun 29, 2023 10:42
|
|
|
Maybe it’s just my Chaos Knight-collector biases talking, but I think, in general, BL books with Chaos-aligned protagonists are just more interesting than their Imperium analogues. They’re just generally weirder.
|
|
#
?
Jun 29, 2023 10:46
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 25, 2024 19:46 |
|
|
orphean posted:Y'all need to read Lords of Silence before making any firm opinions on how good Chris Wraight is at writing characters. Dude brought the Death Guard to life in a way nothing else has. We both specifically mentioned Vorx as a reference, dude.
|
|
#
?
Jun 29, 2023 11:51
|
|