|
This all seems to confirm the vibe I was getting so I think the rest of the series is going to be a hard pass. I'm pretty picky with my BL authors because life is too short to read bad books, and it sounds like one of those things where I'll have more fun reading some wiki summary of the major plot points than the books themselves.
|
#
?
Jul 15, 2023 23:25
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 10, 2024 13:47 |
|
|
the beast arises suffers from a lot of problems but the biggest one is that the tone of horror and desperation it was trying to convey is fundamentally at odds with the way Orks are depicted in the entire rest of the setting. another problem is that they very clearly had no idea how the arc was meant to end so it has a lot of weird meanders and false endings and the last book in the series isn’t even about Orks.
|
|
#
?
Jul 15, 2023 23:40
|
|
|
I feel like Helsreach is the only book I've read so far that does a good job of portraying the Orks as a terrifying unstoppable tide of Mad Max war machines rather than the goofy comic relief race with Cockney accents.
|
|
#
?
Jul 15, 2023 23:54
|
|
|
The only thing that kept me reading The Beast Arises was the Assassinorum subplot and even that jumps the shark in the end.
|
|
#
?
Jul 16, 2023 00:20
|
|
|
Nuclear Tourist posted:I feel like Helsreach is the only book I've read so far that does a good job of portraying the Orks as a terrifying unstoppable tide of Mad Max war machines rather than the goofy comic relief race with Cockney accents. They are both, that's what makes them so great. As far as they are concerned it's all one big party and they are the happiest people in the setting. But the guardsmen looking out across no man's land sees a walking green slavering nightmare.
|
|
#
?
Jul 16, 2023 00:43
|
|
|
Nuclear Tourist posted:I feel like Helsreach is the only book I've read so far that does a good job of portraying the Orks as a terrifying unstoppable tide of Mad Max war machines rather than the goofy comic relief race with Cockney accents. Frankly, for as much strays they catch here, the Ciaphas Cain books do too. Yes they get jobbed by Cain but so does every other faction, and it's portrayed as they would have krumped the guard if not for Cain. Hell in Caves of Ice a gargant fucks up several necron monoliths.
|
|
#
?
Jul 16, 2023 01:05
|
|
|
bunnyofdoom posted:Frankly, for as much strays they catch here, the Ciaphas Cain books do too. Yes they get jobbed by Cain but so does every other faction, and it's portrayed as they would have krumped the guard if not for Cain. Yeah, in the Cain books all other factions get jobbed that it gets a special dispensation. Just relax, enjoy, and hope your Chaos Lord/Ork Warboss/Necron Overlord gets some badass moments before they are foiled by the Hero of the Imperium.
|
|
#
?
Jul 16, 2023 01:54
|
|
|
I had honestly forgotten the Beast series existed until the post itt lol. Feels like they ran out of ideas guys for a little while and were like "gently caress, what about orks I guess, except smart??" Which is hilarious to me considering there are so loving many interesting things they could have expanded on instead. But they keep loving it up
|
|
#
?
Jul 16, 2023 02:09
|
|
|
Pretty much. "Hey, you know we can't feed on the Heresy forever, right? We need another big event, too." "Um. So, the Heresy, but with Orks? Terra under siege, the whole shebang." "I guess."
|
|
#
?
Jul 16, 2023 03:55
|
|
|
Biplane posted:I had honestly forgotten the Beast series existed until the post itt lol. Feels like they ran out of ideas guys for a little while and were like "gently caress, what about orks I guess, except smart??" Which is hilarious to me considering there are so loving many interesting things they could have expanded on instead. But they keep loving it up "Orks, but smart" is such a stupid concept anyways that would only get baked up by someone who didn't really get them to begin with. Orks aren't stupid to begin with! There's a lot of missed opportunity there I think in general because Orks would, imo, be one of the easiest alien races for normal readers to understand. They're alien, but they're also much more firmly grounded in day to day ideas that normal people just kind of 'get'. It's just as bad as that poo poo tier 'ork technology only works because they believe it' meme that keeps going around.
|
|
#
?
Jul 16, 2023 06:22
|
|
|
Sephyr posted:Yeah, in the Cain books all other factions get jobbed that it gets a special dispensation. Just relax, enjoy, and hope your Chaos Lord/Ork Warboss/Necron Overlord gets some badass moments before they are foiled by the Hero of the Imperium. Necrons actually *don't* get jobbed in the Cain books, IIRC. Cain pisses his pants *in front of his subordinates* whenever Necrons are discovered, and the stories always end with him barely escaping with his life while letting the robots take over. In Cain's Last Stand they actually waltz in at the end, stomp everyone, and snag the MacGuffin. (Note that those stories predate 5th edition, so Necrons were still mute omnicidal terminators.)
|
|
#
?
Jul 16, 2023 08:12
|
|
|
Nuclear Tourist posted:I feel like Helsreach is the only book I've read so far that does a good job of portraying the Orks as a terrifying unstoppable tide of Mad Max war machines rather than the goofy comic relief race with Cockney accents. The Yarrick book does a wonderful job showing how terrifying orks are honestly. Its honestly one of my favorite books
|
|
#
?
Jul 16, 2023 13:28
|
|
|
https://www.warhammer-community.com/2023/07/16/sunday-preview-load-up-on-astra-militarum-books-necromunda-goodies-and-minka-lesk/ You want some books? Of course you do! Lot's of them going up for pre-order next weekend. And also the Minka Lesk model to go along with everything else. First up we have the special edition of Shadow of The Eighth by Justin D. Hill. Limited to 1500 copies.  Then there's also the regular edition as well, available at the same time for once.  There's also the anthology.  quote:Minka Lesk: The last Whiteshield collects the novels Cadia Stands, Cadian Honour and Traitor Rock with The Place of Pain and Healing and The Battle for Markgraaf Hive In paraphernalia corner we have Tanith Regimental Banner.  quote:This banner is digitally printed, and has a jute rope and plastic rod making it ready for mounting on your wall. It’s available while stocks last. Lastly we have the paperback, and audio, version of Mike Brooks Renegades: Harrowmaster. 
|
|
#
?
Jul 16, 2023 20:26
|
|
|
Oh, finally Harrowmaster. Been wanting to read that since it got announced.
|
|
#
?
Jul 16, 2023 20:49
|
|
|
the way to make Orks “scary,” if you must, is to portray them from the POV of a human who has no visibility or insight into their culture. an ork warlord is a lot scarier if you don’t know he’s called Snazzgritz da Face-Basha. brothers of the snake does this as well, portraying the Orks as beasts and a waaagh as basically a system-scale locust swarm. as soon as you start talking about “choppas” and “gitz” you already missed your chance to make them scary, and trying to do both just comes across as disjointed
|
|
#
?
Jul 17, 2023 13:04
|
|
|
oh my god how did I forget about this function for like half the book
|
|
#
?
Jul 17, 2023 13:43
|
|
|
drat, the new Cypher book was a good read. Really pushes that “what is true?” type of uncertainty and never answers it, like the best 40K books do. John French is such a good BL writer when it’s a subject that he enjoys, like Dark Angels and Imperial Fists.
|
|
#
?
Jul 17, 2023 21:41
|
|
|
Who the gently caress bought Abnett the obscure word of the day calendar. the end and the death of me
|
|
#
?
Jul 17, 2023 22:05
|
|
|
Prepare yourself. It has a 64 page diary from a guardsman of his last days. I eat this poo poo up. https://www.warhammer-community.com/2023/07/11/the-epic-fall-of-cadia-mega-edition-is-packed-with-incredible-artefacts/ Philthy fucked around with this message at 22:11 on Jul 17, 2023 |
|
#
?
Jul 17, 2023 22:08
|
|
|
DAD LOST MY IPOD posted:the way to make Orks “scary,” if you must, is to portray them from the POV of a human who has no visibility or insight into their culture. an ork warlord is a lot scarier if you don’t know he’s called Snazzgritz da Face-Basha. brothers of the snake does this as well, portraying the Orks as beasts and a waaagh as basically a system-scale locust swarm. i sorta thought the space marine did an ok job showing them as giant scary monsters, not you obviously but like in general. its mostly roaring and threats from them outside the warboss who gets like 5 lines.
|
|
#
?
Jul 17, 2023 22:23
|
|
|
Philthy posted:Who the gently caress bought Abnett the obscure word of the day calendar. I'd rather have thesaurus mindwarp Abnett than boring throughput Abnett, as was the case in Unremembered Empire. I started reading it late at night from a pile and only at the end did I look at the cover and see it was an Abnett book. Utterly floored me.
|
|
#
?
Jul 18, 2023 02:31
|
|
|
Sephyr posted:I'd rather have thesaurus mindwarp Abnett than boring throughput Abnett, as was the case in Unremembered Empire. It has to be one of the if not the worst book he has written for black library? I understand that it suffers from trying to tie many threads together, but yeah, it’s not very good, Curze Batman and all.
|
|
#
?
Jul 18, 2023 07:14
|
|
|
Miguel Prado posted:It has to be one of the if not the worst book he has written for black library? I understand that it suffers from trying to tie many threads together, but yeah, it’s not very good, Curze Batman and all. Oh, there's way worse. It's just average, that's all, and that's really bad for an Abnett joint.
|
|
#
?
Jul 18, 2023 07:22
|
|
|
Philthy posted:Prepare yourself. oh thats super rad
|
|
#
?
Jul 18, 2023 07:29
|
|
|
wiegieman posted:Oh, there's way worse. It's just average, that's all, and that's really bad for an Abnett joint. Abnett's bibliography alone is beginning to approach novel length at this point, I can't imagine it's easy to consistently crank out cool poo poo when you're that hyper-productive. Don't remember particularly hating Unremembered Empire but I Am Slaughter was definitely pretty ho-hum compared to most other BL stuff he's written.
|
|
#
?
Jul 18, 2023 09:19
|
|
|
Abnett's worst books are the ones that are just connective tissue between other books. End And The Death shows what happens when you just let him off the chain at a pivotal point and it's great 
|
|
#
?
Jul 18, 2023 09:35
|
|
|
I liked The Unremembered Empire 
|
|
#
?
Jul 18, 2023 12:08
|
|
|
Gravitas Shortfall posted:Abnett's worst books are the ones that are just connective tissue between other books. End And The Death shows what happens when you just let him off the chain at a pivotal point and it's great Counterpoint: Saturnine is one of his best and it’s a “then more stuff happened” book. When he’s writing a piece that has to check boxes it can be rough, but as long as he’s free to just write whatever poo poo pops into his head he’s consistently the best
|
|
#
?
Jul 18, 2023 12:31
|
|
|
The Unremembered Empire is still a fun read imo, but his best stuff is just so much better.
|
|
#
?
Jul 18, 2023 12:43
|
|
|
Black Griffon posted:The Unremembered Empire is still a fun read imo, but his best stuff is just so much better. Yeah it is nowhere near the bottom tier even if it's a weaker Abnett nook. There is so much further to fall
|
|
#
?
Jul 18, 2023 13:50
|
|
|
DAD LOST MY IPOD posted:Counterpoint: Saturnine is one of his best and it’s a “then more stuff happened” book. When he’s writing a piece that has to check boxes it can be rough, but as long as he’s free to just write whatever poo poo pops into his head he’s consistently the best I don't rate Saturnine as highly as this thread seems to, it was just connective tissue with a few good scenes. Weirdly you could say the same about Echoes Of Eternity by ADB, but I rate that one a lot higher.
|
|
#
?
Jul 18, 2023 14:00
|
|
|
Gravitas Shortfall posted:I don't rate Saturnine as highly as this thread seems to, it was just connective tissue with a few good scenes. Weirdly you could say the same about Echoes Of Eternity by ADB, but I rate that one a lot higher. Different strokes for different folks - I found Saturnine's relatively understandable military actions to be more enjoyable than the End and the Death, where honestly I did think the overblown vocabulary and unformatted page-long sentences were a little much. One sequence in that style would have been very impressive but when it was most of the book it got distracting.
|
|
#
?
Jul 18, 2023 17:06
|
|
|
Unremembered Empire itself is fine I guess but that whole plot arc is so dumb and boring that it drags it down. Whenever Curze is around I clap like a seal however so maybe it's good after all
|
|
#
?
Jul 18, 2023 17:52
|
|
|
Echoes of Eternity was better in my opinion, but Saturnine was by no means bad. End and the Death Vol 1 is pretty good, but Abnett's best recent book is Penitent.
|
|
#
?
Jul 18, 2023 18:43
|
|
|
I thought EoE was surprisingly weak. Definitely in the bottom half of ADB books. I wanted to like and I really loved some parts of it but especially compared to Wraight’s portrayal of Kharn in Warhawk, the EoE World Eaters felt flat.
|
|
#
?
Jul 18, 2023 19:16
|
|
|
I liked Saturnine maybe the least of all the Siege books 
|
|
#
?
Jul 18, 2023 19:56
|
|
|
ADB after suffering through the interminable misery of Corax is so refreshing it should be illegal
|
|
#
?
Jul 18, 2023 21:12
|
|
|
Biplane posted:I liked Saturnine maybe the least of all the Siege books Weird opinion because the first wall and Mortis are absolute, certifiable garbage and lost and the damned and the solar war are among the most replacement-level books in the whole catalogue. Series is certainly picking up now!
|
|
#
?
Jul 19, 2023 00:12
|
|
|
DAD LOST MY IPOD posted:Weird opinion because the first wall and Mortis are absolute, certifiable garbage and lost and the damned and the solar war are among the most replacement-level books in the whole catalogue. Series is certainly picking up now! Mortis was not great, but solar war and lost and the damned were both good. Heap your scorn on me; God gives his toughest soldiers the hardest battles
|
|
#
?
Jul 19, 2023 00:28
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 10, 2024 13:47 |
|
|
Just read Solar War and Lost and the Damned myself. They're both pretty on-par for the Heresy itself, which is kinda disappointing in a way. Solar War in particular feels like it should have a bunch of events on par with the orbital ram-raid chapter in Know No Fear, but instead it hits the same level as any old battle. LatD is alright. I think it was someone up-thread who compared the traitor Primarchs here to cartoon villains, which is an image I can't really shake. I do like the ground-level views from the conscript and the beastman, shows what a miserable place the Imperium is. Gonna press on with the other SoT books, hoping to be caught up before the last one is out. I know First Wall and Mortis aren't considered great, but I've read enough of this stupid series that I want to see the main plotlines play out.
|
|
#
?
Jul 19, 2023 02:04
|
|
