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Calax posted:There are some interesting bits here and there. Robute talking to the Emperor, and the Emperor making an appearance in the final battle in the third book (in a manner of speaking). Haley is very much a Bolter Porn author who writes for abridgement. Every book I've seen by him (including his Siege of Terra book) include a plot line that has barely any attachment to the main story, and could easily be cut out without any real loss to the story. One that runs in Dark Imperium is more interesting than in his Siege book (about a Primaris from the Unnumbered Sons becoming part of a Chapter), but generally he's light reading. Yeah I would describe his prose as “workmanlike”. I generally enjoy his works but there’s not ever much that’s gonna take into a different level.
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Nov 23, 2022 07:35
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Rugikiki posted:He wrote the Genestealer book “Day of Ascension” and it ownssss I just finished Day of Ascension and can confirm, it owns.
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Nov 23, 2022 11:51
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Gravitas Shortfall posted:I just finished Day of Ascension and can confirm, it owns. yeah, i genuinly like how they paint the genestealer cultists and how just loving tragic they kinda are. i like seeing them painted as people.
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Nov 23, 2022 14:00
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It has yet to be confirmed if Guy Haley is in fact a person or a writing AI with preference for large cavernous hangars. But usually his books are serviceable. Like the first Baneblade book is good while the sequel has some good scenes but the pacing is far too quick and the ending is just kinda there. This weeks Black Library announcement is a Collectors Edition featuring all of Darius Hinks Gotrek novels. Collecting Ghoulslayer, Gitslayer and Soulslayer. Alongside a couple of previous short stories published elsewhere. https://www.warhammer-community.com/2022/11/23/follow-the-adventures-of-gotrek-in-the-mortal-realms-with-an-incredible-boxed-set/  This is your reminder that Soulslayer still hasn't gotten a proper paperback release. And it's be sad and/or hilarious if the CE edition beats it to the punch.
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Nov 23, 2022 15:36
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I thought Gav Thorpe was the AI. A couple other novels by Haley that I personally enjoyed were Belisarius Cawl: The Great Work and his crime book Flesh and Steel. He's not the best but he writes some enjoyable books. Don't judge him just on the first dark imperium novel.
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Nov 23, 2022 15:47
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Guy has the professional reputation of you can give him any job and hell get it done about on time, which some of the other blac library favs have more trouble with. Workmanlike. Hes also been open about how when it comes to product launch stuff like the first dark imperium book, GWs team mandates a lot of the content that has to be in the book, and he has less leeway than say Belisarius. I like him a lot honestly, and I try to give his books a shot.
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Nov 23, 2022 18:24
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He has solid output and when he's not being asked to write a product launch book (cf Dark Imperium) he's decent and occasionally great (cf The Great Work). I wouldn't read his work expecting the next Eisenhorn but similarly I know it's not going to be Gav Thorpe or Henry Zou levels of dross. At the bare minimum he knows how to keep his stories "in setting" and you don't get any anachronisms like some other authors calling stuff by their real names rather than using the standard terminology (radio vs vox, radar vs auspex) .
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Nov 23, 2022 20:00
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BigShasta posted:I thought Gav Thorpe was the AI. It was a joke that I vaguely remembered from a Black Library author interview where another podcast was jokingly surprised that Guy Haley was in fact human. Was probably from some old Badcast episode since they're the only 40k podcast I listen to anyway.
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Nov 23, 2022 21:14
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That is indeed from the badcast and it was an interview with Mike Brooks
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Nov 23, 2022 21:17
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Z the IVth posted:Gav Thorpe or Henry Zou levels of dross. Don’t forget (or rather please do) perennial favorite C.S. Goto! If we can get one more we can have a little black library chaos pantheon. Who’s worthy of #4? I nominate Nick Kyme.
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Nov 24, 2022 05:35
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orphean posted:Don’t forget (or rather please do) perennial favorite C.S. Goto! If we can get one more we can have a little black library chaos pantheon. Who’s worthy of #4? I nominate Nick Kyme. Nick Kyme isn't a great author, but supposedly he's a really good editor, you always see the good authors mentioning him in their forewords or whatever. it might be better if he stays in his lane, but heck, i'm not a huge salamander guy, it's not the end of the world.
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Nov 24, 2022 07:45
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AnEdgelord posted:That is indeed from the badcast and it was an interview with Mike Brooks One thing I've noticed is that writers are often in awe of people who can produce to spec a manuscript on time, because it turns out that is actually hard as gently caress to do.
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Nov 24, 2022 07:55
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BigShasta posted:Anyone have thoughts on those four? Am I missing anything spectacular? Do I need to read spoilers for anything plot critical? Titandeath is an excellent prologue to the Siege of Terra and pretty good in its own right. I don't really remember the other three offhand, which should speak volumes. Read at least the one, feel free to skip the others. OPAONI posted:One thing I've noticed is that writers are often in awe of people who can produce to spec a manuscript on time, because it turns out that is actually hard as gently caress to do. This is a thing. I got rewritten on my last tabeloip gaming project because I just wasn't hearing "the vignettes need to be so many words so they fit in the page layout". I feel dumb about it now of course, but also sorry I put a good editor through that.
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Nov 24, 2022 08:31
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Abnett writes for comics, he's been doing this for decades, and The End and the Death still scope crept to 2 books. And then you have the Christian Camerons of the world who do like 5000 words in a day. Life isn't fair I guess.
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Nov 24, 2022 08:51
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All editors love to have a guy who can deliver the product on time, even if their skills are not that great, aka The Rob Liefield style.
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Nov 24, 2022 09:21
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OPAONI posted:One thing I've noticed is that writers are often in awe of people who can produce to spec a manuscript on time, because it turns out that is actually hard as gently caress to do. https://youtu.be/xR7XMkjDGw0
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Nov 24, 2022 13:48
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BigShasta posted:Anyone have thoughts on those four? Am I missing anything spectacular? Do I need to read spoilers for anything plot critical? I'll go out on a limb and say that Titandeath is a very good Titan book, second only to Abnett's Titanicus. Mortis which is its spiritual successor isn't nearly as entertaining.
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Nov 24, 2022 14:28
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OPAONI posted:One thing I've noticed is that writers are often in awe of people who can produce to spec a manuscript on time, because it turns out that is actually hard as gently caress to do. i repeat my amazement at the whole of the black library, tbh. how do they do it? tell us crowley lol
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Nov 24, 2022 16:27
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wiegieman posted:And then you have the Christian Camerons of the world who do like 5000 words in a day. Life isn't fair I guess. Or is Brandon Sanderson.
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Nov 24, 2022 16:51
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BigShasta posted:I've been skipping around in the Hours Heresy for a few years now I think, and I'm finally close to the siege of terra. I'm feeling pretty burned out though from my decision to read all of the imperium secundus arc. I'm looking at The Crimson King, Wolfsbane, Slaves to Darkness, and Titan death, which were the last four books I considered reading before the siege, and I kind of just want to dump all those and go straight to The Solar War. It's kind of all dependent on which subplots you're most interested in, I think. Slaves to Darkness is good for the tension between the 'this is a military rebellion against the Emperor' vs 'MAXIMUM CHAOS' viewpoints around Horus-it also answers the question of why Lorgar, the most chaotic Primarch, doesn't simply eat all the other Primarchs. Crimson King is, iirc, about the Magnus soulshard bullshit. Wolfsbane has some pretty good Russ stuff, and the fight between him and Horus is baller-I believe it also has a subplot with Malcador and his guys. Titan death has some good titan action (duh) and also Sanguinius moping about his impending death. I enjoyed all of them except the Crimson King, but I don't think any of them are vital if you're jonesing to skip straight to the seige.
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Nov 24, 2022 17:52
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Crimson King is pretty bad and adds nothing of value, except fueling more idiotic slapfights about Magnus on Reddit. To add insult to injury, the whole point of it gets retconned in 'Echoes of Eternity'.
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Nov 24, 2022 22:00
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Angry Lobster posted:Crimson King is pretty bad and adds nothing of value, except fueling more idiotic slapfights about Magnus on Reddit. To add insult to injury, the whole point of it gets retconned in 'Echoes of Eternity'. What exactly are they slap fighting over? Somewhat related: I'm going through the heresy on audible again in my car during commutes and just finished Prospero Burns for the umpteenth time. We are all very aware of the wet leopard growls, but can we take a second to acknowledge the lesser-lauded wet leopard sounds this book contains? Wet leopard purr Wet leopard snarl Wet leopard chuckle
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Nov 25, 2022 06:34
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Duzzy Funlop posted:What exactly are they slap fighting over? Whether Magnus, in fact, did or did not do anything wrong.
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Nov 25, 2022 09:29
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Warden posted:Whether Magnus, in fact, did or did not do anything wrong. Personally I side with ADB's interpretation. Thousand Sons shows that he and his legion were consumed by the arrogance that they knew best and could do anything. Every other legion that had psykers recognised that it was dangerous and held back from fully immersing themselves in the warp. Instead Magnus encouraged his legion to harness demons and use their powers for everything. Then Magnus ruined the webway project because he had to be the one to warn the Emperor rather than trust it to others. The Emperor should have brought Magnus back with him to work on the webway, but that doesn't absolve Magnus of his mistakes. In short, Magnus did everything wrong.
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Nov 25, 2022 09:48
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Khan and Sanguinus were like "bro playing with the warp is dangerous" and Magnus laughed it off Calling him arrogant is an understatement
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Nov 25, 2022 10:06
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Pretty sure Magnus saw the co-founders of the Librarius program not as peers, but as not-quite-so-smart brothers he had convinced to support his great ideas with his superior intellect. Good rule of thumb Magny-magic, Khan and Sanguinius have excellent judgement, maybe listen to them occasionally.
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Nov 25, 2022 14:22
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Well poo poo, Witchbringer and Harrowmaster are neither available as audiobooks.
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Nov 25, 2022 14:23
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Duzzy Funlop posted:What exactly are they slap fighting over?
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Nov 25, 2022 15:41
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Plucky Brit posted:Given how active ADB is/was on Reddit, I wonder if that's the reason he included Vulkan's withering putdowns to Magnus in Echoes of Eternity. Eh. His legion was no noticeably any better or worse than the others until the very end when it came to warp stuff. They were already afflicted by the flesh-change even before Magnus was a factor in guiding the legion, so the only reason they were not a horde of chaos spawn within 20 years is Magnus' warp-fuckery. Magnus did plenty wrong. Mostly, not having the planetary defenses at full alert when the Wolves came.
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Nov 25, 2022 16:14
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Sephyr posted:Eh. His legion was no noticeably any better or worse than the others until the very end when it came to warp stuff. Every Thousand Sons sorcerer had a pet demon. I'd say that's "worse".
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Nov 25, 2022 16:49
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Hey, those gave re-rolls until two editions back! Don't knock it. But yeah, tutelaries didn't have them sacrificing kids, opening hellgates or anything wild. Hell, several Thousand sons with tutelaries attended the Council of Nikea and neither them Emperor nor the other legions' psykers went nuts. This whole plot element would work a lot better if the imperial stance on psykers wasn't 1- WILDLY inconsistent 2- Really dumb.
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Nov 25, 2022 16:57
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Magnus was given an absolutely outrageous amount of latitude by the rest of the Imperium and repeatedly demonstrated that he didn’t deserve it, or even recognize that people were being patient with him. He deserved everything he got and worse.
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Nov 25, 2022 17:25
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Sephyr posted:Eh. His legion was no noticeably any better or worse than the others until the very end when it came to warp stuff. They were already afflicted by the flesh-change even before Magnus was a factor in guiding the legion, so the only reason they were not a horde of chaos spawn within 20 years is Magnus' warp-fuckery. If by warp-fuckery you mean striking a deal so bad with Tzeench that he end up losing both his soul and his son's souls only for postponing the flesh change, then yes, you're right. To be fair, Magnus hand was pretty lovely since the beginning, but my gosh, he really played them badly.
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Nov 25, 2022 17:44
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The End and the Death's Amazon page is up. https://www.amazon.com/End-Death-I-...ps%2C221&sr=8-1
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Nov 25, 2022 17:56
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cadian blood is on audible/audio stores now.
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Nov 25, 2022 18:45
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FPyat posted:The End and the Death's Amazon page is up. https://www.amazon.com/End-Death-I-...ps%2C221&sr=8-1 28th of february? drat.
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Nov 25, 2022 18:48
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Finished Witchbringer. It wasn't anything special but it was a solid 40k book. If you are interested in seeing what it's like for a psyker in the guard I would recommend it. Main character is a cadian who was a captain in the guard when she developed her psyker powers and got sent to the schola progenium. Book starts with her at the schola and then she gets sent back to her previous unit five years after having left them. They are on a real lovely swamp planet that produces way more psykers than average and in a really lovely situation and from there it is mostly psyker bolter porn but well written and an interesting story. Angry Lobster posted:28th of february? drat. We are getting the Garro siege novella between now and then though. Sephyr posted:Hey, those gave re-rolls until two editions back! Don't knock it. If I remember correctly, at Nikea they didn't have their tutelaries out and instructed them to "hide" as they didn't want to openly display them to the other legions.
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Nov 25, 2022 18:59
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Tutelaries are the craziest poo poo in the lore. Sure my whole “loyal” legion is just openly palling around with daemons. It’s no big deal. Like, the Emperor and the Sisters and a bunch of other people knew what daemons were at that point! How did none of those people say anything?!
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Nov 25, 2022 19:15
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DAD LOST MY IPOD posted:Tutelaries are the craziest poo poo in the lore. Sure my whole “loyal” legion is just openly palling around with daemons. It’s no big deal. Are you going to tell the murderous dictator that his personal generic mastercrafting created an idiot and that he is both a bad father and an equally big idiot for handling it worse than the average human father with teenage kids?
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Nov 25, 2022 22:40
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Zudgemud posted:Are you going to tell the murderous dictator that his personal generic mastercrafting created an idiot and that he is both a bad father and an equally big idiot for handling it worse than the average human father with teenage kids? I think I will! And I think I'll use my awesome psychic power to kick down his door and yell at him!!!
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Nov 25, 2022 22:59
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