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SquadronROE posted:I just finished Gunheads last night. I liked it quite a bit compared to staring blankly at a wall while I wait to fall asleep. I really enjoy the one off books that dive into an area we don't see much of normally. So like Gunheads, Double Eagle, Titanicus, etc. I would kill for more Imperial Navy focused books, I could seriously read Master and Commissar 40k for years and never get sick of it. I'll even take more Rogue Trader books, more huge space ship battles please Black Library.
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Jan 18, 2013 04:53
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Demiurge4 posted:A lot of sci-fi explains melee combat away with personal forcefields etc. Dune is probably the quintessential example of this. It was so OP Frank Herbert deus-ex-machina'ed that they attracted sandworms because otherwise why would you ever turn off your magical invulnerability field. You had to move in with slow feints and sneak attacks because the thing would repel anything moving quickly. A rosarius is basically this but yeah they aren't giving the IG boys them.
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Jan 19, 2013 02:33
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mastermind2004 posted:As far as I can tell it means they put some extra pictures in the e-book to justify charging twice as much for it. I was googling this and this seems to be it. You won't find a definition of 'enhanced ebook' anywhere on Black Library.  That's the GWiest thing ever!
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Jan 22, 2013 00:28
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I think I'm the one person who misses Hammer and Bolter. It was nice having a chunk of fiction for four bucks a month. This new model where you spend a bit more but can get more a la carte short fiction isn't nearly as appealing to me. And not just because it costs more!
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Jan 22, 2013 19:53
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They seem to becoming more invested in their ebook content. I wish they weren't such dinosaurs about the whole thing too though. If I could buy black library ebooks from my kindle in the amazon store I don't even know what would happen. I barely have self control as is it with the minor barrier of having to transfer them to the kindle.
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Jan 22, 2013 22:01
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Impaired Casing posted:I am the same way. The new Ciaphas Cain book comes out, and I put it in my cart, then say to myself "Well, this will last me a day or two... Might as well get the next Space Wolf book while I am at it." So I always end up getting 2 or 3 books at once. BlackLibrary.txt. It doesn't help that these books are just pure candy and you can get through them so quickly either. I'm tentatively looking forward to Commissar by Andy Hoare coming out next month. Has anyone read the new Yarrick book? How is it?
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Jan 23, 2013 05:34
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Schneider Heim posted:It floats, it's bound in chains, it projects an aura of maliciousness... This doesn't really limit anything. You're talking about a culture where roboticized skulls fly around. Pretty much everything floats and has an aura of palpable menance. 
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Jan 23, 2013 18:07
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Why hasn't GW shut down the Lord Inquisitor yet? I mean I hope they don't but yikes.
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Jan 23, 2013 23:07
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I always wish for a bit more denouement in books though I can't say I ever thought Abnett was especially bad at this. That might be because I'm a Neal Stephenson fan though so I'm used to the train running off a cliff.
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Jan 24, 2013 20:36
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TheStampede posted:They seem to be some sort of interface between the crew and machine spirit, but from what I can tell they don't really do much of the work. Well ask yourself what the captain of an aircraft carrier does. He's not the one pushing the buttons, turning the wrenches on the reactor, loading the guns, etc. He has people to do that for him so he's free to pay attention to the wider tactical situation. In the case of the Princeps he also is plugged into the Titan directly so he has a much greater visceral awareness of what's going on. He basically becomes this huge war machine and pals around with the machine spirit and stuff.
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Jan 25, 2013 06:51
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Maybe Imperial Guard just isn't your thing. I would refer you to the thread's title for a series to dive into to get started.
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Jan 26, 2013 06:37
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Just got through Commissar by Andy Hoare. It was.... ok. I kept wishing Flint was Ciaphus Cain or Yarrick or some other commissar with a personality. Honestly it was an entertaining and competent read with some nice action set pieces. I guess I was just hoping for more (or a better) exploration of how a commissar actually works with an Imperial Guard regiment. Started up Path of the Renegade by Andy Chambers since its sequal is on preorder now. Went in hoping for Malus Darkblade in Space and while it's not quite that I'm enjoying it so far.
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Jan 27, 2013 22:56
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Rapey Joe Stalin posted:I really liked Path of the Renegade. It's certainly a lot better than Gav Thorpe's Eldar books. But then, so is testicular torsion. Yeah I just finished this up, I'll be picking up the sequel for sure. Really good book. Wasn't expecting to see the Harlequin show up but thought it was awesome when he did. Good stuff. Scoobi posted:Execution Hour & Shadow Point are 2 really good books, though they may be out of print. They focus on the Imperial Navy. I liked them a lot. I'd kill for more of these. Now that Battlefleet Gothic isn't really a 'thing' anymore probably unlikely. But drat, I love these books. Scoobi posted:To join battle of the abyss in the dumpster pile I nominate Rogue Star. Its the only book I put down after only the first chapter. Haha, I didn't mind Rogue Star or Star of Damocles that much. It was interesting I guess to see the perspective of a Rogue Trader but I can see why you would hate them. They definitely have problems.
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Jan 28, 2013 04:49
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Finished Yarrick: Chains of Golgotha last night. I liked it quite a bit, nice palate cleanser after reading Commissar. The pace is pretty breathless. After the very start it's just non-stop action. I wish some of the supporting characters were a little less one-dimensional and prop-like but with a title like 'Yarrick: etc etc' I can forgive it.
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Jan 30, 2013 17:58
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I wonder what Cadian Commissars do. That must be a relatively cushy billet. Sort of like being the Commissar of the Death Korps where your primary job is to keep the troops from being TOO eager to die for the Emperor.
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Jan 30, 2013 18:50
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SquadronROE posted:Out of all the books I've read, I think that how the Space Marines were presented in Gaunt's Ghosts is pretty much the best. It gives them the proper weight, knowledge, and awe factor. Granted, I've never read Space Marine. Just a bunch of the Horus Heresy stuff, which doesn't really make them seem very awe inspiring. I agree, I think Space Marines are the coolest when you're looking at them from the perspective of the Imperial Guard and they are just these incredibly lethal, alien death machines. I think their luster suffers when they are normal characters in the books because the authors have to try to make them relatable and give them normal motivations and failings. It's understandable, it would be hard to read a 'realistic' account of the average battle brother's day for most chapters. quote:Brother Zacharius enters his austere berth on the battle barge His Righteous Hand. He meditates on his twenty-two hours of training and ritual cleansing of his holy power armor. Repeat for the next 6 chapters until a battle happens in which case replace 'hone our skills' with 'take out that ork stompa brother'.
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Jan 30, 2013 19:38
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Scoobi posted:I really want to pay 35+ dollars so I can listen to someone read a space pulp book to me. B-B-But the dramatic music! The crackling boom of bolter fire! The Professional Black Library Voice Actingtm! It's like you're actually there fighting for the emperor. And furthermore, i am an ultramarine in real life
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Feb 11, 2013 19:08
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I miss Hammer and Bolter  The new short story a la carte thing is so horrible.
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Feb 24, 2013 10:12
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berzerkmonkey posted:I've got both, but I've read neither. I'll probably read Yarrick first though, since I hold no special love for the Black Dragons. Yarrick wasn't bad at all, I enjoyed it. If you know anything about Yarrick fluff there won't really be any surprises. Some of the non-Yarrick characters are basically one-dimensional plot props but I'm assuming as a fellow Black Library afficienado you're not too snobbish about literature
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Mar 1, 2013 08:52
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berzerkmonkey posted:EDIT: I'm halfway through Yarrick: Chains of Golgoltha (it's around 90-ish pages) and so far, so good. Annandale certainly isn't a top tier writer, but the story is alright so far. It probably helps that I like both the Guard and Orks though. I'm curious what people thought of the segment where Yarrick became king of the Ork undersewer. That whole segment just seemed so weird and killed some of the pacing for me.
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Mar 1, 2013 20:53
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Was there any rape in the SoB books? I can't remember and it seems like when your subject is fetishized battle nuns that would hardly be a difficult way to go. Maybe I'm just a bad person but I don't get immediately offended if rape occurs in a story and it's not just completely exploitative and creepy. Basically, rape as character building device = potentially ok if cliched, rape as jack off material = universally bad.
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Mar 19, 2013 02:25
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I thought the Ragnar series of Space Wolves books weren't that bad, I was entertained. Definitely not up to the HH books though.
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Mar 24, 2013 19:45
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What's up with Deathwatch anyway fluff-wise? I always thought the fluff said Deathwatch kill teams were called up on a pretty much as needed basis and then disbanded after not too long. But more often these days it seems like they stick around for a long time and do all sorts of crazy Xeno killing together. Is this a change in the fluff, or an evolution over time, or am I just flat out wrong?
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May 12, 2013 03:46
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Schneider Heim posted:I believe those are the enhanced e-book ones (with illustrations)? The general e-book release takes a while later. Gahhh why does Games Workshop have to be ridiculously grasping and evil in every, single area they do business in. 'Enhanced' is such bogus poo poo.
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May 24, 2013 04:10
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Waroduce posted:The light of the Astromatician goes, instantly severing all warp travel, cutting off systems from each other and resetting humans to pre-crusade times. Surviving in tiny broken pockets of humanity. It'd be pretty bad but the astronomicon being gone really just makes it so that long distance/duration jumps are no longer tenable. See the Tau where they are just forced to make short hops through the warp. They do ok. Still obviously a huge setback but not the end of FTL travel though probably the end of the 'Imperium' as such. The astronomicon is also what is drawing the tyranid to the galaxy and to the imperium in particular so it going away may, on balance, be a really good thing.
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Oct 9, 2014 17:30
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SpiritOfLenin posted:I don't think Tyranids are going to just leave the galaxy if Astronomicon goes out - they already have a foothold there, and the fleets stil outside the galaxy can home in on them. I mean, they do already know the galaxy is inhabitated and full of all sorts of organix life to gobble up. Yeah but, they at least wouldn't be on a beeline to the heart of imperial space anymore which would be nice! Also, unless I'm remembering wrong, there's still tyranid hive fleets which haven't entered the galaxy yet so maybe it would limit them to what tyranid are currently here.
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Oct 9, 2014 17:38
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Kegslayer posted:Isn't this just a theory though or did that change recently? It was definitely canon and A Thing for a while, I don't know if something has retconned it though. I wouldn't be surprised.
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Oct 10, 2014 04:21
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I could see them doing some kind of World of Darkness-esque Apocalypse followed by a reboot thing. I think Fantasy will be a good barometer of what (if any) story progression we'll see on the black library side since they are going through 'the end times' right now.
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Oct 10, 2014 05:18
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The point is debatable. A lot of hard sci-fi does have certain fantastical elements to them (i.e.; Ben Bova's Grand Tour, Solaris, Rendevous with Rama, etc.) My personal rule of thumb is that hard sci fi can have one such fantastical thing while the rest is as plausible and realistic as possible.
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Dec 15, 2014 23:21
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I dunno, I think it's a useful label to do a sort of rough grouping. If a book is described as 'hard sci fi' you know its not going to be Star Wars space opera. I do think trying to nail down the labels to The One True Definition is a task that leads to madness.
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Dec 15, 2014 23:30
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Gold for the Gold Throne by Henry Zou
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Jan 6, 2015 23:20
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Not sure how I've missed the existence of this thread for years. Go me. I just finished Reverie and enjoyed it but after a promising horror'y start it changes gears into something more like a 'dark thriller' for lack of a better term. I know at the end of the day it's still a 40k book but I was hoping for more of a lingering sense of dread which - in my opinion - Requiem Infernal did better. Unrelated but Chris Wraight seriously is becoming one of my favorite Black Library authors. Dude is killing it with Watches/Vaults of Terra and that's without going to all his snot marine work with the death guard.
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Nov 9, 2020 19:00
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Just to add to the echo chamber, Penitent was amazing. Beta may in fact be the best inquisitor after all. Also AoS chat: ever since Josh Reynolds got sick of BL there has just been a trickle of stuff coming out in that range. It took me a while to warm up to the AoS stuff but now that I have it's kind of saddening that some really interesting earlier books probably aren't going to be turned into a series without their author. That said after I finished Penitent I picked up Stormvault by Andy Clark and just finished it. It's basically the AoS equivalent of a space marine battle book. But it's entertaining fodder with a fun setup that involves a crazy multiway battle with Orks, Nurgle, Sky Dwarfs, the Edgy stormcast chamber, and Skaven all fighting after a Nagashi macguffin. I don't mind Clark but he is definitely in the mid-tier level of BL authors for me and Stormvault reflects that as a competent but a bit workmanlike effort. I'd wait until it gets off of the new release pricing for non-broken people who can wait ( unlike me! ) but worth a read if you like crazy battles.
orphean fucked around with this message at 02:33 on Mar 4, 2021 |
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Mar 4, 2021 02:26
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The four book Genevieve omnibus is a really good deal - four full novels, over 1000 pages of old world awesomeness. If you haven't read them highly recommended.
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Apr 29, 2021 07:43
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I loved Titanicus, Titan fights don’t have to be boring, why Mortis, why my princeps?
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May 5, 2021 21:14
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Just finished Godblight and oh boy. Gully is being just willfully obtuse about his old pops. Even if Emps isn't a god, its sort of a distinction without a difference when it comes to the powers the big E has. On the plus side, I enjoyed Totally The Emperor (Maybe, probably) yelling at Nurgle and slapping Morty into the naughty hut. Also yes, Nurglings are the best whenever they appear. Love it when you got Death Guard picking them up to cuddle. Literally the best. Edit: Panama Red posted:On an unrelated note, can anyone recommend some good 40k novels written from the xenos perspective? Does such a thing exist? Check out Path of the Dark Eldar, I absolutely love that series and it goes into all the nitty gritty of their creepy edge lord society. There's an omnibus of it with all three books. orphean fucked around with this message at 08:22 on May 31, 2021 |
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May 31, 2021 08:16
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Gravitas Shortfall posted:is this a JoJo Culexes’ Bizarre Adventure
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Jul 21, 2021 08:55
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Is GW not entitled to the sweat of their brow? (But seriously if we can we spare this thread the That’s Capatilism! Vs. They Don’t Have To Be Total Dicks debate that’d be Awesome it possible)
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Jul 30, 2021 01:12
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On the other hand maybe making funny warhams videos for free becomes less fun with the proverbial Sword of Damocles hovering to take your head off. It’s not as if TTS had any sort of “Duty to the Community” to stand and fight. I wish them well.
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Jul 30, 2021 07:16
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Philthy posted:Watchers of the Throne: The Emperor's Legion This, absolutely excellent.
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Aug 17, 2021 06:34
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