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How are Gav Thorpe's Last Chancers books? I've read pretty much of all ADB and most of Abnett so I need some moderately well-written grimdark to fill the gap until either of those two pumps out another book.
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Feb 5, 2014 06:41
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Khizan posted:Awful. Terrible. Really, really bad. Balls.  Okay. What's the best sub-ADB, sub-Abnett but still readable by a literate adult series?
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Feb 5, 2014 06:49
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Mechafunkzilla posted:It sure would be nice if there was an OP that people could read for book and author suggestions I read the OP! But it specifically says "ask here about anything else". Which is what I was doing. 
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Feb 5, 2014 17:03
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UberJumper posted:In my opinion ADB's Night Lords series is the best 40k series written. So at least give it a shot. Word. Night Lords is better than Eisenhorn, even.
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Feb 6, 2014 06:25
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Sharkie posted:The Emperor learned almost too late that man is a feeling creature, and because of it, the greatest in the universe. He learned too late for himself that men have to find their own way, to make their own mistakes. There can't be any gift of perfection from outside ourselves. And when men seek such perfection, they find only death... fire... loss... disillusionment... the end of everything that's gone forward. Men have always sought an end to the toil and misery, but it can't be given, it has to be achieved! There is hope, but it has to come from inside, from man himself. This is a synopsis of Kung Fu Panda
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Feb 11, 2014 00:28
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Where does the average citizen of the Imperium think the universe came from? The Imperial Truth wiped out the religions of Old Earth, and with them, their origin stories about the universe. Biblical creation, the Hindu cosmic egg: all of that poo poo is forgotten, right? Then the Emperor dies (mostly) and his cult elevates him into a god-like figure who sees all, knows all, etc. much like a Biblical god. But no one ever seems to ascribe the creation of the universe to him. Many of the worlds of the Imperium have an understanding of Old Earth and know that their worlds were colonized by Earth. But do these people have a scientific view of creation? There's an awful lot of mysticism mixed in with Imperial science (machine spirits, prayers to bolters, and the like) and the complete stagnation of technology suggests that the Imperium in general has a tenuous grasp of science. So what do they believe?
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Feb 17, 2014 08:09
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Baron Bifford posted:More important, what sort of afterlife do they believe in? What actually happens to a human soul after death? Ooh that's also a good question.
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Feb 17, 2014 08:13
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Nephilm posted:As for afterlife, a common theme seems to be that the faithful join with the Emperor after death. By sheer coincidence, I just cracked open the first Grey Knights book and found this. Ben Counter posted:“Marine after Marine died under sorcerous lightning or the talons of rampaging greater daemons and Ganelon himself began the Prayer of Purification, readying the souls of his men for the inevitable journey after death to join the Emperor in the final battle against Chaos.” So for at least some Astartes, the idea is that you join the Emperor to fight 'the final battle' against Chaos.
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Feb 17, 2014 08:36
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I realise that this is mega-ambiguous for lots of reasons (multiple authors with conflicting viewpoints, none of this being actually real, etc) but my impression of Machine Spirits was that they are AIs, just really limited ones that needed a mind/machine interface with a human to get much done, due to the Imperium's fear of AIs. Sometimes Machine Spirits are just abstracted away in the books but sometimes they appear to be actual beings (the Night Lords ship in ADB's trilogy, the Imperator-class Titan in Helsreach) with their own motivations. Either that's an AI or there actually is supernatural spirits within toasters and stuff.
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Feb 17, 2014 17:35
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Baron Bifford posted:It's kind of like animistic religions which thought that even rocks can have a spirit. But there may be a difference between what people of the 41st millennium believe and what's true. Almost certainly is. What's the most primitive thing that's referred to as having a machine spirit in the books? Anything less complex than a bolter? I have no problem believing that the people of the Imperium would believe a bicycle has a machine spirit, but I've never seen a book where a machine spirit is actually implied to exist in anything less complex than a tank or a ship. So there may be a big gulf between what exists and what people believe. Just like in real life.  If that's the case, then I think that bolsters the argument that machine spirits are ancient, poorly-understood AIs.
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Feb 17, 2014 19:05
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Arquinsiel posted:Have you not read the Imperial Infantryman's Uplifting Primer? Negative, but having looked it up just now -- that's an in-universe source, so I'm guessing it states that lasguns have Machine Spirits? There's still an important difference between the author of the Primer believing a gun has a Machine Spirit (as Super Neat Toy points out in the Andrej example a couple of posts up) and a novel/sourcebook portraying a Machine Spirit actually having a will of its own. The "Machine Spirit" of a lasgun can be explained away as a temperamental piece of equipment. The "Machine Spirit" of a ship (which actually talks to people and attempts to enforce its own will) is much harder to explain without calling it an AI or an actual supernatural entity.
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Feb 17, 2014 19:28
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That thing is a Union Jack away from being an Iron Maiden album cover.
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Feb 19, 2014 00:07
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What's Dragonlance and why was it ridiculous?
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Feb 28, 2014 14:59
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Uroboros posted:Angel Exterminatus is listed as "Great" in the OP...what heresy is this? Without new BL books to talk about we have started to turn on one another. Save us GW.
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Mar 6, 2014 20:04
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Book trailers have been a thing for years now.
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Mar 19, 2014 17:40
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UberJumper posted:I finished Helsreach last night, and it was pretty good. I personally think Necropolis is a much more engaging and interesting last stand type of novel. Helsreach is the weakest ADB book -- he's still learning his craft with that one and the characters are thin and the plot is pretty by-the-numbers as a result. It doesn't compare well with peak ADB stuff like Nightlords trilogy and The Emperor's Gift.
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Mar 21, 2014 00:01
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The Rat posted:ADB has yet to really disappoint me. Oh yeah, same here. Picking a weakest ADB book is like choosing the ugliest supermodel.
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Mar 21, 2014 01:08
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