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Shira Calpurnia probably deserves a mention among the Good Books, since it's a nice Eisenhorn-style investigation and politics series about an Arbites officer. It has a lot of fluff-specific things that will probably need some explanation, but is otherwise pretty interesting. The only disadvantage is that the story seems to drag a bit sometimes (unlike Abnett's, who is good at interspersing slow bits with action scenes). e: Ugh I suck at reading comprehension. Mechafunkzilla posted:Honourkeeper, by Nick Kyme. Dwarves beat the poo poo out of everything. There is a good book by Nick loving Kyme? Wow, I really need to read this. Cat Planet fucked around with this message at 01:47 on Jul 7, 2012 |
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Jul 7, 2012 01:40
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Wulfolme posted:Also, I'm not going to be able to pick up another Gaunt's Ghosts book without a guarantee that Lijah Cuu dies in one of them. Does he, and when? After Straight Silver I was fed up with his presence in my spacewar story. He does in Sabbat Martyr
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Jul 7, 2012 02:25
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It's actually a Dune ripoff but the Starcraft thing is great to infuriate hardcore 'hams with.
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Jul 7, 2012 22:53
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Yeah it's a huge problem of his. His worst ending ever is Honour Guard, which is literally "thay pressed a button and all Chaos on planet died".
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Jul 9, 2012 19:53
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Does Shira Calpurnia get faster or more detective-y? I like the premise (and the beginning of the second book about a rogue trader) but the first book dragged on a lot with its religious wankery bullshit. Also the "plot twist" at the end was telegraphed so hard that I rolled my eyes after reading the scooby doo style reveal thing.
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Jul 11, 2012 02:58
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Nah I've already started on it so I will find out for myself. Still can't get over how stupid the motivation of the first book's antagonist was, even for someone living in the the 40k universe. I want heightened security for the religious event I conduct, so I'm going to assassinate a police oficer instead of, you know, asking the Arbites or Sororitas for more protection. This makes sense because GRIMDARK FUTURE Cat Planet fucked around with this message at 06:32 on Jul 11, 2012 |
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Jul 11, 2012 06:27
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It starts a bit slow but does get really interesting wih a variety of different scenes and villains. Eisenhorn himself is not all powerful or anything, even though the beginning spends some time introducing the whole inqiusitor thing. Also the other Abnett inquisitor series is Ravenor, which is about a guy in a space wheelchair on life support (whose entire crew apart from him gets laid as he ruminates on the mysteries of the universe in the next room) It's not a sophisticated work of literature but if you dislike protagonists who have their heads up their asses then you should probably avoid 40k fiction  It's only downhill from there onwards.
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Jul 16, 2012 10:44
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Aziraphale posted:And what exactly is the machine spirit? I always thought it was the dumbed down mechanicum not fully understanding their own technology anymore, so they devolved back into believing in something like god of machines. A part of it is that (I'm going to pray to the machine spirit of my toilet to prevent it from backing up!!!  ) but as Nephilm said there are also advanced machine spirits which are not unlike programs/AIs.Also because of the warp fuckery stuff like weapons/armor can sometimes remember its previous owners, which is attributed to the machine spirit. The fluff has some ancient power armor suits that help their wearers fight, etc.
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Jul 25, 2012 09:10
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Is Omnissiah still the Void Dragon after that asinine Necron fluff redesign?
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Jul 27, 2012 00:45
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Gooses and Geeses posted:Little fish, fifteen hours is awful little fish. What on earth is good about it little fish? Mitchell Scanlon is a horrible writer and repeats phrases was too much. His other book is Descent of Angels where the readers are reminded of the planet the action takes place on every other sentence. It was a beautiful sunset on Caliban...
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Jul 27, 2012 09:51
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I'm halfway through the last Enforcer book (Blind) and while I enjoy the premise, Farrer's books drag on a lot. I mean, the beginning of Blind is just Shira wandering around the ship and talking to random people while new characters get introduced every other page. It would have been more tolerable if Shira had any personality at all. There are Khorne berzerkers with more complex emotions and motivations than her. I know Farrer wanted to write a "no nonsense by the book Arbites" character but what he ended up with was a Space Marine sans rising choler. Cat Planet fucked around with this message at 22:34 on Aug 1, 2012 |
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Aug 1, 2012 22:20
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Olanphonia posted:I'll add to the answers already provided. In the Ultramarines books they mention that there are worker guilds that negotiate with the merchant guild heads, iirc. Basically, some places will have unions and stuff, but they would generally be monolithic and corrupt and so would not really care about the welfare of the workers. Ultramarines have basically said "gently caress the Imperium, we will rule with our own laws" which is why their systems are a relatively good place to live (until you get eaten by Tyranids that is )
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Aug 5, 2012 01:33
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I've just started reading the Last Chancers and holy poo poo, it feels like it was narrated by Samus from Other M. "How can you do this!" I gasped at the colonel, being distressed. The reason of my distress was the tone of the voice the colonel told the bad news in. Now I'm going to take it out on my squadmates because I'm a ~tough guy~. The premise is pretty engaging and I'm curious where the story will go. However I feel that these books will suffer from Lovecraft Syndrome, ie an interesting premise explored by an incredibly lovely writer.
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Aug 10, 2012 00:16
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Degenerate Star posted:Has anyone ever introduced them to the Tyranids? Inquisitor Kryptmann did and it turned out to be a loving terrible idea.
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Sep 6, 2012 23:29
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In the 40k context "radical" usually means "fucks around with Chaos powers". If anything, the purest Emperor-fearing monodominants are the ones who would wipe out a planet because it had a few heretics on it. Eisenhorn and Ravenor really are exceptions to the Inquisition, especially since Abnett's whole shtick is taking a character that is supposed to be an rear end in a top hat and making him a nice person.
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Sep 7, 2012 01:19
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Death by Cranes posted:The reason I'm rooting for Nemesis, is the elaborate plot: Spear, the detective and Eristede's personal war is just so well intertwined. When all the threads gather in one bloody inevitable outcome it just rocks you face off. And the internal war of glamour within humanity's best ranks goes to show how much of an inferior race we are - even 29.000 years from now. The premise sounds interesting, I think I'll give it a shot. I did read the Last Chancers and Battle for the Abyss so there is no 40k literature I can't handle
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Sep 7, 2012 01:23
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Kegslayer posted:In Voidstalker we find out that two of Talos' men have succumbed to Khorne but to different degrees. Uzas blacks out and has his blood for the blood god moments but it's Cyrion, who having also succumbed, waits for Uzas to black out before giving into Khorne and then blaming the killings on Uzas afterwards. Cyrion got his ability to taste and enjoy fear from Slaanesh  . I think it gets told in the first book when Talos gets an audience with the gods.
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Sep 10, 2012 01:58
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This goes into the realm of fan wankery but if I have to guess, the progenoids can only be extracted once since they mature together with the Space Marine. Like, they get implanted into an aspirant as he grows into an Astartes and goes through all sorts of genetic fuckery. So maybe this process can happen only once per Marine. I mean, the 40k universe is full of plot holes because GW wrote a lot of poo poo that sounded cool at the time into Rogue Trader and then went "Oh blimey, we actually have to keep the lore consistant. And grimdark." (Also yes, Swallow is pretty bad. He wrote Eisenstein which is the second worst HH novel after the Abyss) Cat Planet fucked around with this message at 02:10 on Sep 11, 2012 |
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Sep 11, 2012 02:04
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Emnity posted:So far I haven't been able to finish the Descent of Angels in the Horus Heresy series, it just doesn't have any latch for me at all. It does not. They get rid of the beasts, then the Emperor comes down and makes them into Astartes, oh and they kill some poo poo afterwards. Here, now you can read something better. Also avoid Battle for the Abyss if you're going to continue with the series. Rapey Joe Stalin posted:I'm only 64 pages into Battle For The Abyss and it is already very very bad. Everything that is bad about Black Library books has already made an appearance. Cat Planet fucked around with this message at 12:58 on Sep 14, 2012 |
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Sep 14, 2012 12:47
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berzerkmonkey posted:Also, not strictly fluff/BL related, but FW has put up a sneak peek of the HH Volume 1: Betrayal https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6S0ZaG9xEIA I'm worried that it's obviously geared toward the higher price point as it is leather-bound with metal corner protectors. That being said, I am drooling. It's not like money is a concern for people who buy FW stuff 
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Sep 14, 2012 14:02
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The Southern Dandy posted:Also, Gaunt's Ghosts gets lame after he keeps killing the likeable characters. He just needs to either tie up the series or throw them into a new situation, like the Gereon stuff. His traditional "ho ho ho, command shafted us, time to fight Chaos in [wacky location]" got old really fast.
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Sep 16, 2012 12:31
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Are there any decent Eldar novels that tell about their society, etc? I only know of the C.S. Goto ones, and even my lovely author tolerance only goes so far.
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Sep 16, 2012 17:18
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Arquinsiel posted:Will Gaunt ever get command back?!?!?! fakeout I wish Abnett killed off one of his books' main characters or had something irreversably lovely happen to them, since I have trouble feeling any tension at all while knowing that his protagonists have the thickest Plot Armor this side of Salvatore. I know that 40k novels are intended for the ARGH BADASS KILLS EVERYONE teenage crowd but there are only so much cliches one can use before the reader starts to recognize the patterns. Cat Planet fucked around with this message at 23:16 on Sep 16, 2012 |
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Sep 16, 2012 23:14
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Mechafunkzilla posted:Is this an ironic post or what I don't even I know that Gaunt's dudes occasionally die and Eisenhorn falls into radicalism but the former is arbitrary in an IG novel and the latter is the main plot point in its book. When [important character] is in a proper battle, you know that they won't lose  Haven't read Brothers of the Snake yet though.
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Sep 16, 2012 23:21
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Cream_Filling posted:Or else madcap hijinks at the Schola Progenium. Ciaphas Cain: the early years 
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Oct 1, 2012 21:13
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I liked that Pariah was different, it has a nice unique style to it rather than "Eisenhorn, but with a female lead". However I think that Beta's stay in the school [mild spoilers] should have been much shorter. It's an engaging introduction to the setting, but a bit too much exposition. Speaking of characters I didn't recognize till the ending, I was kind of surprised that the sister turned out to be Patience Kys. Maybe that's because Abnett managed to describe her without using the word "voluptuous".
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Oct 25, 2012 02:06
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Nephilm posted:The book is titled Pariah and is part one of the Bequin trilogy. I see nothing about Ravenor vs Eisenhorn on the cover. I don't agree with Wesley Walker but to be fair... 
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Oct 27, 2012 23:12
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The only BL audiobook I've listened to was Salvation's Reach, and it has the exact amount of cheese a 40k book should have while still taking itself seriously E: I did hope that Merrt would get killed halfway through the book because of his VA. Cat Planet fucked around with this message at 23:06 on Nov 9, 2012 |
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Nov 9, 2012 16:20
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Emnity posted:I don't remember any reference to Queen Mab etc in the earlier trilogies. One of the best parts of writing 40k must be the ability to pull anything you want out of your rear end any time, and still have it be canon
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Nov 15, 2012 14:31
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I've finally finished Ian Watson's Space Marine and oh man, it really is great. His writing style does actually read like something a posh historian in the 40k world would compose. It has been recommended in the thread before, but I have to reiterate that all 40k fans should read it because it has: - Squats! Zoats! - Perhaps the only gay romance in all the BL books, complete with a love confession on a Tyranid Hive ship! - Lots of fluff on how batshit insane Space Marines are. Most newer GW books just treat them like honourable warriors who are a bit detached from reality. SM's Imperial Fists do behave like someone who has been brainwashed into killing cosmic horrors for their entire lives. Now to read Inquisition War (even though the reviews for it seem to be a bit more negative). quote:If you want a picture of the future, imagine a fist branded on a human bum - forever. Cat Planet fucked around with this message at 02:26 on Nov 27, 2012 |
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Nov 26, 2012 21:37
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Lion'El was a bit OCD about his weapon collection.
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Nov 30, 2012 20:23
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The Word Bearer trilogy is pretty bad and characterization in it is virtually nonexistent, unless you count "I DRINK SIX BOWLS OF TODDLER BLOOD EVERY BREAKFAST" as a character trait. It's bolter porn at its worst and thirteen-year-oldest. It has a few amusing side character arcs but it's no Storm of Iron it's clearly trying to be. Oh and apparently the Word Bearers aren't allowed to drink, eat tasty food and get high, so Slaanesh gets kind of shafted. In fact, aside from Khorne, there are little to none scenes of chaos stuff you would expect. Cat Planet fucked around with this message at 22:15 on Dec 4, 2012 |
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Dec 4, 2012 22:12
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Are lho sticks space cigarettes or space weed? This is important
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Feb 7, 2013 15:19
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Is it the same Scottish guy who narrated Salvation's Reach? Because I associate every other character in Gaunt's Ghosts with him now...  ROOOOOHN
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Feb 10, 2013 22:49
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