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Baron Porkface
Jan 22, 2007


I think Cain should get more points in accessibility, being a important "life in the Imperium" dealie.

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Cat Planet
Jun 26, 2010

:420: :catdrugs: :420:
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.

Arquinsiel
Jun 1, 2006

"There is no such thing as society. There are individual men and women, and there are families. And no government can do anything except through people, and people must look to themselves first."

God Bless Margaret Thatcher
God Bless England
RIP My Iron Lady

TheStampede posted:

There have been three Wars for Armageddon.
Two of them at the same time because GW can't keep poo poo straight.

OXBALLS DOT COM
Sep 11, 2005

by FactsAreUseless
Young Orc

Arquinsiel posted:

Two of them at the same time because GW the Imperium of Mankind can't keep poo poo straight.

Luckily, GW has designed it so that continuity being an absolute shambles is completely in line with the fluff.

Space Monster
Mar 13, 2009

Baron Porkface posted:

I think Cain should get more points in accessibility, being a important "life in the Imperium" dealie.

These are also some of the only books that provide insight into the day to day workings of the Empire. Most Imperial Guard books really focus on the guard, not so much on civilian life. Obviously the Cain books do the same, but he tends to have much more interaction with regular citizens of the Imperium than most BL protagonists.

Arquinsiel
Jun 1, 2006

"There is no such thing as society. There are individual men and women, and there are families. And no government can do anything except through people, and people must look to themselves first."

God Bless Margaret Thatcher
God Bless England
RIP My Iron Lady

Cream_Filling posted:

Luckily, GW has designed it so that continuity being an absolute shambles is completely in line with the fluff.
They were both led by the same Ork :ssh:

Mr.48
May 1, 2007

Therion posted:

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.

The Rogue trader story was probably the least interesting book out of the three for me. I really enjoyed the third book since the author obviously got better with experience, and it has an actual murder mystery as well as showing you the inner working of the Adeptus Astropathica which was something really new. I would tell you to skip the second book, but one of the main plot elements of the third book is a direct consequence of the second book's ending. Let me know if you want me to just spoil that for you so you can move on to the third book and skip the second.

Cat Planet
Jun 26, 2010

:420: :catdrugs: :420:
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

Arthur Bowlsworth
Dec 5, 2003

Wot wot, old boy. Might one have a toke?

rocket_Magnet posted:

I totally didn't get what mechafunkzilla got from the alpha legion story

Same, will need to re-read

Cooked Auto
Aug 4, 2007

If you will not serve in combat, you will serve on the firing line!




I kinda like the first Shira Calpurnia book despite that slight issue. But then I've not totally stalled out on reading the second one because it does drag on way too much with multiple Rogue Trader characters that I have a hard time caring about when all I want is 40k cop stories.

Evil_Urna posted:

Correct me if I am wrong but the Black Templars are a bit of an inside joke. There are so many of them in the books and what not because they have the easiest color scheme to paint.

I'd have to say that goes for Blood Angels and Ultramarines as well considering they are all pretty much two colour schemes.

Mechafunkzilla
Sep 11, 2006

If you want a vision of the future...

Baron Porkface posted:

I think Cain should get more points in accessibility, being a important "life in the Imperium" dealie.

It's not that the books would be inscrutable to a newcomer, it's more that a lot of the humor that comes from the tonal shift would be lost on someone who didn't have any preconceptions of 40k.

Dodoman
Feb 26, 2009



A moment of laxity
A lifetime of regret
Lipstick Apathy
His jokes about the Sisters of Battle in Duty Calls would be lost on people if they haven't read some sort of fluff (or played them DoW:Soulstorm) related to them. I laughed my rear end off throughout that book :v:.

Dodoman fucked around with this message at 15:37 on Jul 11, 2012

Arquinsiel
Jun 1, 2006

"There is no such thing as society. There are individual men and women, and there are families. And no government can do anything except through people, and people must look to themselves first."

God Bless Margaret Thatcher
God Bless England
RIP My Iron Lady

Cooked Auto posted:

I'd have to say that goes for Blood Angels and Ultramarines as well considering they are all pretty much two colour schemes.
It always annoys me that GW decided that blood angels are just plain red now. The colour scheme shift from 2nd to 3rd ed left all the locals very confused at my army.

berzerkmonkey
Jul 23, 2003

Arquinsiel posted:

It always annoys me that GW decided that blood angels are just plain red now. The colour scheme shift from 2nd to 3rd ed left all the locals very confused at my army.

You're talking the red with black trim and joints? Yeah, I think they did that because their reds were so lovely at the time that if you accidentally hit the red armor with your black brush, you basically had to shoot yourself in the face.

The probably more accurate answer is that it was easier for kids to spray their Marines red and get in the game and buy more stuff.

When I repaint mine, I'll likely still do the black joints - or maybe a couple of black washes.

berzerkmonkey fucked around with this message at 02:51 on Jul 12, 2012

Arquinsiel
Jun 1, 2006

"There is no such thing as society. There are individual men and women, and there are families. And no government can do anything except through people, and people must look to themselves first."

God Bless Margaret Thatcher
God Bless England
RIP My Iron Lady
Fun fact: the paints they had at the time were made by Coat D'armes. This was done by drybrushing bleached bone over black and then drybrushing THAT with red. Ever since they switched to the shorter pots their red has been worthless poo poo, but the old stuff was pure gold.

The switch in colour scheme pretty much happened at the exact same time they changed paint suppliers to some polish company and when they ditched the red spray. It was a terrible idea all round.

Arquinsiel fucked around with this message at 04:16 on Jul 12, 2012

berzerkmonkey
Jul 23, 2003
I'm selling off a bunch of my BL books in SA Mart if anyone is interested: http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3495517

Mr.48
May 1, 2007

berzerkmonkey posted:

I'm selling off a bunch of my BL books in SA Mart if anyone is interested: http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3495517

How are the Necromunda books? I've read Survival of the Fittest and liked that one, how are the rest in comparison?

berzerkmonkey
Jul 23, 2003

Mr.48 posted:

How are the Necromunda books? I've read Survival of the Fittest and liked that one, how are the rest in comparison?
To be honest, it has been so long since I read them, I can't remember.

Gough Suppressant
Nov 14, 2008
Has anyone read Kraken? The concept of a Space Wolf hunting sea monsters on a water planet is rad as gently caress to me, does it do the idea justice?

uXs
May 3, 2005

Mark it zero!
I've started reading Eisenhorn, but I don't really like it so far. Eisenhorn is too full of himself, too "Oooh, I'm an inquisitor, look at me!" That combined with the first-person viewpoint makes it read like a self-insert fanfic type of thing. If that makes sense.

Does it get better?

Cat Planet
Jun 26, 2010

:420: :catdrugs: :420:
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 :v: It's only downhill from there onwards.

Greataval
Mar 26, 2010
Try Ian watsons draco I personally like that inquisition series more than Dan abnetts.

Nephilm
Jun 11, 2009

by Lowtax

uXs posted:

I've started reading Eisenhorn, but I don't really like it so far. Eisenhorn is too full of himself, too "Oooh, I'm an inquisitor, look at me!" That combined with the first-person viewpoint makes it read like a self-insert fanfic type of thing. If that makes sense.

Does it get better?

Confidence in his abilities, his mission, and the justifiability of his decisions is what makes the Eisenhorn series what it is, for it is a story of consequences and his slow descent into Radicalism.

At the start he's also rather gung-ho but he's only 40-60 years old; later on age and experience start catching up to him.

Mechafunkzilla
Sep 11, 2006

If you want a vision of the future...

uXs posted:

I've started reading Eisenhorn, but I don't really like it so far. Eisenhorn is too full of himself, too "Oooh, I'm an inquisitor, look at me!" That combined with the first-person viewpoint makes it read like a self-insert fanfic type of thing. If that makes sense.

Does it get better?

There's this thing called hubris, it's kind of a big theme in Eisenhorn...

Waroduce
Aug 5, 2008
Has there been any news on the new Eisenhorn book? Its been.....a while. I feel like I'm waiting for Martin to release the new Game of Thrones at this point. Good lord.


(not as bad as the wait for Steakly's Armor 2. Jk thats never coming)

CaptainAttitude
May 31, 2003

This haircut was a good idea.

Waroduce posted:

(not as bad as the wait for Steakly's Armor 2. Jk thats never coming)

Well, yeah. Steakley died a couple years ago.

Waroduce
Aug 5, 2008

CaptainAttitude posted:

Well, yeah. Steakley died a couple years ago.

:catstare:

Oh.....well than. Woopsy

Olanphonia
Jul 27, 2006

I'm open to suggestions~

Waroduce posted:

Has there been any news on the new Eisenhorn book? Its been.....a while. I feel like I'm waiting for Martin to release the new Game of Thrones at this point. Good lord.


(not as bad as the wait for Steakly's Armor 2. Jk thats never coming)

It's shown up on the Upcoming section of the BL site, says release is in November 2012.

Mechafunkzilla
Sep 11, 2006

If you want a vision of the future...
The ending to Wrath of Iron is so grimdark I actually laughed out loud. Easily the bleakest, most nihilistic 40k book I've read.

The Rat
Aug 29, 2004

You will find no one to help you here. Beth DuClare has been dissected and placed in cryonic storage.

I dunno, I thought Dead Men Walking was worse for the grimdark factor. Wrath of Iron just left me thinking the Iron Hands are a bunch of insecure douchebags.

lonelylikezoidberg
Dec 19, 2007
while i realize it is not the comic book forum, is it acceptable to ask about 40k comics in here?

i have a physical copy of Imperial Gothic, which I like, and is fun, but a lot of the comics seem to be GW selling poo poo "oh here's a necron army oh and now space marines are fighting tau too and oh wow theres eldar look at all the poo poo you can buy" and they're kind of crummy in terms of story.

are there any good ones out there?

CommissarMega
Nov 18, 2008

THUNDERDOME LOSER

The Rat posted:

I dunno, I thought Dead Men Walking was worse for the grimdark factor. Wrath of Iron just left me thinking the Iron Hands are a bunch of insecure douchebags.

Yeah, I've just finished reading Dead Men Walking and The Emperor's Gift yesterday. Dead Men is definitely the grimdarkiest one; poo poo, (spoiling for safety) the only people whom you can argue to get happy endings in that one are the Kriegers who died.

The Emperor's Gift though, was awesome scene after awesome scene, which was amazing for what is essentially a very pessimistic work. Again, spoiling to be safe, but seeing Bjorn face down Logan Grimnar and the Grey Knight who broke Angron's sword was loving amazing :hawaaaafap: That sarcophagus must contain and be powered by his massive balls. And finding out that kid from the Ravenor books grew up to BE that Grey Knight was :allears: I definitely want more.


lonelylikezoidberg posted:

while i realize it is not the comic book forum, is it acceptable to ask about 40k comics in here?

i have a physical copy of Imperial Gothic, which I like, and is fun, but a lot of the comics seem to be GW selling poo poo "oh here's a necron army oh and now space marines are fighting tau too and oh wow theres eldar look at all the poo poo you can buy" and they're kind of crummy in terms of story.

are there any good ones out there?


DEFF SKWADRON

Demiurge4
Aug 10, 2011

CommissarMega posted:

The Emperor's Gift though, was awesome scene after awesome scene, which was amazing for what is essentially a very pessimistic work. Again, spoiling to be safe, but seeing Bjorn face down Logan Grimnar and the Grey Knight who broke Angron's sword was loving amazing :hawaaaafap: That sarcophagus must contain and be powered by his massive balls. And finding out that kid from the Ravenor books grew up to BE that Grey Knight was :allears: I definitely want more.

The Ravenor tie-in was definitely my favourite part as well. Even more so because I felt he had a tiny role in the Ravenor books and I really wanted his character to go somewhere.

berzerkmonkey
Jul 23, 2003

CommissarMega posted:

DEFF SKWADRON
Indeed.

I think Bloodquest and Daemonifuge were ok, though it's been so long since I read them. You might also want to check out the Warhammer Monthly comics they did for a while. Honestly though, you're not going to get anything spectacular (the exception being DEFF SKWADRON.)

Mechafunkzilla
Sep 11, 2006

If you want a vision of the future...

The Rat posted:

I dunno, I thought Dead Men Walking was worse for the grimdark factor. Wrath of Iron just left me thinking the Iron Hands are a bunch of insecure douchebags.

It's not even close. Dead Men Walking has the protagonists lose, but Wrath of Iron has every character who displays even a shred of humanity (Nethata, Lopi, Marivo, Khadi) not just die, but also have their worldview refuted entirely by the events of the story. The one Space Marine who was capable of empathy completes his transition into a remorseless, hatred-fueled killing machine, and executes one of the humans who had even made their victory possible in the first place. The narrator practically says, through her, that if these are the kinds of monsters that are required to save the Imperium -- and the plot demonstrates clearly that they are -- then the Imperium isn't worth saving.

That's a lot darker than any "oh no the enemy was too strong now we're dead" narrative. Though, I do like that Chris Wraight understands that the Imperium is not the "good" faction.

Nephilm
Jun 11, 2009

by Lowtax
None of the major factions are good; everyone's out to look for their continued survival first and foremost.

Mechafunkzilla
Sep 11, 2006

If you want a vision of the future...

Nephilm posted:

None of the major factions are good; everyone's out to look for their continued survival first and foremost.

The Salamanders are pretty righteous dudes.

S.J.
May 19, 2008

Just who the hell do you think we are?

Nephilm posted:

None of the major factions are good; everyone's out to look for their continued survival first and foremost.

Wrong. The Orks are righteousness incarnate.

KramFoot
Sep 25, 2011
Hey folks I've got an excerpt of Pariah thanks to the BL catologue I picked up today. The BL website also has a new summary for it as well

quote:

I heard the crack, the crack of metal on flesh, the sound of an axe smacking a ripe tuber. Saur's head was snapped aside, his body rotating after it. Blood flew. It was in his dirty white hair. He crashed backwards into the railings of the upper ring, and knocked over a spit bucket. He half-fell, yet somehow kept his feet, but he was done. The stranger was following in, the salinter going for the throat while the guard was dropped.
You have to remember the speed. You have to appreciate, as I tell you this, that virtually no time at all had passed since I first entered the room and saw them fighting. Three, four seconds, enough time for them to trade two dozen blows. I had come in with just enough time to grasp the basic situation and see Saur fall.
I never liked Thaddeus Saur. It's safe to say my feelings towards the cruel bastard were stronger and more negative than that.
But he was of the Maze Undue, and so was I, and this could not be permitted.

I started forward. I shouted out a great cry, and snatched a buckler from the pegs. My cuff was turned to dead, so the force of my bluntness came with me and my shout.
It can be like a slap to have a pariah come at you, aggressive, un-limited. To even a non sensitive, a regular human, the psykanic null of a blank mind be disturbing, if only fleetingly.
He recoiled. The stranger recoiled. It was enough of a surprise to stop him cutting out Saur's throat. My interruption wasn't going to stop there. I hurled the buckler like a discus.
The small, circular shield missed him, but he was obliged to duck. Saur was far from finished. He kicked out, savagely, and caught the stranger on the inside of his thigh with his heel, throwing the man sideways, clumsily.

The stranger landed, hands on the canvas, but was ready as Saur propelled himself forward and kicked the mentor's legs away. Saur slammed onto his back.
And I was, all this time, still running at him. I turned the run into a flying kick.
He rolled under me, flat to the floor, and sprung up as I landed and turned.
I think he wanted to say something to me, but he didn't know what. Perhaps he wanted to tell me to flee, to back away from a fight I had no part in, but he couldn't. If he wanted Saur dead, he had to kill me too, or the whole house would come down on his head.

I could sense his conflict. Unarmed as I was, I drove at him, using his reluctance against him. Fighting Saur was one thing, but he didn't want to engage a young woman. His response was half-hearted. He tried to shove me away. He tried to spare me his blade, though it was still in his hand. I think he hoped to clip me with the hilt or pommel and perhaps knock me out.
I would not let him off so easily. I grasped his wrist, turned it and, with my other hand, punched the pressure point in his upper arm.
The salinter flew out of his deadened fingers.
"Who are you?" I demanded.
With both hands, he rammed me aside. I staggered and fell, knocking down a rack of wooden exercise staves.

I got up, gripping one stave and kicking the others out of my way. The stranger was backing from me, his hands up.
I think he was intending to cut his losses and flee.
He doubled up as Saur's cutro tore into him from behind. The short sword went through his coat, through his robes, through his under-jack and mesh, and sliced into his wrist. Saur ripped the blade free,and blood squirted out across the canvas. The stranger stumbled away, his head wobbling like a drunkard, his feet unsure, his eyes confused. He had both hands clamped to his waist, but even tight together, they could not plug the hole in him. Blood poured out, like red wine from a jug. His hands and sleeves were soaked with it.
His mouth opened and closed, without managing to form words.

He fell down on his back. Saur just stood there, watching him bleed out, the bloodied cutro low at his side.
Blood formed a huge, dark red mirror on the canvas around the stranger. The mirror crept out. Blood soaked his coat and robes, covered his hands and flecked his face. He stared at the ceiling, mouth fluttered open and shut, his legs twitching.
I bent over him.
Perhaps he didn't have to die, I thought. We could hold him, bind his injury, call for the city watch. I tried to apply pressure to his ghastly wound, but it was open, and as big as a dog's mouth. My hands were no better at stemming the flow of blood than his had been.

He suddenly, finally, saw me instead of the ceiling and the lights. He blinked, refocused. Tiny beads of blood had lodged in his eyelashes.
"What is this? Who are you?" I asked.
He said a word. It came out of him like a gasp, more breath than sound.
It was a word I had not heard before.
He said, "Cognitae".
There was a bang, right in my ear, and it made me jump because it was sudden and close and painfully loud. A bark of pressure clouted me along with the noise. I flinched as bloody back-spatter hit my face, throat and chest. I had his blood in my eyes.
Mentor Saur put another round through the stranger's face for good measure, then holstered his snub pistol.

KramFoot fucked around with this message at 18:43 on Jul 17, 2012

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Fried Chicken
Jan 9, 2011

Don't fry me, I'm no chicken!
Nevermind, looked it up. Wrong Pariah

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