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I liked Alpharius a lot, it did a good job of providing the Alpha Legion with some needed backstory without compromising their secretive character. I also like how likable Alpharius is while also showing his hubris and possible naivete especially when he leaves the planet where mobs are yelling "kill maim burn" and just thinks it's fine and nothing to worry about.
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Jun 3, 2022 20:50
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| # ¿ Apr 28, 2024 18:25 |
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Everything I've heard from ESL speakers leads me to believe that learning to speak English is pretty easy but learning to read and write it is a nightmare. We have a few sounds that are weird (I think our "r" sound can also be found in Chinese languages and basically nowhere else) but they can be worked around if you don't mind having an accent. Our grammar is pretty straightforward with a few notable exceptions but our spelling, jfc. It's something native speakers struggle with so I can't even imagine non-native folks trying to hash out bullshit like "their, there, and they're".
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Jun 9, 2022 17:49
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I was talking about it in another thread, but I read the Ghazghkull book a week or so ago and I really liked it. An interesting look at Orks and a cool exploration of the Orkish mindset and their beliefs. I really liked the book's format, with perspective shifting from Makari and the inquisitorial retinue interrogating him; I haven't seen anything like that in a BL book. Another cool touch was the change in pronouns, with Makari using "they" to refer to all Orks for the first couple of chapters before one of the Imperials insists that Ghaz is a "he" and the Orkish translator comments that human jdeas of gender are funny. I thought the idea of reincarnation being a core belief (and reality) of Orks helps their mindset be a lot more understandable. If an Ork believes or knows that they're just going to "respawn" when they die (with no regard to behaving altruistically like humans who believe in reincarnation) the value of life and death becomes a lot hazier. The human inquisitor was a cool character, too; I really liked seeing an Ordo Xenos inquisitor reacting to the reality of alien and abhuman personhood and becoming jaded about Imperial dogma. The Ogryn psyker being intelligent in contradiction of Imperial beliefs was a nice touch, too. It was a really great way to write a character biography, exploring some cool concepts along with telling the story instead of just expanding a Codex bio with bolter porn. If you haven't read it, I recommend it highly and hope BL keeps putting out Ork books.
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Jun 28, 2022 21:05
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FishFood posted:I was talking about it in another thread, but I read the Ghazghkull book a week or so ago and I really liked it. An interesting look at Orks and a cool exploration of the Orkish mindset and their beliefs. I really liked the book's format, with perspective shifting from Makari and the inquisitorial retinue interrogating him; I haven't seen anything like that in a BL book. Another cool bit was the change in pronouns, with Makari using "they" to refer to all Orks for the first couple of chapters before one of the Imperials insists that Ghaz is a "he". The Orkish translator comments that human ideas of gender are funny, and then switches to use the more familiar coding. It was a nice touch.
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Jun 28, 2022 21:07
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Emzedoh posted:Well it seems obvious when you put it like that :P Blood Axes are still around but the WW2 German aesthetic has been phased out, they've been leaning a lot more into the commando/Rambo look, which I think fits Orks better anyhow.
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Jul 1, 2022 19:03
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DaysBefore posted:Maybe the 20th dullest (1-19 are the primarchs) Alpharius/Omegon is cool, but that's because they're still mysterious and their hubristic tendencies are interesting
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Jul 7, 2022 02:12
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I listened to Kyme's Blueblood book and actually liked it. It wasn't great, but it was a fun diversion, more of a mystery novel than standard military fiction. The main protagonist is kind of a stereotypical stiff-upper-lip soldier's soldier, but his star-crossed past romance with another male officer kept me interested. I really wanted them to kiss and tell each other their feelings. As for the Great Renaming, I hate it so very much. I understand the logic of it, but it's such a nakedly corporate decision and the new names are so universally awful. They could have chosen names that were consistent with earlier 40k faux Latin but instead went the lazy route. The Imperial Guard could be the Adeptus Milites or something but instead they googled "star army".
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Jul 11, 2022 17:42
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Chaos is pretty diverse, as well, and different factions and warbands will have wildly different experiences. Being an ammo hauler first grade on a Night Lords ship is one of the worst experiences a person could have, but doing the same job for the Alpha Legion is probably a much better experience than being on an Imperial vessel.
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Jul 4, 2023 23:44
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I don't really like that interpretation and really hope they don't lean into it: part of the whole point of 40k for me is how unnecessary the Imperium is. It's a monstrous regime put in place by a deluded megalomaniac and when the setting embraces the Emperor's perspective of "It would have been perfect if everyone else just followed my perfect plans," it just endorses that kind of authoritarianism and I hate it. I'll be honest that Primarchs and demigods mostly bore me to tears, so I have stayed away from HH, but I really hope they don't go with anything close to "The Emperor was right all along". 40k is better when the Emperor is doomed by his own hubris and authoritarian tendencies: he needs to have always been wrong.
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Jul 22, 2023 02:28
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| # ¿ Apr 28, 2024 18:25 |
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Nah, I don't like stories where the most powerful person is 100% right and the only things preventing them from succeeding are the flaws of others. It feels juvenile to me, not to mention it justifies some pretty ugly beliefs. It might work for "Pinky and the Brain", where the foibles of the much-put-upon genius are fodder for jokes, but as soon as you move it to epic space opera it starts to get icky. It's part of the same reason I hate Stackpole's Battletech books: when you center the narrative entirely around a single character who can't fail and can only be failed, it starts to read like a selfish teenager's myopic view of the world. I also just feel uncomfortable with a setting where a genocidal invasion called "The Great Crusade" is anything but a monstrosity.
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Jul 22, 2023 03:30
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