|
Xenology had a great Lovecraft vibe to it, yeah. Absolutely worth reading if you can get access to it. Just finished Wrath of Iron and thought it was unremarkable, bland bolter porn. Only impression I had at the end was "Wow, the Iron Hands are insecure dickbags."
|
#
¿
Jul 8, 2012 16:28
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ Apr 20, 2024 05:06 |
|
|
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.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 17, 2012 05:51
|
|
|
Shroud posted:Yeah, I wonder if it's supposed to be a duology or trilogy. So many threads were left dangling, especially the forged Rogue Trader writ. Surely it must be. There was no resolution of any sort, everything just felt like setup. Besides, Mcneill isn't really in the habit of writing one-off books. I will say that Mcneill's writing style has improved quite a bit though. Aside from the abrupt ending, I loved the hell out of it.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 3, 2012 16:17
|
|
|
Baron Bifford posted:What's scarier is that Cuu sounds exactly like the kind of guy who might have been recruited by a Space Marine Chapter. The Space Marines are said to often recruit the most vicious of hive ganger scum (particularly in the older fluff). He'd make a perfect Night Lord.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 1, 2012 13:56
|
|
|
Read Atlas Infernal, felt like a bizarre WH40k acid trip the whole way through. Just finished Pariah an hour ago and loved it. A bit of a different feel from the usual 40k fare, but still a fun read. Looking forward to the rest of this trilogy.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 22, 2012 11:25
|
|
|
The way the city and its culture were described reminded me of The Lies of Locke Lamora more than anything. I wonder how much of the following books are going to be set there.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 22, 2012 13:50
|
|
|
I've been keeping up with ADB's facebook and blog posts, and the small quotes he's posted from Betrayer have had me going FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFf quote:"You take his honour guards," said Kharn. quote:"And what if I told you the Wolves tried to bring a Legion to heel once before? What if that Legion sent Russ and his dogs running, too ashamed to write down their defeat in Imperial archives?" It should also be noted he's loving hilarious: http://aarondembskibowden.wordpress.com/2011/08/29/aurelian-cover-art/
|
|
#
¿
Oct 22, 2012 17:09
|
|
|
Finished Angel Exterminatus a few days ago. It was okay, but it seemed like Mcneill was trying to do for the Iron Warriors what ADB has done for the Night Lords, and it kinda fell flat. When he goes back to explain their motivations for joining the heresy, it seems like the only real thing is resentment for not having been recognized in the same way that the Fists and Smurfs were. I haven't read Storm of Iron for years, but it seemed like a lot of this book was making callouts to characters from that one. All of the Emperor's Children stuff in it was  as gently caress though. I found it far more amusing than I should have when they tried to Slaanesh-hotbox one of the Iron Warriors emissaries.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 30, 2012 04:10
|
|
|
Pretty unremarkable. Good if you're stuck somewhere and have nothing else to read, but I wouldn't deliberately seek it out.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 5, 2013 20:07
|
|
|
Frankly posted:Has anyone read Priests of Mars by Graham McNeill? I think the ebook has been out for a while now and I do love me some AdMech. I'm on the edge of getting it but I don't want to buy it if it's one of McNeill's lesser stories. I thought it was the best thing McNeill has yet written. His writing style in it was a huge improvement over a lot of his prior work. The descriptions of Mechanicus technology and all that were a joy to read. Be forewarned that it's the first book in a supposed series though, so it ends on a total cliffhanger with no resolution at all. At this point I think that McNeill is best when writing about either Chaos or the Mechanicus; everything else he's put out is unremarkable at best.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 7, 2013 07:52
|
|
|
BlueInkAlchemist posted:Eisenhorn arrived yesterday. I'm seriously considering abandoning Word Bearers since it seems to be going nowhere. I gave Reynolds about 100 pages to deliver an interesting plot idea or characters with agency. All I'm getting is a little bolter porn and what feels like a lot of filler. There could be an interesting power struggle in here somewhere but it's taking a while to actually get going. If they're your favorite legion, look into The First Heretic, Know No Fear, and Betrayer. Reynolds' trilogy is pretty dull all throughout.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 20, 2013 17:53
|
|
|
Scoobi posted:drat that sounds awesome, but I kind of wish his Night Lords was his Gaunts Ghosts. The idea of a disheveled, scavenging warband trying to just make ends meet in the 41st millenium owns. That'd be pretty cool, yeah. Unfortunately ADB says he wants to concentrate on other legions, as with so much Night Lords stuff out already, it'd be beating a dead horse.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 5, 2013 21:56
|
|
|
Nope. Nooooope. Stay away. Boring rear end bolter porn.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 6, 2013 16:56
|
|
|
Cain is too much of a normal guy with regular insecurities. If you really want to read the stories of a horrible hero coward, check out the books he's based on, the Flashman series by George Macdonald Fraser. Hilariously good fun, and you get to learn about 19th century history at the same time! Just finished that Yarrick short story. The writing was pretty good; I enjoyed it. The sections from Yarrick's perspective were intense in the kind of way you'd expect. Plunging into Death of Antagonis now by the same author; hopefully he keeps it up.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 17, 2013 00:18
|
|
|
Sevatar too. Or was he just feeding people to crows? I forget.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 19, 2013 06:09
|
|
|
Just finished Death of Antagonis. It was basically bolter porn about a schism that happens in a company of an unknown chapter that has some weird mutations. I started it expecting it to be bad like Soul Drinkers, but it was surprisingly okay, and decently written. It's not on the level of Abnett/ADB, but still a cut above your average bolter porn. It was decent enough that I'm moderately curious to read some other stuff from the same author. If you don't have much reading time you can skip it. If you're at a dearth for 40k novels and have already read everything Abnett/ADB have put out, it's all right.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 25, 2013 14:49
|
|
|
Mechafunkzilla posted:Finally got around to finishing Angel Exterminatus. It's definitely "good" McNeill, though Fulgrim was a bit too Snidely Whiplash-y for my taste and all the Storm of Iron tie-ins at the end felt really forced. It did really make me want to see what happens next with Perturabo. Totally agree. Having a subtle tie-in, like a character here or there that shows up in a later series, can be cool. Having every single protagonist be someone who shows up in Storm of Iron is contrived as hell.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 2, 2013 06:58
|
|
|
Second post from the OP.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 15, 2013 17:43
|
|
|
McNeill seems to be at his best when he's writing about Chaos. His Mechanicum stuff is okay, but any of his vanilla Marine stuff is universally pretty bad.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 17, 2013 16:21
|
|
|
Are you sure that's not the chick from Sex and the City?
|
|
#
¿
May 6, 2013 05:51
|
|
|
bunnyofdoom posted:I'd put Sandy Mitchell at #3. Are you kidding? His DH books contained stuff like a teenage death cult assassin girl going through the horrible grimdark dilemma of DOES HE LIKE MEEEE?
|
|
#
¿
Jun 20, 2013 17:56
|
|
|
If you like the concept, check out the Flashman books by George Macdonald Fraser. They're seriously pretty eye-popping. Makes Cain look like a model boy scout by comparison.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 20, 2013 18:54
|
|
|
Kegslayer posted:Besides given that it's ADB, the title of Master of Mankind could probably be attributed to a number of characters in the book. Nooooooooooooope. ADB posted:However, to business. First, incredulity.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 23, 2013 14:35
|
|
|
Yes, and it is fantastic. Has a very Lovecraftian vibe to it.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 12, 2013 03:14
|
|
|
Ferrus Manus pretty definitively got his head chopped off by Fulgrim.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 19, 2013 02:48
|
|
|
Finished Mark of Calth today. The first half of the stories in it were utter soul-slogging crap. Made me wonder if I had somehow lost the spark that had me into 40k. The second half was far better though. ADB and Abnett's stories were both vividly engrossing. After the first half of the book, reading their stuff gave a feeling akin to drinking water after a long run on a hot day. Rob Sanders' and Jon French's stories were pretty good too. Not on the same level as ADB and Abnett, but nothing like the first half of the book either.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 23, 2013 06:01
|
|
|
Very true. The lesser ones tried to throw in the theoretical/practical mindset and verbiage that the Ultramarines used in Know No Fear, but it came out like a child repeating daddy's swear words. Edit: especially Graham Mcneill's story in that anthology. The whole thing had the vibe of "Look, even though Dan Abnett blew me out of the water with his portrayal of the Ultramarines, I can still write them good!" But no, no you can't, sorry. Abnett's Ultramarines that far into a conflict like that would have realized far, far earlier that they were rolling into a trap. The Rat fucked around with this message at 06:16 on Jul 23, 2013 |
|
#
¿
Jul 23, 2013 06:09
|
|
|
I thought Priests of Mars was one of the better books that Mcneill has written. His prose in it was definitely on the ball, very fantastical and evocative, and I'm looking forward to reading the sequel. It falls in line with Mcneill's trend of writing awesome descriptions when it comes to Chaos and Mechanicum stuff, while being utter poo poo when it comes to the Ultramarines and whatever else.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 23, 2013 14:41
|
|
|
VanSandman posted:One of the solutions I've found to 'how to write well, and soon' is to stick to shorter stories. When you're forced to stick to a shorter word count, you have to work harder on each word and phrase. Does this apply to Kyme? Are his short stories any good? Not really. In one Space Marine short story anthology, he writes a story about his Salamanders running into the Night Lords, from the Salamanders' perspective. In the same anthology, ADB writes it from the Night Lords' perspective. The contrast is like going from being thrown into a pile of feces to being thrown into a nice, clear, temperate swimming pool.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 2, 2013 16:35
|
|
|
Cream_Filling posted:Or just an anthology or book framed like the old Liber Chaotica, which included a moderately obfuscated account of the rise and fall of the Eldar and various stuff of Chaos Marines even though it was primarily a Warhammer Fantasy book. Just make the theme be "what if potential futures" and frame them as various classified inquisition transcripts from insane possessed psykers before they were destroyed, forgotten eldar prophesies, mysterious cryptic etchings discovered inside the core of a dead world, printouts from an infernal machine discovered by the mechanicus inside a space hulk, etc., all completely contradictory to each other and to the standard continuity (and even sometimes self-contradictory). White Wolf did something like this for Werewolf: The Apocalypse and it was somewhat amusing. In general though I agree that advancing the setting would bring about more potential harm than good. Look at what happened to Battletech. They advanced it, and we ended up with that retarded Dark Ages poo poo.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 29, 2013 00:40
|
|
|
berzerkmonkey posted:They have no age, they just "are." Their powers wax and wane depending on emotion and worshipers - the only god we know was "born" was Slaanesh, and that was way before any humans existed. I thought that Slaanesh's birth was what blew away all the warp storms that allowed the Emperor to finally begin the great crusade.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 8, 2013 19:17
|
|
|
Out of the last three you mentioned, you should read them in the order of First Heretic, Know No Fear, and then Betrayer. I would recommend Legion, and then that trio.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 21, 2013 06:35
|
|
|
I had fun smashing my Deathwing into people with all the subtlety of a fist in the face a few years ago in 5th edition, but now I've had a several year gap of play due to deployments, they've moved on to 6th edition, and my good friend that I always played with died in a car wreck so I can't bring myself to get back into it.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 24, 2013 17:21
|
|
|
lenoon posted:I do think if you enjoy Mitchell but haven't read flashman, stop reading black library stuff right loving now - go pick that up. Immediately.  Everything I learned about 19th century British history, I learned from Flashman. One of the most enjoyable series I've read in the last several years. He is an absolute bastard, of course. So if you don't like amoral protagonists, it may not interest you.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 29, 2013 01:21
|
|
|
Nephilm posted:Because most of the Flashman fans I know think he's an amazing character and wish they could get away with the things he does. People are poo poo. Given that this is a thread about pulp sci-fi based on a tabletop game, this is a bit pot-kettle-black, isn't it? e: I mean let's be real here. If we judged 40k based off of most of the fans we know, then welp. The Rat fucked around with this message at 04:06 on Sep 29, 2013 |
|
#
¿
Sep 29, 2013 03:57
|
|
|
You must know some really lovely people, because no one I know who has read Flashman has taken it as anything other than comic historical fiction about a douchebag.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 29, 2013 04:22
|
|
|
lenoon posted:In a setting where the good guys literally condemn planets to a fire-wreathed doom for thinking the wrong thing, there's an issue with flashman being amoral? In the BL fiction, ultraviolence is not only normalised, it's an end in and of itself even for the purest protagonist. Every single one of the characters we read about is a murderer on a scale virtually unimaginable by anyone who isn't a predator drone operator or something. This is basically what I had in mind, but I have the eloquence of an ape smashing stones together so I couldn't express it properly. Flashman is a bastard, but he's also a product of the times he lives in. He serves as a good personal example of what it took to succeed (in relative terms) in those times. Rape, theft, lying, cheating, stealing - he's basically what the British Empire did in the 19th century, condensed into one man. Given that he keeps seeing some of the worst events of that century, what better commentator to a horrible event than a horrible person?
|
|
#
¿
Sep 29, 2013 15:44
|
|
|
Just powered through The Unremembered Empire in one sitting last night. Overall enjoyable, but it felt like some things were coming out of nowhere. Probably because I haven't read Vulkan Lives and some other stuff. The way Abnett portrayed the Dark Angels was pretty interesting as well, wish he'd expand on them a bit. If the Lion is teaming up with Guilliman at this point, it refutes the fallen Angel's claim in Angels of Darkness that the Lion was sitting the Heresy out and waiting to see who won.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 6, 2013 17:06
|
|
|
Briefly alluded to in The Unremembered Empire.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 7, 2013 17:33
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ Apr 20, 2024 05:06 |
|
|
It felt like it was the setup to the next phase of novels more than anything. Definitely wouldn't recommend it on its own. Still have no idea where that loyalist Word Bearer sniper dude came from, and I've read most of the Heresy stuff. Just skipped the stuff that has a rep as being horrible, like Battle for the Abyss, Outcast Dead and Vulkan Lives.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 7, 2013 21:43
|
|