HH Book 46: Ruinstorm

[b1soul]

You make good points...but I think it's reasonable to say Abnett is generally the better writer. Few in BL can match him. 

 

Even if Annandale's scene has to be shorter, I feel the language should still pack a punch, which it doesn't IMO

Edited November 8, 2017 by b1soul

[DogWelder]

Abnett's prose conveys the frenetic energy of ship collisions so much better IMO

 

The Campanile streaks like a missile into Calth’s orbital shipping belt. It punches through the formations of ships in parking orbit, the rows of freighters, barges and troop vessels at high anchor, the precisely spaced lines of vast cruisers and frigates, the glittering clouds of small craft, loaders, lifters and boats attending the parent ships.

 

 

It is like a bolter round fired into a crowd.

 

 

It misses the Mlatus, the Cavascor, the Lutine and the Samothrace by less than a ship’s length. It passes under the beam of the battleship Ultimus Mundi and skims the back of the gargantuan carrier ship Testament of Andromeda. Its shields graze the hull of the strike craft Mlekrus, vaporising the masts and arrays of its starboard detectors. It slices between the battle-barges Gauntlet of Victory and Gauntlet of Glory. By the time it crosses the bow of the grand cruiser Suspiria Majestrix, shredding the mooring and fuelling lines that secure the famous vessel to its bulk tenders, the Campanile has begun to swat aside small craft, annihilating them against the front of its shields. The small ships disintegrate, fierce blue sparks fizzle against the shield shimmer: cargo boats, lighters, ferries, maintenance riggers. The Campanile’s shield displacement hurls others out of the way like a tidal bore, swirling into each other, compressing them with gravimetric thrust, crashing them against the hulls of larger ships or the support cradles of the outer orbital yards.

 

 

Then the Campanile reaches the main shipyard.

 

 

The Calth Yards are orbiting islands, the fledgling beginnings of the planet’s first proper superorbital plate. There are a dozen of them orbiting Calth. This is Calth Veridian Anchor, the largest and oldest of them. It is a massive edifice of jetties and slips, ship cradles and docks, suspension manufactories, habitats, depots and docking platforms. It is a little over three hundred kilometres across, a raft of metal and activity and life.

 

 

The Campanile hits it, creating light. Void shields moving at high sub-light velocities strike physical matter, and mutually annihilate.

 

Speaking of which many of those same ships in Calth orbit make a reappearance here!

 

 “The World Eaters did not try to run. Their formation attacked the Ultramarines as if the fleet had been drawn into a trap, and the traitors were not surrounded by a closing gauntlet. The strike cruisers Bellatorus and Creuisse led the charge. They were up against the battle-barge Gauntlet of Glory, the grand cruiser Suspiria Majestrix, the Chronicle, the Glory of Fire and twenty more ships beyond them. ”

 

 

“The full measure of this wrath came from the Ultimus Mundi, and the Gauntlet of Glory, and the Praetorian Trust, and the Triumph of Espandor, and the Unbroken Vigil, and the Aquiline, and scores more. The fist of the Ultramarines closed with convulsive fury. Not a single ship of the Night Lords, the World Eaters or the Word Bearers translated to the immaterium.”

 

“ The signal came from the Cavascor, when Hierax remotely triggered melta charges he and his Destroyers had left behind.”

 

Excerpt From: David Annandale. “Ruinstorm.” iBooks. 

 

I really love it when the authors pay attention to little details like ship names and the like. Really adds to the continuity that many of the ships we see in Know No Fear over Calth are fighting with the Ultramarines here. 

[Morovir]

If I remember correctly, De Profundis and Orfeo's Lament were also two of the Word Bearers' ships from The First Heretic.

[DogWelder]

If I remember correctly, De Profundis and Orfeo's Lament were also two of the Word Bearers' ships from The First Heretic.

 

Yes the De Profundis gets converted into a demon ship that breaks apart and disgorges 'fragments' containing Word Bearers into Guilliman's ship and the Orfeo's Lament gets cut apart by the Annunciation iirc.

 

Wow along with the Veritas Ferrum they're really tying up the ends for most of the known ships introduced in the earlier HH novels in this book.

[Daddywarcrimes]

Abnett's prose conveys the frenetic energy of ship collisions so much better IMO

 

The Campanile streaks like a missile into Calth’s orbital shipping belt. It punches through the formations of ships in parking orbit, the rows of freighters, barges and troop vessels at high anchor, the precisely spaced lines of vast cruisers and frigates, the glittering clouds of small craft, loaders, lifters and boats attending the parent ships.

 

 

It is like a bolter round fired into a crowd.

 

 

It misses the Mlatus, the Cavascor, the Lutine and the Samothrace by less than a ship’s length. It passes under the beam of the battleship Ultimus Mundi and skims the back of the gargantuan carrier ship Testament of Andromeda. Its shields graze the hull of the strike craft Mlekrus, vaporising the masts and arrays of its starboard detectors. It slices between the battle-barges Gauntlet of Victory and Gauntlet of Glory. By the time it crosses the bow of the grand cruiser Suspiria Majestrix, shredding the mooring and fuelling lines that secure the famous vessel to its bulk tenders, the Campanile has begun to swat aside small craft, annihilating them against the front of its shields. The small ships disintegrate, fierce blue sparks fizzle against the shield shimmer: cargo boats, lighters, ferries, maintenance riggers. The Campanile’s shield displacement hurls others out of the way like a tidal bore, swirling into each other, compressing them with gravimetric thrust, crashing them against the hulls of larger ships or the support cradles of the outer orbital yards.

 

 

Then the Campanile reaches the main shipyard.

 

 

The Calth Yards are orbiting islands, the fledgling beginnings of the planet’s first proper superorbital plate. There are a dozen of them orbiting Calth. This is Calth Veridian Anchor, the largest and oldest of them. It is a massive edifice of jetties and slips, ship cradles and docks, suspension manufactories, habitats, depots and docking platforms. It is a little over three hundred kilometres across, a raft of metal and activity and life.

 

 

The Campanile hits it, creating light. Void shields moving at high sub-light velocities strike physical matter, and mutually annihilate.

 

The last thousandth of a second of the Campanile might be the best written bit of disaster-porn in the Heresy, or Black Library's collection as a whole.  The entire first act of Know No Fear is amazing, especially "And that's when it began raining main battle tanks", but this snippet is particularly evocative.  It's written with a pace and a level of detail that brings it into being in front of your eyes to witness the full horror of what's going on.

[b1soul]

Reading the opening act of KNF was like watching a movie unfolding before my eyes. It's an incredible example of cinematic writing. When Abnett is on, he's on.

[Kelborn]

KNF is also part of the First Heretic / Betrayer arc, right?

 

Seems like I need to grap a copy. ;)

[bluntblade]

I think we both just generally need to buy it Edited November 10, 2017 by bluntblade

[Mellow]

I have finished this book. Not very good to be honest!

 

The whole castle the size of a solar system with a planet stuck to the gate was just a bit weird for me. I understand it’s the Warp but Christ it’s like that was made up by a small child. Then there’s the “weird shapes that cause gravitational effects” ... more weird pointless stuff.

 

This was meant to be a journey of sorts. It turned into a childlike story and only really the last few hundred pages are actually required.

 

Awful.

[b1soul]

Can't be worse than traffic sign daemons

[SpAcEGhOsT095]

Now in his defense, Hellboy did tell that SUV that "Red means stop!" before he punched it and sent it flying.

 

 

[Izlude]

Just finished the book today. I agree with what most people have said here. To me it was a good read but probably a One and done sort of book. It definitely is no KNF, Betrayer, First Heretic etc etc but certainly not Battle for the Abyss (I actually was mad at myself for buying it). The things I like about this book:

 

1. One thing I think Annandale does very well is his attention to detail. As people have said, he brought in alot of small things from other works (granted many his own) into this book. Like the ships mentioned in other books, characters from his Primarch Guilliman book and DoP book which I liked. 

 

2. Prose was straight and to the point which I also like. While I was not a big fan of the "bolter porn" parts, I felt it was easy to get through his book.

 

3. I do like the Sanguinius bits and out of the 3 (4 if you count Mr. Batman) Primarchs I felt his was the best representation. His struggle seemed genuine as opposed to the other two which felt forced and to be honest seemed out of place. 

 

While I felt these were the good points of the book, the negatives to me:

 

1. Lion and Guilliman: It is a tall order to have three Primarchs interacting with each other and not many can pull it off well. I thought Abnett did it well in UE, I really liked the way the Lion and Guilliman came across. Here I felt these two were okay in this book. I do understand the whole temptation/chaos thing but it still didn't feel real enough for me. I don't know why, but the constant reference to their weapons is something Annandale did alot in his Primarch book...just comes across as sort of gamey and cheesy. Guilliman takes his Gladius Incandor out for the 5th time...or shoots the demon in the head with his Arbitrator...

 

2. Chaos: I though his DoP stuff with chaos was well done and one of the strong points of that book. Here for some reason wasn't as much as a fan and some of it seemed a little off the wall...even for chaos...yeah that massive wall and monster ship...jesus

 

3. Epilogue: Yeah that was just not believable at all...I would rather trade all the "bolter porn" stuff with the wall, flying ship-monster, etc for more depth to the epilogue material. I felt this was the part everyone wanted to read and was crammed in like 4 pages.

 

Anyways all in all, I did enjoy reading it but had its ups and downs. I feel most of his work is like that, worth a read on the first past but forgettable after. I felt this way about his Primarch book, Calth book, and DoP: technically well written but just lacking that sparkle that you see with Abnett, ADB, Wraight, Haley, french (My holy five). I would recommend to read it as people say "advances the plot."

 

I feel Old Earth will be of a similar vein...important to read once but after shelf it.

Edited November 17, 2017 by Izlude

[Mellow]

I always imagine the Red Tear to look a lot like the ship Destiny from Stargate Universe.

 

You know but bigger and with more guns.

 

I’m probably wrong though and it’s just the normal wedge front design we normally get.

[DogWelder]

I always imagine the Red Tear to look a lot like the ship Destiny from Stargate Universe.

 

You know but bigger and with more guns.

 

I’m probably wrong though and it’s just the normal wedge front design we normally get.

 

 

This is the canon image I think

[Mellow]

Destiny with extra guns would be much better. At least it’s bleedin’ tear shaped! Edited November 18, 2017 by Mellow

[SpAcEGhOsT095]

I thought that the Tear shape was when you looked at the ship from above. If I remember right it was mentioned in Fear to Tread.

[Indefragable]

Quoting myself from the BA forums, since it’s the most concise I think my thoughts will ever be on the matter:

 

Indefragable, on 17 Nov 2017 - 4:23 PM, said:

Ruinstorm is sort of the Apocalypse Now of the HH series so far.

A trippy voyage through the surreal that doesn’t always make sense, yet you can’t escape the experiential truth of the whole thing. When you fight an enemy that lives by symbols, sometimes symbols are your own best weapon.