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Sanguinius Primarchs novel: speculation


Indefragable

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I got to speak with Jim Swallow 1:1 for quite a while at the recent HH Weekender. Great fellow.

 

I asked him if there was anything he could say about the upcoming Sanguinius Primarchs novel since he had admitted he would get to write it, and he told me the following:

 

“I had an idea that was just approved by [bL leadership]. Essentially, what I want it to be is a single narrative that sums up everything it means to be a Blood Angel. If someone approached it with no idea who or what the BA are or what makes them tick, this tale will put it all on the table for them—glory and tragedy, love and hate, life and death—all at once.”

 

#highhopes

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I'm not a fan of Swallow.

I really disliked Fear to Tread, and the Garro series although better isn't up to par to other BL writers. I find his characters lacking depth, his villains too cartoony and he has poor worldbuilding.

Then again this is happening whether I like it or not, so I'm going to give him the benefit of the doubt. 

I can either be negative or positive about it, and I'd much rather that he succeed in writing a good book than not.

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I cannot give him the benefit of the doubt...his BA work (both 30K and 40K) is utterly mediocre to put it mildly. The quality of his writing isn't going to magically improve. His Garro work is somewhat better, I agree...but still noticeably inferior to what the top BL authours produce.

 

This, along with Buried Dagger, is extremely disappointing news to me.

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I really wish somebody else had put his hand up for this,.I'd hoped that French was going to do it after his excellent BA short (I mean, my first hope is that ADB would write everything, but yeah). Then again, maybe they threw a bone to Swallow because he didn't get Sanguinius at the eternity gate (thank goodness). In any case, this is very disappointing news for me.

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I really wish somebody else had put his hand up for this,.I'd hoped that French was going to do it after his excellent BA short (I mean, my first hope is that ADB would write everything, but yeah). Then again, maybe they threw a bone to Swallow because he didn't get Sanguinius at the eternity gate (thank goodness). In any case, this is very disappointing news for me.

I really wish that there would be one novel in the Siege series where the BA are the central legion of the book written by someone who hasn't done a BA book before; ADB, Wraight, McNeill, French, Abbnet, any of those.

 

I know that ADB has expressed his desire to write about Sanguinius at the gate, and I'm hoping he gets to do that (edit: I'm not up on the latest news, has this been confirmed?) , but I also have a faint hope that novel is going to be about the BA as a whole and not just Sanguinius. Save for a few short stories and odd characters like Zephon, the BA have had a pretty poor showing in the BL Heresy series so far when it comes to quality.

 

To be fair I'm fully aware this selfish on my part since I'm a BA player, and more than anything I would want that Eternity Gate book to be good regardless of the subject.

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Didn't we get a bunch of pieces describing what it means to be a Blood Angel already, from various authors? I'm really worried about this one. Especially looking at how Haley tackled the modern Blood Angels in Dante and The Devastation of Baal, Andy Smillie's post-Heresy Flesh Tearers under Amit, and ForgeWorld coming out with new Legionary-types for Malevolence, I cannot help but worry.

As venerable as Swallow's take on the BA may be due to writing some of their first novels, I feel like they have passed him by and grown beyond his scope.

 

....and if this ends up with another Rafen tie-in, I'll be mad.

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It is not confirmed that ADB has the Eternity Gate. I think it's likely, but we don't know any of the novels for certain apart from Solar War & presumably Abnett having the final book. All we know is that it isn't Swallow doing the EG, because he said as much in person.

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Indeedy. People are too quick to jump from "author says he would *like* to tackle subject XYZ" to "author doing XYZ confirmed".

I can understand the excitement, but until an author actually gets commissioned or a proposal accepted by the Powers That Be at BL, it's all wishful thinking.

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The idea sounds decent, and I didn't dislike Fear to Tread as much as many seemed to, but I agree with the general concerns. Swallow's past works have felt noticably lacking in distinct, developed characters.

 

I am hoping at the very least to get to see Sanguinius -not- totally defined by being mopey and angsty. It's like seeing my favourite epic power metal band turn into Coldplay :p

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I had extremelely high expectations for Fear to Tread because of this 10/10 review: http://thefoundingfields.com/2012/08/fear-to-tread-shadowhawk/

 

So perhaps I am being a tad bit unfair to Swallow. My expectations were set so high and then inevitably disappointed...it just left a bitter taste in my mouth

 

I read no reviews, my only expectations were that I played Blood Angels as my first army and Signus was a pivotal event of the Heresy.

 

Worst book of the series by a long margin for me.

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Swallow, in my opinion, completely fails at “what it means to be a Blood Angel.” Haley’s work for the BA is far superior. Swallow writes good DG, but he completely missed the mark on the BA.

 

That’s why I was so glad Devastation of Baal flat out contradicted the omnibus and retconned it.

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The main issue i had with Fear to Tread other than some of the BA characters like Raldoron and Azkaellon being flat, was the eventual portrayal of chaos. A planet lighting up with a big chaos symbol, living lamposts etc what the hell was he thinking. That whole scene with the living city was just a trainwreck and he botched the Greater Daemons after a good introduction. Meros was a good character from what i remember though.

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Fear to Tread audiobook was fantastic. The novel really set the stressful tone with Chaos defying logic that actually shocked the system of the pyscho conditioned space marines to the point of some showing signs of ptsd. This was the first encounter of Chaos for the Blood Angels. I felt there was a lot more to like with this book than not.

 

Although I agree the living world stuff was over the top, I still really enjoyed the book. I’m optimistic about Swallow’s work.

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