Space Marine Conquest: Apocalypse

[rookie40K]

Does anyone have any thoughts or opinions on the book Space Marine Conquest Apocalypse? Edited June 30, 2019 by rookie40K

[Roomsky]

Just picked it up, but it'll probably be a ways before I dig into it. Reynolds has never let me down though, so I have high hopes he has something interesting to say about the subject matter. It's also 500+ pages in the paperback, so he clearly found something worth running with.

[rookie40K]

I started the audio from audible. Erebus and Kor Phaeron get brought up during bickering between Word Bearers, which I thought was cool to hear them mentioned in a 40K setting.

[theSpirea]

After reading his short interview on trackofwords.com I'm a little bit sceptical; he didn't seem too excited.

 

However, so far I enjoyed all the books I've read by him so I order the LE copy.

[Marshal Rohr]

Oh wow, the ToW interview was really forced and had an awkward tone. Wonder what that was about.

[Morovir]

Well, he mentions in the interview that all of his other ideas were shot down, and on his tumblr that he wrote it in four weeks, so that may contribute to a less than enthusiastic tone.

[Wulfburk]

Plus getting no marketing for it, until the day of its actually release, and having it missing in the coming soon sections, woudnt make him glad either.

[b1soul]

500 pages in 4 weeks...the man is a machine

[mc warhammer]

Well, he mentions in the interview that all of his other ideas were shot down, and on his tumblr that he wrote it in four weeks, so that may contribute to a less than enthusiastic tone.

i really enjoy his work, and it makes me sad to think his ideas might never see light of day. give the man a blank writer’s cheque as far as i’m concerned

[theSpirea]

Also sad to hear he's currently not working on anything for the BL, was hoping for the 3rd Fabius novel.

[Marshal Rohr]

His [redacted] novels have all been nice reads. Hopefully he can get a little leeway to try to bring some of that flavor to 40k.

[Panzer]

A third Fabius Bile novel would be awesome, yeah.

[Sandlemad]

The interview does seem pretty brusque but then that's something I've seen with other ToW interviews. Not all - Ferhervari's one was pretty effusive - but some of those with Haley and French aren't that different. In fairness he was pretty clear earlier that he's going to be taking a break from writing for BL because of potential creative burnout and he's always been refreshingly blunt about the reality of working as a jobbing professional writer. Which includes having a varied relationship with BL editorial.

 

I mean from his tumblr:

 

 

Q immanuelcouldnt asked:

I'm almost scared to ask but, what exactly is involved with writing a novel in four weeks? Was this another Soul Wars thing?

A: Pretty much. It was a last minute thing, and I could have said no, but…I wanted to write something with no pressure to be anything other than what it was. A book where space marines shoot each other.

So, of course, I put waaaaay too much effort into what is essentially a book meant to fill out space on a rack.

 

If there's anyone who's good at making a release tie-in novel far better than it needs to be - cf. some if not all of his AoS stuff - it's Reynolds.

 

Also his tumblr does mention pulling together a playlist for a third Fabius Bile so maybe one day...?

[theSpirea]

Thank you for that quote from his tumblr. Reynolds is one of my BL's favourites so I didn't hesitate to order this book. I feel a little bit bad for him, the LE still hasn't sold out, I'm not sure if it's due to poor marketing - none - or it's not appealing to others.

[Marshal Rohr]

Yeh, I loved his AoS stuff.

[Knockagh]

Thank you for that quote from his tumblr. Reynolds is one of my BL's favourites so I didn't hesitate to order this book. I feel a little bit bad for him, the LE still hasn't sold out, I'm not sure if it's due to poor marketing - none - or it's not appealing to others.

Personally it’s not appealing to me at all. I don’t sense much of an appetite out there for battle books. BL have developed characters and stories so well over the last few years these explosive battle stores have to some extent lost some of their appeal.

I know this story probably has a lot more going on than just Dakka but it comes across a little in that vein particularly being promoted with the apocalypse tag.

Also it’s only limited in number. There is nothing special about that book at all except the price.

JR is a capable writer and I hope he keeps at it. From the ToW interview he sounds a little burned out by warhammer so let’s hope he returns in a few years with some of those fresh ideas he is more than capable of producing. I admit I like his AoS better than his 40k.

[Marshal Loss]

I'm tempted to pick this up just to see what his Word Bearers are like (edit: beyond Saqqara). Reynolds is a very solid author.

Edited July 1, 2019 by Marshal Loss

[DarkChaplain]

I just hope Josh gets to write a bunch of stuff that he's actually excited for, and on his own terms. I'm still miffed that even his third Royal Occultist novel didn't get the promised paperback release; I bought the ebook, but waited an eternity for nothing to happen, as the indie publisher he was working with slowed down and seemed rather unresponsive. And then you have stuff like the Sharkpunk 2 Kickstarter, which a bunch of BL authors were actually on board with, failing to get funded. Even at BL, he had his Blood of Nagash trilogy cut short with no final novel, didn't get to write the extra shorts and novella he wanted for The End Times, and had to do a whole lot of legwork on Lord of the End Times due to the studio not bothering to.

 

Josh's an extremely talented writer who hasn't always had the best of circumstances surrounding his works. Just remember how long it even took for him to get a few 40k novels under his belt, and how he wasn't taken aboard for the second half of the Heresy at all. It was a miracle that he got to handle Fulgrim. And even when he wrote some of the best Gotrek & Felix novels in the continuity-free era, and Guymer is a fine author as well, I kind of wish he had gotten to write another few of those, too.

It irks me that he's really so mercenary for BL; as much as he makes it a point to emphasize that he is in fact a merc, being a freelancer, and has to take the gigs that pay the bills, it's not to be overlooked that he is a passionate author full of ideas.

 

I think it is absolutely amazing that he pulled this one together in that short an amount of time. But that kind of crunch really isn't healthy. Still, I firmly believe it will be at the very least decent, quite in contrast to Chuck Wendig's Star Wars: Aftermath, where basically the same scenario happened, but the book was drivel... and not much improved upon by its sequels. Oh well.

[SchultzChaos]

Has anyone read this one yet? Any comments?

Read the extract and found it okay/good. But if it all just developes to ”bang bang splat splat” I’d rather save my money.

[theSpirea]

Still haven't received the copy and my backlog is huge so it might take me a few weeks to get to read this one.

[lythari]

I'm half way through the audio book (got it on audible mid week). Pleasantly little bolter porn so far and a lot of build up towards a big battle at the end, which is the way I like it.

[SchultzChaos]

Any cameos or easter eggs about the Word Bearers?

[lythari]

I'm 2/3 of the way into the audiobook now and am very impressed, especially if it was written in 4 weeks!

 

It doesn't read like a piece of written-to-order tie-in fiction for the apocalypse game. If I didn't know what the title was I wouldn't have guessed it's origins. There's also nothing particularly 'apocalypsey' about it as far as 40K goes in terms of scale or composition (maybe that's my fallacy for thinking apocalypse == titans. There are no titans in the novel).

 

Instead there are some fun Word Bearer characters, an exploration of Word Bearer factionalism, and a surprisingly enormous bombshell about the origins of a major 40K institution.

[theSpirea]

lythari, you got me very excited about it and I might actually move it up in my to-read pile.

[Blood Angel Scout]

Finished this earlier, pleasantly surprised by the story...was expecting usual bolter porn tie-in to game release especially as this was cheaper than usual ebook price but really enjoyed it.

 

Without spoilers as well as some have previously mentioned, word bearers are portrayed quite well, see the views of the space marines regarding primaris, quite a few 30K namedrops, Erebus and Kor Phreron? aside, are in there (done well too imo) someone quotes Curze which made me laugh.

 

Decent plot, a few interesting threads at the end for potential follow ups, even if they were short stories.

 

Wouldn't say it's a must-read...it's a good read, well paced and don't think there's much anyone could be disappointed by, if they read it but then I remember where I'm posting so interested to see what others opinions are