War of Secrets, age appropriate?

[Karhedron]

Hello, looking for a bit of advice. My 11-year old son is mad keen on Dark Angels and wants to read "War of Secrets". I haven't read it yet and I wondered if people could give me their opinion of how the depiction of violence compares to other BL works please?

 

By comparison, I don't think he is quite old enough for the HH novels yet. Is this in the same ballpark? It is branded as Warhammer Conquest so I wondered if it would be suitable for slightly younger readers?

[Kelborn]

Did he tried the Adventures stories?

 

Though not DA themed, they were made for kids of his age.

Edited August 16, 2019 by Kelborn

[b1soul]

Is he a precocious 11 year old?

 

I picked up a fantasy novel as an 11 year old for my school reading project, and the novel turned out to include violence (violent blade fights) and semi-graphic (consensual) sex. Frankly, I don't think it had any negative impact on me. It wasn't anything beyond what us boys were all discussing on the schoolyard anyway. War of Secrets is considerably more tame.

[Galloway]

Hard to say really (especially as the parent of an 11-year old getting in 40k myself). I've read it, I wouldn't say its over the top but it definitely has some moments of typical space marine violence. Without giving away too much, there's also some Chaos/warp-induced mutation involved which could be an issue. Not the most violent/goriest 40k I've ever read, but if you're holding off on HH novels maybe hold off on this too. On the other hand if he's into horror or action movies, maybe ok too.

 

 

[SkimaskMohawk]

The game itself is about war, death, killing and murder. Explicitly. Every interaction with your opponent is about that. If you're fine with that, a book should be no issue. Even the codex has them explicitly torturing captives you know

[MegaVolt87]

Boost his maturity level by giving him Ian Watson's Inquisition War to read. That was my first 40k book at that age, I reccomend it highly.

[b1soul]

That's the one where the IF sergeant brands the muscular rumps of the IF recruits with a small fist-mark upon graduation, yeah?

[sitnam]

I would say that I'd be comfortable with my son reading the book if he was 11, but it just depends on what you feel is age appropriate. The ultra-violence of 40k is hard to judge, but I was definitely reading similar things at such an age.

 

The real problem is your son is interested in the Dark Angels. Gotta discipline that out of him

[Kenzaburo]

That's the one where the IF sergeant brands the muscular rumps of the IF recruits with a small fist-mark upon graduation, yeah?

Nope, that's Space Marine by Ian Watson. But the brands on their behind were far from the weirdest thing in there. 

 

On topic tho: First of all, it's hard to give proper advice. You as a parent know best, what your kid can understand, work with, comprehend. There's no standard 11-year old kid. :) If you are in doubt, how about you read it together, as in your own little book club? Each of you reads the first 3 chapters in week 1. And on the weekend, you talk about it pre-game or somesuch. Then you can see how your son deals with it, can explain scenes, that he might have misunderstood or shed some light on the wider context. If all of that goes well, you can hand him the next novel after that to digest on his own. 

[Son of Sacrifice]

Ignoring the parenting advice that you didn't ask for, the book has it's gory moments, but it's quite comic book in tone. Fine for an 11 year old in my opinion.

[b1soul]

I think violence in text is less desensitising than violence in images

[aa.logan]

Probably too late to be of any use with a question that’s already been answered, but it’s been interesting to consider the book through this viewpoint so here are my thoughts-

 

The prologue is perhaps the most graphically violent part, and could feasibly be skipped without damaging the story too much.

 

I like to think I’m pretty au fait with where the narrative in 40k is at, but the T’au storyline completely baffled me. Very little idea of their politicking, and not that illuminated after reading about it, so I’m not sure if it’s that suitable a starting point for 40k fiction- I could imagine wading through all of that being a tad frustrating for an equally clueless younger reader...

 

The unflinchingly unflattering portrayal of the Dark Angels is both wonderful but could also potentially enough to put a reader off their favourite faction- is the parental cost of a new army for theiroffspring greater than dealing with the trauma of reading about graphic bolt round explosions?

 

Makes me glad I don’t have children...