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Actually "Awesome"


bluntblade

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So here's one for you: which action scenes from Black Library authors have risen above the seas of bolter porn and genuinely inspired awe?

 

I'm going to lead with one that will probably need to be in spoilers - the arrival of the speartip at Luna in Solar War:

 

This scene, for me, is one of the closest we've had to "ramming the Supremacy at lightspeed". The anticipation as the Sons of Horus ride down into the firestorm, Abaddon holding rock steady even as the War Oath begins to come apart around him and you really buy into how utterly confident he is. Teleport flash and... boom..
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For me, it definitely has to be the scene where Khârn meets Erebus in the gladiator pits. No fury, no ire, just cold and methodical wrath as Khârn hammers down upon erebus, repeating "Get up."in that monotone, solemn voice of retribution.
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I still think about vandred/the exalted in void warfare in the night lord’s book...that gave me chills (good chills ) to read. and i usually find void warfare boring. i think when a battle is tied in with great character moments, rather than just action for its own sake, you can’t lose
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Ahriman's re-awakening of power from Ahriman: Exile... i think the entire scene last a handful of seconds but is written over 2 or 3 pages. It is one of my favourite scenes from any BL novel.

 

@ bluntblade... if it's exceptional spectacle... well for me Abnett's Know No Fear is pretty much as big as it gets :happy.:

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ADB's Black Legion series. I loved the moment  Iskandar Khayon

 

tries to stop Ahriman from casting the Rubric of Ahriman.

 

Brilliant, I thought, to witness this seminal moment, and throw in how it was almost prevented from happening. Made my skin tingle. It's an action scene, but not in the obvious way, which is what ADB is really good at. 

Edited by JustinDHill
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The End of the Emperor's Spears Novel, the showdown between

Anuradha and the Assassin.

The way the synthskin and how it works is described. How the Assassin still tries to play its game and trick people.

 

The bitter, pissed, tired, broken, fed-up Anuradha - and how she is still able to kick ass.

 

Amadeus (right? Or was it a Spear? No it was him!?) coming in to save his favorite, his wing(wo)man, his most loyal aide.

 

The Vortex Grenade. It's effect. The look into the deep abyss. The Assassin learning fear. The Warp tearing it apart. The sucking vacuum it creates. And how quickly it disappears again.

 

It was not a big Space Marine Battle.

But it was a very tense moment with a quick pace.

 

Which came after a shocking moment, which would be a close second contender for this thread:

The horrible atrocity comitted after the Black Templars and Celestial Lions arrived and have been welcomed by the Spears and Amadeus.

 

Again, not a big battle moment, but still an amazing description how Marines can change gears from a "peaceful, save moment between brothers" to an "Immediate Lethal Danger".

It's something we all know Marines can do. It was something I would have expected of them.

But in most stories and novels 'our' marine characters go into a battle or war knowingly and prepared. Sure they are sometimes surprised by a betrayal or trap, but rarely like this.

 

As others have said, A D-B is really good with such a bit more unusual 'battles'. (Probably due to his research and talks with veterans and their experiences of such sudden dangerous situations)

 

(Third from that book would probably be the arrival of the Pale and their shady warp trickery)

Edited by RikuEru
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That's exactly what I'm thinking of.

 

Think of this as the equivalent of things that have actually wowed you at the movies of late (as similarly to BL, there's a lot of spectacle in blockbusters but it's often done in a rather homogenous way, so I prize the moments that really make me go wow).

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know no fear - ships falling out of the sky.

 

the original HH trilogy the collapse of a dream amongst immense bloodshed and planet killing bombardment (dreadnaught holding one of the death guard fellas as they both die amongst the shelling, loken going down etc..) its the kind of scene where you want it to pan up from that calamity on the ground and up into space to the orbiting ships to a quiet and contemplative Horus or some such - if this were a film... with some adequately sorrowful classical music to accompany it.  

 

First Heretic's betrayal and battle between the Custodes and newly-demonised buds.

 

Solar War had a bunch of epic scenes. It was pretty much just one huge epic scene.

 

Argel Tal's fate atop a titan as battle goes on below.

 

i mean.. there's literally tonnes..

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As many have said, the ship-ramming scenes from Know no Fear and Solar War both stand out, I think because of the cascade of events we get to see happening afterwards. They're cool action pieces that also have large significance for the plot.

 

Any void-battle scene with Aaron tends to hit it out of the park. You can really feel the scale of things.

 

There's a scene in Voice of Mars where an Iron Hands Legionary grabs his enemies weapon with his own chain-teeth, which is so hilariously 40k I can't help but love it.

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Know No Fear - The whole book.

 

Savage Weapons - When the Lion and Curze were brawling on the ground, paladin Corswain ran into them and buried the length of the blade into Curze's back.  He then    proceed to rip hair of out of Curze's dirty head and tried to strangle him.  

 

Titandeath - The scene where Sanguinius and his sons attack the Imperator titan.

 

Devastation of Baal - The fight scene at the end between Dante and the Swarm Lord.

 

Dead Sky, Black Sun - The description of those devilish daemonculaba biologic breeders.

 

Playing Patience shot story - When Ravenor's command vehicle-something was breached by an enemy who was a pariah, he encountered Frauka, who was also a pariah, and chickened out Carl Thonius.  The enemy was excited to have encountered another pariah, so he began conversing with Frauka randomly as if they were going to be friends.  All the while, Carl Thonius was more-or-less pissing himself.  Frauka was suggesting that the enemy go ahead and kill Carl Thonius first, and that he didn't like him anyway.  The enemy was like, "alright gents, where would you like me to shoot you?", but this was all just a distraction to buy time for Nayl to come in to rescue them.  At the end, Frauka was like "I got your back Thonny", and Thonius cursed at him or something.    

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What a cool thread. So many of these I agree with myself.

 

Here’s what I’m going to try..... like you guys I’ve read a shed load of these novels. I honestly have trouble remembering where all my favourite moments belong, novelwise. Maybe some of you will know ....

 

Prewarning you... I may be spoiling something you haven’t read since I feel like the Cawl inferior sometimes....uncertain where I remember stuff from! ( also these are stand out moments for me, not necessarily action)

 

1. The first scene...Loken (?) talks about killing the Emperor. For paragraphs I read in confusion before realizing the clever tongue in cheek moment shared amongst the Astartes. Perhaps an overwritten period, but it was the end of innocence. A cool way to kick it off.

 

2. The moment Dorn slaps Garro’s head almost clean from his body when he first speaks of heresy.

 

3. Loken fighting a very changed Lucius. Oh how I wanted Loken to really win that fight.

 

4. Guilliman (oh how he has changed since the Heresy), in a bathrobe wanting to meet a whethered veteran back from the war with Word Bearers.... only to nearly lose his life to what would turn out to be Alpha Legion

 

5. Guilliman fighting alongside the Custodes on the moon. The scene is described with eyes of wonderment in a way I would imagine seeing it.

 

6. The clash between Magnus and Russ... the epic back snapping moment.

 

7. This is a weird one... it’s a very old passage I read in an old BL pictorial publication from the Heresy. It depicts the final moments of the Emperor and Horus’ fight. It gave me just enough to wonder.... will the current authors depict the fight as though the Emperor holds back? Would He have been able to vanquish Horus with a mere thought? Was it his feelings for his son that left Him open to a death blow? Or his reluctance to accept failure in losing a son?

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I'll add the depiction of Jain Zar in Void Stalker. The Phoenix Lords have been sorely underrepresented in fluff, and usually just shown as "an Exarch but Better". This one turned Jain Zars arrival into a real moment of "Oh... ohhh... Yeah, they all gon' die now." 

 

Also, the charge of the Grey Knights against Angron in Emperors Gift, and the Breaking of the Blade.

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4. Guilliman (oh how he has changed since the Heresy), in a bathrobe wanting to meet a whethered veteran back from the war with Word Bearers.... only to nearly lose his life to what would turn out to be Alpha Legion

 

5. Guilliman fighting alongside the Custodes on the moon. The scene is described with eyes of wonderment in a way I would imagine seeing it.

 

 

Anyone know what book these two scenes are from?

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4. Guilliman (oh how he has changed since the Heresy), in a bathrobe wanting to meet a whethered veteran back from the war with Word Bearers.... only to nearly lose his life to what would turn out to be Alpha Legion

 

5. Guilliman fighting alongside the Custodes on the moon. The scene is described with eyes of wonderment in a way I would imagine seeing it.

 

Anyone know what book these two scenes are from?

First one is from Unremembered Empire. Second is (I think?) The Emperors Legion.

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Not quite aligned with the OP, but:

  • Know No Fear - when it starts raining tanks
  • Know No Fear - the backdrop of starships falling to the ground
  • Know No Fear - After much conflict and daring-do, and all around the planet the defenders are locked in largely hopeless conflict, Server Tawren regains control of her 'beloved's' defence grid: "Server Tawren, addressing the XIII Legion Ultramarines, and all forces allied to their standard. Brace for impact. Repeat, brace for impact".
  • The Emperor's Gift- when Bjorn shows up and tells everyone to calm the flip down. "Now. What brings you into the night sky above Fenris, and why shouldn't I break your little fleet to pieces with this castle's many, many guns?" The Lord Inquisitor straightened his back at that. 'Please name yourself sir, as I have done. Then negotiations can begin in good faith'. "Are you blind, little man? It's written on my coffin"
  • Prince of Crows - when Sevatar 'surfs' on a fighter in a void war to get to another ship
  • Master of Mankind - And in a sunless realm, the sun rose at last.
  • Sigismund versus Abbadon in the Black Legion
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  • The Emperor's Gift- when Bjorn shows up and tells everyone to calm the flip down. "Now. What brings you into the night sky above Fenris, and why shouldn't I break your little fleet to pieces with this castle's many, many guns?" The Lord Inquisitor straightened his back at that. 'Please name yourself sir, as I have done. Then negotiations can begin in good faith'. "Are you blind, little man? It's written on my coffin"

 

 

Every scene with Bjorn in that book made me deliriously happy and everything he says is quotable.

 

I really enjoyed the scene in The Emperor's Legion when the Custodes POV character is comparing and contrasting how the Custodes fight compared to how Grey Knights fight.

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