The Siege of Terra: Sons of the Selenar

[Ogun]

Wayland is actually a reference to Wayland the Smith from the Völundarkviða of the Poetic Edda. McNeill was presumably looking for literary inspiration for an Iron Hand character. 

[DarkChaplain]

That's cool, too! I haven't really kept up with his online presence / AMAs or interviews since leaving BL, tbh. His move to the States hasn't exactly made for enjoyable social media postings to read...

 

As for the plot cliffnotes, I'm.... lukewarm on it, going just by the notes. I hope there's more to the one important thing highlighted, especially since I've been posting connect-the-dots theories regarding the subject matter for a few years, and consider this take a little unexciting, and somewhat similar to what Kyme did in Sons of the Forge.....wait a moment, I see a pattern.

[m_r_parker]

I'm about two-thirds of the way through, and it's a bit 'meh'.

 

I guess it was always going to be a bit difficult, write a story parallel to the main arc that doesn't tread on any toes of characters or plots. But yeah, not really sold on it. Considering the price tag (£40 for ~175 pages), I was expecting more - the final third had better make up for it.

[Lucerne]

 

spoilers

 

If a certain character is actually, definitely dead, even with a "heroic sacrifice", thank god, and I'll consider the novel worth any other lack of quality.

 

The idea that the character would survive and go on to contaminate their Legion's storyline indefinitely is honestly horrifying to me.

Edited January 18, 2020 by Lucerne

[SpAcEGhOsT095]

I can't say I'm that hopeful about this series. Everything is riding on Abnett with the last book. To me, the Heresy started out wonderfully with Abnett writing the first book, only for it to end on a whimper and fart thanks to James Swallow.

I don't like to think about TBA Series, it makes me angry. The Primarchs books have been hit and miss.

A poorly handled fight between The Emperor and Horus...... That will drive a telephone pole sized stake through my heart and bring forth Helbrecht from TTS levels of rage.

[Fire Golem]

I’m still hopeful about the rest of the series. Abnett, Wraight and ADB yet to come, I’m not worried.

[Beren]

For Selenar, what about world building for Luna and the Gene Cults?

[b1soul]

The HH series is actually quite excellent if you only read entries by Abnett, Wraight, ADB, and French.

 

EDIT: ...and ATS by Graham, which I enjoyed a lot. I give credit when it's due.

[m_r_parker]

Finished it last night, and yeah I’m still in the ‘meh’ category.

I guess if you’re really invested in these characters then this is a must-read, but if not then there’s little there. It’s well written, don’t get me wrong on that - it’s really easy to read through, and is good as a stand-alone story, buts it’s just there to tie some loose ends. It doesn’t really interact with the overall Siege story arc, and unless you’re invested with the characters there isn’t much to keep your interest.

As for the price point, definitely too high. 175 pages, 2 pieces of internal art, and a fancy binding for 80% of the price tag of a full-blown limited novel? Nah, that was too high.

 

One minor thing that makes the pedant in me squirm, which I’ll put in spoiler tags in case people don’t want anything revealed:

Justaerian Terminators with Storm Bolters and Assault Cannons?!?! I think the Editor slipped on catching that one.

[mr.crusader]

175 pages, 2 pieces of internal art, and a fancy binding for 80% of the price tag of a full-blown limited novel? Nah, that was too high.

 

Am I right understand the Total War: Warhammer game comes for free with every order, right?

[Lucerne]

 

The Warmaster started to give his boys the good stuff/looted prototype wargear?

[Fire Golem]

 

 

175 pages, 2 pieces of internal art, and a fancy binding for 80% of the price tag of a full-blown limited novel? Nah, that was too high.

Am I right understand the Total War: Warhammer game comes for free with every order, right?

That comes free with every order from GW though. It’s not specific to this.

[mr.crusader]

Ah, I see, thanks for clearing that up! 

[Knockagh]

I’m more positive about this than most here. I really enjoyed this and I’m no McNeill fan. I alway loved the idea of the shattered legions and following these guys from Istavaan should have been great, sadly it never felt that way. I think because the whole heresy felt so heavy and bloated the storyline just felt too much. It would probably have worked if the heresy/seige had been told in a reasonable number of books and then the setting examined in later books.

But now we are in the seige run I was maybe able to relax over this a little more.

What ever the reason I think McNeill does a great job here pulling in some great new places and peoples. I loved the ending and hopefully we see some references to it’s significance dropped in somewhere sometime. Probably by Guy Haley. I certainly left thirsty for more about Luna and the pre unity cults.

There are a few bits and pieces didn’t fit too well and I’m glad it was a novella and not a novel but overall a good aside to the seige. Hopefully some other stories are given the same treatment. Garro etc etc.

[Fedor]

I hope Sharrowkyn turns out to be Alpha Primus now and has a notable role in future books, just to further wind up those that have an intense dislike of the character.

Edited January 23, 2020 by Kelborn

[ProsperoStands]

They HAD to do it. They HAD to slip in a :cussing Primaris reference into the Heresy.

Edited January 23, 2020 by Kelborn

[Lucerne]

I hope Sharrowkyn turns out to be Alpha Primus now and has a notable role in future books, just to further wind up those that have an intense dislike of the character.

I mean, if Cawl can turn Sharrowkyn into an actual character with a personality and believable drawbacks and talents, that'd be a net improvement on the thing that Sharrowkyn was during the Heresy books.

Calling Sharrowkyn a character at all is an insult to the idea of characterization. Edited January 23, 2020 by Kelborn

[Fedor]

He was fine in Angel Exterminatus, not the most developed , but no different than a lot of BL supporting characters that are defined through one or two quirks and standout skills and credible enough as a Raven Guard elite. Killing Lucius was an effective surprise in that book imo.

[Lord_Caerolion]

Except Lucius has turned into Worf. Seriously, has the guy ever actually won a fight, other than against that random bug on Murder? His character got reduced to "hey, remember that this guy is supposed to be awesome? Watch him get his butt kicked by this other guy! This other guy must be even more awesome!"

 

It was also a surprise, because Lucius was supposed to be undefeated until his first possession rebirth.

[Fedor]

Lucius was always quite a tongue in cheek character compared to a lot of the other traitor champions. The master swordsman where his speciality comes from constantly getting beat. Getting worfed was built into his character from the beginning.

 

He would fit right into the old Rogue Trader days.

[Lord_Caerolion]

Except that his claim to fame before he was reborn was that he was one of the best swordsmen in the Legions. Now he's apparently never won a duel.

 

The whole point of him was that he was literally unbeatable. He either kills you because he's one of the best Astartes fighters, or you fluke and kill him, and he takes over your body. The reason Slaanesh blessed him like that was because he was so good. 

[Lucerne]

He was fine in Angel Exterminatus, not the most developed , but no different than a lot of BL supporting characters that are defined through one or two quirks and standout skills and credible enough as a Raven Guard elite. Killing Lucius was an effective surprise in that book imo.

Sharrowkyn dying would have been a bigger surprise given how McNeil refuses to have him suffer consequences or be shown as anything but a special snowflake with no real personality or actual limitations.

 

And you're right that he's an underdeveloped nothing with the personality of a bit character...But he's allegedly the protagonist of an entire, drawn out subfaction arc, and just won't stop eating up said screentime.

 

Also, no. A Raven Guard elite getting lucky once is fine. Twice is believable. Consistently acting in ways that go against plausibility- looking at you, "literally reading ahead in the plot of Seventh Serpent in ways that make no sense in-universe" and surviving for no plausible reason?

 

At this point, his death is pretty much the only way to salvage something from his arc, because plot armor from author favoritism when he has no personality by your own admission is not a winning combination.

Edited January 23, 2020 by Lucerne

[Lord_Caerolion]

At least he doesn't use a katana?

[Kelborn]

May I remind you that -even if you're upset about certain characters/ events and you want to let off steam- you should keep an eye on spoilers. Even slight hints might be too much, especially as this has been just released as LE and not as a regular one.

I advise to reread your post before hitting the "button".

And before I forget: Not another "Sharowkyn rumble" if possible.

Edited January 23, 2020 by Kelborn
typos and formatting

[Biscuittzz]

I like Sharrowkyn, RG bias aside, he's a breath of fresh air. If you've been reading the RG arc through the HH then he's practically the only win we get. I can however see why non-RG readers would find him too over the top. I guess they should've expanded upon his background more.

 

My one gripe being that he's referenced as being previously part of a company, but in the Raven Guard the Mor Deythan were always a unit apart and directly under Corax's control.