Love in the year 40,000: a Literary Examination

[bluntblade]

Graham McNeill's a big fan of incest, the House Devine sideplot in Vengeful Spirit and The Devine Adoratrice, but this is puerile nonsense. McNeill's other work features romance between remembrancers in Thousand Sons, I think. There's also a trite 3 page subplot about some tired female police officer's home life in (i think) Vengeful Spirit. Most of McNeill's "relationships" are cliched and painted with very broad strokes.

 

I got the feeling there was more than soldierly comradeship between Ultramarine scouts Oberdeii and Tebecai on Sotha in Guy Haley's Pharos. They were basically snapping towels at each other in the locker rooms like a scene from Top Gun.

 

But for "domestic" 40k, the relationship between Zidarov and his wife in Bloodlines is well done.

Not between Remembrancers in ATS,but two start romantic relationships.

 

And, speaking of Thousand Sons, err... anyone else remember how, for three pages Battle of the Fang turns into a slasher movie when two randy Kaerls go to spend some quality time "behind the bulkhead"? Don't know if that comes under the parameters of this thread or not.

 

 

 

Jaghatai does strange things to his ships.

 

Fulgrim does strange things to his men.

 

Freaky love

Well, its either an implied death threat or accusing your brother of incestuous abuse of power.

 

Its a bit freaky but its also about the norm of sibling love by Primarch standards.

 

Granted, they are also literally by far worse fathers than the Emp (given the ease with which they kill their own sons) so their capacity for fatherly love is also a bit freaky in its near-total absence.

 

If we are talking about how love is portrayed, does anyone else remember that Mechanicum is also a young adult romance novel in part? I always forget about that until I get to that point in the reread.

Tbh, I'd say that's depending on the author. Jaghatai, particularly in Path of Heaven, is thought by Ilya to have been really ground down by having to banish and execute some of his sons, and to see so many cut down.

 

And of course that then comes out explosively at the climax of the book.

Edited November 7, 2020 by bluntblade

[aa.logan]

 

And, speaking of Thousand Sons, err... anyone else remember how, for three pages Battle of the Fang turns into a slasher movie when two randy Kaerls go to spend some quality time "behind the bulkhead"? Don't know if that comes under the parameters of this thread or not

 

I’d say it does. Amberly’s “boys will be boys” in the first Cain book;

Zeke and Alin

in Road to Redemption, and the suggested sexual tension between Noctis and Lux in Flesh and Steel and too few others to recall humanise characters in a really effective way.

[MegaVolt87]

Octavia and that other guy in ADB's NL trilogy, is a good example of kinda a co-depandent relationship devloped due to their environment (dark NL murder dungeon + saw set that's also a military ship for deranged super soldier sadists).

[USNCenturion]

Caffran and Tona Criid in Gaunts Ghosts is the one that stands out most to me. I can’t really recall any other relationships. Except maybe Orks and battle.