Mortis

[StrangerOrders]

Mortis

 

So... I got the LE about two weeks after the order went out.

 

I just now finished reading it.

 

That is probably the most damning thing I believe I can say in a review probably. 

 

This book was largely not bad and there were things I quite liked, but on the whole I genuinely struggled to stay interested enough to read through it. Unengaging and genuinely puzzling at parts are the words I would use to describe this one and frankly also serves to describe my opinion on the Siege as a whole up to this point.

 

Heck, even being motivated enough to write this review is proving a bit difficult since I genuinely do not think this book did enough interesting things to really warrant too much discussion.

 

For example, I usually like to tackle reviews by PoVs where I say what I like and dislike about each PoV and... well this book is the most random smattering of characters I have very little interest in so far in the Heresy. I absolutely hated the First Wall and it suddenly seems like a good thing that it engaged me enough to hate it, I will remember Perturabo re-enacting godzilla with his little hololith model of the Palace.

 

Here? Erm... Idk, Titans are cool? At least for the first little bit?

 

The most coherent and interesting part of this book is frankly the Ignatum, who go from being the most depressingly overhyped but unseen legio to being an extremely hyped and well fleshed out Legio that gets a treatment throughout the main conflict that is a fairly good encapsulation of how not to write battles against Chaos that I have ever seen. (From the man that wrote Slaves this is beyond befuddling). Anyhow, the Ignatum as a character is very cool and their relationship with their god machines is given true and proper gravitus, something that does not at all apply to the Mortis frankly, the titular Legio whose character can be boiled down to 'Chaos Sockpuppets' (in fairness, Dark Gods sort of suggests that they had already suffered a horrific amputation of personality long before Nurgle got to them) and which the Stormlords also singularly lack. 

 

The trouble is of course that our Ignatum protagonist, whose name I have already forgotten less than a day after a finishing, does not at all get time to have a personality of his own and instead serves as a vehicle to see his Legio. Something of a running flaw in the Siege's relentless need to introduce characters whose fates have not been ordained by lore written decades previous.  

 

On the positive, the titan battles are written very well and I enjoyed the hell out of the first ten pages of the conflict. By the fiftieth one I was beginning to suspect that I had died at some point during the reading and that my failing brain was just looping through those first few pages over and over. Scale and gravitas are cool and all but the battle as a whole felt more like nothing was happening and I cannot tell you for the life of me why it HAD to be one big battle.

 

Except I probably can and its the same problem that plagues the Siege.

 

The need for an endless stream of tangents and PoVs that serve next to no purpose in the grand scheme of things and which I for one could not have cared less about.

 

This section I will break down by PoV.

 

Spoiler time:

-The Armiger: Who is she and why do I care? Her entire character is that she and her caricature of a reverse-bastard brother are competing to see who want to make me blind from over-rolling my eyes more. Not sure if this was meant to be some sort of messaging or why Vyronii's one showing after a VERY cool Forgeworld entry was these two generically awful morons but christ at least this part made engaged me from just how poorly written it was.

 

-Bestia Est Pilot: Again, not sure why Solaria is here but since I hated Titandeath their inclusion was both unwelcome and unnecessary. Also sad to see that their perpetual need to be caricatures remains intact. The Great Mother was actually far more likable though, even if I do not grasp why Dorn was dumb enough to commit so many engines to that idiotic battle that he literally only had scraps and a single (large) Legio left when the predictable happened (not faulting him for not predicting Necromantic Titans, no one could have seen something that hilariously broken a thing coming).

 

-Oll: Well, at least now its not only Abnett who is responsible for repeating shoving this guy back into our faces. Perpetuals have never been my favorites but the whole cyclical thing BL is obsessed with lately finally hit 'off the deep end' tier for me when he confirmed that he was the FIRST HORUS!!!! (Shocked Chipmunk Gif). Apparently originality is a foreign concept insetting now.

 

-The Proto Comissar: Still can't tell you what the purpose of her was and depressed to see Andromeda (my favorite character from one of my favorite BL books) coming back only to serve as the vehicle for enabling one of the most hairbrained uses of space cancer I have seen in Sci-Fi. Clearly trusting the guy who seems to have based his career on inspiration from Prometheus is going be the salvation of the loyalists.

 

-Shiban: This one hurts me since I love Shiban. golly gee was he even doing in this book? His whole vision quest seemed pointless to me and I sort of wish he had just not crashed in Saturnine and had just been allowed to do something interesting somewhere else.

 

-Corswain: This part was actually fairly cool but dear god is the 'counter-counter-counter traitor' angle of DA getting old at this point. Seeing the fate of the Somnium was also depressing if at least pretty intensely written.

 

-Katsuhiro: I still enjoy watching this poor little man run for his life, after the Siege is over I think I will try just to read his PoVs start to finish for some humor at watching the unreasonable amount of hatred reality has for this hapless Salaryman-turned-Conscript.

 

-Archamus: Alright, nothing bad to say here. I still like Archamus even if his career path never made a lick of sense to me.

 

I am honestly sad at how much I loathed this book and I can't say I am happy with this review. It does not feel insightful and I wish I had more positive things to say. 

 

But then again, thats also an apt description of Mortis to me.

 

3/10, Kill it with a Vortex Missle and then forget about it.

 

Edit: Alright, 6/10 on the strength of the Ignatum start.

Edited May 1, 2021 by StrangerOrders

[Scribe]

Strangers, that spoiler there....we talking mythological....or...?

 

Do a search for 'wait what gif' and well...any and all of them are my face right now.

[DukeLeto69]

@StrangerOrders remember you are amongst friends here so don’t feel the need to hold back Edited April 25, 2021 by DukeLeto69

[b1soul]

I actually really liked all the bits in Mortis about Oll, Grammaticus, Leetu, the Emperor/Horus, Shiban, and Corswain.

 

Unfortunately, I am not at all a fan of Titan legions, crews, and battles...I just find them rather boring in the way some B&C fraters find Astartes and Primarchs really boring.

 

Prose is at John's typical level, which is very good. Just not a fan of Titan (or tank) battles. Frankly, I'd rather read about Katsuhiro than big lumbering machine-men blowing each other up.

[Osteoclast]

Regarding Katsuhiro:

Am I the only one who gets the sense that he is being set up as the founder and leader of the Temple of the Saviour Emperor?

[Scribe]

OK well...I'm not sure the Oll piece adds....anything of value to the story. When I say 'no more subverting expectation' that includes 'adding things that are utterly irrelevant only to have them retcon what the story was about so they ARE relevant later.'

[b1soul]

Perpetuals are not objectively good or bad for the setting. They're "modern" 40K's version of the old Sensei lore (and arguably less ridiculous than the Sensei).

 

My main gripe with Mortis is...do we really need a SoT novel focusing on Titans? Why not just keep Titans in the background?

 

The SoT is like the climactic weeks of the Illiad . It should, IMO, focus on Primarch and Astartes struggles with other forces forming the backdrop. Each SoT main entry is precious. A book on Titans is a bit of waste really.

 

As for Perpetuals, Imperial Army, Cultists, Titans, Arik Taranis, Emperor's Children depravery and the like...only have them enter the SoT main entries if/when their actions would be critical to plot advancement. Their less-than-critical activities could be covered in SoT anthologies or non-limited edition novellas.

[Roomsky]

Just past a quarter into this and I honestly think it's fantastic. As before - it's amazing the different wants and needs each reader has for the event.

 

re: b1soul - I would like to raise the point that Titan combat is a big part of the Siege, perhaps doubly so because Titandeath didn't have grand titan engagements front and centre. Recall how French got significant backlash in the past for placing tanks in the background of Tallarn: Ironclad. I don't know if there's a right or wrong answer for either, but I do expect there to be a "finally, titans" reader for every "why titans?" reader as more people get the book.

[Scribe]

Perpetuals are not objectively good or bad for the setting. They're "modern" 40K's version of the old Sensei lore (and arguably less ridiculous than the Sensei).

 

Agreed, right up to the point where they became, seemingly, central to the entire story.

[Apothecary Vaddon]

I actually really liked all the bits in Mortis about Oll, Grammaticus, Leetu, the Emperor/Horus, Shiban, and Corswain.

 

Unfortunately, I am not at all a fan of Titan legions, crews, and battles...I just find them rather boring in the way some B&C fraters find Astartes and Primarchs really boring.

 

Prose is at John's typical level, which is very good. Just not a fan of Titan (or tank) battles. Frankly, I'd rather read about Katsuhiro than big lumbering machine-men blowing each other up.

Yeah I kind of glazed over everything that wasn't that. Just wasn't invested in anything other than those parts lol

[mc warhammer]

 

Perpetuals are not objectively good or bad for the setting. They're "modern" 40K's version of the old Sensei lore (and arguably less ridiculous than the Sensei).

 

Agreed, right up to the point where they became, seemingly, central to the entire story.

 

i don't mind them so far, but i'd be hard pressed to answer what they add to the story. they could easily have been an extinct footnote in humanity's history to add a bit of flavour and inspiration for the primarch project rather than characters in the story itself

Just past a quarter into this and I honestly think it's fantastic. As before - it's amazing the different wants and needs each reader has for the event.

 

re: b1soul - I would like to raise the point that Titan combat is a big part of the Siege, perhaps doubly so because Titandeath didn't have grand titan engagements front and centre. Recall how French got significant backlash in the past for placing tanks in the background of Tallarn: Ironclad. I don't know if there's a right or wrong answer for either, but I do expect there to be a "finally, titans" reader for every "why titans?" reader as more people get the book.

i

'm looking forward to your review, 'cos the response here so far to the book has got me wondering tbh

Edited April 26, 2021 by mc warhammer

[Petitioner's City]

I'm about a quarter in too and loving it so far. French captures the scale of this setting so well, and the consequent politics of it too. He takes the time to just let that scale set - to really imagine a titan coffin ship or an entire legio's leadership in attendance.

 

On the siege and its focus - the mechanicum/mechanicus is essential for the setting, and the titans too. Traditionally they weren't so focal in literature I wonder because BL really emerged after epic's heyday with just Dan's warleod series and Titanicus being titan literature. As titans and knights became central to several games, especially Titanicus and 40k respectively, their "centrality" in the setting has become a bit more clear - just as the mechanicus was similarly marginal until their ranges emerged in the mid2010s. Anyway, the setting - and the heresy - is more than just primarchs and marines. It is everything in the imperium, and the modern heresy has shown this all-encompassing aspect to it sadly only in fits and starts (it has arguably been too marine-centric and with a strange focus only on certain legions). But it is great the siege is doing this, trying to show how it affects the complicated intersecting bodies and ideologies that make up the imperium. Honestly I was surprised by the choice, but love it because it makes total sense too :D

Edited April 26, 2021 by Petitioner's City

[Marshal Loss]

My main gripe with Mortis is...do we really need a SoT novel focusing on Titans? Why not just keep Titans in the background?

 

Because the relationship between Titans & the Horus Heresy goes back over 30 years, right to the very beginning. The Heresy was first mentioned in 1987, and it was in the Adeptus Titanicus game published only a year later in 1988 that the HH was fleshed out into something recognisable to us today. When one considers therefore that the HH's background was originally built up only so that there would exist a setting in which Titans could battle, their starring role in Mortis seems appropriate.

[Scribe]

Having the book Titan focused isn't (wouldn't be) inappropriate.

 

I'll have to get this just to read exactly what is going on in StrangeOrders spoiler concerning a certain someone.

 

If someone wants to save me some money and time and expand on that, it would be appreciated.

[DukeLeto69]

 

 

My main gripe with Mortis is...do we really need a SoT novel focusing on Titans? Why not just keep Titans in the background?

Because the relationship between Titans & the Horus Heresy goes back over 30 years, right to the very beginning. The Heresy was first mentioned in 1987, and it was in the Adeptus Titanicus game published only a year later in 1988 that the HH was fleshed out into something recognisable to us today. When one considers therefore that the HH's background was originally built up only so that there would exist a setting in which Titans could battle, their starring role in Mortis seems appropriate.

(I am sure most people know this)

 

And it was a Civil War because GW could only afford one mould so needed the Titans to be the same!

[b1soul]

Yeah...I know there are a lot of Titans at the Siege to break/defend the Palace, but I'm not sure that justifies them being the narrarive focus of an entire novel in the SoT miniseries. Why not just have Titans and their crews pop up in multiple novels as part of the strategising and action...

 

I am speaking based on my personal taste though. I have almost zero interest in Titan crews, battles etc. So to me, anything else would be better.

[Scribe]

Yeah...I know there are a lot of Titans at the Siege to break/defend the Palace, but I'm not sure that justifies them being the narrarive focus of an entire novel in the SoT miniseries. Why not just have Titans and their crews pop up in multiple novels as part of the strategising and action...

 

I am speaking based on my personal taste though. I have almost zero interest in Titan crews, battles etc. So to me, anything else would be better.

I mean...many keystrokes have been lost over how the series could be done. Titans, especially as they are siege vehicles in and of themselves make more sense than any number of things that have taken up print release windows, short stories, full novels, audios.

 

Ultimately it's as was noted a few days ago, the series deviation from expectation has caused the series to mean too many different things to different people and it's never going to satisfy now.

[rookie40K]

I’m assuming this was already mentioned, but GW is pushing selling Titans as evident in recent White Dwarf focus. Of course there is going to be a titan focus in the Siege series. Not my cup of tea, but it’s starting to work on me as I had no interest in purchasing Titans, but I’m starting to be swayed and I haven’t even read the novel.

[Matcap86]

I'm three quarters in and I'm continuously thinking " this should've been 2 or 3 novellas". Especially the Oll plotline, where the narrative purely seems to happen to deepen and validate the existence of a (minor) character we haven't seen for 20 odd books.

[DarkChaplain]

I think Oll has last been seen in Perpetual, an audio drama from Advent 2016, printed in Burden of Loyalty in Feb 2018.

Before that, he was in Unmarked from Mark of Calth, way back in 2013.

He was introduced a year prior to that in Know No Fear.

 

That's.... really bloody flimsy for a character we are supposed to see as a pivotal character during the Siege and are getting fed backstory now, instead of the intervening 5-8 years of publishing history.

 

Doesn't help that his posse is aided by another character that left the stage way back in 2013 just to never show up again until it was either her or a deus ex machina to move the story along.

[Matcap86]

Yeah, it also feels like they're overdoing it with the, "he was at every major event in history theme". A few sure, but we're now in the dozens of mythological and historical events. It's a bit much.

[mc warhammer]

yeah, if every major historical event is 'cos of perpetuals (including the emp) then it removes agency from baseline humanity to affect the world around them

[1ncarnadine]

yeah, if every major historical event is 'cos of perpetuals (including the emp) then it removes agency from baseline humanity to affect the world around them

Yeah, but that's only if they actually did live through those events. They could all be weapons left out of the same box, imbued with the memories of dead shaman souls or something. Totally delusional group of warp-spawned not-truly-human monsters. It's not even 100% clear if Oll & co ever leave the warp through most of their journey until they arrive on Terra, or if most of what they're seeing are warp delusions. Traveling through time, or traveling through what the warp is reflecting at you...?

 

At least that's my read, and I'm sticking to it, because it makes perpetuals tolerable for me

[mc warhammer]

like...each perpetual possibly is a collection of lived experiences of other people/perpetuals/shamen?

[Scribe]

Sounds like head canon to make a terrible addition bearable. :p