Roomsky

2 months later and we still don't know what's up with Ahriman Undying.

Another day, another thread for a new novel. Deathworlder - Victoria Hayward Every time I pick up one of these new Astra Militarum books, I fear the worst kind of generic military page-filler. While not every book has been great, they've all proved me wrong - you'd think I'd have learned by now. I should probably get around to completing the set with Catachan Devil, huh? I think this is the first novel where I really buy the horror of Tyranids. They're usually an afterthought or are reduced to flavourless "chittering masses" for the protagonists to fight. Here, probably in part because I didn't recognize most of the variants and could imagine something scarier than the tabletop models, they're genuinely threatening, dangerous, and downright gross. I hope you're ready for a few passages describing things getting digested. This isn't a world getting stripped of life, it's a world curdling into a slurry for things beyond the stars to slurp up in stage by grotesque stage. Hell yeah Frater. With such descriptions in mind, the book is more of a trek through a putrefying hell than some protracted battle against endless foes. The 'Nids clearly aren't paying any special attention to the protagonists and the journey is more of an effort to go around them where possible than some non-stop battle; the bioforms are a deadly part of the environment more than a horde of individuals. Which isn't to say it's all shock value, the characters get lots of time to introspect throughout, and their tactical decisions often require much deliberation as well. Speaking of the characters, the Catachans are already well drawn by the end of their introductory chapter. It takes some books upwards of a hundred pages to pull that off, meanwhile Deathworlder makes you understand each Catachan within a few passage. Our Cadian tag-along, Anditz, takes longer to solidify and his introductory chapter is probably the book's weakest moment. Worry not though, he becomes more and more compelling as things go. By the end you want to see him pull through just as much as the Catachans. Our two other side characters are also great, Wrathe is believably cordial despite her machine-cult fanaticism, and the cultist Lamya is a fun look at how someone who drank the Tyranid Kool-Aid reacts to their actual presence. None of them are anything super novel, but Hayward's strength comes in giving each believable layers to their surface-level tropes. The Catachans having plenty of respect for patience, tactics, and teamwork despite what other regiments see them as is probably the book's central example. Not much to critique, IMO. Once they reach their goal things start to get a little shaky, with a few attempts at pathos that seem random when every character has emotional investments to be pushed on already by that point. As an example, Major Kahn notices a dead married couple towards the end of the book which stokes further hatred in her (despite not knowing what wedding rings are.) Considering she was already pretty fired up by both the loss of her regiment and many dead civilians throughout, it seemed almost out of place. This happens a few times in the last quarter - I think the scenes are written well but they read like a late addition to an already complete novel. I also think it could have ended with something more bleak, but that's an issue I level at 99% of Black Library books, and I know it wouldn't be to everyone's taste. 8.5/10, honestly great stuff. My mind was never blown, but I was constantly thinking "excellent, well handled" throughout. Another new author I want to read more novels from.

Custodes creation begins at the developmental stage before any significant difference between strength or form between the sexes, as the process begins before they hit puberty. What's more, the Custodes have already been very specific that every facet of their being is hand-crafted when they're being created, which implies they don't have induced "hyper-puberty" or something similar. And on top of that, Custodes reliably being made from hostages of rebellious nobility means that physical acumen doesn't factor into it anyway. Their creation process isn't analogous to real-life military training on any level. Also, gene science in 40k is effectively magic.

I don't want to claim there was no thematic power to Custodes as men and SoS as women, but it was more an aesthetic difference than anything else. The opposite factors they retain (geneforged vs baseline, lack of autonomy vs freedom of thought, soul vs soulless) are far more meaningful than men vs women, especially when Custodes often state that every facet of their being was reforged by the Emperor. Physically and mentally, excepting the shrivelled remnants between their legs, each sex would be identical and will still skew traditionally masculine in the ways Custodes are already masculine (they're large and muscular.) Nothing about Custodian personality really has anything to do with their sex, they're whatever the Emperor wanted them to be to the last minute detail. Their gender is Custodian. So yeah, I guess I'd be fine with a sex-neutral Order of Silence as well, as nothing about them is traditionally feminine but their armour. There is a part of me that's more puritanical with fluff, but again, that part already wrote the Custodes off when they became active away from Terra. Thematically, what Custodes originally represented was annihilated well before this change.

Hey, that's fun. Sort of fills the FSM niche without undermining any important theming related to SMs (whatever your opinions that might be.) I just wish it had happened 8 years ago so ADB could have included them in Master of Mankind like he wanted. This is also such a nothing change compared to Custodes being active off of Terra. I'm surprised at the controversy.

Local book store got it early, it's very good. It'll be worth the wait for you, I think.

I think those are fair points, Nagashnee, I don't have much to refute them. That said, I've always been a proponent of "it's not working, throw it in the bin." Certainly, it's admirable and preferable when someone can rehabilitate a poor concept into something quality, but by book 3 I no longer cared about salvaging the Sallies, that ship had sailed for me. So when I read innofensive Sallies, decent Cabal wrap-up, and pretty good Iron Hands stuff, I shrugged and went "well, this is a pleasant surprise." Plus, I still enjoyed what happened to Meduson, even if I also think he should've gotten a full novel. One thing I will respond to is that the opacity of the Heresy's behind the scenes makes me think it just as likely that if the editor needed to give that thread a conclusion in a book about something else, then it may have been abandoned by the better talent.

The Unburdened is such an odd duck for featuring Kurtha Sedd, a one-off and shallow villain Uriel Ventris* kills in an audio drama/short story. It paints a pretty good portrait of the more traditionally "evil" (as opposed to the delusions of nobility sort) Word Bearer's psychology though, and I appreciate the effort despite it being a kind of wasted effort. The quality of Annandale's stories is inversely proportional to the amount of action, and I thought it had an okay balance. Pythos remains my favourite of Annandale's Heresy work, despite its reputation! You almost certainly don't have to bother with The Honoured, it is much worse. *Actually Aeonid Thiel, thank you Morovir.

I believe the latter is an example of what you wanted for the former. I'm personally not too torn up about a lack of Sev - he waits for ADB, and has always been a periphery character to the Heresy at large.

Lazarus: Enmity's Edge - Gary Kloster (Audiobook) Finished this up, and I would confirm my previous suggestion: if you don't like Brooks, this may be the definitive Dark Angels novel for you. It's well written, it has an actual plot and themes, the Fallen inform the story but are not present, and it portrays the chapter as competent and effective.Kloster has already proven himself a strong author; Spark of Rebellion made me somehow care about Ogryns, and The Last Volari is one of the better AOS novels. This continues the trend on most fronts. There's very little excess fighting, and when the action scenes do come there are usually several kinds of struggle to keep things fresh. There's some very nice world building for the book's setting, and the human POV is a great one. It's well paced, it's interesting, and I was quite engaged throughout. As mentioned earlier, I really need to praise how the Fallen were used here. They don't appear and aren't the antagonists, but they're also in the back of everyone's mind and a bad situation becomes much worse purely by virtue of how their existence needs to remain a secret. They're a part of the legion's identity while finally not subsuming their entire personality. Azrael's argument in favour of continuing the hunt was very believable too: in his position, in this society, an argument from tradition is a much better fit than actually trying to rationalize it. Some good 40kisms going on here too. Many characters die in ways that feel earned by the story, it's largely free of plot armour. The general Imperial hypocrisy and inefficiency is also displayed WITHOUT just making everyone an idiot. Laughed out loud during the scene where a Dark Angel laments how unnecessarily secretive their Imperial allies are being, "unlike the Dark Angels." The writing is a bit simplistic at times, though it's very smooth. I'd say that it effectively weaves its themes of secrecy and resurrection into the story well enough to make up for it. My issues with the book sort of just come by comparison. I like Brooks, and I find Zabriel much more interesting than Lazarus. Lazarus is still fun in his own way, but being comically serious only gets you so far. Comparing to Kloster's own work, it does several things I liked about Last Volari, but worse. Lazarus' personal struggles aren't as compelling as Nyssa Volari's. The antagonist is not as compelling as Last Volari's, and it doesn't have as many memorable characters. So… 7/10? To Taste, probably a Must Read for a Dark Angels fan. I hope it gets a sequel.

I for one adore how traitorous and self-defeating the Dark Angels are; they fit into my views on the Imperium nicely. Flawed characters are also usually the most interesting! That said, while he's written some good stuff with the chapter, I can't help but think Thorpe handling most of their writing is to blame for the lack of memorable characters. Azrael himself remains pretty ill-defined despite how often he appears. All that said, I'm a few chapters in and the book is very good so far, as I'd expect of Kloster. It's shaping up to be the clear winner of "best Dark Angels book," especially if you don't like Brooks.

Starting a thread for it since it's still a new release Da Big Dakka - Mike Brooks (Audiobook) Brooks' third ork book, and his second Ufthak Blackhawk book, is here. Released to much fandom excitement and much fandom ire because it was basically the only pushed release for this year's Black Library celebration. I don't think either is super fair to it; like most works by Brooks it's a very solid "good." The orky bits in particular are more refined than ever. This time, we have Dark Eldar as our foil POVs. While they're still perfectly entertaining, I think it's a bit of a step down from Brutal Kunnin'. That book, to me, read like half of an actual Mechanicus novel that also had Ork chapters. I know that didn't work for many people, but I thought it created a uniquely entertaining read that showed exactly why Orks are such a fun faction. These Dark Eldar, by contrast, read like Dark Eldar in an Ork novel; it's all much more obviously tongue in cheek and they don't seem to have much reverence for their own culture, which is odd because of their supremacist views. The book is more evenly humorous because of this approach, but I think it takes away some of the charm and dilutes any really funny bits. The orky stuff, as mentioned, is the best from Brooks so far, even with the plot failing to meaningfully endanger Ufthak at any point. Brooks' writing isn't the most refined in the stable, but he has a unique talent for making fight scenes engaging. Better authors than Brooks have still managed to deliver complete snoozefests because their fight scenes ended up being poetically rendered filler. Brooks' style of giving us a play-by-play of everyone's decisions as the fight progresses means keeps every moment of this book's very frequent battles enjoyable. This is especially fun for Ork POVs, who doesn't love some good Ork logic? Ufthak describing humans as essentially Orks who are bad at being Orks was a personal favourite. I will say I noticed how often he lent into the "it was believed that X, but of course Y was true" style of exposition a bit too often, I hope he reins that in a bit next time. As expected, Snaggi is back as well. Despite my problems with the Dark Eldar here, I still found this book was back to the balance of opposing POVs that I thought made Brutal Kunnin' so much better than Warboss, so by extension I preferred this book's Snaggi content. At times, he reads like the only POV with legitimate stakes. Also, big shoutout to Harry Myers' narration. He's got a great range to his performance and I quite liked his Dark Eldar, despite his "unrefined" accent. That man can go deep and menacing when he wants to. Overall, super fun book that never had me bored. Probably what you want out of a running Ork series, eh? 7.5/10 To Taste because it's Brooks. The man's becoming to me what Guy Haley seems to be to other people: workhorse author with a strong respect for continuity, who also never fails to deliver something worse than "good." Now somebody crack the whip on a sequel to his Alpha Legion work.

It has a very strong introductory section which it then effectively throws out the window to give us the usual band of generic Sororitas, at which point it sort of turned into white noise for me. The Savlar are honestly more compelling than anything the Sisters get up to, which is a shame but not too unexpected. Hill's writing style is at its best when he's writing Guardsmen.

Super interesting; it's a good reminder that any forum is basically a small bubble in the face of the larger readership. It is of course a popularity contest, but it's fun to see what people are actually reading. Even if some of the books didn't even come out in 2023. Brooks is a good author in any case, good to see him getting decent exposure.

*Gestures pointedly at total lack of discussion about King of the Spoil*