Roomsky

This re-release is the first one I don't better than the original. Galaxy in Flames' original art is actually kinda decent, and this one captures neither the grit nor the scale of the book's contents.

Can it be? Raldoron is finally getting a personality? They said it wouldn't be done. They said it couldn't be done. Cautiously optimistic for this, even with Haley not being my favourite. Man's probably the least interesting first captain among the first-founding chapters, and he really shouldn't be. Edit: His head is very small.

Horus Rising (Director's Cut) parts 1, 2, and 3 would be absolutely shameless. I'd buy it. (Heresy'd still have been better if 1 author tackled the whole thing.)

The Ork sections were lots of fun - especially impressive because Brooks has written more Orks than anjyone else at this point, but they didnèt feel stale here. I just thought the two protagonists had a very compelling energy to them. Mixed with decent Eldar focus being (weirdly) so much rarer than good Ork focus these days, it just gave me the experience of "yes, yes, very amusing. But do hurry back to the meat of the story." Which, I'll concede, could have been intentional on Brooks' part to build tension.

Well, it's certainly no Twice-Dead King.

Some fresh paperback listings from Amazon: October 20 - Apostle, Dropsite Massacre, Master of Rites November 17 - Deathrider, Ghost Legion December 15 - Ashes of the Imperium, Ghazghkull Thraka: Warlord of Warlords, Chem Dog

Tombworld – Jonathan D. Beer Is there anything more frustrating than a story that’s less than the sum of its parts? I enjoy Beer’s writing style, but this reads like an enthusiastic first draft. It’s the sort of solid base that should still be coming back to the author with a laundry list of notes before even approaching the printing stage. Very disappointing. This book has several problems, but the main one is its protagonist. Triarch Praetorian Khemet is a fine character to feature in this story, but as its protagonist she's boring as sin. Her goal is to act in accordance with her station. Her personality is that she is humourless and motivated solely by duty. This is simply not enough to carry a story, especially when Praetorians are so physically powerful. About 50 pages at the start of the book are devoted to her backstory, all of which adds zero complexity to her as an individual. She floats through the book making intelligent judgments, restraining herself from killing the idiots she’s surrounded by, and defeating whoever she’s fighting with ease. I do want inhuman xenos in my 40k fiction, but when you’re writing the inhuman as a protagonist, it’s important to retain at least one relatable human element while making the rest of their personality alien. Khemet doesn’t have that element. She has a place in the story being told, she just shouldn’t be the centre of it. Every other main character is more interesting than Khemet. Hekasun, whom every other Necron ostensibly works for in this story, has zero redeeming qualities, but I still think he’d have been a better protagonist. He, at least, is motivated by trying to reclaim what he’s owed, and the indignity of having to claw his way back into his own fiefdom. Kamoteph is probably the most interesting Necron here, being a bit eccentric and just as competent as Khemet, if in a less cautious manner. Ahnuret too is fun – so much attention is usually given to the Flayer Virus that it’s a nice contrast to see a Necron instead descending into the Destroyer mentality (and by doing so, suddenly becoming very bad at her job.) Meanwhile, on the human side, we get Arbitrator Sinos. I like Sinos quite a bit. She’s nothing terribly special as a character, but she shares the protagonist role with Khemet for the middle ~100 pages of the book, so has the benefit of contrast with the uninteresting metal skeleton. Her portions, unfortunately, suffer from another narrative misstep: she’s investigating something we already know the answer to. “Who could it be?” she asks, beside the suspiciously Necron-shaped adjacent chapters. I think the intent here was to make the reader wonder if Sinos will discover Necron involvement in time for it to make a difference. But so many words are spent on the actual dead-end investigating that it just comes across as wheel-spinning. So, the first third is character building for a flat character. The second third is investigating a mystery we already know the answer to. Is the final third better? I think so, but it’s still, ultimately, a war the Necrons have no chance of losing. So, I’m not saying I wanted the Necrons to lose in their own book. However. An internal conflict for the Necrons is that Khemet knows how dangerous humans can be, and opts for a slow but assured strategy for victory. Hekasun, arrogant brat that he is, chafes against this and, combined with a miscalculation by Kamoteph, blows their figurative load early and turns the fight for the planet into an actual war. There are no meaningful consequences to this turn of events. The Necrons walk onto the surface, annihilate any and all resistance, none of the Necron POVs face any real threat from the humans, and then Khemet kills the 7 Deathwatch marines who show up in an attempt to help. Now, the story’s actual climax is a purely internal affair for the Necrons (and it’s quite good.) But Hekasun loses nothing for his impatience. I’m not asking for any major defeat here, but losing even one resource that otherwise would have been spared would've been enough. If you’re going to devote so much time to Khemet saying “don’t take unnecessary risks,” then there should be a consequence to ignoring that, because otherwise it just makes Khemet annoyingly over-cautious, on top of being boring. Again, if Khemet were a supporting character, this dynamic would have been fine, as it would balance out the incredibly overpowered nature of Praetorians with the flaw of excessive caution. I won’t detail the actual climax beyond reiterating that I think it’s very good, probably the best part of the story. It’s a good ending to what is, on paper, a good story. Everything leading up to it is just mishandled. A better version of this book would probably still have that same climax, and it would have hit even better. What else did I like? Well, I like Beer’s writing style. I like all the supporting characters, and despite Sinos and the Deathwatch all having “shoot the shaggy dog” stories, I enjoyed reading about them as people. I like the elements of Necron culture Beer drew attention to: the aforementioned Destroyer cult, Khemet’s complete indifference to the Necrontyr lower classes having their personalities erased, and the supreme importance of heirarchy in their society. As mentioned, Hekasun is a useless idiot, but he wears the crown and thus it is seen as morally correct to do his bidding. Individualism is a sin if you’re not nobility to the Necrons, and that theme is a good contrast against the Necron protagonists of other books. The action, while flaccid, never carries on too long just to be more “exciting”, and it is nice to see a defiant final action by humanity end in abject failure for once. But that just makes the flaws more frustrating. King of the Spoil and Dominion Genesis are both great. This book has great elements, but the narrative style is schizophrenic, and vast swathes of pages are devoted to things we already know don’t matter. This is what good editors are supposed to send back for a redo. Backing up my suspicion this book was barely edited: the Cryptek called Ptah is agender when they’re first introduced, but is then referred to as a man when they next appear. Editors? Hello? Anyone in there? Ultimately, unless you’re a die hard for Necrons, this book isn’t worth the frustration. Go read Twice-Dead King or The Infinite and the Divine instead. Hopefully this is just a mis-step and Beer’s next book is back up to his usual quality.

Perhaps this wave of reprints is Black Library's inept way of giving the fanbase the "not secondary market hell" we've been asking for. Not how I'd have done it, but that's Black Library for you.

I've just started into it, good so far. I like Beer's writing and the premise diferentiates itself from other Necron works pretty quickly. Will make or contribute to a thread when I'm done.

Horus Rising by Dan Abnett False Gods by Graham McNeill Galaxy in Flames by Ben Counter The Flight of the Eisenstein by James Swallow Fulgrim by Graham McNeill The First Heretic by Aaron Dembski-Bowden Prospero Burns by Dan Abnett Know No Fear by Dan Abnett Betrayer by Aaron Dembski-Bowden Praetorian of Dorn by John French The Master of Mankind by Aaron Dembski-Bowden Slaves to Darkness by John French There's been much discussion and debate about their choices of 12. Full article here: https://www.warhammer-community.com/en-gb/articles/17oswfuf/world-championships-preview-experience-the-greatest-hits-of-the-horus-heresy-saga-in-a-new-curated-series/

Voidscarred – Mike Brooks Elf Yaoi? In my 40k? It’s more likely than you think. Old thread’s still closed and I wanna post a review. Or rather, I want to talk about why I think this book punches above it’s weight (it’s the yaoi (but not in the way you might think)) Brooks is using a bit of a cheat code here when it comes to getting invested in these characters. Both Taenar and Myrin are charismatic in their own way, but this book would be pretty flat if their dynamic was a platonic one instead of a romantic-sexual one. They aren’t terribly deep characters, they aren’t remarkably well-written, and their motivations aren’t exceptionally unique. BUT, they are reasonably likeable and carry sympathetic goals or grievances. Make those goals at cross-purposes and give them some chemistry, and BAM – instant investment. You want both to get what they want, but you also know something needs to give in one of them before they can get a happy ending – and this being 40k, they’re just as likely to end up fighting to the death instead of working out their issues. It’s like giving a violent character a kid to tag along with them – it plays on human instincts rather than “doing the work” on it’s own. This structure isn’t anything new, but Black Library’s tendency to shy away from romance means it’s new in a 40k book. Of course, there is romance sprinkled here-and-there in 40k fiction, but it’s basically all “amusing background detail,” “these two are :cuss:ing because they’re in a mixed unit and could die at any time,” and “this other character is the object of POVs affections but doesn’t get a POV of their own.” Brooks taps into why people have been writing gay fanfiction about Holmes/Watson or Kirk/Spock since those pieces of media first dropped – Taenar and Myrin have similar amounts of focus, but contrasting virtues. Neither of them is “the girl.” Their strengths both complement each other’s and their worldviews make it interesting when one starts to step on the toes of the other. I don’t want to deny Brooks his flowers for actually making them a compelling couple – dipping your toe into any popular scie-fi or fantasy romance will more often than not leave you questioning why Character A sees anything desirable in Character B – but I think the novelty of it within 40k is why so many people got really into the book. We’ve seen inner turmoil, we’ve seen people from rival institutions vying for power, both to the point where they’re a bit tired. Don’t get me started on the books where the central conflict really is just “will they succeed in this military operation?” All that to say is – Brooks tapped into humanity in a way most Black Library works don’t bother with. More authors should be allowed to do the same. I’m not furious Brooks got to write a novel-length elf romance before ADB, who says I am? Anyway, here’s a condensed version of the rest of my thoughts: THE GOOD: • It is purely xenos vs xenos fiction • Brooks continues to invent new and entertaining angles to approach Ork characters • Until now, I viewed Eldar Corsairs as “the other ones” amongst Craftworlders, Dark Eldar, and Exodites. Now, if I actually played the tabletop game, I’d want to build an army of them, or at least a Kill Team. They’re very cool in this book with their mix of individualism and cultural backgrounds. • It’s another decent Eldar-focused book. You wouldn’t think it would be so hard for this to be so, but Orks and Necrons are somehow still outnumbering them when it comes to quality. • The book took several turns I legitimately did not expect • I liked reading about any character that got a reasonable amount of focus • It doesn’t overstay it’s welcome • I like that the Eldar refer to individual Orks as “it.” Likewise, Orks refer to each other as “he” but refer to Grots as “it.” It’s a good and efficient way to show off what these groups think of each other. • I liked that, after several failed attempts to defeat a character in melee, they just shoot said character to death • The line: "He was wearing his favourite, five-cornered hat today – on the basis, apparently, that ‘any git can wear a three-cornered one, an’ four-cornered ones are just squares wiv pretenshuns" THE BAD: • The Ork POVs were generally much less interesting than the eldar ones, IMO • The book is full of Eldar characters that get too little focus, a lot of them are hard to keep track of • Brooks is a coward for not sticking to his guns regarding a particular character death. I don’t normally feel anything when a Black Library character dies, and Brooks went and undid the rare instance where I want “wait, no, I liked that one.” • The prose is nothing special, and occasionally clunky • Some situations resolve themselves far too quickly to be believable • Brooks cut to black instead of giving us 10 pages of uncensored elf sex (this is a joke) THE VERDICT: At the risk of damning Brooks with faint praise, a lot of my enjoyment of this came from the following: • It’s Eldar and it’s better than Thorpe • Brooks has a high output and his writing works better for me than Haley’s • He’s writing about subjects and factions Black Library should have let into novels decades ago • Male/male romance is intriniscally less likely to be cringe about why characters find each other attractive The book is technically fine, and is lifted up entirely by the chemistry between the main characters. If that relationship works for you, this is a more engrossing read than a lot of Black Library fare. If it doesn’t, well, at least it’s not Path of the Eldar. What do you, the reader, think?

It was pretty great. I bet whoever made it was very smart and handsome.

Zardu Layak: The Crimson Apostle - Rich McCormick Another strange pick for the Heresy Character Series. Oddly enough, I've found that the less a character's needed one, the more enjoyable (if not necessarily higher quality) their book has been for me. This continues that trend, Layak needed this treatment the least after Sigismund, and it's also my favourite after Sigismund. By this pattern, if Typhus ever gets an entry into this series, it will be unreadable. McCormick returns after an extremely ambitious but messy debut novel, and in some ways this continues the trend. This is a story designed to tell you about the title character, conventional structure be damned. To his credit, he does make Layak his own character after one book of personifying "Lorgar's habits finally bite him in the ass" and three books of being "Generic Chaos Preacher Man." We get snippets of his past, we get several other characters' unique perceptions of him, ultimately making him a sort of anti-Erebus. Layak too came from nothing, but instead of using Chaos as an excuse to gain power, Layak wants nothing but to serve the gods. He is not the hand of destiny, he is its tool, and is the embodiment of the legion's acceptance of the universe's "truth." With that in mind, I think McCormick does justify the choice of Layak for this series - the Heresy doesn't really have another Word Bearers POV that displays this degree of zealousness. Talgron and Argel Tal struggle to retain some decency despite serving the dark gods, and Erebus and Kor Phaeron are ultimately only in it for themselves. Layak is truly, unironically, in it for the Gods and has no pretensions about this fact. The supporting characters are well chosen also. Our human POV, Barnhart, provides both a mortal view of Layak's inscrutable nature, and is a much needed reminder that even during the Great Crusade, astartes actions had plenty of well-trained Guardsmen support (I just wish we actually found out what became of her.) Our antagonists Hebek, Saucan, and Kulnar all embody the less "pure" Word Bearers templates: Hebek is only in it for himself, Kulnar believes himself uniquely enlightened, and Saucan thinks his is the vision that will rule the galaxy. This is quite effective in both highlighting why Layak ends up Chaos' mouthpiece for a time, and by contrasting against him they each become fairly memorable. This book is both a well done character study of its title character, and a very dignifying account of the Word Bearers that breaks away from the "bad fighters surrounded by cannon fodder cultists" stereotype. I think if each Character Series and Primarchs book were written in this way, they'd all be beloved by the fandom. But I did say it was messy. It's a book that knows exactly what it wants to do at the expense of structure. The first half is great - it establishes the conflict and the characters, we take a journey to the place of conflict, and see a confrontation with the first guy he came to kill. Then the second half is basically two instances of: "Layak immediately finds the next Anakatis Blade holder, their philosophies clash, Layak wins." Layak's victories don't feel terribly earned, and much like Lord of Excess, the back half takes "all killer, no filler" to the extreme by compacting necessary connective tissue to the absolute bare minimum (or less.) It makes for an easy read - it's hard not to enjoy a version of a story that's just the most interesting parts - but also transparently an excuse plot to show what McCormick wants to show. But can I really complain about that when it's both easy to read and fulfills the purpose of the book perfectly? Not with much gusto. Waiter! Waiter! My steak is too tender. My lobster is too buttery! McCormick continues to impress, and his love for the setting is apparent in both his books so far. Very much looking forward to the next one, messy or not. Arbitrary numerical rating is a 7.5/10

Dawn of Fire either fizzled out or was never good in the first place, depending on who you ask. Avenging Son is, at least, a decent snapshot at the state of the Imperium in the current setting. Here are some highlights from what I've read since 2020: Ashes of the Imperium is a great start to the post-Heresy era. Twice-Dead King duology - The best Necron book(s) yet published. Dropsite Massacre - A good fill-in-the-gaps book for Heresy fans Interceptor City - Fantastic sequel to Double Eagle Elemental Council - The best-ever Tau novel Outgunned and Above and Beyond - Excellent aeronautica novels, with Above and Beyond especially being absolutely fantastic. All things Warhammer Crime - A consistently great range of books that was taken too soon. Ghazghkull Thraka: Prophet of the Waaagh! - Probably the best-ever Ork novel Sea of Souls - A dawn of Fire novel, but it can be read on its own. Great Navy story. Assassinorum: Kingmaker - Imperial Knights, politics, and assassins, oh my! There's plenty more, but those are top of mind. I haven't read Voidscarred yet, but those who enjoy Brooks' writing seem to find it's a very good eldar novel.

How nice of them, giving us 1 week a year where they're up to their old standard of reporting on Black Library. It's just like old times! Who's gonna tell him?