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Post by Kage2020 on Feb 7, 2004 9:59:27 GMT -5
I don't suppose that someone can post a list of the currently in press BL novels, could they? Please don't post me to the BL site... I don't want to crawl through the various menu systems, but would appreciate it if someone could just post a lovely little list for me... I'm trying to decide whether any of them actually look like they're worth buying since the funs are tight at the moment. Kage |
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Post by zholud on Feb 7, 2004 12:20:39 GMT -5
General premise. I don’t read much BL books to judge adequately, so I’ll speak only about ones I have. Crossfire. We discussed it with Kage on chats, so for the info of others. The book is best in sense that there are not a single Marine or Guardsmen, the fights are minor and the fluff is nice addition but w/o breaking the older rules and no blatant errors, only concept I personally disagree. Minuses are hard (at least for me, non-native speaker) language, some vague wanderings of heroine, not enough drive (not only action, but more the feel to get to the next page). Final result – good enough book. Bleeding Chalice. I just started it yesterday. Drive is on board, but two critical failures of believe rolls in first 30 pages. I’m rather disappointed. The book is filled with action or so it seems, but author makes background errors and too childish in this book. Think of local Salvatore analog from TSR Forgotten Realms. The first book, Soul Drinker seems to be better. Good stuff but only within wargames segment... Eisenhorn Trilogy. If you haven’t read it get it as these books worth reading. They have plots, ideas, characters and real Imperium and Inquisition. But from the fluff POV Abnett constantly errs. Words of Blood. Interesting collection of short stories, the ultimate pearl of all times for GW books being Missing on Action by Abnett. The rest are just average, with Des ex Machina being on the net.. the both Thrope stories are plainly awful. I don’t know why but he writes either great additions to fluff, e.g. 2nd ed sisters of battle codex or very bad stories... Dark Imperium Average action stories with nice Chambers one but the rest are not the stuff I like. Worse than previous. Storm of Iron. Nice ideas but many bad conceptions. Author blatantly shifts some medieval siege novel into 40k, forgetting about flying troops, energy weapons, etc. I hate this, but book is interesting reading. All for a moment. |
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Post by CELS on Feb 7, 2004 12:35:06 GMT -5
Furthermore...
Execution Hour and Shadowpoint are two very entertaining novels that are completely valid in terms of fluff, IIRC. The latter also introduces the very interesting concept of Shadowpoint, which makes foresight/ farseeing a lot more interesting.
Firewarrior.... absolute crap. Nuff said.
Ragnar / Space Wolf novels are worth the read if you're a Space Marine fan. The first novel (Space Wolf) gives much information on Fenris, and the latest novel (Wolfblade) gives a lot of information of Earth in M41, and especially on the Navigator houses.
Angels Of Darkness... anyone who claims that Gav Thorpe can't write fiction must have read this book with their eyes closed. This novel has a great plot, and a 'rumour' about the Horus Heresy which blew me away!
Other than that I don't have any novels worth mentioning. Farseer is ok, nothing more. I hear the Commissar Cain novels are good, but I haven't read them.
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Post by zholud on Feb 7, 2004 14:28:49 GMT -5
Also Liber Chaotica series is enjoyable but very pricey... in terms of fluff there is nothing new (I mean undiscussed on relevant Portent forums) but definitely has the style. I wonder whether to buy or not – they are fun but close to empty in terms of relevant for ASP fluff making. The cults could be invented on basis of it or some plague described but both as easily done w/o them. |
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Post by Kage2020 on Feb 7, 2004 20:33:14 GMT -5
No, no.. I don't need recommendations. I just need a list. I haven't bought a BL novel in quite some time and I'm trying to figure out how much I can afford and what books I need... Again, a list would be welcome. If you wish it we can delve into opinions after we have the most modern list of books published present...  Kage |
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Post by Sikkukkut on Feb 7, 2004 22:08:06 GMT -5
Anthologies
Into the Maelstrom
Dark Imperium
Words of Blood
Deathwing
Status: Deadzone (Technically Necromunda, but classified in with the 40K stuff now.)
Crucible of War
What Price Victory (upcoming)
Draco
Draco
Harlequin
Chaos Child
Eisenhorn
Xenos
Malleus
Hereticus
Gaunt's Ghosts
First and Only
Ghostmaker
Necropolis
Honour Guard
The Guns of Tanith
Straight Silver
Sabbat Martyr
Last Chancers
13th Legion
Kill Team
Annihiliation Squad (Upcoming, I think)
Ragnar
Space Wolf
Ragnar's Claw
Grey Hunter
Wolfblade
Uriel Ventris
Nightbringer
Warriors of Ultramar
The Solar Macharius
Execution Hour
Shadow Point
The Soul Drinkers
Soul Drinker
The Bleeding Chalice
Caiaphas Cain
For the Emperor
Caves of Ice
Miscellaneous
Eye of Terror
Pawns of Chaos
Storm of Iron
Farseer
Angels of Darkness
Daemon World
Crossfire
Fire Warrior
Crusade for Armageddon
Ravenor (Continues with characters from the Eisenhorn books; more apparently to follow).
Background
Insignium Astartes
Battle for Armageddon
The Imperial Infantryman's Uplifting Primer
This doesn't include the comic-format stuff.
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Post by CELS on Feb 8, 2004 9:55:06 GMT -5
No, no.. I don't need recommendations. I just need a list. I haven't bought a BL novel in quite some time and I'm trying to figure out how much I can afford and what books I need... You're welcome  I just figured you needed recommendations since you said you were trying to figure out which you should buy. |
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Post by zholud on Feb 8, 2004 10:16:46 GMT -5
I would like to advise other members on the board to express their opinions about BL books on this thread so we all know what to read. |
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Post by Kage2020 on Feb 8, 2004 15:27:10 GMT -5
<grin> Now that I have the list - and thank you for that Sikkukkutt - I more than welcome opinions on the various books. Books that I would value opinions on are basically the ones that I don't have: Crucible of War The Bleeding Chalice For the Emperor Caves of Ice Crossfire Fire Warrior (the game sucked, so maybe not) Ravenor Insignium Astartes Battle for Armageddon The Imperial Infantryman's Uplifting Primer Many thanks... ;D Kage |
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Post by zholud on Feb 8, 2004 17:01:27 GMT -5
Books that I would value opinions on are basically the ones that I don't have: Insignium Astartes Very bad book IMHO, only looked it up, but seems old fluff on armour and marines w/o a single new sentence plus big and not artistic pictures of 100+ Chapters colours. On others will speak later… |
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Post by Kage2020 on Feb 8, 2004 17:51:18 GMT -5
I'd gathered that about that particular book... it's glad to see my suspicions confirmed. Kage |
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Post by zholud on Feb 9, 2004 11:46:18 GMT -5
Books that I would value opinions on are basically the ones that I don't have: Crucible of War I haven’t yet read this book, maybe it would be my next buy (if I’ll make a purchase within a half-year). This is what was written about it on Portent long ago. Crucible of War the new short story collection. The stories are. Liberation Day - Matthew Farrer/Edward Rusk A group of humans on a Ork infested hulk call for assistance from the Astartes but get more than they bargained for. The Curiosity - Dan Abnett A margo biologis is mistaken for a hunter and sent to kill a mysterious beast terrorising a region of the world Gershom. Payback - Graham McNeill A muntions dealer establishes his business in a web of doubling dealing and intrigue. (Necromunda style) The Emperors Will - David Charters The chapter master of the Storm Warriors learns a new lesson in the application of Imperial power when his weary fleet is summoned to quell a rebellious planetary governor. Fight or Flight - Sandy Mitchell Commissar Ciaphas Cain tells the story of his first assignment. On Mournful Wings - Si Spurrier Two brothers undergo the initiation rites of the Doom Eagles. Backcloth For a Crown Additional - Dan Abnett A Inquisitor Eisenhorn story, he investigates a series of murders that are somehow connected with a travelling fair. Firestarter - Jonathan Green A underhive doctor is caught in gang warfare and something is stalking him intent of revenge (Necromunda style) Warp Spawn - Matt Ralphs A ships captain learns a salutory lesson when he agrees to transport a group of people including a strange girl who are on the run. Leviathan - Graham McNeill The prequel to Warriors of Ultramar (set just after Nightbringer) - Uriel Ventris and his men try to destroy a Ork hulk and find something else. |
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Post by Sikkukkut on Feb 11, 2004 4:41:34 GMT -5
The Bleeding Chalice
I enjoyed this much more than Zholud seemed to. I certainly felt it was an improvement over Soul Drinker, which had an intriguing premise, good imagery and some great individual scenes but which didn’t hang together as a novel-length work very well. This one is much better plotted and pulls off a three-way narrative between the Soul Drinkers, the Inquisitor tracking them and the Chaos warlord Teturact, in the path of whose expansionist drive the others find themselves. What I liked even more was that Ben Counter manages to keep the Soul Drinkers’ agenda shadowy through most of the story, so that we find out about it as the Inquisitor does. I got to the final scenes thinking “how the hell are any of them going to get through this?” not to mention “what the hell is going to happen?” and I enjoyed the climactic battle greatly.
I disagree with some of Counter’s assumptions about the renegades and their relationship to Chaos, and I’m starting to think that Plague Zombies are being over-used a little in BL fiction, but I do like Counter’s imagination: I think he’s very good at bringing the weird, twisted, hallucinatory ambience of the 40Kverse out in print. Scenes that stick in the mind: the final fate of Teturact’s warship (and even just the descriptions of him and his throne room); the battle for the Mechanicus outpost on the frozen world; those weird xenos mini-ships. I think the action and setting are stronger than the characterisation – the things I remember most about the book are events and places rather than people. But overall, a thumbs up.
Ravenor[/b]
As the title implies, the book takes up the career of Inquisitor Gideon Ravenor at some point after the end of Hereticus. I’ve heard it referred to as a simple Hereticus clone, which I don’t agree with. There are resemblances, sure – the powerful Inquisitor with his team of staffers tracking down and rooting out the enemies of the Imperium – but Ravenor seemed to me to be its own story from the start. I suppose I’d sum up the differences as being that Eisenhorn looked in and Ravenor looks out. Eisenhorn was a flawed first-person narrator, the whole tale filtered through his eyes and his judgements and prejudices, the overarching plot all about his own personal moral progress from puritan to radical. Ravenor is an ensemble book, only written in Ravenor’s first person for short and fairly infrequent periods, with plenty of scenes where the other members of the team get centre stage. Abnett got a lot of flak for his characterisation with his early books and he seems to have paid attention. There is much more attention to the characters in this, from Ravenor (a far more reflective and less cold man than Eisenhorn), Kara Swole and Harlon Nayl from the earlier books, and new ones like the ice-queen psyker Patience Kys and the dandified Interrogator Thonius (whose chief lament after being wounded almost mortally in a showdown about two thirds of the way through the book is that the hang of his favourite jacket has been spoiled by the way he has to hold his arm while it heals).
The plot centres around a trade in a rather odd variety of illegal narcotic whose origins suggest something sinister at work – uncovering exactly what that is starts Ravenor and his team off in the slums of a sullen, polluted hiveworld, then to a huge meeting of pachyderm-herder tribes on one of its primitive neighbours and finally to a multi-species trading post on the fringe of an ill-omened stretch of nomansland called “Lucky Space”, and to entanglements with unscrupulous trade cartels and a fledgling sector-government authority that is not what it seems. The last of these left me kind of cold, but the agri-world is expertly evoked and the slums of Eustis Majoris are very well done – the author’s experience on 2000AD showing, maybe? I could almost taste the grime in the air and hear the acid rain sizzle.
Two problems: the fact that it’s setting up a longer storyline means the end is a little blah: we’ve got the small first-episode triumph to tide us over but no real satisfaction just yet. I think Xenos worked better as a first instalment that also resolved its own story. The second is that while the shifting point of view is generally done very well (there’s a great sequence where they infiltrate a savage gladiatorial circus called the Carnivora which juggles the characters as well as I’ve ever seen it done), stepping out of that and into first-person with Ravenor himself comes across as a little clunky. I appreciate that getting inside his head allows us to see his psyker and scrying abilities from the inside, but I found myself noticing a little gear-crunching when the PoV shifted.
More on the others when I get some time.
CAR-CAR-CARNIVORA![/i]
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Post by zholud on Feb 11, 2004 13:06:45 GMT -5
The Bleeding ChaliceI enjoyed this much more than Zholud seemed to. You’ve misunderstood me  I enjoy the story, at least up to the page 230 where I’m ATM. My problem with this is similar to early Abnett books: the plot, language, action, etc is good, but the knowledge of the fluff or thinking in-depth on matters seem lacking. What have I meant? Three points for the start: Book starts with the team that seeks and destroys the books and data-slates with info on Soul Drinkers. They found it in a single place and fire it off. O.k., cool imaginary and all that, I even agree with usage of flamers. But how it is possible, that all info on Chapter actions (often in cooperation with other organisations) be in a single place? This especially concerns this Chapter, the sole mention of which in mainstream fluff is in codex Sisters Of Battle as one of the Chapters which assaulted Terra during the Age of Apostasy. This stuff should be in Imperial history books because those actions by many may be seen as ‘second coming’ with Thor as new Emperor (I don’t speak about Thorian faction in Inquisition, just common Joe stuff). Second is description of Agriworld, which, if failed, cause the starvation in whole Segmentum!!! Hell, he constantly confuse system with sector and Segmentum… He made Soul Drinkers 2nd founding, while it was clearly stated in various articles that Imperial Fists split on Crimson fists (most ‘patient’ ones) and ‘the rest (!!) Black Templars. This was stated at least three times in IA on everyone of those Chapters. |
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Post by Dazo on Aug 13, 2004 3:13:21 GMT -5
I personally really enjoyed the Soul Drinker books, my all time favorite though is deathwing, look at some of those authers wow.
I also really liked Grey Knights, an enjoyable romp into the world of the deamon hunters. Man those guys can take some punishment.
I can't say the same for the spacewolf novels though which is a shame as i think they are one of the most interesting chapters out there
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I enjoy the story, at least up to the page 230 where I’m ATM. My problem with this is similar to early Abnett books: the plot, language, action, etc is good, but the knowledge of the fluff or thinking in-depth on matters seem lacking. What have I meant? Three points for the start:
