BL NOVEL: Age of Darkness is good

[Bigred]

So not a review here, just some thoughts.

The latest Horus Heresy novel is really good, especially for a shortstory compilation.

The basic gist of the novel is we've spent over a dozen books getting to the Dropsite Massacre, and who knows how many more we have to do until the siege proper starts. but we never really got a lot of detail on what happened in between those events.

Well, apparently there was a seven year span between Istvaan and the Siege, and it's a bitter seven years where even the Loyalist primarchs pretty much assume that Horus is going to win with his massive numerical advantages.

So we get this book of little side stories set throughout the Imperium, from the halls of the Primarchs to little farming worlds no one even remembers that give us a glimpse of the conflict during these darkest of days.

Its a very cool shift in perspective from what we've seen so far. I'm loving it.

[newtoncain]

I've read the 1st short story (SM), it was good.

[Drew da Destroya]

Nice... I'm probably gonna order it soon, since I have a bunch of Borders giftcards to burn before they go out of business entirely!

I just finished First Heretic, which was fantastic. Up there with Legion and Fulgrim, in my opinion.

[Bigred]

Liar's Due and The Iron Within are really good.

[Count Fenring]

Iron within stole the show I feel, great story. Last Remembrance was a bit of a tear jerker for me. I did not expect it as I never really cared for remembrancers.

Book is worth the buy though, right up to snuff.

[HsojVvad]

Is it really good? From what I have been reading user reviews, most BL or 40K books are not that good and I read a few that I coudln't pass the first few chapters. So I stopped buying BL books.

[bryce963]

Just bought it actually for an after finals treat. I didn't know it was short story collection. Awesome.

Did First Heretic have any deep fluff revealing historical consequences? I seem to have skipped that one and don't know if I need to read it.

[Count Fenring]

Well yes Hsoj, BL novels are basically pulp type fiction, quick and dirty. Very few BL novels (I have been collecting them since 2003) rise above this level of entertainment.

I still enjoy them for the most part. Part of the immersion I guess, makes things more fun instead of just rolling dice on a table. Gives a little bit of life.

First Heretic I enjoyed, it did give some rather interesting insights, especially with regards to the Custodes. I was taken by surprise a couple times at how certain relationships at the higher levels were revealed. Thats all I will say. This book is a good addition to the series too.

[wittdooley]

Is it really good? From what I have been reading user reviews, most BL or 40K books are not that good and I read a few that I coudln't pass the first few chapters. So I stopped buying BL books.

Read a few of my reviews or those by Civilian Reader. The Horus Heresy books, as I've said in multiple forums you've taken part of, are the Black Library's 'literature' stomping ground. While still full of action and grimdark, they HH books (particularly the last 5 or so) explore the exact same themes that books we deem "literature" do.

Last Remembrancer was fantastic. Can't wait to read me some more John French.

[Lexington]

Ooooh, interesting.

The First Heretic aside, I haven't really understood what the hullabaloo over the HH series has been about. This idea of a short set on "little farming worlds no one even remembers," tho, piques my interest something fierce...

[wittdooley]

Ooooh, interesting.

The First Heretic aside, I haven't really understood what the hullabaloo over the HH series has been about. This idea of a short set on "little farming worlds no one even remembers," tho, piques my interest something fierce...

So, captain sarcasm, which HH books have you read?

[Bigred]

K, finished it.

What I really liked was the time the authors took to tie it into and expand upon all the other HH novels.

From the mysteries referenced from Nemesis and the First Heretic, to the things you *knew* must have occured but never thought you'd get a glimpse of (like Alpha Legion behind the lines operations, and loyalist factions within the traitor legions), I loved it.

Strangely Abnett's story wasn't really one of the stronger ones.

Also, I want me some more Sevatar....

[Lexington]

So, captain sarcasm, which HH books have you read?
:confused:

No sarcasm intended. Just haven't found most of them to be the mind-blowing works that others have. I've read (or at least started, then put down) Horus Rising, The Flight of the Eisenstein, Descent of Angels, Legion, Prospero Burns and The First Heretic. Aside from that last one, all they've elicited from me is a different shade of 'meh.'

Seriously, I love it when 40K fiction turns its eye away from the battlefield and explores "real life" within the wider galaxy, so the idea of something like this "farming world" tale makes my ears perk up in interest.


From the mysteries referenced from Nemesis and the First Heretic, to the things you *knew* must have occured but never thought you'd get a glimpse of (like Alpha Legion behind the lines operations, and loyalist factions within the traitor legions), I loved it.
Dig this description. Between this and Blood Reaver, it's gonna be an interesting May for 40K novels. :)

[wittdooley]

Well Damn. Completely misread that one! My bad!

Did you finish Prospero Burns? It really is a fantastic book, as is A Thousand Sons. Also, if you like the non-Astartes ones, I really recommend both Nemesis and Mechanicum. Both really, really good, and both deal with other aspects of the HH.

Blood Reaver is next on my list. Soul Hunter was amazing, and by all accounts I've read, Blood Reaver is even better. Excited to read.

[Lexington]

Heh, no problem, man. It's kind of a weird sentiment, so I can see the toneless internet giving it an air of menace.

I didn't get very far in Prospero Burns, but I think that actually had more to do with picking it up just a few days before The Wise Man's Fear hit - there are some things the Black Library just can't compete with. I wasn't too thrilled with what I'd gotten through, though, and I found myself rolling my eyes at the unusual - even for Abnett - amount of "rabbit/smerp (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/CallARabbitASmeerp)" syndrome. I never really did get the guy's dislike of the Space Wolves, and felt like it was just trying to damn hard to let the reader know that these were real Norsemen doing real Norsemen things with real Norsemen words. For me, anyway, it seems like Abnett spends way too much time trying to right wrongs that were never wrong in the first place. The Space Wolves always worked just fine because the faux-Norse barbarian trappings were just that - trappings - that were used to bring texture to a deeper archetype.

Still, I hear abnormally good things about this one, so I may well pick it up, grind through the yucky stuff and try to get at the meat of the story. At the same time, I took a similar attitude towards slogging through Legion, and never could puzzle out what everyone saw in it. Guess we'll see, eh?


Soul Hunter was amazing, and by all accounts I've read, Blood Reaver is even better. Excited to read.
Oh, man, totally. Dembski-Bowden's a really amazing author, and brings a lot of very human detail - attachments, ideals, complicated friendships and even, forgive me, love - to a universe that's all too often about angry men shouting simple litanies of hatred at some equally faceless enemy. Between that and the wickedly dense, layered storytelling he does (Soul Hunter is, all at once, an exploration of Kurze's philosophy, a re-shaping of the Campbellian ideas behind the Night Lords, a "cursed ship" novel and more - which is pretty damn impressive for just a little over four-hundred pages), I'll be picking up his novels - BL or otherwise - on the release date for the foreseeable future. :D

[david5th]

Just finished reading it. Brilliant colletion of short stories.:)

SPOILER

Is Rebirth the closet GW are going to go to the Thousand Son - Blood Ravens link?

[Regnir]

Ooooh, interesting.

The First Heretic aside, I haven't really understood what the hullabaloo over the HH series has been about. This idea of a short set on "little farming worlds no one even remembers," tho, piques my interest something fierce...

Lex mate, if you haven't read Legion, you should...

Abnett has this gift for taking things that I hate in 40k and making them pretty amazing.