I personally found Deathfire pretty enjoyable, I think many have let their bias against Nick Kyme color their judgment.
Exactly.
From what I've heard Deathfire sounds pretty poor, and I admit LOTN has always used a reviewing scale some of us in the community don't agree with, but... c'mon, mate.
This is my reviewing scale;
1/10 - Abysmal
2/10 - Very Bad
3/10 - Bad
4/10 - Below Average
5/10 - Average
6/10 - Above Average
7/10 - Good
8/10 - Very Good
9/10 - Great
10/10 - Excellent (I firmly believe that 10/10 does not mean perfect and is thus an achievable score. If you don't agree then that is fine, it's a very subject-to-opinion area, but you won't change my mind.)
But I'm unable to give any credibility to your review.
I don't care. I don't write reviews to get credibility, I write them to share my opinions which are as valid as the next mans. You may not agree with my review, but don't dare claim that my opinion is less valuable than your own.
It is written by a fanboy to get an early book, or I don't know what for, because any sane man can't like that piece of trash, that is called 'Deathfire'.
No, it most definitely was not. I paid my £25 to get a copy of Deathfire like most everyone else who bought it, but even if it had been a gift it wouldn't affect my opinion of it. Good or bad, my reviews are honest and I would NEVER recommend a book that I didn't enjoy.
Actions scenes are bland and wooden
Actually I found the action scenes in Deathfire to have a power to them that most BL fiction lacks for a very simple reason; Bolters. In most BL novels Bolters just read like machine guns to me, guns that fire bullets that shred their enemies through weight of fire. But in Deathfire, they felt like the propelled frag-grenade-bullet launchers that they are meant to be; the descriptions of Astartes having limbs and armor blown off by single shells, being thrown around like rag-dolls as the rounds explode inside them. This and the sheer endurability and strength that the Salamanders show, they felt like immovable objects that could throw a punch, is what made the action scenes work for me. Were they perfect? No, I felt that there could have been more to distinguish the Salamanders, Death Guard and Word Bearers through unique approaches to combat and unit use than there was.
Book plot uninspired; all the Odyssey line is horrible as ...k. Especially with 'Yeah we got to Terra' - fuck terra we need to go to Nocturne, let's jump into the hellscape again! Glories!
I found the plot rather exciting because we didn't know how it would end. The Heresy is mostly mapped and even books like Calth and Signus follow a plan that we know, but Deathfire is the first novel in quite a while where I truly didn't know where it was going and how it would end; and that was a factor that made it enjoyable. As for the conundrum faced by the Salamanders on their choice of destination, it was a perfectly legitimate problem. Loyalty to Emperor or Primarch? It's a tough question. Should they abandon their gene-father, whom they have a connection with like no other, who gave them self-respect and the strength to stop martyring themselves over every little cause, who showed them the most respect that any Primarch has shown his Legion by admitting that he was humbled by their many sacrifices prior to meeting him. Or should they heed the call to their father's own father, the man who made them and gave them the opportunity to do so much good for humanity, should they place their own planet and father above that of humanity's homeworld and shirk their duty for a personal problem. It was a real issue, and one that I felt Kyme handled very well.
Villains are such a clowns that you can't even appreciate them seriously.
I found Quor Gallek to be a rather unsettling villain due to his belief that the galaxy needed to be absorbed into Chaos. Even Erebus wants to rule the galaxy, but Gallek wants to destroy. He is a nihilist that wants to see everything burn, literally. Other traitors scream that constantly, but in reality what they want is to topple the empire and make themselves lords over creation. Very few actually want to see creation burn and die, and Gallek is one of those few. He could have used more scenes and I would have liked to see more of his particular brand of evil, and more of what set him apart from the other Word Bearer Dark Apostles, but what was there was good. As for Laestigon, I liked him as well. I could see right away why he had been abandoned by the Death Guard, he was a glory hound and a true dog of war who cared only about making a name for himself (a true irony considering that it wouldn't matter what he did, by 40k very few would even be allowed to remember his name), and that desire for immortality (perhaps the only version of it in 40k that doesn't come with a horrific price attached to it) made him an interesting character, I felt he has come the closest to capturing the "enduring footslogger" image of the Death Guard that most characters in-universe have of them. Like Gallek I think the real flaw is that he wasn't used as much as he should have been, he needed more screen time to turn him into a more well-rounded character. What was there was good, but it could have been built even further on.
One additional mentioning deserve editors and author himself for a lot of crack being used, then writing and approving the scene on Nocturne with SM burning Life-eater virus with FUCKING FLAMERS! Do you approve that Lord? Really? You think that writing is going accordingly with logic?
Considering that extreme heat is a real method used to cleanse objects of contamination by bacteria and viruses, yes I do think it goes accordingly with logic. Whether it should work or not is another matter, but it has basis in reality. I am unsure exactly how to feel about that scene, on the one-hand I can see how it could in theory work, but whether it should have or not is something I couldn't really make up my mind on. I'll have a re-read of it and see if that helps me make a decision.
If I ever wasn't agreeing with you - is about that book. THAT THE MOST HORRIBLE HORUS HERESY NOVEL TO DATE. Even Battle for the Abyss is a masterpiece - comparing to that.
Nope, for me the worst Heresy novel so far is either Battle for the Abyss or Legion. My reviews on Talk Wargaming give my opinion of those books succintly.
http://www.talkwargaming.com/2014/07/black-library-review-horus-heresy.html
http://www.talkwargaming.com/2014/07/black-library-review-horus-heresy_4.html
Plus the biggest crap of an ending - PRIMARCH IS REBORN FROM THE FIRES OF THE MOUNTAIN AFTER A LEGIONARY WENT TO THE MOUNTAIN AND SACRIFICE HIMSELF! REALLY??????? IF DADDY VULKAN IS A FUCKING PAGAN GOD NOW - WHY ALL THIS CIRCUS?
Blood sacrifice has been long established as EXTREMELY powerful in 40k. The trade of life for life has incredible significance in the Warp, and the Warp affects reality on a continuous basis. There is a lot of precedent as well; the Eldar Phoenix Lords can only be reborn if an Exarch sacrifices their very existence for them, the Emperor is kept alive by the sacrifice of over a thousand psykers a day, human sacrifice is used to create terrible Daemons for battle by the most Chaos-aligned Traitor Legions, and more. Vulkan's rebirth is made possible by the most powerful sacrifice of all, a willing sacrifice based in faith; Numeon's complete and total faith in Vulkan gives his act far more power than slitting his throat over an altar would, and that power is what allows Vulkan's Perpetual gift to be reignited (which is how I read that scene.)
Also Anakwanar, work on your punctuation. It's atrocious and reads, as Bobss said, like a 15-year old childs.
LotN
