[Khorne's Fist]

Old Earth, 7/10. I enjoyed this one. We finally learn what Vulkan's purpose is, and the whole Meduson and the Shattered Legions story arc is finished up nicely.

 

[Brother Lucian]

Lukas the Trickster by Josh Reynolds. 10/10

A sleeper hit, and one of the best takes Ive EVER read on the space wolves! It hits their culture in a truly sublime way. Lukas the Trickster is an -incredible- canny and funny character. His appearance in Ashes of Prospero is nothing compared to this take on him. I really want to see where his wyrd takes him now, its bound to be epic beyond belief.

The Dark Eldar is also not neglected, Duke Sliscus is a wicked delight to read about as well the intra-deldar intrigue and their labyrinthine scheming.

Read it, READ IT! It cannot be stated hard enough!

 

[Paceyjg]

Resurrection - 7/10

 

[Khorne's Fist]

Sons of the Hydra, 3/10. Awful. Just awful. An Alpha Legion warband with no Alpha Legionnaires in it? Just a plain stupid idea.

Warmaster, 7/10. Like putting on a comfortable pair of old slippers. Good to be back among the Ghosts.

 

[Khorne's Fist]

Lucas the Trickster, 8/10. Really enjoyed this. Lukas was always a character that needed his own novel. Along with Duke Sliscus and Lady Malys as a supporting cast, this cast makes for a very entertaining read.

 

[Brother Lucian]

Voice of Mars 6/10

Felt much more jumbled compared to Eye of Medusa. I think it had far too many characters compared to the first book.
I just hope the plot gets properly resolved in book 3 as its interesting, even if its dragging alot and painstakingly dripfeeding information about the 'macguffin'

Eye of Medusa felt much fresher because it focused a lot more on world building, and pun intended - fleshing out the Iron Hands. As well had a clear focus on the main protagonist for most of the book.

 

[Shandathe]

Shroud of Night - an 8/10 and a WTF-is-this/10

Really of two minds on this one. On the one hand, Andy Clark tells us a good story of an Alpha Legion warband's shenanigans. Slightly too many characters in it but they're amusing enough.

On the other... Celestine and Khârn are both in the book (not a spoiler, Celestine is on the cover and Khârn mentioned on the back) and especially the latter's parts are just... eyebrow-raising levels of WTF?

Andy Clark definitely wasn't briefed properly on Celestine's background - her arrival has the local Canoness go "The scriptures say she shall choose two of our sisterhood to attend her and walk in her blessings as her Geminae Superia". Which is instead something that first (and to my knowledge ONLY) happened on Cadia during GS when she found two mostly-dead Canoness twins. Geminae even MEANS twin. I'd be willing to accept she found it a good idea and decided to run with it, but it surely shouldn't be part of any scripture (yet!). There's more, but Celestine's parts are few and written well so I'll excuse it.

Khârn on the other hand... oh dear. To quote the Blues Brothers, he's on a mission from god. Khorne sent him to kill Celestine. So yeah, he has a direct line to Khorne now? Plus he took a level in diviner given that Celestine only appears on the damn planet when the Chaos fleet has been over it for a good lone while already...

Anyway, he's instantly recognized by everyone and his appearance is reacted to like he's a division of Baneblades. He's a force of nature, and as he kills his way through entire regiments the Warp tears in his wake and daemons start appearing. :headbutt:

The entire novel is pretty much an excuse to have Khârn kill off Celestine. And it's not even a decent fight. We instead get the woman who was matching Abaddon on Cadia "knowing" she couldn't win and JUST ACCEPTING IT. Just... what.

 

[Khorne's Fist]

Ashes of Prospero, 5/10.

In the hands of anyone but Thorpe, this would have been a great book. It has almost all the major SW characters in it, we see how bad a shape the SWs are in after the wider events taking place after the return of Guilliman. Sadly Thorpe's style lets the story down badly. His portrayal of both Njal and Lucas are very different to what we've seen previously, as if he hadn't read the material featuring them.

Some interesting fluff in it though.

Njal is called to Prospero with the lure of possibly retrieving Bullveye and the 13th company from a dimensional realm similar to the webway, where 10,000 years only feels like weeks. He succeeds, recovering over 200 Old Guard, along with lots of HH era equipment. The future of the SWs doesn't look as bleak now.

There's also an interesting bit about Grimnar musing over wether or not the time will come for the SWs to take up the mantle of enforcer again, as he is unsettled by the return of Guilliman and the new Primaris marines.

 

[Brother Lucian]

War of Secrets by Phil Kelly. 2/10

Uninspired bolter porn of the worst sort. Everything that could go wrong with the primaris and the Dark Angels went wrong, except for the Tau plotline which turned out to be the highlight of the book and saves it from total avoid on sight. But Phil Kelly went way over the rails with the single uber Tau.

The Tau..

Is the missing Fourth Sphere expansion fleet, traumatised through their journey through the warp. And the fact that a -human- god saved them! Not the Emperor, but a god formed from their human auxiliaries' idea of the greater good. A faceless thing with waaaay too many arms, which rips a hole in the warp to let them escape back to reality. Which spooks the Tau badly on their human minions, wanting to purge this false idol'. The Tau however falls resoundingly flat when their ubertau Kais solos the whole of the Angels of Absolution fortress monastery in a ghostkeel suit. They only manage to kill him with an orbital strike. Utter and absolute drivel for a single tau to kill so many space marines, terminators, static defenses, officers and a librarian with such ease.

Read at your own peril. I was close to putting it down halfway through.

 

[Khorne's Fist]

War of Secrets by Phil Kelly. 2/10

Damn, I was looking forward to this. Oh well, considering the volume of good stuff coming from BL at the moment, the odd bad one is to be expected.

Devastation of Baal. 7/10. Well written, with some interesting glimpses into the psyche of Dante, and the BA and successors as a whole. It also brings the BA up to date with the return of Girlyman.

The fact that the BA have their own version of wulfen was new to me. I knew all about the black rage and red thirst, but the fact that they can eventually mutate into hulking red-skinned indestructible vampiric monsters was a surprise.

 

[Brother Lucian]

Damn, I was looking forward to this. Oh well, considering the volume of good stuff coming from BL at the moment, the odd bad one is to be expected.

Devastation of Baal. 7/10. Well written, with some interesting glimpses into the psyche of Dante, and the BA and successors as a whole. It also brings the BA up to date with the return of Girlyman.

The fact that the BA have their own version of wulfen was new to me. I knew all about the black rage and red thirst, but the fact that they can eventually mutate into hulking red-skinned indestructible vampiric monsters was a surprise.

Its those 'things' that is hidden in the Tower of Amareo on Baal. Its what Blood Angels becomes when they succumb fully to the flaw, if they arent killed by Astorath the Grim. In Death of Integrity the same thing happens to a certain Blood Angel descendant.

 

[Paceyjg]

The Silent War - 6/10

 

[Paceyjg]

Cult of The Spiral Dawn - 8/10.

Love Peter Fehervari as an author, this book fails to score higher only as it is quite short and another 100 pages would have added a much deeper level!

 

[Khorne's Fist]

Kingsblade, 7/10. An enjoyable enough look into the workings of a knightly house.

 

[VulkansNodosaurus]

HH:
Pharos 6/10
Aurelian 5/10
The Path of Heaven 9/10
The Purge 4/10


40K:
Path of the Renegade 10/10
Path of the Incubus 9/10
Path of the Archon 5/10
Gods of Mars 9/10
Dark Imperium 5/10
Carcharodons: Red Tithe 6/10
Dante 10/10
Devastation of Baal 7/10
Eye of Medusa 9/10

 

[Paceyjg]

Clonelord - 7/10

 

[Paceyjg]

Angels of Caliban - 8/10

 

[Khorne's Fist]

The Horusian Wars: Incarnation. 8/10.

This series could end up as good as the Eisenhorn trilogy.

 

[Khorne's Fist]

Wolfsbane, 8/10. A good look at the conflict within Russ, and also contains some good flashbacks to his first meeting with Horus, and how the fact that he was the second son found affected their relationship after that. The battle on the Vengeful Spirit is also really well rendered.

 

[VulkansNodosaurus]

Angels of Caliban 3/10 (Caliban plot 8/10, Ultramar plot 1/10)
Fabius Bile: Primogenitor 9/10
Vaults of Terra: the Carrion Throne 8/10
Sons of the Hydra 5/10


Primarchs series:
Roboute Guilliman: Lord of Ultramar 7/10
Lorgar: Bearer of the Word 9/10
Fulgrim: the Palatine Phoenix 9/10
Vulkan: Lord of Drakes 4/10 (alas....)
Leman Russ: the Great Wolf 6/10 (first 150 pages 4/10, ending 10/10)