Warhammer Novels
- Thread starter BAYLOR
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I was thinking something along the lines of Farsight's Folly...
And I must go and read one of the good Warhammer books (like Toby's), because while I did enjoy the Farsight novel, I was conscious that (a) I had paid a LOT of money for an ebook, and (b) that it seemed to have been written in rather a rush. So, in the final battle scene there were five action snippets in a row described in exactly the same way:
Even the eight-year-old, who was glaze-eyed with the excitement of being out on the blood-drenched sands of Arkunasha, surfaced for long enough to wonder if the author could have found something different to say in those bits.
And I must go and read one of the good Warhammer books (like Toby's), because while I did enjoy the Farsight novel, I was conscious that (a) I had paid a LOT of money for an ebook, and (b) that it seemed to have been written in rather a rush. So, in the final battle scene there were five action snippets in a row described in exactly the same way:
[some Tau character] shot an ork with [a big gun] BUT, to everyone's continued astonishment, the ork kept advancing
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I have no proof of this, but I am 100% certain that space marines were made incapable of sex because 12 year old boys would think that being interested in girls was effete.
Your cheque is in the post! I say this entirely off the record and purely from my own viewpoint – I used to write for GW and I currently don’t – but I think the franchise is potentially limited by the need for constant action and by the space marines, who are almost custom-created to be difficult to write about or like. If you go too far and take all the “weakness” out of a character, and take the “boring bits” out of a novel where nothing is exploding (ie the intrigue and threat), and you’ve potentially got something rather dull and one-note. One of the challenges of writing for 40k (apart from not doing it tongue-in-cheek) was to balance this out. I think the skill with a lot of the better authors is how they handle this.
Then again, I own a Sisters of Battle army, so don't expect reasonable or balanced comment from me.
Lovely 
I thought the weakness aspect came over quite well with the Tau stories, probably because once they're in close, the Tau get mashed. So though they have all sorts of shiny bits of kit, they're still vulnerable.
They're quite interesting -- slightly Japanese-flavoured in culture -- and it's a shame there doesn't seem to be more interest in writing about them (except the Legends of the Dark Millenium series, which is meant to be happening...).
The annoying thing about the Aun'shi story was it was full of threat -- a tau ethereal captured by an evil group who force him to fight in a Roman-like arena -- and his own weakness. Maybe that's why the author got bored and abandoned it :s
I'm reading these for a child, so constant action is just fine (though I edit some of the more gruesome bits since they are pretty disgusting sometimes) and though he's fine with ork massacres, he tends to scream and hide under the duvet when emotions and kissing are mentioned -- so actually, the Warhammer books are pretty much spot on for him.
We just started Fire Warrior (Simon Spurrier?) and that starts beautifully, with a Librarian experiencing/foreseeing his own death -- so there's hovering threat and positive knowledge that he's vulnerable. Given what you're saying about the constraints of the stories, I think this one should be good.
I will go and find some space marine stories, though the five-year-old just declared that he's collecting Eldar, so I should probably find something about them too...
(I notice that lots of the warhammer fan threads seem to be on that site that spawned gamergate -- is that significant?)
I thought the weakness aspect came over quite well with the Tau stories, probably because once they're in close, the Tau get mashed. So though they have all sorts of shiny bits of kit, they're still vulnerable.
They're quite interesting -- slightly Japanese-flavoured in culture -- and it's a shame there doesn't seem to be more interest in writing about them (except the Legends of the Dark Millenium series, which is meant to be happening...).
The annoying thing about the Aun'shi story was it was full of threat -- a tau ethereal captured by an evil group who force him to fight in a Roman-like arena -- and his own weakness. Maybe that's why the author got bored and abandoned it :s
I'm reading these for a child, so constant action is just fine (though I edit some of the more gruesome bits since they are pretty disgusting sometimes) and though he's fine with ork massacres, he tends to scream and hide under the duvet when emotions and kissing are mentioned -- so actually, the Warhammer books are pretty much spot on for him.
We just started Fire Warrior (Simon Spurrier?) and that starts beautifully, with a Librarian experiencing/foreseeing his own death -- so there's hovering threat and positive knowledge that he's vulnerable. Given what you're saying about the constraints of the stories, I think this one should be good.
I will go and find some space marine stories, though the five-year-old just declared that he's collecting Eldar, so I should probably find something about them too...
(I notice that lots of the warhammer fan threads seem to be on that site that spawned gamergate -- is that significant?)
Wraith01
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The original WarHammer world ended in an event called: "End Times" where the forces of Chaos won.
The timeline of Age of Sigmar takes place thousands of years after the "End Times" and take place across multiple Realms (I'm not sure if the Realms are different planets in a galaxy or different universes/realities altogether).
All the Realms except Azyr (Sigmar's realm) are dominated/ravaged by the forces of Chaos.
Sigmar (the God of Order) with his Stormcast Eternals (Angels/Saints) is trying to reconquer the Realms from the forces of the 4 Gods of Chaos, even going as far as trying to forge an alliance with the God of Death...
The timeline of Age of Sigmar takes place thousands of years after the "End Times" and take place across multiple Realms (I'm not sure if the Realms are different planets in a galaxy or different universes/realities altogether).
All the Realms except Azyr (Sigmar's realm) are dominated/ravaged by the forces of Chaos.
Sigmar (the God of Order) with his Stormcast Eternals (Angels/Saints) is trying to reconquer the Realms from the forces of the 4 Gods of Chaos, even going as far as trying to forge an alliance with the God of Death...
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Spotted a TV ad last night for GW's fancy new retrospective hardback collection, in case anyone's interested.
Wraith01
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No, they actually have soft cover compilation editions coming out rebranded as Total War: Warhammer. They are collections of 3 old novels for the price of one. I spotted a few at B&N the other day.
Ah, yes. The Sig Marines! I've given up on Games Workshop now. Years and years ago I joked that if they could find away of putting Space Marines into WHF then they would, and look what happened.
Essentially the whole End Times thing is a thinly veiled move to put SPASS MEHREENS into WHF.
Though, saying that, at least they did something to advance the story of Warhammer. Games Workshop aren't known for wanting to advance their time lines.
Mark my words, next they'll find a way to bring about another civil war in WH40K so they can justify Space Marines wailing on Space Marines again.
What they need to do with with Warmhamer 40 k Is bring back the Emperor . Have him come back to save the imperium. But he takes a different tact He forges alliances with the Eldar, and the Tau and other in the against he forces of Chaos. To me that would be a better way to go.
I think you can find some of them on Amazon books.
Wraith01
Goblin Rogue
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I'm new to the whole tabletop wargaming thing and I happen to love "Age of Sigmar" ! It's the perfect entry point into the hobby. I never played Warhammer Fantasy until the recently released video game: "Total War: Warhammer" which is really good. And I'm still intimidated by the huge rulebook and amount of models needed to play Warhammer 40k.
Clockworkbot
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A few people have mentioned it, but I've always thought Dan Abnett's Eisenhorn series set the gold standard of mildly pulpy sci-fi action-noir , and stands out from the crowd of 40k fiction.
Because the inspiration is from the Inquisitors who move among normal human society, things don't seem as unbearably bleak as some of the other books that are tend to be based around apocalyptic battles on death-worlds. Sure, humanity may be fighting a slowly losing battle against Chaos and alien hordes, and you live in a theocratic dictatorship, but as long as you stay on the right side of the law you can live a decent life.
Having said that, re-reading the books recently for the first time in several years, I noticed that the books wear their credentials as tie-ins for the now defunct tabletop rpg 'Inquisitor' quite heavily. Every time that Eisenhorn goes into an action sequence (a 'dungeon') we are told who exactly is in his party, and what weapons and armour they have. He stops just short of describing the characters levelling up.
That said, I always thought that a 40k inquisitor would make an excellent premise for a Bioware RPG, a la Mass Effect. There seem to be a lot of Games Workshop video games in production at the moment though, so here's hoping...
Because the inspiration is from the Inquisitors who move among normal human society, things don't seem as unbearably bleak as some of the other books that are tend to be based around apocalyptic battles on death-worlds. Sure, humanity may be fighting a slowly losing battle against Chaos and alien hordes, and you live in a theocratic dictatorship, but as long as you stay on the right side of the law you can live a decent life.
Having said that, re-reading the books recently for the first time in several years, I noticed that the books wear their credentials as tie-ins for the now defunct tabletop rpg 'Inquisitor' quite heavily. Every time that Eisenhorn goes into an action sequence (a 'dungeon') we are told who exactly is in his party, and what weapons and armour they have. He stops just short of describing the characters levelling up.
That said, I always thought that a 40k inquisitor would make an excellent premise for a Bioware RPG, a la Mass Effect. There seem to be a lot of Games Workshop video games in production at the moment though, so here's hoping...
Have you checked out the fan-made Lord Inquisitor? The designers have just released a 9 minute prologue on YouTube. The animation alone really shows up Games Workshop's shoddy attempt at feature a movie, namely "Ultramarine".
The Eisenhorn Trilogy adapted for the big screen Or as a tv series ,has so much potential. It would be a really good way to introduce Warhammer 40K to either movie or tv audiences.
Clockworkbot
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Nice! Yes looks much better than Ultramarine. There were some nice bits of semi animation in the recent PC game Battlefleet Gothic: Armada, if anyone has played that.
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