Darkblade Lord of Ruin, Titanicus, Ravenor Rogue, Crossfire

[dragon]

Was wondering if these are any good and worth while to pick up.

[Aaron]

The entire Revenor series is worth your time. Read it in order though or it won't make much sense. Unfortunately I haven't read the others yet.

[Black Admiral]

Titanicus hasn't been released yet (set for 29 Sept. here in the UK), however, given that it's Abnett granted a 400 page hardcover to make the God Machines awesome, I have every confidence it'll be worth getting.

[white_rabbit]

Titanicus hasn't been released yet (set for 29 Sept. here in the UK), however, given that it's Abnett granted a 400 page hardcover to make the God Machines awesome, I have every confidence it'll be worth getting.

I might get a little upset if they pull something gay like having one of the same titans feature in Mechanicus and be a third of the height of the one in Titanicus or some silly shit like that.


Crossfire is awesome, but don't expect huge piles of dead people, its more sophisticated and features internal Imperial politics more than vast battles.


Ravenor is awesome, although it might be worth reading Eisenhorn as well to get the full import of some of the stuff, (not really required though)

Lord of Ruin was great, but I hope you've read the others first.

[Imperial Overlord]

Titanicus is probably based off the comic of the same name (or it might be the comic collection) like Darkblade. The comic is pretty good and the Titans in question are fucking huge. I liked the later Calpernia books better than Crossfire, but Crossfire is the first and still decent. The Darkblade series is good, but as with Ravenor, read in order.

[dragon]

Titanicus hasn't been released yet (set for 29 Sept. here in the UK), however, given that it's Abnett granted a 400 page hardcover to make the God Machines awesome, I have every confidence it'll be worth getting.

I might get a little upset if they pull something gay like having one of the same titans feature in Mechanicus and be a third of the height of the one in Titanicus or some silly shit like that.


Crossfire is awesome, but don't expect huge piles of dead people, its more sophisticated and features internal Imperial politics more than vast battles.


Ravenor is awesome, although it might be worth reading Eisenhorn as well to get the full import of some of the stuff, (not really required though)

Lord of Ruin was great, but I hope you've read the others first.

Already in the middle of Eisenhorn and have read the other Ravenor books. So I have to order crossfire and put a preorder in for Titanicus

For the Lord of Ruins what are the others in the series.

Can't believe that you guys and gals got me hooked on 40k. Already have 10 books plus tree omnis and have 5 more on order.

[Imperial Overlord]

New short story competition:

http://www.blacklibrary.com/shortstorycompetition/


The Darkblade books are, in order

The Daemon's Curse
Bloodstorm
Reaper of Souls
Warpsword
Lord of Ruin

[Kuja]

That series really needs to continue, god damn it.

[Falkenhayn]

Titanicus is probably based off the comic of the same name (or it might be the comic collection) like Darkblade. The comic is pretty good and the Titans in question are fucking huge. I liked the later Calpernia books better than Crossfire, but Crossfire is the first and still decent. The Darkblade series is good, but as with Ravenor, read in order.

Agreed. Eisenhorn/Ravenor makes a reference that he hitched a ride on a Mechanicus transport taking virgin Titans to the Cadian Gate. He had a sit down with Princeps Hekate, who was overseeing the shipment before he retired. They swapped war stories, and Hekate's were more impressive.

[Lonestar]

I might get a little upset if they pull something gay like having one of the same titans feature in Mechanicus and be a third of the height of the one in Titanicus or some silly shit like that.

Those Wacky Adeptus Mechanicus and their homosexualist agenda.

[Bob the Gunslinger]

The Darkblade series is going to come out as an omnibus in about a month (at least, the first three books in it are), so you might want to wait on that.

Titanicus will come out at the end of the month, too, but it will be hardcover, so you might want to wait for that to come out in paperback.

Ravenor Rogue is the third book in the sub-par (for Dan Abnett) Ravenor series, so you probably wouldn't want to read that without reading the first two so that you have some idea of what's happening. Ravenor Rogue is the best of the three.

Crossfire was a boring book about a pretty interesting character. If you really want to read about the Adeptus Arbites, it would be a good read, but it is a mystery story, so don't expect the same kind of plot advancement or action that you would normally get in a 40k novel.

[Connor MacLeod]

First... dragon. Why don't you make a single thread about all the books you're interested in reading rather than doing it piecemeal like you seem to constantly be doing? It could get a bit annoying to have this keep cropping up every few days just because you aren't sure "what books are good". (And I'm pretty sure we have a number of "what 40K books are good" threads, even some I've started.

Hell, maybe we need to add something to the 40K sticky about "what books are good" at that.

Secondly, I rather liked Crossfire. Yes, it was slow in places and no, it didnt have a high body count, but that was rather refreshing and it was well written. The Second novel was bad and had potential, but it felt less like a Shira Calpurnia novel and more a "Ha ha, those Wacky Rogue Traders!" novel, and I didn't really care about Rogue Traders.

The Third novel actually had an interesting mystery in it, and I liked that, and I liked the look at the astropaths, but I found the whole "Penance" angle a bit dull and tiresome (and I can't say I liked Calpurnia's characterization in that novel very much either.)

I haven't read past the first Ravenor novel yet, but that's another one that had potential that went downhill for some reason.

[Bob the Gunslinger]

Hmm... I enjoyed Legacy more than Crossfire, and I really enjoyed Calpurnia's character in the third book. Kind of funny. Maybe it's because I don't like mystery stories very much.

I notice that he's asking about a Warhammer Fantasy book, too. Maybe, if we're starting a new review thread for 40k books here, we can start a WHF thread in the fantasy forum.

[Imperial Overlord]

I haven't read past the first Ravenor novel yet, but that's another one that had potential that went downhill for some reason.

There are a lot of reasons Ravenor isn't as good as Eisenhorn, starting with the relative passivity of the main character, his strengths being that he's smart and a powerful psyker, but he doesn't act smart and he's constantly surrounded by an Untouchable; and the a fairly lackluster retinue.

[Connor MacLeod]

There are a lot of reasons Ravenor isn't as good as Eisenhorn, starting with the relative passivity of the main character, his strengths being that he's smart and a powerful psyker, but he doesn't act smart and he's constantly surrounded by an Untouchable; and the a fairly lackluster retinue.

I don't think Ravenor's retinue was any more or less lackluster than some of Eisenhorns (the only ones who excepted this IMHO were his pilot(s) and the freighter captain he allied with.) And Ravenor being a cripple could have had interesting potential if it had been properly executed, but it wasn't.

What the Ravenor novels tended to lack and that the Eisenhorn novels had was a sense of tension and drama to them. Eisenhorn perceptibly changed from novel to novel. He started out as an intelligent (but conservative) type and gradually slid down into being more of a radical. More, it also showed the consequences of having to deal with his radical behavior, which was a rather nice touch.

Another (minor) point I tended to like about the Eisenhorn novels is that each one also had alot of differences to it - we saw alot of glimpses of the Imperium through the novels as Ravenor tackled different assignments (though ones that eventually, in a way, ,linked together.) - his "cases" spanned a far greater period of time, of course, and that gave them greater variety.

The First novel was good because it had many of the elements above, but the short stories tend towards that as well. Beyond that, it tended to just kinda lack any real cohesiveness or direction. It had promise, but (from what I have skimmed of the two books for analysis purposes) what we're left with is more or less "Eisenhorn 2.0) - basically a repeat of what Eisenhorn went through but in a slightly less diverse format.

[dragon]

Hell, maybe we need to add something to the 40K sticky about "what books are good" at that.

Thats a good idea.

[white_rabbit]

Titanicus is probably based off the comic of the same name (or it might be the comic collection) like Darkblade. The comic is pretty good and the Titans in question are fucking huge. I liked the later Calpernia books better than Crossfire, but Crossfire is the first and still decent. The Darkblade series is good, but as with Ravenor, read in order.

Agreed. Eisenhorn/Ravenor makes a reference that he hitched a ride on a Mechanicus transport taking virgin Titans to the Cadian Gate. He had a sit down with Princeps Hekate, who was overseeing the shipment before he retired. They swapped war stories, and Hekate's were more impressive.

Something needs a Retcon if we take that Hekate to be the actual chap who commanded Imperius Dictatio , because Hekate fights the Nids as a fairly young man on Vivaporus, and the Eisenhorn and Ravenor trilogies are set before Behemoth.

Those Wacky Adeptus Mechanicus and their homosexualist agenda.

Seriously, have you seem some of the mecha-dendrites?

[Imperial Overlord]

I don't think Ravenor's retinue was any more or less lackluster than some of Eisenhorns (the only ones who excepted this IMHO were his pilot(s) and the freighter captain he allied with.)

I strongly disagree. Amos and Chastener Fischig are important characters in the Eisenhorn series. Ravenor has Kys, but his interrogator decides to snort the highly dangerous warp crack because he's feeling shitty even though he knows just how crappy an idea this is and another retinue member decides to conceal the little fact that he's daemonically possessed. Nor does his Untouchable decide to share the little tidbit the mirror psyker is burning him out. Half of Ravenor's retinue is completely unsuited for the job and he picked them all.

And Ravenor being a cripple could have had interesting potential if it had been properly executed, but it wasn't.

It could have, but as I said he's passive and I don't mean just physically. Ravenor is supposed to be a powerful psyker and a formidable intellectual, but he's rarely engaged. He's trotted out as a deus ex machina a couple of times, but he's mostly along for the ride while his retinue does all the work and he displays little in the way of brilliance. Instead his interrogator melts down and gets possessed while two other retinue members conceal deep secrets while he's oblivious.

What I will give Abnett credit for in the Ravenor series is his chaos cultists and facilitators. They are interesting, if morally bankrupt and thoroughly corrupt, characters.