They aren’t bad. Decent model line and the recent codex was pretty good. They do tend to have decent stories because they are just people who believe in something. It makes them more interesting then how the Astartes are written in a lot of stories. The problem is a lot of the fans or people who orbit 40k don’t actually read any of the narrative stuff so they just think that they’re girl space marines or something.
Celestine is and interesting character and I like the interplay between her and Inquistor Greyfax. Sister Superior Augusta’s story is pretty good too and I found that Bloodied Rose and the Celestine stories to be a bit more interesting then a lot of the Ultramarines stuff that seems to dominate the narrative because a lot of the time it feels like we’re being told just how awesome Roboute Guilliman and how sad he is that daddy didn’t love him or how let down he is at the Imperium but you compare it to Celestine’s indomitable faith and the trials she goes through every time she dies, or that’s she’s powerful because she believes and not because she is a gene forged demigod. She just becomes a more interesting character.
I love the Astartes. The Blood Angels books were great, Helsreach was awesome but I think that the strongest stories are the Inquistor Eisenhorn stuff or the Horus Heresy books.
It honestly was a toss up for me when choosing to dive into the hobby fully if I wanted to go Adeptus Sororitas or Genestealer Cults. Ultimately the Cults won, but I did spring for the exclusive Sister model they released earlier this year. She was fun to paint and my first time painting flames. I’m pleased with myself there.
On 40k Literature
Dan Abnett is always a good decision but honestly? Chris Wraight’s just a whole other plane in my opinion. Same with Peter Fehervari - man writes some dang good Horror books. And Josh Reynolds writes an off the cuff novel after all his other ideas are rejected and ends up crafting the finest Space Marine tale since Helsreach in my opinion. Anyone who hasn’t read Apocalypse is sorely missing out.
On Skyrim RP backstories
Best one I ever ran was Alanos Highstorm, Imperial. His father ran a shop in the Imperial City but between the Great War and occupation, the Imperial City stopped being such a bastion of law and order. Alanos’ father couldn’t make his protection payments and paid the price, with Alanos being unable to fend off the sudden influx of “Creditors” that appeared after his father’s death. They seized the shop, seized his home, and almost his life.
IC, he never illegally crossed the border into Skyrim. He had kin in Helgen, a Cousin he’d met maybe twice before, and was offered a job working the local Inn sweeping floors and tending to a small Juniper Berry patch. It wasn’t much, but it was honest work. Then of course…Helgen happened. Barely escaped before he’d even worked a day!
Over the course of his adventures, he started getting curious about his family history, especially in lieu of the whole “Dragonborn” thing. Discovered he was related by blood to the most hedonistic of the Septim bloodline - Antiochus Septim. Not really all that surprising given Antiochus’ history, but Alanos now came to the realization that even bastard born, his family were of a divine bloodline. So he took the surname “Highstorm” in honor of Talos Stormcrown.
Strong disagree. Nelf veal is the veal of humanoids. Gnomes are more like those dollar frozen pizzas… Great for a quick snack but no actual nutritional value.
ADB does some decent stuff and engages with the fans more than a lot of their authors, but on the other hand he’s also the one who voiced the whole “loose canon, everything is true and nothing is” philosophy that makes establishing an actual timeline of events an absolute crapshoot, so I think it’s kind of a wash there.
I actually adore the “Everything is canon, not everything is true” kind of storytelling and world building. But I prefer unreliable narratives when it comes to worlds and verses of vast settings and incredible time scales. It helps avoid constant and obnoxious retconning.
Also it helps me justify my custom painted figures place in such a verse. The Church of His Glorious Return awaits the arrival of the Star Emperor’s True Angels. Until then, they follow the Primarch as he guides them across the stars.
It’s great when it’s planned that way! Less great when it’s an excuse to explain away writers not talking to each other. Don’t get me wrong, they’ve got some decent stories out there, but that particular detail annoys me. I mostly like the older stuff anyways I guess, but as you can probably tell that’s because I’m an old curmudgeon.
In regards to custom armies, even without the unreliable narrator stuff there’s plenty of space for that, the galaxy is a big place, even if you would never guess it based on how much the narrative focuses on, say, Ultramarines or Armageddon. I don’t think I’ve ever had a non-custom army in all my decades of playing the game, just make up a subsector somewhere to drop 'em in and go to town.
Having watched various interviews and podcasts with Black Library writers, it’s less the writers aren’t talking with one another and more the fact they’re often working on similar things at the same time and they aren’t all magically aware of each other’s products or even have the TIME to touch base with each other.
Josh Reynolds, the man who pretty much single handedly built the lore of Age of Sigmar in a cave with a box of scraps after GW threw it out the door undercoked, left Black Library because GW wasn’t letting him write what he wanted and because he was honestly burnt out by it all.
And again, this is all the supplemental narrative for the justification of a tabletop game. When Ian Watson first penned Draco back in the early 90s, there was no idea from anyone that it would start a vast literary universe that has resulted in them actually splintering into sub-genre territory with Warhammer Horror and Warhammer Crime imprints.
Hell, the Horus Heresy was planned to be an initial run of six books. Twelve if they were lucky.
FIfty Five Books Later, and now the writers for the Siege of Terra series are facing the daunting task of trying to corral all the narratives and story arcs, to say nothing of all the characters, into a conclusion that inevitably is going to be sour on the tongue of some readers.
i dont know the temperature of this take, but having never read the horus heresy books, but also being a big 40K fan, the fact that the series is going to be near 60 books long honestly makes me not want to even start it, like - that’s far too daunting a task. 55 frigging books!
I dunno, that seems like an awful lot of apologetics to me. The stories are hit and miss, and I never go into a book run for an established IP expecting anything great to begin with. I haven’t even started the Horus Heresy books, as I already knew the beginning, end, and most of the important points in between, I don’t need to go through fifty five books of bolter prawn when there are plenty of other books that aren’t IP cash-ins that I can spend my time reading instead. On that note, everyone who hasn’t already needs to pick up a copy of Alex White’s Big Ship at the Edge of the Universe.
Anyways, I think we’re going to have to agree to disagree on this one. I liked it better when the books were stories that took place in the setting, not stories that established the setting, if that makes sense.
I’m not even sure that’s counting the Primarch Novels, to boot.
But I understand the daunting weight of the story. Plus side is a lot of it is broken up into digestible chunks that you can also just skip if the characters involved don’t really strike your fancy.
For example, the first four books.
You could legitimately go Horus Rises, False Gods, Galaxy in Flames, and Flight of the Eisenstein and then immediately go into Siege of Terra and not be lost with the situation (Though how and why Fulgrim, Angron, and Magnus are the way they are might be…surprising).
But then there are side tales branching from that. Like probably the other trilogy of books worth your time in the saga - First Heretic, Know No Fear, and Betrayer - which tells you to story of Angrel Tal, a Word Bearer and one of the first Possessed Marines. There’s books covering what the Dark Angels are doing (As a Dark Angels fan, they’re very dry reading). There are books that carry on Garro’s story (Introduced in Galaxy in Flames/Flight of the Eisenstein). There’s even a book from the perspective of The Emperor and his Custodes.
There are also books you can easily skip. Legion, Nemesis, and Battle for the Abyss I’d put all in that category.
So yeah, 55 books is daunting. But you are in no way required to read all 55.