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Has any one read the book 'Eldar Prophecy' ?
It makes the eldar look as though they still live the way they used to before the fall and the eye of terror. The farseer i thought was supposed to be something like a resolute commander and adviser. The book though portrays them and the aspect temples as schemers.

Is this unique to this book ?

I'm a big fan and its slightly dis heartening to read such things. Some one portray a new light.

The book is written by C.S.Goto. He utterly hates Eldar and has no clue about their background.
Forget and avoid everything Goto has written about Eldar and take the new Gav Thorpe Eldar triology, the first book of which has just been released. Or the old and rare Shadowpoint novel, or the Farseer novel.

Which?
I'm in the process of ordering the path of the warrior and farseer.

Shadowpoint, isnt that one centered around the, how you say, the space vessels of the eldar, the ships and convoys and what not?

The other two im particulary interested in as they deal directly with the aspects and the background of the eldar farseers as well.

Path of the warrior was good, though it kind of ended in a "GO BUY MORE SPACE MARINES!" note.

Eldar prophecy is the worst BL book ive eve read and you should try to forget it.

Why are you so curious about farseers?

Im collecting an eldar army and want to theme it around Ulthwe. Farseers being their specialty i wonder if their craftworld is anything like the craft world in the Eldar Prophecy.

Besides farseers, warp spiders, reapers and the hawks are my fav units to play.

Ive been an ulthwe player a long time and I'll tell you they are nothing alike. In fact that craftworld has been apart for other eldar and the rest of the galaxy in general for so long they are unlike any of the other craftworlds prolly why they fell to slaanesh.

No Ulthwe is led by its seer council and is far more militaristic than whatever that stupid craftworld was called. Our guardians are a standing military force rather than militia and our farseers have a far more active battlfield role than most. But the truth is every craftworld is different and while the customs and traditions of one might be one way on another craftworld they are very different. Only very broad things seemed to be shared between craftworlds. Its for this reason its impossible to say what the farseers and whathave you do in one novel, they also do on another craftworld. Just dont know till they right a book about said craftworld.

Its too bad you like those units as Warp spiders and Hawks are almost usless on the tabletop right now and reapers are very situational.

True to the spiders and hawks, but they do look good at times.

The reapers though i like to use with Muagan Ra. The guardians always go with a warlock, and the farseer i include always goes with wraith guard and warlock body guards.

Large games i admit but works out well around here. Most here play the marines and what not.

Avalon wrote:True to the spiders and hawks, but they do look good at times.

The reapers though i like to use with Muagan Ra. The guardians always go with a warlock, and the farseer i include always goes with wraith guard and warlock body guards.

Large games i admit but works out well around here.

Glad to hear that works well for you.

Most here play the marines and what not.

Who doesnt my friend...who doesnt? lol

Avalon wrote:Which?
I'm in the process of ordering the path of the warrior and farseer.

Shadowpoint, isnt that one centered around the, how you say, the space vessels of the eldar, the ships and convoys and what not?

The other two im particulary interested in as they deal directly with the aspects and the background of the eldar farseers as well.

Yes, Shadowpoint is classified as a Battlefield Gothic novel, but before Gav, it was the best characacterization of Eldar (don't pay those fantasy prices on Amazon though). Farseer has two Farseers in in, but they are not the main characters of the book. Still nice to read, esp when you like Farseers. Next Gav novel will also concentrate o them.

There are very few books that I will cease reading halfway through just becuase they are bad. Eldar Prophecy was one of these books. I even finished reading Twilight, so that's bad.

As everyone else here is saying, read Gav Thorpe's books.

Laughing God wrote:Path of the warrior was good, though it kind of ended in a "GO BUY MORE SPACE MARINES!" note.

How so? I appreciated Gav Thorpe's novel as it didn't really favour one side over the other (unless from a strictly Eldar PoV). Space Marines weren't all powerful pwning machines, they were getting hacked to pieces and blown up enough.


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BTW, Reapers with Exarch Crack Shot = -1 Space Marine Squad per Turn.

Emperors Faithful wrote:There are very few books that I will cease reading halfway through just becuase they are bad. Eldar Prophecy was one of these books. I even finished reading Twilight, so that's bad.

As everyone else here is saying, read Gav Thorpe's books.

Laughing God wrote:Path of the warrior was good, though it kind of ended in a "GO BUY MORE SPACE MARINES!" note.

How so? I appreciated Gav Thorpe's novel as it didn't really favour one side over the other (unless from a strictly Eldar PoV). Space Marines weren't all powerful pwning machines, they were getting hacked to pieces and blown up enough.


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BTW, Reapers with Exarch Crack Shot = -1 Space Marine Squad per Turn.

Very true statment about the Reapers, unless ur fighting blood angels...then they get drop right next to you, get there stupid FNP saves and then run a train on my 4 man squad of reapers . I will avenge you brothers.

Its a given that they owned the guard. Thats what GW uses the guard for in there writing (besides the Ghost series) meat bags.



But its an irelevant debate, I just think that they favored the SM a lil bit too much toward the end.

They made SM a tough adversary, which is true. Making them out to be anything less than a worthy opponent would have screamed "LOL Eldar kickz azz, noob Spehs Mahrines suck much!!1!"

No I understand that. I'm just saying as a LONG time eldar player I felt a lil twinge with every eldar death as the race might as well be extinct compared to the ridecule numbers of the rest of the races in the galaxy. Just make there lives seem more expendable than I'd have.

Ill second that feeling. Ive almost finished the Eldar Prophecy just out of not liking to leave anything un-finished and the the whole thing make me cringe. SO many eldar die as a result of another ones decadence.

Though i admit im looking forward to Path of the Warrior, and Farseer, which revolves around Ulthwe right?

I read some reviews before ordering and if im correct one mentioned it being about Ulthwe.

Though i cant help be drawn towards those on the warrior path and the path of the seer thanks to the Eldar Prophecy. Though the codex makes the seers seem ultimately cool.

"In times of war they uncover an enemy's intention and guide him to his doom. Farseers fight with powerful psychic powers and can obliterate an enemy leaders mind or hurl a battle tank into the air."

Though the only thing i dont really agree with the way they mention them as being 'old'
Are they all really that old?

Though i see what you mean by CS Goto hating the Eldar, there's nothing portrayed as being what the Eldar are supposed to be least what i came to believe when i first began to engross myself in their culture and lore.

i have not read this book yet but a friend recommended it to me is it good?


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farseers are not all that good though in game

Are you kidding? Farseers are amazing. Sure, with 5th edition's trend of having half the new armies featuring crazy psychic defense, the impact of the Farseer has taken a hit, and you need to be more careful with them, but they pack great, cheap psychic defense and powerful support abilities that can really make your opponent have a bad day.

Sure, they're no beatstick, but they don't need to be. Their job is to make your beat sticks beatier.

@LG: *sigh* There really is just no pleasing some people.

@jollycommissar:
C.S. Goto's Eldar Prophecy is dog fecal matter. Gav Thorpes Path of the Warrior (based on Alaitoc) is THE Eldar Novel to read. I haven't had the opportunity to read Farseer, but if it's anything like Path of the Warrior it should be good.

@Fafnir: I'm not too happy that the Tyranid and SW codexes (and even IG) have introduced Psyker units that are arguably better than the race of psykers.

Yeah, Eldar Prophecy is pretty terrible. The writing is atrocious. I feel like CS Goto just threw, in, a comma, wherever, he wanted, to, in some, places, among several, other, problems. But that is easily my most minor concern.

The plot is awful. Just awful. Something about a Lady who was really important, but died after giving a prophecy about the craftworld's farseer-child person bringing doom or some stuff, and then the craftworld comes to civil war with the populations murderizing some warp spiders, and then one of the spiders leads a rebel army that had lost a war a few years ago but had still stayed in hiding back to the capital on a suicide rush for no reason to secure some kind of idiotic symbolic gesture instead of actually doing damage with it, and then that warp spider survives the battle where his entire army dies, and the entire time this had been happening a different warp spider had been locked inside of the temple having a bitch fit about losing a duel to cheapness, and then this other warp spider turns into a phoenix-lord type superhero-man, and then he breaks out of the temple just as a warp storm is manifesting itself in the capital, and then leads a second rebel army, which is bigger than the last one, to the capital, and then defeats the standing enemy army, and then goes back to his temple for no reason, and then has to come back later to save the capital from the warp, which he could have done last time, but forgot to, and then cleanses it by murdering the populace, before returning to his temple AGAIN and ignoring the warp storms the craftworld was falling into, and then we find out that this important Lady from earlier was really a member of a pleasure cult that had seeked to doom the craftworld by lying about the prophecy and then, because it was such a dramatic revelation, the story ends.

And that's not even half of it. It is a convoluted, idiotic mess, where all the characters do things for no reason, and only most of them serve no purpose.

Also, having your 'hero' (who sits in a temple for 3/4 of the story whining like a bitch) fight his way to the capital through an entire army just to leave and GO BACK TO THE TEMPLE, but abandon the city, is stupid. And making him go back, fighting a different army, to kill seven people and then leave, is stupid. And it gets worse WHEN HE IGNORES THE FREAKING WARP MANIFESTING ITSELF IN THE CITY TO GO BACK TO HIS SECLUDED TEMPLE A SECOND TIME! I mean, really? Just ignore it? IT CORRUPTED THE ENTIRE POPULATION OF THE CITY! DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT! Speaking of which, over all the years and years that Kaelor drifted towards the warp storm, NO ONE SANE NOTICED?! There is a warp storm there! Get away from it!

I hated every single character. None of them made any sense, or followed any logic whatsoever. Their actions, which were very clearly intended to be 'mysterious' or whatever by the author, were just extremely stupid. They are all extremely boring, and the entire cast is just impressively incompetent. Characters exist and then just...do nothing important for the entirety of the story. They serve no purpose whatsoever, so why do they exist? Not only that, but some of the details of the Eldar themselves are strangely incorrect. Guardians are on par with Dire Avengers and other aspect warriors in effectiveness, and the Exarchs are all completely blind obstructionist morons, who would rather back down from a fight because of politics than help SAVE THE CRAFTWORLD THROUGH BATTLE. Also, the Warp Spiders and Dire Avengers are really the only aspects involved in a craftworld-wide civil war. Kinda strange.

Speaking of Warp Spiders, did you know that sitting in a temple and whining about how someone else graduated to aspect warrior status ahead of you turns you into a superhero? I didn't. But apparently, the novel says it does. Going directly against the will of the exarch of the temple will just turn you into the long-lost phoenix lord of the warp spiders. It happens all the time. Wait, what? It doesn't happen all the time? And it goes against all logic and common sense? Oh.

The end is just butchered horrifically, too. I mean, you can see that from just ONE scene with the exarchs that happens near the end. All of them meet near a statue and stand against the hero and they're all like, "Hey, man, that's not cool. Please DON'T go and return the craftworld to normal, and get us out of the warp storm. We're not okay with that."

And then the hero responds all like, "Okay, guys, fine. I won't get us out of the warp storm. But if you help me kill some d00ds, I'll go away to my temple."

And then the exarchs are all like, "All right. We can go kill some d00ds. But we're not bringing any aspect warriors, okay? They might get seduced by the warp or something. But we won't. 'Cause...um...you know...just because."

And then the hero's all like, "Okay," and then ignores the warp storm manifestations to go back to his temple. Seriously.

Agh. Just agh. I bought the book two years ago, read a chapter, and stopped. I found it again and thought, "Wow, I wonder why I haven't read this before." Then I forced myself to read it and remembered why: this piece of garbage is an affront to humanity.



TL;DR: Read anything else in the Black Library, because you can't possibly do worse than this wreck of a novel.

Edit: I hate this book so much I spent forty minutes writing this post. That's how bad it is.

^
What he said.

Have you read Path of the Warrior? Infinitely better I assure you, it actually has *dunt dada dunn!* likeable characters, gives insight into the workings of the Craftworld AND the choices made by characters actually make sense, while still retaining that Eldar aloofness, superiorty and viciousness at times.

"Farseer" is about Imperials/Rogue Traders picking up two single Eldar Farseers. While it has nice characterizations of Farseers, it is not really centered around them and definitely not an Ulthwé novel. They visit a Crone World though.

BTW the first Rogue Trader RPG campaign also features Eldar Farseers, but I haven't read it so I can still play it ... with the upcoming Kroot Mercenary player character from "Into the Storm"

...wait, is "Farseer" a Gav Thorpe novel?

And why is everyone telling me that "Path of the Warrior" is part of a trioligy.

Kroothawk wrote:"Farseer" is about Imperials/Rogue Traders picking up two single Eldar Farseers. While it has nice characterizations of Farseers, it is not really centered around them and definitely not an Ulthwé novel. They visit a Crone World though.

BTW the first Rogue Trader RPG campaign also features Eldar Farseers, but I haven't read it so I can still play it ... with the upcoming Kroot Mercenary player character from "Into the Storm"

Seems like you've read the book Farseer. How was it ?
Ive read reviews else where and still a little skeptical.

Thing is the one offered on the BL site is a Print on Demand edition so i cant just pop down the my fav book store and have a quick skim through. So, do tell...

Otherwise ya i agree with the absolute rubbish factor that has been poured ever so generously into "Eldar Prophecy"

Oh and Farseer is written by William King


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Come to think of it anyone whose read Farseer by William King, something of a detailed review would be very much appreciated.

Read Farseer too long ago for details. But I enjoyed reading it. Not the super-best thing since sliced bread, but a decent novel, if you don't expect too much info on Eldar. With only 2 1/2 decent books on Eldar before the "Path of the Eldar" triology (the other one Shadowpoint, and the half being Harlequin which is a bit dated but still okay), readers were starving for Eldar stuff. Goto wrote a lot, but all bad and often disgusting (e.g. torturing a helpless female Farseer for 180 pages before she is finally allowed to die, not to speak of Goto's Slaanesh fetish).

And yes, "Path of the Eldar" is a triology, as Gav says himself: http://mechanicalhamster.wordpress.com/

Just note, path of the warrior isnt about massive battles but about the Eldar in general and where the path of the warrior can take you. I thought the battles where great and showed a perspective from the Elders point of view which was refreshing after reading so many SM novels.

If you're after lots of fighting dont buy path of the warrior. Its about the Eldar mind and their life styles and how their choices in life play a huge impact on their lives. A must read for any Eldar general who wants to know more about the race they play.

I can't see this as a trilogy. It had an actual ending to it.

With any Eldar books made around the time before the current codex, beware the fluff. It could be very out of date.

Fantastic read. I love my Eldar now. LOVE. I really cant be bothered with anymore SM novels after this.

Is Farseer, written by William King, worth ordering ?
Is it worth a read ?

It'll cost me bout 19 pounds since im in Thailand and since it a print on demand ill have to order of the BL site.




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Though i am curious, the original that was released long ago is about 130 pages give or take. This print on demand is 300 or so...meaning its two books in one ?

OoieGoie wrote:
I can't see this as a trilogy. It had an actual ending to it.

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OoieGoie wrote:
Fantastic read. I love my Eldar now. LOVE. I really cant be bothered with anymore SM novels after this.

I think this is exactly the kind of result that Gav Thorpe was after when he wrote this book.

OoieGoie wrote:I can't see this as a trilogy. It had an actual ending to it.

It IS a triology. First book focussing on Warriors (Scorpions I guess), second one on Farseers, third one on Pathfinders/Rangers. No cliffhangers necessary.

On the King novel: You should get it cheaper on ebay. Otherwise read the other two worthwhile novels first (Path, Shadowpoint) and then decide how much you need the last good Eldar novel.

So the path of the warrior is the first. Anyone know when we can expect the other two?

I reckon that ill order the Farseer novel, though i read through Shadowpoint and its not my choice of eldar literature.
Still teetering on the farseer novel.

Though my question is, the print on demand edition of farseer, its the same as the previous init, just with a new cover.