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Getting tired of my depressing but surreal books about North Korea and thinking of some light and fluffy BL books. Any thoughts on Sons of Dorn, Blood Pact or Horus Heresy Nemesis?

Just finished Nemesis, and overall I liked it. It doesn't really progress the main HH plot line, though personally I liked that because instead you get more insight and background on Horus's drive to Terra and the general chaos and uncertainty that was gripping the Imperium at this time. Actually there's a ton of background fluff in the book, which is pleasing to a fluff bunny like me. Dorn, Malcador and Valdor are important supporting actors in this book and its their scenes that flesh out the HH backstory. On the Heretic side, Erebus and to a (much) lesser extent Luc Sedirae are running around. Oh, and the EMPEROR has speaking lines!!!! Far as I can he only talked here, and in A Thousand Sons. I don't count Descent of Angels.

The imperial assassin team is pretty cool, though its your typical mismatched band of heroes on an impossible mission. Except this time each is a stone cold killer. They were ok I guess, the Callidus was my favorite. It was a good read all told, pleasant way to pass the weekend.

Oh spoiler alert:

"Blood Pact" is actually pretty cool. It's more reminiscent of "Traitor General", rather than the others. You might like it.

rabidaskal wrote:Just finished Nemesis, and overall I liked it. It doesn't really progress the main HH plot line, though personally I liked that because instead you get more insight and background on Horus's drive to Terra and the general chaos and uncertainty that was gripping the Imperium at this time. Actually there's a ton of background fluff in the book, which is pleasing to a fluff bunny like me. Dorn, Malcador and Valdor are important supporting actors in this book and its their scenes that flesh out the HH backstory. On the Heretic side, Erebus and to a (much) lesser extent Luc Sedirae are running around. Oh, and the EMPEROR has speaking lines!!!! Far as I can he only talked here, and in A Thousand Sons. I don't count Descent of Angels.

The imperial assassin team is pretty cool, though its your typical mismatched band of heroes on an impossible mission. Except this time each is a stone cold killer. They were ok I guess, the Callidus was my favorite. It was a good read all told, pleasant way to pass the weekend.

Oh spoiler alert:

Spoiler:

In the book, there are SIX assassin temples. I thought there were only four, is this a new revelation or did I just miss this? The two new ones are Vanus and Venenum.

In response to your spoiler, if it's really that important...

Thanks!

Just to help people out, I have grown to HATE books about marines and books that are just extended video game battles.

And I really don't like it when the heroes overcome impossible odds and win and none of the named characters die. I can BARELY tolerate it in Abnett's Gaunt's Ghosts books but not at all from lesser writers.

If you look at some my recent reviews here I gave Mechanicum 1 star out of 5, 2 stars for Rynn's World and Iron Snakes. But good ratings for Titanicus and all the recent GG books.

There's not so much named character death in 'Blood Pact', but there is a really really freaking awesome look into the machinations of Chaos that you won't see coming from the get-go.

There's alot of character death in Nemesis, cause its about assassins Obviously though Horus, Dorn, Malcador etc don't die, they have to be around for the siege of terra book.

@crazypsyko: Thanks! Didn't know that, I used the spoiler tag to be on the safe side

Kanluwen wrote:There's not so much named character death in 'Blood Pact', but there is a really really freaking awesome look into the machinations of Chaos that you won't see coming from the get-go.

Agreed. Blood Pact had more of a horror feel to it than a lot of the earlier books. Lots of suspense and twists.

Kanluwen wrote:There's not so much named character death in 'Blood Pact', but there is a really really freaking awesome look into the machinations of Chaos that you won't see coming from the get-go.

I can't recommended blood pact enough

Though some things mean more if you read the rest of the books as well

Sons of Dorn is ok but half the book focuses on the "kidnapping" of potential Neophytes and making them Scouts. In the book it's just about a rivalary between the 3 which you keep getting reminded on time after time. Some over the odds parts as well which made me think I was reading a Ultramarines novel!

If you can get it for cheap and you're a Fist fan then go for it.

Kid_Kyoto wrote:
And I really don't like it when the heroes overcome impossible odds and win and none of the named characters die. I can BARELY tolerate it in Abnett's Gaunt's Ghosts books but not at all from lesser writers.

Don't dare say that, I shed man-tears when Cuu killed Bragg. Or Corbec for that matter...
Oh yeah and Soric. What about Caffran? And Mkvenner, Feygor and Mikal Dorden etc...

Sons of Dorn, while well written, is not a great book for one tired of ultra-heroic marine novels. The first half of the book is largely "you killed my father, now you must die" whining while the three main characters become scouts. The second half is the three main characters, not even full battle-brothers yet, holding off an entire host of Slaneshi Cultists and Emperor's Children. You'll want to pass, K_K, unless you're looking for your eventual Codex: Yellow Marines parody signature.

rabidaskal wrote:Oh, and the EMPEROR has speaking lines!!!! Far as I can he only talked here, and in A Thousand Sons. I don't count Descent of Angels.

Big E was pretty chatty in Tales of Heresy, wasn't he?

He has some stuff to say in LEGION too...

I like Mechanicus, and Iron Snakes was OK too, but Sons of Dorn is a definitely 'no'.

Of course, if you hate Marines, I'd suggest avoiding their novels completely, obviously.

Mechanicum was some pretty crazy gak

but a good read, especially the giant mecha fights, and "The dragon"

Cadet_Commissar_Ludd wrote:

Kid_Kyoto wrote:
And I really don't like it when the heroes overcome impossible odds and win and none of the named characters die. I can BARELY tolerate it in Abnett's Gaunt's Ghosts books but not at all from lesser writers.

Don't dare say that, I shed man-tears when Cuu killed Bragg. Or Corbec for that matter...
Oh yeah and Soric. What about Caffran? And Mkvenner, Feygor and Mikal Dorden etc...

shhh! Spoilers!

Cadet_Commissar_Ludd wrote:

Kid_Kyoto wrote:
And I really don't like it when the heroes overcome impossible odds and win and none of the named characters die. I can BARELY tolerate it in Abnett's Gaunt's Ghosts books but not at all from lesser writers.

Don't dare say that, I shed man-tears when Cuu killed Bragg. Or Corbec for that matter...
Oh yeah and Soric. What about Caffran? And Mkvenner, Feygor and Mikal Dorden etc...

Abnett barely averts the 'plot armor' cliche by occassionally killing a 3rd or even 2nd tier character in the last 20 pages of a book. The problem with this is any time anyone gets in trouble - surrounded by a million chaos cultists, dragged off by the blood pact, attacked by chaos marines - my fingers tell me if I should care or not. Unless it's the last 20 pages the answer is no. And if it is, the answer is still no since I know the named character will die.

Abnett is a great writer but he has to learn to let go.




Automatically Appended Next Post:

Commander Endova wrote:Sons of Dorn, while well written, is not a great book for one tired of ultra-heroic marine novels. The first half of the book is largely "you killed my father, now you must die" whining while the three main characters become scouts. The second half is the three main characters, not even full battle-brothers yet, holding off an entire host of Slaneshi Cultists and Emperor's Children. You'll want to pass, K_K, unless you're looking for your eventual Codex: Yellow Marines parody signature.

Yeah, the only reason it's on the lsit is I get a free copy and I'm sort of obliged to review it. And it sounds like a rewrite of the classic Ian Watson novel Space Marine (with the ejaculating bolters) so there's that...

As for a yellow space marine sig...