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Simply, do you want BL books about him ?

IMH perspective, bouncing primarchs from one author to another really made them lose "something" which made them believable characters, so I really don't want that with the MoM....

So I'm against, strongly, but certainly there are people who really want to know about him.....

Come on you want to know..


The risk of someone ruining it...and I may have a few writers in Mind there....does not allow my curiosity to win.

So I am interested to see a few glimpses of his past, to have a bit more than now, but am unwilling to pay the price of failure on GW's part, to suffer from a bad choice. ( author , theme , timeline , size , method of release ie limited or short / audio only etc ).

I want to know, but the reality will never match up to our imagination. So no, I hope he stays fairly mystical. I like him being ocasionally in it (and obviously he'll be more in it as the story progresses) but I don't want things explained really.

I would say "no", but then again I simply wouldn't buy the books or incorporate them into my perception of the setting, so I guess I'm actually indifferent about it.

Isn't it kind of too late already, now that Black Library has published its Horus Heresy novels? There's no real reason to stop now, as long as there is sufficient interest in the fandom. I just wish said fandom would stop treating novels as some sort of gospel that have any sort of relevance on the rest of the franchise.

I've seen good BL authors do very bad things, so no I don't want a book about the emperor.

but a book revolving/ involving him for a large part could be interesting...

I don't think I'd want a book with him as the perspective character, but I've enjoyed his appearances as a character the others meet and talk about.

They'll retcon his already existing background and characterization anyway, just like they've done with everything else. Why bother.

Possibly. If it's very well written.

Maybe don't get too into his head, though. Keep some mystery about him.

I think the series so far( I've read up to fear to tread) has portrayed the Emperor as a socially inept incompetent, something needs to address his reasoning behind his decisions. I felt the outcast dead was a perfect opportunity to do this with the protagonist having some form of psychic link with the emperor they could've really explored the emperors mind without going via his pov.

I don't really want them to, not because I don't believe any of the authors are capable etc, just simply because the mystery is the more enjoyable part.

What I love so much about the mystery is just the power to inspire, either from a simple debate or discussions theories and thoughts on the mystery. Also the power to inspire people to write and build on their own thoughts and theories.

For example, I loved the whole DA fluff (I'm a DA player of 10+ years), I loved the debate between who was truly loyal etc, then all of a sudden we were given an answer to a mystery I thought they would never answer.

I wasn't happy with it and I'm still not overly chuffed, I loved the mystery.

However if it was written I would not doubt read it, (A) because I hate the idea of there being books in the series I haven't read and (B) because curiosity and a dead cat.

 Lynata wrote:
I just wish said fandom would stop treating novels as some sort of gospel that have any sort of relevance on the rest of the franchise.

 Troike wrote:
Possibly. If it's very well written.

Maybe don't get too into his head, though. Keep some mystery about him.

It's BL we're talking about here...even their best written stuff is pretty much war porn, and nothing more.

DA SPEED FREEK wrote:
I've seen good BL authors do very bad things, so no I don't want a book about the emperor.

but a book revolving/ involving him for a large part could be interesting...

This. People have to except that 40k has changed since the 80's. What it once was and is now are not the same things. You may say it has changed for the worse or the better. But change is change, even if you don't like it.

Most of the people I know want the Emperor to finally have his say and his actions known at the point when his empire was crumbling around him. I'm tired of hearing biased accounts from Chaos. And Chaos this and Chaos that.

Imperial player - What the frak dude, you've got two renegade Primarchs!

Chaos player - Well it is meant to be grimdark. I think it's fair.

Imperial player puts Vuklan/Johnson onto the table.

Chaos player - Hey, that's not fair!

Imperial player - Get a grip dude. It's meant to be gimdark, not we can't win ever.

The Horus Heresy has already done enough damage to him. He should stay mysterious.

If ADB writes, then yes. If James Swallow, based on Fear to Tread, or Abnett writes to the same quality as Horus Rising, yes. Anyone else maybe not.

 Deadshot wrote:
If ADB writes, then yes. If James Swallow, based on Fear to Tread, or Abnett writes to the same quality as Horus Rising, yes. Anyone else maybe not.

If it's not on par (or better) than the first three books of the HH then they shouldn't bother.

 Deadshot wrote:
If ADB writes, then yes. If James Swallow, based on Fear to Tread, or Abnett writes to the same quality as Horus Rising, yes. Anyone else maybe not.

ADB is good with people, not Gods. Look at Soul Hunter. Talos has a casual chat with all of the Gods, and it just ruins them. All their power, everything divine about them, is gone. Now they're just those weird guys who had a chat with Talos.

 Deadshot wrote:
If ADB writes, then yes. If James Swallow, based on Fear to Tread, or Abnett writes to the same quality as Horus Rising, yes. Anyone else maybe not.

Swallow ??? God no...Fear to tread was IMHO epicaly boring, and there were many complaints about that book......

IMO McNeil or Abnett ...No one else has the pedigree like those two, even though they can screw up too......

McNeill has the best track record with handling deities, in that he's the only one I've actually read doing so (He portrayed Tzeentch in A Thousand Sons well, and has also written the C'tan as appropriately alien and eldritch).

ADB? Well, I am to be honest biased against ADB and find him to be far and away the single most overrated author in Black Library, but that is neither here nor there.

Abnett is usually a pretty good read, but to be honest his forte' tends toward handling humans, which, ironically, the Emperor is decidedly not.

Swallow? Lawl... I really liked Fear to Tread, and indeed anyone who thinks it was boring or had many complaints about it is wrong, but to be honest this is the same guy who portrayed Greater Daemons as basically being spoiled rotten children, so I am a little skeptical on his ability to do the Emperor justice.

McNeil writes entertaining books that are well-paced and flow well. Good for airport reading. I don't know if he could seriously handle the strength of someone like the God Emperor or a Chaos God.

The God Emperor is difficult because, well, he's complicated. On the one hand, he is an incredibly powerful and majestic man who brought about humanity's ascension. On the other hand, he is a xenophobic tyrant who has eradicated entire species to conquer their worlds. He's the exemplar of humanity, all its good and all its bad. Both his greatness and his cruelty are unparalleled. I've never seen a Black Library author able to encapsulate both. Usually, they just show the greatness. In some of the Chaos books, traitors rant about how bad the Emperor is. They never complain about his tyranny or his genocidal tendencies though; instead, they just whine about not getting enough attention from him.

The Chaos Gods are also difficult. On the one hand, each one represents only a part of the human psyche, stunted compared to a human mind. Khorne is eternally wrathful, Slaanesh is eternally lustful, and so-on. Despite this, each God is also incredibly vast and incredibly powerful, more-so than any human. To them, the deaths and births of stars occur in little more than the blink of an eye, and human life is even less. A God would have to be petty and simple-minded, but also impossibly powerful and knowing. Most of the Gods are portrayed as more petty. Nurgle gets the worst. Instead of being depicted as the God of Pessimism and Cynicism (his philosophy is essential #YOLO, do whatever you want today because you might be dead by tommorrow) he's just shown as a one-dimensional mustache twirling Grim Reaper.

I loved him in the Last Church in tales of Heresy. More stuff like that would be great. Pre great Crusade

I think I'd rather see a book from Malcador's perspective. That way we can gain more knowledge on the Emperor through his musings and memories, but it will be one man's biased recountings, not an objective historical look at him. Also I reaaaallly want to know more about Malcador, The Sigillite (the audiodrama) didn't really do it for me.

ADB and Abnett would both be good writers for it because they are character writers. Both have proved capable of writing deep, interesting characters, and I'd imagine a book about Malcador would have a similar tone/pacing to Abnett's Inquisitorial stuff.

Also going to agree that Fear to Tread was kinda boring.

Malcador, shmaldor. He already had a book. Stay on topic, we're talling about the Emperor.

I dont think any writer would really do the emperor justice. He should just remain a mystery, occasionally being quoted or briefly appearing and delivering some wisdom or battling a void dragon. Dont spoil the emperor with a book about him

 Themanwiththeplan wrote:
Malcador, shmaldor. He already had a book. Stay on topic, we're talling about the Emperor.

I don't necessarily think that discussing Malcador is off-topic with regards to the Emperor, given how closely they are linked. Something about one would almost have to be at least somewhat about the other. Also, what book was that?

Considering on how often he keeps poping up on his own compared to the Emperor, it's about time we had a brake from him. At least have him as a small character that the Emperor chats to in his mind from half a galaxy away as he dashes here and there while the big E is in the basement.

I guessed that the Sigillite was about him as that is his title (among others) is it not? (A yes or no that the book is about him if you please as I have not heard it yet.)

It's an audiodrama, so not a full book, more of a short story, and yeah sort of.

Then we should sort of have a book about the Emperor to ballance it out.

The way things are going in the HH we're going to need a book that he stars alot in. Near the end of the seige of Terra where he boards the flagship of Horus and has the showdown with his corrupted son is a good example. The best part of the HH we're all waiting for with the hit squads on speed dail if they feth it up.

Come to think of - McNeil has that philosopycal thing in his books (especialy in aTS), maybe he would be worthy......

If Abnett or Mcneil do it I'm game.
BTW there needs to be middle ground for the poll. I don't want to know everything about his past. But certain events: Implications of when and how he found out what he was, His trolling of the Void Dragon, relatively detailed backstories for his time as Jesus, Buddha and the like, What he thinks of his sons individually, What he thinks as he starts to notice himself fething up parenting more and more.
These kind of things.