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Hey there!

For those of you who read Gav Thorpe's Path series, did you like them? Are they worth a read?

I read Path of the Warrior .. mainly because I liked the "Path of the" books by Andy Chambers that featured DE.

I found Path of the Warrior to be really really slow and fatalistic by comparison. So, it wasn't my favorite novel. It went pretty deep into normal Eldar society which wasn't exactly what I was looking for.

I've read Path of the Warrior (I believe it's called, about the Striking Scorpions), and I honestly did not like it. The writing was fair, and it's very accurate to the fluff, but in my opinion it was not very good. I think the most engaging part of the book was hearing the fluff described in depth, and life on a craftworld and all that - but in hindsight, the plot was boring and the few fight scenes that were interspersed here and there were the only things that made it remotely enjoyable to read. Lastly - and this is probably just due to the grimdark nature of the Eldar, but it's all very depressing. It's not a book you come away with a good feeling about. Even in the 40k universe you can make a story that isn't cripplingly depressing, but this is not it.

All that being said, I haven't read Path of the Seer or Path of the Incubi, and they could be loads better. I don't mean to discourage you - I'd just hate to think that you're as enthusiastic as I was going into Path of the Warrior - only to come out equally disappointed.

Cheers

I agree with the last two posts. I barely forced myself to finish path of the warrior. And I was building an Eldar army at the time so was pretty enthused about them going in.

Personally, i haven't read the Craftworld "Path of the" Warrior/Seer/Outcast books, but everything that i've heard, yes, the give brilliant look into the background and fluff of the craftworlders, but as books in their own are rather a let down.

On the other hand, i've read the Dark Eldar "Path of the" Renegade/Incubi And i absolutely loved them, and im waiting on path of the archon next year.

I actually enjoyed Path of the Warrior. It does go pretty deep into Eldar society to the point it almost becomes immersion.

Depends on what you like to read really.

I thought Path of the Seer was long an drawn out very introspective.

Path of the Outcast I only read to see how it all ended and I am not totally happy with it either. It IS interesting to see a different aspect of Eldar society but hated the end.

 Erik_Morkai wrote:
I actually enjoyed Path of the Warrior. It does go pretty deep into Eldar society to the point it almost becomes immersion.

Depends on what you like to read really.

I thought Path of the Seer was long an drawn out very introspective.

Path of the Outcast I only read to see how it all ended and I am not totally happy with it either. It IS interesting to see a different aspect of Eldar society but hated the end.

Ditto

The main character in Path of The Warrior (the first in the series) is a bit of a whiney complainer. However, as you progress into the next books, you see the entire situation laid out for you from multiple points of view.

I found the series in its entirety to be well worth the read.

Essentially they are space - elf coming of age stories with 40k's grimdark thrown in. That said they go into very great detail about Eldar society (mainly on Alaitoc though).

I liked them a lot. The writing was very good, we have a lot of juicy details about eldar society, their craftworld, how it works and how it looks, the characters are interesting and much different from the usual (hey, it's almost always either a SM, CSM or human protagonist, every bit of variety is interesting) and I enjoyed the plot a lot.

One reason I loved the plot is because the 3 books cover the same story. Each book, each path is a different POV from one of the 3 main characters until they all "converge" and the plot ends. I thought it was well-done and I enjoyed them greatly.

Path of the Warrior was the beginning and end of my interest in the Path series. I had a hard time forcing myself to read them, and it was only in the end, when the Imperium comes that I found myself even mildly interested because there was going to be some action.

If you want to know more about Eldar society then they're an interesting read, but if you're looking for non-stop thrills, I'd look elsewhere.

The CE path books weren't great.

Path of the Incubus was really good - I really enjoyed that.
DE are so much better protagonists...

Thanks everyone for the insight! I should've put a disclaimer. I'm the guy who likes introspective, character-driven, drawn-out stories and especially like getting deeply immersed into the world. Learning more about the Eldar society is my primary motivation for wanting to read the Path series.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoy me some good action sequence every once in a while and I definitely think there is such a thing as too much introspection and long-windedness(mostly when it's brooding for the sake of brooding, therefore making the brooding itself the cornerstone of the story), but I usually value immersion and background much more than fight-scenes.

So with that in mind and with your replies, I think I'm going to go and pick them up sometime soon!

You're in a good position to like them, then. They're not bolter porn which made them readable for me, and bolter porn is also the reason I'll likely never pick up anything else from Black Library.