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Oh man, that book was weird.

Weird, but brilliant!

That and Ian Watson's Space Marine got me cemented into 40k.

Some of the bits in it, such as trip into the eye of chaos (very much a Moorcock-esque 'chaos', rather than the usual two-dimensional/evil depiction of a Chaos world) I don't think really has ever been matched, or even attempted for the most part since - perhaps other than that Daemonworld book.

The protagonists actually getting to speak to the Emperor and conversing with his vast 'multi-mind' - again don't think anything similar has been attempted since.

Thought the trilogy went off a bit with the third book, Chaos Child, but Watson was (is?) a damned fine novelist and think the books still read pretty well even today.

 Deadshot wrote:

nareik wrote:
No they aren't, squats were. Alongside Giants and catkin.

Demiurg, not squats. And not catkin, but Felinids.

GW doesn't use generic names for anything anymore, not since end of 6th Ed. They were mentioned in 7th Ed fluff rulebook, which may have changed since then that I'm not aware of, but they were listed alongside Homo Sapiens Hirsutus (Felinids) and Homo Sapien Gigantus (Ogryns) for example.

You're confusing two different things. 'Demiurg' isn't just the Imperium Trademarkium name for Squats. They're two completely different things. Squats are abhumans. Demiurg are an alien race loosely affiliated with the Tau.

The abhumans listed in the 7th ed rulebook are Squats, not Demiurg.

Polonius wrote:Oh man, that book was weird.

Pacific wrote:Weird, but brilliant!

That and Ian Watson's Space Marine got me cemented into 40k.

Yes, even though some of the details might have changed*, Ian Watson's work still does an excellent job of giving the feel of the 41st millennium - the decaying grandeur and the corruption spreading from within.

*although a lot of it defined the current canon - the Imperial Fists' being a fleet-based Chapter, their recruiting from Necromunda and Inwit (previous references to Space Marines on Necromunda had been Blood Angels in the Confrontation background material and Ultramarines in a Space Hulk campaign), the names of the Chapter senior officers hung around for several editions and I think he invented the Callidus temple of assassins, although it was a while before the different temples were given their own unique fighting styles.